ughter Nang E in her
place.

One day this wicked woman told the queen that she had found some fine
soap beans and bark, that she was very skillful in shampooing, and as
the next day was to be a great feast when the queen would follow the
king on her royal elephant, the soap beans would make her black hair
blacker, and the gloss glossier than ever, and asked her to allow her to
wash the queen's head at a well that was just outside the gate of the
palace, near the royal gardens, where the water was very sweet. The
queen consented and called her attendants to follow, but the stepmother
was much too cunning to allow that, so she told the queen that her
method of washing was better than any other woman's but it was a secret,
and she would reserve it for her majesty's own private use, but she did
not want any of the attendants to see how it was done. If they did, she
added, the next day at the feast every lady in the court would have hair
as glossy as the queen's, but if they went alone, her hair would be as
much more beautiful than any other woman's as the sun is more beautiful
than the bamboo torch that lights the way through the jungle at night,
when there is no moon. The young queen was not proof against this
flattery, and so the two women went alone out of the palace, the very
guards who watched at the gates not knowing whither they were going.

They soon arrived at the well, and as the queen was bending over, her
long hair covering her face so that she could see nothing, her wicked
stepmother suddenly drew a knife and stabbed her to the heart, then,
calling her daughter to help, she buried the poor young queen under the
road leading to the well. She took the royal robes and put them on her
own daughter, Nang E, who returned to the royal palace and entered the
royal apartments, all the attendants thinking it was the real queen
returned from a bath in the river.

That same afternoon, as the king walked through the palace, he was
surprised to see that the wonderful singing tree was all withered and
mute. In great distress he called for the queen and ordered her to make
the tree sing as before, but although Nang E tried with all her might,
she could make no sound. She tapped it softly as she had seen Nang Hsen
Gaw do, but all in vain. It was silent.

Now the king was in the habit of wearing Burmese clothing instead of
Shan, and one day when he had gone to his room to put on his _ptsoe_, he
found that a little sparrow ha