TO THE COURT OF AYA. 
485 
abominable ceremony. The body is opened in 
effigy, by substituting for it the stem of a 
plantain-tree, of which the pith is extracted, 
to represent the infant. 
This matter, in common with almost every 
other, is rendered a subject of extortion on the 
part of the Government officers. Among the 
public papers in the court of justice at Ran¬ 
goon, I found the record of a transaction of 
this nature, which is worth transcribing. No 
funeral can take place without the sanction of 
Government, which, as in other cases, is applied 
for by petition. A person of inferior condition, 
a painter by profession, lost his wife in child¬ 
birth, and makes the following application :— 
“ The petition of the Painter Ngatwantha. 
Your petitioner’s wife having died in a state of 
pregnancy, he asks permission to perform the 
funeral rites according to the custom of the 
country.” 
Upon this the Rewun, or second governor, 
gives the following order:— 
“ Order. 
“ In accordance with the petition, let the 
funeral take place agreeably to custom. 
“ In the year 1183, third day of the waning 
moon, Tobhaong, the secretary writes the II e- 
wun’s order,” 
