Page:Sagas from the Far East; or, Kalmouk and Mongolian traditionary tales.djvu/239

Rh flying by, and seeing the frog thrown out, and that it knew not which way to turn, he caught it in his beak and flew away to a ledge of a rock. As he was about to devour her, the frog said,—

"O crow! if thou art minded to devour me, first wash me in water, and then come and devour me."

And the remark pleased the crow, and he said to the frog,—

"Well spoken, O frog! What is thy name?"

And the frog made answer,—

"Bagatur-Ssedkiltu. That is my name."

So the crow took her down to wash her in the streamlet which flowed ceaselessly out of a hole in the rock. But the frog had no sooner gained the water than she crept into the hole. The crow called after her,—

"Bagatur-Ssedkiltu! Bagatur-Ssedkiltu, come thou here!"

But the frog answered him,—

"I should be foolish indeed if I came of my own account to give up my sweet life to your voracity. The Three Precious Treasures may decide whether I have so little courage and pride as that!"

So saying, she leapt into a cleft of the rock out of reach of the crow.

Meantime her former tamer had come up, and began searching about, trying to recover her, having bethought him he might incur the King's anger in having