1072 Note on Inscriptions from [Dec. 



16 Mhat in Burmese means mark, and the bestower of this bell appears to 

 have been born with some mark or discoloration about his body, whence he was 

 named Mhat or Mark. Tbe verse on the bell may be understood to mean that the 

 donor was mark by nature and Mark by name. 



17 Here again the meaning of the figures is not quite clear, whether refer- 

 ring to the weight of the bell or to the amount of expense incurred. 



18 See note 7. 



The last part of the inscription is in verse. Burmese verse consists of four 

 syllables or five pronounced as four. The last syllable or last letter of one verse 

 and the third or second syllable, or last letter of the third or second syllable, of 

 the next verse, or of the two next verses, are made to chime together, and the last 

 syllable or final letter in the last syllable of the last of these verses is often again 

 connected by the same kind of rhyme with the following verses : — e. g. 



* Yatana man daing 1 || Le yaung pyaing 2 dweng[| mya^am^ 3 ta kho l || taung 

 kyun ts^o 2 thau [j myan daing amara 1 [| nan thand 2 way [j Tsakya 3 tha khew 1 || 

 tshaddan shyer* 2 hu Bhuren 3 gyih tsit 1 (j phyitf 2 lat thardw || let 2 thek dau 9 

 nhait || shyen dau 3 tha thana|| &c. 



The verse is written like prose excepting at the end of each verse there is a 

 paiJc or stop, a double line, like that above shown. The Burmese have an im- 

 mense collection of poetry and take great pleasure in reciting it, and I have 

 heard my amiable friend, the Catholic Missionary P£re Taroli, admire their poe- 

 try exceedingly, declaring that some, which he once read to me, was equal to any 

 thing in Dante - ! 



VII. — Note on Inscriptions at Udayagiri and Khandgiri in Cuttack, in the 

 lat character. By Jas. Prinsep, Sec. As. Soc. fyc. 



I have already mentioned that on Lieutenant Kittoe's departure 

 for Cuttack I requested him to take the first opportunity of visiting 

 the Khandgiri rock for the purpose of re-examining the inscription of 

 which a lithograph was published by Mr. Stirling in his Statistical 

 Report on the province of Orissa. 



My zealous friend saw enough, several months ago on a rapid visit 

 there, to prove that the published copy was very incorrect ; but it was 

 only lately that he was able to repair to the spot again (a distance of 

 20 miles from Cuttack) to examine and copy the document in detail. 

 I shall presently quote his own account of the aifficulties he had to 

 encounter in accomplishing the task I had imposed on his zeal and 

 good nature ; — but first I would call attention to a number of short 

 inscriptions in the old character which he discovered on the occasion 

 of his first visit, in the various caves of the neighbouring hill called 

 Udayagiri ; and which he carefully recompared on his late trip, so as 

 to leave no doubt of their accuracy as now represented in Plate LVII. 



