FUNERAL OF A BURMAN PRIEST. 187 



neglect the bodies of their dead, or treat them in a manner which to us 

 appears highly barbarous. 



The Burmans burn their dead like the Hindoos, though with a great 

 difference in the method and the attendant ceremonies. With them, the 

 wood of the coffin (which is made larger and stronger than with us) is 

 nearly all the fuel used to consume the bodies of the common people. 

 The priests s or Poongee$> are like them burnt by the wood of their own 

 coffins, but the fire is communicated by means of rockets. As this is a 

 very singular practice, and has not been noticed by any writer which 

 I have met with, I take the liberty to communicate to the Asiatick society, 

 the following account of the funeral ceremonies of a Poongee or Burman 

 priest,. asrcomiBjUnica^ted 5 . y ;on, Mr. Felix Carey, who resides at 

 Rangoon,, and. was,:a-n ev; ' " less thereto. 



"■ The fiikn ^-%me funeral ceremr I ■ tes I am going to describe, died 

 about two years ago,, After rhe death of a Po gee, the body is embalmed 

 !h the following manner. F r.st, the intestines are taken out, after which 

 the body is filled with spices of different kinds, and the opening sewed 

 up. A layer of wax is then laid all over the body, so as to prevent the 

 admission of air; upon that is put a layer composed of lac and some other 

 ingredients, and the whole covered over with leaf-gold. The body of 

 this person was stretched out at full length, with the arms laid over the 

 breast. When one of these people dies, the body is thus prepared at the 

 house where he died. After about a twelve months, the corpse is re- 

 moved to a house built for that purpose, where it is kept a year or two 

 longer, till the Poongees order it to be burnt. At one of these places 

 I saw the body of this man, about a month before it was taken out for 

 the purpose of being destroyed. It was then placed upon a stage, which 



