Like a
sketch from the life;[4] and it is quite possible that some negotiations
between 1277 and 1281 may have given him the opportunity of visiting
Burma, though he may not have reached the capital. Indeed he would in that
case surely have given a distincter account of so important a city, the
aspect of which in its glory we have attempted to realize in the plate of
"the city of Mien."
It is worthy of note that the unfortunate King then reigning in Pagan, had
in 1274 finished a magnificent Pagoda called Mengala-dzedi (Mangala
Chaitya) respecting which ominous prophecies had been diffused. In this
pagoda were deposited, besides holy relics, golden images of the Disciples
of Buddha, golden models of the holy places, golden images of the King's
fifty-one predecessors in Pagan, and of the King and his Family. It is
easy to suspect a connection of this with Marco's story. "It is possible
that the King's ashes may have been intended to be buried near those
relics, though such is not now the custom; and Marco appears to have
confounded the custom of depositing relics of Buddha and ancient holy men
in pagodas with the supposed custom of the burial of the dead. Still,
even now, monuments are occasionally erected over the dead in Burma,
although the practice is considered a vain folly. I have known a miniature
pagoda with a hti complete, erected over the ashes of a favourite
disciple by a P'hungyi or Buddhist monk." The latter practice is common
in China. (Notes by Sir A. Phayre; J.A.S.B. IV. u.s., also V. 164,
VI. 251; Mason's Burmah, 2nd ed. p. 26; Milne's Life in China, pp.
288, 450.)
NOTE 3. - The Gaur - Bos Gaurus, or B. (Bibos) Cavifrons of
Hodgson - exists in certain forests of the Burmese territory; and, in the
south at least, a wild ox nearer the domestic species, Bos Sondaicus. Mr.
Gouger, in his book The Prisoner in Burma, describes the rare spectacle
which he once enjoyed in the Tenasserim forests of a herd of wild cows at
graze. He speaks of them as small and elegant, without hump, and of a light
reddish dun colour (pp. 326-327).
[1] This is the name now applied in Burma to the Chinese. Sir A. Phayre
supposes it to be Turk, in which case its use probably began at
this time.
[2] In the Narrative of Phayre's Mission, ch. ii.
[3] Dr. Anderson has here hastily assumed a discrepancy of sixty years
between the chronology of the Shan document and that of the Chinese
Annals. But this is merely because he arbitrarily identifies the
Chinese invasion here recorded with that of Kublai in the preceding
century.
