hese
matters, and sent him to inquire, and the monk came down to the tree and
spoke. He said that if any Nats lived in the tree, they should speak to
him and tell him what they wanted. 'It is not fit,' he said, 'for great
Nats to terrify the poor villagers at the landing-place. Let the Nats
speak and say what they require. All that they want shall be given.' And
the Nats spake and said that they wanted a place to live in where they
could be at peace, and the monk answered for the governor that all his
land was at their disposal. 'Let the Nats choose,' he said; 'all the
country is before them.' So the Nats chose, and said that they would
have Popa Mountain, and the monk agreed.

The Nats then left the tree and went away, far away inland, to the great
Popa Mountain, and took up their abode there, and all the people there
feared and reverenced them, and even made to their honour two statues
with golden heads and set them up on the mountain.

This is the story of the Popa Nats, the greatest Nats of all the
country of Burma, the guardian spirits of the mysterious mountain. The
golden heads of the statues are now in one of our treasuries, put there
for safe custody during the troubles, though it is doubtful if even then
anyone would have dared to steal them, so greatly are the Nats feared.
And the hunters and the travellers there must offer to the Nats little
offerings, if they would be safe in these forests, and even the young
man must obtain permission from the Nats before he marry.

I think these stories that I have told, stories selected from very many
that I have heard, will show what sort of spirits these are that the
Burmese have peopled their trees and rivers with; will show what sort of
religion it is that underlies, without influencing, the creed of the
Buddha that they follow. It is of the very poetry of superstition, free
from brutality, from baseness, from anything repulsive, springing, as I
have said, from their innate sympathy with Nature and recognition of the
life that works in all things. It always seems to me that beliefs such
as these are a great key to the nature of a people, are, apart from all
interest in their beauty, and in their akinness to other beliefs, of
great value in trying to understand the character of a nation.

For to beings such as Nats and fairies the people who believe in them
will attribute such qualities as are predominant in themselves, as they
consider admirable; and, indeed, all