VI INTRODUCTION. 



for besides the place where I ascended, there is only one 

 other possible place of ascent, and that still more difficult, so 

 that half a dozen men could always defend it from any force 

 that could be brought against it. The Karen guide said that 

 none but Karens had ever before ascended the precipice, or en* 

 tered within its precincts. Indeed, that there was here one of 

 the largest, strongest, and most remarkable castles that nature 

 ever built, had never been imagined. Its chief weakness is the 

 lack of water, yet it is far from being wholly destitute of that. 

 About a mile from the entrance, a gradual ascent of an hund- 

 red feet leads to the summit of a precipitous glen, and on des- 

 cending it about two hundred feet by natural steps in the 

 craggy rocks, a small stream of water is seen gushing from the 

 face of a precipice, which the guide said he thought resembled 

 the rock struck by Moses in the Arabian desert. This affords 

 a never failing supply of several quarts, and sometimes gallons 

 of pure water, every hour in the year ; but as this is the only 

 spring as yet discovered, the place does not afford a sufficient 

 supply for a large body of people. The arts of civilization 

 could, however, overcome this difficulty by sinking a shaft to 

 the subterranean brook that flows out beneath. 



In the days of the Burman emperor Alompra, before his 

 successes in these provinces, a large number ofKarens were 

 besieged here by the Siamese, and tradition says that nearly 

 the whole perished for the want of food and water. From the 

 sufferings of that period, or a previous one, the place has ac- 

 quired the name of " Dongyang" — the Weeping City. 



The whole range is named " Zwa-kabin" — the Mooring of 

 the Ship, from a tradition, which says that in ancient times the 

 whole world was covered with water, and the only survivors of 

 the human race were in a ship which floated hither, where the 

 highest point of the range, being above water, the ship was 

 moored to it. 



Since the reign of Alompra. the Karens seem to have made 

 special efforts to plant fruit trees in this their last refuge fr5m 

 an invading army. Jack, and mango trees abound, and pine 

 apples are numerous. The opposite-leafed mango which bears 

 a fruit like a plum, the Heritiera, whose agreeable sub-acid 

 fruit is borne in bunches like large grapes, and the edible 

 Malacca, with its bunches of red echinated fruit, are also com- 



