A TRANSLATION OF THE KEDDAH ANNALS. 
19 
happen that they settled at first so far down ? This might lead us 
to suspect that they settled originally in Pegu and Martaban, 
descending from the Laos countries by the route of the Attaram 
river to Martaban. The Peguers or Monsa ssert that the Burmans 
got their religion from Pegu, 
It would seem from Mr Crawfurd’s remark in his embassy to 
Ava (p, 419) that the Burmese say that in A. D. 386 a Burman 
priest Buddha Gautha or Gausa proceeded to Ceylon, and from 
thence brought with him a copy of the Buddhist Scriptures. This 
only serves to caution us against their chronology at the earlier 
periods of their history ; for Buddha Ghosa went to Ceylon from 
India not from Ava in about A. D. 410, and then (!) compiled the 
Buddhist Scriptures and Commentaries which reached Ava after¬ 
wards, and exist there now in I believe nearly their pristine purity. 
Tattooing seems originally, observes Mr Crawfurd, to “ have been 
“ confined to the Burmans and Taleins* The nations they have 
“ subdued have more or less followed their example, such as the 
“ Kayens, the Aracanese and the Shans ” But it is only I suspecj 
those Kareans who live near to a Burman population who tattoo 
themselves; for, in travelling over theTenasserim Provinces, I found 
the Kayen tribes generally to be not tattooed. But Fitch says 
that the Peguers did not in his time tattoo themselves. 
The Siamese most likely dropped the practise, if indeed it had 
then existed, when they separated from the Laos, in order to indi¬ 
vidualize themselves more strongly. 
(4) The period of the year was doubtless that of the S. W. 
monsoon, when small and badly managed vessels are still occasion¬ 
ally lost. 
The Scythians, as we learn from Col. Todd’s Rajahstan, of the 
north of Europe, were always alert to assist, as they imagined, their 
gods When they heard loud thunder they supposed that these 
gods were attacked, and they shot their arrows towards the sky to 
aid the latter. The Grecian and Celtic sailors purchased the 
charmed arrows of their god Apollo to calm the troubled sea. 
The Malays too had the superstition amongst them, for in the 
Malayan Annals ( 2 ) it is related that “ Seyyad Arab discharged an 
“ arrow towards Siam , saying , “ Chaupandan the Raja of Siam 
“ is a dead man ’ and it fell out accordingly ,” Now this mode 
of killing an enemy was then novel to the Malays, and must have 
been taught them by this Arab, who was a “ servant of God.” I 
have for convenience sake used Leyden’s Translation of these Annals 
where it gives the whole of the original, but have reverted to the 
latter where that is not the case. The copy in the Arabic charac¬ 
ter in my poss ession, which was purchased from a shop-keeper, 
seems to have been made about twenty years ago, and to have 
been in the possession of some English orientalist, as it has mar- 
( T ) Mahawanso Ch, 37 p. 250. 
( s ) Translation by Leyden p. 133. 
