Ee-u is the first woman of Karen tradition, formed by Y'wa alongside Tha Nai and, with him, ancestress of all humankind. Together the pair transgressed Y'wa's single prohibition after Mu Kaw li's deceit, and their fall is the tradition's explanation for the entry of illness and death into the human condition. As with her partner, the missionary sources preserve her name in several spellings, and popular retellings sometimes fold the ancestress role into other female figures of the cycle.