There was once a man, and he lived at Kilwa. And that man married a
wife, and built a hut, in which they stayed. Everything that woman asked
for he gave her, only that hut he had built without a door.
[Illustration: Hut without a door]
He himself, when he went abroad and returned, used to climb up a ladder
and get in at the window, and when he went away he took away the ladder.
So that woman stayed in that hut and was not able to go out, not even
for a little, and so she was sick of heart.
Now when her mother heard about this she came and dug a hole under the
wall, so that she was able to come and see her daughter whenever the
husband had gone out. The mouth of that hole the woman covered over with
matting, so that that man, her husband, did not get to see it.
Now that man was a merchant, and used to trade up and down the coast
even as far as Maskat.
One day he came home to his wife and said to her, "My wife, it is time
that I went up the coast trading, so in a week's time I will start and
will go to Zanzibar and Maskat, and then, after the space of one year, I
will return again."
So his wife said to him, "It is well, my husband; may you go and return
in safety."
When her husband went away again she got out quickly by her tunnel and
came to her mother and said, "My mother, my husband is going to travel
away for a year and leave me in my hut. Now you must go quickly and get
a fast ship ready for me and tell no one."
Then she returned and sat in the hut, and in the evening her husband
returned and climbed in by that window of his.
After a week had passed the husband took leave of his wife and went down
to the harbour, got on board his ship and set sail for Zanzibar.
[Illustration: Sailing boat]
After he had gone, the wife came out quickly and went down to the
harbour and got on board the vessel her mother had prepared for her and
set sail behind him.
In the middle of the ocean that boat of hers passed his. He looked at it
and called out, "Who is that in the ship that is passing me?"