THE HORSE AS AN EPIC CHARACTER 



who takes possession of their property, and, the more 

 effectually to prevent their ever appearing again, 

 stations guards about their grave. One day shepherds 

 come to the usurper and tell him that a mare has just 

 given birth to an extraordinary white colt. This is our 

 hero, Sib ; and the childhood of no human hero is more 

 remarkable than his. Scarcely had the colt been born 

 when it began to eat grass. It leaped back and forth 

 six times over its mother's back, and three times did it 

 swim in the waves. Sadei, foreseeing trouble, deter- 

 mined to kill it, and had it pursued by sixty men. For 

 three days darkness covers the earth. When the ob- 

 scurity departs, only the hoof prints of the colt can be 

 seen, and it takes the pursuers half a day to traverse 

 the space between those of the hind feet and those of 

 the fore feet. With this start, the colt has no difficulty 

 in returning home long before Sadei and his men. 

 It now changes itself into a little six-year-old girl, takes 

 seven bags of strong wine, goes to the grave, makes the 

 guards drunk, and sings so sweetly that all the beasts of 

 the forest and aU the birds of the air come to listen to it. 

 The guards are now drowsy, and go off to their tents to 

 sleep. Then the colt leaps over the grave again, and 

 becomes a seven-year-old boy. Pushing back the grave 

 stone, he digs down sixty fathoms, takes out the bones 

 of the children, puts them into a sack, places them on 

 his back, and once more becomes a colt. Suddenly there 

 is a tremendous uproar. The black earth totters, the 

 mountains crash, the rocks split apart. This disturb- 



138 



