g without religion or any other good
quality, very busy hammering the mummy to pieces with the butt end of
his musket. I was very angry, and ordered him to desist. In excuse, he
replied that it was an abominable molten image, and it was his duty, as
a _good Christian_, to destroy it--the only evidence of Christianity
ever witnessed on that fellow's part. On examination, I found that the
body had been wrapped in sundry clothes, and, like the ark of Noah,
pitched within and without: over the clothes was a coat of damma, then
of chunam, and lastly it was gilt; the head of the mummy was fictitious,
and formed of a cocoa-nut, the real skull being where, in the mummy,
would have appeared to have been the breast of the body. It did not
smell much, but there were a great many small scarabei inside, and it
was so mutilated that I did not remove it. The Burmahs are cleanly in
their houses, which generally are raised from the ground a few feet, so
as to allow the pigs; which are the scavengers of the town, to walk
under. They have houses of brick, or stone and mortar, such as the
custom-house at Rangoon, and one or two others; but the most substantial
houses are usually built of thick teak plank. The smaller houses and
cottages are built of bamboo, the floors and walls being woven like
wicker-work: the cleanliness and the beauty of these houses when new are
very remarkable, and what is still more so, the rapidity with which they
are built. I have known an officer order a house to be built of three
rooms, with doors and windows to each, and of a comfortable size, and
three or four Burmahs will complete this house in a day, and thatch the
roof over. In another point, the Burmahs show a degree of civilisation,
which might be an example to the northern Athens--to every house there
is a very neat and clean cloaca.

The government, like all in Asia, is most despotic; and the people have
the faults which are certain to be generated by despotism--but not to
that degree which might be expected. They have their hereditary
nobility, and the orders of it are very clearly defined. They consist
of gold chains, worn round the neck, with four plates or chased bosses
dividing them; the lowest order wears the bosses linked together by
three chains, the next highest in degree with six, the next nine, and
the last and highest order has twelve; the king only wears twenty-four
chains. The use of gold and silver, as drinking cups, etcetera, i