the ancient capital of the kingdom of the same name (see Pegu, Encycl.), appears to have been a quadrangle, each side measuring about a mile and a half. It was surrounded by a ditch and wall; which, before the latter tumbled down, and the former was filled up, must have furnished no contemptible defence. The breadth of the ditch appears to be about 60 yards; its depth, where not choked up, about ten or twelve feet; and there is still in it water enough to impede an eastern siege. The wall has been at least 25 feet high, and its breadth at the base not less than 40. It is composed of brick, badly cemented together with clay mortar, and has had on it small equidistant battions, about 300 yards in number.

Nothing can exhibit a more striking picture of desolation than the inside of this wall. We have elsewhere given an account of the almost incessant wars between the kings of Pegue and Birma or Burma. In the year 1757, the Birman sovereign carried the city of Pegue by assault, razed every dwelling to the ground, and dispersed, or led into captivity, all the inhabitants. The pagodas, which are very numerous, were the only buildings that escaped the fury of the conqueror; and of these the great pagoda of Shoemadoo has alone been attended to, and repaired.

This extraordinary edifice is built on a double terrace, one raised upon another. The lower and greater terrace is about ten feet above the natural level of the ground. It is quadrangular. The upper and lesser terrace is of a like shape, raised about 20 feet above the lower terrace, or 30 above the level of the country. These terraces are ascended by flights of stone steps, broken and neglected. On each side are dwellings of the Rabaans or priests, raised on timbers four or five feet from the ground. Their houses consist only of a single hall. The wooden pillars that support them are turned with neatness. The roof is of tile, and the sides of thatching-boards. There are a number of bare benches in every house, on which the Rabaans sleep. They appear to have no furniture.

Shoemadoo is a pyramid, composed of brick and plaster, with fine shell mortar, without excavation or aperture of any sort; octagonal at the base, and spiral at the top. Six feet from the ground there is a wide ledge, which surrounds the base of the building; on the plane of which are 57 small spires, of equal size, and equidistant. One of them measured 17 feet in height, and 40 in circumference at the bottom. On a higher ledge there is another row, consisting of 53 spires, of similar shape and measurement. A great variety of mouldings encircles the building; and ornaments, somewhat resembling the fleur de lys, surround what may be called the base of the spire. Circular mouldings likewise gird this part to a considerable height; above which there are ornaments in stucco, not unlike the leaves of a Corinthian capital; and the whole is crowned by a tee, or umbrella of open iron-work, from which rises an iron rod with a gilded pennant.

The extreme height of the building, from the level of the country, is 361 feet; and above the interior terrace, 331 feet. On the south-east angle of the upper terrace there are two handsome saloons, or kooms, lately erected. The roof is composed of different stages, supported by pillars. Captain Symes, from whose memoir in the Asiatic Researches this account is taken, judged the length of each saloon to be about 60 feet, and the breadth 30. The ceiling of one of them was already embellished with gold leaf, and the pillars lacquered; the other, when he saw it, was not completed. They are made entirely of wood. The carving on the outside is very curious. He saw several unfinished figures, intended to be fixed on different parts of the building; some of them not ill shaped, and many exceedingly grotesque. Splendid images of Gaudma (the Birman object of adoration) were preparing, which he understood were designed to occupy the inside of these kooms.

At each angle of the interior terrace is a pyramidal pagoda, 67 feet in height, resembling, in miniature, the great pagoda. In front of the one in the south-west corner are four gigantic representations in masonry of Palloo, or the man destroyer, half beast, half human, seated on their thrones, each with a large club on the right shoulder.

Nearly in the centre of the east face of the area are two human figures in stucco beneath a gilded umbrella. One standing, represents a man with a book before him, and a pen in his hand. He is called Thagiamere, the recorder of mortal merits and mortal misdeeds. The other, a female figure kneeling, is Maha Sundere, the protectress of the universe, as long as the universe is doomed to last; but when the time of general dissolution arrives, by her hand the world is to be overwhelmed, and destroyed everlasting.

On the north side of the great pagoda are three large bells, of good workmanship, suspended near the ground between pillars. Several deer horns are fixed around. Those who come to pay their devotions first take up one of the horns, and strike the bell three times, giving an alternate stroke to the ground. This act is to announce to the spirit of Gaudma the approach of a suppliant. There are several low benches near the bottom of the pagoda, on which the person who comes to pray places his offering; which generally consists of boiled rice, a plate of sweetmeats, or cocoanut fried in oil. When it is given, the devotee cares not what becomes of it. The crows and dogs commonly eat it up in the presence of the donor, who never attempts to prevent or molest the animals.

There are many small pagodas on the areas of both terraces, which are neglected, and suffered to fall into decay. Numberless images of Gaudma lie indiscriminately scattered. A pious Birman who purchases an idol, first procures the ceremony of consecration to be performed by the Rabaan, then takes his purchase to whatever sacred building is most convenient, and there places it either in the shelter of a koom, or on the open ground before the temple; nor does he ever after seem to have any anxiety about its preservation, but leaves the divinity to shift for itself.

From the upper ledge that surrounds the base of Shoemadoo, the prospect of the country is extensive and picturesque; but it is a prospect of Nature in her rudest state. There are few inhabitants, and scarcely any cultivation. The hills of Martaban rise to the eastward; and the Sitang river, winding along the plains, gives here and there an interrupted view of its waters. To the north-west, above 40 miles, are the Galadzeet hills, whence the Pegue river takes its rise; hills remarkable only for the noisome effects of their atmosphere. In every other direction the eye looks over a boundless plain, chequered by a wild intermixture of wood and water.

The present king of the Burmans has entirely altered the system of his predecessors. He has turned his attention to the population and improvement, rather than the extension, of his dominions; and seems more desirous to conciliate his new subjects by mildness, than to rule them through terror. He has abrogated several severe penal laws imposed upon the Talicas or Pegues; justice is now distributed impartially; and the only distinction at present between a Burman and Talic consists in the exclusion of the latter from all public offices of trust and power.

No act of the Burman government is more likely to reconcile the Talicas to the Burman yoke than the restoration of their ancient place of abode, and the preservation and embellishment of the pagoda of Shoemadoo. So sensible was the king of this, as well as of the advantages that must accrue to the state from an increase of culture and population, that some years ago he issued orders to rebuild Pegue, encouraged new settlers by liberal grants, and invited the scattered families of former inhabitants to return and repeople their deserted city.

Pegue, in its renovated state, seems to be built on the plan of the former city. It is a square, each side measuring about half a mile. It is fenced round by a stockade, from 10 to 12 feet high. There is one main street running east and west, which is intersected at right angles by two smaller streets, not yet finished. At each extremity of the principal street there is a gate in the stockade, which is shut early in the evening. After that hour, entrance during the night is confined to a wicket. Each of these gates is defended by a heavy piece of ordnance, and a few musketeers, who never post sentinels, and are usually asleep. There are also two other gates on the north and south sides of the stockade.

The houses of the inhabitants of Pegue are far from commodious, agreeably to European notions of accommodation; but they are at least as much so as the houses of other Indian towns. There are no brick buildings in Pegue, except such as belong to the king, or are dedicated to Gaudna. The king has prohibited the use of brick or stone in private buildings, from the apprehension, that if people got leave to build brick houses, they might erect brick fortifications, dangerous to the security of the state. The houses, therefore, are all made of mats or sheathing boards, supported on bamboos or pots. Being composed of such combustible materials, the inhabitants are under continual dread of fire, against which they take every precaution. The roofs are lightly covered; and at each door stands a long bamboo, with a hook at the end, to pull down the thatch: also another pole, with a grating of split bamboo at the extremity, about three feet square, to suppress flame by pressure. Almost every house has earthen pots of water on the roof. And there is a particular class of people, whose business it is to prevent and extinguish fires.