344 



ON SIAMESE LITERATURE. 



Raja Phra Sowat of the country Ulum pancJia, has a dream in which 

 he is directed to go in quest of a certain bouquet of flowers. He awakes 

 and mounting a pegasus flies towards the east. Passing over the Rishis 

 house he is attracted by plaintive and exquisite vocal music. Pegasus 

 instinctively descends to the earth. 



The Raja inquires at the lotus born damsel if she knows to whom the 

 nosegay belonged. She abashed at the strange sight of a youthful person 

 of the other sex rushes into the house and shuts the gate. The Raja pre- 

 tends to be faint from fatigue, and at his humble intercession is admitted 

 to the house, — where he so gains on the afifections of the fair that she con- 

 sents to become his wife. The Rislii returning from the forest unites 

 them in marriage. 



Nang Sothan. — The history of a queen who was wife to a Yak 

 prince. This latter carried off" the wife of a neighbouring prince, whose 

 residence was in the hollow of a tree. This lady who was called Nang 

 Thepphalinla, was fiercely assailed, as might have been expected, by Nang 

 Sothan — who was obliged however to return to her parents. The Yak is 

 afterwards slain by the injured husband. 



Nok Khum — Is described by Leyden as a mythological account of 

 the celebrated Hams a. 



Nok Khum however means the quail — Hong or Phria Hong being 

 the Hamsa. 



This story I have not examined. 



Pokkhaivddi — Seems from the above authority to be a history of the 

 Hindu Bhagavati. 



Theppha lin thdng is the history of a prince of this name, who to 

 escape the fury of a Ratchsha, turned himself into a golden fish. It is in 

 4 vols, containing 80 pages each. 



Phd-nan san nang, or Phali sdn nang, contains the instructions of the 

 Ape General so called to his brother Sock Krip. They were in the service 

 of Rama in his attack on Lanca or Ceylon. These brothers quarrel and fight, 

 when Sri Rama ends the combat by killing the latter with an arrow. 



