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256 BIRMAH.
respects, from any with which we are acquainted, and
emitting a brilliant ray upon the antiquities of the
western world ; for, between the hieroglyphics of Ava
and Egypt, a striking analogy is particularly remarked
by Symes, and every day's discoveries tend to confirm
the fact."*
"
In point of magnitude," says a writer in The
Scotsman in the East, " the monuments of Arracan
are unequalled by any hitherto explored by me, and
in some particulars differ essentially from the remains
of former magnificence I have examined, either on the
continent of India, or on the islands of the Eastern
Archipelago. Similar to those of Java, they consist
of octagonal temples, surrounded with bell-shaped fanes,
but, unlike them, are less decorated with sculpture,
and are distinguished by stupendous arches, vaults,
and arched galleries, which, I had thought, existed
only in the imagination of poets and novelists. There
exist here the ruins of nearly three edifices, which
consist of circular galleries, arches, and vaults, built
of brick and stone, strong, cemented with mortar, and
of the most massy construction. These subterraneous
passages (for they consist of excavations in rocky
masses of the hills) contain not fewer, probably, than ten
thousand images of Buddha, varying in size from not
less than fifteen or twenty feet high to an inch. Many
of them are decapitated, which I attribute to the Mussulmans
in their irruption into this province, as I
have discovered a portion of an Arabic inscription near
one of the entrances of the principal temple. In that
extraordinary edifice, of which a portion is ornamented
with various sculptures, (among which we are
enabled to discern the Ganesa Garuda and Nag Sing
* Asiat. Journ., April 1826, p. 512.