TUBS FULL OF RUBIES. One "Magnificent Gem Which Was Stolen by a Burmese Maid of Honour.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 142, 20 February 1886, Page 5

TUBS FULL OF RUBIES. One "Magnificent Gem Which Was Stolen by a Burmese Maid of Honour.

Concerning King Theebaw's rubies, a wellinformed correspondent writes: "It is certainly curious that we have heard nothing of tha Mandalay palace gems. The value of iho objects discovered there we have been told fa not great. Yet the capita has been undisturbed by war tor ovor thirty years, if we omit the rebellion of 1866, when thero was no blundering. During all that time the precious store of the Lords of the Ruby Mines and of the noble Serpontine has been steadily added to. Many is tho poor wretch who has been crucified for chipping down a gem that, from its size, ought to have been handed over to the Arbiter of Existence. Gentlemen who, in tho time of Theebaw's father, ilie convener of the Fifth Great Sjnon, weio much aboub the palace, have spoken of &ilver bowls tho size of washingtuba filled to the lip with uncut rubies ; and at least one &rjoko enthusiastically of tho occasion on which he vas allowed to thiuft his bare arms nearly up to the shoulder in a huge chalice full of these gems. Thcie was in particular one great stono, called tho Nan-zin Buddamya, which, by its magnificence, was supposed to typify the dynasty. It was unmounted, and therefore cannot be the gem in his ring concerning which the dethroned King was &o plaintive, and it was guarded with the most sedulous care. Nevertheless, in I SSO a maid of honour managed to purloin it, and actually succeeded in getting it out of the palace concealed on her person in a veiy extraordinary way. She was, however, captured before she got rid of the stone. It was restored to its place arid more jealously guarded than ever ; and the hapless damsel was put to death with the fiendish ingenuities in which Soo-payah-lat, the Queen, was a pastmaster." ' ' One of the newspaper despatches tells us (continues the same correspondent) that the palace had been very much looted by the royal body-guard. No doubt these gentry made for the store of rubies first of all. There was not much else that was really valuable, except the royal utensils, tho gold epittoon and betel- box, the model of the Hontha, the carrying-bird of Vishnu, the jewelled cups and trays and whatnot, besides the hundreds of silver bowls kept for domestic uses and for presents to visitors." — "St. James's Gazette.''