96 JOURNAL OF AN EMBASSY 
tains amongst the Barmans and Talains : it is con¬ 
fined to the men. This operation commences as 
early as the age of seven, eight, and nine years, 
and is often continued to thirty-five and forty. 
The principal tattooing is confined to that portion 
of the body from the navel to below the knee. 
What is on this is of a black or blue colour. The 
tint is given by a mixture of lamp-black, procured 
from the soot of sessamum oil, and the gall of a 
fish—the mirga of India. The figures imprinted 
consist of animals, such as lions, tigers, monkeys, 
and hogs, with crows, some fabulous birds, Nats, 
and Balus or demons. Occasionally there are add¬ 
ed cabalistic letters and figures intended as charms 
against wounds. The figure is first painted on the 
skin, which is afterwards punctured by needles 
dipped in the pigment. The arms and upper part 
of the body are more sparingly tattooed, and ge¬ 
nerally of a red colour, the tint being given by 
vermilion. The process is not only painful but 
expensive. The tattooing of as much surface as 
can be covered by “six fingers” costs a quarter 
of a tical, when the operation is performed by an 
ordinary artist; but when by one of superior qua¬ 
lifications, the charge is much higher. Not to be 
thus tattooed is considered by the Burmans as a 
mark of effeminacy , and there is no one who is 
not so more or less. Among the nations to the 
eastward of the Burrumpooter, the custom seems 
originally to have been confined to the Burmans 
