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FASCICULI MALATENSES 
A SIAMESE LEGEND OF THE ORIGIN OF LEECHES 
[ This legend was told by a Siamese ‘ nai-ban ,’ or head of ten households , at the village of 
Ban Kassbt , on the Jalor-Rhaman border. His Malay was inadequate to express his 
meaning , and I was , therefore , obliged to make use of a Malay-speaking Siamese as interpreter. 
The story has probably suffered in double translation , but I believe that the incidents are 
accurately transcribed. N.A.] 
‘ There was in a certain country a giantess ( botor ) named Nang Sung Sa. 
She had a daughter, Nang Kang Rhi, and her husband was King of the 
Giants. He died, and she took a Siamese husband — a man, not a giant — 
named Pra Rhot Ya Sip. Before he married the giantess, Pra Rhot Ya Sip 
had twelve wives, so that afterwards he had thirteen ; but she took their eyes 
from the other twelve wives, and rolled them in a cloth, and gave them into 
the care of her daughter. All these twelve women had children at one time, 
and they brought forth their children in a well ; but eleven of the children 
died, and one survived, whose name was Pra Rhot Y a Sin. The women 
were in a well because the giantess was angry with them, for she had made 
herself into a beautiful woman, having the power of changing her form, and 
had charmed her husband. Now, it came to pass that Nang Sung Sa fell sick 
of a fever, and she bade Pra Rhot Ya Sin, who had become a man, to search 
for the tree menoi-ru-han beyond the sea, in the country of Nang Kang Ri ; 
and she gave him a letter, in which it was written that Nang Kang Ri should 
eat him on the morning after he came to her, and that she should take heed 
lest his blood or liver tell on the ground. Then Pra Rhot Ya Sin, who was 
a magician, flew off through the air, and he saw below him Toh Ma Si Koh, 
a man who lived in the woods, and Toh Ma Si Koh called out to him, 
“ Whither goest thou ?” Then Pra Rhot Ya Sin came down to the guest- 
house of Toh Ma Si Koh, and said to him, “ My father has sent me but 
Toh Ma Si Koh took his letter and read it, and Toh Ma Si Koh changed the 
writing, so that it bade Nang Kang Ri to marry the Prince. 
‘ So Pra Rhot Ya Sin came to the country of Nang Kang Ri, the Queen 
of the Giants, and married her ; and they drank arrak together for seven 
days, until the Queen was very drunk ; but the Prince kept sober. Then he 
asked her what she had in her handkerchief, and she replied, “ The eyes of 
twelve women, which my mother has given into my care, and my mother’s 
heart (literally ‘liver’), which she can take out from her body.” After this 
they fell asleep, and she slept sound, but he slept with his eyes half open. 
Then, while she slept, he stole her mother’s heart and the eyes, and he took 
also of the fruit of the tree menoi-ru-han , for if he had not done so his step- 
mother would have said he had lied. But he tarried by the way in the woods, 
