. We
enter by an elaborate white gateway and find ourselves in a perfect
forest of pagodas. They are planted in rows and are all exactly alike
and not very large. They are glittering white, and each one has a slate
slab inside. The Kutho-daw was built by Theebaw's uncle, who acquired
much merit thereby, and he deserved it, for there are no less than seven
hundred and twenty-nine pagodas. On the slate inside each is inscribed
some part of the Buddhist Scriptures. It was a grand idea thus to
preserve indelibly on stone the whole Burmese Bible. Here it is for all
time. Peep inside one and you will see the funny-looking Burmese
writing, which all runs on without being divided up into words, and
looks consequently so incomprehensible to us.

What? How you jump! What is it? Another beast? Yes, I see him, that is a
tarantula crouching in the darkest corner and looking at us out of
wicked little eyes that shine like diamond points. He is a monster
spider, isn't he? All hairy too, and his body striped with yellow bands
like a wasp's. He sits still, but he is very much alive and ready to
jump at a minute's notice. They are venomous brutes. Not quite so bad as
a scorpion, but still the bite from one of these fellows is a very
unpleasant thing. We will leave him, he can't do much harm here.

Now we will drive round the town and see how the people live.

Here is a happy family seated on a wooden platform stretching out in
front of their house. The dust around and over them and in the roadway
is almost as bad as Egypt, but here there is nearly always a tree or
shrub of some sort to bring in a flash of green. The huts too are built
of wood and mats and are raised several feet from the ground; they do
not look so hopelessly crooked as the Egyptian mud houses. In the space
underneath huge black pigs, like great boars, wander, and there are
black goats too, and skinny hens and pariah dogs. Do you see that
mother-dog lying in the roadway, too lazy to move, with six yellow
puppies sprawling over her? Poor brute, she is a mass of mange and so
skinny that her ribs stick out! The people here are taught by their
religion not to take life of any kind; some of the priests strain their
water through a sieve lest they should inadvertently swallow an insect!
So no one kills, even in mercy. All these miserable puppies are allowed
to grow up to a starved wretched existence, a misery to themselves and
everyone else.

Look at those two elephants st