The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-06-16
party reached Rangoon, on the way back

party reached Rangoon, on the way back to India, she informed the Prince, who gave orders to the lieutenant-governor of the province to have number of Bur mese in Mandalay put to death. In obed- fence to this ruthless command men were sent up country, such is the legen, to poison the wells and strew poison about Even makers of soda water were brfbed, it is alleged, to put poison into all bot ties sold to the Burmese.
 The scare, ridiculous as 1t may seem, says the London Evening Standard. has taken hold of the credulous natives and they have gone so far as to appoint a committee of safety, which sends out parties of young men, armed with slaves and "dah" at night, to look out for suspicious strangers. The panic has ex- tended we are told, to the villages in the vicinity of Mandalay and three Flu ropeans, who were out shooting recently. were accused by the country folk of be- ing poisoners, and had to fly for their lives
 How stories of this kind first get abroad 1t is seldom possible to discover, but every one who has lived In the east knows how readily they are swallowed by an ig- norant and credulous people. No invention is too preposterous to find believers. Some times the gissip of an Indian bazaar Is that the government requires quantities of human blood wherewith to anoint the foundations of a bridge or other public building which it Is about to erect. Every family in the district will be in a fever of apprehension, lest its children shall be seized and murdered for the purpose. Many old travellers relate instances of such panics, which have also occurred within quite recent times.
 In some parts of the Punjab people have gone In terror of the Mummy Sa- hib," an atrocious European who is sup posed to abstract his victims brains through a. hole bored in their skull. uring the extract in the preparation of par ticularly valuable and efficacous medi- cine The Mummy Sahib'' Is reputed to pay a fee to the government for license to carry on his nefarious trade. Not many years ago a native official in Assam was prosecuted for circulating report to the effect that the government had or dered list of marriageable girls to be compiled, in order that they might be distributed as a reward to the officers and men of a military force serving on the frontier.
 Tn this case the origin of the rumor could not be traced, and it's inventor had evidently purposed to make little money by promising, for consideration, to with hold the names of any girls whose friends and relatives desired to save them from such fate. As a general rule, how ever. the agency which starts the libel, remains a mystery. Nor does any ono know to this day who dispatched the first of the il1-omened cakes which were sent about from village to village as a warning of trou le to come, on the eve of the mutiny ,f 1857. What is certain is that horrible and malignant rumors like that current in Mandalay meet with ready acceptance. and that, once in cir culation they are not quickly eradicated. Whatever the authorities may do. 1t is quite likely that as long as the royal visit to Burma is remembered 1t will be connected with the plague. and that graybeards who are now children will be ready to explain how the affair came about.
 The Eastern idea of justice is not that which prevails in the Vest A Persian historian relates of the Sultan Alptegin that when one of his followers had been found guiltyof stealing poultry, he sen- tenced the man to death, but, relenting, ordered him to be driven through tho army, with the purloined fowls, still alive, hung by their legs to his ears. The writer gives a graphic description of the tor lures suffered by the thief as the birds in their fright tore at his face. and he adds "The news of this fact having reached the ears of the people, they agreed that so upright and just a sover- eign was worthy to be their ruler" It would not be surprising if the story of the poisoned wells at Mandalay came eventually to be told with the carolary that it only proved the sagacity and state craft of the Shahzadah.