484 
JOURNAL OF AN EMBASSY 
rally,—a collection having been made, amount¬ 
ing to one hundred and fifty ticals. 
The custom to which I have above alluded, 
in reference to the funerals of women dying in 
labour before the birth of the infant, is one of 
the most revolting rites of Burman supersti¬ 
tion. The belief is, that the souls of women 
dying under such circumstances would become 
evil spirits, haunting the towns or villages to 
which the deceased belonged, if a certain cere¬ 
mony were not practised to exorcise them. The 
horrid ceremony in question is as follows :— 
The husband, with dishevelled hair, and bear¬ 
ing a Da, or sword, in each hand, goes before 
the coffin, in the procession, from his house to 
the funeral ground, using the gestures of a ma¬ 
niac, and cutting the air with the weapons in 
every direction. When the procession has ar¬ 
rived at the place, the case is inquired into by 
the public officers, and a regular deed of divorce 
between the husband and the deceased is drawn 
up. The body is then opened by one of the 
burners of the dead, the foetus extracted, and 
held up to the spectators. The husband, after 
this, walks thrice round the coffin, goes home, 
washes his head, and returns, when the corpse 
is burned with the usual ceremonies. In parts 
of Pegu there is some refinement upon this 
