1101 



BIRMA. 



BIRMA. 



1103 



at the capital : some are good, but in general the jewellery is clumsy 

 and rude, and inferior to that of India. 



Education, Language, Religion. In Birma, as among other nations 

 which have embraced the religion of Buddha, education is in some 

 degree attended to. It is a kind of religious duty in the priests to 

 instruct youth. The monasteries are the only schools, and the priests 

 generally the only teachers. Education is entirely eleemosynary : the 

 children even live at the kyaongs, and the parents only make occa- 

 sional presents to the priests. The children are instructed for about 

 six hours hi the day in reading, writing, and the four common rules 

 of arithmetic. There are few persons who do not know how to read, 

 " and not many who do not write. The girls are instructed by the 

 priestesses in reading, and some also in writing, but that is less 

 general. 



Like the other Hindoo-Chinese nations the Birmans have two 

 languages and two alphabets, the vernacular and the foreign, or Pali. 

 In the Birman language all the words not derived from the Pali are 

 monosyllables, and even the polysyllabic words derived from this 

 source are pronounced as if each syllable were a distinct word. There 

 is no inflexion of any part of speech. Relation, number, mode, and 

 time art- all expressed by prefixing or affixing certain particles. Some 

 roots of this language may be converted into nouns, verbs, or adjec- 

 tives by a similar simple contrivance. The Pali alphabet is very little 

 used, even in their religious writings, for which they have recourse to 

 the vernacular alphabet. 



The literature of the Birmans consists of songs, religious romances, 

 and chronological histories, of which the second class occupies the 

 principal rank. The Buddhist religion, as it exists among the Birmans, 

 does not appear to differ materially from that practised in Ceylon, 

 Siam, and Kamboja. Among the Birmans neither the Christian nor 

 the Mohammedan religion has made any progress. 



Population, In Birma there is no census of the population, and 

 accordingly there are no exact data for ascertaining the amount. 

 There ig consequently a great difference in estimating the number of 

 inhabitants. Symes carried it to upwards of fourteen millions, which 

 Cox reduced to from six to seven millions; and Crawfurd, who has 

 been at great pains in collecting information on this subject, does not 

 rate the population of the Birman empire higher than four millions, 

 or about twenty-two inhabitants to a square mile. 



Government, Taxation, Ac. The sovereign of Birma, who is called 

 Boa, is lord of the life and property of all his subjects. The country 

 and people are at his entire disposal, and the chief object of govern- 

 ment is his personal honour and aggrandisement. No class of inha- 

 bitants possesses hereditary rights except the Taubwas, or Saubwas, 

 who are the tributary princes of some of the subdued nations. Among 

 the Birmans themselves there is no hereditary nobility. The first 

 officers are appointed and dismissed at a nod, and neither their titles, 

 rank, nor offices, and very often not even their property, can descend 

 to their children. Any subject can aspire to the first office in the 

 state, and such offices in reality are often held by persons of very mean 

 origin. There is no vizier, or prime minister ; but the king has two 

 councils, a public and a private one, through which the royal orders 

 are issued. The first is called the ' lut'-d'hau,' from the name of the 

 hall in which the business is transacted, and consists commonly of 

 four officers, called ' wun-gyis,' who have the right of deliberating 

 and of voting, and four of less rank, called ' wun-dauks,' who do not 

 deliberate or vote ; there are also eight secretaries, called ' sanS-d'hau- 

 gyis.' The privy council consists likewise of four officers, called 

 ' atwen-wuns,' and thirty secretaries. Whatever emanates directly 

 from the king is first discussed in the privy council and then trans- 

 mitted to the lut'-d'hau. 



For internal administration the country is divided into provinces, 

 these into townships, the townships into districts, and the districts 

 into villages and hamlets, and every one of these divisions has its 

 political head. The governor of a province is called ' myo-wun,' his 

 first officer ' re-wun,' who is his deputy, and then follow the ' ak'hwon- 

 wun,' or collector of taxes, and the ' akaok-wun,' or collector of 

 customs. 



The Birmans have no standing army, nor is there any distinction 

 between the civil and military classes, or between civil and military 

 employments. As the sovereign is considered the lord of all his 

 subjects, every male adult is obliged to become a soldier. In case of 

 a war all persons able to bear arms are brought together through the 

 agency of the local office, by an order of the lut'-d'hau ; and they 

 erve under the same leaders as when dwelling in their own districts 

 or townships. The troops have no regular pay, but are armed and 

 fed at the public expense. An army thus composed cannot be long 

 kept together, and a defeat or difficulty is almost sure to disperse 

 them. This accounts for the sudden disappearance of the numerous 

 armies which the Birmans have brought into the field in their cam- 

 against the British. In their contests with the English they 

 have displayed a good deal of skill in the construction of field-works, 

 but they seldom knew how to defend them. 



In Fiirum then; in no land-tax; but the sovereign being considered 

 as the lord of nil the inhabitants assigns the labour of the peasants 

 or cultivators to his favourites and public officers instead of stipends 

 and salaries, or appropriates them to the expenses of public establish- 

 ment*, such as the war-boats, the elephants, 4c. Those to whom the 



townships or villages are assigned in this way assess the cultivators 

 at their discretion, usually by levying a kind of capitation-tax, which, 

 according to circumstances, is taken either in money, in kind, or in 

 services. This manner of taxing the country is exceedingly oppres- 

 sive, and whenever such high persons are in favour at court, the 

 cultivators have no resource against oppression but to abandon the 

 lands, and to take refuge in some other place. Hence the decay of 

 established towns and villages and the rise of new ones is a thing of 

 yearly occurrence. 



The lords of the laud make yearly offerings to the king, and it is 

 supposed that these offerings amount to one-tenth of the income 

 derived from the grant. These oiferings constitute one of the prin- 

 cipal sources of the king's revenue. The remainder arises from a tax 

 on the petroleum, the ngapi, salt, and teak-timber, besides the customs 

 on the merchandise exported and imported, the former paying five 

 per cent, and the latter ten per cent. Crawfurd thinks that the whole 

 revenue of the king does not exceed 25,0002. per annum. But his 

 expenses are still less, as no public officer receives any fixed money 

 salary. The principal officers are paid, as already stated, by assign- 

 ments of land, or more correctly by an assignment of the labour and 

 industry of a given portion of the inhabitants ; and the inferior ones 

 by fees, perquisites, and irregular emoluments. Money therefore is 

 seldom paid out of the royal treasury, unless for the personal gratifica- 

 tion of the sovereign. In extraordinary cases, as for instance if a 

 war be undertaken, an extraordinary contribution is levied on the 

 people. 



The circulating medium consists, for small payments, of lead ; in 

 the case of larger ones, of gold and silver, and chiefly of the latter; 

 but there is no coin of any of these metals. The money must be 

 weighed and generally assayed at every payment. Silver may be 

 considered as the standard, and gold is about seventeen times as dear. 

 Lead fluctuates according to its market value. The weighing and 

 assaying of the metals, which is done by a class of brokers called 

 ' poe-za,' causes an expense or loss of two and a hah' per cent, at every 

 disbursement. 



Commerce. The commerce carried on in the interior of the country 

 is considerable, the different portions of the empire producing several 

 things which are not found in others. The inhabitants of the sea-coast 

 and the lower country take to the capital and the upper provinces 

 rice, salt, ngapi, dried fish, and foreign commodities. The Shans bring 

 to Ava cotton and silk stuffs, some raw-silk, varnish, stick-lac, ivory, 

 bees-wax, lacquer ware, swords, gold, lead, and tin ; and take in return 

 the articles brought from the lower provinces, especially salt, ngapi, 

 and dried fish. Ava sends to the lower provinces petroleum, saltpetre, 

 lime, paper, lacquered ware, cotton and silk fabrics, iron, cutlery, 

 some brass-ware, catechu, palm-sugar, &c. 



The internal commerce is much facilitated by the easy'water-com- 

 munication, especially in the lower country, where the numerous 

 branches and channels of the Irawaddi, together with the Pegu River 

 and the Setang, render the transport of commodities so easy that 

 roads are nearly unknown. The hilly country northward possesses 

 these advantages only so far as it approaches the Irawaddi or Kyan- 

 Duayn. In this part roads are numerous, and the merchants travel 

 for security in caravans, as in other parts of Asia. The trading vessels 

 used on the Irawaddi for the transport of commodities are commonly 

 small, not exceeding 10 or 15 tons burden ; but larger vessels are also 

 used, some of which may be 100 tons. 



The foreign commerce of the Birmans is limited to that with China 

 carried on overland, and to that with the nations who visit the ports 

 of the country. The traffic with China is considerable, and entirely 

 carried on by the Chinese, who come in great numbers to the annual 

 fairs of Bhanm6 and Mide". Bhanm6 is situated on the banks of the 

 Irawaddi, and seems to be .a considerable place. Mide" is a small town 

 about six miles to the north-east of Ava. This traffic resembles that 

 between China and Russia at Kiachta and Maimatchin. The caravan 

 arrives at Ava in the beginning of December, and is stated to be six 

 weeks in travelling from Yunnan. The commodities are brought on 

 small horses, mules, and asses. The principal fair is at Bhanm6, and 

 few traders come to Ava. The articles imported from China are 

 copper, orpiment, or yellow arsenic, quicksilver, vermilion, iron-pans, 

 brass-wire, tin, lead, alum, silver, gold and gold-leaf, earthenware, 



wearing apparel, _ 



is raw-silk, which is worked up in the manufactures of the country. 

 The exports from Birma consist of raw-cotton, ornamental feathers, 

 edible swallows' nests, ivory, rhinoceros and deer horns, sapphires, 

 and noble serpentine, with a small quantity of British woollens. Raw- 

 cotton is by far the most considerable article. The average amount 

 is stated to be not less than 14,000,000 Ibs. The whole amount of the 

 export and import trade with China is estimated at from 400,0002. to 

 700,0002. 



The navigation of the Birmans does not generally extend beyond 

 the Gulf of Bengal. The places visited by their vessels are Chitta- 

 gong, Dacca, and Calcutta ; Madras and Masulipatain, on the coast 

 of Coromandel ; and the Nicobar Islands, and a few places in Sumatra. 

 Many foreign vessels, especially British, American, and Chinese, visit 

 the harbour of Rangoon. The articles exported (seaward are teak- 



