CHAPTER XIII.

MAKING GOLD.

THE Burmese have no more escaped from the craze for the discovery of the philosopher's stone than other civilised peoples. Even at the present day there are numbers of goldsmiths and other handicraftsmen in the principal towns of Lower Burma who might be prosperous and happy, did not the craving for the discovery of a means of making gold perpetually disturb their minds, and impel them to waste their earnings in dabblings with mercury and strange-looking mineral and vegetable products. Mercury is what the experimenter always starts with. Every would-be discoverer commences his researches with mercury; and it is on this account a matter for congratulation that it is so expensive; otherwise, we might have far more people doing damage to themselves and others than is even now the case. The last great fire in Rangoon was caused by a searcher after secrets capsizing his crucible while suddenly pouring in mercury. For greater secrecy, and because his horoscope said it was a favourable time, he was working at three in the morning. house took fire; and when day dawned the whole of Edward Street-one of the wealthiest inhabited by Burmans -was a heap of smouldering ashes. The originator of

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the fire, instead of being abused for his carelessness, was condoled with, because he was able to assert that the accident happened at the supreme moment, when he was trembling on the verge of the great discovery that would have made his own and all the neighbouring goldsmiths' fortunes. But accidents of this kind are not of frequent occurrence. The damage is usually limited to burnt fingers, and constitutions shattered with the red fumes of the heated mercury. Sometimes, however, men who have lost. their possessions, in attempting to make gold, fall upon the notion of repairing their fortunes by making moneycoining as it is called in ordinary parlance. Luckily, few have the skill requisite for this "smashing" business; and the counterfeit coin put about is such as should hardly deceive any man who has ever seen a genuine piece of money before.

Naturally with so many people experimenting, there are always rumours of the discovery having been made. Indeed, methods are known by which the great object can be attained-with proper care and the selection of a favourable hour. One of these is quite infallible, and is so regarded even by those who have tried it many times without success. If there has been any failure it is because of some miscalculation in selecting a lucky moment from the sadah, the horoscope which every one possesses; or because some unavoidable hitch in the operations allowed the propitious hour to pass. That there is any doubt about the feasibility of the process no one dreams of hinting. Have not skilled sayahs exhibited the metal―undoubted gold—which they have made?

This method is as follows. On the slopes of Kyaikhtee-yoh, the hill on which, perched on a gigantic boulder, stands the famed pagoda of that name, grows a peculiar kind of tree, the stem of which is flattened out in a

singular way, so that it gets the name of say nga-pè, from a flat flounder-like fish called nga-pè. This tree is cut down, and the trunk is chopped into little pieces, which are then squeezed in as effectual a way as the limited machineries in a Burman's household can do it. The chips are pressed between two stones; or the bullock-cart is passed over them; or the good man of the house puts his teak box on the top of them, and summons the family to sit upon it. Any way, the chips must be well squeezed; many failures are due to remissness in this respect. The chips are next thrown into a long crucible, half-filled with mercury, and the mixture is subjected to the heat of a roaring wood fire. By this simple process, the Sayahs have obtained pure gold-a little mixed with ashes, if there has been too much of the say nga-pè, but otherwise pure enough to content the most fastidious assayist. The only time I ever witnessed the operation myself, we were prematurely choked off by the wood smoke and the red fumes of the mercury; and when we went back again towards sunrise, we got nothing but a quantity of very malodorous charred wood. There was a mistake somewhere in conducting the experiment.

There is another method well vouched for, and it is much less trying to the temper and constitution than the other, though perhaps a little more difficult of execution; seeing that a good deal depends upon extraneous help, which is not always available, and then only in special localities. You get a small piece of pala-dohtta, copperas, or green vitriol, and persuade a fish to swallow it. Any kind of fish will not do. You must seek out the nga hkohn-ma, a silvery fish which grows to the length of about a foot, and is, I believe, known to science as Barbus sarana. It is most certain if introduce the copperas you into the living fish, let the creature loose, and catch it

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again. If you are in a hurry, however, it is sufficient to put the copperas into the dead creature's stomach. When it is taken out again it is quite changed in appearance. I have never been fortunate enough to see the thing done, but Sayahs say the change is quite remarkable. This new substance is put into a mass of copper, and either allowed to remain there till the change comes about, or heated in a crucible to accelerate the process. In a successful experiment half the metal should become pure silver, and the other half remain copper, the two being on seperate sides of the vessel and not mixed up together. This method, competent alchemists say, is infallible; but somehow it does not seem to enrich them. Perhaps they spend their gains in searching after more lucrative processes. When you can make silver, the desire to make gold is doubtless, only intensified.

I will mention only one more method, which was more satisfactory than any while it lasted, but was brought to an abrupt end by the exhaustion of the raw material. A ship was driven on shore near Negrais, the promontory on the south-west coast of Burma, and was broken up in a violent storm. Among the wreckage was discovered a small quantity of some substance, which those who found it called a-yet hkè (congealed or solidified spirit), on the analogy of yay hkè (ice). How they came to try it I do not know; but after a while it was found out that this was the grand secret. A small fragment of this stuff proved thoroughly effectual in converting the baser metals into gold. No matter what it was tried on-tin, copper, lead, iron-the result was always satisfactory, and the discoverers travelled about the country for a time turning other people's scraps of metal into gold. Then the supply of the a-yet hkè ran out; and the great question is now where to get more of it. The invention of "compressed

beer" created hope; but the acquisition of that article was disillusionizing. It had not the magical properties of the a-yet hkè, and it was not good to drink. There is here, perhaps, a promising field for sympathetic western industry. It may be hoped that the wrecking of the ship had nothing to do with communicating its special virtue to the "compressed spirit"; otherwise we might have an alarming series of maritime disasters all round the Gulf of Martaban. Burning houses to get roast pig would be a trifle to this.

These are a few of the methods adopted, and they may be taken as samples of them all. None of them are more scientific, and the three I have described enjoy the reputation of being entirely successful in the right hands. But the practice is much discountenanced by the pious. Alchemy is specially denounced by the Lord Buddha. It tends to induce covetousness; and the striving is in itself the best evidence of a love for the things of this world, which incapacitate a man for the contemplative states of zahn and arupa-how much more, then, for neh'ban. The monks, the Assembly of the Perfect, of course denounce it; for, in addition to the consulting of horoscopes-itself, though universal (the Pohn-gyee himself had one drawn up when he was a week old) a Brahminical practice, and remote from true Budhism-there are numerous other observances connected with alchemy which are still more heretical. In addition to consulting his

sadah for a lucky hour, the alchemist frequently also obtains omens through the augurs from the bones of a sacrificial fowl. It is arranged that the thigh-bones of a chicken shall be examined. A condition is imposed that the bones shall exactly correspond, or that there shall be certain defined differences. The hollows for the tendons, for example, shall be like or unlike, the bones shall be even