198 Religion &c. among the Karens. [No. 4, 



go and return.' The second said : ' God has ordered me to return, 

 after I am ahle to draw water.' The third said : ' GTod has ordered 

 me to return, after I am ahle to weed.' The fourth said : ' God has 

 ordered me to return, after I am ahle to make it easy for my father 

 and mother.' The fifth said : " God has commanded me to return, 

 after I am ahle to go to the Burman and Shan country.' The sixth 

 said : ' God has commanded me to return, after I am ahle to cultivate 

 paddy for my father and mother.' The seventh said : ' God has com- 

 manded me to return, after I have married.' 



" The prophet said that after this he saw them all horn on earth, 

 all boys, and he noted that they all died one after another, as he heard 

 them say in his vision. 



" Of the two women, he said one carried tAVo Kyee-zees, and the 

 other a basket on her back, and a spinning wheel and distaff in her 

 hand. The first one he heard say : ' God has commanded me to stay 

 with my Kyee-zees, till I am white-headed.' The other one said : 

 ' God has commanded me to spin thread and prepare cotton, till I am 

 white-headed.' The prophet said he saw both born in this world 

 females, and the one came in possession of two Kyee-zees, and the 

 other spun thread and carded cotton, in accordance with his vision." 



According to a Sgau authority, the La promises God, before it comes 

 into the world, that it will die by one or other of seven things it says - 

 " I will die in the mouth of a tiger. If I do not die in the mouth of 

 a tiger, I will die of some kind of sickness. I I do not die of disease, 

 I will die by drowning. If I am not drowned, I will die by the hand 

 of man. If I am not killed by man, I will die by a fall. If I am not 

 killed by a fall, I will die by a blow. If I am not struck dead, I will 

 die of old age." 



The La sometimes appears after death, and cannot then be distin- 

 guished from the person himself. One story says : 



" After a certain woman's husband had gone to the city, she died. 

 On his return home, he met her La in the road, and taking it for his 

 wife in the body, he said : ' Where art thou going ?' She replied : 

 ' I am going to see my father and mother.' He was not at all aware 

 that it was her La, and she said to him, ' Thou hast a long way to 

 go, let us spend the night together here :' He consented, and to 

 obtain food for their supper, she went and asked it of her children, 

 but they did not see her. 



