IN THE EAST INDIES. 89 
flowers and candles. These stalls for the most part 
are kept by women, who all smoke ‘‘ whacking white 
cheroots.’’ Truly, I cannot see how they even hold 
them in their mouths. They must be two inches or 
more in diameter and ten or twelve inches long. 
Nevertheless the women are very attractive. They 
dress in the most gaudily colored silks. They do their 
hair (which shines like polished wood) into the neat- 
est coils on the top of their heads and stick a very 
faney hairpin right through the middle of their bobs. 
Well, to keep on with the pagoda. It is surrounded 
by many smaller pagodas, most beautifully carved and 
gilded, and all containing Buddhas guarded by very 
large leogryphs. It is higher than St. Paul’s cathedral 
and is gilded from base to summit. It is surmounted by 
the usual gilt ‘‘ti,’’ or umbrella, from which many gold 
and jewelled bells hang, which tinkle in the breeze. 
You cannot imagine anything so wonderful as it is. 
The pagodas and image houses at the base are over- 
flowing with gifts of previous generations of pil- 
grims. The Buddhas in each one of these pagodas 
are simply covered with gold leaf, stuck on as native 
offerings. Interspersed among these shrines are enor- 
mous bronze bells which are struck with a deer’s 
horn by the worshiper to call the attention of men to 
their pious (?) prayers. We saw hundreds of sac- 
rificial candles burning and many worshipers praying 
by them. I do hope that the photographs we took will 
come out well. We spent almost the whole afternoon 
here and took a drive through the park and along the 
royal lakes back to the hotel again. Tomorrow at 
twelve we leave for Mandalay and from there we go 
to Bhamo, then back to Mandalay, then to Rangoon 
