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BIRMAH. 217
landing-place to the fort, the colonel supposes to be
two miles. Within the fort are the dwellings of the
official persons. They passed through a market supplied
with rice, pulse, and other vegetables, but saw
neither meat nor fish. At the distance of two short
streets from the palace, they dismounted and proceeded
on foot to the rhoom> a lofty hall, raised four or
five feet from the ground, and open on all sides, in the
centre of a spacious area, about a hundred yards from
the gate of the palace. On entering this saloon, they
were required to put off their shoes, and to take their
seats on the carpets spread for them, with their faces
towards the palace gate, awaiting the arrival of the
princes of the royal family.
The prince of Pah-gahn, the junior in rank, though
not in years, being born of a different mother, first made
his appearance, mounted on the neck of a very fine ele-
phant,* which he guided himself, while a servant behind
screened him from the sun with a gilded cliattah.
Fifty musketeers led the way; next came a number of
halberdiers, carrying spears with gilded shafts and decorated
with gold tassels, followed by six or eight officers
of his household, dressed in velvet robes, with em-
broidered caps, and chains of gold depending from the
left shoulder to the right side; these immediately pre-
* Men of rank in Birmah always guide their own elephants,
sitting on the neck in the same manner as the drivers do in India.
Owing to this custom, they are unprovided with those commodious
seats in which an Indian gentleman reposes at ease on the back of
this noble beast while the guidance is intrusted to the attendant.
Colonel Symes was placed in a large wicker basket, somewhat re-
sembling the body of an open carriage, but smaller, without any
seat, but carpeted, and fastened to the animal by iron chains passed
round his body : the equipage was neither comfortable nor elegant.
It is remarkable, that the drivers, instead of making the
elephant kneel to receive his rider, guided him to a stage erected
for the purpose of mounting.