Captain James Low on Bupp a and the Phrabdt. 109 
has extended its protection to this as well as to other prejudices of the na- 
tives, thereby enabling the ever-calculating Hindu to contrast in his mind 
the humane and tolerating spirit of enlightened Christianity, with the ruth- 
less, the desolating, and the bigoted sway of the zealous Mahomedan. 
A respect for the religious observances of our Hindu subjects, however 
puerile or unmeaning, ought to be inculcated on British youth destined for 
India, as an important part of the duty they owe to the government they 
serve. 
Whatever the natives of India now are, it ought to be recollected what 
they have been; and that although science with them has not reared its 
head to a dazzling pre-eminence, yet its germs have been preserved within 
the massive and antient walls of their pagodas, during the darkest ages of 
European history; and have, perhaps, since lit the flame of science which 
now blazes in the northern hemisphere. 
No. 52. 
Watta Sango. The Siamese Hie Sang, i.e. the shell Sang. It is the 
chank shell, or buccinum, with the involutions turned from left to right. 
It is also termed by the Siamese Sang Thak,hinnéwat. It is most valued 
when it can be found with this, I imagine, unusual conchological conforma- 
tion. It is highly prized all over India, and venerated more or less by all 
classes of Hindus.* These shells form a considerable branch of traffic be- 
twixt Ceylon and Bengal, being exported from the former. 
When the number of convolutions of a shell amounts to ten the 
Siamese prize it most, because this is the number of the Chidt, or states 
of existence of Prd Buppa, which he had passed through previous 
to his last appearance. Maurice also informs us, that the nine valves 
of this shell allude to the nine incarnations of Visunu. ‘The Shaphar 
of the Jews seems to accord with this shell, both being applied to religious 
uses. In an impression of a Divine foot of Buppja, given in Cap- 
tain Symes’s Ava, the five toes are represented by five chank shells. But 
in the one in which the emblem we are now investigating occurs, five 
* One of this description has been known to have been sold for two hundred pounds sterling, 
according to Mr. Crawfurd. ‘The left-handed duccinum, as Sir W. Jones remarked, is an accom- 
paniment to the paintings of Crisuna; and the Piuro of the Hindu mythology holds in bis 
hand the holy shell. 
