B I R 



440 



B I R 



wue generally cultivated, but both the culture and manu- 

 facture arc rude, and the produce is unfit for exportation. 



In the upper province* a specie* of Crotalaria is cultivated 

 for cordage : in the southern provinces the rattan is the 

 principal substitute for hemp. 



Little attention is paid to gardening and horticulture. 

 The young shoot* of bamboo, wild asparagus, the succulent 

 stems of a variety of aquatic plants and uncultivated arums, 

 are gathered and brought to market. Few vegetables are 

 cultivated. Our common potatoes, peas, carrots, cabbages, 

 turnips, mustard, cresses, radishes, &c., are not known. 

 Others are little attended to, as melons, cucumbers, the 

 egg-plant, pumpkins, yams, sweet potatoes. Onions are 

 frequent in the mountainous tracts towards the north, and 

 especially in Lao, whence they are imported into the other 

 provinces. Capsicum and the betel pepper arc carefully 

 cultivated. 



Fruit-tree* are numerous, but also much neglected. 

 The most common are the mango, the orange, the pine- 

 apple, the custard-apple (Psidium pomiferum), the jaccax 

 or jack -fruit, the papaya-fig (Carica papaja), and the plan- 

 lain. A species of mango, called the Marian, bears a small 

 fruit, about the size and shape of a greengage, and is 

 much cultivated and prized by the natives, although little 

 palatable to a European. It is found only in the lower pro- 

 vinces, where also the pine-apple grows in great perfection, 

 though it is inferior to that of the countries lying nearer the 

 equator. The durian (Durio) and mangostin (Gardnia 

 tinniifostana), do not grow in Birma. Sangermano enu- 

 merates among the vegetable productions of Birma, pepper, 

 , and a species of nutmeg of an oval shape, and larger 

 but less aromatic than those of the Moluccas. 



The domestic animals are the ox, the buffalo, the horse, 

 the hog, the dog, and the cat ; goats and sheep are only kept 

 as rarities, and a few asses are brought from China. The 

 camel is not known. Both oxen and buffaloes aie of a large 

 size, and extensively used for domestic purposes ; the buffalo 

 is confined to agricultural labour, and tUe ox to burden 

 and draught. The oxen are generally of a reddish-brown 

 colour, rarely black, and seldom or never of the light or 

 white grey which is so general in Northern India. Before 

 carriages they run at a quick pace. The horses arc small, 

 rarely exceeding thirteen hands high, and are never used 

 as beasts of burden, nor for draught, their only use being 

 for tbc saddle. Hogs are only useful as scavengers, and 

 are not taken care of, except at Rangoon, where they are 

 1 for the consumption of foreigners. Dogs are ex- 

 tremely frequent, and rove about without belonging to any 

 body. The cats, like those of the Malays, have only a short 

 tail, and are excellent mousers. 



The wild quadrupeds are the elephant, rhinoceros, hog, 

 doer, oxen, and buffaloes, the bear, otter, tiger, leopard, with 

 wild and civet eats. The elephant is very numerous in 

 the lower provinces, where it often enters tlie rice-fields 

 and causes great damage. It is not used ns a beast of 

 burden, and only the royal family are permitted to mount 

 it. Accordingly, only few nre tamed ; tlu: king has a 

 small number of white elephants. The rhinoceros with a 

 single horn is numerous in the lower provinces, but probably 

 less so than the elephant. Both are hunted by the Karians. 

 Stags and deer lire found in immense lierds ; and one 

 species is nearly as large as an ox. Oxen and buffaloes are 

 found in a wild state in the forests. '1'lie royal tiger, the 

 spotted leopard, ami several specie* of cats are numerous. 

 ' It is remarkable, that none of the car.iine tribe, so frequent 

 in the neighbouring country of Hindostan, are, ns far as is 

 known, to be found within the Birtnan dominions. There 

 are neither wolves, jackals, foxes, nor hyenas ; and this 

 zoological feature is said to extend to all the countries <>1 

 tropical A.ia lying east of Bengal.' [Crawfurd.] Hares of 

 a small size occur in the upper provinces. Monkeys, differ- 

 ing in size, shape, and colour, are numerous; especially 

 .ilong the water-courses of the Irawaddi in the Delta. The 

 orang-outang is found in the great forests which lie between 

 the city of Pcgd or Bag<\ and Tongo or Tanau. 



Of poultry a few common fowls and ducks only are reared. 

 UH arc very numerous in the woods of the lower pro- 

 vince-. and nf fine II a unir. The junule fowl is generally spread 

 I-. 1 country, anil two aperies of pheasants are numerous 

 in the lower province- I 1 : us abound everywhere, espe- 

 cially the wild ones of a green colour. There are also 

 partridge*, quails, eese, ducks, mid snipes. Parrots are 

 numerous, and catLic great damage to the fruit-tree*. 



Esculent swallows' nests are gathered on some small rocky 

 islands in the neighbourhood of Cape Negrai-. ami <-\\ 

 to China. Many of the land-birds are distuiL-uislu .1 1 y tin- 

 brilliancy of their colour. Tin- leathers of the l-Uieja, 

 used in China to ornament the dresses of ceremony ol li.e 

 Mandarines. [Crawfurd.] 



Ki-h are plentiful in the Irawaddi, especially in the ch.-.n- 

 nels of the Delta, where immense quantities of pressed lih 

 or Ngapi are prepared. These pressed I. .ie a 



main article of the diet of the Birmans. In - 

 the fish is mashed and pounded, and this description 

 rally consists of prawns. In the coarser sorts tl 

 fish are entire, half putrid, half pickled. They are all fel;d 

 and offensive to Europeans. 



Lizards arc numerous, and some species are used a* 

 food: one of them especially, called padat, is not in- 

 to a fowl. Alligators arc met with in the channels of 

 the Delta, where the water is brackish, and in many 

 places where it is perfectly salt. Land and water- 

 tortoises are found in several places, but especially in great 

 abundance on the Bassein branch of the Irawaddi. 

 the large island of Negrais is another island, called the 

 Island of Turtles, where these animals are taken in im- 

 mense numbers, and carried to Pegu and Bengal. They 

 are of great size, and sometimes weigh 500 pounds. Farther 

 up is a sand-bank, on which the tortoises deposit their 

 in such numbers as to be sufficient for the supply 

 great portion of the empire. These eggs are sent by boat* 

 to Bassein and Khngoon, and hence distributed over the 

 country. 



Throughout the whole country, but more especially in 

 the upper provinces, nearly every species of serpent is 

 used for food, after the head has been cut off. Leeches are 

 a great nuisance ; some are as large as small eels, and 

 inliict fearful wounds on the buffaloes, which are fond of 

 bathing in the rivers. A species of red ant is eaten, fried, 

 or with the ngapi; and a worm, which in the lower pro- 

 vinces is found in the heart of a shrub, is considered Mich a 

 delicacy, that every month a great quantity is sent to the 

 capital to be served up on the table of the emperor; it is 

 eaten either fried or roasted. [Sangermano.] 



Bees are wild in the woods, and in such abundance that 

 wax forms a staple article of commerce. 



The nations that inhabit the eastern and south-eastern 

 countries of Asia seem to belong to one race, if we may 

 judge from their physical constitution. They are di>t.n- 

 guished by a short, squat, robust, fleshy figure, and by 

 feature* very different from those of Europeans. The 

 face is somewhat in the shape of a lozenge, the forehead 

 and chin being sharpened, while at the cheek holies it is 

 very broad. The eyebrows project very little, and the eyes 

 are very narrow, and placed rather obliquely in the head, 

 the external angles icing the highest. The no,.- is very 

 small, but has not, likt that of the negro, the appearance of 

 being flattened. The apertures in the nostrils, which in 

 the European are straight and parallel, in them are nearly 

 circular and divergent; for the septum nuriiim. being much 

 thicker towards the face, places them entirely out of the 

 parallel line. Their hair is black, coarse, lank, and abun- 

 dant. Even in the warmest climate the people have not 

 the deep hue of the negro or Hindoo. 



If we may judge from the languages which are spoken in 

 the Biruian territories, the inhabitants are divided at least 

 into five nations, some of which comprehend many tribes. 

 Crawfurd states that eighteen different tribes or nations 

 had been enumerated to him. Wileox, in his attempt to 

 reach the sources of the Irawaddi, found in the most northern 

 corner of the kingdom seven dialects spoken in \n 

 only one day's journey from one another, nnd dillem 

 much that the inhabitants of one could not be undi : 

 by those of another village. He also found that the lan- 

 guages of the Bor Khamti, of the Singfos. and of the 

 Kunungs, were entirely distinct from one another. 



The Birmans, who call themselves Mranntas (pronounced 

 Myanmas) or Brahmas (pronounced Kyahmas), occupy Urn 

 centre of the empire, between I H and '2-2' or 23 J N. lat., and 

 extend from the Aracan mountains to the Saluen river. 

 The languages spoken by the Vo or lo, and those of the 

 Kyain and Karens, are only dialects ol the liirinaii language. 

 The Yo inhabit the hilly country extending west of the 

 Danghii hills to the mountains of the Kookis: we know 

 very little of them. The Kyains. who call them*- 

 K .'iuun, arc the inhabitants of the Aracatl mountains, but 



