232 
JOURNAL OF AN EMBASSY 
little Princess, their only child, and about five 
years of age, followed her Majesty, and seated 
herself between her parents. The Queen was 
received by the courtiers with similar prostra¬ 
tions as his Majesty, and we also paid her the 
same compliment as we had done to the King. 
When their Majesties were seated, the resem¬ 
blance of the scene which presented itself to the 
illusion of a well got up drama, forcibly occur¬ 
red to us; but I may safely add, that no mimic 
exhibition could equal the splendour and pomp 
of the real scene. 
A s soon as his Majesty was seated, a band of 
Brahmins, who are the soothsayers of the Bur- 
man Court, began to chant a hymn, which con¬ 
tinued for two or three minutes. In what lan¬ 
guage it was, or on what subject, we could not 
ascertain. These persons stood behind the throne, 
a little to his Majesty’s left; so that we had but 
an imperfect view of them. They wore white 
dresses, with caps of the same colour, trimmed 
with gold lace or tinsel. This part of the cere¬ 
mony being over, the first thing done was to 
read aloud a list of offerings made by his Ma¬ 
jesty to certain Pagodas in the city of Ava. The 
names of the temples were specified, and it was 
stated that the offerings were made because the 
temples in question were “ depositaries of relics 
