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nature, the intersecting valleys being cultivated with paddy and til, 

 and the side slopes of the hills, dotted with toungga dealings; round 

 about the village was grown castor oil, Bixa orellana, tobacco, plan- 

 tains, limes, Jatropha, cotton, or poppy; the natural growth was 

 represented by wild strawberries, raspberries, and roses on the bank 

 beyond the influence of the overlap of the lake : arborescent vegeta- 

 tion was sparse and made up of teak, Eurya, Acacia catechu, Grama, 

 Mimosa, Gordonia arborea, Fici,- Xauclea, Careya, Gmelina arborea, 

 bamboo and Dipterocarpus tuberculatus, which latter bore signs of hav- 

 ing been tapped for the oil : bat nowhere was Fiats elastica to be 

 seen. The fact of the low water level of the Endawgyee lake bein^ 

 below that of the country, south of the mouth of the Xantain choung, 

 has given rise to a legend connected with this lake, which I shall 

 here give, as illustrative of how ready an uneducated class are to 

 envelope in mystery any eireunistance they cannot easily account 

 for, and what implicit confidence the present generation place in 

 the mythical traditions handed down to them by their forefathers. 

 The fable is this : the ndt of Endawgyee lake having refused to give 

 in marriage his daughter, to the ndt of Nantain choung, war was 

 proclaimed, but the latter deity being the more powerful, gained the 

 object of his affection. An agreement was now entered into, by the 

 two spirits that, in celebration of the marriage day — which is" sup- 

 posed to have taken place early in July — the nat o'f Xantain choung 

 was always to send his father-in-law a gold cup, a bundle of plan- 

 tain leaves, a bale of silk thread, and some firewood. This stipula- 

 tion was scrupulously acted up to, until within the last few years, 

 when the ndt of Xantain choung, finding all the valuable articles 

 were stolen en route, resolved for the future to commemorate the day, 

 by presenting merely a bundle of faggots. Prior to this war, it is 

 believed, that the Nantain choung flowed in the opposite direction, 

 but since the date of this memorable event, the current was changed 

 with a view to facilitate the floating down of the presents. So firm 

 is the belief of the people in this tradition, that towards the tail-end 

 of a spur which extends 700 yards into the water, they have built a 

 rubble wall rising in three tiers to a height of eighteen feet, which 

 is five feet above the flood level ; each step or tier is protected from 

 the wash of the waves by a casement of woodden piles driven into 

 the ground close to one another ; at the end of this promontory, a 

 pagoda has been erected, guarded at the four corners by leogryphs : 

 here an annual fair is held, attended largely both by Bhuddhists, 

 and the mountaineers who likewise reverence this spirit. This pro- 

 montory in the month of July, when the water has attained the 

 level of the Nantain choung, produces a counter-current, and all the 

 debris that accumulates round the base of the pier, the poor 



