Page:Lord Amherst and the British Advance Eastwards to Burma.djvu/73

 neck, and the young priest offered some very handsome presents of shawls and gold and silver muslins, very beautifully worked; also pearls, coral, and gold and silver tissue; these were placed on carpets and silver waiters on the floor of Lord Amherst's ante-room. As presents are not allowed to be accepted, we selected a few to purchase. The Gaussein (Holy Man) now rose, and expressing in elegant language the satisfaction he had felt at the interview, withdrew. We were all charmed by his manners; his dress was simple, a plain muslin vest down to the wrists, and crossing before with a good deal of drapery of the same material round his waist, in the curl of each ear two of the very finest pearls I had ever beheld.'

It appears later on that this holy priest was a spy making his own observations on behalf of the Burmese Court, as he paid his devotions by the way to Jagannáth and the Governor-General of India.