1865.] Religion &c. among the Karens. 185 



kicking down the trees and bamboos as he went along, and the way- 

 being too narrow for Long-arms, he smashed down the trees and bam- 

 boos with the swing of his arms ; but when they arrived, the Python 

 had gone away. 



Then they called it seven times, and the seventh time it came again. 

 After the usual discussion, the two attack it, slashing at its head and 

 tail, and finally killed it. When it was slain, they ripped it open, and 

 found Ta-ywa in it dead. He was restored to life as others had been 

 before ; and then he separated from his friends and returned home. 



He returned to his grandmother and younger brother, and told the 

 latter to cook rice, while he went himself to the forks of the river, 

 where he and his companions had at first dammed up the stream. 

 When he returned, his brother was boiling fish, and the tail of one 

 moved up and down by the bubbling of the boiling water as if alive. 

 He said to his brother : " Why, it is alive ! I went to look at the 

 fish traps at the forks of the river, and have come back ; and why art 

 thou cooking a live fish?". Then he took his bow, and shot his 

 brother dead. 



He afterwards thought to himself : I ought not to have shot my 

 brother. Then he set fire to a tuft of reed and ran round the edge of 

 the horizon three times, and when he got back, the tuft had not done 

 burning. He said : " I am very quick. I ought not to have killed 

 my brother," and he repented. 



After this, he was not happy, and he said : " I will kill myself." 

 He made a bow, cocked the string, and laid on an arrow, and went to 

 sleep beneath the arrow as he had set it, aimed at his head. A dove 

 flying by, hit the cock, and the bow went off. He caught the arrow 

 flying with his hand ; and this was repeated ten times ; but at last he 

 forgot himself, and the arrow hit him. 



For three years and three months, he grew very feeble, and at the 

 end of this period, he called the monkey-tiger ; and he sent him to 

 call the Karens ; and he called the Tupaia, and he sent him to call the 

 Burmans. He loved the Karens more than the Burmans, therefore 

 he gave the monkey-tiger a crayfish for food, that he might arrive 

 quickly, because a crayfish is cooked in a short time, and he gave him 

 a flint that he might get fire readily. 

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