I drew my bow. The arrow passed through him and split a boulder three miles behind. He smiled. His teeth were horse teeth. “You see me now,” he said. “So I see you forever.”
(Mongol heleer — spirit of the telling) i saw the devil mongol heleer
Listen. Not the wind that whines through the larch. Not the wolf that drags the newborn lamb. I saw the devil. I drew my bow
So I ride east at midnight. I will find the shaman with nine knots in her belt. I will ask her to cut the devil’s thread from my ribs. But deep in my bones, I know: On the steppe, once you have seen him, you are no longer a man. You are a witness. And the devil — the chotgor — never forgets a witness. His teeth were horse teeth