man; and at last, that he will be allowed to rest like Buddha himself.  What is it to be good?  The Burmese say that the greatest goodness is making an idol, and next to that, making a pagoda.  You know what an idol is, but do you know what a pagoda is?  It is a house, with an idol hidden inside, and it has no door, nor window, therefore no one can get into a pagoda.  Some pagodas are very large, and others very small.  As it is thought so very good to make idols and pagodas, the whole land is filled with them; the roads in some places are lined with them; the mountains are crowned with them.

Next to making idols, and building pagodas, it is considered good to make offerings.  You may see the father climbing a steep hill to reach a pagoda, his little one by his side, and plucking green twigs as he goes.  He reaches the pagoda, and strikes the great bell, then enters the idol-house near the pagoda, and teaches his young child how to fold its little hands, and to raise them to its forehead, while it repeats a senseless prayer; then leaving the green twigs at the idol’s feet, the father descends with his child in his arms.  How many little ones, such as Jesus once took in his arms, are taught every day to serve Satan.

The people who are thought the best in Burmah, are the priests.  Any one that pleases may be a priest.  The priests pretend to be poor, and go out begging every morning with their empty dishes in their hands; but they get them well filled, and then return to the handsome house, all shining with gold, in which they live together in plenty and in pride.  They are expected to dress in rags, to show that they are poor; but not liking rags, they cut up cloth in little pieces, and sew the pieces together to make their yellow robes; and this they call wearing rags.  They pretend to be so modest, that they do not like to show their faces, and so hide them with a fan, even when they preach; for they do preach in their way, that is, they tell foolish stories about Buddha.  The name they give him is Guadama, while the Chinese call him Fo.  They have five hundred and fifty stories written in their books about him; for they say he was once a bird, a fly, an elephant, and all manner of creatures, and was so good whatever he was, that at last he was born the son of a king.

CHARACTER.—­The Burmese are a blunt and rough people.  They are not like the Chinese and the Hindoos, ready to pay compliments to strangers.  When a Burmese has finished a visit, he says, “I am going,” and his friend replies, “Go.”  This is very blunt behavior.  But all blunt people are not sincere.  The Burmese are very deceitful, and tell lies on every occasion; indeed, they are not ashamed of their falsehoods.  They are also very proud, because they fancy they were so good before they were born into this world.  All the kind actions they do are in the hope of getting more merit, and this bad motive spoils all they do.  They are kind to travellers.  In every village there is