[49] A kind of lantern formerly used by robbers, called the Hand of Glory,
the candle for which was made of the fat of a dead malefactor. This,
however, was rather a western than an eastern superstition.
[50] The material of which images of Gaudma (the Birman Deity) are made,
is held sacred. "Birmans may not purchase the marble in mass, but are
suffered, and indeed encouraged, to buy figures of the Deity ready made."
--_Sytnes's_ "Ava," vol. ii. p. 876.
[51] "It is commonly said in Persia, that if a man breathe in the hot
south wind, which in June or July passes over that flower (the Kerzereh),
it will kill him."--_Thevenot_.
[52] The humming bird is said to run this risk for the purpose of picking
the crocodile's teeth. The same circumstance is related of the lapwing, as
a fact to which he was witness, by _Paul Lucas, "Voyage fait en_ 1714."
The ancient story concerning the Trochilus, or humming-bird, entering with
impunity into the mouth of the crocodile, is firmly believed at
Java.--_Barrow's "Cochin-China_."
[53] "The feast of Lanterns celebrated at Yamtcheou with more magnificence
than anywhere else! and the report goes that the illuminations there are
so splendid, that an Emperor once, not daring openly to leave his Court to
go thither, committed himself with the Queen and several Princesses of his
family into the hands of a magician, who promised to transport them
thither in a trice.
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