An instance is on record of a venerable monk being called from Mandalay to settle a dispute between two parties concerning some religious point, in a town on the banks of the Irrawaddy. On his arrival the whole population lined both sides of the path up to the monastery, and kneeling, they loosed down their long black hair, for the men as well as the women wear it long, and spread it across the path, so that he walked all the distance from the river bank to the monastery on human tresses. The pagodas are the ordinary resorts of the people as places of worship; not all of them, however, for the great majority are merely erected as works of merit, and never attain any celebrity as places of worship; only the chief and most notable shrines. There the people assemble of an evening, and are to be seen in the flagged open space around the pagoda, on their knees in the open air, repeating their devotions in Pali. Though many of them come together, it is not of the nature of congregational worship, nor is any one appointed to lead their devotions. It is each one for himself. There is no prayer in our sense of that term, that is, petition. With no God to address, what place is there for prayer? Buddhism knows no higher being than the Buddha, and he is gone, twenty-four centuries ago, into Nirvana. The sentences they utter in Pali consist of expressions in praise of Buddha, the Law, and the Monastic Order. Images of Buddha are extensively used, but for all that, the people can hardly be called idolaters. The burning of candles and of incense at worship time is customary. The Burmese “duty days,” of which there are four in the month, are observed on the eighth of the crescent, the full, the eighth of the waning, and the change of the moon. These are kept more strictly as worship days during what is called the _Wah_ than at any other time. That is the period from July to October, which is observed as a time of special fasting and solemnity, ever since the days of their founder, who used to spend this, the rainy season, when travelling about in India is scarcely practicable, in retirement and meditation. During the _Wah_ there is a cessation of all festivities, and of the theatrical performances of which the Burmans are so fond. At the end of the _Wah_ there is a time of general rejoicing. For some days before amusements are observed to be in progress in the streets. Effigies of animals, very well executed, are carried about. Here a buffalo of gigantic size, made of some light material, cunningly finished and coloured to the life, with horns and hide and all complete, is seen walking about on two pairs of human legs, the said legs being clad in the very baggy dark trousers worn by the Shans; its head balanced so as to swing with the walk in a most realistic and natural manner.