may have much to do for the good of that Greater Britain which is so variously composed, and calls for the exertion of such various gifts and capacities. In the moral ripening of the future they may yet have an invaluable, incalculable service to render to mankind.

For his services on the Education Commission Telang was made a C.I.E. After his death a public meeting was held to raise a memorial in his honour. At this meeting the Governor of Bombay, the Chief Justice, and the leaders of native society joined in commendations of his character and abilities. Telang never affected a churlish disdain of such tributes as these; but his most fitting monument will be found in the lives of a multitude of his countrymen made wiser and nobler by a loving remembrance of his words and works.

CORRESPONDENCE.

1.

SIR,-I glean from certain extracts in the Rangoon Gazette newspaper that a gentleman, of the name of F. O. Oertel, has been sent to report on the antiquities of Burma, and am glad to see that he states "there is no time to be lost for taking measures to preserve and collect the more valuable archæological remains of the country before it is too late, and for this purpose an early scientific exploration of all parts of Burma seems necessary." It is to be hoped the Government of India will at once follow his advice: not only is it clear that objects of interest are falling into ruin and being destroyed, but that the traditional history of Pegu will soon be lost. The old Mwn, or Peguan, language is fast disappearing, like that of Cornwall, and, forgetful of the fact that this language was universally spoken south of the latitude of Prome before the time of Alompra (A.D. 1756), there is a tendency springing up to interpret the names of old places by means of the, now dominant, Burmese language.

The accompanying extract will, I think, make this apparent

"Mr. Oertel, in the notes on his recent tour in Burma, says:-'The word Syriam is said to be an Anglicised version of the Burmese Thanlyin, by which name it is still called by the natives, while its Pali name is Khoddadippa. It once was the principal port of Pegu, and continued to be so up to the time of the foundation of Rangoon and

the utter destruction of the former by Alompra in A.D. 1756. It is fabled to have been founded nearly six centuries B.C., but did not take a prominent place in history until the end of the 16th century, when the adventurer Philip de Brito, better known as Nicote, seized it in the name of the Portuguese. Their dominion, however, did not last long, as the town was soon re-taken by the Burmese, under Mahadhamma Raja, in 1613. Subsequently the Burmans allowed some Dutch, English, and French traders to settle in Syriam, but their factories were finally destroyed by Alompra, and nothing now remains of these settlements but the ruins of a church, some tombs, and traces of walls. Interior and exterior views are given of the remains of the Portuguese church, which is said to have been the first Christian church in Further India. It was erected in 1750 by Monsignor Nerini, the second Vicar Apostolic of Ava and Pegu, and a member of the Barnabite Mission. In plan it consisted of a single nave and apsidal end in Italian style, constructed of pointed brickwork. The apse and side walls are still standing, much ruined and overgrown with pipal trees.

"A village now occupies the site of the old town, and near it are the remains of several ancient brick pagodas of small dimensions, probably of considerable age. The Kyaikkauk or Syriam Pagoda, situated two or three miles to the east of the former, shows the modern type. This last pagoda also is fabled to have been erected over sacred hair relics of Gautama Buddha.''

It is, in the first place, difficult to understand how Syriam can be an Anglicised version of the Burmese word " Thanlyin." The latter word is not difficult to pronounce, and, even if it was, I fail to see how it could be turned into Sy-ri-am. That the word is not an English version of the Burmese is, however, quite clear, for Cæsar Frederick, in A.D. 1563-80, says: "The ships that come from the Red Sea frequent Pegu and Syriam." Ralph Fitch, in a.d. 1586, calls it "Ciriam," a good town to which come many ships

from Mecca. It is a curious circumstance that Verthema, a Roman, who went to Pegu in A.D. 1503-8, does not mention it. On referring to Mr. Haswell's Mwn Grammar, I find that they do not use the th or lisped s, and consequently Thanlyin is not a Mwn form. If the Burmese used the Mwn name it must have begun with an s, and might have had an in it. That is to say, that, if the name of the place was originally Sanrin, Sanrang, or Sanyin, the Burmese would have pronounced it Thanyin, or Thanlyin. Possibly the word may be a corruption of some Portuguese word, but anyhow it ought to be easy to find out what it was called. It is not always certain whether the old travellers used the native terms, for we find that, in one case at least, they used what is probably a Portuguese term "Macareo," the breaker or smasher, to designate the great tidal wave of the Sittang river. In Aracan, just south of Akyab, there are three Islands, called by us the Barangas, but the native names are in no way connected with the word. Probably it is derived from the Portuguese "barancas," which exactly describes them. The only word which I can find at all like Syriam is the Mwn word "sarang" or "saring," which means a swinging cradle, and is evidently the "serrion" of Fitch, which, he says, is a couch or litter carried by sixteen or eighteen men in which the king was carried. "Thanlyin," according to Judson, is a state bier. Deling," "Daling," or “K'aling,” is the Mwn word for a litter, which probably resembled the Japanese "Kago." I enclose some more of Major Temple's notes with some remarks on them.

66

His idea is a good one, but I trust that he will not be misled by Burmese friends who think there are no languages other than Pali and Burmese.

By the way, there seems to be a misprint in the extract from Mr. Oertel's report. The Pali name of Syriam island would be Khuddadipo.

Portuguese.

The ruined church, too, was not

R. F. ST. ANDREW ST. JOHN.

October 28th, 1893.