On his war-shield he rode, and flew with the wind until he came to the horizon.  Here lived the Malaki Lindig Ramut ka Langit. [82] And when the two malaki met, they began to fight; and the seven brothers of the Malaki Lindig that live at the edge of the sky, likewise came out to fight.  But when the battle had gone on but a little time, all the eight malaki of the horizon fell down dead.  Then the angry Malaki who had slain the Bia and the eight young men went looking for more people to kill; and when he had shed the blood of many, he became a buso with only one eye in his forehead, for the buso with one eye are the worst buso of all.  Everybody that he met he slew.

After some time, he reached the house of the great priest called “Pandita,” and the Pandita checked him, saying, “Stop a minute, and let me ask you first what has happened to make you like this.”

Then the Buso-man replied sadly, “I used to have a wife named Moglung, who was the best of all the bia; but when I went looking for the Malaki Tuangun, that other Bia made me dizzy, and gave me betel, and combed my hair.  Then she was my wife for a little while.  But I have killed her, and become a buso, and I want to kill all the people in the world.”

“You had better lie down on my mat here, and go to sleep,” advised the Pandita.  While the Buso slept, the Pandita rubbed his joints with betel-nut; and when he woke up, he was a malaki again.

Then the Pandita talked to him, and said, “Only a few days ago, the Moglung passed here on her way to her brother’s home in heaven.  She went by a bad road, for she would have to mount the steep rock-terraces.  If you follow, you will come first to the Terraces of the Wind (Tarasu’ban ka Kara’mag [83]), then you reach the Terraces of Eight-fold Darkness (Walu Lapit Dukilum [84]), and then the Terraces of the Rain (Tarasuban k’Udan [85]).

Eagerly the Malaki set out on his journey, with his kabir [86] on his back, and his betel-nut and buyo-leaf [87] in the kabir.  He had not travelled far, before he came to a steep ascent of rock-terraces,—­the Terraces of the Wind, that had eight million steps.  The Malaki knew not how to climb up the rocky structure that rose sheer before him, and so he sat down at the foot of the ascent, and took his kabir off his back to get out some betel-nut.  After he had begun to chew his betel, he began to think, and he pondered for eight days how he could accomplish his hard journey.  On the ninth day he began to jump up the steps of the terraces, one by one.  On each step he chewed betel, and then jumped again; and at the close of the ninth day he had reached the top of the eight million steps, and was off, riding on his shield.