94 
IKHABITAKTS OF PEGU. 
prepared in the French manner. All the inhabitants, of both 
sexes, smoke tobacco to a great excess; even the very servants have 
constantly a pipe in their mouths. Coaches or carriages are not used 
here ; therefore persons of quality ride on horseback in the city, 
with a number of servants^ walking before them, according to their 
rank. Ladies of the first distinction are even compelled to walk on 
foot in the city, or to any place at a moderate distance ; tn longer 
journeys they are carried by mules, in a kind of couch closely covered 
up. There are a number of public bagnios in this city ; which are 
used by people of all ranks, except those of the highest distinction, 
W'hq commonly have baths and every other convenience in their own 
houses. 
Inhabitants, Customs, Manners, and Religion op Pegu. 
Pegu is a very considerable kingdom of Asia. The inhabitants 
are of an olive, or rather a tawny complexion. The women are 
branded by some travellers as having shook off all modesty. The 
Pe guers may be ranked among the most superstitious of all mankind. 
They maintain and worship crocodiles, and will drink nothing but the 
waters of the ditches where those monstrous animals harbour, and by 
whom they are often devoured. They have five principal festivals in 
the year, called sapans, which they celebrate with extraordinary mag- 
nificence. In one of them the king and queen make a pilgrimage 
about twelve leagues from the city, riding on a triumphal car, so 
richly adorned w ith jewels, that it may be said they carry about wdth 
them the value of a kingdom. This prince is extremely rich, and has 
in the chapel of Ins palace idols of inestimable value, some of them 
being of massy gold and silver, and adorned w ith all sorts of precious 
stones. 
The talapoins and priests have no possessions, but such is the 
respect paid them by the people, that they are never known to want. 
They preach to them every Monday, not to commit murder, to' take 
from no person any thing belonging to him, to do no hurt, to give no 
offence, to avoid impurity and superstition, but above all not to wor- 
ship the devil ; but these discourses have no effect in the last respect. 
The people, attached to Manicheism, believe that all good comes from 
God, that the devil is the author of all the evil that happens to men, 
and that therefore they ought to w orship him, that he may not afflict 
them. This is a common notion among the Indian idolaters. 
The inhabitants of Pegu are accused by some authors of being 
slovenly ii their houses, and nasty in their diet, on account of their 
seasoning their victuals with sidol, a composition made of stinking 
fish, reduced to a consistency like mustard, so nauseous and offensive, 
that none but themselves can endure the smell of it. Balbo says, he 
could sooner bear the scent of stinking carrion ; and yet with this they 
season their rice and soups, instead of oil or butter. 
As they have no wheat in their country, their bread is rice made 
into cakes. Their common drink is water, or a liquor distilled from 
cocoa-water. They are a spirited and warlike people, open, generous, 
and hospitable, and have neither the indolence nor jealousy of most 
