140 
JOURNAL OF AN EMBASSY 
Than-dhau-thans, commonly pronounced Than- 
d’hau-sens. They stand in the same relation to 
the Atwen-wuns that the Wun-dauks do to the 
Wun-gyis. Their business is to record the pro¬ 
ceedings of the council, to take minutes of the 
King’s verbal commands, and to read and report 
upon petitions. Attached to the two councils are 
four or five officers, called Na-kan-d’hau. The bu¬ 
siness of these is to convey messages between the 
two councils; and it is expected that one or more 
of them should always attend the Lut-d’hau, in 
order to report to the King, from time to time, 
what is going forward there. Upon that council, 
therefore, they are a kind of authorized spies ; and 
their name, which may be translated “ deputies of 
the Royal Sar,” would seem to imply this. 
The municipal or provincial administration may 
be described as follows : The country is divided 
into provinces of very unequal size—these into 
townships, the townships into districts, and the 
districts into villages or hamlets, of which the 
number in each is indefinite. In the Burmese in¬ 
stitutions, it may be remarked that there is no¬ 
thing bearing any semblance to an ecclesiastical 
subdivision. Such an arrangement, indeed, could 
not well exist where the priesthood are excluded 
from the exercise of all temporal authority, and 
where their duties are expressly of an abstract and 
spiritual nature. The word Myo, which literally 
means a fortified town, is that which is applied 
