Burmese Sketches - Khamkoo

BURMESE SKETCHES. 2^9
came and presented him with a celestial dagger. The genera-
lity of the Burmans believe this. Little do they know that this
weapon is nothing but emblematical of the bravery, coolness,
shrewdness, discipline, and administrative ability, which mark
one as a ruler of men.
The sycophant, who records the events of the second Anglo-
Burmese war, puts down that a number of ship-wrecked Kalas
arrived in the country. They wanted food and clothing. They
grew importunate ; and to get rid of them His Majesty, the
Dispenser of life and death, the Ruler of land and water, drove
them out by the supernatural powder of a weapon called the
^gccc6^c6i* This is how a native historian glozes over the
Yandabo treaty, and especially the article which binds the
Burmese monarch to pay a war indemnity of some crores of
rupees to the English.
In the reign of Bodawpaya, the Mah3 Muni Image was
brought by land via Padaung on wheeled contrivances. On
its way, the back part of its head w^as smashed and the
royal engineers managed to patch it up with the help of the
thiise and gold leaf. The national historian exults over the
event and records that, while the image was being cast, the
cleavage in the head would not close up. so Gautama Buddha
came by an aerial journey and snaking his appearance near the
*' smithy exclaimed ; Younger brother, I will let your head close
up by applying the warmth of my bosom to it." The historian
adds that the Sage acted accordingly, and that the cleavage in
the head of the Image, to close up which had hitherto baffled
the ingenuity of the most skilful of the smiths, closed up of its
own accord.
There are only two classes of people in Burma, who, by
habit and culture, are competent to place on record the events
which are taking place around them. They are the priests
and the officials employed about the palace. The members
of the former class are, how^ever, too much absorbed in their
studies of the Tripitaka, too much engrossed in surveying the
miseries, cares and sorrows of this ephemeral world, and in
finding out means to enable them to escape from the whirlpool
oisamsara or transmigration, so that they have no time left to
direct their attention to compiling secular histories. If we turn
to the latter class, we find that they are fitted by every
circumstance to become the historians of their nation. They
* The handkerchief of the Thagyamin and a quibble on the whiteness of silver^
i.e., the large indemnity in silver given to the British East India Company.