1857.] The Bemains at Pagan. 23 



than to anything of later date, so far as I know, before the fif- 

 teenth century. And even this Roman character is so mixed up 



ceded Tagoung as the seat of the Sakya kings. Mauroya is now known m 

 Mueyen, a town not far south from Bamd. 



In Tugma metropolis, an inland city of the Aurea Eegio, we have perhaps the 

 venerable city of Tagoung ; in Tharra, an inland city of the Chersonesus, Thara- 

 wadee, or perhaps Thare-khettara, the ancient name of Prome ; Satyrorwm Pro- 

 montoriwm we might be tempted to find in the point of Bihi-gyoon or Ogre's 

 Island, off Maulmain. At the northern confines of Mons Mseandrus, Ptolemy, 

 true to this day, places the Nanga logce or Naga Log, which he defines as truly to 

 mean ' the Naked Folk.' Eastward towards the Sinse are the Kakobse, whom 

 Col. Hannay* finds in the Ka-khyens called by themselves Kakoos ; and near the 

 shores of the Magnus Sinus we find the Kadopse or Kadota? who may be the 

 Karens, called in the Taking language, according to F. Buchanan, Kadoon. Be- 

 yond them we get among tribes of Pirates, who are said to have skin like that of 

 a hippopotamus, not penetrable by arrows ; so we may decline to follow Ptolemy 

 any further. It may be noted that though the geographer characterises several 

 tribes in these parts as Anthropophagi, he affixes " Emporium" to the names of 

 various places on the coast, which seems to indicate civilization and foreign trade. 



Why these lands should have been termed the lands of silver and gold (Argen- 

 tea Begio, Aurea Begio, Chersonesus Aurea) may appear obscure, as they are not 

 now remarkably productive of those metals. There are, however, gold-washings 

 on a small scale in many of the rivulets both of Pegu and of the valley of the 

 upper Irawadee and of the Kyendwen, which may have been more productive in 

 ancient times. And the Argentea Begio may probably (as suggested by CoL 

 Hannayf) have been the territory including the JBau-Dtven, or great silver mine 

 on the Chinese frontier, which is believed to supply a large part of the currency 

 of Burma. Indeed Aurea Begio may be only a translation of the name Sona- 

 paranta, winch is the classic or sacred appellation of the central region of Burma 

 between the Irawadee and the Kyendwen, always used to this day in the enu- 

 meration of the king's titles. These regions may moreover have been the channels 

 by which the precious metals were brought from China, and the mountains near 

 the sources of the Irawadee which are said to be very productive of gold, and 

 possibly even at that remote period the profuse use of gilding in edifices may have 

 characterised the people, as it does now. 



It seems, however, most probable that this practice was introduced with Bud- 

 dhism. X Yet even at the period of the first Buddhistic mission to this region, 



* As above p. 2. f Ditto. 



X The elaborate gilding of chapels and monastic cells in India and central 

 Asia is mentioned by Fahian, the Chinese pilgrim in the fifth century. (See 

 Laid/ay's translation, p. 18, &c.) 



