Page:Swahili tales.djvu/295

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SULTAN MAJNÚN.
275

standing. And he said to him, "Cast your eyes down far." The lad looked, and his soul told him that it was the nunda.

And the youth went down with his gun in his hand, and his spear, till he got half way down the mountain, and looked. "It must be that this is the nunda. My mother told me its ears were small, and this one's are small; she told me the nunda is broad and not long, and this is broad and not long; she told me it had two blotches like a civet-cat, and this has two blotches like a civet-cat; she told me its tail was thick, and this one's tail is thick; all those characters that my mother told me, are all these which are here." And he went back to where his slaves were.

When he got to his slaves he said to them, "Let us eat plentifully to-day." And they said, "Come, master, let us eat." And they ate plentifully, and they ate cakes, and bumundas, and cakes of batter, and ladus, and were filled. And they drank water. And he said, "Have you done?" And they said, "Master, we have done, we are only waiting for you." And he said, "I am ready, too."

And he said, "But to-day, little fathers, let us not carry our things as in the former journey. Let us put away our things, and our food, and our water, just here, and let us go to fight yonder. That if we conquer, we may come and eat and sleep, and to-morrow go home; or if we are beaten, we may run away hither, that we may get our food and be off quickly "

And by the sun it was about the middle of the afternoon. And he said, "Come, let us get down, and go our way." And as they went down, when they had finished half the mountain, those two slaves were afraid. And he said to them, "Let us go, do not be afraid; there are two things in the world—living and dying. What then are