rest saw the stranger and his horse, he went to
Rustem, then asleep, and struck his staff violently on the ground, and
having thus awakened the hero, he asked him, devil that he was, why he
had allowed his horse to feed upon the green corn-field. Angry at these
words, Rustem, without uttering a syllable, seized hold of the keeper by
the ears, and wrung them off. The mutilated wretch, gathering up his
severed ears, hurried away, covered with blood, to his master, Aulad,
and told him of the injury he had sustained from a man like a black
demon, with a tiger-skin cuirass and an iron helmet; showing at the same
time the bleeding witnesses of his sufferings. Upon being informed of
this outrageous proceeding, Aulad, burning with wrath, summoned together
his fighting men, and hastened by the directions of the keeper to the
place where Rustem had been found asleep. The champion received the
angry lord of the land, fully prepared, on horseback, and heard him
demand his name, that he might not slay a worthless antagonist, and why
he had torn off the ears of his forest-keeper! Rustem replied that the
very sound of his name would make him shudder with horror. Aulad then
ordered his troops to attack Rustem, and they rushed upon him with great
fury; but their leader was presently killed by the master-hand, and
great numbers were also scattered lifeless over the plain. The survivors
running away, Rustem's next object was to follow and secure, by his
kamund, the person of Aulad, and with admirable address and ingenuity,
he succeeded in dismounting him and taking him alive. He then bound his
hands, and said to him:--

"If thou wilt speak the truth unmixed with lies,
Unmixed with false prevaricating words,
And faithfully point out to me the caves
Of the White Demon and his warrior chiefs--
And where Kaus is prisoned--thy reward
Shall be the kingdom of Mazinderan;
For I, myself, will place thee on that throne.
But if thou play'st me false--thy worthless blood
Shall answer for the foul deception."

"Stay,
Be not in wrath," Aulad at once replied--
"Thy wish shall be fulfilled--and thou shalt know
Where king Kaus is prisoned--and, beside,
Where the White Demon reigns. Between two dark
And lofty mountains, in two hundred caves
Immeasurably deep, his people dwell.
Twelve hundred Demons keep the watch by night
And Baid, and Sinja. Like a reed, the hills
Tremble