child's head, remained iinconswmed, which cir- 

 cumstance the king re^rarded a-s a supemahiral 

 intimation that the princess liad come untairly by 

 her end. He i here fore directed that all her fe- 

 male altendantJ^, without exception, should be 

 put to the torture in order to extort confession, and 

 their denial of the charge availed them nothing 

 until ihey acciiFed some o( the principal nobility 

 of the alleged rnme; for it is ai^^erted by Stmyt 

 that Shah Pasathong, being an usurper, dreaded 

 a revolution, and wanted ot^ a plausible pretext 

 to cut short the nobility, of whose numbers and 

 influence he stood in awe. Several pits, twenty 

 feet square, were dug all round the city and large 

 fires kindled in them. The nobles and their 

 wives, having first been compelled to stand in 

 hot water and to have the soles of their feet 

 scraped with sharp irons in order to render them 

 more tender, were forced to walk over these 

 burning pits as an ordeaK Many, overcome by 

 the pain and heat, fainted and perished in the 

 fire; whilst such, as hud their feet eitlier burnt 

 or blistered, were deemed guilty and reserved 

 for execution. 



These unfortunate wretches were put to death 

 in a variety of ways; some being tied to stakes, 

 and exernied by elephants; others, buried alive 

 up to the chin by the road side, and there left to 

 perish, and others, if* Glanius may be credited, 

 underwent a more extraordinary and cruel death. 



The waist was so tightly compresised with a 

 bandage as to be easily grasped with the hand j 



• Glaiiim voj. p. UO. This travtU^r left E«r«pt in IflOfl, elghteei 

 yetrs nt'ttr theao estecuUous hii& ukeo [dtice, and tbuefore ^tc-i hii re- 



