Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 12 (Egyptian and Indo-Chinese).djvu/443

Rh Chief Queen, whose birth was lowly, was consigned to the flames with her brother and was burned to death. The mighty mountain [Pōppā] is now the abode of their manes." [Then the music breaks in, and the frenzied dance begins.]

At Pōppā the Chief Queen, Hnit-ma-daw, Taung-gyi-shin, the Shwe Myet-hna Nāt, is always worshipped along with her brother, but this does not seem to be the case in the greater part of Burma and certainly not in Lower Burma. At Pōppā Hill she has a special chant of her own, which runs as follows:

"With a white scarf wound round my head, a jacket embroidered in silver and gold, with wide fringes and tight sleeves, a cotton petticoat [in the case of male Nāts the mediums, who are nearly always women, wear the masculine paso, or waist-cloth] with an ornamental border, and a girdle laced over with gold, I, the Queen of Tagaung, the fondly loved and blameless daughter of the Myothugyi [mayor] of Tagaung, Maung Tin Daw, have decked myself and come. [In the preliminary instructions it is stated that when the clairvoyantes appear, they must each hold in their left hand a betel-box, with four silver cups enclosed, and in their right a water goblet. These are raised and lowered three times, and then laid aside before the song and dance begin.] I was a true sister to Shindwe Hla, who was younger than I, and now I live on Pōppā Hill with my loving brother Nāt, Maung Tin Dè, who all for his mighty strength and vigour was tied to a tree and burned, though I pleaded sore that he was brother-in-law to the King. Then in my grief did I hasten to the burning pile and threw myself into the flames. They strove to save me, but all they saved was my head, which parted from my body. Then did I become a Nāt and among the Nāts I am known as 'the Golden-Faced One.' The King interred us beneath the flower tree in the palace court, brother and sister he buried us there. But there came the many: there came the foolish: there was no place for the viewless spirits of the air. Therefore the tree was torn up: by the roots it was uprooted: with its roots it was cast into the mighty