A girl looked at him from the birchbark. Her lips were like a newly opened scarlet flower, her eyes were like wild cherries, her brows like two rainbows, her lashes like arrows that struck the heart.
He snatched the birchbark, put it into the bosom of his coat, and shouted in a terrifying voice:
"Hey, you! Mighty fighters, strong men, warriors, heroes! Get on your horses at once! If we don't find this girl, I'll kill you with my spear, I'll shoot you with my arrows, I'll have you thrown into boiling water!"
He touched the reins and galloped off upstream. Behind him came an army of warriors, clanking their heavy armor of red copper and yellow bronze.
Behind the army rode the stablemen leading a white stallion that was as fast as thought.
At the sight of this dread army, Silken Tassel did not cry and did not laugh. Silently she mounted the white stallion with the pearl-embroidered saddle.
And so, without crying, without laughing, without saying a word to anyone, without answering anyone, Torko-Chachak sat in the khan's tent.
Suddenly, one sunny morning, she sprang outside, clapped her hands, and laughed, and sang!
Kara-Khan looked where she was looking, ran where she was running, and saw a young man in a goatskin coat turned inside out mounted on a blue ox.
"So it was he who made you laugh, Silken Tassel? Why, I can do the same. I can also put on this ragged coat. I can also mount the blue ox without fear. Then smile as gaily to me, sing to me as merrily!"
And Kara-Khan tore the goatskin coat from Balykchi's shoulders, went over to the blue ox, picked up the reins, and put his foot into the iron stirrup.
"Moo-oo! Moo-oo!" bellowed the ox, and, giving the khan no time to swing his right foot over the saddle, he dragged him off over the hills and valleys.
Kara-Khan's black cruel liver burst with shame. His round cruel heart burst with rage.
And Silken Tassel took the poor fisherman Balykchi by the right hand, and together they returned to their green hut.
May you, too, find the happiness they found, for this is the end of our tale. |
