1873.] 
45 
Sir Arthur P. Pliayre —On the History of Pegu. 
last driven out. The king, anxious to possess a holy relic, sent a nobleman 
in a ship with five hundred followers, and a letter written on golden tablets 
to the king of Ceylon, to ask for a relic of Budha. The king of Ceylon, full 
of friendship and beneficence, granted the request, and placing the holy relic 
in a golden vase, which was enclosed in other vases, all carefully sealed up, 
delivered it to the Peguan envoy. It was brought to Muttama, where it 
was received with great pomp by the king. A pagoda was built for its re¬ 
ception at the spot where the Yun Slians had been defeated. # Notwith¬ 
standing this happy event, misfortunes began to gather round the king. The 
governor of Pegu rebelled. He was subdued ; but the white elephant, in 
Budhist phrase, ‘ erred,’ that is, died; and the whole population, from the king 
to the peasant, clergy and laity, were in an agony of grief. For this por¬ 
tended dire misfortunes to the country. The white elephant received a 
grand funeral, the body being drawn by the people on a car beneath a royal 
canopy, outside the city where it was buried in the earth. “ But one ac¬ 
count,” adds the chronicler doubtfully, “ is, that the elephant rose up from 
“ the funeral car, and stalked majestically into the river, where the water 
“ closed over it, and it was- seen no more.” Some Karen people, not long 
after, reported that a white elephant had been seen in -the forest, and the king, 
with his whole court and a large army, went to capture it. He was absent 
for four months, and during that time, his half brother or cousin, named 
Byat-ta-ba, raised a rebellion. The first intimation the king had of this 
event was from seeing a star strike at the moon. This was interpreted by 
his Brahman astrologer to mean rebellion. Returning hastily towards the 
city, the king heard that Byat-ta-ba had shut the gates, and that his brothers 
were levying men in the country outside, with whom they entered. The city 
was defended with cannon,f so that the king could not attack it, and the 
wives and families of the nobles who were in the royal camp, were inside the 
city. Many therefore deserted the king, and went over to the rebels. The 
king retired to Dunwun, and appointed his brother-in-law Thamin Bya-ta- 
bat, general against the rebels. He closely invested the city, so as to prevent 
supplies being carried into it. By an artifice of the wife of Byat-ta-ba, who 
sent a secret letter to him, pretending that she was on the side of the king, 
he accepted some dishes which she sent, and died from the effects of eating 
them. The whole of the investing army then fled. Another commander 
* In the histories of Burma and Pegu, many instances are related of relics, or 
supposed relics, being brought to the country from Ceylon. The facts are gravely 
related, but nothing seems to be known of the relics afterwards, except the hairs of 
Budha which are enshrined beneath the Shwe Dagun, and are as freshly remembered 
and worshipped now, as they were two thousand four hundred years ago. 
f This is the first mention of cannon in the history, about the year A. D. 1370. 
Nothing is said as to where they wei’o procured from. 
