LITERATURE OF THE BURMAS. 189 



■ ' one named Rahu, which is invisible *. The Sun, 

 " or palace of the Nat so called, is Mtx juzana in 

 "diameter. This palace is within gold, and with- 

 ^' out crystal ; and because gold and crystal are by 

 ' ' nature hot, the rays of tlie sun always occasion 

 ' ' heat The ^Moon is the palace of the Nat so called, 

 " and is ^oxty -wmt juzana in diameter. Without, 

 •' it is silver, and within carbuncle; and because 

 " silver and carbuncle are by nature cold, therefore 

 *' the rays of the Moon are cold. Mars has a 

 "diameter o{- twtlxe jazajia, Mercury of fifteen, 

 " Jupiter of seventeen, Venus of nineteen, and Sa- , 

 " turn of thirteen; and their circumferences are 

 " triple their respective diameter f. The Bunnas 

 '■'do not assign any measure to the fixed stars. 

 " They do not suppose, that the sun, moon, and 

 ' ' stars, revolve round the earth ; but that they re- 

 •' volve round the o-reat mountain Mienmo in a cir- 

 *' cle, the plane of which is parallel to the earth. 

 '' The stars they suppose are constant in their mo- 

 ■'• tion, neither declining to the north, or south: 

 " but the sun, moon, and other planets, they con- 

 " ceive, as we do, to have a declination; and say 

 " that the sun goes from the north to the south, 

 " and on the contrary from the south to the north, 

 '• always touching the twelve constellations, which 

 "' we call the twelve signs of the Zodiac: and they 

 " allow, that, in the space of one year, the sun re- 

 " turns to the same place in the heavens from 

 ^ ' whence he had set out. This same revolution, wdiich 

 " by the sun is performed in one year, is by the 

 " moon performed in one month. The Bunnas di- 



" vide 



* An admirer of oriental literature would here difcover the GeorgL 

 nm sidus, and strip the industrious Herschel of his recent honours. 



+ From this we might infer that the Burmas, or ancient HltrduSf 

 had made such a progress in geometry, as to know that the circum- 

 ference of a circle is to its diameter as three to one. But if vvc exa- 

 mine more accurately, v/e shall find their notions in this science quite 

 absurd, (p. 175). Thus the diameter of the island Zahiidihn is made 

 10,000 juza.>?a : but they suppose, that three spaces, whose diameters 

 are 4,000, 3,000, and ;3, 000^ should be equal to the whole eiirent 

 of the island, (p. 18 a)- And they even suppose the circumference of 

 Vntlf^egru, which is a square, to be only three times its diameter. 



