A MONGOLIAN LEGEND.

Grey River Argus, Volume XXXI, Issue 5312, 6 October 1885, Page 2

A MONGOLIAN LEGEND.

Those interested in folk lore may per haps be glad to read the following legend as to the original of the Russians found by Colonel Prjevalsky to be 'current among the Mongol inhabitants of Zaidan, and published in the Busski Invalide :— " In former times there lived in a cave, far away from all people, a good hermit lama, or priest, who passed his. life in praying. A pair ef nomads, consisting of an aged mother and her daughter, happened to go that way, and the daughter, while tending cattle came upon the cave of the holy lama, who was at that time ill. The compassionate maiden offered him some sour milk, but he did not 1 like to taste it. At last lie gave way to her entreaties and took the sour milk evary day until he got well. Eventually, out of gratitude for the cure, the lama married the maiden. "As soon as the Czar of that country heard of this he sent his troops to kill the priest who had so flagrantly broken his yews and committed the sin of marriage. When the troops approached the. lama gathered a bunch of reeds and stuck them in the ground round his tent, and then by force of prayer caused them to be all turned into soldiers, who defeated . the troops of the Czar. The latter 1 sent a second and a third army, but both were beaten, as the lama continued ito pray and turn into more fighting men the reeds broke off by his first defenders, so that the holy lama soon had a great number of troops. After the defeat of his third army the Czar left the lama alone in peace, but the latter did not wish to live, any longeron the earth. The' lama left his wife to rule the people created from the reeds, and from those arose the Russians. They have white bodies and their hair is also fair, because the stems of the reeds were of a yellowish color, and the tops somewhat darker. ■ ■ <• = (Seefoitrthpage.)