The rain had descended, the mud was softened, and its inmates, wriggling forth, took to their more natural element and mode of locomotion. Instances of dormant vitality we know to be common among seeds and insects; wheat found in an Egyptian mummy-case many centuries old has germinated freely; seeds of trees buried for ages have done the same, and those also of fruit found in a skeleton, that must have lain incarcerated since the beginning of the Christian era. The chrysalis stage of insects is too well known to need comment. But such a suspension of vitality in creatures like fish, whose organization demands continual aeration of the blood through gills, is somewhat strange, and runs considerable risk of being branded as a traveller’s tale. I confess to having felt startled on my first acquaintance with these mud-fish. Many months of freedom could now be looked forward to; then again the daily decrease in depth; wriggling into the mud; diminution of vitality; and finally, loss of consciousness. Truly, a strange existence! CHAPTER VI. THE TEACHINGS OF BUDDHA. “For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight; He can’t be wrong whose life is in the right.” The discussion of a national religion is always a delicate task, but, having so far considered only the physical and political aspect of the Burmese, I feel that I may no longer avoid giving some account of their conception of the universe and the Hereafter, matters with which, truth to tell, they were wont to trouble themselves less than any other Eastern nation with which I ever came in contact. I shall endeavour to convey some idea of their attitude towards their great teacher, Buddha; and I think that the reader will share my opinion that the absence of that fanaticism, so characteristic of the natives of Hindostan, is a blessing to rulers and ruled alike. The “_Contemplative One_,” after sacrificing all manner of brilliant worldly prospects, retiring in lieu thereof into remote places for the purpose of indulging in holy meditation, reached his eightieth year, and, having completed the necessary cycles of transmigration, passed away to “Complete Nirvana,” the coveted annihilation and end of all things. Next to him in the cycle came _Gautama_, to whom were dedicated the many pagodas and temples found all over the land. Their images were of identical conception, no matter what their material; their attitude was invariably the same, sitting cross-legged, and contemplating the nether portion of their body, a pose suggestive of deep thought and unbounded indifference to the many allurements of this wicked world. These images varied considerably in size, some measuring but a few inches, while others were of enormous dimensions, being occasionally hidden away in places where one would least expect to find them, the sole relics, it may be, of some old dwelling over which the jungle had reasserted a prior claim.