Nov., 1891. 
BURMA AND ITS PEOPLE. 
253 
days. The bamboo from the jungle affords all the materials 
that are needed—uprights, wall-plates, roofs and even floors. 
The Burmese are great believers in spirits and have a 
firm belief that every passing brefeze is laden w r ith invisible 
powers of good or evil. In remoter parts of the country, 
where English influence and example have not yet penetrated, 
lamps are hung among the trees at night to entice evil spirits 
away from the village; and where contagious disease prevails 
coloured threads or lattices of bamboo are hung across the 
paths to intercept the demons who might carry the malady 
from one hamlet to another. 
Of the once great city within the walls of Mandalay 
nothing remains but the palaces of Theebaw and his court, 
huge masses of teak structures of strange and fantastic 
architecture, rich with gold and vermilion and profusely 
decorated with a kind of inlaid work in which small pieces 
of silvered glass play a prominent part, often rude in design 
and coarse in execution, but withal producing a general im¬ 
pression of barbaric splendour. 
The queen’s palace is now used as the English club, 
while many of the suites of buildings which were once the 
abode of the king's wives and ministers are now occupied as 
public offices and barracks. 
The king’s and queen's throne rooms are intact, and so 
is the great carved doorway through which Theebaw was 
once accustomed to appear in public audience ; but the lofty 
and handsome hall in front of and below this door, in which 
princes, ministers, and suitors were wont to grovel before 
the “ golden feet ” with foreheads touching the ground, has, 
with singularly bad taste, been converted into the church of 
the garrison, whose quarters, with the bungalows of the 
English officials and residents, are scattered over the now 
park-like expanse where the ancient royal city of Mandalay 
once stood. 
On the door of an adjacent chamber we saw the red finger 
marks which form a bloody record of summary vengeance 
inflicted by Tlieebaw’s queen on one of the court ladies, 
whom she suspected of bestowing too tender a glance upon 
her amiable mate. We wandered among the palm groves 
and beside the artificial waters of the beautiful palace 
grounds and gathered ferns and selaginellas in the summer 
house in which the late king capitulated to our general, dis¬ 
daining, with a pride which one cannot help admiring, to 
perform the act of abdication within the walls where he had 
reigned in undisputed supremacy. These and many other 
striking things we saw in Mandalay. 
