Page:Sagas from the Far East; or, Kalmouk and Mongolian traditionary tales.djvu/65

Rh man, "than a hundred strange men, on a hundred wild horses, came tearing through the place; and what could I do to withstand a hundred? Thus they have taken all the butter, and milk, and meat, and me they beat and bound, so that I have had enough to do to set myself free, and scarcely can I move from the effect of their blows. Go out now and see for yourselves."

So they went out; and when they saw the marks of the horses'-hoofs all round the dwelling, and the arrow shot into the middle of the courtyard, they said, "He hath spoken true things."

The next day Massang went to the hunt, and took with him the black-coloured man and the white-coloured man. The green-coloured man being thus left in charge of the homestead, set himself to prepare the dinner; and it was no sooner ready than the little old wife came in, as she had done the day before, and played the same game.

"This is doubtless how it fell out with the black-coloured man," said he to himself, as soon as she was gone; "but neither can I own that I was matched by such a little old wife, nor yet can I tell the same story about the horsemen. I know what I will do: I will fetch up a yoke of oxen, and make them tramp about the place, and when the others come home, I will say some men came by with a herd of cattle, and, overpowering me, carried off the victuals." All this he