The fate of Kámús produced a deep sensation among the Túránians, and
Pírán-wísah, partaking of the general alarm, and thinking it impossible
to resist the power of Rustem, proposed to retire from the contest, but
the Khakán of Chín was of a different opinion, and offered himself to
remedy the evil which threatened them all. Moreover the warrior,
Chingush, volunteered to fight with Rustem; and having obtained the
Khakán's permission, he took the field, and boldly challenged the
champion. Rustem received the foe with a smiling countenance, and the
struggle began with arrows. After a smart attack on both sides, Chingush
thought it prudent to fly from the overwhelming force of Rustem, who,
however, steadily pursued him, and adroitly seizing the horse by the
tail, hurled him from his saddle.

He grasped the charger's flowing tail,
And all were struck with terror pale,
To see a sight so strange; the foe,
Dismounted by one desperate blow;
The captive asked for life in vain,
His recreant blood bedewed the plain.
His head was from his shoulders wrung,
His body to the vultures flung.

Rustem, after this exploit, invited some other hero to single combat;
but at the moment not one replied to his challenge. At last Húmán came
forward, not however to fight, but to remonstrate, and make an effort to
put an end to the war which threatened total destruction to his country.
"Why such bitter enmity? why such a whirlwind of resentment?" said he;
"to this I ascribe the calamities under which we suffer; but is there no
way by which this sanguinary career of vengeance can be checked or
moderated?" Rustem, in answer, enumerated the aggressions and the crimes