38
a beard. "Is it not the sun of heaven?" said he. He smelt the smell of the aloe[1] wafted on the wind. For him the killing of a lion was just as easy as for a lion to kill a goat.[2]
224. He rode out the same road he had come in by the day before, he passed the rushes, he went beyond, far into the plain. Avt'handil gazed in wonder; secretly he was hidden in the tree. He said: "God has managed this matter exceeding well for me.
225. "How could God have done better for me than this? I will seize the maid, I will make her tell me the story of that knight; I shall also tell her all mine, I shall make her know the truth. I shall not smite the knight with the sword, nor shall I have to be pierced by him."
226. He came down and loosed his horse, which he had tied to the tree, he mounted and rode up; the door of the cave was open, the heart-shaken,[3] tear-flooded maiden ran out thence; she thought the rose-faced, crystal-haloed[4] one was come back.
227. She knew not the face, it was not like the face of that knight; swiftly she turned, with a cry she made for rock and tree; the knight leaped from his horse, seized her like a partridge in a net; the rocks resounded with the maid's monotonous cry.
228. She yielded not to that knight; even the sight of him was hateful. Like a partridge under an eagle she fluttered hither and thither; she called on a certain Tariel for help, but he succoured her not. Avt'handil threw himself on his knees; he entreated her with his fingers.
229. He said: " Hush! what (ill) can I do thee? I am a man of Adam's race. I have seen those roses and violets grown pale. Tell me something of him. Who is the cypress-formed, the halo-faced? I shall do nought else to thee, be comforted, cry not thus loudly."
