438 Major Burney on the Lacquered-Ware of Ava. 
placed in the sun for a few minutes before it is used, and being almost 
always applied with the hand, the smallest grain of sand or other extraneous 
substance is immediately detected and removed. When first applied, it 
looks of a light brown colour; but while the hand is rubbing on the 
varnish, it becomes darker, until it attains a beautiful black colour. Some- 
times, when the frame-work is of wood, a piece of tow is used for rubbing 
the ¢heet-tsee on, and generally, to save the hand, the first coat is applied 
with a rude brush made of the fibres of the coco-nut husk. After using 
the varnish, the hand is cleaned with a little mustard-seed oil and coarse 
cloth or tow. Upon asking the workmen if they did not suffer any bad 
effects from the varnish, as I recollected reading of some one at Edinburgh 
having suffered severely, they admitted that they often, and particularly 
when they first begin to work in it, find their hands blister, and their arms 
and faces swell, but that some people are much more predisposed to suffer 
in this manner than others. Hence they have a kind of proverb: 
Theet-tsee thek-thé thee, 
Loo ma-then p hyet-thee, 
Loo then atwa ma shee. 
«* Varnish is a true witness, 
It affects a man not true, 
To a true man it matters not.” 
About one in a hundred is said to be so predisposed. Some of the work- 
men told me that they always use their left hands in taking their food ; and 
that sometimes the injurious effects of the varnish appear in blotches so 
much resembling leprosy, that other Burmese refuse to hold intercourse 
with workmen so affected. These effects, however, are removed by apply- 
ing to the parts affected a composition made of teak-wood rubbed on a 
stone with a little water: sometimes sandal-wood as well as teak is used, 
but the latter is considered as the real specific. Asa preventive, many 
workmenoccasionally swallow a small quantity of the varnish. 
The ¢heet-tsee itself, as before observed, forms a beautiful black colour ; 
but to improve its brilliancy and transparency, the article covered with it 
is oftenpolished in the same manner as the Burmese polish their fine 
marble, with petrified wood powdered very fine, repeatedly washed and 
then dried; and for this purpose, the petrified wood of a particular tree, 
