TO THE COURT OF AYA. 
147 
the operator; and this, again, will probably be 
guided by the passions and partialities of the 
judges. 
The final termination of a suit is confirmed by 
the litigants being made to eat pickled tea, the 
usual solemnity observed in all contracts and en¬ 
gagements. 
The Bur man punishments are severe and cruel. 
The lowest in the scale is imprisonment and fet¬ 
ters ; the number of the latter varying, according 
to circumstances, from one pair up to nine. Then 
follow mulcts, flogging, mutilation, condemnation 
to the perpetual slavery of the temples, and va¬ 
rious forms of death, more or less cruel, according 
to circumstances. Decapitation is one of the most 
frequent of these ; but embowelling is also not un¬ 
common. Drowning, burying alive, and throw¬ 
ing to wild beasts, are occasionally had recourse 
to. I shall give one or two authentic examples 
of these punishments. On the 26th of January 
1817, four persons were executed at Rangoon for 
robbing temples. Their abdomens were laid open ; 
huge gashes were cut in their sides and limbs, lay¬ 
ing bare the bones ; and one individual, whose 
crime was deemed of a more aggravated nature 
than that of the rest, had a stake driven through 
his chest. The gentleman who related this to me 
was present at the execution. Another European 
gentleman, who had resided many years in Ran¬ 
goon, informed me, that for the same offence of 
l 2 
