According to the Burmese sacred books, there are five species of atoms. The first is an invisible permeating fluid, distinguishable only by the superior order of genii called Nat. The second species is that which may be seen dancing in the gleam of a streak of sunlight. The third species consists of the dust raised by the motion of animals, and vehicles from the earth. The fourth comprises the gross particles which form the soil on which men live. And the fifth consists of those little grains which fall when writing with an iron pen upon a palm-leaf. These atoms are exactly proportioned to each other in the following way. Thirty-six atoms of the first make one of the second; thirty-six of the second make one of the third, and so on. Upon these proportions depends a strange system of measurement, which, carried on like the world-renowned calculation of the horse’s shoes and nails, astonishes us by its simplicity, and amuses us by its uselessness. It is as follows: “Seven atoms of the fifth and last species are equal in size to the head of a louse; seven such heads equal a grain of rice; seven grains of rice make an inch; twelve inches a palm, and two palms a cubit; seven cubits give one _ta_; twenty _ta_ one _ussabà_; eighty _ussabà_ one _gaut_; and four _gaut_ a _juzenà_. Finally, a _juzenà_ contains about six Burmese leagues, or 28,000 cubits.”[87] The measure of time into homœopathical infinitesimals is equally absurd. The world, called Logha, which signifies alternate destruction and reproduction, is divided into three parts. It is not conceived by the Burmese to be spherical, but is imagined to be a circular plain somewhat elevated in the centre. The three parts into which the earth is divided are called the superior, where the Nat live; the middle, the residence of man; and the inferior, the place of subsequent retribution. The middle part is bounded on all sides by an impenetrable barrier of mountains, called Zacchiavalà, which rise 82,000 _juzenà_ above the surface of the sea, and have an equal depth in the sea itself.[88] “The diameter of this middle part is 1,203,400 _juzenà_, and its circumference is three times the diameter, its depth is 240,000 _juzenà_. The half of this depth entirely consists of dust, the other half, or the lower part, is a hard compact stone, called sibapatavi. This enormous volume of dust and stone is supported by a double volume of water, under which is placed a double volume of air; and beyond this there is nothing but vacuity.”[89] Buchanan supplies some particulars here, omitted by Sangermano:—“Besides this earth of ours, it is imagined, that there are of the same form 10,100,000 others, which mutually touch in three points, forming between them a number of equilateral spaces, which, on account of the sun’s not reaching them, are filled with water intensely cold. The depth of these 10,100,000 triangular spaces is 84,000 _juzenà_, and each of their sides is 3,000 _juzenà_, in length.”[90]