A Burmese wonderland; a tale of travel in Lower and ... - Khamkoo

44 A BURMESE WONDERLAND.
with uneven, slippery floors. Water dripped from the
roof in many places, and I have never before seen such
wonderful stalactites and stalagmites in all stages of
development. Some hed joined up forming pillars, or
resembling trees and foliage. Others again seemed to
pour from the roof Uke gigantic petrified cataracts,
which indeed they were.
Standing water t«nds to form
deposits along its edges, creating thereby terraces of
shallow water rising one above the other, and each
contained by a wavy wall of rock about 6 inches high.
This is a very peculiar formation.
According to legend, these caverns were the home
of the Embryo Buddha in his incarnation as Saddan
Hsin Min, the Elephant King
;
and the caves are known
as Saddan Hsin Min Ku. The fable is well known in
Burma, and relates that one day the Elephant King
gave a flower to his wife Sula-thu-patti. There was a
bee in the flower which stung her, and she cried fretfully
to her lord " I'll score off you." In a future life she
was reborn a princess, and desiring an ivory ornament
she sent out a hunter who approached the Elephant
King but was caught by him. Hearing what the hunter
wanted, and by whom he was sent, the Elephant King
tried to saw off the tip of his tusk. Failing in that, he
sent the whole tusk, and the Princess, recognizing it
as that of her lord in her elephant life, grieved to death
when she recalled those pettish words ' I'll score off you '
which she had used in a former existence.
Needless to say
many a stalactite in these caves suggests some part of