[Sidenote: 24. The Moat, Fort Dufferin.] [Sidenote: 25. King Thebaw’s Palace.] [Sidenote: 26. The Aindaw Temple, Mandalay.] [Sidenote: 27. Maker of Temple Htis, Mandalay.] The Dufferin Fort was built around the Palace of King Thebaw, the last of the Burmese dynasty. It is enclosed by a square of red walls pierced by three gates on each side, each gate bearing a pointed pagoda-like super-structure. Without there is a broad moat, a hundred yards wide, with lotus plants, floating in it like water lilies. This moat is crossed by five wooden bridges. Inside the walls is the King’s Palace, of which we have here the spire, surmounted by a “hti” finial. This spire is called by the Burmese the “Centre of the Universe,” since it is in the centre of Mandalay, which they claim as in the centre of the world. A “hti” we may observe again at the summit of the great Aindaw Temple in the south of Mandalay, and here we have one before it has left the home of its maker. [Sidenote: 28. The Queen’s Palace.] [Sidenote: 29. The Verandah of King Thebaw’s Palace.] [Sidenote: 30. Entrance to the Arakan temple, Mandalay.] We return to the Fort, and to the palaces within it. This is the Queen’s Palace, a very beautiful building of gilded teak, exquisitely carved, and here is the verandah where King Thebaw in 1885 surrendered to the British generals. He was taken away to India, and there he still lives under surveillance on the Malabar Coast. Here we have the entrance to the Arakan Temple, specially venerated by Buddhists, for it contains a great image of Gautama, over twelve feet high, made of brass. Pilgrims gain merit by placing gold leaf upon this figure. This is the building which Kipling spoke of as the Moulmein Pagoda; it is not, however, a pagoda, which is a solid spire, but a temple.