low. 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[1] heard David’s coming and they assembled an army, built a rampart, formed their wagons into a fortress, and began to give battle. When Chandud-Chanum sent her lance against the wall she shattered it and the wagons flew seven leagues away. Then David went forward and drove the fighters away, saying to them: “Ye men of Chlat! what shameless people ye be! Ye wage war on women! Let me but take my wife to Sassun and I will come back, and we will fight it out.
But the men of Chlat believed him not. “Swear to us by the holy cross you carry; then we will believe you,” said they.
David touched the token with his hand as he thought, but the cross was there and he knew it not, and the power of the cross was that no one could swear by it.
He took Chandud-Chanum to Sassun. Here he first knew that he had sworn on the cross, for he found the cross lying at his left shoulder where the token had been.
“Now it will go badly with me,” said David. “Whether I go or whether I stay, it will go badly with me. And I must go.”
He advanced, therefore, to give battle, and the men of Chlat pressed him sorely. His horse was caught in the reedy marsh of Tschechur.[2] With difficulty he crawled out of the bog and reached the waters of the Lochur.[3]
Once Abamelik had lingered at the house of Ibraham Aga, and forcibly entered the sleeping-room of his wife. Her name
- ↑ The city of Chlat (Turkish "Achlat") lies northwest of the Sea of Wan. In olden times it was famous for its splendor, its high walls, and its citadel. The inhabitants had been injured by David's father and wished to avenge themselves.
- ↑ A marsh at the outlet of the Kars-Su, a tributary of the Euphrates.
- ↑ A small river which empties into the Sea of Wan not far from Chlat.
