PREFACE 



(TO THE SECOND EDITION). 



Since the first edition of this work was printed, the annexation of Pegu 

 has widened the field of observation, and the influx of European residents 

 has multiplied observers. The results have been commensurate with the 

 favourable circumstances, and our knowledge of the country, its nations, 

 fauna, and flora, has greatly increased. 



"\Ve are now well acquainted with several wild tribes, that seven years 

 ago were scarcely known by name. "When Capt. Yule wrote in 1857, he had 

 heard of no Karens " farther north in Burmah than the district of Tsalen." 

 We now trace them above Ava, and Bamo is of common occurrence in 

 Bghai poetry as the name of a large Burmese city to which the people 

 formerly went to make purchases, as they now do to Touugoo. His stock 

 of Red Karen vocables, which consisted of a single word, has been 

 multiplied a thousand-fold, and a book in the language is nearly ready 

 for the press. Still the want of some " really good account of these 

 tribes " remains in all its force, and is felt by none more deeply than 

 by the writer. All our knowledge of them is fragmentary and un- 

 satisfactory. The knowledge desired has not yet come up from the abyss 

 of darkness. It is easier to ask a native a thousand archreological questions 

 than for him to answer one correctly. Still the fragments are constantly 

 increasing, and time is a great revealer of seci'ets. 



Materials for this edition have been gleaned from every available 

 source, both from printed papers and private corresi^ondence, and our 

 advance ujDon the first, which was very favourably received, may be seen 

 in every branch. Col. Phayre has added the Jackal ; Major Berdmore the 

 Mole ; Major Sparks the Rorqual ; and Rev. Mr. Benjamin the Dugong or 

 sea cow, to our Mammalia. From Mr. Blyth's reports, the birds have been 

 increased from two hundred species to nearly five hundred. Major Berdmore, 

 who was distinguished in nearly every branch of zoology, was especially 

 successful in his researches among the fish and reptiles, and has contributed 

 many new species. Capt. Smyth has furnished three hundred beetles, and 

 Mr. Theobald a largo number of sliclls. In botany the book is indebted 

 for nearly all it contains on the Ferns and Mosses to Rev. C. P. Parish, 

 who has also largely increased the number of flowering plants : while in 

 Glossology the three Karen vocabvdaries have been increased to nine, 

 pertaining to as many distinct tribes. Many good ideas have been appro- 

 priated from Capt. Yule's book, which is a fountain of facts on the history, 



