A popular song, carefully preserved by Moses, celebrates the marriage of Ardashes and Sathinig:—
The valiant King Ardashes, astride of a sable charger,
Drew forth a thong of leather, garnished with golden rings:
And quick as fast-flying eagle he crossed the flowing river
And the crimson leather thong, garnished with rings of gold,
Cast he about the body of the Virgin of the Alans,
Clasping in painful embrace the maiden's tender form:
Even so he drew her swiftly to his encampment.
Once again Ardashes appears in the people's poetry. He is no longer the triumphant victor in love and war; the hour of his death draws near. "Oh!" says the dying king, "who will give me back the smoke of my hearth, and the joyous New Year's morning, and the spring of the deer, and the lightness of the roe?" Then his mind wanders away to the ruling passion: "We sounded the trumpets; after the manner of kings we beat the drums."
The Armenian princes were in the habit, when they married, of throwing pieces of money from the threshold of their palace, whilst the royal brides scattered pearls about the nuptial chamber. To this custom allusion is made in two lines which used to be sung as a sort of marriage chaunt:—