116 
JOURNAL OF AN EMBASSY 
reading; but few females are taught to write: 
even reading is not general among them. My 
friend Mr. Judson, after a long experience, gives 
the following account of the state of education 
amongst the Burmans. “ Scholars are considered 
capable of reading and writing, when able to re¬ 
peat and copy the Then-pong-kyi, or “ spelling- 
book,” and the Men-ga-la-thok, or “ moral les¬ 
sons.” Their arithmetical knowledge is almost 
confined to the multiplication table. A few who 
aspire to the character of “ learned,” advance from 
the elements of knowledge to the study of Baden 
or astrology, and that of the Pali language. This 
last is studied in the Thaddu-kyau, or grammar in 
eight divisions, and in various parts of the Bud- 
d’hist scriptures. The ne plus ultra in Burman 
education is the study of the Then-gyo, or “ book 
of metaphysics.” 
Of the Burman language and literature my 
time and opportunities were not such as to enable 
me to offer any competent account. Like the 
other Hindu-Chinese nations, the Burmans have 
two languages and two alphabets; the one verna¬ 
cular, and the other foreign. The native Bur¬ 
man alphabet, which is the same, or nearly so, as 
that of Aracan and Pegu, follows the classifica¬ 
tion of the Hindu alphabets, and is arranged into 
gutturals, palatals, cerebrals, dentals, labials, and 
liquids. The number of vowel characters is eleven, 
and of consonant thirty-three : several of both, 
