218 Religion &c. among the Karens. [No. 4, 
the children of men, Unlike the Naiads of classic antiquity, they 
never take the forms of females, but always appear as men. 
One girl, who had been deceived and had taken an inhabitant of the 
water for her husband, was told that she might ascertain his true cha- 
racter by watching him privately when he bathed. She did so, and 
saw him in the water change to a monster dragon, with a crest as 
large as seven wide mats. He threw up the waters to the heavens, 
which descended in heavy rain. 
A water spirit called Mau-lau-kwie figures largely in the Karen 
myths. A girl is represented as having formed an acquaintance with 
this personage, and as holding clandestine meetings with him, when 
she went down to the stream to draw water. Standing on the bank 
she sung : 
“ Mau-lau-kwie, come, let us bathe together. 
Mau-lau-kwie, come, let us wash our faces together. 
Mau-lau-kwie, come with beads and rings ; 
Come, come, as thou art wont.” 
“ Mau-lau-kwie came, and they washed their faces together, and 
combed their heads together.” 
% 4 
This occurred frequently, and the girl’s parents wondered at her 
long absence, when she went to draw water ; so they sent the younger 
children to see, and they came back with the report that their sister 
had a meeting with Mau-lau-kwie. Her father then sent her-off to 
help her grandmother, and in the interval he went down to the water 
and called Mau-lau-kwie, as his daughter had done. He came at the 
eall, when his father-in-law cut off his head with a sword, and split 
open his head with an axe. 
When the girl returned from her grandmother’s, she went down to 
the banks of the stream, and called her lover as usual ; but instead of 
Mau-lau-kwie, there came a long procession of tadpoles, crabs, cray- 
fish, shrimps, prawn, fish and crocodiles. She asked : ‘‘ What do 
all this mean? Where are you going? 
‘A crocodile replied ; ‘ Mistress, we are going to weep at the fu- 
neral of Mau-lau-kwie, 
His father-in-law cut off his head, 
Split open his skull ; 
Mau-lau-kwie is dead, is dead.” 
“She answered : ‘I will go with you.’ 

