Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 23, 1912.djvu/121

Rh "Go to my den," the lion returned, "there I have two adopted cubs. Kill them; take their blood, and go; but don't let me hear a sound from them, or I will come and eat you up!"

The man kills the two cubs, and pours their blood and milk into a bottle of skin, and loads it upon his horse, and he also steals the lion's own two cubs. Perhaps he goes far, or perhaps he goes only a little way, when the old lioness overtakes him, and, seizing the man, she demands,—"Hey, now! Where are you taking my cubs?" "I want them; I won't kill them; I will take good care of them; I need them," said the man. "Well, if that is so, take good care of them, and go," says the lioness.

The young man goes on. He goes till he comes to the old woman's konak. "Good day, little mother," he cries. "Good day, my son. Did you bring the milk?" says she. "Wallah! Indeed I did," he replies.

At night the young man sleeps, but the old woman gets up and pours the lion's milk out of the bottle. Then she takes some goat's milk, and, mixing it with water, puts it in place of the lion's milk. The man doesn't know it. In the morning, he takes the milk, mounts his horse, and goes to his mother. His mother drinks it, and exclaims,—"There! My soul rests!"

The next morning, after the son has gone a-hunting, the young man's mother says to the goblin,—"Goblin, may the light of your day be cut off! (Curse you!). Didn't I tell you to let me know of a road with no returning for my son, so that he might go and not come back? Now, if you don't do it, I will kill you." "What can I do?" the goblin answered. "That lad is a wonderful fellow. He is a valiant one. Wherever we send him, he returns. This time let him go and bring you the Water of Life," The mother spreads dry wafers in her bed, and throws herself down on them. In the evening the son comes, and the mother cries, as the crusts crumble under her,—"Ah, my son, I am dying!"

"Why should you die?" cries her son. "I will bring you whatever you wish." And the mother says,—"Son, I have heard that, if you were to bring me some of the Water of Life to drink, I should recover; but, if not, there is no hope for me; I shall die."