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BIRMAH. 81
ing an offering; and the person who thus announces
the fact, is both worshipper and bellman.
"
Nearly allied to the religion of the Birmans are
their superstitious ideas. They have their fortunate
and unfortunate days, and no affair of importance is
undertaken without consulting astrologers. The par-
ticular day and hour, with the position of the planets,
are carefully observed on the birth of a child. A man's
fortune may be read on the lines of the palm of his
hand. They believe in the. existence of evil spirits,
ghosts, and witches, in demoniacal possessions, and the
use of charms. According to their ideas, the cholera
morbus has been several times expelled from Rangoon
by the noise produced by the simultaneous discharge
of cannons and muskets, and beating the houses with
bamboos. In the year 1823, when the cholera was
extensively fatal, the supreme court at Ava issued an
order that the inhabitants should wear the title of the
heir apparent, written on a small slip of paper, in the
hole of the lobe of their ears, as an infallible specific
against the effects of that destructive demon.* If a
vulture perch upon a house, some awful calamity
threatens its inhabitants, and they immediately abandon
it. The doctrine of transmigration leads them
into the absurdity of propitiating their future destiny
*
Capt. Cox relates a disgusting instance of this medical superstition.
A criminal's body was exposed above ground, pinned to
the earth, and left to
"
rot, The king's doctor cut off the tip of
his nose, ears, lips, tongue, and fingers, which, with some of his
blood, is to form a compound in some medicine of wonderful
efficacy in insuring longevity and prosperity to those who are so
happy as to obtain a portion of it from his majesty's bounty. This
is one of the palace nostrums, of which there are many others
equally mystic in the preparation, and wonderful in the operation.
These his majesty occasionally dispenses to the credulous multi-
tude." Cox's Journal, p. 342.
F 2