"We went as soon as we could to see the _Shoay Dagon_, or golden pagoda, and it is the largest thing of the kind we have yet seen; I enclose you a picture of the pagoda, as it would not be possible to give a full idea of it with words alone. In the first place, it is on a small hill, which makes it all the more imposing, and enables you to see it from a long distance, and it rises way above all the houses and other buildings in Rangoon. As you come up to the entrance you find some horrid-looking griffins, with impossible features and a very angry look; but as they are of brick and stone, they are not at all dangerous. They are put there to keep out all evil spirits, but they could not prevent the occupation of the temple by the British soldiers when they captured the city in 1852. A gentleman who was here then says it was not a very solemn spectacle to see the soldiers smoking among the shrines, and cooking their dinners on the altars, while the necks of the idols were hung with cartridge-boxes, and their heads covered with military caps. The Burmese were very angry at the desecration, but as soon as the war was over the temple was restored to the care of the priests, and has remained in their hands ever since. "If the griffins let you pass without trouble, you next come to some long passage-ways with high walls; these walls are decorated with Burmese paintings that represent the tortures of all wicked people, according to the Burmese notions, and it does not need a long study to convince you that the artists must have had very lively imaginations. There is a great deal of yellow and gold in these paintings, and in the other ornamentation of the walls; and certainly the gilding must have cost a large amount of money. "Then you go on till you come to a staircase very much out of repair; when you climb the staircase you come to a stone platform 1000 feet square, and in the middle of this platform, or terrace, the shoay dagon stands. It is an octagonal pagoda 300 feet high and 500 in diameter, and is the shape of a bell, as you will see by looking at the picture. It is built of brick and stone, and covered with gold-leaf: the gold that was used for the gilding is said to have equalled the weight of the king who ruled at the time of its completion; but we are not told how much that was. It has worn off in spots by the heavy rains that fall in Burmah, but enough is left to give it a rich appearance, and justify the name it bears.