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BIRMAH. 221
rates the court of the lotoo from that of the royal
palace, which no nobleman is allowed to tread with
covered feet. The royal saloon of ceremony into which
they were now ushered, was an open hall, supported
by colonnades of pillars, twenty in length and four in
depth. The basement of the throne, as in the lotoo,
was alone visible : it was about five feet from the floor.
Folding-doors screened the seat. The whole was
richly gilded and carved. On each side extended a
small gallery, enclosed with a gilded balustrade, a few
feet in length, containing four umbrellas of state; and
on two tables at the foot of the throne, were placed
several large vessels of gold, of various forms. Imme-
diately over the throne, a splendid piasath rose in
seven stages above the roof of the building, crowned
by a tee, from which issued a spiral rod. "We had
been seated little more than a quarter of an hour,"
says the colonel, " when the folding-doors that concealed
the seat, opened with a loud noise, and disco-
vered his majesty* ascending a flight of steps
led up
that
to the throne from the inner apartment. He
advanced but slowly, and seemed not to possess the free
use of his limbs, being obliged to support himself with
his hands on the balustrade. I was informed, how-
ever, that this appearance of weakness did not proceed
from any bodily infirmity, but from the weight of the
regal habiliments in which he was clad: and if what
we were told was true, that he carried on his dress
fifteen viss (upwards of fifty pounds avoirdupois) of
gold, his difficulty of ascent is not surprising. On
reaching the top, he stood for a minute, as though to
* This was Minderajee-praw, who, "wearied with the fatigues
of royalty, went up to amuse himself in the celestial regions," in
1819, after a prosperous reign of thirty-seven years, and was succeeded
by his favourite grandson, the present emperor.