But his opponent stood by his side in the worn garment which his lady mother had placed on the back of Rough-Coat to protect the bales from the weather; only, beneath this beggar's robe shone jewels on his footgear of value greater than that of all Kiev, except for the gems upon the statues of the Virgin and the Saints in the great cathedral. Vladimir came and looked at the young men, while Churilo fingered his clasps and loops as if to draw attention to their exquisite fashioning; but Diuk looked straight ahead as if he saw right across the open steppe to the palace of his lady mother in India the Glorious. Then the Prince spoke in tones of quiet judgment: "To our mind," he said, "the young Lord Diuk from India the Glorious has forfeited his wager; for such inventions as these clasps and loops have never been equalled in the eyes of men." "The value of the wager," cried Diuk, "is nothing to me, but for my renown I am jealous enough." Then he threw his worn garment aside and stood forth in apparel so wondrous that all the watchers fell to the earth, stunned with the sight of its shining beauty. At the fore peak of his cap shone the sun like ruddy gold; at the back was the moon with shining silver rays; between the two points shone a light as from pearls heaped up in the darkness. Then he fingered the clasps in front of his embroidered doublet which were fashioned in the shape of singing birds, and at the touch of his caressing fingers the birds began to sing. He pulled the loops at the edges of his coat which were fashioned in the shape of lions and dragons, and at the touch of his caressing fingers they began to crawl and leap and hiss and roar. When he had finished the whole of the company, including Churilo the Exquisite, lay prone upon the floor. Vladimir was the first to rise, and he gasped out with his hand to his forehead: "The wager and the renown are yours, goodly youth. Now cover up your birds and beasts with a garment to which my people are more accustomed." And Diuk did so; whereupon the people recovered from their stupefied astonishment and began to praise Diuk for having outdone Churilo the Exquisite in the ingenuity and richness of his apparel. And the victor spent the thirty thousand roubles on green wine for the applauding crowds, which made them applaud him still more loudly. Now Churilo the Exquisite was a young man of determination, and even this defeat did not quench his spirit or his ingenuity. As soon as he had recovered himself he approached Diuk once again and said with great respect: "My Lord Diuk, let us make another wager of another kind. Let us prove whose horse can leap the broad stream of Mother Dnieper, which measures two miles across, and let our heads be the stake; the winner to cut off the head of the loser." "I have only my travelling nag with me," said Diuk, "but I accept the challenge." Then he went to Rough-Coat in the stable and told the good horse in what danger he stood of losing his head.