the same to me? So the
wicked daughter did not gain her ambitious end after all.

Not only that, however, but she and her sisters received a punishment,
one they are even now suffering, and will continue till the world ends.
It is this:

When they found that the lord Sa Kyah would not marry their youngest
sister or even accept their father's head, they said among themselves:

"What shall we do with the head of our father? Where shall we bury it?
Should we place it in the earth the whole world would catch on fire;
should we throw it into the sea, all the seven oceans would immediately
boil; what shall we do?"

In their distress they went to the mighty lord Sa Kyah and in humble
tones begged his lordship to give them advice so that they would be
freed from the terrible trouble to which their wickedness had brought
them. He looked at them and said:

"This is what you must do. You," pointing to the youngest, "must carry
your father's head in your arms all this year, and when the year is
finished you can give it to the sister who is next older than yourself.
She will carry it for a year and thus one of you will ever after bear
it."

And so it is. We know when the year ends because then come the Wan Kyap
or washing days, when the princess who has carried her father's head for
a year gives it to her elder sister and washes the bloodstains from her
clothes.

From these spirits all the inhabitants of the world are descended, and
so we see the saying of our philosophers is true, "We have all descended
from spirits."

HOW THE KING OF PAGAN CAUGHT THE THIEF.

Many, many years ago there lived near the old city of Pagan a famous
robber chief who was so fierce and cruel that he made all men fear his
name. He stole and killed and burned till the mothers used to frighten
their disobedient children by saying, "Boh Lek Byah will get thee." He
was a very brave and clever thief, and he became so strong that the
headmen and elders of all the towns and villages throughout the country
were obliged to fee him with money and goods, and if by any chance they
did not pay this blackmail immediately it was demanded, that very night
the followers of the robber chief would assuredly burn down their
village and kill every man, woman, and child within it, for this was
Shan and Burmese custom.

Boh Lek Byah entered every house in Pagan. None was too big, none too
small. He stole from the _whon's_ house as easily as from the hut of t