TO THE COURT OF AY A. 
145 
jurisdictions, and are answerable for the conserva¬ 
tion of the peace. Appeals, in most instances, lie 
from their authority to that of the provincial offi¬ 
cers. In civil cases these inferior officers try all 
causes subject to appeal; but in criminal ones 
their authority is limited to inflicting a few strokes 
of a ratan, and they can neither imprison nor fet¬ 
ter. In all cases of any aggravation it was their 
duty to transmit the offender to the T’haong-m’hu, 
sheriff, or executioner of the provincial town. 
The authority of the chief of the township was, 
of course, somewhat more extended than that of 
the district or village; and it rested with him to 
hear and decide upon causes, where the parties 
belonged to different districts or villages. When 
the chief of towns or villages failed to produce 
offenders under accusation, they were made to 
answer the accusation in their own persons at the 
provincial courts. 
Burman prisons are miserable places in point 
of accommodation, and as insecure as they are in¬ 
convenient : their insecurity gives rise to the ne¬ 
cessity of every prisoner being put into the stocks- 
Witnesses are examined on oath, in extraordinary 
cases only : a translation of its form will be found 
in the Appendix. In important cases, torture is 
applied both to principals and witnesses, and the 
gaolers have frequent recourse to a modification 
of it, for the purpose of extorting money from 
their prisoners. The English and American pri- 
VOL. II. L 
