Page:Sagas from the Far East; or, Kalmouk and Mongolian traditionary tales.djvu/46

22 killed the Serpents, and restored the due course of the water to our native country, let us return home and live at peace."

But the Khan's son answered, "Not so, for if we went back to our own land, the people would only mock us, saying, 'The dead return not to the living!' and we should find no place among them. It is better we betake ourselves to another country afar off, which knows us not."

So they journeyed on through a mountain pass.

At the foot of the mountains they came to the habitation of a beautiful woman and her daughter, selling strong drink to travellers. Here they stopped, and would have refreshed themselves, but the women asked them what means they had to pay them withal, for they saw they looked soiled with travel. "We will pay whatever you desire," replied the Prince; and he began to spit out gold coin upon the table. When the women saw that he spat out as much gold coin as ever he would, they took them inside, and gave them as much drink as they could take, making them pay in gold, and at many times the worth of the drink, for they no longer knew what they did; only when they had made them quite intoxicated, and they could not get any thing more from them, in despite of all sense of gratitude or hospitality, they turned them out to pass the night on the road.

When they woke in the morning, they journeyed