And now, as I close this chapter, there recurs to my mind a pretty picture which embodies so much of the spirit of the country that it may well form our last peep at Burma.

Far away in the jungle on the crest of a lonely hill stands a ruined pagoda. The white ornamental plaster-work which once beautified it has long since disappeared, and in the rents and fissures which seam its rich red brickwork venomous serpents hide.

The niche which formerly contained a Buddha is unoccupied, but, as though to soften its decay, kindly creepers have covered its rugged exterior with a bower of foliage and flowers, while the leogryphs which once marked the entrance to its enclosure are buried in vegetation. All around are trees of many kinds, which tower above the jungle, among which large and beautiful butterflies flit among the flowers, while birds of gay plumage gambol among the tree-tops to the distant song of the bulbul. It was a pretty scene, but sad in its loneliness, to which a touch of pathos was added by the figure of a solitary priest praying before the empty shrine. Wondering what had brought him so far from any known habitation, I watched him long as he prayed. Just as the sun set and the day closed he plucked a lovely flower from the scrub and placed it reverently on the shrine where Buddha once had stood, and as I turned my pony's head in the direction of my distant camp, the slowly-retreating figure of the "hpungi" became lost in the glory of the sunset.

THE END

LIST OF VOLUMES IN THE

PEEPS AT MANY LANDS

SERIES

EACH CONTAINING 12 FULL-PAGE
ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
EACH 1/6 NET