Untitled - Sabrizain.org

200 BTRMAH.
has succeeded to a portion of its honours.
" On en-
tering the town," says the Colonel, "we came into a
long, narrow, winding street, about thirty feet wide;
the houses were built of bamboo, and raised from the
ground. This street was full of shops, containing no
other articles than lackered ware; boxes, trays, cups,
&c., varnished in a very neat manner, were displayed
in the front of the shops; they were of various colours;
some had figures painted on them, others wreaths of
flowers. Leaving this street, we crossed a water-
course on a good wooden bridge, and came to the
bazar, or provision market ; the green-stalls seemed
to be well provided with rice, pulse, greens, garlic,
onions, and fruit; there were also fresh fish, gnapee,
and dead lizards, which latter the Birmans account a
delicacy; but there was not any meat. In our progress,
we passed over another bridge, and saw several
streets running in parallel lines: some of these were
inhabited by carriers, whose cattle were feeding on
rice straw round their houses. Having reached the
extremity of the town in this direction, we came upon
a well-paved road, that led to the great temple named
Shoezeegoon, to which we proceeded. On each side
of the road there was a range of small temples, ne-
glected and in ruins: the kioums, or monasteries,
were in good repair, and we saw some handsome
houses for the accommodation of strangers. Shoe-
zeegoon is neither so large nor so well built as the
temples at Rangoon or Pegu; the height does not
exceed 150 feet; it is surrounded with a spacious area,
paved with broad flags, on which there are a number
of smaller buildings, profusely gilded and laboriously
carved. A staircase on the outside leads up to a gal-
lery, about a third of the height of the principal
temple, whence we had an extensive prospect of the