1835.] Autohiography of Tsura Moimg-Bo. 



151 



my wants. I returned to Prome^ where my half-brother 

 Moung-O was still exercismg the oilice of Toit-thoo- 

 ghee, he received me kindly, and recom.mended me to go to 

 Pandonghma Ponghee, who had his monastery in the vil- 

 lage of Poghan near Prome. With this person I so- 

 journed nearly six months. I found him, however, a man 

 of very limited acquirements, but with modesty suili- 

 cient to tell me that he was incapable of adding 

 to my stock of learning. I represented this circu- 

 cumstance to my half-brother and afterwards took 

 my departure for Amrapoora and entered the monastery of 

 Bhagya Tsaradau, a man of learning and staid there t'NO 

 years. With him I studied *Thuda-sheetsoung, *Weenee, 

 ^Shengyo, *Bedeen, &c. At the end of this period I 

 renounced the priest's garb, and entered the service of 

 the King's son the Piemen or prince of Frome, as a Loo- 

 bioo-dau or personal follower. I was appointed to teach 

 the young princess Senbiumai to read and write. 



This person had many young ladies as companions, all 

 of whom at the same time received instruction from me, 

 I proceeded to the ladies' apartments in the prince's 

 palace daily at eight o'clock in the morning, and was usher- 

 ed into an open verandah, where the princess and 

 her ladies were seated on carpets. Cushions raised some- 

 what higher than the rest in compliment to my ciiice of 

 tutor were placed for me. Here I had a difficult task to 

 perform. The young ladies who were from eight to fifteen 

 years of age, were full of spirit, careless of the arrangement 

 of their dress, and the postures in which they placed them- 

 selves. I was a young man, little more than twenty years of 

 age, and subject to all the temptations which surround that 

 age, but a word said, or a look conveyed to give rise to the 

 slightest suspicion that I had formed an attachment for 

 any one of these young ladies, or that I had taken any 

 liberty with them would have cost me my head. I was the 

 only male person in their society, and this circumstance 

 seemed to have banished from my fair pupils all restraint. 

 In this manner I was employed for more than a twelve- 

 month. 



* Woiks on ethic and theoioav, SLc. 



