pieces of solid substance caught in the meshes of the web,
and behold! as the time passed the solid substance became more solid
till it formed mud and separated itself from the water, and when the mud
had dried, lo! it was the earth.

So the eggs of the great Spirit Spider were safely locked up within the
earth; by and by they hatched, and breaking forth there appeared the
first man, Boo Pau, and the first woman, Myeh Pau, from whom all the
ancient people who belonged to the first race were descended.

Many, many years passed and people lived out their lives, till one day
the great earth caught fire. It burned fiercer than anybody's
imagination can conceive, and it destroyed everything. All the beautiful
forests with their green coverings of moss and leaves, all the cities
which the first race had builded were burned down, till by and by there
was naught more for the fire to consume, and it was then the end of the
hot season; the time of wet came soon after, and the rain fell upon the
burning earth in such torrents that the whole sky was covered with the
steam.

Now it happened that in Moeng Hpea, the far-away land where dwell the
powerful spirits whom we call "hsangs," the smell of the steam ascended
and ascended till all the spirits smelled the sweet scent, and said to
themselves:

"Behold, there appears a sweet smell arising from below, what can it
be?" and there was much marveling at what could cause such
sweet-smelling incense as that then ascending.

And it also happened that in Moeng Hpea were nine spirits, five of them
males and four females, and these being of more adventurous spirit than
their fellows, determined to find out for themselves where the sweet
perfume came from. So they set out on their travels downward. They
descended faster and faster, and the faster they descended the sweeter
became the smell, till at last they landed upon this world of ours, and
bending down to the earth they tore great handfuls of it out and ate it
with the greatest relish.

It was morning time when they descended, and they fed upon the fragrant
earth all day till the sun set and the shades of evening began to
surround them, then the eldest of the spirits looked around upon his
fellows, and said:

"Brethren, oie! it is time that we ascended to our own country," and as
the rest assented they stood up to return, but alas! they could not
rise, they had eaten so much earth it had made them too heavy to soar,
and from that