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104 THE GREAT PAGODA OF BURMAH.

speculation. ‘To look once more at the crowd from
which we have parted for a time, we shall find that
on reaching the plateau the Burmans have all made
for one or other of the numerous temples or shrines,
where, taking off their shoes and bowing until their
foreheads have touched the ground, they light their
candles and place them on the shrine, and after a
few moments spent in intense devotion, they make
their offering of flowers, or rice, or fruit, and then
—their worship over—give themselves up to
amusement. Others who have brought offerings
for the priests, or for the Pagoda, resort to the head
Poonghie who, seated on a mat in a shed, receives
the alms of the people: these, whether coins for the
priests or books of gold-leaf for the decoration of the
Pagoda, he never touches—but the people deposit
them ina huge iron chest, six feet high, having
a lion’s head at each corner with mouth open to
receive coins. Litanies are sung from time to
time with certain musical inflections which remind
one much of Gregorian tones.

But leaving the Burmans to their devotion and
their amusement, let us look at the Pagoda itself,
which rises out of the midst of this platform a
perfect picture of architectural grace and beauty.
Its base is octagonal and surrounded, as we see in the
picture, by a host of smaller pagodas and grotesque
tgures. Its perfect solidity has been proved, for
a myth that there was a central chamber contain-
ing unknown treasure was too much for the self-
restraint of the British Soldier with a keen scent
for prize-money, and the question was settled soon
after the taking of Rangoon, and the enterprising
fellows had their labour in vain. Of the date of
its erection there is no record, although there
seems reason for thinking that it was the work of
many years, and that successive kings added to
its bulk by repeated coverings of masonry as acts
of devotion to Guadama. From its base it assumes
the form of a bell, or, more correctly, it is conoidal,
and tapers gracefully to a lofty point, which is
surmounted by the Htee, or umbrella of open brass-
work, forty-five feet in height; from which are
suspended rows of bells with bars of metal tied to
their tongues, so that the slightest breeze sets
them ringing. The extreme height of the Pagoda
from the plateau on which it stands is not less
than 350 feet. This Htee is about to give place to
another much larger and more costly, which the King
of Independent Burmah has long been preparing
at Mandalay, and which has within the last few
weeks been despatched to Rangoon. The frame-
work of this huge umbrella is of iron, but is
covered with thick plates of solid gold. The bells
are likewise of gold, inlaid with rubies, and the
cost of this ornament cannot be less than 60,000/.
At one time the whole Pagoda was gilded from
summit to base. ‘The heavy rains of successive

south-west monsoons have in the course of cen-
turies washed this nearly off, and the Pagoda
looked dull and dingy. The pious Buddhists have
again set to work, and, as our engraving shows,
have gilded from the summit to the convex edge
of the bell-shape dome, where the ladders, on
which the gilders work, are seen hanging. When
the full blaze of a tropical sun sets on this newly-
gilded work, it is impossible to look at the Pagoda
with the naked eye. We believe that the Pagoda
at Pegu is older and somewhat larger than the
Great Pagoda of Rangoon, but it is not regarded
with as much veneration, neither is it so univer-
sally resorted to by pilgrims.

We have omitted to state that on the platform
are two enormous bells, into whose composition
gold and silver enter very largely. These are
suspended under sheds; they have no clappers,
but are struck by a deer’s horn. The metal of the
larger of the two-is one foot thick, and the mouth
is six feet in diameter; if only such bells could be
rung the tones would be magnificent. The smaller
bells which are suspended from the umbrella at
the top of the Pagoda, and, indeed, from every
available point, are not bells at all, according to
our estimate of such things. They are solid
triangles of metal of varying thickness, which on
being struck emit most musical sounds. The rich-
ness of the material of the larger bells tempts our
soldiers and others to chip off pieces as trophies
and mementoes, and one of the bells was carried
away bodily in 1825 with a view to hanging it in
Calcutta; but in endeavouring to place it on board
ship the soldiers managed to let it fall into the
river, where it would have remained until now, had
not the Burmese raised it from the bed of the

| river, and restored it to its former position on the

platform of the Pagoda. All these bells are
covered with inscriptions in Pali (the ancient and
sacred language of the country) and the modern
Burmese language.

We have hitherto said nothing about the Bud-
dhist creed, to which service this magnificent temple
is dedicated, and many of our readers will no doubt
be unprepared for the statement, that while all
professing Christians of every sect and denomina-
tion in the wide world are considerably fewer than
300,000,000, the Buddhist religion has not fewer
than 455,000,000, adherents. A creed which sup-
plies the hopes and fears of nearly half the inhabi-
tants of the globe, cannot be regarded as a merely
vain superstition and undeserving of our notice.
English people often forget that the religions of
India flourished many centuries before the Christian
era, and that they were in full vigour at that time.
Their antiquity is brought before us the more
clearly, by the fact that Buddhism, which arose
more than 600 years B.c., was itself the offshoot of

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