TO THE COURT OF AVA. 
95 
to compare them with a more distinct and distant 
people, they seem to me to approach more nearly 
to the condition of the inhabitants of the island 
of Java than to that of any other foreign people. 
They are, at the same time, more improved than 
the other civilized inhabitants of the eastern Ar¬ 
chipelago. With respect to the whole of this last 
group, however, it must be remarked that the 
type of their civilization is of so different a kind 
from that of the Hindoo Chinese nations, that no 
fair comparison can well be instituted between 
them. For example, the country of the Burmans, 
from its fertility and continuity, is generally more 
favourable to social improvement than that of the 
Indian islanders. The laws and political institu¬ 
tions of the Burmans, bad as they are, are com¬ 
monly better than those of the Indian islanders ; 
yet the Burmans are greatly inferior to the latter 
in enterprise, courage, personal independence, and 
even morality. In one respect they agree ; that 
is, in the comparative absence of religious or poli¬ 
tical bigotry and freedom from unsocial customs. 
The brief delineation of their customs, arts, and 
institutions, contained in the following chapters, 
will, however, convey a more accurate notion of 
the actual social condition of the Burmans than 
any general description. 
The first point which I shall advert to is that 
of dress. One barbarous practice, that of tattoo¬ 
ing or staining the skin of an indelible tint, ob- 
