So a day was named for a great gathering at the Palace of King Caidu, and the King and Queen were there.  And when all the company were assembled, for great numbers flocked to see the match, the damsel first came forth in a strait jerkin of sammet; and then came forth the young bachelor in a jerkin of sendal; and a winsome sight they were to see.  When both had taken post in the middle of the hall they grappled each other by the arms and wrestled this way and that, but for a long time neither could get the better of the other.  At last, however, it so befel that the damsel threw him right valiantly on the palace pavement.  And when he found himself thus thrown, and her standing over him, great indeed was his shame and discomfiture.  He gat him up straightway, and without more ado departed with all his company, and returned to his father, full of shame and vexation, that he who had never yet found a man that could stand before him should have been thus worsted by a girl!  And his 1000 horses he left behind him.

As to King Caidu and his wife they were greatly annoyed, as I can tell you; for if they had had their will this youth should have won their daughter.

And ye must know that after this her father never went on a campaign but she went with him.  And gladly he took her, for not a knight in all his train played such feats of arms as she did.  Sometimes she would quit her father’s side, and make a dash at the host of the enemy, and seize some man thereout, as deftly as a hawk pounces on a bird, and carry him to her father; and this she did many a time.

Now I will leave this story and tell you of a great battle that Caidu fought with Argon the son of Abaga, Lord of the Tartars of the Levant.

NOTE 1.—­The name of the lady is in Pauthier’s MSS. Agiaint, Agyanie; in the Bern, Agyanic; in the MS. of the G.T., distinctly Aigiaruc, though printed in the edition of 1824 as Aigiarm.  It is Oriental Turkish, AI-YARUK, signifying precisely Lucent Lune, as Marco explains it.  For this elucidation I am indebted to the kindness of Professor Vambery, who adds that the name is in actual use among the Uzbek women.

Kaidu had many sons, but only one daughter, whom Rashiduddin (who seems to be Hammer’s authority here) calls Kutulun.  Her father loved her above all his sons; she used to accompany him to the field, and aid in state affairs.  Letters were exchanged between her and Ghazan Khan, in which she assured him she would marry no one else; but her father refused her hand to all suitors.  After Kaidu’s death, this ambitious lady made some attempt to claim the succession. (Hammer’s Ilkhans, II. 143-144.)

The story has some resemblance to what Ibn Batuta relates of another warlike Princess, Urduja, whom he professes to have visited in the questionable kingdom of Tawalisi on his way to China:  “I heard ... that various sons of kings had sought Urduja’s hand, but she always answered, ‘I will marry no one but him who shall fight and conquer me’; so they all avoided the trail, for fear of the shame of being beaten by her.” (I.B. IV. 253-254.) I have given reasons (Cathay, p. 520) for suspecting that this lady with a Turkish name in the Indian Archipelago is a bit of fiction.  Possibly Ibn Batuta had heard the legend of King Kaidu’s daughter.