In Burma, though there is no caste, the sumptuary laws were stringently carried out. The title “Thootay” (rich man) was enjoyed only under royal edict. For funerals five different degrees of rank were all minutely laid down, and the state and show must be accordingly. The umbrella question was regarded as a most vital and important one. In the matter of the use of that great emblem of dignity minute directions were issued and observed. Gilt umbrellas especially were only for the chosen few. The white umbrella no one must assume but the king and the Lord White Elephant. Under Burmese rule any one appearing in public under a white umbrella would have had to answer for it. Where in English we should say “the throne,” or “the crown,” as the emblem of royalty, in Burmese literature it would be “the white umbrella and the palace.” I remember on one occasion unwittingly making what, in Burmese times, would have been a serious breach in my manners, and it shows how easy it is to do that in an Eastern country. It was at Pagân, a town on the Irrawaddy. Happening to be there one day when the Chief Commissioner of Burma, the representative of our Queen-Empress, was expected, I went down to the river bank, where many Burmans were assembled to see him, and do him honour as he landed from the steamer. The day was bright and the sun very hot, and as usual I put up an umbrella I always carried with me, of the ordinary English alpaca, but with _a white cover_, for additional protection from the sun’s rays. I saw the Burmans looking and making remarks, but being in blissful forgetfulness that I was holding an umbrella at the time, I never thought it referred to me, until suddenly I remembered that there was I, in the presence of the representative of royalty, assuming the white umbrella, and, according to Burmese etiquette, guilty of something approaching to high treason! I hauled down my flag _at once_. The royal titles of the King of Burma were perhaps the most pompous and pretentious of any monarch—“His most glorious and excellent Majesty, Lord of the Tshaddau, King of Elephants, Master of many White Elephants, Lord of the Mines of gold, silver, rubies, amber, and the noble serpentine, Sovereign of the empires of Thuna-paranta and Tampadipa, and other great empires and countries, and of all the Umbrella-wearing Chiefs, the Supporter of Religion, the Sun-descended Monarch, Arbiter of Life, and great King of Righteousness, King of Kings, and Possessor of Boundless Dominion and Supreme Wisdom.”