s have been there to worship. They have a very soft, sweet tone,
and the crown of the sambhur's horn seems suited to bring it out. On the
pavement are some favoured chickens and some children and a dog or two,
and here and there devout people in silks, kneeling on the flags with
folded hands repeating the precepts of the Perfect Law of Gautama
Buddha. To overcome hatred with love, to subdue anger, to control the
mind, and to be kind to all living things, and to be calm. That this is
the greatest happiness, to subdue the selfish thought of I. That it is
better to laugh than to weep, better to share than to possess, better to
have nothing and be free of care than to have wealth and bend under its
burdens.

Such teachings we have at home; but the Buddhist believes too, what the
West forgets, what the old druid Murdoch, before he died, taught to
Columba on Iona: That all life in nature is divine, and that there is no
death, only change from one form to another. So they reverence trees and
flowers and birds and beasts, and each other, and believe that,

"He prayeth best who loveth best
All things both great and small."

therefore their happiness and calm and the look of peace on the faces of
the very old people, and their great kindness to each other and to
animals, and the little offerings you see to the spirits of trees.

It is very peaceful, for the repetitions of the worshippers in the open
air are not disturbing; and from far overhead comes a little tinkling
from the light AEolian bells moved by the breeze high up on the Hte. If
you look up you see the Hte against the blue. It is an elaborate piece
of metal work on the tip top of the pagoda; you cannot make out its
details but you can see it is made of diminishing hoops with little
pendant bells hung from these, that the wind rings sometimes; and you
are told that one little bell may be so bejewelled that it may be worth
L70, and the whole Hte that looks so light and delicate is really of
heavy golden hoops encrusted with jewels; for which a king of Upper
Burmah gave L27,000, and the Burmese people L20,000 more in voluntary
subscriptions and labour. This was since our occupation of Lower Burmah.

The priests in their yellow robes, draped like Roman Togas, come and go
just like other people; they are greatly reverenced, they teach all the
boys of the nation their faith, reading, writing and simple arithmetic,
but they do not proselytise or assume spiritual po