One day he was pursuing a hare, and shot an arrow after it and then another, but neither of them hit the hare. Never before had Boy Beautiful missed his prey, and his heart was vexed within him. He pursued the hare still more hotly, and sent another arrow after her. This time he did bring her down, but in his haste the unhappy man had not perceived that in following the hare he had passed through the Vale of Complaint!
He took up the hare and returned homewards, but while he was still on the way a strange yearning after his father and his mother came over him. He durst not tell his bride of it, but she and her sisters immediately guessed the cause of his heaviness.
“Wretched man!” they cried, “thou hast passed through the Vale of Complaint!”
“I have done so, darling, without meaning it,” he replied; “but now I am perishing with longing for my father and mother. Yet need I desert thee for that? I have now been many days with thee, and am as hale and well as ever. Suffer me then to go and see my parents but once, and then will I return to thee to part no more.”
“Forsake us not, oh beloved!” cried his bride and her sisters. “Hundreds of years have passed away since thy parents were alive; and thou also, if thou dost leave us, wilt never return more. Abide with us, or, an evil omen tells us, thou wilt perish!”
But the supplications of the three ladies and his faithful steed likewise could not prevail against the gnawing longing to see his parents which consumed him.
At last the horse said to him: “If thou wilt not listen to me, my master, then ’tis thine own fault alone if evil befall thee. Yet I will promise to bring thee back on one condition.”
“I consent whatever it may be,” said Boy Beautiful; “speak, and I will listen gratefully.”
“I will bring thee back to thy father’s palace, but if thou dismount but for a moment, I shall return without thee.”
“Be it so,” replied Boy Beautiful.