Collectanea. 343
will you not set me free that I may go and give my young ones suck? " The girl said, — " Very well. Go." She waited until the fish returned, and said, — " Now, pick me up, and let us go." She said, — " Oh, no, go away." He said, — " I heard what was said to you, that you would be beaten." She said, — " Fish, go away." Then he said to the girl, — " Good-bye till to-morrow. Come in the morning." The girl went home. They seized her, and beat her. Her father said, — " Leave her alone. God will give us another to-morrow." Then in the morning she arose and went to the fish. The fish had assembled all his relatives, that they might come and see the girl who had set him free. All the relatives came. There were many of them (they were collected). Then he called the girl, and said, — Come." The girl went. He said, — " Now, see the one who saved my life. I was caught, and it was said I should be cooked. I was given to her that she might come and wash me. Then she set me free. So I said, — "You come all of you and see her and thank her." " He said, — " Go home. If you are hungry, you come here until the night (moon) of the feast comes." The night of the feast came (the moon stayed, i.e. was new), and they were going to (where the dances) games (were to be held), the kind which the children in the town (do).^ Then he said, — " If they go to the dances, you come to me." They went off to the dance. An old cloth had been taken and given to the rival's daughter, but as for her (the wife's) daughter she had been given a new waist-cloth to put on. As for her, she went to the fish with the old waist-cloth, she the rival's daughter. The fish gave her a lot of finery. The girl went to the dance, and looked very fine. Then the chief sent and said that (was the) girl he wanted to marry. She said, — " Very well. Go to my father's house. I was not born in the playground." Then the king sent his coun- sellors to go to the father's house. Then the father said, — " Oh, no, I have no daughter whom the chief would like." Then she (the wife) said to her daughter, — " Go and run home. Do you not hear
■* Dances are always held at these times, and the people dress up in all their finery. One favourite Hausa dance is that in which several parties of four girls stand in a circle, and each one of every four takes it in turn to do z. pas-de-seul in the centre, and to fall backwards and be caught by the other three. After a girl has done this twice, the next one does it, and so on.
