"Nay, for though I tarried at thy behest to do thy bidding, a promise
is upon me which I made when my master would have taken my life. For
I said, 'Spare me now, and be assured I will repay thy clemency.'"
Then Churmusta commended him, and bid him do even as he had
said. Furthermore he gave him a talisman to preserve him by the way,
and gave him this counsel,--
"Journeying, thou shalt be overcome by sleep, and having through
sleeping forgotten the way, thou shalt arrive at the gate
of the Schimnu-Khan. Then beware that thou think not to save
thyself by flight. Knock, rather, boldly at the door, saying,
'I am a physician.' When they hear that they will bring thee to the
Schimnu-Khan that thou mayest try thine art in drawing out the arrow
from his forehead. Then place thyself as though thou wouldst remove it,
but rather with a firm grasp drive it farther in, so that it enter
his brain, first offering up with thine hand seven barley-corns to
heaven; and after this manner thou shalt kill the Schimnu-Khan."
Thus commanded the dread Churmusta.
Then Massang came down from the footstool of Churmusta and the
dwelling of the gods, and went forth to seek out his master. But
growing weary with the length of the day, and lying down to sleep,
when he woke he had forgotten the direction he had to take, so he
pursued the path which lay before him, and it led him to the portal
of the Schimnu palace.
When he saw it was the Schimnu palace, he would have made good his
escape from its precincts, but remembering the words of Churmusta, he
knocked boldly at the door. Then the Schimnus flocked round him, and
told him he must die unless he could do some service whereby his life
might be redeemed; and Massang made answer, "I am a physician." Hearing
that, they took him in to the Schimnu-Khan, that he might pluck the
arrow out of his forehead.
Massang stood before the Schimnu-Khan; but when he should have
pulled out the arrow, he only pulled it out a little way, and the
Schimnu-Khan said,--
"Thus far is the pang diminished."
Then, however, first casting seven barley-corns on high towards heaven,
he plunged it in again even to the centre of his brain, so that he
fell down at his feet dead. And as the seven barley-corns reached
the heavens, there came down by their track an iron chain with a
thundering clang which the dread Churmusta sent down to Massang,
and Massang climbed up by the chain to the dwelling of the gods. But
there stood by the throne of the Schimnu-Khan a female Schimnu, out
of whose mouth came forth forked flames of fire, and when she saw
Massang ascending to heaven by the chain, she raised an iron hammer
high in air to strike it, and cleave it in two. But when she struck
it, there issued seven bright sparks, which floated up to heaven,
and remained fixed in the sky; and men called them the constellation
of the Pleiades.
"Thus, for all his promise, and after all his sacrifices, Massang
never went back to repay his master's clemency!" exclaimed the Khan.
And as he let these words escape him the Siddhî-kür replied,
"Forgetting his health, the Well-and-wise-walking Khan hath opened
his lips!" And with the cry, "To escape out of this world is good!" he
sped him through the air, swift, out of sight.
Thus far of the Adventures of the Well-and-wise-walking Khan the
third chapter, showing how the Schimnu-Khan was slain.