A V A 



in N. lat. 22° 5'. E. long. 97° 54'. It is divided into an 

 upper and lower city, both of which are fortified : the lower 

 is the inoft exteufive, and is fiippofed to be about tour miles 

 ill circumference ; it is protedled by a wall thirty feet high, 

 with a broad and deep foffe. The communication between 

 the fort and the country is over a mound of earth, crolfing 

 a ditch that fiipports a caufeway ; the upper or fmallcr 

 fort, which may be called the citadel, and dots not exceed 

 a mile in circuit, was much llronger and more compatl than 

 the lower ; but neither the upper nor the lower had a ditch 

 on the fide of the river. This ancient capital has been fuf- 

 fered to fink into ruins, fince the recent foundation of Urn- 

 merapoora. " The walls" fays colonel Symes, " are now 

 mouldering into decay; ivy clings to the iides; and buflies, 

 fuffered to grow at the bottom, undermine the foundation, 

 and have already caufed large chafms in the different faces of 

 the fort. The materials of the houfes, con filling chiefly of 

 wood, had, on the firll order for removing, been trail fported 

 to the new city of Ummerapoora ; but the ground, unlcfs 

 where it is covei-ed with bufhes, or rank grafs, ftill retains 

 traces of fomier buildings and flreets. The lines of the 

 royal palace of the Lotoo, or grand council hall, the apart- 

 ments of the women, and the fpot on which the piafath, or 

 imperial fpire, had ftood, were pointed out to us by our 

 guide. Clumps of bamboos, a few plantain trees, and tall 

 thorns, occupy the greater part of the area of this lately 

 flourifhing capital. We obferved two dwelling-houfes of 

 brick and mortar, the roofs of which had fallen in ; thefe, 

 our guide faid, had belonged to Colars, or foreigners : on 

 entering one, we found it inhabited only by bats, which 

 flew in our faces, whilil our lenfe of fmclling was offended 

 by their filth, and by the noifome mildew that hung upon 

 the walls. Numerous temples, on which the Birmans never 

 lay facrilegious hands, were dilapidated by time. It is im- 

 poffible to draw a more ftrikiiig piftnre of defolation and 

 ruin." To the gloomy and deierted walls of Ava, a fine 

 contrail is exhibited by the new city of Ummerapoora. 



Ava, Rh'tr of, now called Irraiuaddy, is the ciiief river 

 of the Birman empire ; according to major Rennell (Memoir, 

 p. 298.), it is the Nou-Kian, little, if at all, inferior to the 

 Ganges, and it runs to the fouth through that angle of 

 Yunan which approaches nearell to Bengal. It is faid to 

 be navigable from the city of Ava to Yunan; it pafTes by 

 Moguang to Bamoo, and thence to Ummerapoora and 

 Chagain,and thence to Prome towards the fea, into which it 

 difchargcs itfclf by many mouths, after a comparative courfe 

 of near 1200 Critilli miles. The two extreme branches of 

 the Ava river are the Perfaim and Syrian rivers, which 

 major Rennell (Mem. p. 39.) has been able to trace to the 

 place where they feparate from the main river, at about 150 

 geographical miles from the fea. The bearings of thefe 

 two branches interfeft each other at an angle of about fixty 

 degrees. The mouths of the Ava river form an afTcmblage 

 of low iflands hke thofe of the Ganges. M. D'Auville 

 erroneouny fuppofed the Sanpoo, Thibet river, or Burram- 

 pooter, to be the fame with that which is called, in the 

 lowefl part of its courfe, the river of Ava; and the Nou- 

 Kian he fuppofes to be the fame with the river of Pegu. 

 This river of Pegu, according to Buchanan (i'ee Symes's 

 EmbalTy, vol. ii. p. 414.), which is fuppofed to come from 

 China, rifes among hills about 1 00 miles from the fea, 

 which form the boundary between the Birman and Pegu 

 kingdoms. The river coming from Thibet, fuppofed to be 

 that of Arracan, is in reality the Keenduem, cr the great 

 weilern branch of the Ava river. Thai which is fuppofed 

 tg be the wetleni branch of the In'awaddy, is in fait the 



AVA 



eallcm one, which pafTes by Ava, and runs to the north, 

 keeping well from the province of Yunan, and leaving be- 

 tween it and that part of China a country fubjeft to the 

 Birmans. He adds, that between the Pegu and Martabau 

 rivers thete is a lake from which two rivers proceed; the 

 one runs north to Old Ava, where it joins the Myoungnya, 

 a little river of Ava, which conies from mountains on the 

 frontiers of China; the other river runs fouth from the lake 

 to ihe fea, and is called Sitang. The country bordering on 

 the Ava river, from the fea to Lundfey, is flat, and the foil 

 rich, and refembles the lower parts of the courfcs of the 

 Ganges, Indus, and other capital rivers, formed out of the 

 mud depofited by the inundations of the river. This low 

 trail is called Pegu. Rennell's Mem. p. 297. Symes's 

 Enibaffy to Ava, vol. ii. p. 413. 



AvA, Cape, a point of land in the ifland of Japan, in the 

 eaftern ocean, lying in N.lat. 34° 45', and E. long. 140° 



ss'- 



Ava Ava, in Botany, a plant fo called by the inhabitants 

 of Otaheite, in the South Sea, from the leaves of which they 

 exprtfs an intoxicating juice. It is drank very freely by the 

 chiefs and other conliderable perfons, who vie with each 

 other in drinking the greatell number of draughts, each 

 draught being about a pint : but it is carefully kept 

 from their women. Hawkefworth'a Voyages, vol. ii. 

 p. 200. 



AVADIjE, in y}ncient Geography, a people of Afia,. 

 placed by Ptolemy in Baftriaiui. 



AVADOUTAS, a feftof Indian bramins, diftinguifhed 

 by their aullerity and abllinence, and depending on acci- 

 dental beneficence for their neeelTary fupplies. 



AVAILi of Marriage, in Scv.'s Livzu, denotes that cafu- 

 alty in ward-holding, by which the fupcrior v/js entitled to 

 a certain fum from his vaiTal, upon his attaining the age of. 

 puberty, as the value or avail of his tocher. 



AVAILLE, in Geography, a town of France, in the de- 

 partment of the Vienne, and chief place of a canton in the 

 diilrift of Civray ; five leagues eafl of Civray, and fix and a 

 half S. S.W. of Montmorillon. 



AVAL, the largefl of the iflands in the gidf of Perfia, 

 known to the Europeans by vhe name of Bahrein. In this 

 ifland were once 360 towns and villages; but at prefcnt 

 it contains, betides Bahrein the capital, only fixty wretched 

 villages ; the others having been ruined by a long feries of 

 wars. This ifland produces gieat abundance of dates ; but 

 its chief dependence is upon the pcarl-filliery, as the beft 

 pearls are fupplied by it. The duties upon the two articles 

 of dates and pearls affords its fovercign a lack of rupees, 

 out of which he is obhged to maintain a garrifon in the 

 city. 



AVALANCHES, a name given in SwifFcrland and Sa. 

 voy to thofe prodigious maffes of fnow, which are precipi- 

 tated, with a noife like thunder, and in large torrents, from 

 the mountains, and which dellroy every thing in their courfe, 

 and have fometimes overwlielmed even whole villages. In 

 17 19, an avalanche from a neighbouring glacier overfpread 

 the greater part of the houfes and batlis at Leuk, and de- 

 flroyed a confiderable number of inhabitants. The bell 

 prefervative againll their effcils being the forells, with which 

 the Alps abound, there is fcarceiy a village fituated at the 

 foot of a mountain, that is not fhelttred by trees; which, 

 the inhabitants preferve with uncommon reverence. Thus, 

 what conflitutes one of the principal beauties of the country, 

 affords alfo fecurity to the people. 



Our readers may be gratified by the dcfcription which 

 Thorafon has given of the avalanches, in his " Seafons :" 



♦' Amonfj 



