FUNERAL OF A BURMESE QUEEN.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2064, 26 June 1890, Page 3

FUNERAL OF A BURMESE QUEEN.

The Eangoon Gazette reports the burial recently of the Meebya Queen, one of the wives of King Mindone, Min. About 9 o’clock the procession, which was nearly a mile long, started. White umbrellas, the special symbol of Burmese royalty, were numerous, and the priests mustered in strong force. The shrines and other ornamental structures were ablaze with gold leaf,, the bands of music were numerous, and the car-loads of presents for the priests would have sufficed to stock a bazaar with almost every conceivable article of food and wearing apparel, besides crockery, kerosene oil, cans, and furniture. The Princess, as chief mourner, walked in front of the coffin, preceded by her retinue of fifty women all dressed in white, walking in pairs ; before them girls strewed the path with roses. She and her maids of honor bore in their hands the white rope attached to the coffin. The latter was slung from a pole and carried by bearers. Over it was thrown a splendidly decorated pall, piled high with bright flowers. The scene of the cremation was on the slope of the Shoay Dagon Pagoda, near Bahan, where an enclosure had been erected around the funeral pile, upon which the gilt coffin was laid to the sound of weird music. By desire of the Princess, the coffin was opened to enable her to take a last look at her mother. The pile was then set fire to, and after the body bad been entirely consumed the ashes were taken away to be east on the broad bosom of the Irawaddy.