1835.] Island of Rambree on the Arracan Coast. 87 



vicious disposition, his future state will be that of an evil spirit, or 

 some grovelling and pernicious animal, such as a hog, toad, serpent, 

 •&c. A gentleman residing at Rambree has made me acquainted with 

 a singular instance of the firm belief entertained by the Mughs in the 

 transmigration of souls. A young woman who lives at Rambree, in 

 verv good circumstances, declares that she is the mother of a man 

 much older than herself ; this she accounts for by saying, that he was 

 born to her during a former life. She has a scar under the left ear 

 produced, as she affirms, by a cut from her husband's dhao. She further 

 states that she died of grief, in consequence of the partiality shewn by 

 that cruel husband for his elder wife. This story is not only credited 

 by the neighbours, but its truth is assented to by the individual whom 

 she calls her son. The idea was probably produced, in the first in- 

 stance, by the circumstance of her having been born with that curious 

 mark under the ear, and afterwards confirmed by a dream or some 

 other cause favouring the publicity of a tale that owes its popularity 

 to a belief in the transmigration of souls. 



January 16th. — As the morning was very cold, I did not leave 

 Singhunnethe before the sun had well risen, and the fog that hovered 

 round the mountains had been somewhat dispelled. The route at 

 first lay over patches of rice-stubble, and then took a direction across 

 several small ranges of hills, the most elevated of which was covered 

 with a red iron clay similar to that on the " red hill" near the town of 

 Rambree. From the summit of this hill, I enjoyed a fine prospect of 

 the channel that divides the eastern side of the island from the district of 

 Sandoway. The hills of Lamoo and Kalynedong rose on the opposite 

 shore, and the distant mountains of Yoomadong were faintly visible 

 amidst the clouds that surrounded them. Descending this range I 

 approached the village of Saain-kyong, celebrated for its lime. The 

 limestone is found at the foot of a high hill to the left of the road. 

 This was the first limestone that I had seen on Rambree Island ; and 

 it is so concealed by the jungle, that had I not been previously made 

 aware of its existence and inquired for its site, I should have proceed- 

 ed on my journey unconscious that such a rock was in my neighbour- 

 hood. From its appearance and more particularly from the rocks with 

 which it is associated, 1 am inclined to class it with the " upper fresh- 

 water limestone" found in tertiary formations ; it is of a greyish white- 

 colour ; of a fine compact texture, but very brittle. It occurs in 

 several detached masses of a globular or columnar form, and although 

 I made every possible search along the ravines in its neighbourhood, 

 I could discover nothing that would indicate the slightest approach to a 

 stratification ; nor has this species of limestone been discovered in 



