To this the weaver agreed; and shortly afterwards the Rajah called him and enquired if he was willing to help him, and, as promised, the man replied, “Yes, I will.” Then he went to his wife and told her, and she commended him.
Next day the King told him that two brothers, by name “Darya” and “Barjo,” threatened to fight and take his kingdom from him, and he desired his son-in-law to go to the stables and select a horse on which to ride on the morrow to battle.
In the stables was a horse that was standing on three legs. “This,” thought the weaver, “will just suit me, for it seems lame and has only three legs to go on, and making this an excuse, I’ll keep behind all the rest, and out of danger.”
Now this horse[3] used to eat a quarter of a pound of opium daily, and could fly through the air, so that when the Rajah heard of the selection he was very delighted, and said to himself: “What a clever man this is, that he is able to discover which is the best horse!”
The day following he had the horse brought round, and mounted it in fear and trembling, having himself securely tied on lest he should fall off, while, to weight himself equally, he fastened a small millstone on either side.
As soon as the groom released the horse, it flew up into the air, then down again, and then up through the branches of trees, which broke off and clung to the weaver’s arms and body, so that he presented a strange spectacle. He was terrified, and kept on crying out: “O Darya! Barjo! for your sakes have I come to my death.”
The two Princes, Darya and Barjo, seeing this strange horse flying through the air, and hearing their names coming from a queer object all covered with branches of trees, were very much alarmed, and said: “If more come like this, we shall indeed be lost; one is enough for us.”
So they wrote to the King, and said: “We have seen your warrior; stay in your country, and we will stay in ours: we cannot fight.”
And they sent him a peace-offering.