280 ON THE RELIGION AND 



tranflation of the maxims of the Talapoins, given us 

 in his invaluable account of the Siammefe kingdom. 

 It muft be obferved, that a tranflation of the Kavimua^ 

 v/hich is contained in the colleftion of Cardinal 

 Borgia,* feems to differ in fome particulars from that 

 given by father San GERiM AN o. In the latter, no men- 

 tion is made of fire and water being the principles of 

 all things, of the purifications of the jK^A^?75 by fire and 

 water, oFthefe priefls pafTing their time entireyabforbed 

 in a meditation of the Supreme Being, or of the con- 

 fefTion of fms on the days of the full and new moon. 

 Father Paulinos alleges the Borgian Kam;."iuaio con- 

 tain all thefe circumftances: and I can only account 

 for fuch a difference by fuppofing, that they are not 

 contained in the original work, but in the expla- 

 natory gloiTary, which is faid to accompany the Bor- 

 gian copy. I never, however, heard of thefe do6lrines 

 prevailing among the Rahans : nor is there any hint 

 given of them in the cofmography of Sangermano, or 

 in the treatife of the Zarado. 



TRANSLATION of KAMMUA-ZA, or the BOOK 

 KAMMUA. 



"In the ceremony of ordination, before iht Saheit\ 

 " is delivered to the candidate, he mufl approach his 

 " mafler Upize'^, and fay three times, ' Lord, are 

 " not you my mafter Upize ?' He is then ordered to 



advance 



* PAULIKUS M«.5. jBor^. pag. 84. 



+ The Sabeit is a round black covered vefiel, generally made of lacquered 

 bafket-work, and ufed by the priells in their morning rounds to receive the 

 alms of the charitable. 



X At ordination there areafTiftinga great number of Rahans, and the 

 Upize is one of the eldtll prcfent, and prcfides in the affembly. It would 

 appear from the account of M. de i.a Loubere, that in 8iam, ordina- 

 tjon can only be performed by a particular kind of fuperior, named Saner at. 

 pel 'laps Sancrat and Upizt may mean the fame rank : although I did not 

 imderfland, that amoiig the Burma: it was necciFary for the Upize to be a 

 Zara, much Icfs that there was any dillinflion of rank among thefe lupe- 

 rioars, farther than what has been already mentioned. 



