30 On some Siamese Inscriptions. [No. 1, 



in the commencement of the inscription, are to be found in the book 

 about Siam by Sir John Bowring, to whom the king had sent it, and 

 as the form of the letters can be looked for there (Vol. I. p. 278), I 

 abstain from giving specimens. 



Two other stone-inscriptions from the neighbourhood of Xiengmai, 

 which were obtained by me in Bangkok, are written likewise in an 

 ancient character, related to that of the inscription of Sukhothai, 

 although differing in many particulars. Both speak of royal offerings 

 and the deposition of relics to establish the sacred period of 5000 years, 

 in terms similar to those employed by the Birmese king Mentara, but 

 I have not yet advanced far enough in the explanation of the cha- 

 racters to translate the whole of them. Even the present translation, 

 Avhich I offer here, is still a very imperfect one, but whenever I was at 

 a fault to make out a satisfactory explanation, I was sure to find the 

 best informed Siamese in the same predicament. The inscription of 

 Sukhothai covers the four sides of a conical stone, and in the same 

 court of Vat Keoh in the royal palace at Bangkok, is placed at its 

 side, another stone, which was brought from Kampheng-phet and bears 

 a Pali inscription. Besides these, stone inscriptions are found in the 

 Siamese province of Ligor, and at the old pagoda of Pathomma-chedi 

 at Nakhon-Xaisi, where also brick medallions are disinterred, resem- 

 bling those of Tagoung and other localities, and containing the con- 

 fessional formula of the Buddhists. 



I have added for comparison, a few specimens of several inscriptions, 

 which I copied at length from the stone monuments in Cambodia. 

 The ancient characters, called Ahson Mihng, abound chiefly at Nakhon 

 Tom, but are found also at Nakhon Vat, intermixed with inscriptions 

 of modern date. They are believed by the natives to be wholly unintel- 

 ligible, but seemingly without real foundation, as I have already suc- 

 ceeded, by consulting the more intelligent members of the priesthood, 

 in decyphering the names of gods, kings and towns, mentioned in them. 



Some characters in ancient Devanagari, (resembling the Bengal 

 inscriptions of the 12th century,) I found at the side of Cochin Chi- 

 nese letters on a sepulchre in the plain of tombs at Saigon, a town 

 which belonged for some time to the kingdom of Chiampa. The 

 sepulchre was that of a priest and the Cochin Chinese Buddhists 

 on such occasions, sometimes mix their writings with fanciful letters of 

 their own invention, and intersperse them with Chinese characters. 



