240 
JOURNAL OF AN EMBASSY 
were predominant only in Arracan, now no longer 
a part of the empire. 
Prudential motives have little influence among 
the Burmans in repressing the increase of popula¬ 
tion. Marriages are contracted nearly as early as 
in other Eastern countries; and, with the excep¬ 
tion of the priesthood, few persons of either sex 
are to be found living in a state of celibacy after 
the age of seventeen or eighteen. Prostitution is 
not common; and infanticide, and other unnatural 
practices for repressing population, are not, that I 
am aware of, known. As to the continuance of 
child-bearing, it is just the same as in other parts 
of the world, beginning with the age of puberty, 
and ending between forty and fifty. The Bur- 
mans, in their public records, reckon a family as 
high as seven individuals, which would seem to 
imply that numerous families are reared by them. 
The effectual price of labour varies considerably 
in different parts of the country, but is every¬ 
where high. It is lowest at the capital and its 
neighbourhood, where the land is of inferior fer¬ 
tility : the country comparatively well inhabited, 
and much good land yielding rent under cultiva¬ 
tion. There the wages of common field-labour 
are about fourteen shillings a-month, or eight 
pounds eight shillings a-year; and the ordinary 
price of rice, the chief bread-corn throughout the 
kingdom, about six shillings per cwt. Twelve 
baskets of rice, or about six cwts., are allowed by 
