“Who art thou—magnificent creature?” was his first question.
“Let us go into my transparent dwelling place,” she replied, “I shall place thee on my exquisite crystal sofa and quietly entertain thee with my interesting stories and dear caresses.”
They jointly went into the niche. Through the sweet little opening a small, small ray of light streamed in and perfectly marvellously played upon a smooth, salty ceiling, showering down millions of beautiful sparks and blazing with all the colors of the rainbow. The beauty sat down, put Aderke’s head on her lovely knees and while he was endeavoring to fall asleep, she told him her whole history.
“I am the daughter of the Moon and of Zaden, they call me Aipina. My father actually decided that I should appear to the glance of people only to prophesy some peaceful event, the rest of the time I am ordered to remain secretly hidden in the grim walls of his temple, which at that time was a place of general worship and sacrifice. The people used to crowd about here from morning till night with very rich offerings. Numerous sacrificers burnt their offerings, while their female companions in long white garments sitting on golden seats prophesied the future. But notwithstanding all this excitement it was stupid for me, and one fine night, when my mother had covered everything with her soft, magic, fairy-like light, I wilfully managed to get out of the temple and flew into the sky, blazing with my highly brilliant tail. Mother became frightened by my daring to commit such an act and hastened to hide herself. Then I alone began to gayly run up and down on the horizon, busily chasing the many stars and pushing them on with my tail. Among the heavenly lighters a most astounding and terrific plot came up and they hurried to get me out of the way as quickly as possible, and my father angrily informed me that my perfectly crazy undertaking had made him fail.
“It came to pass just so, for on that day a poor, poor monk arrived and settled on the mountain. Zaden of course ordered the monsters to instantly chase him out of the dwelling which he had chosen, but the hermit by some marvellous sign of his hand deprived them entirely of any strength. Many pilgrims, who had arrived from afar with offerings to pay their sincere respects to Zaden, upon seeing the newcomer on a height, peacefully sitting between wild snakes, naturally went up to him in a wide circle and spared no time or strength in order to satisfy his intense curiosity. He, however, took full advantage of this to make them give up the faith of their forefathers and instruct them in some religion, the chief peculiarity of which was hatred of our old, old gods.
“In the end the unceasing attacks of the monsters began to bore the monk: he therefore gathered all his hearers and together with them strongly barred the grand entrance of the temple and quietly left the place. Through inexperience I had at first wickedly laughed at his great efforts: what use was it when Zaden, at his own will guiding and directing thunder and lightning, used to smash their edifices to pieces in no time at all, while the old man in going away touched the hard stones with the same marvellous movement of the hand which had destroyed the power and strength of the monsters, and Zaden immediately felt that his godly qualities and peculiarities began to abandon him forever. As a punishment for my most stupid volunteering, he deprived me of the shining form of a comet and transformed me into a woman, whom he commanded to guard the poisonous monsters. They hastened to fix me in this salt wall, but Zaden, who grew weaker every minute, in a last, but tremendous, outbreak of wrath worked out the following decision:
“‘Thou wilt be entirely in the power of these awful monsters until thou art able to find a mortal man who delivereth thee, and then they will again fully obey thee!’ This was the last sign, not only of his power, but also of the life of my father; ever since then he turned himself into a breathless idol and sat immovably on his marble throne for several centuries. Through the holes of the fallen house of public worship the water flowed unto his most royal crown and meanly washed away from it the highly precious ornaments. Lizards climbed over his face, the flying mice quite fearlessly sat down on his powerful shoulders and hands, the snakes wound around his legs! He remained insensible to everything and not strong enough to protect and defend himself. I must say I had an awfully stupid, dull time. Days, months, years, even centuries went by and actually nobody appeared. I had already quite given up all hope when kind fate led thee hither. Now we must absolutely find means to get out of this place. I for my part know that from this temple there leads a subterranean passage to the numerous catacombs with which this mountain is overfilled and from them we can go wherever it pleases us.”
“But who will show us this passage?” asked Aderke.
“I have a good friend among the monsters; it is the bear with the crane’s nose. During all the long and dreary years of my unjust confinement he daily nourished me. With his long, long beak he managed to make a little opening in my dark dwelling, looked for and gathered the hives of wild bees, who had taken refuge in the holes around here, and fed me with their honey. He was at first a man of the same faith as our enemy the hermit and chanced to be banished hither for having ridiculed some servant of his God.”
At these words Aipina struck the palm of her hand; the bear took away a stone and climbed out; then she informed him of the object of the whole undertaking and he, having warned them that the way would be long and exceedingly tiresome, hastily entered their cave and attentively and vigorously began to try with his beak where the mass of salt was thinnest. When, however, such a place had been successfully found, he and Aderke pushed against it with their whole weight and after long and repeated attempts they pierced a rather small hole, through which it was very evident that they should have to go.