Jakip bowed to him after thinking for a short while. “My respectable Khan, it is very considerate of you to say such words to me. It is better to accept deferentially than to decline courteously. I don’t want the fur robe. What I need is nothing but the small grey colt raised in your stable,” Jakip said.
After hearing such a request, Chingirshi could not help jeering at Jakip. He could not conceal the snicker of ridicule on his face. “Jakip, why do you select such an emaciated colt which cannot catch any attention from other people?” he asked.
“I am not very clear about what I’ve thought about. I select it simply because it is little and suitable to serve as my coward daughter’s beast for
Legend of Manas
riding,” Jakip said.
Finally, Chingirshi agreed to present the colt to Jakip.
After saying goodbye to Chingirshi, Jakip did not hesitate to set off on his trip on the way back to the Buruultow Sea together with the grey colt.
The fall was approaching. Jakip was about to go to Turpan once again. At the night before the day of departure, Jakip chatted with his wife. “How come I cannot figure out the truth of what Balta said?” Jakip asked.
After hearing that, Chiyirdi replied:
“Jakip, please listen to me.
After the grey colt arrived at our home,
My boobs began to swell badly and lactate.
I really want to tell you about that,
But I have no idea of what you are thinking about.
If you agree to what I say,
I want to press all my nourished milk out of my breasts.
And then the wheat powder will be mixed into milk.
It might be a miraculous steed,
Who was born to serve your son well.
You got the title of Khan by dint of your fortune,
And you gave the wheat carried by forty camels in exchange for this magical steed.
The success should not be attributed to you.
Instead, the wheat reaped by Manas should take the pivotal role.
The so-called Ak-kula that was often mentioned by Balta ought to be the name of such a grey colt.”
After hearing that, Jakip burst into laughs. “Oh, honey, is there any reason to believe what you said? Just squeeze your milk out of the breasts. And I will test and verify what you said by myself,” Jakip said. As soon as Jakip finished saying so, a jet of human milk squirted violently out of Chiyirdi’s nipples. Jakip set a large bowl in front of the breasts to hold the rapidly shooting milk. Such a bowl of milk symbolized the brotherhood undoubtedly. Chiyirdi felt that some milk still remained in her saggy breasts. “Is there anyone else who will become the brothers of Manas?” she murmured to herself.
Legend of Manas
Without saying any word, Jakip was preoccupied with mixing the wheat and milk together in silence. Then he set the bowl to its lips slowly. The horse colt swallowed the milk and wheat eagerly just like a hungry baby sucking away at his or her feeding bottle. “I mean business, Ak-kula and Manas are brothers!” said Chiyirdi. However, Jakip was still puzzled by such an inconceivable eye-opener and his wife’s words.
Jakip went back to Turpan together with a hundred camels and a number of servants. At night, he began to consult with Karanoroi for the purpose of the moving plan after all the people responsible for meeting him dispersed. Manas and Majik eavesdropped on their discussion, standing outside the yurt. “My father is a stingy person. He must be dead set against giving a helping hand to our own blueprint. Just ride on that brownish red horse brought here by my father to see my mother. It is a mystical horse who can live on without eating anything. But it can still sustain the weight of its rider without showing any sense of weariness. And let me ride my father’s horse. And I am sure that my mother will foretell so many things. We would rather do something significant than transport grain for my father,” Manas said to Majik. After Majik consented to Manas’ opinion, they get down to preparing their provisions right away. After that, the two riders spurred on to their destination
– Altay – as fast as they could.
Chiyirdi also felt a good omen that Manas would come back to see her from afar. Since Jakip left, she had been waiting for the arrival of her son Manas all along in silence. As soon as she saw her son whom she had daily and nightly in her thoughts, she was moved to tears all of a sudden. She felt as if she were dreaming. She held Manas in her arms tightly, kissing the young fellow from time to time. She looked into her son’s face attentively, feeling that her son had grown up. She made an appeal to all the people for a day of celebration which would be observed for the arrival of Manas and Majik. Moreover, she got the two young fellows to distribute all the stuff they had brought to the poor.
A couple of days later, the mother showed the grey horse colt to Manas. “Your uncle once said that the mystical colt was the present of the God. Since your father got us the colt from the stable of Chingirshi, I have also testified to your brotherhood. Now I give it to you,” she said.
After the magical colt caught sight of Manas, it kept neighing in high
Manas Drives Enemies off and Fellow Villagers Elect and Proclaim
27
the Teen as Khan of Their Clan
spirits. When Manas stretched out his hand and touched the colt, its foetal hair disappeared from head to toe. Then the colt’s skin looked as smooth and glistening as a length of silk. In the past four years, the magical colt had been waiting for the hero named Manas in silence. It was at the moment of standing in front of its master that it could showcase its magical effect and might. A meticulous look at the colt’s waist and buttocks was a proof of the authenticity of the hearsay. In fact, the God had alreadly prepared the beast for riding for Manas.
