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114 BIRMAH.
tude. The priest who, prompted by ambition, falsely
and impudently pretends to have obtained the extraor-
dinary gifts of zian or of meipo, or to have arrived
at nieban, is no longer a priest of the divine order.
To what can he be ? compared In the same manner
as a palm-tree cut through the middle can never be
rejoined so as to live in such manner shall this am-
;
bitious priest be unworthy of
belonging to the sacred order." *
being esteemed as
The priests have no regular service like the mass.
" As far as I could learn," Dr. Buchanan says,
"
they do not officiate at all in the temples. Very
few of them were present at any religious ceremonies
or processions; nor do any of them appear to take
charge of the temples or images. Their time seems
to be employed in instructing the youth, in reading,
and soliciting alms."f This statement is hardly
consistent with the account which represents them as
passing a great part of their time reposing in sequestered
and umbrageous spots, as if absorbed in contem-
plation. The Birmans are very fond of processions:
scarcely a week passes, Colonel Symes says, in
which there is not a religious spectacle of some kind
at Rangoon ; either a pompous funeral, or rather
incineration, or some festival or ceremony. They
observe a species of Lent, which is followed by a
month of public festivity. In their prayers, they use
rosaries; these are made sometimes of amber beads,
sometimes of seeds, especially those of the Canna
Indica, a plant peculiarly sacred to Buddha, and supposed
to have sprung from his blood, when, once upon
a time, he cut his foot with a stone. They are in pos-
* Asiat. Res. vol. vi. p. 289. Ziau and meipo are different de-
grees of abstraction or absorption,
t Asiat. Res. vol. vi. p. 279.