of the queens, very weary of their golden raft, asked the
king’s leave to step on shore and take a stroll. The
king consented, but said that they must be sure not
to stay away very long. And no doubt they would
have returned in good time, had they not come upon
the pool of fragrant water for which Kyaukka-Myo was
famous.
FROM TH E CL IFF S O F Y EN AN -G Y A U N G
But its odour stole upon their senses and they forgot
all about their promise to the king. When the night
came and the king found they had not yet returned,
he set out in search of them, and when towards the
morning he found them by the scented waters of
Yenathasi, he fell into a great passion and commanded
them instantly to be killed. After a time the king’s
anger passed away, and then he blamed the Yenathasi
fdr prompting him to commit this crime. He therefore
.336
resolved that the water should be sweet-scented no more,
and by the aid of the miraculous powers which he
possessed, changed the perfume to the stench of earth-
oil. ' From that day forth, the place has been known
as Ye-nan-kyaung--- the river of stinking water.”
This legend, with variations, is played to audiences
at Yenan-Gyaung by the amateur players of the town.
It has a practical moral in the testimony it bears to
the oil-rights of the local families, which, as the play
runs, had to be defined by the great king, before his
golden raft could be induced to resume its journey.-
These rights, now fading away under the pressure of
modern causes, present a somewhat curious illustration
of the tendency common in all lands and amongst all
people to keep wealth “ in the family.”
(3 ) THE CLIFFS
At Yenan-Gyaung one may make a ; nearer acquaintance
with those cliffs which are so striking a feature
of the river in the dry region. Wholly distinct;as they
qre from the mountains,' which by their fellowship with
tjie Irrawaddy^give it much of its romantic character,
they are not lacking in beauty of their own ; and indeed
they offer a welcome relief from the tropical exuberance
which so perpetually assails the eye throughout other
portions of the river’s course. There is something that
is at once austere and beautiful in their idiosyncrasy ;
apd they add much to the variety of Burma.
There is a pathway that winds up to them on the