Page:Sagas from the Far East; or, Kalmouk and Mongolian traditionary tales.djvu/119

Rh sacred Obö, raised to the gods by the wayside. He sat there with a great bundle of old boots upon his back, as many as he could carry.

When they had met, he said to her, "This meeting with thee once more rejoices my heart. The gods and dæmons have made me their water-carrier; and in toiling up and down from the river to their mountain so many times, I have worn out all these pairs of boots."

But she answered, "Tell me, O beloved, what can I do to deliver thee from this bondage?"

And he answered, "There is only this remedy, O faithful one. Even that thou return now home, and build another cage like to the one that was burned, and that having built it, thou woo my soul back into it. Which when thou hast done, I myself must come back thither, nor can gods or dæmons withhold me."

So she went back home, and built a cage like to the one that was burned, and wooed the soul of her husband back into it; and thus was her husband delivered from the power of the gods and dæmons, and came back to her to live with her always.

"In truth that was a glorious woman for a wife!" exclaimed the Khan.

"Forgetting his health, the Well-and-wise-walking Khan hath opened his lips," replied the Siddhî-Kür.