after having acted as the Khan's barber. They came in crowds to the widow's cottage and demanded eagerly how it was that he had escaped, and what the Khan's great secret was, anyway, that he should refuse at any time to be seen by his people, or to let those live who had once set eyes upon him. But to all their questions and wonderings Daibang said never a word. That night his mother, too, besought him to tell her just how he had fared and about the Khan's secret, but he only said to her:
"Mother mine, ask me no more. Your cakes worked the loving magic you foretold, and I have escaped death, but I have given my word of honor that I will tell no human being—not even my dear and faithful mother—the secret I learned while I was cutting the Khan's hair."
So the days and weeks and months passed by, and still every once in so often a fine young man would be chosen from among the people and taken to the palace to trim the Khan's hair, after which he
