1841.] The Station—its Salubrity, 141 



sickness. I was curious to learn, if possible, the cause of this, and the 

 explanations which were offered me, in a great measure satisfactorily 

 account, I think, for so unfortunate and much to be regretted an occur- 

 rence. The Arracanese or Mugs, as they are usually called, invari- 

 ably (there is no exception to the practice that I could learn) build 

 their dwellings on piles, so that the floor of the room is not only elevated 

 a distance of two or more feet above the surface of the ground, but a 

 current of air passes freely underneath it. At the jail, which is a series 

 of spacious well continued erections, the system of the country has been 

 followed, and the prisoners are housed in a number of large dwellings within 

 a strong stockade. It is left for regimental sepoys to be experimented on, 

 to test the value of Mug wisdom, by doing without piles and hutting the 

 unfortunates in the manner now in use. To the men instead of being 

 hutted as the people of the province are, and indeed as the transported 

 felons are, (for Arracan is a penal settlement and Kyok Phyoo has a party 

 of above three hundred convicts stationed at it,) are compelled to live in 

 low or unraised huts, which are built in a series of lines forming streets, 

 and in such a damp locality, that I (although it was then far advanced in 

 the month of February) sprung a couple of snipe out of the grass, within a 

 yard of these abodes. 



After strong, and I believe repeated representation, not only on the 

 part of the duly constituted medical authorities, whose business it is 

 to watch over such duties, but by the chief Military authority 

 also, I am told that the Military Board sanctioned the formation of 

 raised boardings or matchauns within the huts, so as to enable the 

 sepoys to sleep off the ground. But this is not enough. Whatever 

 dampness or exhalation is emitted from the soil (and that something 

 noxious does transude the practice of building, which the genius of 

 the people has suggested, proves) is still pent up by the mat walls which 

 reach the ground and exclude the free circulation of air underneath, 

 an observance which, as I have just remarked, is deemed essential to the 

 preservation of health. Common humanity dictates the measure, and a 

 State characterized for its considerate attention to its army, ought without 

 hesitation to hasten to remove a grievance so fully calculated to produce 

 the suffering and disasterous consequences w 7 hich are now experienced. 



There is another and I think not sufficiently regarded cause operative of 

 the suffering which the sepoys undergo from sickness, a portion of 

 the men, in the Volunteer regiments are Mahomedans. They are pro- 

 verbial for their careless extravagance. ' A Mahomedan (said Ameer-ul- 

 omrah the second son, and for some time minister of Mahommed Ali the 



