y boats, and quaint smaller vessels are
always in evidence. The civil and municipal buildings do not, however,
compare with those of such rival cities in India as Bombay, Calcutta,
and Madras. The bazars in the European quarter are unusually fine, and
it was a pleasure to visit them, silks, curios, and silver work being
well displayed. In the native quarter those of the inhabitants to be
seen on the street (previously described) had no distinctive character,
but the native silk bazars were mostly in a large, low, poorly lighted
building, divided into aisles. A visit to this neighborhood showed the
happy-go-lucky features noticed in Mandalay.

Indeed, life in Burma is like a comic opera. I realized this one morning
when going about simply to be amused. The market and pavements were
crowded with persons of different nationalities,--the pineapple man with
his tray of fruit, the Burmese girl with her pretty stall of cigars, the
Hindu seller of betel, the Chinaman under his swaying burden of cooked
meats and strange luxuries, the vermicelli man, the Indian confectioner
with his silver-coated pyramids of sago and cream. It is of all crowds
the most cosmopolitan. Here is the long-coated Persian with his air of
breeding and dignity, jostled by the naked coolie with rings in his
nose. The lady beauty of Japan dashes by in her jinrikisha drawn by a
Chinese coolie, and the exclusive Brahman finds himself shoulder to
shoulder with the laughing daughter of the soil who has never heard of
caste.

[Illustration: _General view of Rangoon_]

* * * * *

SHWE DAGON: The centre of attraction in Rangoon, however, is the Shwe
Dagon Pagoda, which is famous wherever the Buddhist religion prevails;
it is situated on an eminence, one hundred and sixty-six feet above the
sea-level and towering up three hundred and sixty-eight feet. It is a
very imposing structure, exceeding in height even St. Paul's Cathedral
in London. This proportion gives it an air of dignity and repose, while
its gilded surface from base to finial causes it to be truly
magnificent.

The structure has no interior, being built solidly of brick over a relic
chamber; hence its platform with a circumference of about fourteen
hundred feet is the place for worship and also for many small pagodas.
The great pagoda is of conical shape and is divided into twelve parts,
and of these the ti, or umbrella, valued at L60,000, is the most costly
and remar