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284
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[OCTOBER, 1893.
him, and asked him where he had been so long and what he had been doing. He thereupon related to them his adventures, from the moment he took leave of them to depart in search of kambals to the moment of speaking. Now that their son was back, they slowly recovered their sight as well as health, and were again themselves.
"And, here, O king, ends the story. And, now that you have heard the whole of it, do let me go."
Just then the king happened to look behind him, when, at once, our hero removed the feather of the girupakshd from his turban, and replaced it by that of the gúrúpakshin, when lo! he appeared like a child of twelve years. When the king again turned towards him, he recognised in him his son, and folded him in his arms, saying:-"You are my son, my long lost son." The rúrkhas' daughter, too, who was close by, also made sure that this was no other than the prince, to whom she promised to be a wife, and she too rushed into his arms, and said :
“This is my husband, on whose account I had made a vow of twelve years."
The prince, however, said:--"No, no, I am the fisherman's son. They brought me up; I am not your son. Let me go to my parents; they must be waiting for me." But the king would on no account let him go, for he was more than sure that he was no other than his son, whose story he had just heard from his own mouth. The king then sent a palanquin to fetch the fisherman and his wife to the palace, and as a reward for their kindness in nursing and bringing up the prince, they were asked to live in the palace. The fisherman and his wife could not but accept the good offer of the king, and lived with the king and their foster-child very happily to the end of their lives. The prince was shortly afterwards married to the damsel of the subterraneous abode, and on this suspicious occasion the king feasted not only his relatives, but all his subjects for several days. The king now being very old preferred a more quiet life; so he made over the reing of government to his son, the hero of our tale, who ruled the vast kingdom with wisdom, dealing justice to all, making the welfare of his subjects his own, loved and respected by every one.12
FOLKLORE OF THE SGAW-KARENS. TRANSLATED BY B. HOUGHTON, M.R.A.S., FROM THE PAPERS OF SAYA KYAW ZAN
IN THE "SA-TU-WAW.1
1.-How the Karen was the Eldest Son of God. Here is written what our elders relate of the mighty things that happened in the beginning of time, in order that those who come after may hear, and hearing, understand
See and consider these things carefully, o ye who come after! May you estimate properly how these matters happened. O fellow tribesmen, do not slumber nor sleep!
What the people of the world say is as follows There were three brethren and their father was God(YwA). And the eldest of these three was the Karen, and the second
12 [Is it not possible that the rakshasa is merely the meat eating aboriginal, as distinguished from the vegetarian invader of an ancient India P-ED.]
1 A Sgaw. Karen periodical published monthly in Rangoon at the American Baptist Mission Press. 9Yw4. This word is used by the Missionaries to translate "God" in the Bible, and it is the word used A deity in the curious old Karen semi-Christian traditions. My impression is that the Karens, when in high Asia, were converted by the Nestorian Missionaries, and, after the expulsion of these, have retained in a mntilated forni the teachings they received from them, in addition to the old fairy worship, which they had before their probably merely partial conversion to Christianity. If this is so, it is possible that Ywd is merely a corruption of the Hebrew Yahreh = Jehovah in our version, I hope to produce evidence in support of this theory hereafter. The present folklore, though not older than the irruption of the Karens into Lower Burma, hae, excepting one obvious interpolation to be noted hereafter), nothing to do with Christianity.
[I am glad to see Mr. Houghton take this view, which is that I have always maintained, and it is in accord with the recent tracing back of the once supposed indigenous "Great Spirit of the North American Indians to the teachings of 17th Century Roman Catholic Missionaries.-ED]
