Page:Swahili tales.djvu/97

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SULTAN DARAI.
77

here. I am going away; let me come and find you just here." And the gazelle ran off; and when the sun had reached about ten o'clock it came out upon the house of the Sultan, Immediately of the soldiers who were placed on the path to attend on Sultan Darai when he should come, one ran and told the Sultan, "Sultan Darai is coming. I have seen the gazelle; it is coming running."

The Sultan set out with his people to go and meet him in the road. And when he had gone till half the way was finished they were met by the gazelle. The gazelle said to him, "Sabalkheiri, master." And he said, "Thanks, gazelle, how are you?" And it said "Do not ask me anything now, master. I cannot draw a step hither or thither."

The Sultan said, "How is that, gazelle?" And it said, "I have come with Sultan Darai, and while in the way we set out, he and I by ourselves—he was not accompanied by any one whatever besides myself—we came till in the forest we were met by robbers, and they seized my master and bound him, and he was much beaten by the robbers, and they robbed him of all his goods that he had with him—even to the loin-cloth to put on underneath, they took it off. So there my master is as on the day when his mother bare him."

The Sultan hastened away with the soldiers, and they ran on to his house. And he called a groom and told him, "Saddle a horse in the stable, the best of my horses, and the best harness which I ride with myself." And he called a woman slave, "Henzerani!" And she answered "Here, master." And he said, "Open the great inlaid chest and take out a bag of clothes." And she went and opened it and brought the bag of clothes. The Sultan opened it and took out a joho, black and very good; and he took out a