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forest so strikingly resembling his dead father, that if he had not buried his father with his own hands he should say it was his own father.

The mother said that if the proposed individual was only half as good as her deceased husband it was enough, and consented to the match.

In this way Saw Kay was the first one to arrange a marriage between his own parents.

When the clan returned on the completion of the boat, the second hog was killed for the marriagefeast.

Saw Kay, of course, presided, trusting to the impossibility of his parents having any private conversation in the crowd of invited guests. Both, of course, were much struck by the very peculiar resemblance to the supposed dead partner, but they had been prepared for this by Saw Kay's previous description. In high feather, Saw Kay performed the marriage ceremony over his parents, and ushered them to the bridal-chamber.

Judging rightfully that "the ground would be too hot for him to tread on " on the morrow, Saw Kay shouldered a hind-quarter of the hog slain for the feast, and marched to the tai (long mountain house) of a neighbouring clan.

He took care to time his arrival so as to find

none of the men at home. When he entered the tai, the women crowded around him, their mouths watering at the sight of the very fat hind-quarter of pork Saw Kay had brought with him. He reported that he had speared a wild hog too heavy to be carried home, and that he was returning for help to bring in the rest of the carcase.

"If you have a whole carcase, sell us this," spoke up an old woman, and asked the price.

Saw Kay asked one hundred rupees for it. (Karens then buried all their money for fear of the Burmese Government.) The woman, never seeing money, knew nothing of its value.

“Oh, if my husband was only at home, I'd make him buy me this delicious pork!" groaned the

old woman.

"Go and ask him," said Saw Kay; "he is just beyond those bushes across the ravine."

The old woman ran round the head of the ravine, while Saw Kay whipped across unknown to her. On reaching the bushes, she shouted, "Husband, husband! may I buy a quarter of very fat pork for a hundred rupees?"

Saw Kay, from the other side of the bushes, called out, personating her husband, "Yes; and buy it quickly, lest you lose so good a bargain.”

The old woman ran round, while Saw Kay rushed across the ravine, and was found sitting quietly in his place as if he had never stirred. The old woman dug up the money, and Saw Kay hastily left with his ill-gotten gains, rightly judging that the place would be too hot for him when the men returned from their work.

He then went down to the "Prince's Road," knowing that seven great Burmese merchants, with five hundred carts laden with up-country silk patsoes were soon to pass the spot. He carved a staff with peculiar figures on it, and buried his hundred rupees a few inches under the ground in little deposits of from two to five rupees each.

When his quick eye detected the merchants. riding in advance of their carts, he pretended to be absorbed in his pursuits, and, flourishing his staff with mystic passes, he would shout, "Hey for five rupees!" strike the earth, and dig up the money; "hey for two rupees!" strike the earth, and dig up the money. The merchants watched his proceedings, saying to themselves, " Fool, not to wish for a lakh of rupees at once." On their approach Saw Kay feigned great fright, and tried to escape. The merchants held him fast, and tried to frighten him into a bargain for the magic staff. He pleaded

hard to be allowed to keep it, and said, " Perhaps the stick may be destined by fate to me alone.”

The merchants threatened, and offered money, until at last he, with apparent reluctance, sold the staff for a thousand rupees. The merchants dared not try their staff till they reached Rangoon, lest the possession of so great a treasure might cause them to be murdered by their own camp-followers. Of course, the magic staff failed them. They were unable to search for Saw Kay till all their cargo of silk patsoes was disposed of, which took all the rains.

In the forest, Saw Kay met a widow, who had been driven from her clan, and who had a posthumous daughter. Being brought up alone. in the forest, the young girl had never seen a man. The tale waxes eloquent in praises of the young woman's beauty, and tells how the magic glance of her melting eye brought a body-guard of the most savage beasts around her; how, whenever she stepped out into the sunshine, the birds would close their ranks, flying over her so as to form a canopy over her to prevent her beautiful complexion from being tanned by the sun; how the carols of the birds accompanied her steps while waking; and how the birds watched in deathlike stillness

over her siestas. It was a case of love at first sight, and the happy couple entered the nuptial state amid the wild enthusiasm of the beasts of the forest enslaved by the marvellous beauty of the lovely bride. The newly married couple spent the rains in the seclusion of the forest.

With the opening of the dry weather, the merchants came up in great wrath to hunt down the dog of a Karen who had dared to cheat royal Burman merchants.

With hundreds of their camp-followers they beat every strip of jungle and scoured every plain, till at last one morning Saw Kay's little hut was surrounded by men eagerly thirsting for his blood.

Hastily giving his wife and mother-in-law directions what to do, he sprang out on the verandah and seized a small bow hung there merely to frighten the crows, and commenced a wild dance with the most extravagant gestures to divert the attention of the men closing up around him from the attempt to escape of his wife and her mother. The two women stole away unperceived, as no one knew of Saw Kay's marriage, and they were only on the look-out for the audacious Karen.

"Slave of a Karen!" shouted the merchants, as

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