"Peace be to you, Arachi. I have nothing to lend you," said Bosambo.
"Lord," said Arachi loftily, "I am now a rich man—richer than chiefs—and I do not borrow."
"Ko, ko!" said Bosambo, with polite incredulity.
"Bosambo," Arachi went on, "I came to you because I love you, and you are not a talking man, but rather a wise and silent one."
"All this I know, Arachi," said Bosambo cautiously. "And again I say to you that I lend no man anything."
The exasperated Arachi raised his patient eyes to heaven.
"Lord Bosambo," he said, in the tone of one hurt, "I came to tell you of that which I have found, and to ask your lordship to help me secure it. For in a certain place I have come across a great stock of ivory, such as the old kings buried against their need."
"Arachi," said Bosambo, of a sudden, "you tell me that you are rich. Now you are a little man and I am a chief, yet I am not rich."
"I have many friends," said Arachi, trembling with pride, "and they give me rods and salt."
"That is nothing," said Bosambo. "Now I understand richness, for I have lived amongst white folk who laugh at rods and throw salt to dogs."