1837.] 



from Ava to the Frontier of Assam. 



31)5 



right bank of the river, and Male myu which is close to it, contains 

 about 800 houses with many very handsome gilded temples. 



The Myothagyi or deputy governor of the town, is also the cus- 

 tom officer, and a tax of 15 ticals per boat is levied on the Chinese 

 coming from Bamo. Old Tsampaynago myo is situated at the mouth 

 of a small river which flows from Mogout and Kyatpen, and falls into 

 the Irawadi immediately opposite the modern choki of that name. 

 The sites of Mogout and Kyatpen, where some of the finest rubies of 

 the kingdom are obtained, were pointed out to Captain Hannay as ly- 

 ing in a direction N. 80° E. of Tsampaynago, and about 30 or 40 

 miles distant, immediately behind a very conspicuous peak called 

 Shueu Toung, which he estimated at 3,000 feet high. The Madara 

 river, as well as that of Tsampaynago, flows from the same mine- 

 ral district which must greatly facilitate communication with it. The 

 inhabitants of the country were unwilling or afraid to communicate any 

 information regarding these secluded spots, and their exact locality i* 

 still a subject of conjecture. The mines are described as in a very 

 swampy situation, and surrounded at a trifling distance by lofty hills. 

 The three places at which the gems are principally s^ught,are Mogout , 

 Kyatpen and Loungthe, and the principal miners are Kathays or Mani- 

 puris, with a few Chinese and Shans. The other most celebrated spot 

 is Momeit, the site of which Buchanan found some difficulty in deter- 

 mining, but which Captain Hannay learnt was not more than two or 

 three days' journey, or between 20 or 30 miles north of Mogout and 

 Kyatpen, While at this place Captain Hannay says, " they heard the 

 people who were cutting bambus in the hills, rolling bundles of them 

 down the face of the steep. Having made a road by felling the trees, 

 the woodmen allow bundles of 150 and 200 bambus to find their way to 

 the bottom, which they do with a noise that is heard at the distance of 

 eight miles. They are then floated down the small river into the 

 Irawadi, but this operation can only be effected during the rains." The 

 party now began to feel the cold excessively, and its severity was 

 greatly heightened by a strong northerly wind, which seldom subsided 

 until the afternoon, and was particularly keen in the narrow passes or 

 hyouk-dwens, 



Tagoung Myu, which was reached on the 5th of December, is an 

 object of peculiar interest, as it is said to have been built by a king 

 from Western India, whose descendants afterwards founded the king- 

 doms of Prome, Pagan and Ava. Captain Hannay found the walls of 

 the old fort dwindled away to a mere mound, and hardly discernible 

 from the jungle with which they were covered ; but adds," that enough 



