to lick the last drops that the wick bathed in.
Armed with a dagger, Hammadi had decided
to kill any man he might find in his house.
Slowly he pushed the door open:
Someone lay in front.
His companion occupied a bed further inside;
at the rear of the room she lay sleeping.
Hammadi was sure that the man at the door
was the lover who had dishonored his wife
and whom Suspicion had evoked in detail.
He unsheathed his dagger, made ready to strike
the one he thought had stolen his dignity.
But then he heard a clear voice like that of his master,
the little man with the deformed spine,
say to him, “Suspicion!” and Hammadi held back his hand
and remembered the third lesson of his master
who had said, “Never act on suspicion!”
He sheathed his dagger, leaned over the sleeping man,
grabbed him by the shoulder and shook.
A young man of twenty-one,
solidly built, arose with agile haste,
took Hammadi's elbow so firmly
that the dagger fell,
and he choked trying to spring free.
“Who are you to violate my father's house
and deny him the veneration all men hold for him?”
“You're strangling me, let go!
I am Hammadi!” and his wife understood
and recognized her husband's voice.
“Hammadi-Hammadi, let him go, it's your father!”
In fact, Hammadi had left on his voyage
the day after his wedding with Koumbourou 111
and she had conceived on the first night.
Her husband had left at dawn, said to have disappeared,

Notes (Lilyan Kesteloot)
111. Since there are seven fixed names for boys and five for girls, the ideal number of children is 12 (7 boys and 5 girls). These are: Dikko, the first born girl; Kummba, the one who attaches; Penda the thick, small cloth; Dado or the one who girds her body so as to work well, and Fakko, in her mother's womb. If there is a sixth one, she is called Dikko-Ɗimmo (the second Dikko).
Kumburu is a nickname for Kumba, when the latter is ample in flesh!