1844.] On the History of Arakan. 25 



tradition existing of a race of monsters which committed devasta- 

 tions in a remote period, or because they found the Myam-ma people 

 worshippers of spirits and demons. It is possible that these traditions 

 of human-flesh-devouring monsters, arose from exaggerated stories 

 concerning the savage tribes who inhabited the country when first the 

 Myam-ma race entered it. The names given to some of these mon- 

 sters bear a close resemblance to names common among the Khyeng 

 and Kami tribes to this day. Popular superstition still assigns to 

 each remarkable hill and stream its guardian Nat or spirit, to whom 

 offerings are made ; and this elf- worship is the only acknowledgment 

 of a superior power made by the wild hill tribes now living within the 

 boundaries of Arakan. From the name of the country JRakhaing, the 

 people now generally call themselves Rakhaings, as distinctive from 

 the Burmese, though the term is strictly applicable only to those 

 who live in the northern portion of the country, or Arakan Proper. 



The Myam-ma nation evidently had no knowledge of writing until 

 it was communicated to them from the continent of India or from 

 Ceylon ; and this event, if we may judge from the history under review, 

 occurred during the second century of the Christian era. Up to that 

 period therefore we must conclude, that the main facts of the national 

 history were transmitted by tradition ; nevertheless we have long tales 

 and details of prior events ; these have no doubt partly been invented 

 by successive copyists and commentators, and partly amplified 

 from original facts. The Arakanese being instructed in letters and 

 religion by people from the West, gradually mixed up their own 

 genuine traditions with the histories or fictions of their teachers. As 

 the Budhist religion taught that before the advent of Gautama, who 

 flourished about the middle of the sixth century b. c, there had existed 

 during the present world-era three successive Budhas, whose lives and 

 the intervening periods occupied an indefinite duration of time, it 

 thence became the ambition of the newly-taught disciples, to blend 

 their line with those nations among whom the Budhas had appeared ; 

 hence arose confused stories of monarchs from various countries in 

 India establishing themselves and building cities in Arakan ; all these 

 may be laid aside as fiction. The duration of each king's reign from 

 a remote period is given in the history, the date assigned for the ac- 

 cession of many of the sovereigns since the year 863, corresponding to 



