nd excitement, as the cunning _hpea_ had
expected, called for a drink of water, but ere he could place the cup to
his lips his faithful follower turned it upside down, and instead of
water, out fell a cupful of sharp needles, and again the king's life was
saved.

Worn out with his ride he told his servants to prepare his room as he
would sleep. Ai called the chief guard and told him to have a lamp
burning all night, to take his sharpest sword with him, and guard the
king carefully. In the middle of the night when the tired king was
sleeping soundly, into the room came creeping slowly, slowly, the
biggest rat ever seen. It had long, sharp teeth and wicked glaring eyes,
and made toward the king. But the guard, warned by Ai, was on the watch,
and just as the rat was about to spring at the king's throat, the
soldier with a sweep of his long, sharp sword cut off its head, and thus
the king through the cleverness of one man escaped the last danger and
could now live without fear.

The next morning the king called his heralds and bade them go into the
city and summon Sau Boo to come to the palace to be rewarded. They
searched and called, but searched and called in vain. No man ever heard
of a man by that name, and the king was fast getting angry when the
_amats_ told him that they personally had gone to every house except
one, and that was the house of Ai. The king in surprise ordered them to
call his son-in-law. "He may be able to tell us something about him," he
observed. Ai accordingly obeyed his summons, but the king was more
surprised yet when Ai told him that Sau Boo and himself were one and the
same, and that it was he who had rescued the king from so many dangers.

At first his father-in-law became angry and refused to believe him, but
Ai gave an account of everything that had happened from the time when
the deer broke cover, till the rat was killed by the guard, and thus
convinced the king of his truthfulness.

The king then made a great feast, called all his ministers and generals
together, and made a proclamation that Ai in future should be his _amat
loeng_ and should be king when he himself died.

Thus did the princess prove that her luck really depended upon herself,
and not on the king, and to-day we say, "May your luck be as good as the
luck of Nang Kam Ung."

HOW THE HARE DECEIVED THE TIGER.

At the beginning of the world a hare, tiger, ox, buffalo, and horse
became friends and lived together. O