书城传记聆听史诗丛书-格萨尔王传:英文
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第33章 An Expedition to Kill... (6)

Mesa made Gesar go back to stay with Chin’ en that day and she wouldn’t tell him the way to defeat the demon until he came the next day.

That night Mesa said to Nortsam:

“Great King, I fear that there is something wrong. I had a dream last night and in the dream my right tress was cut off by someone. I’m afraid this is not a good omen. If there is something wrong with you, how can I live? Yesterday, the old Chin’ en said that the King of the State of Ling, Gesar, would come to weed out the evil but he couldn’t say when. You’d better take good care of your sea-of-life, tree-of-life and cattle-of-life.”

The demon laughed when he heard this: “Wife, don’t worry. My sea-of-life is a bowl of blood in the storehouse and it won’t dry up unless you overturn the bowl. My tree-of-life won’t break off unless you chop it three times with my golden axe which is also in the storehouse. My cattle-of-life won’t die unless you shoot it with my golden arrow with jade feathers. My life is based on a small sparkling fish above my forehead which only appears when I sleep, so I won’t die unless the fish is shot while it’s sparkling.”

When he finished speaking he suddenly regretted what he had said.

“My love, you must keep this a secret or I will certainly lose my life.”

“Your wife sees.” Mesa was exulted because she had gotten his secret so easily. At dawn Mesa pretended to care for him:

“My great King, for your safety you’d better go out on patrol and make preparations to meet Gesar in case he comes.”

The demon was now a little anxious so he went on patrol after his breakfast.

Gesar came to the devil palace with the nine pointed towers again. Mesa told him all the details on how to defeat the demon. During the next three days, Gesar dried off Nortsam’s sea-of-life, cut down his tree-of-life and shot his cattle-of-life to death. The demon lost most of his powers. The iron scorpions on his body disappeared and so did his poisonous limb snakes. After that the demon remained unconscious and half-dead.

Now there was only one thing left — killing the sparkling fish above his forehead.

Hidden in the kitchen by Mesa, Gesar fired the jade-wing arrow at the sleeping demon but unfortunately he failed to hit the target. Quickly Gesar had another try and this time he succeeded — the arrow struck into the demon’s forehead. However, Nortsam’s devilry was still intact so he didn’t die at once but jumped out of bed to attack Gesar:

“I smelt you a long time ago. You dried off my sea-of-life, cut down my tree-of-life, shot my cattle-of-life to death and now you have shot my fish-of-life to death. Now that I cannot live any more neither can you.

Gesar grappled with Nortsam. Mesa quickly scattered beans under Nortsam’s feet and ash under Gesar’s feet because she was afraid of an accident happening to the Lion King. Gesar chanted incantations and gave Nortsam a heavy throw exerting all his strength. Nortsam fell on the ground aided by the slippery beans. Gesar promptly took out his Heavenly bow, set up his deity arrow and shot surely at the centre of the demon’s forehead. Immediately he died. Then Gesar pushed the demon’s body under one of the black towers. He sat in meditation and prayed resolutely so as to release Nortsam’s soul from purgatory to the Pure Land of Heaven. By the end of all this Gesar had been in the kingdom of the Demon for only three months and nine days.

After that Gesar retained Chin’en as his minister who made great efforts to do good deeds. He lived on in the demon kingdom for two years and three months.