When he questioned H'ab Sliman, the child played deaf, the master struck
him. One day his sister said to him: "What is the matter, O my brother? You
seem to be sad."
"Our schoolmaster punishes us," answered the child.
"And why does he punish you?" inquired the young girl.
The child replied: "After we have studied until evening he asks each of us
what our sisters do. They answer him: she kneads bread, she goes to get
water. But when he questions me I have nothing to say, and he beats me."
"Is it nothing but for that?"
"That is all."
"Well," added the young girl, "the next time he asks you, answer him: 'This
is what my sister does: When she laughs the sun shines; when she weeps it
rains; when she combs her hair, legs of mutton fall; when she goes from one
place to another, roses drop.'"
The child gave that answer.
"Truly," said the schoolmaster, "that is a rich match." A few days after he
bought her, and they made preparations for her departure for the house of
her husband. The stepmother of the young girl made her a little loaf of
salt bread. She ate it and asked some drink from her sister, the daughter
of her stepmother.
"Let me pluck out one of your eyes," said the sister.
"Pluck it out," said the promised bride, "for our people are already on the
way."
The stepmother gave her to drink and plucked out one of her eyes.
"A little more," she said.
"Let me take out your other eye," answered the cruel woman.
The young girl drank and let her pluck out the other eye. Scarcely had she
left the house than the stepmother thrust her out on the road. She dressed
her own daughter and put her in the place of the blind one. They arrive.
"Comb yourself," they told her, and there fell dust.
"Walk," and nothing happened.
"Laugh," and her front teeth fell out.