1837.] 



from Ava to the Frontier of Assam, 



401 



shape, but they have, on the contrary, " long faces and straight noses, 

 with a very disagreeable expression about the eyes, which was ren- 

 dered still more so by their lanky black hair being brought over the 

 forehead so as entirely to cover it, and then cut straight across on a 

 line with the eyebrows. These people, though surrounded by Shans, 

 Burmese and Chinese, are so totally different from either, that it is 

 difficult to imagine from whence they have had their origin." 



On the 20th of December the fleet moored at a village about five 

 miles below Bamo, which being a town of great importance, and the 

 residence of an officer inferior in rank to the Mogaung Woon, some 

 previous arrangements were necessary to enable the latter to land with 

 the eclat due to his rank. On reaching the town late on the following 

 day, they found the left bank on which it stands so precipitous, that 

 they were compelled to cross to the opposite side of the river, and a 

 feeling of jealousy having arisen between the two Woons of Mogoung 

 and Bamo, the former resumed his journey on the 22d, which compell- 

 ed Captain Hannay to defer the inquiries he was so anxious to make 

 until his return in April, when he found the people far more commu- 

 nicative than they had ventured to be in the presence of the Mogaung 

 Woon. The information obtained on both occasions will be more ad- 

 vantageously shewn in a connected form than in the detached portions 

 in which it necessarily appears in his journal, and Captain Hannay's 

 first remark solves a difficulty, which, like the Adria of ancient his- 

 tory, has proved a stumbling block to modern investigation. In the 

 course of inquiry into the sites of the principal towns on the Irawadi 

 river, that of Bamo naturally held a very prominent place, and some 

 of the native Shans, who were questioned on the subject affirmed that 

 it was on the bank of the Irawadi river, while others, whose oppor- 

 tunities of acquiring information had been equally good, positively- 

 denied this statement, and fixed its position on the left bank of a small 

 stream which flows into the Irawadi, about a mile above the present 

 town. Captain Hannay reconciles the conflicting statements, briefly 

 but satisfactorily, in the following remark:— 



" I find that this is a modern town erected on the banks of the 

 Irawadi, for the convenience of water-carriage between it and Ava. 

 The old Shan town of Manmo, or Bamo, is situated two days journey 

 up the Tapan river, which falls into the Irawadi about a mile above 

 the new town of Bamo or Zee-theet-zeit, or new mart landing- 

 place." 



« This modern town," says Captain Hannay, " is situated on high 

 unequal ground, and the bank towards the river is from 40 to 50 feet 



