troRsurp op ttte fowl. 281 



S micwh.it iillied to this was tlic Roman sacrifice to 

 i&culapius. The Chinese here do not require that 

 the cock should be white. 



Duriny my journeys in Tennassorim in 1824, I 

 found, several tribes amongst those called Kay en, 

 who venerated the fowl ; because, as they said, it once 

 happened that a dog rail olf with the only remaining 

 copy of their sacred creed, wbieh was written on 

 parchment, and that beiug pursued, fie dropped it 

 on the ground, when a fowl scratched out all (he 

 written character* with it* feet. Thus, said they* the 

 feet of the fowl are sacred; for to them adhered 

 our holv volume, 



Several of the Samang, or wild tiilies on the Ma- 

 lacca Peninsula, will not proceed on a journey until 

 the thigh hone of a fowl lias been inspected and a 

 fortunate omen elicited ; and I have been informed by 

 Battas of Sumatra, that when one of their tribes is 

 going to attack another, the astrologer or diviner 

 twists a red cock *s neck, and then holds him suspended 

 by the head. If the d)ing convulsions cease first in 

 the left loot, and wing, victory is pronounced to his 

 p aJ -ty— if the reverse, defeat, and the expedition is 

 postponed. 



The fowl is one of the emblems pourf rayed on the 

 Prabaal, or impassion of the foot of Booddha, which 

 ma\ be seen in the Bnoddhist temples of Ava and 

 Si nil. It is probable that this tissue of superstition 

 is of astronomical origin, since the fowl figures 

 amount the heavenly signs in tlie Hindoo, and 

 Other Eastern astronomical systems. I cannot close 

 this digression without noticing, that while employee! 

 several years ago in exploring the ruins of an ancient 

 Bnoddhist temple in Province YVellesley — au account 

 of which I have promised to the Asiatic Society of 

 of Calcutta — I obtained a small copj>er pot which 



