saying: "David, I am ready to die for you! Is he not thy brother? Slay
him not; have pity on him!"

"O shameless woman! When he struck me, thou saidst not, 'Is he not thy
brother!' But, may your wish be granted! One blow I will give up for
God's sake, the second for your sake, but the third belongs to me, and
when I strike either he dies or lives!"

David rode back and forward again, and seizing his club hurled
Moesramelik seven yards deep into the earth. Then he ravaged Moesr and
ascended the throne.

* * * * *

The Emir[23] of Kachiswan had a daughter, and her name was
Chandud-Chanum.[24] Chandud-Chanum heard of David's valor, and gave gifts
to a bard and said to him: "Go, sing to David of my beauty, that he may
come hither and we may love each other."

[23] "Emir," in the eyes of the orientals, is almost the same as "king."

[24] "Chandud" is a woman's name. "Chanum" means "lady."

The bard went to Sassun, for he thought David was there. He came to
Sassun and entered Zoeranwegi's castle, thinking David lived in it, and
sat down and began to sing to Zoeranwegi. Zoeranwegi cried: "Go. Club him
and hunt him forth. He thinks to bring David hither by cunning!"

They set upon the singer, dragged him to the valley, and threw him into
the road. In the evening the shepherds returned on their oxen to the
village. An ox became wild, and the herdsman fell off, and seeking the
cause he found the bard, who wept and lamented and asked the herdsman:

"Which of the brothers lives in that castle?"

The shepherd answered: "Here lives Zoeranwegi; yonder, in Moesr, David."

And the bard gave a piece of gold to the shepherds, and they gathered up
the pieces of his broken tambur[25] and pointed out his way to him. He
went and sang of Chandud-Chanum's beauty before David. David rewarded
him richly, and said, "Go before, I will come," and the singer went and
told all to Chandud-Chanum.[26]

[25] An instrument like a guitar.

[26] The song in which the bard praises the beauty of Chandud-Chanum is
wanting. A certain carelessness is seen generally in the rest of the
narrative.

David departed straightway and went by way of Sassun and the Heights of
Zoezmak. He found a plough[27] standing in his way. He freed the oxen,
seized the plough-chain, mounted his horse, and dragged the plough down.
And it fell from the summit of the Black Mountain plump into the
aqueduct of the village of Marnik.

[27] T