In order to prevent Manas from penetrating the disguise, the princess also sprayed something sending off a nasty smell onto the neck of the unnamed orphan.
The couple met again following the long seperation. Having seen the serious wound of her husband, the princess was unable to constrain her emotions. “Just bring the child to me so that I can kiss him,” Manas said to his wife. Instead of doing so at the request of Manas, Princess Kanikei showed her husband the back neck of the unnamed ophan immediately after helping him turn around on purpose. “Your Majesty, your penetrating eyes will get your son to lose his life. I am afraid that you will scare the child. So just kiss his back neck. If you can recover from your wound, you will get a chance to take a careful look at your son some day or other,” the princess said.
Manas flashed his wife a helpless glance and kissed the back neck of the disguised boy gently. “Honey, why does the child send off a nasty smell?” Manas asked. Princess Kanikei did not reply. Instead, she kept caressing the boy in silence. After a short while, the princess began to ask about the health
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condition of her husband.
The princess racked her brains to think about the best way to cure the wounds of Manas. She asked someone to bring back the gallbladders of foxes and eagles from faraway places. She ground the gallbladders into powder and dried the mix over a fire. Such a panacea was then applied to the wound of Manas. After eight days of treatment, Manas felt much better and could stand up once again. He went to the previous battlefield in order to hold a memorial ceremony for such dead warriors as Almambet and Chubak. “I lost all of them and I have become a crippled horse. I have become an eagle with broken wings which cannot fly any more.”
“My great khan, you don’t have to be too sad. What they did would go down in history,” the princess said, urging her husband to restrain his grief at such a heart-wrenching moment.
The health condition of Manas was getting worse and worse. The invincible khan was dying and hopes of survival were quickly fading. The princess and other warriors established a mausoleum which was able to withstand the cold wind and penetrating rains for nine centuries for Manas. The heroic deeds and portraits of Manas and all the dead warriors were carved on the walls inside the mausoleum.
Shortly after they finished establishing the mausoleum, Manas’ wound was severely inflamed and his heartbeat got faint. It was a full moon night. Before the unrivaled hero passed away, he took a careful look at all the surviving warriors and shook their hands one by one. Loath to part from his good-natured and beautiful wife, Manas looked into the eyes of his wife finally. Princess Kanikei clutched her husband to her bosom tightly. But Manas succumbed to his wound at last as a column of smoke was seen wafting out of his mouth slowly. Manas, a much-loved khan widely celebrated as a national hero, bade farewell to the world in such an extraordinary way. And his lifetime of busily engaging in warfare for the sake of the thriving and prosperity of Kyrgyz people came to an end eventually.
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