On the third day after the burning, the relations go to the place and collect the ashes, which are placed in an urn and buried, and a cenotaph is erected over the remains. All this time a festival is kept up at the house of the deceased. Readers are engaged, who read out poetry and history. Much feasting and drinking goes on, and this is all done to keep off the thoughts of their loss from the minds of the relations. On the ninth day the concluding feast to the priests is given, and all is over. The arts of the Burmese are very simple, as may be expected.[167] Their progress in them has been very small, chiefly on account “of the great simplicity of their dress and houses.” Every one builds his own house, and the females of the family can manufacture all the apparel that is required by the family. The silkworm is kept in Ava, and the products of the looms of that province, though susceptible of improvement, yet deserve high commendation for the strength of the material and brilliancy of the colours. Carving in wood, an art at which a semi-civilised nation generally soon arrives, has been brought to some degree of perfection; but painting, the kindred art, is here, as among all Oriental nations, in a very languishing condition. Lately, at a meeting of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, a very interesting picture by a Burmese artist was exhibited. Dr. A. Thomas, who presented it to the society, thus describes it:—“On one side of the picture is represented the royal palace and the royal monastery; the priests in their sacerdotal garb, the white elephant, &c. &c. are all shown. On the other side is a grand procession showing that a lad is about to enter into the order of priesthood.” In painting flowers the Burmese are not so bad, but, like the Chinese, they have very imperfect notions of drawing and perspective. The betel boxes and drinking-cups are exceedingly curious. They are formed of very fine basket-work of bamboo, covered with varnish, which is brought from China in very great quantities. An interesting account of their manufacture is given by Colonel Burney in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal; but the exact volume has escaped me. Working in gold, as among their kindred in America, the Incas and the Mexicans, has been perfected in no slight degree. In casting bells, too, no Oriental nations can compete with them. “Such are the principal arts,” concludes Sangermano,[168] “of the Burmese; and if they are in a low state, this must be attributed more to the destructive despotism of their government than to the want of genius or inclination of the people, for they have in reality a great talent in this way. It is the emperor, with his mandarins, who is the obstacle in the way of the industry of his subjects; for no sooner has any artist distinguished himself for his skill, than he is constrained to work for the emperor or his ministers, and this without any profit, farther than an uncertain patronage.”