Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 3 1885.djvu/331

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FOLK-LORE IN MONGOLIA.
323

Khan came out of his house for a certain need, and saw the crowd and desired to know what was the reason of the throng. When they told him that two women who had come from a Khan's house which had been destroyed were begging, Chētuigchē Khan ordered that a house should be built for them exactly like that which they had with the old Khan, and that they should be provided with exactly the same maintenance as they had enjoyed in their former condition. Here, in the Khanate of Chētuigchē Khan, Guigêr Mêdjēt grew up, became a youth and began to learn everything, blacksmith's work, fishing, weaving nets, reading, writing, stealing and conjuring (Ēlbchē). So the kingdom of Chētuigchē Khan came with merchandize and a company of 500 men—Djētuim Senge Noēnon—and on the steppe in his way found he a youth. "Who art thou, oh lad?" asked Djētuim Senge, "and where is thy home and where are thy parents?" "My home," replied the lad, "is this hole; the wolf cub who plays by the hole is my elder brother, and see there the two wolves who run over the hill that are my father and mother." Djētuim Senge had no children, and saying, "Let this be my son," took the lad with him and gave him the name of Shyal. The caravan arrived at the land of Chētuigchē Khan and occupied the bank of the river opposite the town. Guigêr Mêdjētt at night-time came to the merchant encampment to steal. At that time on the steppe wandered the wolf. A man sleeping in the same tent as Shyal woke him with the words, "Shyal, Shyal, bos, bos (get up)! listen to what the wolf says." Shyal having passed his childhood in the wolf's family understood wolf language. Shyal went out of the tent and listened and said, "This my elder brother has come." He (the wolf) says, "Own little brother, come out and look about you! Yes, look well after thy goods; a thief has come and stands by the tent." Guigêr Mêdjēt fled at this and thinks—"This is a wonderful man because he knows wolf's language; I must make friends with this youth in order that he may teach me myself this knowledge." Next night Guigêr Mêdjēt again went out to steal; again the wolf appears to Shyal and says to him, "At night in the river the water shall overflow, cross over to a high island between the river and the low ground; on the water there shall float the body of a corpse, on his right shoulder