ABSTRACT

At Mya-yah-doung (about ten miles east of the present station of Wah-net-khyoung, on the Prome road) there once lived a great Karen chief called the Yellow Chief. He had a son named Saw Kay (Mr. Crooked). He was a cunning, idle, and lazy fellow. The Burmese Government seized on the entire clan, and sent them under guard to cut a huge teak tree into a war-boat and drag it to the river-bank. Saw Kay was the only male not seized. He was spared to carry the rice the women were forced to clean out for the food of the working party. Saw Kay’s mother had two large and very fat hogs, which she had petted so long that she could not bear to have them killed. Saw Kay’s mouth watered every time he looked at their fat sides, and as his entreaties to be allowed to kill the hogs were in vain, he laid a plan to induce his mother to gratify his appetite for pork.