236 ON THE RELIGION AND 



" id waters' nourifh various flowering trees, and its 

 " fands are the minute fragments of diamonds and 

 *' cryftals. 



" Between thefe two lakes grows the great Gnaung- 

 '' bay7i*, a tree facred among the Burmas, becaufe 

 *' under its (hade, fay they, Godama received his 

 *' divine nature. Many fmaller trees of the fame 

 " kind furround the great Gnaung-bayn, and under 

 " the fhade of one of thefe is the king of the elephants 

 " wont to refide. This king, from the place of his 

 " abode, is often named the elephant Zadda. Eight 

 *' thoufand elephants, white, red, and black, are in 

 *' his train ; and he has three queens. When he goes 

 *' into the lake, to wafh and to amufe himfelf, he is 

 " attended by all the 8,000; part of whom go before 

 " and clear the way : others, while he is wafhing, 

 " weave ciov/ns and belts of flowers, which, on his 

 '• coming out of the water, they prefent to their king, 

 *' who thus adorned returns to the great tree : the ele- 

 '• phants then in proper order, firft the white, then 

 '• the red, and then the black, go into the lake to 

 *• wafh themfelves : and on coming out, having adorn- 

 '' ed their bodies with flowers, they go and fland in 

 *' the prefence of their king. Then the black cle- 

 " phants plucking fome flowers from the tree, give 

 '* them to their females, who deliver them to the fe- 

 " male red elephants, and thefe again to the white 

 '• females, who prefent them to the king, and to his 

 ^' queens, that they may eat. Then the others dif- 

 " perfe themfelves through the woods, every one 

 " finding his own food. >And thus they daily pafs 

 " their time. During winter they live in the great 

 " cave above mentioned, and during fummer under 

 *'• the great Gnaung-bayn, which from its trunk fends 

 *' forth 8,000 large roots, one for every elephant." 



"XXXI. Near thefe fame lakes, and the five others, 

 ** arc faid to be found many extraordinary fpecies of 



*> wild 

 ♦ ficus indka* 



