Page:Sagas from the Far East; or, Kalmouk and Mongolian traditionary tales.djvu/92

68 on him. Then he sprang on to his back, and gave him three blows with all his strength, and dismounted. Then with all the power of voice he could command, he cried out to him, "Lay aside thine assumed form!"

At these words the he-goat was changed before the eyes of all present into a horrible Manggus, deformed and hideous to behold. With swords and sticks, lances and stones, the whole people fell upon him, and disabled him, and then burnt him with fire till he was dead.

Then said the soothsayer, "Now, bring hither the Khanin." So they went and dragged down the Khanin to the place where he stood, with yelling and cries of contempt.

With one hand on the pig's head, as if taking his authority from it, the soothsayer cried out to her, in a commanding voice,—

"Resume thine own form!"

Then she too became a frightful Manggus, and they put her to death like the other.

The soothsayer now rode back to the Khan's palace, all the people making obeisance to him as he went along—some crying, "Hail!" some strewing the way with barley, and some bringing him rich offerings. It took him nearly the space of a day to make his way through such a throng.

When at last he arrived, the Khan received him with