Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/105

Rh see it at any time, lest its grotesque features excite their laughter, and the god be offended. Men take off their shoes or dismount from their ponies when passing the shrine, and it is said that those who omit to do so are thrown violently to the ground, and vomit and sometimes, die.

The story of this forbidding image, as told to me on the spot, was repeated in an article entitled The Dragon of Tagaung which appeared in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society for October 1917. Thădo Saw was king of Tăgaung, and his queen was Kin Saw U. From a knot in the foundation-post of their palace sprang a dragon, which took the form of a man; and he was loved by the queen, and slew her husband with a prick from his poisoned fang; and the king's brother Thădo Pya reigned in his stead, and took Kin Saw U to wife. But he also was slain by the dragon, and likewise all the rest of six brothers in turn. Then the ministers sought for a king, and sent out a magic car to bring him. Now Kin Saw U had a son Pauk Tyaing, who was lost in the forest when a boy, and was brought up by others; and from his foster-parents he learnt these sayings: "To reach your end, travel. To attain wisdom, ask. To live long, watch." With this learning he set out in obedience to the first precept, and was met by the magic car, and taken to the palace, and offered the kingdom. But he bethought him of the second, and asked what had become of the former kings and husbands of Kin Saw U; and he heard that the reason of their death was unknown, but that each one had the mark of a single tooth upon him. Yet he took the kingdom, and Kin Saw U as his queen. Then the dragon came to him in the night to kill him, but he was awake and ready in accordance with the third precept and slew the dragon with his sword. So the dragon became a nat, and is worshipped under the name of Bodawdyi, the Great Father.