i6 
NOTES ON THE ILLUSTRATIONS. 
BURMESE BUDDHA. 
This is of marble, and was at one time partly painted and 
gilded. It was taken from a Pungyi Kyaung or Temple at 
Myingyau, in Upper Burma. The Kyaung was burnt to the 
ground, and the idol was found lying face downwards It 
was rescued by General Sir R. Low, at the time that the Naval 
Brigade accompained the Burma Field Force in 1885. The figure 
is seated, and is three feet in height (being thus the largest marble 
idol in the Museum) ; and was presented by Lieutenant Colonel 
S.F.Peile. Shakyamuni Gautama Buddha was the founder of the 
religion that bears his name. He was the son of a king, and was 
born about 624 B.C. in Kapilavastu, a city to the north of Benares, 
the present head-quarters of the Buddhist faith in India. At 
the age of twenty-nine he left his father’s court, and retired from 
the world, passing six years in the forest of Uruwela, where he 
went through a course of ascetic discipline. “ Thus, by a purely 
human process, the Prince Imperial of India found the light, and 
painfully won his way to Buddha-hood. Now no longerman, heis 
Buddha, the enlightened, the awakener.” This “deified” man 
has exercised a stronger influence upon the world than has an 
other uninspired person in any age or country. The religion 
which he founded is professed by no fewer than 370,000,000 
persons. He is said to have lived to the age of 81, and 
thus to have died about 543 B.C. 
EGYPTIAN MUMMY CASE, 
AND COFFIN OF UR-AMEN : 
A chief prophet of Amen-Ra. On the lid are represented the 
following: — The scarabaeus pushing forward the disc of the sun. 
The goddess Nut, called in the inscription the “Mistress of 
Heaven.” Three columns of hieroglyphics to Neith, Osiris, and 
Seker. Ra, Horus, and Chnum (the latter being the chief god 
of Ombos). The two Utchats or symbolic eyes of Horus. Thoth 
adoring the god Ptah (repeated twice). The inside cover (for. 
laying upon the mummy) is decorated the same as the lid. Con- 
spicuous is a long column of inscription containing an address 
to Osiris and the goddess Nut, wherein the deceased is called 
Mer-Men-fitiu, i.e ., chief of bowmen. It would appear from this 
that Ur- Amen, besides being a prophet, was connected with the 
military class, very powerful at that period. At the side of this 
