$0 Geological and Statistical Account of the [Feb. 



tax,) but were in some instances permitted to pass decisions in civil 

 suits and also in cases of petty theft and larceny : at a time when cor- 

 ruption was so openly allowed and practised, it may be easily supposed 

 that much gain was derived from this permission, and that little reli- 

 ance could be placed upon the justice of the decisions, or statements 

 made by these Soogrees respecting the gross amount of revenue deri- 

 ved from their several districts. One -fifth of the supposed produce 

 was generally retained for the services of those delegated by authority 

 to convey the royal mandates to the Meyowoon, and the remainder was 

 devoured by that officer, the Mroosoogree, and others of the local Go- 

 vernment. The Soogrees and Rooagongs of districts having precisely 

 secured to themselves such a share of the spoil as they could safely 

 maintain without incurring the displeasure of the Meyowoon ; the 

 proceeds of other sources of revenue, especially that derived from the 

 customs, (and which during the Burmah rule was in some instances 

 considerable,) were remitted to the capital as the provision for the 

 Prince Royal, to whose safe and auspicious keeping the Island of Ram- 

 hree had been consigned. 



In the evening I took a walk towards the Kioum, and on my arrival 

 there found the Phoongrees on the point of setting out to a small 

 village in the neighbourhood, with the view of performing the rites 

 of sepulture over a young woman and her child. The former had died 

 pregnant, and as is invariably the custom in such cases, the child had 

 been removed from the womb, that it might be buried separately from its 

 mother. It is further* deemed necessary that a river or creek should 

 intervene between the graves of the parent and child ; a precaution that 

 was observed in the present instance. Desirous of witnessing a cere- 

 mony that was new to me, I asked leave to accompany the Phoongrees i 

 a permission that was readily granted. As we drew near to the house 

 of the deceased, the corpse of the young woman, borne upon a litter 

 adorned with gold and silver leaf, was brought upon the pathway, and 

 preceded by the Phoongrees, was taken to the ground appointed for its 

 home. Immediately behind the bier clothed in their white dresses and 

 with shaven crowns, were a group of Mey-ihee-layeng\ ; and next to 



* It is ordered by Gautama that the womb of every woman dying pregnant 

 shall be opened, the child removed and buried apart from its mother ; (a river 

 or creek intervening between the graves.) Otherwise the mother will be born 

 again for ten successive times, and be subject to the same misfortune. 



f The Mdy-thee-layeng are an inferior order of nuns wearing white dresses 

 and living in convents of their own. Their discipline is less severe than that 

 imposed upont he BMMnni, and their knowledge of the doctrines of the Buddhist 

 faith less extensive. 



