Once upon a time there was a poor man who used to beg. One day he sat
thinking to himself, "I am a poor man and have no wife. When I go out
begging there is no one to come back to in my house or to cook my food
for me whilst I am away."
So he went out to the forest and cut down a tree and carved out of it a
woman of wood, and when he had finished he decorated her with jewels and
necklaces of wood, and then brought her back to his house.
Then that tree turned into a woman, and he called her Mwanamizi, the
child of a root, and he lived with her many days. Till one day, when
that poor man had gone forth to beg, a slave girl ran out from the
palace of the Sultan in search of a brand with which to light the fire.
She came and knocked at the poor man's door, and when she got no answer
she entered and went into the kitchen, and there she saw a lovely woman
decked out with pearls and jewels. She went running back to the Sultan
and said to him, "I have just seen the most wondrously beautiful woman
in the house of that beggar who lives near us."
The Sultan then ordered his soldiers, "Go to fetch the wife of the
beggar, that I may see if the words of this slave are true or false."
So they went and took Mwanamizi and brought her to the palace. When the
Sultan saw her he thought her very beautiful.
So he said, "This woman is too beautiful for a beggar. I will take her
for my wife."
Now when that poor man returned from begging he could not find his wife;
then the neighbours told him, "The woman has been taken by the Sultan to
his palace."
So he threw down his bag and went round to the palace, and rushed in
before the Sultan and asked him, "Where is my wife whom you have taken?"
The Sultan replied, "Get out of my sight, you foolish fellow, or I will
order my soldiers to beat you."
Then he said, "If you will not give me back my wife, take off my
ornaments which she is wearing and return them to me, that I may go."
At that the Sultan called his soldiers and had him turned out of the
palace.