Page:Sagas from the Far East; or, Kalmouk and Mongolian traditionary tales.djvu/200

176 As soon as she had seen him start the wife dressed herself in man's clothes, and mounting a swift horse she rode round till she came by a different path to the same place as her husband. Seeing him trot across a vast open plain she bore down right upon him at full gallop. The man, too much afraid of so bold a rider to recognize that it was his wife, turned him and fled from before her. Soon overtaking him, however, she challenged him to fight, at the same time drawing her sword. "Slay me not!" exclaimed the simple man, slipping off his horse, "Slay me not, most mighty rider, Surja-Bagatur! Take now my horse and mine arms, and all that I have. Leave me only my life, most mighty Surja-Bagatur!" So his wife took the horse and the arms, and all that he had and rode home.

At night the simple man came limping home footsore and in sorry plight. "Where is the horse and the arms?" inquired his wife as she saw him arrive on foot.

"To day I encountered the mighty rider, Surja-Bagatur, and having challenged him to fight," answered he, "I overcame him and humbled him utterly. Only that the wrath of the hero at what I had done might not be visited on us, I propitiated him by making him an offering of the horse and the arms and all that I had."

So the woman prepared roasted corn and set it before him; and when he had well eaten she said to him,