h and
east. Here our great missionary, Adoniram Judson, began his work, and
here are two of our chief schools for girls.

Mandalay is farther removed from Rangoon than are either Bassein or
Maulmain. It lies three hundred and eighty-six miles to the north. It
was a former capital of Burma. It contains the palace of King Thebaw,
the foundations of which are reputed to have been laid upon human
sacrifices, and from which the king was driven after a long and fierce
British assault. Ancient tradition decreed that only sacred edifices
should be built of brick. Thebaw's palace is therefore of wood, though
it is gorgeous with carving and gilt. Surrounded by a wide and deep
moat, there is a walled enclosure of more than a mile square, whose
gateways are picturesque in the extreme, and which to all but modern
cannon would be an impregnable fortress.

But it is the Hill of Mandalay that most excites the traveler's wonder
and admiration. Upon its summit, commanding a far-reaching view of the
winding river and of endless paddy-fields, with mountains in the
distance, stands a pagoda which is in many respects more remarkable than
the great Shwe Dagon pagoda at Rangoon. This one at Mandalay might
indeed be called four separate pagodas, on successive heights, and
connected with one another by a straight stairway in part hewn out of
the solid rock and in part built of masonry. The stairway consists of
eight hundred and twenty-two steps, in four different series, each
series leading to a broad open platform on which rises a separate temple
with a colossal image of Buddha in its center.

From below, this long stairway, with its railing of brick or concrete
and its quartet of gilded pagodas shining in the sun, is a picturesque
and unique object. The crowning pagoda seems almost impossible of
access. It is set upon such a height, however, for the purpose of making
the ascent to the altar difficult, and so of adding to the "merit" of
its worshipers. The stairway, even when cut in the rock, has often
forty or fifty steps so narrow, that the ascent from platform to
platform is actually precipitous. The entire series of steps, from the
bottom of the hill to the top, is roofed over with sheets of
corrugated iron, until the whole looks like a covered way to the
clouds. Going up seemed an exciting adventure. My physician had
forbidden my climbing, and my wife declared that she could not attempt
the walk. The problem became serious.

The diffi