Page:Swahili tales.djvu/353

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

THE STORY OF HASSEEBU KAREEM ED DEEN AND THE KING OF THE SNAKES.

There was a man, a very great medicine man, and he lived withont having any children many days; and he was a great physician: there was not one medicine in the world which he did not know. And the learning was great which he knew. And he stayed until when he was very old his wife became pregnant, and he had nothing beside his books of medicines.

And the man was sick, and he called his wife, and said to her, "Give me my book," and she gave it him, and he opened and looked into the book, and said, "You are pregnant, you will bear a male child, call his name Hasseebu Kareem ed deen." And the father died.

And the woman remained, and bare a son, and brought him up till he was grown.

And the child asked his mother, "What is my name?" And she said, "Wait, to-morrow we will make a feast, we will invite people to come and eat, that I may give you the name your father gave you."

And he waited; and in the morning she made a great feast, and invited the astrologers, and they came to eat the feast, and she said to them, "To-day I will give to your child the name his father gave him." And they