While Sick, A Talapoin Or Two Sit Every Night By The Sick
Person, Continually Singing, To Please The Devil, That He May Not Hurt
Them.
When any one dies, he is carried on a great frame of wood like a
tower, having a covering
Or canopy made of canes all gilded, which is
carried by fourteen or sixteen men, preceded by drums, pipes, and other
instruments, and being taken to a place out of the town, the body is
there burned. On this occasion, the body is accompanied by all the male
friends, relations, and neighbours of the deceased; and they give the
talapoins or priests many mats and much cloth. They then return to the
house, where they feast for two days. After this, the widow, with all
her neighbours wives, and female friends, goes to the place where her
husband was burnt, where they sit a certain time lamenting, and then
gather up all the pieces of bones which have not been burnt to ashes,
which they bury; they then return home, and thus make an end of
mourning. On these occasions, the male and female relations shave their
heads, which is only done for the death of a friend, as they greatly
esteem their hair.
_Caplan_, the place where the rubies, sapphires and spinels are found,
is six days journey from Ava in the kingdom of Pegu. There are here many
great hills out of which they are dug, but no person is allowed to go to
the pits, except those employed in digging.
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