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BIRMAH.
of t?*. HJncans into two unequal parts. To the eastward,
the) possess a tract of ten days' journey, about
150 miles, to the banks of the Thaluayn,* which
forms the proper boundary towards Siam. Very little
of the tract of country between these two mighty
rivers is either cultivated or inhabited. A ridge of
high mountains divides them, and the country is for
the most part barren and jungly. The Irrawaddy is
to Ava, what the Ganges is to Bengal, the high road
of population and commerce; and both the ancient
be the Nan-kiang, or Great Fish river of the Chinese. The name
of the river is Hindoo, being, in fact, that of Indra's elephant
(written by Mr. Ward oira-vtlta). M. Langles, in his erudite work,
Monumens des Indes, speaking of Indra and his elephant, says,
that Iravatti means aqueous. Whether the river be named from
the elephant, or the elephant takes its name from the watery ele-
ment, appears, therefore, doubtful. There is a Hindoo tradition
respecting a fabled lake called Anaudat, on the eastern bank of
which, it is said, is the image of a lion's head, on the southern that
of an elephant's, on the western that of a horse's, and on the northern
that of a cow's ;
and from these four heads are poured forth
four rivers. The meaning of the fable is supposed to be, that the
banks of these four rivers, the sources of which were unknown,
abounded respectively with lions, elephants, horses, and cows
See Asiat. Res., vol. vi. p. 233. Every one knows, that the Ganges
is represented as flowing from the cow's mouth, the name given to
a large stone in the bed of the river at Gangoutri. It is possible,
that a similar legend may connect the Irrawaddy with the mouth
of the elephant. However this may be, the cow is not held more
sacred in Hindostan, than the elephant is in Birmah.
* This river, of which scarcely any thing appears to be known,
is supposed to be the Lu-kiang-of Yun-nan. It is the Pegu river
of Buchanan, the Caypumo of older travellers ; it is sometimes
distinguished as the Martaban river ; but its true name appears to
be Thaluayn or Ta-lain, sometimes written Sanluayn, Sa-lwen,
Thaulayn. It has been confounded with the Sitang, Sittong, or
Zeet-taung river, which is, we suspect, the one to which the name
of Pegu (or Bagoo) was first applied by the Portuguese. By some
geographers, the Thaluayn is represented as falling into the Sitang ;
and it is not improbable, that there may be at least some commu-
"
nication between them.