160 Autobiography of Tsura Moung-Bo. April 



iied on the first assault, and after pillaging the place the 

 Burmese troops retired immediately to their position at 

 Azimee. Menghee Oozina was at this time about 65 years 

 of age, a tall thin man, about 6 feet high, fair complexion- 

 ed for a Burman — Greyhaired and nearly bald, and his 

 countenance flushed by the excessive use of spirituous 

 liquors. He was a great consumer of beetle-leaf and nut, 

 and from the great use of these stimulants the sensitiveness 

 of his palate had become so much injured that he was oblig- 

 ed to use the most stimulating food procurable. His cooks 

 could not suit his taste sufticiently in the dishes which they 

 prepared for him, and he took into his head the whim of 

 endeavouring to remedy the defect by dressing his own 

 victuals. 



He used to put a most extraordinary quantity of chillies, 

 Gnapee,* and salt into his food, so as to render it 

 quite intolerable to the tastes of others. He v/as 

 a man of exceedingly cruel disposition. I once saw an 

 instance of it. He had ordered his cook to be flogged 

 with a rattan till he nearly died, because he had lost three 

 Marantheesf entrusted to his charge, fruit of no value at 

 the time. I had in my possession some very fine fruit of 

 the same description, and whilst the cook was undergoing 

 this cruel flagellation, I presented my fruit to Menghee 

 Oozina, and with great difficulty begged the cook ofr. 



The advance under Oozina returned to Martaban in the 

 month of Thudeengyat, and the Sekkiawoon after esta- 

 blishing Oozina as Myowon of that place took his departure 

 for the capital. 



On the breaking up of the army, I conveyed some of Ye- 

 won Mounkoing's soldiers in myboat to Rangoon, and con- 

 tinued my mercantile pursuits there, trading up the river Irra- 

 waddy as far as Prome, Myaide, and the neighbourhood. 



In the year 1184 an army under command of Tsara- 

 wonghee Moungnai, v/ith Bundooia as Lieutenant Gene- 

 ral marched against Cussay to quell an insurrection 

 there, which object being eflected, the army was directed 

 against Assam in 1185 to quell a rebellion in that country. 



*• A preparation oflish, sometimes cxtvcrneiy olFensive to the smeii. 

 f A fiuit of the man^oe t-pecies. 



