me; so I raised a storm, which rooted up old trees, and sent them floating
down the river.”
“And what else have you done?” asked the old woman.
“I have rushed wildly across the savannahs; I have stroked the wild
horses, and shaken the cocoa-nuts from the trees. Yes, I have many stories
to relate; but I need not tell everything I know. You know it all very well,
don’t you, old lady?” And he kissed his mother so roughly, that she nearly
fell backwards. Oh, he was, indeed, a wild fellow.
Now in came the South Wind, with a turban and a flowing Bedouin
cloak.
“How cold it is here!” said he, throwing more wood on the fire. “It is
easy to feel that the North Wind has arrived here before me.”
“Why it is hot enough here to roast a bear,” said the North Wind.
“You are a bear yourself,” said the other.
“Do you want to be put in the sack, both of you?” said the old woman.
“Sit down, now, on that stone, yonder, and tell me where you have been.”
“In Africa, mother. I went out with the Hottentots, who were lion-hunting
in the Kaffir land, where the plains are covered with grass the color of a
green olive; and here I ran races with the ostrich, but I soon outstripped him
in swiftness. At last I came to the desert, in which lie the golden sands,
looking like the bottom of the sea. Here I met a caravan, and the travellers
had just killed their last camel, to obtain water; there was very little for
them, and they continued their painful journey beneath the burning sun, and
over the hot sands, which stretched before them a vast, boundless desert.
Then I rolled myself in the loose sand, and whirled it in burning columns
over their heads. The dromedarys stood still in terror, while the merchants
drew their caftans over their heads, and threw themselves on the ground
before me, as they do before Allah, their god. Then I buried them beneath a
pyramid of sand, which covers them all. When I blow that away on my next
visit, the sun will bleach their bones, and travellers will see that others have
