they travelled, till the sultan came to the well where the
gazelle had been thrown. And it was a large well, built round a rock,
with room for many people; and the sultan entered, and the judges and
the rich men followed him. And when he saw the gazelle lying there he
wept afresh, and took it in his arms and carried it away.

When the three slaves went and told their mistress what the sultan had
done, and how all the people were weeping, she answered:

'I too have eaten no food, neither have I drunk water, since the day the
gazelle died. I have not spoken, and I have not laughed.'

The sultan took the gazelle and buried it, and ordered the people to
wear mourning for it, so there was great mourning throughout the city.

Now after the days of mourning were at an end, the wife was sleeping at
her husband's side, and in her sleep she dreamed that she was once more
in her father's house, and when she woke up it was no dream.

And the man dreamed that he was on the dust-heap, scratching. And when
he woke, behold! that also was no dream, but the truth.

(Swahili Tales.)

HOW A FISH SWAM IN THE AIR AND A HARE IN THE WATER.

Once upon a time an old man and his wife lived together in a little
village. They might have been happy if only the old woman had had the
sense to hold her tongue at proper times. But anything which might
happen indoors, or any bit of news which her husband might bring in when
he had been anywhere, had to be told at once to the whole village, and
these tales were repeated and altered till it often happened that much
mischief was made, and the old man's back paid for it.

One day, he drove to the forest. When he reached the edge of it he got
out of his cart and walked beside it. Suddenly he stepped on such a soft
spot that his foot sank in the earth.

'What can this be?' thought he. 'I'll dig a bit and see.'

So he dug and dug, and at last he came on a little pot full of gold and
silver.

'Oh, what luck! Now, if only I knew how I could take this treasure home
with me----but I can never hope to hide it from my wife, and once
she knows of it she'll tell all the world, and then I shall get into
trouble.'

He sat down and thought over the matter a long time, and at last he made
a plan. He covered up the pot again with earth and twigs, and drove
on into the town, where he bought a live pike and a live hare in the
market.

Then he drove back to the forest and hung the pike up at the very top