.

David rode away with their heads and had already traversed half the way
when he saw approaching him, riding between heaven and earth, a rider,
who called out to him! "Do you think you have conquered the giants
Schibikan and Hamsa?" The rider sprang behind David and struck at him
with a club. He crawled under the saddle and the club struck the stirrup
and tore it loose, and it fell to the ground. David sprang out from
under the saddle and cried: "Bread and wine, as the Lord liveth!" and
swung his club over his enemy. The enemy dodged the blow, but his hair
fell away from his face. David looked and recognized Chandud-Chanum; she
had disguised herself and had come to meet him.

"O shameless woman!" David said. "You would disgrace me a second time."

They rode together into Chandud-Chanum's city. They arrived and
dismounted and called Chandud-Chanum's father. David said to him: "Will
you give me your daughter for a wife?"

Her father said: "I will not give her to you. If you will marry her and
live here, I will give her to you. If you must take her away, I will not
give her. How can I do otherwise? I have enemies all around me; they
will destroy my city."

And David said: "I will marry her and stay here. I will not take her
away."

So they were married and celebrated the wedding, feasting seven days and
seven nights.

The time passed by unheeded, and when nine months, nine days and nine
hours had passed, God sent them a son.

And David said to Chandud-Chanum: "If this child is mine, he must have a
mark--he will show great strength." They put the child in
swaddling-clothes, but instead of bands they bound him with
plough-chains. He began to cry and stir in his cradle and the chain
snapped into pieces.

They sent word to David: "The youngster is a stout fellow. He has
broken the chains. But one of his hands seems hurt. He clenches his
fist, and no one can open it."

David came and sat down, looked at the hand and opened it. In the hand
he found a little lump of clotted blood. "The whole world is to him as a
drop of blood, and he will hold it in his hand. If he lives he will do
wonderful deeds."

Then they christened the boy and gave him the name of Mcher.

Time passed and the boy grew fast, and David left him in Kachiswan with
his grandparents, and took Chandud-Chanum with him to Sassun. The men of
Chlat[29] heard David's coming and they assembled an army, built a
rampart, formed their wagons into a fortres