The body was mounted upon an immensely large car, decorated according to
Burman custom, to which were attached ropes, made of grass, three or four
hundred feet long. With these the car was drawn about the plain, levelling,
in its course, every obstacle.
"After some little search we found the chief men, the objects of our
pursuit, but so completely drunk that all attempts to induce them to return
with us were entirely fruitless. We immediately returned to the house of
the chief where we had lodged the previous night. In the evening the chief
returned, but so intoxicated as to be entirely unfit for business.
"We rose early on the morning of the 22d to take advantage of the effect
of the night's rest upon our host, and obtained the privilege of a few
minutes' conversation. He gave us permission to build in any place we saw
fit to select; but before I had fixed upon a place he was again missing.
After selecting a place and making the necessary preparations for building,
I prepared to return to Maulmain. Until this time our dear sister Macomber
had borne the trials of the journey and the prospect of being left
alone without the least appearance of shrinking; but when the moment of
separation came, the thought of being left, without a friend in the midst
of a drunken people, and even in the house of a man completely besotted
with ardent spirits, and at a distance of thirty miles or more from any
civilized society, with scarcely a sufficient knowledge of the language to
make known her wants, was too much for the delicate feelings of a female
to endure; and she could only give vent to the emotions of her heart by
a flood of tears.
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