( 58 ) 



must be accomplished in sixteen moves, or it is considered a 



" drawn" game. A checkmate of this description is called ayattar 



mandalay. 



Forty-four moves are allowed when the check-mate has to be 



accomplished with a shimbooyen, tsakai, and sin ; this mate is called 



sin mandalay. 



Where a mate has to be made with a min, shimbooyen, and tsakai, 



sixty-four moves are allowed, and the check-mate is called min 



mandalay. 



105. But, to take up the thread of my narrative from whence I 



diverged. Proceeding northward, up 



ofSver! g °° navigatlon to Singoo, the scenery is flat and unin- 

 teresting: the noble Shan mountains 



still run parallel with the eastern shore, and, though miles inland, 



continue to be the object of greatest attraction. Singoo, now a 



village not exceeding eighty houses, has the repute of once having 

 been the fortified capital of an independent state. Whether 

 there is anything on record in the annals of Burma to support 

 this belief, I have never found out ; but my own idea is, that 

 the period since the place was of any importance is sufficiently 

 distant to admit of fiction (which grows by age) having gained for 

 it its present repute ; and, were the true facts forthcoming it would 

 be found, I dare say, to have been a mere stockaded village of consi- 

 derable size, and the centre of the holding of some influential Bur- 

 man ; I much regretted not having had an opportunity of exploring 

 the place. A little higher, but on the opposite bank a reef of 

 gneiss-ore and hornblendic rock, with crystalline limestones inter- 

 calated, is apparent, but offers no impediment to navigation, as it 

 does not protrude to any distance into the stream. Unfortunately, 

 the navigable channel of the river separated us from the western 

 bank by nearly half a mile : I was thus debarred the pleasure of 

 bagging a few of the blue rock-pigeons that have formed a regular 

 colony in the sandstone cliffs a little above Mengoon. As we 

 progress, the Sagain hills gradually dwindle away to almost the 

 level of the surrounding country, and as they decrease in height, 

 so the vegetation seems to improve. We now noticed a few huts 

 scattered here and there, which my binoculars told me were inha- 

 bited by lime-burners. The river thus far has been much sub- 

 divided by islands, in all stages of formation, from the sandbank 

 of yesterday's creation, to the island clothed with arborescent vege- 

 tation, inhabited and cultivated. It is in such parts that naviga- 

 tion becomes most difficult, and it is only after many years' expe- 

 rience that the eye becomes sufficiently familiar with the upper 

 current to detect the navigable from the unnavigable channel. To 



