“You are childishly stubborn,” replied the old king.  “Don’t you realize that there is only one God?  Don’t you realize that the new God is really identical with the old one?  After all, we have even retained the name by which he had been known to our forefathers: Isten.  We still pray to him, although now under a new guise.”

“You have only done this,” said Thonuzoba scoffingly, “to prevent your people from realizing that you have exchanged the ways of our forefathers for the ways of our enemies.  In the name of this new god you are really enslaving our people.  You are making them puppets of foreign priests.  And those who oppose you in the name of the old god are massacred to the alleged glory of this new religion.”

King Stephen became angry at Thonuzoba’s obstinacy.  "You fool," said he to the prince of the Pechenegs. “Don’t you see that we are surrounded by many Christian nations?  Don’t you realize that they will ultimately triumph over us if we fail to accept their ways?  Do convert, Thonuzoba! If you do, your life will be spared!”

But Prince Thonozoba refused.  “I would rather die than reject the god of my fathers! I will never leave the faith of my ancestors!”

Upon this King Stephen left and asked the priests to take charge of Thonuzoba.  The priests spoke to the young man for days, but to no avail:  Therefore, after the third day, King Stephen gave his order: “Thonuzoba must be buried alive.”

He ordered Thonuzoba’s captured warriors to dig his grave.  It had to be large enough to hold both him and his horse, for no noble Pecheneg would ever be sent to the world beyond without his weapons and his stallion.  King Stephen was still close enough to the old ways that he would not have violated these sacred traditions.

When the grave was finished, Thonuzoba was tied into the saddle and his horse was led into the grave.  At these final moments the priests were still trying to persuade him to change his mind.  But all Thonuzoba did was to ask that his horse be killed before burial.  “No noble animal deserves such a fate,” he said.  When the arrow pierced the noble stallion’s heart, Thonuzoba broke into the Hymn of the Dead.

At this point Thonuzoba’s young wife appeared with their little son in her arms.  She extended the little boy to her husband for a farewell kiss.