Page:Armenian Literature.djvu/94

 She took the cloth in which her evening meal had been brought, and wrapped her head in it. She turned and went straightway into the castle where David was and knocked at his door.

David said: “What insolent people live here! They will not wait till morning, but say, ‘Arise, destroy the city and be off!'”

Gorgis arose and looked out of the window and said, “These are women, not men,” and they opened the door.

Chandud-Chanum came to David and said: “You kissed me first for the fatigue of your journey, a second time for yourself, and a third time for God’s sake. Why did you kiss me a fourth time? You are the son of your father and I am the daughter of mine. It has been said: Take to yourself a wife that you may have a son who is like his uncle. Do you think you have brought me the heads of the giants Hamsa of Lori and Schibikan of Chorassan, that you kiss me a fourth time?”

David’s heart softened and he said: “If that is so I will go out at daybreak and bring you their heads.” Then he added: “Very well, I go; if they are stronger than I they will kill me. For God’s sake come and seek my body. On the right hand I have a birth-mark—a cross—by that you shall know me. Bring my body back and bury it.”

So David set out. The giants perceived a rider coming, for the dust from his horse’s hoofs rose to heaven: “This rider comes to fight with us. Perhaps he is of the race of Sergo.”

They called to him, saying: “Ho, fellow! who are you, and whence come you? Do you know Chandud-Chanum? Will you take this ring to her?”

David said: “Certainly I know her, but I have come to take your heads to the Princess Chandud. I know nothing about your rings!”

The eyebrows of Schibikan of Chorassan hung down over his breast and he fastened them across his back. Hamsa of Lori had an underlip so long that it reached the ground and swept it.