1865.] Religion &c. among the Karens. 219 



" The crocodile said : ' Thou canst not go ; ' hut she replied : ■ I 

 will go.' 



" The crocodile then said : ( If thou wilt go with me, prepare seven 

 cakes of Dread, seven chatties of steamed rice, seven hams, and seven 

 white cloths.' She made the requisite preparations, and started off with 

 the crocodile. The crocodile said to her : ' When I wriggle my body 

 about, throw down a cake, a chatty of steamed rice, and a ham.' She 

 went along, and fed the crocodile as he directed ; and they reached the 

 body of Mau-lau-kwie, where she wept and sung : 

 ' There is no one to build the house, 

 There is no one to build the dwelling ; 

 The flying squirrel's wings are split unequal. 

 Would that I had died with my husband.' 



At this juncture Mau-lau-kwie rose to life again ; and, on uttering 

 a word, the tortoise said Td-lau ; when Mau-lau-kwie, exhausted, fell 

 down, and hit against the breast of the tortoise. 



Again they wept for Mau-lau-kwie, and when his wife sung, again 

 he rose to life, and spoke a word ;. but the flying squirrel said Ya-lau, 

 and Mau-lau-kwie fell against the flying squirrel, and tore his wings 

 unevenly. Again they wept, and again his wife sung, and Mau-lau- 

 kwie rose to life again ; and now to die no more. 



After Mau-lau-kwie's wife had born a child, the family went to 

 visit her parents ; and one day she went out to visit the neighbours, 

 and left the child in charge of its grandmother ; saying to her : 

 " Mother, if the babe awakes, do not bathe it in the brass bason." 



After the mother had gone out, the child awoke, and its grand- 

 mother put it into the brass bason to bathe it, when it turned into a 

 little yellow-tailed carp. The old woman broiled it, and when her 

 daughter returned, told her what had happened, and what she had 

 done. The mother took the fish, went down to the stream, and threw 

 it into the water. Her sister followed to weep with her for the loss 

 of the child, but the mother ran down the bank on the crooks of the 

 gigantic bean creeper, and she did not dare to follow, but stood weep- 

 ing at the top of the steep bank. Her father came and asked her, 

 what she was crying for ; and on hearing, he cut off the vine in anger ; 

 and it fell down into his son-in-law's great hall and filled it up. 

 29 



