they seized on Saw Kay, "even your blood will not fully avenge the insult you have inflicted on us."

Saw Kay reminded them of the extreme reluctance with which he had parted with the magic staff, and of the threats by which his consent to the sale had been extorted, and told them the staff was evidently assigned by fate to him, and that they, unworthy on account of their avarice in grasping so much at once, were unable to avail themselves of it. He pleaded to ears deafened by long-nursed rage. He then rose with dignity, and said, “Since nothing but blood will appease your anger, I refuse not to die. I only ask to be allowed before my death to give you all a good meal of fowl-curry that I may die in the odour of sanctity, doing good even to my murderers."

"Dog of a Karen!" yelled his foes, "do not think to appease us by so trifling a gift."

"I hope not to soften your hard hearts; I only ask to depart this life in a forgiving spirit."

All the party were very hungry, and finally consented. Surrounded by guards holding ropes attached to his waist, and ordered to cut him down at the first attempt to escape, Saw Kay took the little bow and started with the whole party for the jungle, to shoot wild fowl for the curry he had

promised. When wild fowl were met he refused to shoot, saying there were not enough in the flock to feed so many. He was really only making time for his wife and her mother to follow out his directions.

At last, a large flock of wild fowl was met with, and he fired towards them; but the weak bow failed even to reach the fowls as they whirred away.

Saw Kay shouted after them, "Go home and cook yourselves, go home and cook yourselves," and carefully concealed the bow while his captors were watching the fowls.

The merchants expressed their disgust at being thus fooled, and were on the point of killing him at once, but Saw Kay begged them to return to the hut and watch the result of his shot.

They did so, and found, to their surprise, a great pot of rice and a steaming kettle of capital fowlcurry that the two women had cooked in the absence of the party by Saw Kay's orders. While they enjoyed the feast, the merchants said, “The scamp did certainly cheat us about the staff, but this bow is worth having. It would be very handy on our long journeys to have a bow which would not only shoot but cook our game for us." They

offered Saw Kay his life if he would only give up the bow to them.

He refused, saying he was too lazy to work, and as his money was lost with the magic staff, and if now he lost his food with the magic bow, life was worthless to him.

To cut a long story short, they offered more and more, till finally they paid him a thousand rupees for the magic bow. Saw Kay, on his release, pushed with his wife and her mother still farther into the depths of the forest. Of course, the magic bow failed as the magic staff had done.

With redoubled rage, the Burmese merchants started afresh in search of the daring Karen who had twice outwitted them. After many days' fruitless search, they again surrounded Saw Kay's new hut.

The wife and mother attempted to escape again as before, but failed. Saw Kay concealed his wife in the house, and kept his mother-in-law with him on the verandah. As soon as his enemies came within hearing, Saw Kay said in a violent tone to his mother-in-law, "You wretched old wife of mine, how can any one live with a withered old crone like you? Become a virgin, or I will beat you with this rice-pestle till you do so."

He seized the old lady by the waist and threw her down violently, and rolled her up in a mat, whispering to her to crawl out of the end of the mat and escape. The old woman this time succeeded, as the attention of every one was taken by the peculiar talk and gestures of their prey.

Saw Kay struck the roll of matting several very heavy blows with the rice-pestle, shouting," Become a virgin; become a virgin!" He threw the roll of matting across his shoulder and ran into the house.

His foes rushed into the house to seize him, but at the mere sight of the young and lovely wife all fell prostrate before her. They slowly rose, and with dazzled eyes bound their victim and took him to their masters, telling them they had with their own eyes seen a wrinkled, toothless old woman changed by the blows of the club into this lovely vision of beauty.

The merchants held a long consultation over the beauteous prize. They said, They said, "We have been terribly cheated twice, it is true, but we see here that there can be no deception in this wonderful club. Our wives we married while young, and we love them too much to divorce them, yet we cannot but confess they are not as handsome as they once

were. This club, renewing the youth and beauty of our wives, will be our most valuable possession."

After a long mixture of threats and tempting offers, the merchants bought the club for a thousand rupees, and returned to their camp on the plains, and the same evening all made widowers of themselves.

The magic club seemed as much a failure as the magic staff and the magic bow had done.

The unfortunate wives, when taken out of the rolls of matting, were stone dead, killed by the blows they had received.

The merchants were, of course, wild with rage at being deceived the third time. Distrusting their own ability to cope with the wily Karen alone, they laid a formal complaint before the governor of the district stationed at Myountaga, and begged that condign punishment might be meted out to the slave of a Karen who had dared repeatedly to cheat royal Burmese merchants.

A levy of every male between fourteen and sixty years of age was at once ordered, and the entire forest was carefully scoured.

Hearing of Saw Kay's wonderful cunning, the governor ordered every one of the beaters' ears to