INTRODUCTION. VI i 



mon, and a few trees are seen of the Indian Sandoricum, 

 which bears a fruit valued by the natives, as large as an apple, 

 but internally more like a mangosteen, and is often called by 

 Europeans the wild mangosteen. The Karens have also been 

 mindful to make provision for their betel, an article regarded 

 by them almost as essential as food. There are two species of 

 areca-nuts, and the piper betel-vine is scattered every where. 



They have also provided materials for mats, having planted 

 in large quantities a species of Pandanus, screw-pine, the 

 leaves of which are used to make mats throughout the Pro- 

 vinces. Nor is the place destitute of large timber trees, ap- 

 parently indigenous. There are one or two species of acacia, 

 Boodh's cocoanut, and two species of Wood-oil trees, one of 

 which produces the oil from which torches are manufactured. 

 Ratans are indigenous and abundant, and there are numerous 

 little forests of the gigantic bamboo, the largest species known, 

 and peculiar to this country. Here too is game for the sports- 

 man, and meat for the hunter. In short, Dongyang is the 

 most delightful place for ^n anchorite that ever was formed, 

 and one can scarcely visit it without wishing himself a dervise 

 or a monk. 



During the rains the whole plain is under water, excepting 

 a small sprinkling of islands on which the villages are located ; 

 and boats can sail from Maulmain to the very foot of the 

 precipice ; and as if formed by some genii-architect for the pur- 

 pose of seclusion and defence, this castellated pile, though 

 forming to the eye in the distance a part of a continuous range, 

 is really for all purposes of access quite isolated. On the north, 

 as adverted to above, it is connected by a low ledge to the 

 north-west portion of the range, and on the south and east a 

 long narrow ravine is interposed between it and the southern 

 section, through which a path is trodden by the Karens to the 

 villages beyond the mountains. 



Its form appears to the eye nearly like that of an equilateral 

 trfangle, with its sides about two miles long ; and on a chart 

 that was made by Lieut. Nalloth, of the Childers, that survey- 

 ed this part of the country seven or eight years ago, the base 

 of this site is represented as of a triangular shape, with sides 

 of from two to three miles long, but the whole space inclosed, 

 is there depicted as a vast succession of limestone peaks. 



