1868.] On the History of the Burma Race. 71) 



kingly knowledge. When sixteen years of age, as the divine predic- 

 tion had to be accomplished, he asked leave from his father and 

 mother to go to Pugan, then lately established, and they gave him 

 permission. He went there and lived in the house of an old Pyii 

 man and his wife. They having no children, loved him as their own 

 son. Hence he was called Pyu-tsau-ti. At that time the country 

 was infested with great tigers, birds, and flying creatures, which 

 devoured the people. A monster bird required a young maiden to 

 be supplied to him daily, and on the seventh day, seven maidens. 

 The king of the country could not withstand those monsters. The 

 young prince, confident in his own strength, destroyed them all. King 

 Tha-mug-da-rit, who for twelve years had been oppressed by these 

 creatures, was exceedingly rejoiced, and went to see the young man. 

 The lineage of the prince was then learned. The king gave him his 

 daughter in marriage and appointed him crown-prince. 



The historian here enters on a long dissertation as to the line of 

 princes descended from the son, as if feeling that doubt might exist 

 as to the true descent of Tsau-ti, and therefore of the present royal 

 family of Burma. He recounts the stories given in former histories 

 of the birth of Tsau-ti from a she-dragon and the Nat of the sun. 

 The she dragon, it was said in these fabulous tales, produced an egg, 

 from which came forth Tsau-ti. " But," observes the historian " this 

 " is impossible, for in such case the son would either have been a 

 11 Nat like his father, or a dragon like his mother ; whereas all agree 

 " that he was a man. It is evident therefore that the story has 

 " arisen from his father's name A-deits-tsa which means sun ; and 

 11 from the dragon queen having watched over him when he was an 

 " infant. But truly all kings from Ma-ha Thama-da to Gau-da-ma, 

 u were by descent of the race of the sun. And so it has continued 

 " to the present time." Having settled this point of the prince's 

 descent, the historian justifies his rejection of previous legends in the 

 following words : " Wise men have said, an old tree if bad, although 

 " old, must be cast aside. That such has happened before, is evident 

 " from the history of Pugan itself. For, during thirty generations of 

 " kings in that city, the doctrines of the heretical A-ri sect were 

 * ( believed in, until the time of that sagacious king A-nan-ra-hta to 

 " be hereafter described, who listening to the instruction of the great 



