‘“That is my bee!” I shouted. “Where did you get him from?”’
“Brother,” replied the man, “if he is yours, take him.” And he not only
gave me back my bee, but a sack of millet seed into the bargain, because
he had made use of my bee. Then I put the bag on my shoulders, took
the saddle from the cock, and placed it on the back of the bee, which I
mounted, leading the cock by a string, so that he should have a rest. As
we were flying home over the sea one of the strings that held the bag
of millet broke in two, and the sack dropped straight into the ocean. It
was quite lost, of course, and there was no use thinking about it, and
by the time we were safe back again night had come. I then got down from
my bee, and let him loose, that he might get his supper, gave the cock
some hay, and went to sleep myself. But when I awoke with the sun what
a scene met my eyes! During the night wolves had come and had eaten my
bee. And honey lay ankle-deep in the valley and knee-deep on the hills.
Then I began to consider how I could best collect some, to take home
with me.
‘Now it happened that I had with me a small hatchet, and this I took to
the wood, hoping to meet some animal which I could kill, whose skin
I might turn into a bag. As I entered the forest I saw two roe-deer
hopping on one foot, so I slew them with a single blow, and made three
bags from their skins, all of which I filled with honey and placed on
the back of the cock. At length I reached home, where I was told that my
father had just been born, and that I must go at once to fetch some holy
water to sprinkle him with. As I went I turned over in my mind if there
was no way for me to get back my millet seed, which had dropped into the
sea, and when I arrived at the place with the holy water I saw the seed
had fallen on fruitful soil, and was growing before my eyes. And more
than that, it was even cut by an invisible hand, and made into a cake.
‘So I took the cake as well as the holy water, and was flying back
with them over the sea, when there fell a great rain, and the sea was
swollen, and swept away my millet cake. Ah, how vexed I was at its loss
when I was safe on earth again.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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