'Fair maiden, I come from afar,
Sworn conqueror in love and in war!
King Sarkap my coming will rue,
His head in four pieces I'll hew;
Then forth as a bridegroom I'll ride,
With you, little maid, as my bride!'
Now when Rasâlu replied so gallantly, the maiden looked in his face,
and seeing how fair he was, and how brave and strong, she straightway
fell in love with him, and would gladly have followed him through the
world.
But the other sixty-nine maidens, being jealous, laughed scornfully at
her, saying, 'Not so fast, O gallant warrior! If you would marry our
sister you must first do our bidding, for you will be our younger
brother.'
'Fair sisters!' quoth Rasâlu gaily, 'give me my task and I will
perform it.'
So the sixty-nine maidens mixed a hundredweight of millet seed with a
hundredweight of sand, and giving it to Rasâlu, bade him separate the
seed from the sand.
Then he bethought him of the cricket, and drawing the feeler from his
pocket, thrust it into the fire. And immediately there was a whirring
noise in the air, and a great flight of crickets alighted beside him,
and among them the cricket whose life he had saved.