Black Tales For White Children

" Once upon a time there was a lion who lived on the island called Manda, which is opposite Shela town, and the people of Shela heard it roaring nightly. In Shela was a rich merchant, and one day he gave out in the bazaar: "I will pay one hundred dollars to whosoever will go and sleep alone one night on the opposite shore, in Manda island." But for fear of the lion no man would do this.

Now in that same town was a youth and his wife who were very poor, for they had nothing. When this youth heard the talk of the town, he came to his wife and said, "There is a man who will give a hundred dollars to any one who will sleep on the opposite side one night. I will go and sleep there."

His wife said to him, "Do not go, my husband, the lion will eat you."

He said, "Let me go, for if Allah loves me I will not die, and by this means we will get the wherewithal to buy some food."

Then she said to him, "Go. May Allah preserve you."

So that youth, when evening fell, took a canoe and paddled over to Manda, and there lay down on the shore.

Now, when the youth had gone, his wife there behind him was sad because she had let him go, and her heart was very heavy with fear for her husband. So she took some embers and some sticks of wood and went down on to Shela beach, and there she kindled a little fire and tended it all night, so that her young man on the opposite side might see it and not be afraid.

In the morning he returned safely to Shela and went to claim his hundred dollars. But the merchant said, "You have not earned them, for you saw the fire that your wife made, and so you were not afraid."