34 Geological and Statistical Account of the [Jan, 



myself in Bengal. The general appearance of the Mugh, induces the 

 supposition that his condition is not only infinitely superior to that of 

 the poorer classes in many parts of India, but that he is comparatively 

 happy and contented with his lot. His clothing, though coarse and of 

 native manufacture, is ample for the climate, and his vigorous frame 

 of body bespeaks a sufficiency of nourishment. As his wants are few 

 and easily supplied, there is no call for that unremitting labour which 

 secures to the poor of other countries their scanty sustenance. The 

 earnings of one day of toil generally provide for the exigencies of two 

 successive days of ease ; and to such as are, from a more indolent ha- 

 bit, less willing to cultivate the soil or perform the duties of an hire- 

 ling, the forest and the sea present an inexhaustible supply of food. 

 It is to this abundance of the necessaries of life in some one shape or 

 another that we may ascribe the existence of that apathetic indiffer- 

 ence to the future, characteristic of the Mugh population, and until 

 some artificial wants are produced by a taste for luxuries hither- 

 to unknown, we shall look in vain for that display of activity and 

 toil peculiar to a more civilized, but less happy and probably less vir- 

 tuous, race of people. It is not however too much to affirm, that such a 

 ehan°-e is already perceptible among those who are most in contact 

 with Europeans and the natives of India. 



In the towns of Khyouk Phyoo and Rambree, we may observe this 

 indication of the growing taste for articles of foreign manufacture, in 

 the small investments of cutlery, glass-ware, muslins, and broad-cloth 

 exposed for sale in the shops along with the produce of the country. 

 The people have already become smarter in their dresses, and were a 

 little more attention paid to their pattern of piece goods, I have no- 

 doubt but the sale of these would be far greater than it is at present. 

 Long habituated to a state of being little remote from that enjoyed by 

 the brutes of the forest, the present generation are prepared to value 

 those little luxuries denied to them during the reign of Burmah des- 

 potism, and will not be slow in securing the possession of them if 

 placed within their reach. It is amusing, though melancholy, to hear 

 these poor people relate the state of things in former days, in as far as 

 regards the importation of foreign produce, and the prohibitions that 

 debarred them the privilege of wearing the muslin turban or angah, 

 even were they sufficiently wealthy to purchase the materials for one. 

 As any exportation of the staple produce of the soil was seldom or ever 

 permitted, few returns were made in the shape of Europe or Indian 

 goods. They did, on some occasions, find their way into the country by 

 the Godoohs that returned from Calcutta and Chittagong, laden with 

 such articles of Europe or Indian manufacture, as the owners were 

 enabled to obtain in exchange for the gold leaf, deer horns, bees' wax-, 



