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Lightly she leapt to her feet,
And seized pen and paper.
She struck the pen into her face,
She drew blood from her cheek,
And wrote a letter to Marko:
"Brother-in-God, Kraljević Marko,
I call on thee as my brother-in-God, 150
And as my kum in God,
And in thine own Saint John,
Give me not over to the black Arab,
And thou shalt have seven charges of gold,
And a sevenfold present[1],
Not of things woven or spun,
Nor such as passeth through the weaver's loom,
But thy gifts shall be wrought of fine gold,
And I shall give thee a golden salver,
Whereon a twisted snake 160
Lifteth up his head on high,
Holding in his teeth a precious stone,
That shineth so as ye may sup by night
As it were by the light of day.
And I shall give thee a well-wrought sabre,
That hath a threefold hilt of gold,
Wherein be three precious stones.
The sabre is worth three of the Sultan's cities,
And I shall affix the Sultan's seal,
That the Vizier's self may not slay thee 170
Without he obtain permission of the illustrious Sultan."
She sent a courier with the letter to Marko.
When the letter came to Marko,
And he saw what the letter told him,
Forthwith Marko spake and said:
"Woe is me, my sister-in-God!
It were ill to go, and worse not to go,
For though I fear not Sultan nor Sultana,
- ↑ бошчалук = present given by bride to bridegroom and his near relations.
