286 Capt. Pembertoris Mission to Bootan, 1837-38. [April, 



In none do there appear to be any particular accommodations for 

 sleeping, but in each house there is a cloacus. One room is set apart 

 for a cook-room, and constitutes the principal inconvenience in a Bootea 

 house ; no use is made of the uppermost story for this purpose, 

 as the Booteas consider it sacred ; and as they have no chimneys, out of 

 pure reverence they are content to bear smoke in its blackest and most 

 pungent forms. Their fire-places, that is for cooking, are good 

 and powerful ; these are likewise used as furnaces for their stills. 

 A good representation is given of them in Turner's Bootan. The floor- 

 ing of the houses is generally good, of many really excellent; the 

 doors are folding, and the fastenings of the windows of similar construc- 

 tion ; the only very deficient part of a good Bootea house exists in 

 the stairs and want of chimneys. 



To the castles, stables are appended ; but in spite of their being de- 

 prived of this copious source of filth and vermin, the deficiency is made 

 up by the number of inhabitants. 



Of their religious edifices, some are of picturesque appearance, being 

 ornamented with carved window-frames and verandahs. The most 

 common are the pagodas, which approach in form to the ordinary 

 Boodhistical forms, such, at least, as are universal throughout Burmah. 

 Those of Bootan are, however, vastly inferior in size, form, and 

 construction, and are mostly such as an ordinary Burmese peasant 

 would be ashamed of building. They are built of slabs of unhewn 

 stone, and are not much ornamented, particularly as they are not 

 provided with a red belt. The handsomest and the largest* we saw 

 was that close to Chinjipjee, this was ornamented with small pagodas at 

 each corner, and had the umbrella, which was of curious form, 

 garnished with bells, with the usual long tongues. In the upper 

 portion each face had a nose of portentous dimensions, and two Chinese 

 eyes. I am not aware whether, as in Burmah, they contain images or 

 not, but slabs of inscribed slate are very generally let into their sides.t 

 Appended to these are long walls of poor construction covered with 

 roofs ; on each they bear inscriptions, and in some instances paintings 

 situated in recesses. The other forms generally occur as small square 

 buildings; they are either built up over large idols or are empty, but 

 decorated with paintings of gods, much resembling, especially in gau- 

 diness, the common sorts of Hindoo deities ; or they contain the peculiar 

 cylinders which contain incantations, and which are constantly, or at 



* The name of this, L'hiotackari kocho. 



f The pagodas are always surrounded by poles either of bamboo or fir, to which 

 are attached longitudinally long strips of coarse cotton cloths, entirely covered 

 with inscriptions. 



