80 
JOURNAL OF AN EMBASSY 
tated less by a regard to the memory of the 
dead, than the belief that it is a work of re¬ 
ligious merit in the survivors. 
Melloon is a very poor place, and is described 
as having been so thirty years ago, in the 
journal of Dr. Buchanan Hamilton, who ob¬ 
serves, that the number of temples is out of 
all proportion to the population. This was 
still the case ; and it may be safely asserted, 
that the temples and monasteries were more 
numerous than the houses. We found three 
new temples, two of them richly gilt. One of 
the latter had been built by a Myosugi, or chief 
of the district of Melloon, and the other by a 
Burman merchant; the third was built, during 
the war, by the Prince Memiabo, when in 
command of the army. We passed through 
the village, and found the inhabitants, as else¬ 
where, suffering from a scarcity. The price of 
rice was five ticals of flowered silver, or about 
thirteen shillings per basket, of half a hundred 
weight, which was from three to four hundred 
per cent, beyond the price of ordinary seasons. 
Little or none, however, was procurable at any 
price. The poor inhabitants, generally, had re¬ 
course to wild roots as a substitute. We saw 
several baskets of fresh roots of a wild arum , 
brought from the marshes, and some that had 
