o is ready to fight with me? He should be one who is able to
change water into dust."

None of the Persian nobles answered him, and King Kaoues said, "Why
is it, ye men of war, that your faces are troubled, and your tongues
silent before this Genius?"

But still the nobles made no answer. Then Rustem caught the rein of
his horse, and, putting the point of his lance over his shoulder, rode
up to the King, and said, "Will the King give me permission to fight
with this Genius?"

The King said, "The task is worthy of you, for none of the Persians
dare to meet this warrior. Go and prosper!"

So Rustem set spurs to Raksh, and rode against the warrior who had
challenged the Persians.

"Hear," he said, as soon as he came near, "your name is blotted out of
the list of the living; for the moment is come when you shall suffer
the recompense of all your misdeeds."

The warrior answered, "Boast not yourself so proudly. My sword makes
mothers childless."

When Rustem heard this, he cried with a voice of thunder, "I am
Rustem!" and the warrior, who had no desire to fight the champion
of the world, turned his back and fled. But Rustem pursued him, and
thrust at him with his lance where the belt joins the coat of mail,
and pierced him through, for the armor could not turn the point of the
great spear. Then he lifted him out of his saddle, and raised him up
in the air, as if he were a bird which a man had run through with a
spit. This done, he dashed him down dead upon the ground, and all the
nobles of Mazanderan stood astonished at the sight.

After this the two armies joined battle. The air grew dark, and the
flashing of the swords and clubs flew like the lightning out of
a thunder-cloud, and the mountains trembled with the cries of the
combatants. Never had any living man seen so fierce a fight before.

For seven days the battle raged, and neither the one side nor the
other could claim the victory. On the eighth day King Kaoues bowed
himself before God, taking his crown from his head, and prayed with
his face to the ground, saying, "O Lord God, give me, I beseech thee,
the victory over the Genii who fear thee not."

Then he set his helmet on his head, and put himself at the head of his
army. First of all Rustem began the attack, charging the center of the
enemy's army. He directed his course straight to the place where the
King of Mazanderan stood, surrounded with his chiefs and a great
host of elephants. When the King sa