TO THE COURT OF AVA. 137 
principally of their personal retainers—in disor¬ 
der, and without equipments. Our march to 
Ava, had it been necessary to advance, would 
have been easy, and through a country much 
superior to any which the army had passed over. 
We reached the village of Kyauk-ta-long 
(single rock) about four o’clock in the evening, 
where we stopped for the night. A few miles 
below Kyauk-ta-long we found a deputation 
sent from Ava to meet us. The chief of it was 
a Sare-d’haukri, commonly pronounced Saye- 
d’haugyi, which means a Royal Secretary of the 
Lutd’hau. This was a person of some rank, 
wearing a gold chain of nine strings , and having 
a title of four syllables . I mention these parti¬ 
culars, because such matters are of high import¬ 
ance with the Burmans, and chiefly determine 
the rank of parties. The smallest number of 
chains is three, and the greatest for a subject 
twelve, the intermediate ones being six and 
nine. Four-and-twenty strings to the chain are 
worn by the royal family only. With respect 
to the number of syllables in a title, although 
much depends upon this, still some small allow¬ 
ance also is made for sense; and it is especially 
of importance that the title should commence 
with the Pali word, Maha, or Great, when a 
subject is referred to; or Thato, of which I do 
