88 A COLLECTING TRIP 
ing to see them light joss sticks and burn them in front 
of a most hideous idol, carefully guarded in the rear 
of the temp!e and enclosed in a wooden box of superb 
carving. The thermometer registers rather high, over 
eighty-five in the shade, and yet none of us feel the 
heat in the least; in fact, with the exception of my 
pongee suit, I am wearing the same clothes I would 
wear in winter in Boston. Such Americans as we 
have met traveling ! This afternoon we are going to 
the Shwe Dagon pagoda. Tom will write you about 
it later. 
Please give my best love to every one and tell 
Warren that his letters make us laugh more than any 
one else’s. 
Most affectionately, 
Rosamond. 
Rangoon, Burma, 
Lecember 12, 1906. 
Dear Pas 
Such a day as we have had, almost the best yet. 
We received quite a good many letters this morning 
and were delighted. This afternoon we went to the 
famous Shwe Dagon pagoda. (I sent you some postal 
cards, but they do not begin to show the magnificence 
of it all.) It is the finest, largest and most universally 
visited shrine of Buddhist faith in Indo-China; this 
is due to the fact that it contains relics of the four 
Buddhas. The approach to the pagoda is up a long 
series of flights of steps, on either side of which are 
enormous pillars, white-washed, gilded and inlaid with 
colored glass, and stalls for the sale of sacrificial 
