190 



Extract from Journal of a Trip to Bliamo. [No. 2, 



I 



request he drew a plan of the two cities on a parabeit. He confessed, 

 however, that he had not seen the greater part of the wall, and especially 

 did not appear at all certain about old Pagan. On the authority of 

 " they say" however, he drew outlines like the following. (PL I.) 



As my subsequent inspection rather confirmed this sketch, I give 

 it to serve as a plan for reference. 



The Thoogyee with the help of some of the numerous visitors I 

 had attracted to his house, told me that anciently the two cities were 

 surrounded by the river, an arm of which embraced the east sides 

 and rejoined the main stream to the south of Pagan. The re- 

 mains of this branch of the river he declared to be evident in the 

 ereek to the north of Tagoung, and in the fact that during the freshes 

 of the rainy season, the two cities are actually surrounded by running 

 water. 



The walls of Tagoung he said followed the water-course, and those 

 of Pagan too were only at a short distance from it. " In the rains, in 

 fact, the two cities form the only dry ground in the neighbourhood." 

 To the eastward a series of jheels and tanks are scattered through the 

 jungle till, at the distance, of a deing (two miles) or more, a small lake 

 is met with, extending eight miles from N. to S. and six from E. to W. 

 Beyond this lake is jungle,, till the hills that run down from Momest 

 are met about another deing further east. 



All united in saying that Pagan is older than Tagoung, and all 

 declared themselves ignorant of its history. u Its chronicles are all 

 burnt,' 5 said one : another more intelligently remarked ; — -"It is not 

 hundreds, nor even a thousand years that the city has ceased to be a 

 capital : before religion came to the country it was the Burman capital, 

 and what old man can tell us of its history ?" On my enquiring after 

 any stone inscriptions or other relics of antiquity, they said none 

 have been found except a few small Budh images stamped in relief 

 on bricks with an inscription beneath, that I might perhaps be able 

 to read, but that they could not. They told me that these are all 

 found on the ground within old Pagan, and nothing of the kind has 

 been met with within the walls of Tagoung, 



The Thoogyee sent for some pieces, and on examination the cha- 

 racter proved to be Nagari, which I recognised, but cannot read when 

 distinct, and this inscription was far from legible. 



Taking temporary leave of the Thoogyee, I went through a wide 



