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JOURNAL OF AN EMBASSY 
comparatively high-priced ; and in general, British 
piece-goods can be sold cheaper, even in the in¬ 
terior of the country, than the domestic manu¬ 
facture. 
The best raw silk is brought from China, an 
inferior kind from Lao, and some is prepared in dif¬ 
ferent parts of Pegu, especially at Lain and Shwe- 
gyen. The principal places for manufacturing silk 
cloths are Ava, Monchabo, Pakok’ho, Pugan, and 
Shwe-daong. The finest fabrics of silk are made 
at Ava, or rather Amarapura, where Chinese raw 
silk is the material; and the coarsest at Shwe-daong, 
where it is the produce of Pegu. The women 
are the manufacturers of silk cloths as well as of 
those of cotton. In general, Burman silk manu¬ 
factures are coarse, high-priced, but durable. A 
few silks are imported into the country by the 
Shans and Kyens ; and satins and velvets, in small 
quantities, by the Chinese, chiefly for the use of 
the Court. I may notice it as rather a remark¬ 
able fact, that such of the silk fabrics of the Kyens 
as we saw, were of a much finer and better tex¬ 
ture than those of their more civilized masters 
the Burmans: they consisted of rich and heavy 
crimson scarfs, or narrow shawls, occasionally em¬ 
broidered with gold, and not destitute of beauty. 
The prevailing colours in silks and cottons are 
blue, red, yellow, green, brown, and black. Blue 
is invariably given by indigo; red by sasflower, 
partly produced in the country, but mostly im- 
