"I am the son of a western king, and I have come to help you."
Melik pitched a tent for him, and they ate together seven days. On the eighth day David mounted his horse, rode twice before Mösramelik's tent, and said: "Now, come out, I want to fight you. How long, Mösramelik, are you going to encroach upon my inheritance?" And David cried: "Bread and wine, God lives!" and fighting began on all sides.
Uncle Toross heard of the combat. He tore up a poplar by its roots, threw it across his shoulder, and set out. He halted at the upper end of the valley in which the fight was going on. If anyone crept away David shouted: "Dear Uncle Toross, chase him back into the valley and I will be ready for him!"
At last the army began to murmur: "Let them struggle hand to hand. He who overpowers the other has conquered."
Then said one of them. "Sit down, that I may slay you with my club," and the other said: "No, you sit down." At last they agreed that David, being the youngest, should sit, So he put his shield over his head, laid under it the holy cross, and sat down. Mösramelik made an onset from three leagues, burst upon him, and assailed him with a club, saying, "Earth thou art, be earth again!"
David said: "I believe in the high and holy cross of Maratuk. It is to me as if I were still eating rice pillau under the red and green tent."
Mösramelik sprung upon him three times, struck him with his club, and said: "Earth thou art, be earth again!" and David replied only, "I believe in the high and holy cross of Maratuk."
Then came Mösramelik's turn to sit down, and he was stubborn and would not. But the army reproached him and put his shield over his head, and he sat down. Then came Mösramelik's mother, and began to ask mercy, saying: "David, I am ready to die for you! Is he not thy brother? Slay him not; have pity on him!"
"O shameless woman! When he struck me, thou saidst not, 'Is he not thy brother!' But, may your wish be granted! One blow I will give up for God's sake, the second for your sake, but the third belongs to me, and when I strike either he dies or lives!"
David rode back and forward again, and seizing his club hurled Mösramelik seven yards deep into the earth. Then he ravaged Mösr and ascended the throne.