[66] Page 75. [67] Edinburgh Review, No. xliv. p. 354, Jan. 1814. [68] I am chiefly indebted to Sangermano, pp. 76-9; and Crawfurd, vol. ii. pp. 157-9. [69] Page 77. [70] Description, p. 77. [71] Now, however, the soldiers have attempted to get into uniform, and wear belts and conical cases of tin, to resemble the English cap. [72] Snodgrass, Narrative of the Burmese War, pp. 64 and 65. We shall hereafter return to these excellent “soldiers and gentlemen.” [73] Ava, vol. ii. p. 160. [74] Burmese War, p. 21. [75] Description, p. 78. [76] Sangermano, p. 79. [77] Burmese War, p. 205. [78] Ralph Fitch, in Hakluyt, vol. ii. p. 259. London, 1599. [79] See p. 18. [80] I have preferred to give the spelling of the black-letter folio, as it is not very corrupt, and lends additional quaintness to the writer’s remarks. [81] Page 61. [82] This intimated that the elephant was the divine ruler of the other animals, and the scarlet borla of the Peruvian Inca was bound upon its temples.—Prescott, Conquest of Peru, vol. ii. p. 44. [83] Herodotus has recorded the fact of the fishermen of Egypt hanging their nets around them to keep off the mosquitoes.—Herod. ii. c. 95. The following remarks, for which I am indebted to my friend the Rev. J. G. Wood, M.A., will, I am sure, interest the reader:— “The same precautions are taken now. The fisherman plants a pole, usually his fishing-pole, upright in the ground, and disposes his net over it so as to form a kind of tent. Under this he sleeps securely, as no flies dare pass through the meshes of a net, even were they an inch wide. This may be proved by stretching a series of crossed threads across an open window. No flies will venture to pass through the spaces, as they evidently take the net for the toils of some overgrown spider. Should, however, a gauze curtain be drawn across the window, and a small hole made in it, plenty of flies will creep through. By thus stretching a net, it is possible, even in the heat of summer, to enjoy the full benefit of the fresh air, and yet to have the satisfaction of knowing that your winged foes are buzzing outside in useless anxiety. There must be no cross light, or the flies do not appear to see the net.” [84] Crawfurd, vol. i. p. 247. [85] Description, p. 63. [86] Description of the Burmese Empire. Compiled from native documents, by the Rev. Father Sangermano. Translated from his MS. by W. Tandy. Published at Rome in 1833, in the invaluable series of the Oriental Translation Committee. I have abridged the lengthy details in the work of the father. [87] Sangermano, Description, p. 2. See Buchanan, Asiatic Researches, vol. vi. p. 168. The latter tells us that these measures are not used in Burmah. Who can wonder at it? [88] Strange this is; but at the same time it displays a species of physical and mechanical knowledge which we should hardly have expected in these legends. [89] Sangermano, p. 3. [90] Buchanan, Asiat. Res. vol. vi. p. 175.