38 - NAERATIX'E OP A JOURNEY 



feet by eight. At the fouthern extremity is a door, 

 which probably led into fome farther apartment, but it is 

 fhut up with earth and rubbifh. The fakeers who re- 

 lide here fay a tradition exifts, that one fubterrancous 

 paliage went from hence to Benares y and to Hurdwar : 

 and they tell us, that this door was fhut up, about 

 twelve or fourteen years ago, by the government, 

 becaufe people fometimes loft themfelves in the 

 labyrinth. 



This is faid to be the place in which the Rajah 

 Bhirtery, the brother of Vicramapittya, fhut 

 himfelfup, after having rehnquifhed the world. But 

 there are various and' difcordant accounts of its con- 

 ftru(^ion and date. By fome, it is faid to have been 

 conftru6led, in its prefent form by Bhirtery himfelf. 

 By others, thefe inner apartments are faid to have 

 been the 7nahl, or private chambers of GundrufseIn, 

 and the colonnade before the gate to have been his 

 public hall of audience, or Devjan-Aum. That this 

 elcaped the general wreck of old Oujein, and either 

 was not afFe6led, or funk gently down, fo as to retain 

 its form, though tlirown down under the level of the 

 ground. 



Such are the prefent appearances of this ancient 

 city, which above 1800 years ago, was the feat of 

 empire, of arts, and of learning ; and it is a talk 

 worthy o4 the prefent lovers of fcience to difcoverthe 

 means by v\'hich this great revolution has been effect- 

 ed. There are not, as far as my infpe6lion goes, 

 any traces of volcanic fcoriac among the ruins, nor 

 are there in the neighbourhood any of thofe conical 

 hills, which we might fuppofe to have formerly dif- 

 chajrged fire large enough to produce this efFeft. As 

 tradition relates, that the river, on thatoccafion chang- 

 ed its courfe, an inundation from it might be confider- 

 ed as the caufe. And in fadl this river, while we were at 

 Ouje'pi, did fwell to fuch a height, that great 

 part of the prefent town, though fitualed on a high 



