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wherein he made him a great house and a garden ; and news thereof came to 
his father, who sent forth two men, Khoon Kaou and Khoon Krai, to summon 
him ; but he would not come. Then he tarried other seven days, and his 
stepmother was wroth with him, because he would not come before that time, 
and she contrived so that she might slay him ; but he told all these things to 
his father, who made him King of the Giants. So he returned to his country. 
Then his stepmother changed her form, so that she became like unto her 
daughter, his wife ; but Pra Rhot Ya Sin knew her, for he was King of the 
Giants ; and she claimed a wife’s right from him, having it in her heart to eat 
him. So he drew out his dagger, and cut her heart (from the handkerchief) 
into little pieces, and she died. But as she died, she said, “ If my blood falls 
on the ground, it will become land-leeches ; if it falls into the air, it will 
become horse-leeches.” Then Pra Rhot Ya Sin gave back their eyes to the 
twelve women, his father’s wives.” 
[I have given the ending of the legend as narrated by the nai-ban , but a 
Malay in Jalor told me what was probably the correct version, though he was 
ignorant of the beginning of the story. He said that there was once a giant or 
giantess ( gergasi ) who was murdered. As she died she cried out, ‘ May my 
blood that falls on the ground become land-leeches, that falls in the water 
become horse-leeches, that falls in the air become mosquitoes and sand flies, 
such as drink the blood of men ! ’ Newbold 1 mentions a Malay Hikayet Proat 
Nang Meri, derived from the Siamese, and furnished to him by one of the 
secretaries of the ex-King of Kedah. ‘ It contains,’ he says, ‘ the adventures 
of a prince named Proat (Pra Rhot ?), the only surviving child of twelve 
princesses, who all became pregnant at the same time, and of the Gargasi 
princess, Nang Meri (Nang Kang Ri ?).’ A Chinese mine-owner showed us, 
in a cave some miles from Ban Kassot, what he called ‘ an image, made by 
men of old, of Toh Ka Si Poh,’ or Toh Ma Si Koh. It was a stalagmite, 
bearing some natural resemblance to an old woman, increased by cloths that 
had been draped round it by the Chinese miners. They regarded it with great 
reverence, and had set up an altar of solid masonry in front of it. The idea 
that something terrible will occur if royal blood be spilt on the ground may 
be compared with that formerly prevalent in Burma. It is hardly necessary 
to call attention to the similarity between many of the episodes in the present 
legend and those of European folk-tales ; but it may be compared with the 
very different legend of the origin of leeches given by Ling Roth, 2 from 
Borneo. N.A.] 
I. Political and Statistical Account of the British Settlements in the Straits of Malacca ; vol. II., pp. 330, 331. 
2. T he Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneo ; vol. I., pp. 308, 309. 
