Trembled, and hurried from the scene of blood.
Then the great victor, issuing from that cave
With pious haste--took off his helm, and mail,
And royal girdle--and with water washed
His face and body--choosing a pure place
For prayer--to praise his Maker--Him who gave
The victory, the eternal source of good;
Without whose grace and blessing, what is man!
With it his armor is impregnable.

The Champion having finished his prayer, resumed his war habiliments,
and going to Aulad, released him from the tree, and gave into his charge
the heart of the White Demon. He then pursued his journey back to Kaus
at Mazinderan. On the way Aulad solicited some reward for the services
he had performed, and Rustem again promised that he should be appointed
governor of the country.

"But first the monarch of Mazinderan,
The Demon-king, must be subdued, and cast
Into the yawning cavern--and his legions
Of foul enchanters, utterly destroyed."

Upon his arrival at Mazinderan, Rustem related to his sovereign all that
he had accomplished, and especially that he had torn out and brought
away the White Demon's heart, the blood of which was destined to restore
Kai-kaus and his warriors to sight. Rustem was not long in applying the
miraculous remedy, and the moment the blood touched their eyes, the
fearful blindness was perfectly cured.

The champion brought the Demon's heart,
And squeezed the blood from every part,
Which, dropped upon the injured sight,
Made all things visible and bright;
One moment broke that magic gloom,
Which seemed more dreadful than the tomb.

The monarch immediately ascended his throne surrounded by all his
warriors, and seven days were spent in mutual congratulations and
rejoicing. On the eighth day they all resumed the saddle, and proceeded
to complete the destruction of the enemy. They set fire to the city, and
burnt it to the ground, and committed such horrid carnage among the
remaining magicians that streams of loathsome blood crimsoned all the
place.

Kaus afterwards sent Ferhad as an ambassador to the king of Mazinderan,
suggesting to him the expediency of submission, and representing to him
the terrible fall of Arzang, and of the White Demon with all his host,
as a warning against resistance to the valor of Rustem. But when the
king of Mazinderan heard from Ferhad the purpose of his embassy, he
expressed great astonishment, and replied that he himself was superior
in a