brought down by a
deputation of the
Royal officers as
far as the border,
where it was taken
over by a British
subject. The king
was thus gratified
in his spiritual desire
; his political
yearning had to remain
unappeased.
The hti, which, to
the eye of the spectator
standing at
the foot of the
pagoda, seems but
a very small object,
is in reality a canopy
of iron and gold
thirteen and a half
feet in diameter,
a n d forty-seven
feet in height. It
is hung with nearly
fifteen h u n d r e d
bells, of wh i c h
more than a hun-
, c o m i n g a w a y dred are of gold
and the rest of solid silver. Large as many of these bells
98
are, they cannot be seen with the naked eye from the
pagoda base; but their music can be heard in the night
watches, when the wind blows amongst their silver and
golden tongues. The vane and the seinbu are practically
invisible. Certainly no gleam of their jewels1 ever reaches
TH E JEW E L L ED V AN E
the human eye. And one cannot but recognise the
nobility of sentiment which underlies this matter. In a
like spirit, one sees placed at the climbing pinnacles of
some grey cathedral in Europe the fine work of the artist
1 3,664 rubies, 541 emeralds, and 433 diamonds.
99