Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 45.djvu/798

776 All the young men who saw her wanted her, and many of them sent presents to her father and mother, asking for her in marriage; but the maiden said she did not wish to marry.

So, whenever men came to ask for her, the maiden continued to refuse. She said, "My figure is good, my face is good, my skin is good, therefore I shall not marry till I find a young man who pleases me."

So many young men came that at last the father and mother were tired of urging their daughter to marry, and they said to her: "Very well, choose for yourself; we will have nothing more to do with it."

And the maiden said: "Be not angry, O my father and O my mother! I am handsome, and I will only marry with one who is handsome. If I meet such a one in the town, I will make such and such signs to you when he walks with me to the door."

Now the leopard, living in his own place in the bush, heard this; and he turned himself into a handsome young man.

He came into the town, and all the young girls turned their eyes after him, for he was good to look at, and he wore a silken cloth.

He walked through the town, holding in his hand a duru, and he played on it a tune that was melancholy and sweet.

Now, just at this time the beautiful maiden had come out of her house, and as she walked along the street she saw the handsome young man playing on the duru. And the sounds of the tune he was playing went into her heart, and his appearance pleased her, and she loved him.

So she stood still in the street, looking upon the young man, who came nearer and nearer. And when the young man had reached her, he said, "Beautiful maiden, I am from a far country, to which the fame of your beauty has penetrated, and I have come hither to ask you to marry me, if you will so please."

And the maiden smiled and was glad. But she turned her eyes to the ground, and said to the young man: "O handsome stranger, is it the custom in your country thus to ask maidens to marry? My father and mother are here, near by, and with them lies the giving."

Then she led the way to the house of her parents, and the young man followed. And when she was at the door of the house she made the signs to her father and mother so that they might know that this was a young man whom she was willing to marry.