( 64 ) 



119. Progressing onwards a few miles, the river is again much sub- 



divided, and from the size of the trees 

 aiw geS ° f TMngyain and My " on the island between which and the 



left main bank the navigable channel 

 flows, I am inclined to think the river must have entirely changed 

 its course, or the island have existed for the last half century. 

 I could not get any definite information on this subject, for it was 

 not an easy matter to explain the difference between a channel and 

 the river, while the old pilot invariably spoke of the navigable 

 channel as the river. The scenery now improves again, especially, 

 as we near the ancient villages of Thingyain and Myalloung. Here 

 still are traceable the remains of forts built by the Chinese of the 

 micacious sand-stone on which the former stands, making a pretty 

 picture with the Ming woon hills for a back-ground. Fortunately, 

 some passengers and cargo had to be landed at Thingyain, which 

 gave me a ramble on shore for a quarter of an hour. The vegeta- 

 tion consisted principally in bombax, salix, rosa, vitex, gardenia, 

 depterocarpus, terminalia-chebulia salicata, ranunculacece, campa- 

 nulacece (or the hare-bell order), illecebracece, bamboo, and grasses 

 A few cultivated palms were also observable. 



120. Here, what in Burma is known as a crucifix was pointed out 



to me, but the corpse of a criminal, 



Burmese crucifix. -, ., ., 1 .f , -, -, 



once exhibited on it, had long since 

 returned to dust, and the bones lie bleached on the ground. I should 

 much have liked to secure the skull, which seemed rather a perfect 

 specimen, but the Captain seemed horrified at the very idea. 

 Why the name crucifix has been given to the staging to which 

 the corpse is lashed, I never could understand, unless indeed.it be 

 by the law of contrary, for it has not the least resemblance to the 

 cross on which the Koman criminal was condemned, nor does the 

 attitude in which the malefactor is secured, license the term. I have 

 somewhere seen in print the following sentiments associated with 

 this subject : " The details of a crucifixion being painfully associated 

 with the last scene in the life of the founder of Christianity as to 

 divest the barbarous custom with interest." I fail to trace the 

 analogy. The body is lifeless before it is suspended, and the exhi- 

 bition is not entirely devoid of moral influence on all passers-by, this 

 is to my mind a spectacle no more revolting than the system of 

 hanging in chains in England, which practice prevailed among us 

 not so very long ago. 



121. At 8 a.m. of the 22nd December we were abreast of the Shwe- 



ley river, the first tributary of importance 



we have passed since leaving Mandalay. 



At the mouth it appeared 600 feet wide, it narrows considerably 



