such things, but as a courteous and graceful thing to do; for it is not
safe to offend these Nats, and many of them are very powerful. There is
a Nat of whom I know, whose home is in a great tree at the crossing of
two roads, and he has a house there built for him, and he is much
feared. He is such a great Nat that it is necessary when you pass his
house to dismount from your pony and walk to a respectful distance. If
you haughtily ride past, trouble will befall you. A friend of mine
riding there one day rejected all the advice of his Burmese companions
and did not dismount, and a few days later he was taken deadly sick of
fever. He very nearly died, and had to go away to the Straits for a
sea-trip to take the fever out of his veins. It was a very near thing
for him. That was in the Burmese times, of course. After that he always
dismounted. But all Nats are not so proud nor so much to be feared as
this one, and it is usually safe to ride past.

Even as I write I am under the shadow of a tree where a Nat used to
live, and the headman of the village has been telling me all about it.
This is a Government rest-house on a main road between two stations, and
is built for Government officials travelling on duty about their
districts. To the west of it is a grand fig-tree of the kind called
Nyaungbin by the Burmese. It is a very beautiful tree, though now a
little bare, for it is just before the rains; but it is a great tree
even now, and two months hence it will be glorious. It was never
planted, the headman tells me, but came up of itself very many years
ago, and when it was grown to full size a Nat came to live in it. The
Nat lived in the tree for many years, and took great care of it. No one
might injure it or any living creature near it, so jealous was the Nat
of his abode. And the villagers built a little Nat-house, such as I have
described, under the branches, and offered flowers and water, and all
things went well with those who did well. But if anyone did ill the Nat
punished him. If he cut the roots of the tree, the Nat hurt his feet;
and if he injured the branches, the Nat injured his arms; and if he cut
the trunk, the Nat came down out of the tree, and killed the
sacrilegious man right off. There was no running away, because, as you
know, the headman said, Nats can go a great deal faster than any man.
Many men, careless strangers, who camped under the tree and then abused
the hospitality of the Nat by hunting near