and gives rise to a volume of flame that lights up the country for miles around," but no products of fusion, such as lava or scoriæ are ejected.1

Evidence of recent elevations are visible, and Commander Halsted records that in some parts the most recent elevation (1750) was as much as 22 feet. It is said to have been attended by a violent earthquake, "the sea washed to and fro for several times with great fury, and then retired from the grounds, leaving an immense quantity of fish; " but there were no rents in the earth, and no fire from the volcanoes of the island.

It is presumable that the following piece of iron, the anchor of some old ship, was recovered from one of the old sea beds, and in connection with this, there is the record that several Muhammadan ships were wrecked on the coast of the neighbouring island of Ramri, about 800 A.D., when the capital of Arakan was near the present modern village of Saudoway.

In recess No. 9.

Ca. 1.-A piece of iron, 6 feet long, and 3 inches in diameter at one end, through which there is a round hole, a little over an inch in diameter. The greater part is cylindrical, gradually expanding for about 4 feet of its length, where the diameter has increased to nearly 5 inches, when it suddenly expands to fully 9 inches, and is then gradually rounded off at the end. About 6 inches from this extremity, there appears to have been a hole, right through the mass, with a diameter of about 3 inches. This is now closed up by shells and mud. It was discovered by Captain D. Williams, in the March of 1844, in the island of Cheduba when searching for gold coins, and forwarded by him to the Asiatic

F. R. Mallet, Records, Geological Survey of India, Vol. XI, 1878; also in Geology of British Burma, Rangoon, 1882, pp. 238-259.

.

1

2

Society, as a large bar of iron resembling the shank of an anchor, and described by the Editor of the Asiatic Journal as an iron grapnel shank, of which none of the grapnel claws were remaining. He supposed that it may have belonged to some European or Arab vessel a century or more ago (1844), and to have possibly been elevated with the beach on which it was found. "It cannot," he says, "have belonged to the people by whom the gold coins were struck, for these betoken far too rude a state of the arts to admit of such a bar having been forged or been in use in a ship, at the epoch when such coins were used."

Prior to the discovery of the bar of iron, Captain D. Williams had found, at the same spot, two lumps of iron, also associated with the gold coins, and which, he says, the natives considered to be weapons used by the pirates from the eastward in their attacks on boats; and regarding the coins he observes, that Lieutenant, now Sir A. Phayre, agreed with him that they were not the coins of Arakan, either under the Mug or Burmese dynasties. Regarding the lumps of iron, he described them as much corroded, but so preserving their form that he considered that, when perfect, they had the form of "a rough double square pyramid of about two or three inches on each side, joined at the base, which is now about two inches only." They present, externally, "the usual carbonized appearance and softness of iron which has been much exposed to water, but they, when found, were internally sound and metallic." These lumps are not now to be found in the Museum.

1 Journ. As. Soc. Beng., Vol. XIII, 1844, p. LVI.

2 Arabian merchant vessels visited India for many centuries, even as far back as the 9th, and, about the beginning of the 3rd century, Chinese ships, probably resembling the junks of the present day, used to creep up the eastern coast of the Bay of Bengal, as at present. See Thomas in Numismata Orientale, Vol. III, Part i.

3 Journ. As. Soc. Beng., Vol. XII, Part ii, 1843, p. 918.

The bar here described was presented to the Asiatic Society of Bengal by Captain D. Williams, 1st Assistant Commissioner of Arakan, 5th June 1844.

Rangoon.

Rangoon, the capital of British Burma, occupies the site of a village, the foundation of which is assigned by tradition to 585 B.C., and the palm-leaf records assert that the famous pagoda, the Shwe Dagon, was founded by two brothers who had visited Buddha Gotama in India at that time, having been guided to him by a Nat.2 Before parting from the Master, the Burmese tradition is that he rubbed his hand. over his head, and gave the brothers a few hairs that adhered to his fingers, bidding them to preserve them carefully as relics, and it was for the reception of these hairs that the Shwe Dagon pagoda was built. In this story of the two brothers, we recognise the story of the two merchants, Tapassu and Bhalluka, who were travelling from Orissa to Central India and who were stopped by an angel who led them to Buddha, when they became converted. Before leaving Buddha, they asked him, saying, "Lord, bestow upon us something to which we may pay reverence," when " with his own right hand he tore from his head and gave to them, the Hair-relics," and to this story is added, "they built a Dagaba in their own city, and placed the relics within it." The story probably originated in Orissa while the relics were there, and the Burmese appropriated it in order to shed lustre on their pagoda, which, from the popular belief that it contains these relics of Buddha, is

1 Shwe Dagon is made up of two words-the Shwe in Burmese, golden, and takun, a Talaing word, corrupted in Burmese to Dagon or Dagun, meaning

"

a tree or log, laying athwart." Brit. Bur. Gazet. Vol. II, p. 637.

2 Life of Gaudama, p. 101: Phayre, Journ. As. Soc. Beng., Vol. XXVIII, 1859, p. 473.

3 Fausboll's (Rhys Davids) Birth Stories, p. 110.

the most profoundly venerated shrine of its kind in SouthEastern Asia. The first reliable account of the pagoda is as late as the 15th century.

The town of Rangoon, which was originally called Dagon, is said to have been refounded by a King, called Pun-na-ri-ka, who reigned from 746 to 761, A.D., and who called it Aramana, but it afterwards re-acquired its name of Dagon, which was ultimately changed by the Emperor of Burma, Aloungbhura, to Ran-Kun, which literally means the "end of the War."

In Cabinet No. 5.

Rn. 1.-An oval terracotta medallion from Rangoon, measuring 6′′ x 5′′. The following account of it has been given by Captain W. MacLeod,1

"The accompanying image is one of two, just sent me from Rangoon (where it was dug up) by order of the King's uncle, the Mekhara Prince." Mr. Sarkies, who forwarded the images to Captain MacLeod from the Prince, remarks that the Prince's memoranda on the images stated that they "are the same as those found by Captain Hannay at Tagoung Myo, the inscription the same also in old Deva Nagari characters, and that they must be, at least, 1,800 years old."

A number were found at the same time, and it is stated that Rangoon is the site of an old city. Captain MacLeod further remarks regarding this image, that it differs from the one brought down by Captain Hannay, figured in the Journal. "The principal image, in Captain Hannay's is supported by two figures, whereas the Rangoon one has two pagodas. The Mekhara Prince in his note mentioned, that those he sent me resembled some Dr. Bayfield brought down from Tagoung, but never having heard of these,

1 Journ. As. Soc. Beng., Vol. XI, Pt. 1, 1842, p. 439.

I erroneously supposed His Highness had confounded Dr. Bayfield with Captain Hannay; but Dr. Richardson has put me right. Both Dr. B. and Captain H. visited Tagoung, and both appear to have found images with the Deva Nagari inscription, though Captain Hannay's discovery only has been recorded."

Presented to the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Mekhara Prince, 6th May 1842.

by the

Rn. 2-3.-Two terracotta medallions, each with a seated figure of Buddha, in relief, under an arch supporting a wihāra, and the rest of the surface of the medallion covered with figures of stūpas, and with a Devanagari inscription below the figure. Both are oval and pointed at one end, one measures 550 long, 4′′.50 broad; the other 5" 50 long and 4" broad.

From Rangoon : presented by the Mekhara Prince of Upper Burma, 2nd October 1844.

Prome.

Prome, which now forms only a division of British Burma, embracing the breadth of the valley of the Irawadi, and lying between the Thayet District to the north, and Henzadah and Therawati Districts to the south, was once a flourishing kingdom. The first city was called Tha-re-khettra, or Rathay-myo, and was founded, according to the Burmese tradition, by Dwot-ta-boung, one of the Sakya race, in the first year of the first Buddhist Council, and that would be about 443 B.C. The founders of this kingdom are said to have been of royal lineage, and descended from the Tagoung line of kings. The city was situated about 5 or 6 miles to the eastward of the present town of Prome, and was, according to the Burmese histories, surrounded by a wall, 40 miles in length, with 32 large, and 23 small gates, and filled with splendid buildings,