Black Tales for White Children

by C. H. Stigand; Nancy Yulee Stigand

He thought to himself, "Here I am without food, and there is no land in sight. I will most certainly die of hunger and thirst, and now, in addition to all my troubles, I have two tusks growing from my mouth, and they are of such a weight that I can scarcely move. Perhaps if I eat of this second tree I will die, and then my troubles will be at an end."

So he plucked a date from the second tree and ate it. Immediately he had eaten it his tusks dropped off on to the ground.

At that moment there appeared a shark who was swimming past in the sea, and the shark stopped and asked him what he was doing.

He told him how he had found himself cast on this island, and asked the shark to take him to the shore. The shark refused, saying, "You are my enemy, and it is you sons of men who kill and eat me."

So he said to the shark, "I am the Sultan of such and such a town, and if you carry me away from this island I will give an order that the fishermen of the town kill no more sharks."

At that moment there appeared a shark.

So they made an agreement after this manner, and the shark consented to take him on his back.

Then the man plaited two small baskets of date leaves, and the one he filled with dates from the first tree, and the other he filled with dates from the second.

Then he took his two baskets and climbed on to the shark's back, and the shark carried him till they arrived in sight of the shore.