THE TWINZA COMMUNITY. l6l 



Although Captain Cox does not use the term twinzayo, we may 

 conclude from the above description, that in 1797 a certain number 

 of families enjoyed a joint interest in the oil-wells, which were their 

 property ; unfortunately Captain Cox does not give the number of 

 families, but supposing there were 24 of them, each of which did not 

 own more than 5 wells, the probable number of wells could hardly 

 have exceeded 100, an estimate which agrees so well with my estimate 

 of 130 wells (see page 178) that I can hardly understand how Captain 

 Cox arrived at the number of 520 wells. Mr. Crawfurd also men- 

 tions the twinzayo, but a more explicit reference to the twinzayos 

 is made in Captain Yule's hook, although he does not use the term 

 twinzayo, but in a few short but clear sentences he defines the chief 

 rights and customs of the community. He says :-~ 



" The wells are private property, the ground they occupy being owned by 23 

 families, inhabitants of Yenangyoung, and the representatives, it is believed, of 

 those who first discovered and worked the petroleum. They do not allow any 

 stranger to dig a well, and although a respectable owner stated that they had no 

 written grant or confirmation of their exclusive privilege, yet it is upheld by the 

 local Burmese authorities, and apparently they have sufficient influence to prevent 

 any wells being dug by interlopers in the vicinity of their groups or clusters of 

 wells. The 23 proprietors constitute a kind of corporate body as regards their 

 joint interest in the land, but possess individual property in their own wells 

 When once a well has been dug, no one else is allowed to dig within 30 cubits of 

 it. No proprietor is allowed to sell or mortgage his well to any one not a pro- 

 prietor. They mortgage among themselves. Formerly they intermarried among 

 themselves only." 



In none of the subsequent descriptions of the Yenangyoung oil- 

 field are the twinzayos mentioned, and except the legendary refer- 

 ence to 24 families, the descendants of the myothugyi who con- 

 structed the tank (see above, page 2), the two passages quoted 

 represent the whole of our knowledge of the community of twinzayos 

 during the past ages. 



It is only quite lately that the subject had to be taken up in con- 

 nection with delimitation of the native oil lands, and the following 



( 207 ) 



M 



