Cox’s Burmkuu Empire. 
interruption. The summits of all the 
peaks to the southward are crowned 
with Burmhan pagodas, and other re¬ 
ligious buildings : most of them have 
flights of steps leading to them ; the 
whole of bad burnt bricks plastered 
over. Upon near inspection they are 
rather paltry, and from the badness of 
the materials promising no long dura¬ 
tion. We climbed up to one of them, 
and from it commanded a very exten¬ 
sive view of the adjoining country, 
which appeared pleasant and fertile, 
but mostly woody and uncultivated ; 
the banks of the river were higher than 
the plains adjoining, as is usual in 
countries subject to inundation. These 
latter were, in many parts, still under 
water, although the river does not ap¬ 
pear to me more than five or six feet 
above its ordinary level in the dry 
months. Amarapoorah from hence 
makes but a mean appearance; its 
golden spires might be mistaken for 
chimney-tops, or glass-blowers’ fur¬ 
naces, and a nearer approach will not 
tend to raise in the minds of its be¬ 
holders any ideas of magnificence, 
comfort, or industry. 
AVA. 
Ava seems buried in its ruins; fifteen 
years ago the metropolis of the empire, 
it is now totally depopulated, and over¬ 
grown w T ith weeds or mouldering in 
heaps of rubbish. Two or three pagodas 
alone point out to the enquirer’s eye 
its site, which is surrounded by a 
small creek, and appears to me a better 
situation fora city than that now occu¬ 
pied by Amarapoorah. Cheghain seems 
also to be going fast to decay ; except¬ 
ing the religious buildings, you see none 
but mean straggling houses, and but a 
very scanty population. It is princi¬ 
pally supported by the cotton trade to 
China, of which it is one of the greatest 
shipping ports; also by making Chu- 
nam, the south end of the ridge being 
very good lime-stone ; the cheapness of 
this material seems to be one cause of 
the religious rage for building pago¬ 
das here, of which you see new ones 
rising in every direction. I know of 
no particular sanctity annexed to the 
place, except that on a rocky point 
projecting from the opposite shore, now 
covered with religious buildings; they 
say, that Godomah descended from 
heaven, when he transmigrated into 
the body of a cock, and picked golden 
grains from the sands. 
PEG A AM. 
October 22. We proceeded at half- 
597 
past five A.M. and at eight passed the 
new city of Gncayne ; a number of 
merchant-boats were laying there. At 
ten A.M. we stopped at the ancient city 
of Pegaam, or Fokgliong, and went on 
shore to view the ruins of this ancient 
city. I climbed to the top of an old 
pagoda, by several flights of narrow 
ruinous stairs. The two lower stories 
have a flight in each angle, arched over 
and steep. The first, about a yard 
broad, and in height from the steps to 
the top of the arch about five feet, end¬ 
ing in a small turret placed over the 
angle, and from the door of which only 
they receive light. The height of the 
whole of the first flight and story is 
about forty feet. The height of the 
second nearly the same, but the arch 
lower, and passages narrower; the rest 
of the steps are on the outside, leading 
to the top of three other stories, from 
whence the dome rises. The first two 
stories are surrounded by a Gothic 
arched gallery, along which are ar¬ 
ranged various images of their deities. 
The building itself is quadrangular, 
each face fronting tile four cardinal 
points of the compass; with a project¬ 
ing portico, and corresponding niches 
within, wherein is placed on a throne or 
altar a colossal gilt figure of Godomah. 
The principal figure seems uniformly 
to be placed to the east, where there is 
the greatest projection for the shelter of 
those who come to pay their devotions. 
From the top of this pagoda I com¬ 
manded a full view of the remains of 
the city and adjacent country, which, 
as far as the eye can reach on the eastern 
side of the river, is rugged downs; 
sterile, uncultivated, and covered with 
scrubby bushes, &c. To the south¬ 
east, about three miles inland, a rugged 
ridge of bills rise abruptly from the 
common level of the country, and ex¬ 
tend about five or six miles north and 
south. The ruins of file pagodas ex¬ 
tend about four or five miles along the 
banks of the river, and inland about 
one mile and a hglf. 
I counted to the south of me fifty ; 
and to the northward there might be 
seventy more disliiiguisliable, of vari¬ 
ous forms and sizes; but numberless 
others have sunk into indistinguishable 
masses of rubbish, overgrown with 
weeds; and the plain is every where 
covered with fragments of their ma¬ 
terials. Immediately above the bank, 
where my boat lay, is a part of the wall 
of the western curtain of the fort; and 
about a quarter of a mile to the east¬ 
ward. 
