hardly pass any way, on account of
the great throngs of people, both by land and water, as they flock from
all parts of the kingdom of Pegu to be present at the festival.

[Footnote 425: Surely the bamboo, not the sugar cane. It may be noticed,
that almost the whole of this account of Pegu seems to have been
borrowed from the relation of Cesar Frederick.--E.]

In Pegu, there are many priests or talapoins, as they are called, who
preach against all abuses, and many people resort to hear them. When
they enter into the _kiack_, that is to say the holy place or temple,
there is a great jar of water at the door, having a cock or ladle, and
there they wash their feet. They then walk in, and lift their hands to
their heads, first to the preacher, and then to the sun, after which
they sit down. The talapoins are strangely apparelled, having a brown
_cambaline_ or thin cloth next their body, above which is another of
yellow many times doubled or folded over their shoulders, and these two
are girded round them by a broad girdle. They have a skin of leather
hung by a string round their necks, on which they sit, bare headed and
bare footed, as they wear no shoes. Their right arms are all bare, and
they carry a large _sombrero_ or umbrella over their heads, which
protects them from the sun in summer, and from the rain in winter.

Before taking their orders, the talapoins go to school till, twenty
years old or more, and then go before a head talapoin appointed for the
purpose, called a _rowli_, who is the most learned of the order, who
examines them many times, whether they will leave their friends,
foregoing the company of women, and assume the habit of a talapoin. If
any one be content, he is made to ride through the streets on a horse,
very richly apparelled, accompanied by many drums and trumpets, to shew
that he is about to quit the riches and vanity of the world. A few days
afterwards, he is again carried through the streets, on a thing like a
horse litter, called _serion_, mounted on the shoulders of ten or twelve
men, and dressed in the habit of a talapoin, preceded by drums and
instruments of music, and accompanied by many talapoins and all his
friends. He is thus carried to his house without side of the town, and
is there left.

Every individual talapoin has his own house, which is very small, set
upon six or eight posts, and to which they have to go up by a ladder of
twelve or fourteen staves. Their houses are mostly by