( 63 ) 



places her on an equal footing with man, thereby screening manv 

 a poor creature from a life of misery and bondage, through an 

 unhappy union with a profligate and worthless husband. 



117. We had not left Padepiem long, when I noticed seven rafts of 



Teak timber tea k b° xm & f° r tne capital ; the logs were 



of huge girth, but short, not over fifteen 

 feet at the outside. Timber of this description, I am told, can be 

 purchased here at Es. 4 per log ; evidently the wood was from the 

 forests to the north-west, and floated down the Shweley, which is 

 reported to be a timber-bearing stream throughout the year. Cer- 

 tainly I noticed no such teak along the banks, or at such distance 

 inland as I -could examine with my binocular. Tectona hamiltonii 

 was, however, common. 



118. Leaving old Pagan and Tagoung to our east — towns of reput- 

 __ ,, m edantiquitv, though now in their decline 



Town of Pagans and Tagoung. / ' -, r ° „, .,, 



— we have the Mengwoon range of hills 

 wooded to the water's edge on the west, faced by a steep sand-stone 

 cliff on the opposite shore. 



Steaming past Tagoung, I was greatly amused at the solemn and 

 sincere manner in which my attention was drawn to a certain place 

 by the old pilot, who has been in British employ for many years, 

 and was the first to pilot a steamer to Bhamo. " There" ! he re- 

 marked, "resides an all-powerful Nat who is feared and reverenced by 

 all ; he has the power of working good and evil : his fame is spread 

 wide and far." The sepulchral tone in which each word was mea- 

 suredly delivered, and the serious cast of countenance, made me 

 lose all control of gravity, and I burst into a peal of laughter, as 

 Mr. Graham translated for me what the old man was saying. " Ah," 

 he continued," take care, he does not visit his wrath on you, I have 

 known of many similar disbelievers who failed to recognize his great 

 power, and attempted to approach him with empty hands, and who 

 have gone away with stomach-aches from which they have ulti- 

 mately died." I found I had fallen considerably in the venerable 

 old man's opinion by my flippant behaviour, so I begged the Nat's 

 pardon, and expressed a hope that he would not interfere with my in- 

 terior economy ! Unfortunately, the following day I was laid up 

 for some hours with a sharp attack of .colic brought on by going 

 froni a warm cabin into a bitterly cold atmosphere to register the 

 thermometer on deck at 6 a.m. The news soon reached the pilot, 

 who called to see me in my agony, shook his wise old head, and 

 remarked, " there is no hope." This will be a capital case for him 

 to cite to future passengers, and with truth he will be able to assert 

 that my cure was effected by a spirit, and one, too, which has the 

 power of working good or evil !! 



