Page:Sagas from the Far East; or, Kalmouk and Mongolian traditionary tales.djvu/208

184 King hath spoken this thing in jest. Shall a princess now marry a beggar?"

"If thou wilt not have him, what manner of man wouldst thou marry?" asked the King.

"A man who has gold and precious things enough that he should carry silk stuff in his boots, such a one would I marry, and not a wayfarer and a beggar," answered the Princess.

When the people heard that, they went and pulled off Shanggasba's boots, and when they found in them the pieces of silk he had taken from the image of the garuda-bird, they all marvelled, and said never a word more.

But the King thought thereupon, and said, "This one is not after the manner of common men." And he gave orders that he should be lodged in the palace.

The Queen, however, was more and more dismayed when she saw the token, and thus she reasoned, "If the man is here entertained after this manner, and if he has means thus to gain over to him the mind of the King, who shall say but that he may yet contrive to carry his point, and to marry my daughter?" And as she found she prevailed nothing with the King by argument, she said, "I must devise some means of subtlety to be rid of him." Then she had the man called into her, and inquired of him thus,—

"Upon what terms comest thou hither to sue for the hand of my daughter? Tell me, now, hast thou great treasures to endow her with as thy name would import,