and young men and girls dancing and singing of the potency of the powder and the accuracy of the aim which will gain for them the glory of setting fire to the pyre. Each rocket has a figure of some kind, a nat-dewah, a tiger, a hare, or a beeloo attached to it. Some of them are of huge size, constructed of the stems of trees hollowed out, and crammed full of combustibles, in which sulphur largely predominates. Many are eight or nine feet long and four or five in circumference, and secured by iron hoops and rattan lashings. Up in Mandalay some are very much larger. These are let off at the funeral pile from a distance of forty or fifty yards, the largest being mounted on go-carts, and many others guided by a rope fastened to the pyathat, the rocket sliding along by means of twisted cane loops. The great majority fail to have any other effect than making a great splutter and poisoning the air. A few refuse to budge at all; others topple off their carts and fizzle erratically on the grass. A pohn-gyee byan in Burma Proper is always attended with loss of life. Some one, at any rate, of the bigger rockets is sure to fly off at a tangent and plunge into the crowd, where its weight, to say nothing of its fiery belchings, is sure to find one or more victims. In Lower Burma it is only by the strictest police regulations, and a rigorous maintaining of order in the spectators, and system in the pyrotechnists, that like catastrophes do not happen. At last some lucky dohn plunges right into the inflammable materials piled below the bier, and in a few minutes the flames are leaping high above the topmost pinnacle of the spire. Roof after roof falls, setting fire to the offerings placed round the basement. The joints of bamboo explode with a noise like a pistol shot; the crowd cheer each separate occurrence, and when finally the central spire falls with a hiss, a shout rises from the

multitude which suggests anything but death and pious observance. But here in the manoht-tha pyee all is changeful, sad, and unreal, and one more death brings but nearer to the final rest of neh'ban.

When the last smouldering embers have cooled, the monastic brethren search for any pieces of bones that may remain, and these are carefully gathered up and buried somewhere near the pagoda. Sometimes, in the case of a particularly saintly man, they are pounded down, mixed into a paste with thit-see, and moulded into an image of the Buddha, which is stored up in the monastery. The custom followed in other Buddhist countries of erecting a shrine over the dead, is, in accordance with the teachings of Shin Gautama, an honour but rarely accorded in Burma.

WHEN a Burman dies, after the first interval of poignant grief on the part of those present, the body is carried to the side of the central room of the house, abutting on the front verandah, and there deposited between the house posts. Messages are then sent to the monastery, to the friends and neighbours, and a funeral band is summoned. Meanwhile the corpse is carefully washed from head to foot, and the two big toes, and usually also the thumbs, are tied together with the hkyay-ma gyoh and the let-ma gyoh, which, if practicable, should be locks of the hair of a son or daughter, but if this is not to be got, a strip of cotton cloth is used. The whole body then, from the armpits downwards, is closely swathed in new white cotton cloth, and when this is done the best clothes the deceased possessed are put on. If the family is wealthy the pasoh or tamehn is often very rich and costly. The face is always left uncovered, unless there are special reasons for concealing it arising from the cause of death. Between the teeth is placed the kadoh-ka, a piece of gold or silver as ferry-money to pay for the passage of the mystic river, which is known to exist, but concerning which no further particulars are to be got from any Burman I ever met. It

is no doubt a relic of old demon-worship, the meaning of which is forgotten, while the custom has clung on. Charon's toll of course immediately occurs to the classical reader. If the family is very poor, a copper or lead coin is used, or perhaps nothing more valuable than a betel nut. The coin, whatever it is, is usually quietly carried off by the grave-diggers. None but an outcast would venture to do such a thing.

By this time, or if the death occurred at night, in the early morning, the band has arrived, and commences to play dirges in front of the house. The Soola-gandee monks greatly disapprove of this practice, as savouring of ostentation, and their followers therefore often dispense with the band, as do many Burmans in the large English towns. But otherwise the band is always engaged, and plays on steadily till the funeral takes place. Almost invariably, too, one or more of the yahans from the monastery comes along and stays in the house, their presence being invaluable in keeping away evil spirits, who might otherwise loiter about the place. The monk may or may not deliver a discourse, just as he sees fit. The body is then put into the coffin, which is a very flimsy kind of affair, ordinarily made of let-pan (Bombax malabaricum), a very light and porous kind of wood not unlike deal, or sometimes of eng tree (Dipterocarpus tuberculatus). This is fastened down roughly with any kind of nails that come to hand. A number of the relatives and friends now come to condole and lend their assistance in making and ornamenting the bier and hearse, most of them bringing presents of money or food with them. A few years ago a very meritorious society called Oopathakah was started in Rangoon, the object of which was to provide decent and honourable burial for all members. The actual society did not last very long, but it served to show that

the old feeling of mutual help still existed. At no time, however, have the Burmans been backward in this mehtsway a-poung a-paw, which is one of the thirty-eight points insisted on in the Mingala-thoht, the most favourite sermon of the Lord Buddha's. Friends and neighbours troop in with presents of a few pice, baskets of rice, meat, fruit, tobacco, betel, and material for decorating the bier, so that a man who in his life-time never had a rupee to bless himself with, receives in Lower Burma a funeral grand enough to bring everybody connected with it under the scope of the sumptuary laws, if it were held in King Theebaw's territory.

The body is kept a longer or shorter time according to the station of the deceased. If he was rich, the preparation of the funeral paraphernalia takes some time, and it is nowadays almost a matter of ceremonial necessity that all children and blood relations should assemble for the burial. Technically if the death occurred on the last day of the month the funeral ceremonies should take place before midnight, certainly before the new moon appears. This rule however, is far from being strictly observed in British territory. A poor man is buried as quickly as possible to save expense; a rich man's obsequies last according to the pride of his family and their inclination to spend money. The coffin, called hkoung, is usually covered with tinsel paper, or perhaps gilt. The talah, the bier, is shaded by a light canopy, or spire made of bamboo, and carried by means of four long bamboo poles. This pya-that is usually most gaily decorated with coloured pasteboard, tinsel, and paintings of different kinds, and looks strangely bright and theatrical to Europeans. It is carpentered and decorated in the street before the house, for it is from eight or ten to twenty or thirty feet in height, and often overtops all the houses in the quarter.