Vol. rh 10.] The Paladins of the Kesar Saga. 467 
60. The Paladin of the Kesar Saga. A eee m cf Sagas from 
wer Ladakh.— By A. H. Franck 
PREFACE. 
The following tales, which I call ‘‘ Sagas of the Paladins of 
the Kesar-saga ” were dictated slowly by the same man who dic- 
tated the ‘‘ Lower Ladakhi Version of the Kesar-saga,” and were 
written down by the Munshi of Khalatse, Yeshes rig ’adzin. The 
sagas contained in the present collection are not considered id 
or servant of Kesar under his own name. In the first of the tales, 
posta we find Kesar under his own name, and the tale reminds 
in many parts decidedly of Kesar-saga, Tale No. V, Kesar’s 
defeat of the giant of the North. 
TALE No. I. 
: THe Tate or Kesar’s Betovep Mon. 
Abstract of Contents. 
Kesar had a Mon (low-caste man) whom he loved more than 
anybody else. a he became jealous and killed the Mon on the 
opened the Mon’s belly with a knife, and out of the corpse came 
two Mons, a male and a female one which he carried home in his 
loin cloth. Both were some sort of devils who requi a great 
amount of food. At first the Agus had to feed them, but when 
their supplies were finished, the Mon-devils were entrusted to 
ndfather rT'se dgu. This old hermit gave them much work and 
little food. Once they found alump of gold and a turquoise of 
the size of a hearth-stone. These treasures they presented to the 
hermit, asking him to scsi * their food and give them less 
they ‘would find him more treasures if he was hard on them 
Then the two devils fled to a semana lake in which they bathed, 
with the result that their appearance became perfectly mr 
One of their teeth grew down to the earth and another up to 
sky, and they received locks of blood-red colour. They a hashed 
