a short way above Letpantha, It is a clean little village,
with one long, wide street facing the river, under avenue
of palms and horse-radishes. The palace is a collection
of mat huts, within an enclosure of high mat walls,
TH E C H IN DW IN : “ WATER OF IN F IN IT E CALM ”
the posts of which are decorated with orchids. But
the Saw-bwa is careful to explain that he occupies it
only as a temporary measure, that his predecessor’s
widow, a lady of strong character, is in possession of
the ancestral site ; and he comes down with his retainers,
with a gift of spears and peacocks, to lay this matter
before the English ruler of the district, as we let go
our anchor, under the foreshore of his capital. And
after he has gone, comes the lady with her daughter,
to state her view of the matter. The Saw-bwa hates
her, because she has allowed her daughter to contract
a mésalliance with the son of a goldsmith, and the
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goldsmith’s son, who was turned out of the state by
the Saw-bwa, has come up with us to claim his right
to live in his native village with the wife of his choice.
Such are the matters of state that bring us in the
Government yacht to Thaungdut, and, while we smile
at the comedy, we remember that life is cheap in these
localities.
The Saw-bwa is a person of some consequence in
his own country. He claims that the history of his
state began twenty-eight centuries ago, and that its
first capital was a walled city in the days of Gautama,
the Buddha. The blood of Anawrata the Great flows
I §11')
“ c u r v in g s l o w l y t h r o u g h a d a r k f o r e s t ”
in his veins, and the right of his ancestors to a palace
and a throne was admitted by that monarch, and in
more recent times confirmed by Mindon, King of
Burma. A sumptuary law of that monarch lays down
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