PEGU. 
477 
old plentifully fupply ; and on each fide of the way there 
is a drain to carry off the water. The houfes are raifed 
from the ground either on wooden ports or bamboos, ac¬ 
cording to the fize of the building. The Mourns, or mo- 
nafteries, and the habitations of the higher ranks, are 
ufually elevated fix or eight, thofe of the lower claffes 
from two to four/feet. There are no brick buildings 
either in Pegu or Rangoon, except fuch as belong to the 
king, or are dedicated to their divinity Gaudma: his ma- 
jefty having prohibited the ufe of brick or ftone in private 
buildings, from the apprehenfion, as we were informed, 
(fays Col. Symes,) that, if people got leave to build 
brick houfes, they might eredt brick fortifications, dan¬ 
gerous to the fecurity of the ftate. The houfes, there¬ 
fore, are all made of mats, or flieathing-boards, fupported 
on bamboos or ports ; but, from their being compofed of 
l’uch combuftible materials, the inhabitants are under 
continual dread of fire, againft which they take every pre¬ 
caution. The roofs are lightly covered, and at each door 
ftands a long bamboo, with an iron hook at the end, to 
pull down the thatch: there is alfo another pole, with a 
grating of iron at the extremity, about three feet Square, 
to fupprefs flame by preffure. Almort every houfe has 
earthern pots, filled with water, on the roof; and a par¬ 
ticular clafs of people, whofe hufinefs it is to prevent and 
extinguilh fires, perambulate the ftreets during the night. 
Thefe people are called Pagwaat; they are flaves of go¬ 
vernment ; men who have been found guilty of theft, 
and, through mercy, had their lives Ipared. They are 
dirtinguifhed by a black circle on each cheek, caufed by 
gunpowder and punctuation ; as well as by having on 
their breaft, in Birman characters, the word tMef, and the 
name of the article ftolen, as, on one that we afked to be 
explained to us, Putchoo Khoo, cloth-tMef. Thefe men 
patrole the ftreets at night, to put out all fires and lights 
after a certain hour. They adt as conftables, and are the 
public executioners. 
The viceroy’s habitation, though not at all a magnifi¬ 
cent manfion for the reprefentative of royalty, is notwith- 
ftanding a building of much refpedtability, compared to 
the other houfes of Pegu. It pofieffes, however, but few 
ornaments: gilding is forbidden to all fubjedts of the 
Birman empire; liberty even to lacker and paint the 
pillars of their houfes is granted to very few. 
The objeft in Pegu that molt attracts and moll merits 
notice, is the noble edifice of ' Shoemadoo, or the Golden 
Supreme, of which we have given a reprefentation in the 
lower part of the preceding Engraving, from the ad Vol. 
of Symes’s Ava. This extraordinary pile of building is 
ereCted on a double terrace, one raifed upon another. 
The lower and greater terrace is about ten feet above the 
natural level of the ground, forming an exaCt parallelo¬ 
gram : the upper and fmaller terrace is fimilar iri fhape, 
and rifes about twenty feet above the lower terrace, or 
thirty above the level of the country. Col. Symes, from 
whom this account is taken, judged a fide of the lower 
terrace to be 1391 feet; of the upper, 684. The walls 
that fuftained the fides of the terrace, both upper and 
lower, are in a ruinous ftate; they were formerly covered 
with plafter, wrought into various figures; the area of 
the lower is ftrewed with the fragments of fmall decayed 
buildings, but the upper is kept free from filth, and is in 
tolerably good order. There is reafon to conclude that 
this building and the fortrefs are coeval, as the earth of 
which the terraces are compofed appears to have been 
taken from the ditch ; there being no other excavation 
in the city, or in its neighbourhood-, that could have af¬ 
forded a tenth part of the quantity. The terraces are af- 
cended by flights of ftone fteps, which are now broken 
and negleCted. On each fide are dwellings of the priefts, 
raifed on timbers four or five feet from the ground ; 
thefe houfes confift only of a large hall; the wooden 
pillars that fupport them are turned with neatnefs ; the 
roofs are covered with tiles, and the fides are made of 
boards; and there is a number of bare benches in every 
houfe, on which the priefts fleep ; but we faw no other 
furniture. The building itfelf is pyramidical, compofed 
of brick and mortar, without excavation or aperture of 
any fort; oCtagonal at the bafe, and fpiral at top; each 
fide of the bale meafures 162 feet; this immenfe breadth 
diminilhes abruptly, and a fimilar binding has not un¬ 
aptly been compared in lhape to a large fpeaking-trumpet. 
Six feet from the ground there is a wide projection that 
furrounds the bafe, on the plane of which are fifty-feven 
fmall fpires of equal fize, and equi-diltant; one of them 
meafured twenty-feven feet in height, and forty in cir¬ 
cumference at the bottom. On a higher ledge there is 
another row, confiding of fifty-three fpires of fimilar 
lhape and meafurement. A great variety of mouldings 
encircle the building; and ornaments fomewhat refem- 
bling the fleur-de-lis Surround the lower part of the fpire ; 
circular mouldings likewife girt it to a confiderable 
height, above which there are ornaments in ftucco not 
unlike the leaves of a Corinthian capital; and the whole 
is crowned by a tee, or umbrella, of open iron-work, 
from which rifes a rod with a gilded pennant. 
The tee, or umbrella, is to be feen on every facred 
building that is of a fpiral form : the railing and conse¬ 
cration of this laft and indifpenfable appendage, is an aft 
of high religious Solemnity, and a feafon of feftivity and 
relaxation. The prefent king bellowed the tee that co¬ 
vers Shoemadoo. It was made at the capital; and many 
of the principal nobility came down from Ummerapoora 
to be prefent at the ceremony of its elevation. The cir¬ 
cumference of the tee is fifty-fix feet; it relts on an iron 
axis fixed in the building, and is farther Secured by large 
chains ftrongly rivetted to the fpire. Round the lower 
rim of the tee are appended a number of bells, which, 
agitated by the wind, make a continual jingling. The 
tee is gilt ; and all the minor pagodas are ornamented 
with proportionable umbrellas of fimilar workmanfhip, 
which are likewife encircled by fmall bells. 
The extreme height of the edifice, from the level of the 
country, is 361 feet, and above the interior terrace 331 
feet. At each angle of the interior and higher terrace 
there is a temple fixty-feven feet high, refembling, in mi¬ 
niature, the great temple: in front of that, in the South- 
weft corner, are four gigantic representations, in mafonry, 
of Palloo, or the Evil Genius, half bead, half human, 
Seated on their hams, each with a large club on the 
right (houlder. Thefe are guardians of the temple. 
Nearly in the centre of the eaft face of the area are two 
human figures in ftucco, beneath a gilded umbrella; one, 
Handing* reprefents a man with a book'before him and a 
pen in his hand ; he is called Thafiamee, the recorder of 
mortal merits and mortal mifdeeds ; the other, a female 
figure kneeling, is Mahafumdera, the protedtrefs of the 
univerfe, So long as the univerfe is doomed to laft; but, 
when the time of general diffolution arrives, by her hand 
the world is to be overwhelmed and everlailingly de- 
ftroyed. 
Along the whole extent of the north face of the upper 
terrace there is a wooden filed for the convenience of 
devotees who come from a diftant part of the country. 
On the north fide of the temple are three large bells of 
good workmanfhip, fufpended nigh the ground, between 
pillars; Several deer’s horns lie ftrewed around ; thofe 
who come to pay their devotions firft take up one of the 
horns, and ftrike the bell three times, giving an alternate 
ftroke to the ground : this adl, we are told, is to an¬ 
nounce to the Spirit of Gaudma the approach of a Sup¬ 
pliant. There are Several low benches near the foot of 
the temple, on which the perfon who comes to pray places 
his offering, commonly confiding of boiled rice, a plate of 
Sweetmeats, or cocoa-nut fried in oil; when it is given, 
the devotee cares not what becomes of it; the crows and 
wild dogs often devour it in prefence of the donor, who 
never attempts to difturb them. 
There are many fmall temples on the areas of both 
terraces, which are neglected and Suffered to fall into de¬ 
cay. 
