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APRIL, 1893]
FOLKTALES OF ARAKAN.
101
Pyu ?" and, as she answered, "Yes," he caused the ship to come to land, and climbed up the tree. When he spoke of taking Dwé Pgû away, she said, "You should be grateful to the eagle. After making some return for his services, ask permission from him and take me away." The prince said, “The eagle and I are brothers. As I am very grateful to my elder brother, let him give me my wife and child, whom he has rescued. I will pile up for him a heap of fish, reaching from the roots of this tree to its highest branch." The eagle replied, “Very well, if the Prince can make a heap of fish, as he has said, he may take away his wife and child." The latter accordingly went to the sea, and striking it with his magic wand, said, “Let there be a heap of fish from the roots of the silk-cotton tree to its branches," and at once fish came and heaped themselves up as directed.
Then the Prince, with the permission of the eagle, having taken his wife and child and put them on board the ship, suggested that the fish which the eagle could not eat should be let back into the sea. The eagle agreed to this, so the Prince wished and struck again with his magic wand, and the fish went back into the sea.
After letting go the fishes the Prince and Dwe Pyû sailed to their own country, and on the way Dwê Pyû related all that Shwe Kyên had done. On coming near the landing place the Prince said, “I will put her to shame. Do you and the child get into this box,"--to which Dwê Pyû agreed.
On hearing that the ship had arrived Shwe Kyên adorned herself and came up with the intention of saying that she was Dwê Pyû, and so living with the Prince. The latter on seeing her said, “You are not like the Dwê Pyû of yore. You have indeed become thin." Shwe Kyên replied, “I have yearned after you till I became so ill that there was a miscarriage." The Prince said, “Very well, take this box which contains rich and rare clothing, and we will go home together." Accordingly Shwe Kyên, who was pretending to be Dwê Pyû, took up the box and followed him to the house, where he gave her the key and told her to open the box in order to get out and wear the clothing. Shwe Kyên opened the box, but on seeing Dwê Pyû and her child she became terribly ashamed and ran away to the back of the house, whence she dared not show her face, nor would she even come when called. The Prince and Dwê Pya, however, entered their room and lived there happily.
Afterwards Shwe Kyên, prompted by the fact of her sister Dwê Pyû having lived happily with a snake, and being withal much ashamed, went to her father and said to him, "Father dear, Dwê Pyû has lived happily with a snake. Please catch one also to become my husband."
The washerman replied, "My daughter, the snake with which Dwê Pyû lived was a human snake, being the embryo of a man. Now if I catch a snake, it will be a wild one which will bite and kill you. Don't ask me to catch one." However Shwe Kyên became very troublesome, and kept on saying repeatedly, “You must catch one for me." So her father remarked, “Be it as you will. We shall have peace when you are dead," and he went off into the jungle, where he caught a very long boa-constrictor, two spans in circumference. He brought this to Shwe Kyên, who took it to bed and slept along with it. Before daylight in the morning the snake considered to itself that formerly when in the jungle it sought its food and ate till satisfied, but that now having been caught, it had had nothing to eat for a day and night, and was very hungry in consequence; moreover it could not go elsewhere to seek its food. Accordingly it resolved to make a meal off the person near it, by swallowing her up, beginning at her feet and ending with her head, and proceeded to make a commencement by swallowing her feet. Shwe Kyên cried oat, “Help, he has, apparently in sport, swallowed me up to my knees." Her father only said, "She wanted that snake so much. We shall have peace when she dies," whilst her mother remarked, "My son-in-law is having a game." Shwe Kyên cried out very loudly however, so Dwê Pyû said to her husband the Snake Prince, "It is not right that my sister should die-go and help her.” But her husband replied, "If only one drop of snake's blood touches me I shall become a snake again, Your father can settle such an affair as this. Are you tired of my companionship, that you ask me to do this thing ?" His wife Dwê
Here again Buddhist ideas are introduced into the original story.
