Untitled - Sabrizain.org

BIRMAH. 169
being no other excavation in the city, or in its neighbourhood,
that could have afforded a tenth part of the
quantity.
"The terraces are ascended by flights
steps,
of stone
which are now broken and neglected. On each
side are dwellings of the rhahaans, raised on timbers
four or five feet from the ground. These houses con-
sist only of a large hall ; the wooden pillars that support
them are turned with neatness; the roofs are
covered with tiles, and the sides are made of boards.
There are a number of bare benches in every house,
on which the rhahaans sleep; but we saw no other
furniture.
" Shoemadoo is a pyramidical building, composed of
brick and mortar, without excavation or aperture of
any sort, octagonal at the base, and spiral at top;
each side of the base measures 162 feet : this immense
breadth diminishes abruptly, and has not unaptly been
compared in shape to a large speaking-trumpet. Six
feet from the ground, there is a wide projection that
surrounds the base, on the plane of which are fiftyseven
small spires of equal size, and equidistant : one
of them measured twenty-seven feet in height, and
forty in circumference at the bottom. On a higher
ledge there is another row, consisting of fifty-three
spires of similar shape and measurement. A great
variety of moulding^ encircle the building ; and ornaments
somewhat resembling the fleur-de-lis surround
the lower part of the spire; circular mouldings like-
wise girt it to a considerable height, above which
there are ornaments in stucco, not unlike the leaves of
a Corinthian capital ; and the whole is crowned with
a tee, or umbrella, of open iron-work, from which
rises a rod with a gilded pennant.
"The circumference of the tee is fifty-six feet; it