can rival theirs, for an indolent, sociable man, with an
eye to the pageantry of life. Foreigners stalk about
unmolested, Sikhs and Mohammedans from the barracks
at Mandalay, and “ globe-trotters” from the capitals
of the world. And all this while the worship at the
great shrine goes forward. All that one has seen of
Roman Catholic churches in Europe, all that one has
pictured of the synagogue, where money-changers and
the sellers of doves were used to congregate, is here
epitomised.
Outside the eastern entrance there are ?two large
and handsome masonry pools, in which the sacred
turtle live. Here in the still green water the golden
pinnacle of the pagoda is mirrored ; and the turtles
come up to the surface to be fed by crowds of pretty
women who sit waiting on the sun-steeped stairs.
At the gateways there are cages full of small birds,
which the simple and the pious buy, to free them from
captivity. But the birds are little slaves at heart, and
they are only too glad to return to their cages.
In the outer courtyard, north of the shrine, and
propped against the wall, are the bronze giants and
three-headed elephants brought from Aracan with the
image,- in the days of the great King Bodaw Phaya,
who made war upon his neighbour for its possession.
Hard by is a small shrine, with a wishing-stone before
it ; and within its bars there are the gilded figures
of nats, who receive no small share of the devotion of
passing visitors. But here people are conscious of
observation, and are ashamed.
386