Reading a people's mythology permits a fascinating entry into another culture.

To help the reader appreciate the details of the myth, Anthony Walker provides an ethnographic introduction to the Lahu people and their way of life. A social anthropologist, Dr. Walker has spent over thirty years studying Lahu cultural traditions. He lived for four years in a Lahu village in North Thailand and subsequently has made almost annual visits to this and other Lahu villages in Thailand and, since 1990, in China.

This is the first time that a major English-language translation of the Lahu...