n he returned to his home at the
other end of the village.

Next morning the man went to the lake to get the tortoise. Nang Hsen Gaw
was much distressed when she saw her father set out, and her distress
became worse when she saw that the wicked stepmother had directed him
to the little pond where her own mother was. The man took a large bucket
made out of wicker work, and commenced baling out the water, but Nang
Hsen Gaw was able to warn her mother just where her father was, so that
when he was on one side of the pond her mother went to the other, but at
last he sent the girl home, and in a few minutes secured the tortoise
and was soon carrying it away for his wife to eat.

When he got home he gave her the tortoise, little thinking who it was,
and then went out, while the witch called Nang Hsen Gaw to watch the pot
which had been put over the fire.

Soon the poor girl heard her mother call out. She said that the hot
water had reached her knees, and begged her to put out the fire. She
commenced to rake out the hot embers from under the pot, when her
stepmother saw what she was doing, and taking up a heavy bamboo beat her
unmercifully and made her put more sticks on the fire. Soon her mother
complained again that the heat had reached her shoulders, and again Nang
E's mother beat her, and made her put more sticks on the fire. Soon she
heard her mother say: "My daughter, _oie_! The hot water has reached my
neck and I shall soon be dead. When it is all over, do not let that
wicked woman destroy me altogether, but bury me in the jungle," and in a
few minutes she was dead.

Nang Hsen Gaw tried her best to get the dead body of her mother, but her
stepmother watched her carefully, and all she could not eat herself she
gave to the dogs, to prevent her daughter from getting any, but one dog
ran off with his portion into the jungle. Nang Hsen Gaw followed in time
to rescue the webbing between the fingers.[3] This was all that was
left, but she buried that carefully in the jungle far from the house
where her stepmother lived.

The next day as she was walking through the jungle feeding her cows, she
heard sweet music. It sounded like twelve organs all playing at the same
time, and yet in harmony, each organ blending with the others. In great
surprise she hunted around till she came to the spot where she had
buried the part of her mother's hand, and saw that during the night this
had changed into a beautiful _mai nyung kham_ tree