1861 .] 
309 
Proceedings of the. Asiatic Societg. 
6. Prom Lieutenant A. Duff, Deputy Commissioner, Thyet Myo, 
through Mr. W. T. Blanford, a paper containing an account of the 
Nat-Mee or the Spirit-Pire, a burning hillock in the Province of Pegu. 
The paper was read as follows : — 
“ I had frequently heard vague rumours of a burning hill in the 
Kamruah township, but believed that if such a thing really had any 
existence, it was situated in the Arracan hills, and was probably a 
volcano similar to that near Thyouk Phyo. In a recent tour with 
a friend down the valley of the Punnee stream at the village of Pun, 
where we bivouacked as usual, a number of cultivators from the ad- 
joining villages came in to talk about their cultivation, &c. ; and I 
overheard some villagers from Nat-Mee say, in reply to a question 
from some one — “Yes, it is still burning” (or shining).* I asked 
what was referred to, and was informed that it was the Spirit Fire 
from which the village of Nat-Meet got its name ; that it was a place 
with a heap of stones out of which fire issued ; that generally about 
the change of the year (Burman) the fire was most manifest, but 
that sometimes it was not to be seen ; that in such cases the person 
visiting the place had merely to deposit some light inflammable sub- 
stance near the heap of stones, make a genuflexion towards it, and 
say — ‘ Oh great lord ! manifest thyself to me thy slave,’ when the 
spirit would instantly send fire out of the stones and burn up the 
substance deposited. 
“ During my various rambles through different parts of Burmah, 
I had heard all manner of wild stories of Pagodas emitting fire, &c ., 
&c. ; and these stories were frequently declared to be fact by people 
living only a few miles distant from the scene of the marvel ; so that 
it was only on arriving at the very spot that one could clearly as- 
certain that such a story had no more foundation than that of the 
three black crows of immortal memory. When, therefore, my inform- 
ants came to the statement that the fire might not be visible if I 
went to see it, but certainly would if the proper address were made 
to the Nat or Spirit, I must confess that I began to look upon the 
whole thing as a myth ; but on talking it over with my companion 
we resolved that, as the village of Nat-Mee lay in our proposed route 
* The Burmese word used might mean either. 
+ Prom Nat, a spirit ; and Mee, fire. 
2 B 2 
