Boat-racing is another very favourite national amusement. In the racing boats are many rowers, with short paddles, and the races are scenes of wild excitement, both on the part of the competitors and spectators. There is a good deal of betting in connection with these races. The gambling spirit easily takes hold of the Burmans. All games of chance have a great fascination with this excitable, volatile people, and they fall an easy prey to the low, cunning Chinaman, who makes it his business to introduce gambling into the village, and to profit by it. The Burmans are also exceedingly fond of the drama. For every conceivable event that can by any ingenuity be made a special occasion, there must be what is called a _pwè_. I have known a _pwè_ in honour of a birth, and I have known one given to celebrate a death—the execution of a noted dacoit leader, who had been a great curse to the neighbourhood, and had long defied justice—and for almost any occasion occupying an intermediate position between the two, one of these dramatic performances would not be out of place. There are no permanent buildings used as theatres. The performance takes place in the open street. The temporary erection used as the stage is constructed of the useful and indispensable bamboo. It is set up in the street, and extends frequently halfway across it. The rest of the thoroughfare is blocked up with the couches the spectators bring from their homes to sit upon; and traffic is almost suspended in that direction for the time being. All this preparation takes place during the day. The play begins after dark, and goes on until towards sunrise. Temporary stalls for the sale of food are set up at the edge of the crowd, and the people by hundreds make a night of it. The dramas are founded on tales which Gautama (Buddha) told of his five hundred and ten previous existences, or on events in the lives of kings and heroes. The dialogue is chiefly recitative, interspersed with solos, choruses and dancing. Instrumental music accompanies the singing. There is always the clown or jester on these occasions, who has his turn in the course of the performance, and roars of laughter greet the broad jokes he furnishes. The whole performance is free. The custom is for some person to hire the players, and bear the expense of the entertainment, inviting his friends, and throwing it open to all. Pickled tea is handed round among the guests on these occasions as a kind of dessert, mixed with salt, garlic, assafœtida and a few grains of millet seed. It has an anti-soporific effect, and so serves to keep them awake, to listen to the drama.