112 



BUKMAH. 



and rapacity. The magistrates and governors 

 often condemn persons to torture or death with- 

 out a hearing, and have been such merciless ex- 

 tortioners, especially in recent times, that the 

 people are reduced to wretched poverty, and 

 have little motive for industry. The people of 

 the lower ranks are remarkably honest and 

 truthful. Owing to an excellent climate the 

 Burmese are robust, and attain the normal 

 length of life. The deaths of children under five 

 years of age form a much smaller proportion 

 of the total number of deaths than in Europe, 

 being less than 28 per cent, of the deaths at 

 all ages. Polygamy has been abolished during 

 the reign of Thebaw, though still existing in a 

 disguised form. Slavery is also legally pro- 

 hibited, yet not suppressed. The people are 

 divided into seven classes, viz., the princes and 

 princesses of the royal house ; the official class ; 

 the land-owners ; the phoongyes, or Buddhist 

 priests; the farmers; the coolies; and the 

 outcasts. Buddhism is the religion of all, ex- 

 cept the savage Shans, who are spirit-wor- 

 shipers. The Karens have a legend of hav- 

 ing deserted their god and lost their birthright, 

 and believe in a prophecy that through white 

 strangers from the West they will recover their 

 religion, their national unity, and the high 

 state of civilization they enjoyed before they 

 were driven to wander from their original 

 country over wide deserts. This accounts for 

 the extraordinary success that American Bap- 

 tist and European Roman Catholic mission- 

 aries have met with among them. 



The Burmese regard their king with a pecul- 

 iar religious devotion. They can conceive of 

 no social system according to their religion 

 without a king, who has passed through stages 

 of existence raising him to a vastly higher 

 plane of being than their own. This feeling is 

 not directed toward the person of the King, nor 

 even to the dynasty. The English in abolishing 

 the Burmese king offended the people of Brit- 

 ish Burmah scarcely less than those of the 

 kingdom, and provoked risings even in their 

 own provinces, where civil order had long pre- 

 vailed. The extravagant titles given to the 

 Burmese King indicates the reverence in which 

 his office is held. He is styled king of sea and 

 land ; lord of the rising sun, who rules over 

 Sunnaparan, Zampodepa, and all the umbrella- 

 bearing chiefs of the Eastern countries ; master 

 of the celestial royal elephant ; lord of many 

 white elephants; lord of gold, silver, rubies, 

 and amber; the supporter of religion ; the sun- 

 descended monarch ; light of the world ; star 

 of the earth ; sovereign of the power of life 

 and death ; arbiter of existence, and great chief 

 of righteousness; lord of the golden palace; 

 king of kings, and possessor of boundless do- 

 minions, and of supreme wisdom. The people 

 in the populous valley of the Irrawaddy, who 

 were accustomed to the sight of strangers, 

 viewed the invasion of the British with apathv, 

 and were not displeased that their oppressive 

 rulers should be overturned, though they knew 



that they must come under British rule in some 

 form. When they learned, however, that no 

 prince of the royal house was to reign in the 

 place of Thebaw, the whole population rose 

 against the invaders. 



Natural Resources. Upper Burmah possesses 

 an exceedingly fertile soil, capable of produc- 

 ing maize, wheat, millet, rice in the lower val- 

 ley of the Irrawaddy, potatoes, cotton in all 

 parts of the country, and luxuriantly on the 

 dry lands of the upper provinces, tobacco, 

 mustard, indigo, and in the north tea, which is 

 indigenous. Fruits are abundant ; sugar-cane 

 is grown easily, but palm-sugar is the only 

 kind made in the country, the cane being used 

 only for munching. Gums and oils are found 

 in the forests, and caoutchouc-trees are numer- 

 ous in the districts of Bhamo and Mogoung. 

 The most important article of export is teak- 

 wood, which predominates in the mountain 

 forests. The country is remarkably rich in 

 minerals. Besides rich rubies and sapphires, 

 mines of which have long been worked, jade of 

 fine quality is exported. There are also quar- 

 ries of serpentine. About 60 miles from the 

 frontier of British Burmah, on the left bank 

 of the Irrawaddy, is an oil-field, covering 16 

 square miles, in which about 300 petroleum- 

 wells are in operation, varying in depth from 

 200 to 300 feet. There are silver-mines worked 

 by Chinese, and gold is found in the sands of 

 the streams in the upper country. Lead, tin, 

 antimony, copper, bismuth, niter, amber, salt, 

 and marble exist in the mountainous districts, 

 most abundantly in the Shan states. There 

 are deposits of magnetic iron-ore on the Myit 

 Nga, a navigable river flowing into the Irra- 

 waddy near Mandalay. Large deposits of coal 

 are found, and have been worked to a small 

 extent. 



Commerce. Formerly there was a considera- 

 ble transit trade with China, but it has fallen 

 off. The foreign commerce is chiefly with 

 Lower Burmah, Bengal, the Asiatic Archipel- 

 ago, and European countries. It all passes 

 through Lower Burmah. The imports consist 

 of rice, cotton and woolen fabrics, silks, salt, 

 metals, pickled and dried fish, and European 

 manufactures. The imports from British Bur- 

 mah were valued at 14,858,860 rupees in 1882 ; 

 15,810,790 rupees in 1883; and 18,261,140 ru- 

 pees in 1884. The exports, not including teak- 

 wood, were valued at 13,033,750 rupees in 

 1882; 16,706,820 rupees in 1883; and 17,058,- 

 480 rupees in 1884. They consist chiefly of 

 petroleum, niter, lacquer-ware, hides, cutch, 

 sesamum-seed and oil, cotton, raw sugar, grain, 

 jade, and tamarinds. 



The Revenue. The receipts of the royal 

 treasury in the reign of Thebaw were esti- 

 mated at from 85 to 105 lacs of rupees, 

 There were a house-tax, a poll-tax, and taxes 

 on agriculture, fruit-trees, sugar-palms, to- 

 bacco-land, teak-forests, salt, fisheries, etc. 

 The British authorities on assuming the ad- 

 ministration, proposed to abolish the customs 



