when there are no welcome greet- || liquors from a mistaken idea that they impart strength to the human frame. They would dread the thought of doing wrong, but they really suppose that this practice is

ings, when little or no order is observed in a family, and there is a disposition to be displeased, and angry with every thing, young men will seek happiness in other socie-necessary to their health. Hence ty; and besides the danger of a general corruption of their morals, it will not be surprising should they become insensibly addicted to habits of intemperance.

they take ardent spirits as soon as they rise to prevent the bad effects of the morning cold; and in the forenoon to give them an appetite for dinner; and many times afterI need not say that if parents wards, to recruit their exhausted would prevent their children from strength. Now it is a solemn truth, being drunkards, they should be that although ardent spirits produparticular as to the company with ce a temporary excitement, yet which they allow them to associate. when used in this way they enerA parent cannot always know vate both mind and body. And it what company his children are in. ought to be proclaimed aloud until But in relation to this, much may every one hears it, that the intembe effected by parental advice. You perate use of intoxicating liquids, can seriously inform them what destroys more lives, and hastens company you wish them to keep, more persons to a premature grave, and from what society they must either directly or indirectly, than stand aloof. You can assign your any one disease in the United States. reasons for prescribing limits to Ardent spirits are not nourishment, their social intercourse. You can but poison. There is not life but point out to them the happy conse- death in the cup of the drunkard. quences of virtuous friendships," Who hath wo?" says the wisest of while you tell them not to be de- men, "who hath sorrow? who hath ceived, for "evil communications contentions? who hath babblings?. corrupt good manners." who hath wounds without cause ?. Many a promising young man has who hath redness of eyes? they that become a drunkard from the misfor-tarry long at the wine; they that tune of having associated with oth-go to seek mixed wine. Look not

ers who loved the intoxicating on the wine when it is red; when bowl. He has been led on by de- it giveth his colour in the cup; grees. He did not care for the when it moveth itself aright; at the liquor, but he had not moral cour-last it biteth like a serpent, and age enough to be singular. He stingeth like an adder." could not bear to be ridiculed, and at last he kindled up a flame, which can never be extinguished. Let no consideration then, of wealth or family connection induce you to allow your sons to keep company with one who is a drunkard. The next thing, perhaps, which you hear will be, that they have been in a state of inebriety. And what at first was occasional, may to your

sorrow become habitual.

Endeavour also to impress on their minds that the physical effects of intemperate drinking are highly injurious. Many drink spirituous

Prevent drunkenness as far as possible by your own example. Be temperate in all things. If ardent spirits be used in your families as a common beverage, it ought not to be a matter of surprise if your chil. dren and others around you adopt the same practice. They will reason, and justly, that what is proper for you is also proper for them. And although you should have a regard at all times to moderation, yet, remember that what you do moderately, they may do immoderately. Hence the great importance of avoiding even the appear

ance of evil. Especially take heed lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunk

enness.

This evil may be prevented by encouraging the laborious part of the community after their proper wants are supplied, to deposite the residue of their wages in one of those Institutions which are designed particularly for their benefit.

I am induced to offer this hint, because I have been informed by the most unquestionable authority, that since the establishment of a Savings Bank in one of our great commercial cities, a most visible alteration for the better in the sober habits of a large portion of labourers has taken place. Nothing can be more easily accounted for. Persons who have nothing more than their earnings, and these small, if they happen to possess a little money beyond their present wants, do not still possess enough to attempt an accumulation. Hence they expend it, and for want of a better object they add drunkenness to thirst.

But when an Institution is open, in which the labouring poor may deposite even a dollar, and they make this deposite, and repeat it as opportunity may offer, a principle is brought into operation which counteracts the indulgence of the appetites; and a desire to possess a little property overcomes the love of strong drink. After much deliberation I am perfectly satisfied that Provident Institutions for Savings are to be ranked among the best charities of our day. They have already diverted some from their cups, and prevented others from habits of intoxication.

In closing my remarks, I am almost at a loss what motives to select in urging your readers to take heed to themselves not to be overcharged with drunkenness, and to

use their influence in preventing others from committing this sin.

I might tell of its disastrous effects on the minds of individuals who have become its victims, and exclaim in the language of the poet:

"O that men should put an enemy into their mouths To steal away their brains

I might show in relation to their bodies, that it actually destroys the vital functions, occasions palsied limbs, a bloated countenance, and untimely death; and as to their characters, that it is the parent of almost all other crimes, and has led men to acts of profligacy and cruelty which they never would have committed except under the excitement of liquor. I might also mention its doleful effects on their families. How indescribable the shame, the fears, and the anguish of wives and children when the head of a family is given up to intoxication. Great an evil as is poverty, it is one of the least that follows in the train of drunkenness. Midnight disturbances, wanton and savage acts of cruelty inflicted on innocent wives and unoffending children, are among the evils which attend this vice. If it be a wife who gives way to this sin, O then what disgust and hopeless misery must pervade the heart of him who is wedded to such a person.

Now by all the following considerations, its stupifying influence over the mind, the diseases it entails on the body, the loss of reputation which it occasions, its operation in causing men to commit other crimes, the miseries which it entails on families, and finally, by its exclusion of men from the kingdom of heaven, I would earnestly plead with all your readers that they would guard against the least approach to drunkenness themselves, and do all they can to deter others from this degrading vice.

REMARKS ON THE MANNERS AND CHAR

ACTER OF THE BURMESE.

(Concluded from page 147.)

to the size of the house. Mats, made of split bamboos, form the outside covering, inside partitions, and sometimes the floor. But commonly the latter is made by splitting the material into quarters, laying them down in a series, and tying them to the transverse poles with split rattans. Leaves of the Nipah tree, called here Danee, compose the roof, and a house not positively uncomfortable, and suffic

is constructed at the moderate expense of thirty or forty rupees, Men of high rank and ample means, build their houses in the same form, with posts of teak; the sides, par

THE manners of the middling and lower classes of society are unobtrusive, civil, and without embarrassment. The same may be said of the manners of the highest class, with this qualification, that they are mixed with official haughBoth sexes are easy and natural in their personal deport-iently capacious for a small family, ment, particular in showing their respect on those occasions where they think it due, complimentary and courteous in their expressions, and excepting the very lowest class, modest and decent in their apparel.titions, and floor, are boards of the The most uncivil part of the com- same wood, and the roof is either munity, are the followers and at- made of leaves or of flat tiles. tendants of the officers of govern- These tiles are burnt like bricks, ment. When out of the presence each about eight inches long, five of their masters, they are uncere- wide, and nearly one thick, jutting monious, rude, vile in their lan- over at the head about an inch, by guage, vexatious, and cruel. The which they retain their position upform of obeisance which an inferior on the rafters. They are laid pays to a superior, is the same as double, the lower edges of one sein the act of religious homage. The ries projecting over and lying upon profoundest act of obeisance con- the heads of the next lower series, sists in kneeling and bending the thus forming a defence from wind forehead to the earth; the common and rain, and presenting a good deact consists in kneeling and eleva-gree of security from exterior fires. ting the hands in front of the face The monasteries are built in the with the palms united. An inferi-same manner, having two or three or sits in the presence of his supe-roofs elevated one above another, rior, it being considered a mark of and in many instances their cornidisrespect to appear above him. In ces, angles, and eaves, ornamented the presence of the highest author-with carved work of flowers, figures ities, a man is not allowed the priv- of elephants, of priests, and of othilege of sitting upon a mat unless er forms which have no existence by favour. The form of sitting is but in the superstition of the peopartly on one side with the feet ple. The posts of the houses and turned backwards, it being consid- monasteries being inserted from ered higly impolite to extend the two to four or five feet in the ground, feet or turn the back towards any are often subject to the depredaperson of distinguished character. tions of white ants, and to rapid Bamboo, of which there are sev- || decay. eral species and in great abundance, The old palace at Amarapoora is is the principal, and in many in- built of teak, the roofs piled upon stances, the only material used in each other to a great height, diminthe construction of dwelling hous-ish in size as they ascend, and form es. Holes, two or three feet deep the appearance of a lofty spire. in the earth, receive the posts, The exterior and interior parts are which are more or fewer, according covered with gold leaf, and the

whole exhibits a resplendant object || them; nor were the waters of the

to the beholder. His present Majesty, who ascended the throne of his grandfather about June, 1819, has since built a new palace at Ava, a few miles below the former capital, of which he took possession about March, 1824.

lake Ana-watat; the waters of the hill Thien-kok-tara alone were sufficiently excellent for this purpose. They hearing the command, and not having provided themselves with the means of pursuing their journey, The-gya, the king of the celestial regions, transforming himself into a commander of a ship, presented himself to the brothermerchants, with a ship in perfect readiness to depart. Having deposited the hairs in a ruby box, and this box in a small vessel with a deck of silver, gold, and ruby, and all this placed upon a teapoy stand and put on board, they commenced their voyage. After various adven

where Shwa-dagon now is, and on searching, found the other three relics, which, with the eight hairs of Gautama, they deposited together with immense treasures in a vault, over which they erected the pagoda.

The king of the country authorized splendid festivities on the occasion, and assisted with a large number of men in digging the vault and erecting the pagoda. Even Thegya, monarch of the Nat re

The pagodas are solid masses of masonry, varying in their height, of a conical form, covered with plaster formed of sand and lime, and many of them with gold leaf. The large Pagoda, situated about a mile and a half in a north-west direction from Rangoon, and called Shwadagon Porah, is a splendid and magnificent monument of heathen superstition and idolatry. According to its history, the founda-tures they arrived at the place tion was laid soon after the supposed annihilation of Gautama. If this be true, it must have existed for a period of about two thousand and three hundred years. Since its erection its size has been increased by successive additions. The story relates, that a short time previously to the expiration of Gautama, two merchants, who were brothers, went to pay him homage, and make him offerings; on desiring some memorial of him as an object of worship for their country-gions, was not idle. The country men, he lifted up his right hand and stroking his head, extracted four hairs and presented them to one of the merchants; then with his left hand extracting four more, and presenting them to the other, he commanded them to go to the hill Thien-kok-tara, and under the patronage of the king of Ookka-laba, (near which place the hill was situated) enshrine them with the From the description above givstaff of Kaukka-than, the water- en of the dwelling houses, the trandipper of Gau-na-gon, the bathing-sition is easy to a correct inference garment of Katha-pa, his divine relative to the furniture which they brethren who had preceded him. contain. A few mats answer the The waters of the five great rivers purpose of beds, couches, chairs, Genga, Yamona, Atseera-watee, and tables, and two or three woodMahee, and Thara-poo, and of the en plates of Burman manufacture, five hundred lesser rivers, were not or of coarse earthen ware imported, sufficiently excellent to wash the form the breakfast and dinner serhairs for the purpose of enshrining vice. A small box or two, or as ||

at that time was called Heng-thawa-te, and still, as a province of the Burman Empire, bears the same name. The capital, situated near the place where Rangoon now stands, was called Ookka-laba. As a further account of this magnificent monument may hereafter be given, it is not necessary now to be more particular.

into a spiral form upon the top, encircling the head either with a chequered, or a white muslin handkerchief, folded to a narrow width. The men commonly tattoo themselves with various figures upon their thighs, the abdomen, and the loins.

many baskets, contain the wardrobe || men wear their hair collected into of the family. Those, however, a knot on the back part of the who have the means, indulge them-head, while the men twist theirs selves in the use of a bedstead. Although in their houses and persons the appearance of cleanliness is not peculiarly attractive, yet in this respect they maintain an equal grade with their western neighbours. But this is not saying much in their favour. They certainly do not exhibit, particularly in their houses, any special regard to neatness; nor on the other hand, can they be considered as inattentive to their personal appearance. Both sexes enjoy the comfort of frequent bathing. They are much addicted to the practice of chewing beetle, and in the disposition of the saliva, which the practice produces in great abundance, they are not párticularly nice. The most respectable part of the community accommodate themselves with pigdannies and beetle-boxes, the bearers of which are in constant attendance. These materials are of gold, silver, or less valuable metals, according to the rank or circumstances of those who use them. They univer-nity presents, brings in her contrisally anoint the head with oil, and as their hair is permitted to grow to its natural length and density, without the frequent application of a comb, a convenient situation is afforded for the accommodation of vermin; and, as the Burmese religion prohibits the destruction of life, their propagation is seldom in terrupted, except by casualties.

The shoes of both sexes protect only the sole of the foot, having two loops into which the great toe and the other four are inserted. They are manufactured of wood, or of hides of cattle. The women, to render themselves more attractive rub their faces with a fine powder made of the bark of a species of sandal, highly odoriferous, and sometimes colour with a beau|| tiful red the nails of their toes and fingers.

In the management of internal household affairs, the wife takes the principal share. She goes herself to the market, or directs purchases to be made, and superintends the cooking or does it with her own hands; and, as opportu

bution to the domestic establishment, by spinning, weaving, trafficking in bazar articles, or by keep-, ing a shop and vending merchandize. In conducting the general family concerns she is by no means excluded; her judgment is consulted, given with perfect freedom, and seldom entirely disregarded. The female branches of a family are not recluses here; neither are they reserved, or shy in their manners: they form a constituent part of domestic and public society. They

On public days, days of worship, and when visiting, it is an object among them to put on the appearance of neatness in their persons and apparel. The women are usu-esteem it happy to become mothers, ally dressed in long white cotton loose gowns, with cotton, cotton and silk, or silk petticoats of variegated colours striped. The men wear gowns a little similar to those of the women, with cotton or silk plaid cloth, decently wrapped around their loins, and hanging in front below the knees.

The wo

but consider the birth of a son, a more fortunate event than that of a daughter. They in general nurse their children till they arrive at the age of three or four, but are seldom blessed with a numerous progeny. The increase of population, therefore, is slow.

The national community may be