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APRIL, 1898.)
FOLKTALES OF ARAKAN.
99
virtue of his power perceived that Sakkara, not being free from the evil effects of previous sin would have to remain for three months as à hamadryad in a wild fig tree on the banks of the Jamnâ in Bârânasi, employed a fairy, Vaskrun, to accomplish this. The latter took Sakkaru to a wild fig tree, on the banks of the Jamna, where he was born as a hamadryad, and having told him all the commands of King Sakra, returned to Tâwatinsa. As for Sakkaru, he remained as a hamadryad in the fig tree.
In that country there lived & Washerman and his wife, who had two maiden daughters, called Shwe Kyên and Dwe Pya. It happened one day that the washerwoman and her two daughters tied up some cloths and went to wash them at the landing place by the wild fig tree. After washing them the woman, desiring some of the figs, looked up into the tree, and besides the figs saw there the hamadryad. The washerwoman then, telling her daughters that she would jest with the snake, said to him, "My lord hamadryad, if you want my daughter Dwo Pya I will give her,-only throw me down 4 or 5 figs." Thereupon the hamadryad shook its tail and knocked down 40 or 50 of the fruit. The washerwoman said to her daughters, “ Indeed, the snake seems to understand. I only asked for 4 or 5 figs, and because he loves Miss Dwê he threw down 40 or 50. The sun is going down, let us pick up the figs and take the clothes home." They tied up the clothes, but as they were going to start the washerwoman, saying she would jest again with the snake, told him mockingly, "Mr. Snake, if you want Dwe Pyú follow us home." On the way back they came to a tree-stump at a place where two paths meb and here Dwe Pya said to her mother, "It will be terrible if the hamadryad does come after us." Her mother, also being anxious, told the stump :-"If a big hamadryad comes here and asks if we have gone this way, say that you have not seen us. Take this fig as a mouth-stopper." They went on, and, on coming to another cross-path, the washerwoman instructed an ant-hill there as she had the stump, and giving it also a fig, passed on. After they had gone home the Snake Prince, being in love with Dwo Pya, followed after them. On reaching the stump, not being certain as to which way they had gone, he asked it, "Did you gee wbich way Dwê Pyû and her mother and sister went ?" The stuiap replied, "I stay here according to my nature. I neither know nor saw." But the hamadryad, perceiving the fig by the stump, became very angry and said, "Do you dare to dissimulate whilst the fig I gave is staring you in the face as a witness ? I will this instant strike you with my teeth, so that you split into four." Whereupon the stump, being greatly frightened, pointed out the way that the washerwoman and her daughter had gone.
From the stump the hamadryad fared on to the cross-path by the ant-hill and, on questioning it, at first it dissimulated as the stump had done ; but when the snake threatened, it pointed out truly the way. The latter reached at last the washerman's house, and it being night, he entered the pot where cleaned rice was kept, and curled himself up inside.
The next day at dawn the washerwoman said to herself, “Although my daughters are grown up and my work should be less, yet owing to one and another holding off, nothing is done, and we shall be long in getting our food. So I will go and cook it myself.” Accordingly she took the salé measure and went to get some rice from the pot; but when she thrust her arm in, the hamadryad enfolded it several times with his tail. At first the washerwoman, not knowing what snake it was that had caught her, called out lustily, but the hamadryad did not for that loosen his grip. Afterwards she recovered her senses, and on consideration it struck her that this must be the big hamadryad to whom she had promised Dw8 Pyú: so she said, “If his Highness the Snake Prince desires Dwe Pya I will give her. Won't you uploosen & fold or two?" The hamadryad thereupon did as she asked, so she knew certainly who it was, and said, “I will give you Dwê Pya; please let go." Thereupon he released her altogether. The washerwoman then said pitifully to her daughter Dwê Pyû, “Please live with this big snake. If you do not, he will bite and kill the whole household. It is frightful!" Dwê Pyà wept and refused repeatedly, saying, "I don't want to live with a brate beast;" but her mother,
