It was agreed that he was not a
Burmese. None deemed to know certainly where he was born, or why he
came thither. His own account was, that he had devoted himself to the
service of God, and in his pilgrimage over the east, had selected this
as a spot particularly favourable to the life of quiet and seclusion
he wished to lead.
"There was one part of his story to which I could scarcely give
credit. It was said that in the twelve or fifteen years he had resided
in this place, he had been occasionally invisible for months together,
and no one could tell why he disappeared, or whither he had gone. At
these times his cell was closed; and although none ventured to force
their way into it, those who were the most prying could hear no sound
indicating that he was within. Various were the conjectures formed on
the subject. Some supposed that he withdrew from the sight of men for
the purpose of more fervent prayer and more holy meditation; others,
that he visited his home, or some other distant country. The more
superstitious believed that he had, by a kind of metempsychosis, taken
a new shape, which, by some magical or supernatural power, he could
assume and put off at pleasure This opinion was perhaps the most
prevalent, as it gained a colour with these simple people, from the
chemical and astronomical instruments he possessed In these he
evidently took great pleasure, and by then means he acquired some of
the knowledge by which he so often excited their admiration.
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