694 Account of Arakan, [No. 117. 



his own property ; the law of the people, whether Burman or Mahome- 

 dan, regulates the proportion which the heirs receive. 



The mode of " settlement" of a village in Arakan is as follows : — 

 During the month of February, by which time the crop is cut, and the 

 grain for the most part thrashed out and winnowed, the ra-wa-goung 

 gives notice to the cultivators that he is about to measure their lands ; he 

 is accompanied by the village scribe, and the cultivators of the fields 

 in the direction of which he is proceeding ; sometimes the kywn-aop is 

 present, but not always ; in extensive circles he cannot personally su- 

 perintend the measurements in all the villages.* The cultivator whose 

 field is to be measured holds the bamboo, which is 12 feet long, and 

 measures out the length and breadth of his field, which is then writ- 

 ten down by the village tsa-re^ hence the area is deduced and the village 

 register prepared. Thus the ra-wa-goung goes through all the lands of 

 the village. In the register is entered the name of each householder, 

 his wife's name, (but the women are not so carefully registered as the 

 men,) each lodger, and formerly every bachelor above the age of 18 

 years, together with the amount of tax due from them, whether for 

 rice land, garden land, or capitation tax. To make a return of those 

 persons subject to capitation tax, the ra-wa-goung must be acquainted 

 with the age and condition of each villager, whether married or unmar- 

 ried, a householder or lodger. This tax formerly extended to all males 

 above the age of 1 8, who were deemed capable of manual labour ; but 

 within the last year (1840,) this objectionable tax has been much reduc- 

 ed, unmarried youths wholly exempted from it, and the train laid for 

 its eventual abolition. | 



The village register being framed is delivered to the kywn-aop^ 

 who has received like registers from each village in his circle, and 

 he delivers them into the yon-dau^ (kucheree,) where they are com- 

 pared with those of the past year ; if no doubts arise as to their 



* The land measure now in use in Arakan was introduced from Chittagong in 1835. 

 Up to that period the tax was levied not upon the area of cultivation, but upon the 

 ploughs, each plough being estimated as equal to a doon of land. A doon contains 

 30,720 square yards, equal to a little more than six and a quarter English acres. 



t A poll tax is not necessarily of that hateful nature generally ascribed to it, and 

 certainly it is not so regarded in Arakan. We have an instance of a self-governed 

 people voluntarily imposing this tax upon themselves. "In the state of Massachusetts, 

 every male citizen, from 16 to 60, is subject to a poll tax, which is commonly a dollar, 

 or a dollar and a half." — Goodrich's Universal Geography, Boston edit. p. 340. 



