Page:Swahili tales.djvu/55

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SULTAN DARAI.
35

you tie me, to punish me for being your child? Have I used bad words to anybody, and you have tied me to correct me that I may not use bad words any more; or have I stolen people's property and they have come to accuse me, and have you tied me up to correct me that I may not take people's property again?"

And he said, "You went into people's gardens, your mother has told me, you went and plucked other people's tangos, and they came to the house to accuse you, and your mother took the tango away from you, and gave it to the owner."

"My father, I have not what to say; my mouth is full of water, and if I speak, I fear you, my father, will be very angry, and quarrel with your wife about the way she treats me."

"Ah! my child, explain it to me, I am not angry, and I am not going to tell my wife; I want to know it, me and my own soul." And she said, "You see me, father, how I am growing thin." He said, "I see, my child." She said, "I am given no rice except the dry part and what is burnt, and I dare not speak, and her child, she gives her good rice to eat of, and she gives her other, too, and hides it away for her, and in the morning, when you go out to work, she calls her child into the room, and gives her that rice which was put away for her from the day before, and she eats by herself. And I, I know, get nothing, and I fear to tell my father, because you old people say, 'These women, the trouble of their child is on their hips,' and you men say, 'A child that is a female belongs to its mother that is a female.' And you, my father, have married this woman that she may take care of me, and I, your daughter, can I, a full-grown girl, come and tell you, 'Father, I am hungry;' am I to come and tell you, 'Father, I want corn?' I, who am a woman, must go to my