“The territory of Kyat-pyen [written Chia-ppièn by d’Amato] is situated to the east, and a little to the south of the town of Mon-thá (lat. 22° 16´ N.), distant about seventy miles. It is surrounded by nine mountains. The soil is uneven and full of marshes, forming seventeen small lakes, each having a particular name. It is this soil which is so rich in mineral treasures. It should be noticed, however, that the dry ground alone is mined. The miners dig square wells, supporting the sides with piles and cross-pieces. These wells are sunk to the depth of fifteen or twenty cubits. When it is secure, the miner descends with a basket, which he fills with loose earth, the basket is drawn up, and the jewels are picked out and washed in the brooks in the neighbouring hills. They continue working the wells laterally till two meet, when the place is abandoned. There are very few accidents. The precious stones that are found there consist of rubies, sapphires, topazes, and other crystals. Many fabulous stories are related concerning the origin of the mines at Kyat-pyen.” An anecdote was told Amato, as he says, “by a person of the highest credit,” of two masses (amas) of rubies at Kyat-pyen. One weighed eighty viss.[15] When the people were taking them to Ava to the king, a party of robbers attacked the convoy, and made off with the smaller one; the other, injured by fire, was brought to Ava.
The animals of the country are very numerous. The domestic quadrupeds of the Burmans are the ox, the buffalo, the horse, and the elephant. The two first are very much used throughout the country. They are both of a very good species, and generally well kept. The ox is to them an expensive animal, as their religion forbids its use as food, and they have, therefore, no profitable manner of disposing of the disabled cattle. This, probably, led to the taming of the buffalo, an animal which has been in use among them from time immemorial. It is less expensive to rear, and is contented with coarser food. But it is not so valuable in some respects, for though stronger, it is not so hardy, and cannot endure long-continued exertion. The horse is never full-sized in Burmah, as in every Asiatic tropical country east of Bengal, and it somewhat resembles the Canadian pony. The animal is expensive, and rarely used except for the saddle. In some parts of the country it is almost unknown.
The elephant, well named the Apis of the Buddhists by M. Dubois de Jancigny,[16] is now much more the object of royal luxury and ostentation than anything else, and I shall, when speaking of the religious ceremonies of the Burmans, again refer to the place it occupies in their estimation. It is only used in Laos as a beast of burden.
Hogs, dogs, cats, besides asses, sheep, and goats, which last are but little known, are little cared for, and they are allowed to pursue their own paths unmolested. The camel, an animal, which as Mr. Crawfurd says, is “sufficiently well suited to the upper portions of the country,” is unknown to the Burmese.[17]
Wild animals of many descriptions abound in Burmah, still it is a remarkable fact, noticed by Crawfurd, that neither wolves, jackals, foxes, nor hyenas, are to be found in the country. Many species of winged game abound, as also hares.
The Indo-Chinese nations are considered by Prichard[18] to consist of various races, while Pickering[19] seems to be able to detect but two, the Malay, and, in an isolated position, the Telingan. It is therefore difficult with such contradictory evidence to arrive at the probable result. But as, without a slight sketch of this important subject, my work would fall under the just imputation of incompleteness, I shall venture to give some account of the races of Burmah, and I the rather take Prichard as my chief guide, as his research is the completer of the two, notwithstanding that Pickering has shown himself well able through his work to distinguish the Malay race from every other, in the most difficult and delicate cases. I shall not trouble the reader with any account of the adjacent races, but occupy myself solely with the principal nations under the Burman dominion. And first of the people of Pegu:[20] they inhabit the Delta of the Irawadi, and the low coast which terminates in the hilly country of the Burmans or Maramas. They are called by the Burmans, Talain; but their own name for themselves is Mân or Môn. The Pegu race, we shall see in the course of its history, was once very powerful, and its ascendancy remained for many years, and during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the empire of Pegu is often spoken of in the Portuguese chronicles as powerful and magnificent. Their language is entirely different from that of the Burmese and Siamese, as Leyden judged,[21] and Low has since amply proved.[22] In Low’s opinion, the Mân is the most original of the Indo-Chinese language. They use the Pali alphabet, and probably had it before the Burmans.
The Karian race inhabits the borders and low plains in Bassein province, but do not present any salient points for consideration.
The Maramas or Burmans inhabit the high lands above Pegu, where they created a powerful empire for themselves in very ancient times. They are some of that valiant Malay stock who subsequently colonized so large a portion of the globe, and passed by way of Polynesia to the American continent. They, like the Incas of Peru, boast a celestial origin; and the similarity of some of their institutions lead to no unfair presumption of their being of the same original family.[23] They are the most extended race in the Burman empires, reaching from the frontiers of Laos and Siam westward to Arakhan.
The country of Arakhan, which next claims our attention, and concludes our consideration of the races of Burmah, stretches along the eastern shore of the Gulf of Bengal, from about 21° to 18° of north latitude. Having in ancient times formed a portion of the empire of Magad’ha, they were for centuries connected with India. The Burmans themselves derive their origin from them; but this is only indirectly true. The solution of the problem remains yet to be told. The opinion of the Burmans regarding the antiquity of the Rúkheng, or Arakhan dialect, is fully borne out by Dr. Leyden. The chief modifications it has undergone are traceable to the Pali.[24]
The ethnology of the Burman empire is neither so intricate or so unsatisfactory as some others. There does not seem to have been a similar extent of change of race, and probably to that very circumstance do they owe the feebleness of character, which, however willingly we would omit seeing, does not fail to make itself conspicuous in a consideration of their prowess, social institutions, and advancement. The very fact of their quiescent state has debarred from progress, as the most mixed race is ever the most energetic. Witness our own, where so many various bloods have commingled, and formed a nation, which, emphatically speaking, is a progressive one, and now more than ever.