A description of the Burmese Empire / compiled chiefly from native documents by the Revnd. Father Sangermano and tr. from his ms. by William Tandy ; with a preface and note by John Jardine.

  • Sangermano, Vincenzo, Padre, 1758-1819.
Date:
1833. Reprinted at the Government Press, Rangoon, 1885
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A description of the Burmese Empire / compiled chiefly from native documents by the Revnd. Father Sangermano and tr. from his ms. by William Tandy ; with a preface and note by John Jardine. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    DESCRIPTION OF THE BURMESE EMPIRE height, nor are their rivers of equal breadth and depth. While the .first range, called Juganto, is 84,000 juzena high, and the first river as many juzena wide and deep, the second chain has half that height, that is to say 42,000 juzena, and just so wide and deep is the second river. 3. At the four cardinal points of Mount Miemmb, between the Zacchiavala mountains and the last enclosure of Jugantb, in the midst of an immense sea, are situated four great islands, the abodes of men and animals. The eastern island has the form of a half moon and is 21,000 juzena in circumference. The western island bears a circular figure like the full moon and has likewise 21,000 juzena in circumference. The northern island has 24,000 and is of a square figure; and lastly the southern one, which is lozenge- shaped, is called Zabudiba and is 30,000 juzena in circumference. In this island the Burmese doctors place their kingdom, those of Siam and China, the coast of Coromandel, the island of Ceylon, and other parts with which they are acquainted. They likewise say that this island, with 500 smaller ones which belong to it and will be mentioned in the next paragraph, is inhabited by a hundred-and- one nations. Excepting, however, the Chinese, Tartars, Siamese, Casse, and Aracan, the names by which they denominate these nations do not correspond to those known in our geography. These four great islands take their names from certain large trees which grow in them and are considered their sacred emblems. For example, because its sacred tree is the Zabu, the southern island is called Zabudiba, or the Island of Zabh. 4. Besides these four great islands, they admit likewise 2,000 of smaller dimensions (allotting 500 to each of the great ones) scatter- ed here and there, but not widely apart, and bearing respectively the same figure as the larger islands. We have observed in § 2 that the eastern side of Mount Miemmo is of silver, the western of glass, the northern of gold, and the southern of dark ruby. Now these four sides communicate their colour to the great and small islands and their inhabitants, as well as to the sea that surrounds them; and consequently the eastern island and its inhabitants will be of a silver colour, the southern together with its inhabitants, rivers, trees, etc., will have the colour of the dark ruby: and the same is to be said of the other islands. In like manner the great ocean is divided into four seas, that is to say, the white, the green, the yellow, and the dark red. These seas, however, are not every- where of the same depth : that which is interposed between the small islands is shallow and almost always quiet so that ships may conveniently sail in it; but the seas, in the midst of which the great islands lie, have a depth of even 84,000 juzena, and their