Then followed much talk about a treaty which the Envoy was anxious to procure; but the King, with diplomatic adroitness, put him off; for the Burmese hate treaties, and always break them. Said his Majesty, very dryly: "I have heard a great deal of you, and that you are wise and well disposed. I should not have taken the same pains to receive every one; I should have done according to custom. You have commenced well. But in a man's life, and in every transaction, there is a beginning, a middle, and an end,"--illustrating the remark by running his finger along the hilt of his dhar of state, which lay on a stand before him. "Did you receive the marble pagoda I sent you?" "I did, your Majesty, and have brought a singing-bird box, as a token of my thanks." "I am going to bestow on you a ring, which you will find very curious." Here a ring, half sapphire and half topaz, was brought in, and presented to the Envoy. The King expressed a wish to engage some one to take charge of his ruby mines, and especially his lively desire to procure a model of a human skeleton, made of wood, and so arranged that the action of the joints in sitting and rising should be shown. The Envoy promised to attend to this. Some trays of cakes and sweetmeats were then brought in, and the King, having particularly recommended one or two of the dishes to the Envoy, retired. During the interview his Majesty behaved with much courtesy and kindness. One of his children, about eighteen months old, ran in two or three times, naked as he was born, and climbed up on the couch; the young sons now and then lighted the King's cheroot, and gave him water to drink. On the 2d of October the Envoy is again with the King in the small pavilion; about a hundred persons are present, including two Atwen-woons, the Nan-ma-dau-Phra Woon, and several Shan Tsaub-was, but none of the Woongyis. The King asked the Envoy if he had been to the Pyee-Kyoung to see the Tshaya-dau, or Royal Teacher, Patriarch or Bishop of all the Monks. "I have, your Majesty." "Did he discourse to you, and did you approve of what he said?" "He discoursed on moral duties, and what he said was very proper." "You know what we call the Ten Virtues.[7] Do you approve of them?" "They are most excellent." "What length of time, according to your books, is a Kamba?" (A complete revolution of nature, a geological period, it might almost be called.) "Our books, your Majesty, do not contain that." "Well, we say that in a Kamba the life period of man gradually advances from the limit of ten years to an Athenkhya,[8] and then gradually diminishes from that down to ten years again. When that has been repeated sixty-four times it constitutes a period, which again is repeated sixty-four times; and when four such compound periods have been repeated, the whole era is called a Kamba, or a grand revolution of the universe. The world is then destroyed, and a new era commences."