elation. It is to be
noted, however, that when any merchant happens to die in the kingdom of
Pegu, one-third of all that belongs to him goes, by ancient law and
custom, to the king and his officers, but the other two-thirds are
honourably restored to those having authority to receive them. On this
account, I have known many rich men who dwelt in Pegu, who have desired
to go thence into their own country in their old age to die there, that
they might save the third of their property to their heirs, and these
have always been allowed freely to depart without trouble or
molestation.

In Pegu the fashion in dress is uniformly the same for the high and low,
the rich and the poor, the only difference being in the quality or
fineness, of the materials, which is cloth of cotton, of various
qualities. In the first place, they have an inner garment of white
cotton cloth which serves for a shirt, over which they gird another
garment of painted cotton cloth of fourteen _brasses_ or yards, which is
bound or tucked up between the legs. On their heads they wear a _tuck_
or turban of three yards long, bound round the head somewhat like a
mitre; but some, instead of this, have a kind of cap like a bee-hive,
which does not fall below the bottom of the ear. They are all
barefooted; but the nobles never walk a-foot, being carried by men on a
seat of some elegance, having a hat made of leaves to keep-off the rain
and sun; or else they ride on horseback, having their bare feet in the
stirrups. All women, of whatever degree, wear a shift or smock down to
the girdle, and from thence down to their feet a cloth of three yards
long, forming a kind of petticoat which is open before, and so strait
that at every step they shew their legs and more, so that in walking
they have to hide themselves as it were very imperfectly with their
hand. It is reported that this was contrived by one of the queens of
this country, as a means of winning the men from certain unnatural
practices to which they were unhappily addicted. The women go all
barefooted like the men, and have their arms loaded with hoops of gold
adorned with jewels, and their fingers all filled with precious rings.
They wear their long hair rolled up and fastened on the crown of their
heads, and a cloth thrown over their shoulders, by way of a cloak.

By way of concluding this long account of my peregrinations, I have this
to say, that those parts of the Indies in which I have been are very
g