Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 12 (Egyptian and Indo-Chinese).djvu/464

356 with her, wished to marry her. Lien was not unwilling, but found their resemblance to one another so very embarrass ing that she settled the matter by resolving to take the elder of the two; but since neither of the brothers would tell her which of them was the first-born, she was compelled to resort to a ruse. She prepared a tempting meal, which she asked them to eat, whereupon the younger, without thinking what he was doing, took the chopsticks and respectfully handed them to his senior. The consent of her parents was then obtained, and Tan and Lien were married.

After the marriage Lang, the younger brother, found that he no longer had the whole of the love of Tan, for it was shared with the affection which he felt for Lien. Moreover he pined for the loss of his sweetheart, and since he could not help envy ing his brother, he went away, walking straight ahead into the forest. After many miles he came to a broad, deep river, but as he could not cross it, he lay down on its banks, and be tween self-pity and misery and hunger passed out of this life. His body became changed into a tree, with a tall slender stem, crowned at the top with a coronal of fronds and clusters of fruit. This was the betel-nut palm. When Tan missed his brother, he went out in search of him, and by chance he followed the same track, came to the same stream, saw the singular tree, sat down at its foot, and was transformed into a mass of limestones. When Lien found her husband long of returning, she became alarmed and set out on the path which he had taken, so that she, too, came to the same stream. As she saw the areca-palm and the heap of limestones, a celestial vision revealed to her what had taken place, where upon she threw herself down at the foot of the tree, clasped the limestone boulders, and prayed that she might die. Her prayer granted, she was transformed into a creeper with aromatic leaves which enlaced the stones and the stem of the palm. She became the betel-vine.

Her parents gathered together the whole clan of the Lu‘u,