298 JOURNAL OF AN EMBASSY 
ated about three miles to the north-west of Sa~ 
gaing. This is the place at which the marble 
images of Gautama are manufactured for the 
whole kingdom. There are about thirty sheds, 
or manufactories, and at each we generally saw 
about ten or twelve statues either finished or 
in progress. The range of hills close at hand, 
although composed of marble, does not afford 
any fit for statuary, and the material is brought 
from a place called Sakyin, where there is an 
entire hill of pure white marble: this is ten 
miles distant from the eastern bank of the Xra- 
wadi, and forty miles, or twenty taings, above 
Ava. The blocks of marble, rough-hewn gene¬ 
rally into the form necessary to make a figure 
of Buddha in the sitting posture, are conveyed 
to the Ira wadi by land-carriage. From hence 
they are brought to Sagaing by water, and from 
this again by land to the place where the ma¬ 
nufacture has been conducted,—from time imme¬ 
morial :—the only reason assigned to us for in¬ 
curring so heavy and unnecessary an expense 
in conveyance. Our inquiries respecting the 
marble quarries furnish a remarkable instance of 
the difficulty of getting precise and accurate in¬ 
formation among a people so incurious in such 
matters as the Burmans. Sometimes we were 
told that the quarries were fifty miles distant 
