TO THE COURT OF AVA. 
273 
the British army. The translation was effected 
by Mr. Judson, to whom I have so often had 
occasion to express my obligations ; and, with the 
exception of having the Christian era annexed, it 
is a literal version. 
With the usual extravagance of Eastern na¬ 
tions, the Burmese carry their history back to a 
very remote and fabulous antiquity. It com¬ 
mences with a kind of Cosmography, and the 
greater portion of this, at least, seems borrowed 
from the country of the Hindus. The duration of 
<e a world,” say they, is divided into four periods 
of equal length. One of these only is destined 
for the residence of living beings, and the re¬ 
maining three are passed: first, in the destruction 
of the habited globe by fire; second, in its conti¬ 
nuing in a state of chaos ; and third, in its resto¬ 
ration by means of water. The duration of the 
period intended for the residence of living beings, 
is determined by certain ages of man’s life. In 
the first age, the life of man is only ten years ; in 
the second it is twenty ; in the third forty; and 
so on in an arithmetical ratio, until it attain one 
hundred victrillions, when it decreases in the same 
proportion, until it again arrive at ten. This 
circle of increase and decrease repeated sixty-four 
times, makes the total duration of the habited 
earth, when it is again destroyed by fire, again lies 
in a state of chaos, is again restored by the agency 
of water, and again repeopled. Subject to these 
VOL. II, T 
