TO THE COURT OF AVA. 
101 
appropriated for the dress of the priesthood is 
yellow, and it would be deemed nothing less than 
sacrilege in any one else to use it: so peculiarly 
sacred is it held, that it is not uncommon to see 
one of the people pay his devotions in due form 
to the old garment of a priest on a bush, hung 
out to dry, or to one after being washed. At 
the conferences at Yandabo which led to peace, 
the Burmese negotiators made a formal com¬ 
plaint to the British Commissioners, that some 
of our camp-followers had been seen wearing yel¬ 
low clothes! It may be considered as rather a 
curious coincidence, that yellow is a frequent if 
not favourite colour in the dress of the lowest 
outcasts among the Hindus. 
The progress made by the Burmese in the use¬ 
ful arts is but very moderate. The whole process 
of cleaning cotton, of spinning, weaving, and ge¬ 
nerally of dying, are performed by women ; the 
only men who are weavers being the captive 
Cassays. The loom is very rude, commonly re¬ 
sembling that used in India ; but the artisans are 
much inferior in dexterity to those of that coun¬ 
try, and such a thing as fine linen of native ma¬ 
nufacture is never seen among the Burmese. 
Cotton cloths are manufactured for sale all the 
way along both sides of the Ira wadi, from Ngamy- 
agyi to Shwe-daong;—wherever, in short, the 
raw material is cheap and abundant. All the 
cotton fabrics manufactured by the Burmans are 
