ASAM AND THE NEIGHBOURING COUNTRIES. 437 



a very close examination, laughing heartily : the only question they put 

 was whether our clergy take to themselves wives or not, and on being answer- 

 ed in the affirmative, they raised a roar of laughter, and the Chief assured 

 me he was quite shocked. The thatch-roofed temple is neither so large nor 

 so elegant, as some of those seen on the way ; nor is there any thing remark- 

 able about the gilt images of Godama, or the ornamental work within. 

 A gift of a few rupees delighted the whole of them, though the only 

 use they have for money is to enrich their temple with new ornaments, or 

 to purchase some triflingluxury. Their customs appear precisely the same 

 as those of Ava. Early every morning, we saw three or four of them 

 hurrying through the streets of the town, preceded by a boy with a little 

 bell, each holding a lacquered box, in which he collects the offerings of the 

 people, presented generally by the women, who stand waiting at their 

 doors with a portion of their ready-cooked meal. 



We took advantage one evening of a requisition for our musical boxes, 

 to introduce ourselves into the interior of the Bura Rajas house. We 

 found it spacious, the south end terminating in an open mackdn, or terrace 

 of bamboo work, and a second enclosure within, divided the private apart- 

 ments from those which, at all hours, appeared open to the populace. To 

 give space in breadth, two houses are erected contiguously, and a trough 

 of wood closes the aperture between the thatches, and serves to carry 

 off the water, which would otherwise descend into the house. The 

 women, few of them, boasted much beauty, and they were plainly 

 though neatly dressed ; they behaved with great decorum, and sat together 

 along one side of the room. The men turn up their hair, and form a large 

 knot with it on the centre of the head ; but the women, either from the 

 natural profusion of their tresses, or from their taking more care of them, 

 far excel the men in the height of their top-knots, which they wear nearly 

 in the same fashion, but divide it with silver ornaments and small glass 



Q 3 



