Professional Documents
Culture Documents
OF THE
By J. Annan Bryce.
to a number of great rivers, the Irawadi, the Sittang, the Salween, the
Mehkong, and the Mehnam. The direction and length of the moun?
tain chains have determined the course and size of these rivers, of
which all except the Salween, which flows during the whole of its long
course in a v.ery narrow valley, and has therefore a comparatively small
drainage, bring down annually vast supplies of fertile alluvium, forming
rich plains during their course, and great deltas at their mouths.
I have said that the deltas at the mouths of these valleys receive the
full force of the south-west monsoon, and enjoy therefore an abundant
rainfall. Their upper parts, however, have to depend for their water-
supply mostly upon the inundations of the rivers, which are fed by
the abundant rainfall of the mountains. You will see from the map
that the south-west clouds, before they reach the upper valleys, have to
pass over one or more of the ranges. Now when clouds laden with rain
pass over a range of hills which is able to condense them, they are in the
habit of depositing the bulk of the moisture with which they part at
that particular time on the side nearest the direction from which they
come. Furthermore, if there be any considerable space at a much lower
level between the ranges, the clouds will often pass over from one to
the other without depositing any rain to speak of on the intermediate
plain, and again condense on the range to leeward. Over all this region,
therefore, you find that the plains of the upper valleys have much ]es&
rain than the mountains which bound them, and that the eastern sides
of the ranges and the adjoining part of the plain have less rain than
the western sides, and consequently that the streams fed from the
eastern side are smaller.
The number of forest-covered ranges, and the comparative narrow-
ness of the valleys, prevent the development of hot winds such as are
the scourge of the plains of India, and render the climate generally
more equable than in the corresponding latitudes of that country. Nor
is the country more unhealthy than the similarly situated regions of
India, though fever is of course rife in the forests. The north and south
lie of the mountain chains and of the intervening valleys has determined
also the history of these regions. All the tribes which have successively
occupied them have come down the valleys from the north, while the
immigrants who brought, or at least reintroduced, the existing religion,
literature, and civilisation, came by sea from the opposite coasts of India
and landed in the south.
Such being the general configuration of this region, let us now turn
to that part of it which is the particular subject of our consideration.
The country known by the generic name of Burma, including in
that title both the old British provinces and Upper Burma, our latest
acquisition, has an area of about 230,000 square miles, an area that is,
about twice as large as that of the United Kingdom, of which the old
provinces contain about 90,000, and Upper Burma about 140,000, The
BURMA: THE COUNTRY AND PEOPLE. 488
river par excellence of Burma is the Irawadi. This great stream, which
is navigable by steamers drawing five feet of water as far as Bhamo,
900 miles from its mouth, and its largest tributary the Kyendwin, form
in Upper Burma several fertile plains, producing rice, cotton, wheat,
and other valuable crops, while in the lower part of its course, in con-
junction with the river Sittang, it forms a splendid delta, which is the
main source of the world's supply of rice. The vast expanse of delta,
nearly 100 miles each way, appears, indeed, one immense rice-field,
stretching away illimitably, level as the sea. The aspect of this plain
is changeful. In midsummer, after the first heavy rains, an unbroken
sheet of water, it becomes carpeted, as the rice plant grows, with
brightest green, which turns, ere December arrives, to waving gold,
and then, after harvest, to a dreary grey flat of sun-baked mud, over
which the smoke of the burning stubble hangs like a pall. Out of it
rise, visible to great distances, the mighty masses of the great pagodas
of Kangoon and Pegu, as changeful in their golden sheen of light, and
yet as unchanging, as the wide plain over which they have looked for
so many centuries.
Though the delta thus seems one vast rice-field, by no means all of
it is under cultivation. Much is still uncleared jungle, and in parts,
especially on the Sittang side, are great tracts of waste land, roamed
over by deer and tiger, and of savannah covered with a thick growth
of lofty elejDhant grass. It is estimated that only about one-seventh
of the cultivable land of Lower Burma is actually cultivated, but as
the country is opened up by roads and railways, more and more of this
land is being brought under tillage, and already within a year after the
opening of the Sittang Valley line, these wastes are being broken up
by the plough.
All this delta country, exposed to the full force of the south-west
monsoon, has in the summer an abundant rainfall, as much as 100 inches-
in the southern part, but as one journeys norfchthe country becomes
drier till at the apex of it, about 170 miles from the sea, the rainfall is
about one-half. About this point the ranges bounding the valley send
out spurs, which again retire, leaving rich plain country on both sides,
though on the left bank a low arid ridge intercepts the view of it, while
to the west the eye ranges as far as the Arakan chain. In the plain
country of the Upper Irawadi, as I have already said, there is but a
small rainfall. This region, therefore, depends very largely for its
water supply on the rises of the Irawadi and its tributaries, which
are as much as 40 or 50 feet in height, and spread widely over the
country, so that the course of the Irawadi and the Kyendwin present in
places during the rains, the appearance of a great lake nine or ten miles
in width. When the river falls, vast expanses of sand and mud are
left exposed, and the stream narrows to a comparatively small volume,
winding in devious channels among the sandbanks.^ In the spring
2 k 2
484 BURMA: THE COUNTRY AND PEOPLE.
months, when the strong southerly wind, the precursor of the monsoon,
sets in, it raises clouds of sand, which, under the bright sunlight,
overspread the horizon with a yellow glare. All around, the thorny
vegetation of this dry region looks at this season bare and arid. Even
the forest-covered hills, the leaves having now fallen, are grey and
dreary, showing the parched ground between the leafless stems, and the
only relief to the eye under the cloudless sky of brass are the clumps
of evergreen mango trees and palms which mark the site of some village.
The time to see this upper region in its beauty is at the end of the
rains. The sandbanks then have sunk under the brimming river, into
which dip feathery bamboos. Everything is clothed in green, while
above, in a sky of deepest, softest blue, hang masses of white cumuli.
The air, though hot, is exquisitely clear, while the mountains, clothed
to their tops with verdure, are visible to immense distances. There is
some good scenery in Burma. The Salween, just above Maulmain,
flows among fantastic limestone mountains, which rise in great preci?
pices out of deep tropical forests. The Irawadi, too, furnishes some
fine bits. In Lower Burma the defile at Prome is highly picturesque.
There are few finer approaches to a capital than the narrow passage
where the river rushes between Ava and the pagoda-crowned ridge
of Sagain?both of them once capitals?while the line of lofty
and serrated crags forms a noble background to the rich plain
where the battlements of Mandalay and the golden spire of its palace
rise beneath its sacred hill. The long defile above the capital, called
the third defile, is pretty, while the first and second defiles, one
just above and one just below Bhamo, are, especially the latter,
extremely grand. The river, contracted to a width of 250 yards,
has forced through a ridge of hills about 1000 feet high a tortuous
channel, down which it rushes in whirling eddies between vertical
cliffs 700 feet high, from whose crest and face trees and shrubs, wherever
they can find lodgment, wave pendulous towards the stream. The
Kyendwin also furnishes some good scenery. The wide mountain
chain which separates Bengal from Burma consists of a great number of
parallel ridges of soft eocene sandstones. The strata, whose strike is
nearly north and south for many hundred miles, dip to the east at
about 45 degrees, and break into cliffs to the west. The Kyendwin for
a considerable part of its course hugs this chain closely, and the river
itself and its tributaries break in several places in and out through the
easterly ridges of it. Especially beautiful are the ravines through which
the Manipur or Myitha and the Yew branches force their way to join the
Kyendwin. I have seen few prettier scenes than the gorge of the former
river. One paddles up silently, winding in and out between beetling
crags, crested and draped with the luxuriant vegetation of the tropics.
Monkeys leap from tree to tree, and peacocks, jungle fowl, and pheasants
of brilliant hue, disport themselves in the glades between the successive
BURMA: THE COUNTRY AND PEOPLE. 485
lines of cliff. When I visited these solitudes they possessed the charm
of the unknown, for I believe that before I went there, in 1881, no white
man had ever penetrated them.
There is in truth great beauty in the forest scenery of Burma. In
the moist regions near the sea?in the Tenasserim province for instance
?and in the deep dells among the mountains everywhere, there are
stretches of evergreen forest, often impenetrable, so dense is the under-
growth of canes, creepers, and bamboos, some of which reach 100 feet in
height. Nothing can be more delightful than one of these nooks in the
forest. The sun hardly penetrates its depths, and even at midday the
perennial stream, now gathering into deep ice-cold pools, now tumbling
over the rocks in cascades, maintains a pleasant coolness. Ferns and
flowers line its banks; bamboo sprays bend over it; tree-ferns and
cycads spread their tufts above it; while over all the giants of the
forest, mostly deciduous, rear their heads 150 or 200 feet aloft into the
air, their stems and branches streaming with creepers, and encrusted
with innumerable orchids, some stiff and erect, others drooping long
flower stems full of bloom towards the ground. The orchids flower at
different seasons, but it is in the hot weather, after the fall of the leaf
in February or March, that most of them are in their glory. For then
there is nothing to hide them from the view of the insects which
fertilise them. In the early part of the hot weather, after the
fall of the leaf, a series of fires rage through the drier parts of the
forest, forming a magnificent spectacle at night, as they sweep in long
lines along the hill-sides. Unlike the great conflagrations in the
resinous pine forests of America, which destroy everything in their
course, these fires, though they check and distort the growth of the
younger trees, and consume dead or fallen ones, do little hurt to living.
trees of large size. Forest travel at this season is far from agreeable. The
air is like a furnace, partly from the sun's heat and partly from the fires,
while the baked soil, bare or biackened with leaf-ash and charred
branches, is almost as hot under foot. Yolumes of suffocating smoke
obscure the view. The timid elephant?the invariable beast of burden
on these expeditions?sometimes jibs at the line of fire and delays the*
journey. But the smarting eye of the traveller is refreshed when
looking up through the smoke it sees the bright orchid blooms far above
on the tree-tops.
I must not omit to mention one characteristic of the vegetation of
Burma, the great number of flowering trees and shrubs, many of which
are sweet scented. There is hardly any time of the year at which the
landscape is not bright with the bloom, and the air loaded with the
perfume, of one or more of these trees, and they are often in such masses
as to form a striking feature in the scene. The scarlet of the cotton-
tree, the orange of the pouk-tree, the purple of the pyinma (Lager-
8trcemia Heginse), the yellow of the padouk (Pterocarpus indica), the
486 BURMA: THE COUNTRY AND PEOPLE.
young man. He had a particularly soft and sweet voice, a very unusual
thing for a Burman.
The Burman is light-hearted and merry, fond of chaff, and, unlike
the Hindoo, with the thorough appreciation of a joke. He has less
servility, and when away from the demoralising influences of the Court,
more regard for truth than most Orientals. Altogether his character,
religion, and habits insure his being regarded by us more as a friend and
equal than as an inferior.
The character and demeanour of the people is well illustrated by
their dress. Both men and women wear gay variegated silks, and
decorate themselves with flowers. No more brilliant sight can be seen
in the world than one of the festivals at the great pagoda of Bangoon,
when its wide platform is thronged with thousands of gaily-dressed
people praying, making offerings at the shrines, listening to sermons
from monks, gossiping, or feasting. The air is filled with the sound of
bells and gongs and the hum of the great multitude, while above all
rises the golden bulk of the mighty pagoda itself, shining in the
sunlight.
About the origin of the Talaings there are several theories. Some
consider them an aboriginal race of what is called the Kolarian type,
while others believe them to be immigrants of Mongolian race. Their
language, hitherto little studied, is now being investigated by a com?
petent scholar, Dr. Forchammer, whose researches will no doubt east
light on their origin. This language is now almost extinct in Burma,
but it is still spoken by the settlements of this people in Siam, and said
to be allied to the speech of the Anamese. In appearance the Talaings
are smaller, plumper, fairer, and less hard of feature than the Burmese ;
but in religion, character, and habits, they are now hardly distinguish-
able from their hereditary enemies. The Talaings, whose ?kingdom
used to embrace the delta of the Irawadi and Sittang, probably still
form the bulk of the population there.
From China appear to have come the great race of Shans, or, as they
call themselves Tai, who have the largest numbers of any people in the
Indo-Chinese peninsula. They occupy the whole of the Mehnam,
almost the whole of the Mehkong and the Salween, the Upper Sittang,
and a large part of the Irawadi, extending from it into the valley of the
Brahmaputra. They thus form a very important part of the population
lately subject to the King of Burma.
Though the Shans are thus powerful in numbers, some inherent
defect in their character or organisation has preventcd them ever
keeping together as a whole. The King of Siam, the only sovereign
representative of their race, bears sway over a comparatively small
section of it, the great bulk being subject either to the King of Burma
or to China, some of them to both. But though in subjection, the Shans
have mostly retained their political organisation. There is an oligarchy -
490 BURMA: THE COUNTRY AND PEOPLE.
You will remember what I told you about the river which drained
the eastern sides of the mountain ranges in this region having less water
than those which are fed from the western sides. The Kyendwin is a
case in point. Though it must have nearly as long a course as the
Irawadi, it is in the dry weather a good deal smaller, and at the time
we entered it had sunk to a low level. The navigation therefore pre?
sented many difficulties, and it took us nearly three weeks to reach the
point about 250 miles from the mouth, beyond which it was found
impossible for the launch to go.
In the rains, however, there is said to be less comparative difference
between the Kyendwin and the Irawadi. The rise in height of the
former is quite as great?40 or 50 feet, and it inundates its valley
widely, just as the Irawadi does. This consideration may serve to
weaken the argument that the vast body of water brought down by the
Irawadi in the rains can only be accounted for on the hypothesis that
it is identical with the Sanpo of Tibet.
A few miles up is Moonyuwa, the principal emporium of the
valley. Here we found several Chinese merchants, and a great number
of the large boats, by which the trafficof this extensive region is done.
The owner of the boat is also the trader, and with his family, spends the
whole of his life on the vessel. At harvest he times himself to be in
the rice-producing districts up the river. Loading his boat with that
grain, he works down the Kyendwin, selling his cargo wherever he gets
the best prices, till he reaches Moonyuwa, where he parts with what
remains of his rice, and any hides, horns, beeswax, sticklac, or ivory he
has been able to pick up above, and for his return journey buys English
salt, cotton piece-goods, turkey red and other coloured yarns, silk hand-
kerchiefs, knives, needles, nails, and other such small wares. His cargo
on board, he toils back up stream, poling all the way along the bank, for
the current is strong. After many weeks, it may be, of this work, he
fixes himself at some village, builds on the bank a booth, as a shelter
against the sun, and his womenfolk proceed to dispose of their wares.
There they remain till the next harvest comes, when the old round is
repeated. The boats generally go in parties as a protection against
robbers, or as they they are called in India, dacoits, a word you must of
late have seen frequently in connection with Burmese affairs. And I
should perhaps say that in those semi-civilised regions little stigma
attaches to that profession; it is not so very loug since the highwayman
was rather a hero among ourselves.
Aloungpra, the founder of the late dynasty, seems to have been little
better than a dacoit to start with, and even lately there is reason to
believe that some of Theebau's ministers, the Tinedah Mingyce for
instance, were in league with robber bands. The Yenoung Prince as he
was called, the reigning favourite in the early part of Theebau's reign,
was certainly a dacoit while his father was a leading officer at court.
BURMA: THE COUNTRY AND PEOPLE. 493
Of course in the case of men of ofncial position all this was sub rosa, but
I will give you an instance to show how little disgrace attaches to the
calling. Talking one day at Mandalay to a htghly respectable Shan
forester, to whom we were about to advance a large sum of money (he
was one of the right-hand men of the Tsawbwaw or Prince of the State
of Mone) I noticed, his jacket being open, that his breast was covered with
the little lumps which indicated the presence beneath the skin of pieces
of ruby, sapphire, gold, and what not, inserted in the flesh as charms
" What need have
against wounds. you for so much of this kind of
" u
thing ? I asked. Oh," said he, in the most open-air way, and without
the slightest change of countenance, " I was bred for the profession of
dacoit, and of course I had to make myself invulnerable," and I may
add that he genuinely believed that he was invulnerable. Although,
however, the calling is hardly a disreputable one, it is needless to say
that the dacoit was not allowed to have it all his own way, else there
would soon have been nobody left to rob, and under the theoretically
excellent Burmese system of holding the district responsible, a hue and
ery was now and then raised, and an attempt, sometimes successful,
made to exterminate the gang. The regular mode of punishment was
crucifixion, and as the Kyendwin has always been infested by dacoits
the ghastly instrument of execution, a St. Andrew's cross, is a frequent
object on its banks.
The delta, if I may call it so, of the Kyendwin may be said to end
about 40 miles from its mouth, where low hills begin to appear on both
sides, but in the valleys of the main river itself and of its tributaries
there are many fertile plains. In good years the Kyendwin valley
exports a good deal of rice and other grains. There is everywhere
evidence in the shrunken towns and deserted villages that the country
could maintain a much larger population. About 70 miles up, the most
eastern of the parallel ridges forming the dividing chain between Bengal
and Burma is approached, and from this point as far up as I followed its
course, about 150 miles, the river keeps close to the chain, through the
pretty scenery I have already described. Here an amusing incident
occurred. I ascended the hill behind a town to get a view, and saw to
the east, on the other side of the Kyendwin, one of the great lagoons or
back waters produced by the inundation of the river during the rains.
I could perceive through my glass that it was covered with water birds,
of which vast numbers frequent the rivers of Burma during the winter,
to return across the Himalayas, as the hot weather comes on, to their
distant summer quarters in Tibet. Now the sight of these countless
geese, ducks, and teal was an appetising one. The supply of the com-
missariat was always a difficulty under the Buddhist regime of Upper
Burma. To slaughter cows was criminal, sheep there are none, goats
are scarce, and unsavoury when you do get them. But on the beaten
track of the Irawadi prejudice is so far relaxed that chickens may be
494 BURMA: THE COUNTRY AND PEOPLE.
their own internecine feuds found a profitable variety in raids down into
the low country, extending these as far even as the Kyendwin. Their
raiding season is the dry weather, for in the rains the country is im-
passable without boats. Creeping in bands of 50 to 100 through the
jungle, they surround a village at night. The villages are protected by
stockades of teak beams, and a single or double chevaux de frise of
bamboos outside, the jungle being kept cleared to some distance. In?
side, at intervals of about 15 or 20 yards, are platforms on which the
villagers sit by turns all night through, firing guns every few minutes
to show the Khyens that things are ready for them. The game of the
Khyens is to find the watch ill-kept, when they either clamber or throw
fire-brands over the stockade, for the houses, being of bamboo and thatch,
are very inflammable. If the fire catches they effect an entrance in
the resulting confusion, and kill those who do not surrender. The sur?
vivors are carried off into captivity on the mountains, when they are
worked as slaves till the ransom which is put on their heads is paid ; but
if they do not try to escape they are not as a rule unkindly treated. A
few of them do manage to escape, but most die in captivity, for the
ransoms are comparatively large, and many have no relatives left to take
the trouble about the collection of it, often a matter of years. It is,
however, a work of religious merit in this region to contribute and I
was often asked to do so. One old woman told me she was within a little
of making up the 500 rupees to ransom a son who had been in captivity
for fourteen years, and I gave her what was needed to complete the tale.
I began to realise what all this meant, the first night I spent in the Kubo
valley. At sunset I went out of the gate of Khanpat to bathe in the clear
stream, which flowed at a little distance from the town, over a pebbly
bed. In the twilight I soon saw a dusky group gather on the shore, and
thought this was a case of the usual curiosity. For all over this country,
where no white man had ever been seen, my appearance was the signal
for a crowd to collect. They would gaze at one for hours, and the bolder
would feel my clothes and press me to turn up my shirt-sleeves, not be-
lieving that the skin could be white all over. If I slept in some village
house, I used to be con&cious, from a number of whispers as I awoke in
the grey dawn, that the room or verandah was full of curious gazers, so
that my toilet was often a matter of difficulty, and this kind of levee used
to last practically till one went to bed at night. But on this occasion
I found curiosity was not the cause. All the men were armed,
and I was told they had come to prevent the Khyens who might
be lurking in the jungle, from sw^ooping down and carrying me off.
When I got back to the town I found the guard platforms manned,
and all night long my slumbers were disturbed by the discharge
of the watchers' guns close to my ears, for the place was very small. As
my journey went on I got quite used to the sound. I was never attacked,
though one night a village a mile from where I slept was burnt, and its
No. VIIL?Aug. 1886.1 2 l
498 BURMA: THE COUNTRY AND PEOPLE.
Afterthe paper,
Mr. Holt Hallett said he had listened to Mr. Bryee's account with the very
greatest interest. A great part of the basin of the Kyendwin visited by the
lecturerhad never been previouslydescribed,and he was glad to hear that large
and rich plains existed not only along the main streambut in the branchvalleys.
Mr. Bryce's account,whereit did not covernew ground,was so full and so accurate,
that he did not think he need take up the time of the meetingby diseussinfit.
He might, however,say something about the Talaing or Mun, and the Lawa or
Lua, two very importantraces which once occupied the deltas of the Irawadi,
Sittang,and Salween rivers,but were rapidlymergingand becoming lost in other
races. During his late journey he met many Talaing who still spoke Mun, and
was told by them that the race was in threetribes,the Mun Tine, or Pegu Talaing,
the Mun Dee, or Bangoon Talaing, and the Mun Myat Lawa, or ^alaing of
Myawaddi, Kyeikmyo,and Toungbo-myo. The Talaings foundin Tavoy are Mun
Dee. The Mun Myat Lawa are most likely hybridoffspring of the Lawa and Mun
races. Many of the names on the map to the north-eastof Maulmain are Lawa
words,and these people are said to have been the aboriginesof the valley of the
Salween as well as of the countrylying to the east of it. The Kiang Tung Lawa
2 l 2
500 BURMA: THE COUNTRYAND PEOPLE.?DISCUSSION.
must not be confused with the Baw Lawa, the race just alluded to, as theyare
an entirelydifferentpeople with a perfectlydistinctlanguage. The Kiang Tung
Lawa are an intrudingrace gradually pressing southwards. They are tall and
athletic,and are hardly distinguishablefromthe noithern Shans. Many of their
villages are now to be foundin the valley of the Meh Low river,betweenZimme
and Kiang Hsen. Even the Talaing allow that the Baw Lawa are the aboriginesof
the country,and there can be little doubt that many of the people now speaking
Tai, or Shan, and Burmesein the neigbourhoodof Zimme'and Maulmain,are either
pure or hybriddescendantsof the Lawa. As to the Talaing, but littleis known of
them at present,but it is not unlikelythat the Kolarians of India, the Mun or
Talaing of Burma, and many of the tribes in the basin of the Mehkong are of
the same race, and are descendantsof the Mon tribes,some of whom w7ere, according
to M. Terriende Lacouperie, dwellingin China at the time of the arrivalof the first
Chinese immigrantsinto that region. The sequence of the onrushof the races into
the Lawa countryor Central Indo-China,seems to have been firstTalaing,secondly,
Shan, thirdly, Karen, and lastly, the Thibeto-Burmese tribes. Whether the
Kamaits, Kamooks, and other dwarf tribes in Central and Eastern Indo-China,
are descendantsof the pigmies met with by the early Chinese, or whetherthey are
immigrantsfromthe sea-board,is anotherinterestingquestion which may perhaps
be solved with the aid of the copious vocabularieshe (Mr. Hallett) collectedof their
languages and handed to M. de Lacouperie,togetherwith those of the Lawa and
otherraces met with duringhis exploration.
Sir Rutherford Alcock wished to say a few wordsin referenceto the whole
subject of Burma. The very interestingand excellentpaper which Mr. Bryce had
read contained a great amount of original information,and he was sure had been
verymuch appreciated. It was impossibleto divestthemselvesof a very considerable
amount of intereston politicalas well as geographicalgroundsin the whole of that
territory at the present moment. The proximityof the territorywhich had lately
been annexed to India, to Assam on the one side, and to China on the other,made it
an object of particular interest,and it would have been to any othernationthan
their own an object of desire and ambition. It had really been forcedupon them,
they did not seek it, though it was quite clear that it was most advantageousboth
for themselves and the neighbouringStates that a settledGovernmentshould be
placed there,and one which was capable of developingcommerce. He should like
Mr. Bryce to tell them what he conceivedwould be the facilitiesof communication
betweenAssam and Yunnan. No doubt therehad been in formertimesa greattrade
betweenthose provincesand Burma, but fromwant of access to the sea, fromwhich
Yunnan was very much cut off by ranges of mountainsand an unsettledregionof
plundering tribes, trading was a great difficulty. With a settled Government,.
however,in Burma, and a good understandingbetween Great Britain and China,,
new markets would spring up almost without any efforton the part of the two>
Governments. The Chinaman, with his industryand perseverance,qualities which,.
accordingto Mr. Bryce's account,the Burmesewere ratherwantingin, would, if he
saw an opening,certainlypush his commerce,in which not only all Burma and the
Malay Peninsula would profit,but also the whole world. Fortunatelythey did not
seek in gettingany possessionsof this kind,to excludeothers,or to keep a monopoly;
they werequite willingthat the whole worldshouldcompetewith them,and equally
enjoythe same freedom. That could not always be said of some of theirneighbours,,
but at all events it had long been theirnational principle,and he hoped it would
always continue to be so. Some very interestingparticularshad been given about,
the ethnographicelement,which he was bound to say was a little mixed. Although
BURMA: THE COUNTRY AND PEOPLE.?DISCUSSION. 501
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SaJhang'o
BURMA
with parts of
INDIA, CHINA, and SIAM
Compiled from the latest Surveys
byMrJ. AnnanBryce,to illustrate
Withadditionsfromobeervations
hisPaper.
Routein 1881_.
Author't in 188U-
Ravbways, RaUxraysPropostd.
ScaUaf MiUt
io o to 40 oo ao
ofNativeTerms.
Explanation
English Burmese Siamese
Hill .... Toung. . Khout
Mountains. Loi
River.... Myit . . MehNam fl28
Lake .... Bng. . . Naung
Spring . . . San . . . Pkoo
Rapid . . . Hat . . . Hai
CPl?l/o Town,City. . Myo. . . Muang
ioroj&j Village. . . Yua. . . Ban
fr Large. . . . Oyee. . . Tai
Small. . . . Ngt. . . Nau-ey
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