Page:Sagas from the Far East; or, Kalmouk and Mongolian traditionary tales.djvu/53

Rh the Khan's wife had of his master and what love she had for him. But she answered prudently, "How it will be with him I know not yet, for he is still young; I cannot as yet know any thing of either his merits or defects."

And with that they parted; Cuklaketu flying away in the form of a beautiful bird with many-coloured wings as he had come, and the Khan's wife exchanging her glittering apparel for the mantle in which she came from the Khan's palace.

The next time that she went out to this palace, the Minister put on his cap and followed her again and witnessed the same scene, only when Cuklaketu was about to take leave this time, he said, "To-morrow, I shall come and see what your husband is like." And when she asked him, "By what token shall I know you?" he answered, "I will come under the form of a swallow, and will perch upon his throne." With that they parted; but the Minister went and stood before the Khan and told him all that he had seen.

"But thou, O Khan," proceeded the Minister, "Cause thou a great fire to be kept burning before the throne; and I, standing there with the cap rendering me invisible to gods, men, and dæmons, on my head, will be on the look out for the swallow, and when he appears, I will seize him by the feathers of his tail and dash him into the fire; then must thou, O Khan, slay him, and hew him in pieces with thy sword."