โถ่ บี ข่า (นกขวัญข้าว) Htof bi Qaj/Topeekha (the Rice-Spirit Bird)
A long time ago, in one Karen town lived an orphan young man named Jophaikae. During the period of clearing the field, all the town people went to the field that had been assigned to them by the town governor. The same as everyone else, this young man went to the field, but he did not see any available plots because all the plots had been reserved by other villagers. However, there was one area available, but it was filled with so many rocks that nothing could grow. The town governor granted permission to the young man to use it for his rotational farming. The young man had no options so he decided to use this land for farming. There was no grass in that area, so he collected leaves from other places, piling them up and waiting for the right time to burn them. He did this so that he could transform that rocky area into a rotational farm where he could plant rice and other crops. Successfully, he managed to plant seven pits of rice.
In the meantime, the Rice Goddess, who provided humans with fertility and protected their happiness and wellbeing, especially those who practiced rotational farming, saw everything that the young man had been doing. One day, she disguised herself into an old widow, named Peemeumae, and pretended to get stuck in a groove of rattan trees, crying out for help. Many people walked past her but none of them gave her a hand. While the young man was walking in that area, he heard the noise asking for help. He followed the noise and saw the old widow getting stuck in the rattan groove. He felt sorry for her so he decided to use his short knife to cut the thorns and helped the old lady get out of the groove. After being rescued, the old widow had no place to go because she had been lost and wandering a long distance, far, far away from home. She then asked the young man if it was possible for her to stay at his hut for the time being. The orphan young man agreed to help because he had so much sympathy for the old lady.
After that incident, the man continued with his farming routine, removing weeds from the seven pits of rice he had planted. Gradually, the rice in these seven pits grew abundantly and could be divided into seven bunches of rice plants with beautiful green leaves. Not long after this, the starving season approached. It was a period when food was scarce and difficult to find. The old widow told the man to cut off some rice leaves from the seven rice pits and steam them. Following the old lady's instructions, the man steamed some rice leaves, but to the man's surprise those leaves turned into steamed sticky rice. Throughout the starving season, the old lady and the young man relied on steamed sticky rice that they obtained from steaming rice leaves. Whenever the young man cut off some rice leaves from the pits, new ones would emerge every single time. Finally, the starving season ended. The rice plants started to develop ears of beautiful yellow rice paddy. All the rice grains looked beautiful and were in a perfect condition, with no skinny ones.
When the harvesting season arrived, the man started to harvest his rice by cutting all the rice ears. On the following day, all seven pits of rice were filled with ears of yellow ripe rice. The man harvested the rice from the pits, and, again, new ears of yellow rice grains appeared in the pits on the following day. This continued to happen and the man continued to harvest rice from his pits until he had so much rice to fill in his granary. As a result, he called seven pits of rice plants bue-pa-ja-may, meaning "magical rice" or "sacred rice".
Eventually, the old lady told the man that it was time for her to leave, to return home. The man said, "Grandma, you're going home? Your home is so far away. When will I see you again?" The old lady answered, "Whenever you see all tree stumps are burned down and the field is covered with its black ashes, say my name and I will come to you and visit you again." Having heard that, the man called the old lady " Topeekha ", meaning "the rice-spirit bird."