ON SIAMESE LITERATURE. 347 



The holy man invites him into his cell — and upon enquiring whether 

 the youth is bound, is shewn the letter to Mari . He suspects some decep- 

 tion, and therefore opens and reads the letter, for which he substitutes 

 another, directing therein the Yak to shew every degree of kindness and 

 attention to the stranger bearing it, and to consider hioi as precious as a 

 diamond. Rot reaches in due time the Palace of the Yak, who treats him 

 with consideration and eventually falls in love with, and marries him con- 

 trary to the advice of her soothsayers. Phra-rot happens to be walking 

 one day in the garden reflecting on what he ought to do, when melodious 

 strains of music strike his ear — and on arriving at the spot whence these 

 proceed, he finds a tree loaded with the fruit which he had come in quest 

 of. He now returns to the palace and plies Mar! with wine in which a 

 soporific drug has been steeped — and during its operation he steals a 

 sufficient quantity of the fruit, and conveys it ofi", together with the eyes of 

 the twelve Princesses which he found suspended on a bough — also an 

 enchanted rod — a bow with unerring arrows, a drug which could restore 

 lost vision, and others which could produce fire, water, and various requi- 

 sites at the will of the possessor. 



Mari awaking from her sleep, pursues the fugitive, again contrary to her 

 soothsayers advice. Already she seems to have him within her grasp, when 

 a portion of one of the drugs being cast on the ground by Rot, innumerable 

 sharp stakes start up and oppose her progress for a while. She gets the bet- 

 ter of these by counter spells, and again approaches Rot who by assistance 

 of another drug hurls an uptorn mountain at her. This also is removed by 

 a counter drug. Rot now interposes a sea betwixt him and his pursuer, 

 who not being provided with more counter spells is consequently foiled. 



Rot arrives at his father's palace and presents to him the Hesperian 

 fruit. It is carried to the Queen— who immediately feels that the spell 

 which gave her the assumed shape in which she had ensnared the Monarch 

 in the meshes of love was now dissolved. Instantly her features enlarge 

 —huge tusks project from her mouth and she stands confessed before the 

 King in all her natural deformity. 



