Page:Sagas from the Far East; or, Kalmouk and Mongolian traditionary tales.djvu/69

Rh "In what shall we match our strength?" said Massang, not heeding her banter.

"We will have three trials," replied the old one; "the cord proof, the hammer proof, and the pincers proof. And first the cord proof. I will first bind thee, and if thou canst burst my bonds, well; then thou shalt also bind me."

Then Massang saw that he had done well to possess himself of her instruments, but he gave assent to her mode of proof, and let her bind him as tight as ever she would; but as she had only the hempen cord to bind him with, which he had put in her bundle in place of the catgut, he broke it easily with his strength, and set himself free again. Then he bound her with the catgut, so that she was not able by any means to unloose herself.

"True, herein thou hast conquered," she owned, as she lay bound and unable to move, "but now we will have the pincers proof." And as he had promised to wage three trials with her, he set her free.

Then with her pincers she took him by the breast; but, as he had changed her iron pincers for the wooden ones, he hardly felt the pinch, and she did him no harm. But when, with her iron pincers, he seized her, she writhed and struggled so that he pulled out a piece of flesh as big as an earthen pot, and she cried out in great pain.—

"Of a truth thou art a formidable fellow, but now