Page:Sagas from the Far East; or, Kalmouk and Mongolian traditionary tales.djvu/329

Rh they journeyed there reached them from the other side of a rock a voice of such surpassing sweetness that the two stood still to listen, the man and his wife; and not they only, but their very beasts pricked up their ears erect to drink in the sound.

"Then spoke the woman,—

A man with a voice so melodious must be a man goodly to see. Shall we not stop and find him out?

"But the saying pleased not her husband, nor was he minded that she should see who it was that sang so sweetly; therefore he answered her,—

Wherefore should we search him out; is it not enough that we hear his voice?'

"When the wife had heard his answer, she said no more about searching out whence the voice proceeded; only the first time they passed a mountain-rill she said to her husband,—

Behold, I faint for thirst in this heat. Now, as thou lovest me, fetch me a draught of that cool water from the mountain-rill.' So the man got down from his horse, and, taking his wife's cup, went to the rill to fetch water.

"While he was thus occupied, the wife slid down from off her horse also, and, going silently behind him, pushed him over the precipice and killed him. Then she set out to find out who it was sang so melodiously. When she had followed up the sound she found herself in presence, not of a man goodly to behold, but of a