1841.] Account of Arakan. 68 1 



The Ra-kJioing-tha and Khyoung-tha are of the same race. Like 

 the Burmans their national name is Myam-md, the first appellations 

 here given being merely local, the former signifying inhabitant of 

 Ra-khoing country ; the latter, or Khyoung-tha, being the name given 

 to those who inhabit the banks of mountain streams within the same 

 villages as the hill tribes, and support themselves by hill cultivation. 

 How they came to be separated from their countrymen does not appear ; 

 it is rather extraordinary that they should remain so, as they subject 

 themselves in the hills to great hardships, while to procure a subsist- 

 ence in the plains is a matter of no difficulty. Lately I have seen 

 some instances of their settling in the plains and cultivating land with 

 ploughs. The religion of both these people is Budhism ; they may 

 be said to belong to the Mongolian family, or to be between the 

 Mongolian and Malay race ; their written language is the same as the 

 Burmese ; in the colloquial there are some provincial differences. 



The Kolas, or Moosulmans, are of an entirely different race to the 

 preceding, they being of Bengalee descent. The Arakan kings in 

 former times had possessions all along the coast as far as Chittagong 

 and Dacca. Coins are still extant, struck by the viceroys at the former 

 town, with Bengalee and Persian characters on one side, and Burmese 

 on the reverse. While the Arakanese held these possessions in Bengal, 

 they appear to have sent numbers of the inhabitants into Arakan 

 as slaves, whence arose the present Kola (foreign) population of the 

 country ; they form about 15 per cent, of the whole population. The 

 Arakan Moosulmauns preserve the language of their ancestors for 

 colloquial purposes, but always use the Burmese in writing ; they have 

 also adopted the dress of the country, with the exception of the goung- 

 boung, or head dress. 



The third class in the plains are Doms, These form such a minute 

 section of the population, that it is scarcely necessary to mention them. 

 The DomSy it would appear, were brought from Bengal to be used as 

 Phrahywn, or pagoda slaves. It is a strange anomaly in the Budhist 

 religion, (as it prevails in Burmah,) that the servitors of the temples 

 are invariably outcasts, with whom the rest of the community will 

 hold no intercourse. In Burmah Proper, pagoda slaves are pardoned 

 convicts, or persons condemned to the employment on account of 

 crimes. The kings of Arakan finding in Bengal a number of degraded 



