Page:Sagas from the Far East; or, Kalmouk and Mongolian traditionary tales.djvu/67

Rh the food against the return of the rest. As he sat thus occupied, up came the little old woman, as on all the other days.

"Lackaday!" she exclaimed, as she set eyes on him. "Methinks I see a youngster cooking good food!" And to him she cried, in her imperious tone, "Listen to me now, and give me some of thy milk and meat to taste."

When Massang saw her, he said within himself, "Surely now this is she who hath appeared to the other three; and when they said that strangers had broken in, and overpowered them, and stolen the food, was it not that she is a witch-woman and enchanted it away. She only asks to taste it; but if I do her bidding, who knows what may follow?" So he observed her, that he might discover what way there was of over-matching her; thus he espied her bundle, and bethought him it contained the means of her witcheries. To possess himself of it he had first to devise the means of getting her to go an errand, and leave it behind her.

"Belike you could help me to some fresh water, good wife," he said, in a simple, coaxing tone; and she, thinking to serve her purpose by keeping on good terms with him, replied,—

"That can I; but give me wherewithal to fetch it."

To keep her longer absent, he gave her a pail with a hole in it, with which she went out. Looking after