-»> To Yenan-Gyaung
to the company all they produce, at the rate of 2
rupees 8 annas a hundred viss, and the company’s
selling price is 6 rupees for the same quantity. Capital
and cool intellect have been busy these years amongst
the ancient owners of the wells ; judicious loans have
swept nearly all of them into the Capitalists gfip> and
the Twin-sa, the hereditary “ Well-Eater,” trembles
under his little finger, because he knows that his
mortgages are overdue and foreclosure must crush him.
He is glad enough to get the company’s price for
his. oil.
“ Wal,” comes a lazy humorous voice, “ seems to
me you have seen pretty near all thar is to see in
this here God-forsaken place. Come away home now
and have a drink. I guess there is some}, champagne
going still of the stuff the old man sent along to drink
success to our new four-hundred-bar 1 well.
( 2 ) THE LEGJSND OF YENAN-GYAUNG
“ Once upon a time,” according to the story-teller,
“ the stinking water of Yenan-Gyaung was sweet, and of
such fragrant pdour, that all the world voyaged there
to take away a little of it. For centuries the people
came and went, the waters retained their magic property,
and Kyaukka-Myo, as the old city was called, prospered
by the influx of the strangers. Till one day, there
came up the river a great king in a golden raft, with
his queens and his courtiers and an army of eighty
thousand men. And when they got near the city, seven
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