MANEYRA DE LAMINES), all gilt, with the reverses of the leaves in red and blue, the images that are on the pillars are stags and other animals, they are painted in colours with the pink on their faces; but the other images seated on the elephants, as well as those on the panels, are all dancing women having tattle drums (tom-toms). The designs of these panels show the positions at the ends of dances in such a way that on each panel there is a dancer in the proper position at the end of the dance; this is to teach the women, so that if they forget the position in which they have to remain when the dance is done, they may look at one of the panels where is the end of that dance. By that they keep in mind what they have to do. At the end of this house on the left hand is a painted recess where the women cling on with their hands in order better to stretch and loosen their bodies and legs; there they teach them to make the whole body supple, in order to make their dancing more graceful. At the other end, on the right, in the place where the king places himself to watch them dancing, all the floors and walls where he sits are covered with gold, and in the middle of the wall is a golden image of a woman of the size of a girl of twelve years, with her arms in the position which she occupies in the end of a dance. They did not show us more than this. The residence of the women no one may see except the eunuchs, of whom I have already told you. From here we returned by the way we had entered to the second gate, and there they again counted us. Of the city of Bisnaga they say that there are more than a hundred thousand dwelling-houses in it, all one-storeyed and flat-roofed, to each of which there is a low surrounding wall, and in this city the king lives most of the time. On the north side are rocky hills; a river runs between them, and the wall runs along the top of them, and on the farther side is a city called Nagumdym; and it has only three gates, namely one by the river, which they cross in boats embarking just at this gate;[464] one on the other side which is to the north, this is a stronger gate; and one on the north-west side, a little gate between two very high ridges; and it is such a bad road that only one horseman can pass out a time. And on the north-west side (of Bisnaga) is another city called Crisnapor[465] connected with Bisnaga, in which are all their pagodas, those in which they most worship, and all the revenue of this city is granted to them, and they say that they have a revenue of a hundred thousand PARDAOS OF gold. The pagodas are high and have great buildings with many figures of men and women, all in lascivious attitudes. On the south side is the other city called Nagalapor in a plain; in it the Ydalcao stopped with all his forces when he besieged Bisnaga, and he razed it to the ground; but already it is again rebuilt, and this is a league from Bisnaga.[466]