288 OM THE RELIGION AMD 



*' have been admitted into the order of priefthood, 

 " you are no longer permitted, after the manner of 

 " laymen, to commit any carnal deed, either alone, 

 " or with another, whether it be man, woman, or 

 *' bead. A prieft who after the manner of laymen 

 " commits fuch aftions, is no longer to be efteemed 

 " one, nor as appertaining to the divine order. To 

 " what can fuch a perfon be compared ? In the fame 

 *' manner as in a beheaded man the head can never be 

 " again joined to the body, and fo live ; fo the prielt, 

 " who after the cuftom of laymen has committed for- 

 " nication, or any fimilar att, is cut off from the 

 " prieftly order, never more to be reftored to their 

 " number. It behovcth you therefore, O young 

 " prielt, during the whole courfe of your life, never 

 " to commit fuch deeds. The newly ordained prieft 

 " fliall fay. Verily my lord I have heard your words*. 



" The reader then fays. It is by no means per- 

 " mitted to a Rcihan to fteal, or to take to himfelf 

 " even the value of a dram of filver. The prieft, 

 " who fteals even fuch a value, is to be efteemed as 

 " fallen from the priefthood, and is no longer to be 

 " numbered in the divine order. Such a prieft may 

 " be compared to the withered leaf of a tree : and as 

 " this can never again recover its verdure, fo the 

 " prieft, who fteals even a dram of filver, no longer 

 " can be efteemed as belonging to that facrcd order. 

 " Wherefore, O young prieft, during the whole 

 " courfe of your life, abftain from theft. The young 

 " prieft anfwers as before. 



" The reader then fays, It is unlawful for a prieft 



" to 



* From this it might be inferred, that unnatural praflices were vcvf 

 common among the Burvias ; and in various old accounts of Pegu we have 

 mention made of fuch having been the cafe, and of fome very abfurd re- 

 gulation*? having in confequence been eflablilhed. At prefent, as far as 

 I could learn, neither thefe regulations are obfcrved, nor even in convents 

 are at all praftifed the crimes on account of which they were impof^td. 

 The prefent royal familiy have been too wife to truft to fuch frivolous 

 devices, and the number of common women, which, under certain regula- 

 tions, they permit in every confiderablc town, has probably been an effec- 

 tual remedy for the greater vice. 



