Lower Chindwin District Volume - A

BURMA GAZETTEER
LOWER CHINDWIN DISTRICT
UPPER BURMA
RANGOON
OFFICE OF THE SUPERINTENDENT, GOVERNMENT PRINTING,
BURMA
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE
PART A. THE DISTRICT 1-211
Chapter I. Physical Description 1-20
Boundaries 1
The culturable portion 2
Rivers: the Chindwin; the Mu 3
The Alaungdaw gorge 4
Lakes ib.
Diversity of the district ib.
Area 5:
Surveys ib.
Geology 6
Petroliferous areas ib.
Black-soil areas; red soils ib.
Volcanic rocks 7
Explosion craters ib.
Artesian wells 8
Saline efflorescence ib.
Rainfall and climate 9
Fauna: quadrupeds; reptiles and lizards; game birds;
predatory birds 9-15
Hunting: indigenous methods 16
Game fish 17
Hunting superstitions 18
Chapter II, History and Archæology 20-28
Early history 20
History after the Annexation of 1885 (a) east of the
Chindwin; (b) west of the Chindwin: the southern
portion; (c) the northern portion; (d) along the
Chindwin 21-24
Archæology 24-28
The Register of Taya 25
CONTENTS.
PAGE
The Alaungdaw Katthapa shrine 25

The Powindaung caves 26
Pagodas ib.
Inscriptions 27
Folk-lore: the Bodawgyi legend ib.
Chapter III. The People 28-63
The main stock 28

Traces of admixture of other races ib.
Population by census: densities; preponderance of
females 29-32
Towns and large villages 32
Social and religious life: Buddhism and sects 33-35
The English Wesleyan Mission; Roman Catholics 35
Animism: the Alôn and Zidaw festivals 36
Caste 37
Standard of living: average agricultural income; the
food of the people; the house; clothing; expenditure
on works of public utility; agricultural stock 38-42
Agricultural indebtedness 42
Land values: sale and mortgage 48
Alienations to non-agriculturists 50
Indigence 51
Wages ib.
Growth in prosperity ib.
Agrarian customs 51-58
Tenants 58
Large estates 63
Chapter IV. Agricalture and Irrigation 63-105
Number of agriculturists 63
Absorption of the waste for cultivation ib.
Wet and dry crops 64
Area under the different crops: dry crops on rice
land ; new crops 65
Normal area of crop failure 66
Dry and wet lands and the main orders of soil ib.
The standard crops in different parts 67
Average area of the holding 69
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Agricultural advances 69
Modes of agriculture 70
Manuring 74
Description of the chief crops: rice; millet; sesamum;
cotton; red bean; groundnut; green bean (pèdi);
onions; plantains; betel-vine 75-85
The tari, or toddy palm 86
Floods 93
Insect and other pests ib.
Weeds 95
Saline efflorescence 96
Cattle: grazing and breeding ib.
Irrigation: ordinary types; customs 99
The Pyaungbya weir 102
Traces of Shan influence ib.
Saline-water irrigation ib.
Artesian-well irrigation and irrigation from springs ib.
Lift irrigation: wells; other modes 104
Tanks ib,
Possible irrigation works ib.
Chapter V. Forests and Minerals 105-119
Boundaries of the Lower Chindwin Forest Division 105

Physical features: forest-bearing areas; floating
streams 106
History 107
Surveys: settlement of reserves; working plans 108-109
Teak: other trees: extractoin of teak 110
In; bamboo; thitsi; cutch 111
Forest roads ib,
Fire-protection and conservation of the forests 113
Forest establishments 114
Changes in administrative boundaries 115
Revenue and expenditure ib.
Minerals: platinum and oilier minerals 116
Lime ib.
Salt: the Salingyi brine-wells 117
Petroleum 119
Coal ib.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Chapter VI. Occupations and Trade 119-136
Census of occupations 119

Annual emigration 121
Traders: bamboo-plaiters; blacksmiths; brass
workers 122-123
Saddlery 123
Fans; wooden pattens; sandals; tattooers; mahouts 124
Bamboo lacquer ib.
Unglazed pottery 126
Hair-combs ib.
Silkworm breeding; well-baskets ib.
Forest occupations ib.
Local distribution of occupations 127
Mills and factories 128
Trade in Burmese times ib.
Markets ib.
Distributing centres and fairs 129
Exports and imports ib.
Lines of trade 130
Trade carried by the railway ib.
Trade carried by the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company's
steamers ib.
Country boats and rafts ib.
Road trade routes 132
Distribution of exports and imports 133
Prices 135
Weights and measures ib.
Chapter VII. Means of Communication 136-141
The railway 136

The Chindwin and the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company's
service ib.
The Mu 137
Ferries ib.
Roads maintained by the Public Works Department 138
Road bridges 141
Expenditure on roads ib.
District Fund Roads ib.
Village roads ib.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Chapter VIII. Famine 142-154
Rainfall 142
Examination of the belief that the rainfall is decreasing ib.
The dry zone in the eighteenth century: Sangerraano and Symes 144
Indications of a diminished water-supply 145
The probable causes 146
The practice of terracing dry cultivation 147
Tracts less liable to crop-failure ib.
History of the seasons since annexation 148
Seasons of scarcity-1890-91; the famine of 1891-92;
1895-96; 1896-97; 1903-04; 1907-08 179-151
Improbability of famine conditions arising 151
Suspensions of revenue 152
Substitutes for food-grains in times of scarcity ib.
Local division of the rainy season 153
Chapter IX. Administration, General and Judicial: Public

Works, etc 154-173
Burmese administrative divisions within the district 154

Military and marine forces in Burmese times 156
The twelve regiments 157
The boat villages 158
Administration after annexation: external boundaries ib.
Internal boundaries 159
District officials 160
Village administration ib.
Civil Justice 161
Registration of documentary transfers of property 163
Civil Police 164
Military Police 165
Criminal Justice: the magistracy 166
Amount of crime 167
Offences against property; against the human body;
violent crime; dacoity; robbery; cattle-theft 167-168
Offences against the opium and excise laws 168
Gambling 169
The preventive sections ib.
Prisons 170
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Public works: administration and chief public buildings 171

Post and Telegraph arrangements 172
Ecclesiastical 173
Chapter X. Revenue Administration 173-195
Revenue in Burmese times; the household tax, thathameda 173

Royal lands 175
Miscellaneous revenue ib.
Estimate of total collections in Burmese times 176
The military aids ib.
Gross revenue since annexation ib.
Land Revenue: State-land assessments after annexation:
early surveys ib.
The cadastral survey 177
The Summary Settlement ib.
The Regular Settlement 178
Land tenures: the non-State or private tenure 179
The State tenure 179-183 ib.
Service lands: the major and other regiments; occa-
sional levies; Shan service land 179
Other State lands 181
Property in fruit trees 183
Area of land by tenure 184
Thathameda before and after Summary Settlement ib.
Land-revenue and thathameda collections 85
Dates of collection of revenue 186
Coercive processes for the recovery of land-revenue
and thathameda ib.
incidence of taxation 187
Prosperity or otherwise of the district ib.
Minor sources of revenue: fisheries 188
Stamps ib.
Excise administration; in Burmese times 189
After annexation: excise on liquor ib.
Revenue from liquor excise 190
Revenue from tari shops ib.
Revenue from other licenses ib.
Preventive staff and offences 191
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Opium administration: before 1888 91

1889 to 1894 ib.
1894 to 1904 92
Since 1904 93
Revenue from opium 94
Other narcotics ib.
Revenue from salt ib.
Chapter XI. Local Self-Government 195-200
The Mônywa Municipality: constitution 195

Population ib.
Sources of revenue and heads of expenditure 196
incidence of taxation 197
Heads of revenue: market-rents and slaughter-houses ib.
Tolls and ferries ib.
Heads of expenditure: public works; conservancy;
hospital; water-supply ib.
Precautions against fire 198
The District Fund: constitution 199
Heads of revenue and expenditure ib.
Public works ib.
Establishment 200
Chapter XII Education 200-204
Literacy at census periods 200

Educational administration 201
Primary education in Public schools ib.
Unregistered private schools 202
Secondary education in Public schools ib.
Mission education: the English Wesleyan Midone.
School at Mônywa ib.
Expenditure on education 203
Survey school 204
Chapter XIII. Public Health 204-211
Burmese surgery and physics 204

Hospitals: the Mônywa Municipal hospital 205
CONTENTS.
PAGE
The chief diseases: cholera; malarial fever and the

sale of quinine; yaws; plague 206-207
Vaccination 207
Sanitation and water-supply: in Mônywa town and in
rural areas 208
Vital statistics 210
CHAPTER XIV. MINOR ARTICLES 212-225
Mônywa Town 212

Mônywa subdivision ib.
Budalin township 213
Ayadaw; Budalin; Kanbyu; Kinzan; Maungdaung;
Naunggyi-aing; Ngapayin; Nyaunggan; Yèdwet 214-216
Mônywa township 216
Alôn; Indaing; Kothan; Kyaukka North; Kyauksit-
pôn North; Kyehmôn; Lèzin: Malètha; Minywa;
Mônywe; Myobaw; Ngwedwin; Nyaungbyubin;
Thazi; Thitsein; Wayaung 217-219
Yinmabin subdivision 219
Kani township 220
Kônywa; Yinbaungdaing 221
Salingyi township ib.
Kangôn; Kyadet; Linzagyet; Ngakôn; Salingyi;
Satan 222-223
Palè township 223
Chinbyit; Hlawga; Kyenin; Letpagan; Mônthwin;
Nyaungôn; Palè 224-225
Bibliography 227
Index 231
GLOSSARY.
Chaung, stream.
Chetty, the money-lending caste of Madras.
Myothugyi, vide ywa-thu-gyi.
Nat, spirit.
Pèdi, green bean,
Taiksa-ye, syn. myosa-ye.
Tari, toddy, borassus flabelliformis.
Thathameda, the household tax.
Thitya, the shorea obtusa.
Thugyi, ywa-thu-gyi, headman of a circle of villages.

BURMA GAZETTEER
LOWER CHINDWIN DISTRICT
(UPPER BURMA)
PART A.--THE DISTRICT.
CHAPTER I.
Physical Description.
The Lower Chindwin district lies between north latitudes 21° 48´ and 22°
50´ and east longitudes 94° 16´ and 95° 39´ and falls partly within the Dry and
partly within the Northern Wet zones of Burma. The wet-zone portion consists
of a fringe of mountainous forest-clad country, extending along the western
and northern border. The greater portion of this area has been made into forest
reserves, the physical features of which will be found described in Chapter V,
hut some of the valleys have been excluded. All the rest of the district falls
within the dry zone, though there are, as would be expected, increments in the
rainfall as the hills are approached.
The district belongs to the Sagaing administrative Division or

Commissionership. The adjoining districts are--
On the west, the Pakôkku district;

On the north, the Upper Chindwin and Shwebo districts;
On the east, the Shwebo district;
On the south, the Sagaing and Pakôkku districts,
Boundaries.
The boundaries, which have not been officially notified, for the most part
follow natural. features. On the west the Pôndaung, a spur of the Chin Hills
which culminates in a peak 4,364 feet high, and, for a short distance, the
Pônnyadaung, a parallel range on the west, divide the district from Pakôkku. In
the north, the boundary with the Upper Chindwin and Shwebo districts
traverses main drainage lines. On the north-east the boundary is artificial, but
follows the general line of the watershed between the Mu and Chindwin rivers
until the Mu, an important tributary of the Irrawaddy, is reached, and becomes
the boundary. The
2 Lower Chindwin District.
south-eastern boundary with Sagaing is artificial. The south-western boundary

is formed for a considerable distance by the South Yams stream, a tributary of
the Chindwin; thereafter the boundary runs across drainage lines up to the
Pôndaung.
The boundary in the north-east is shown incorrectly in the 1 inch = 4 miles

survey map of April 1902 (South-East Frontier).
The culturable portion west of the Chindwin.
The culturable portion of the district is roughly triangular in shape, the base
of the triangle being the southern boundary of the district, and the apex the
point at which the Chindwin enters the district from the north. The greatest
length of this portion is about 60 and the greatest breadth about 90 miles.
Starting from the south-west, the Pôndaung throws off to the Chindwin two
important tributaries, the North and South Yams streams. The North Yama
contains a little water throughout its length in the hottest months of the year;
the South Yama is dry during the hot months, except below its junction with
the Taya stream, which is spring-fed and perennial and supplies a trickle of
water. The country between the Yamas is divided from north to south by the
Pagyi hills on the west and the high ground north and south of Salingyi on the
east. West of the Pagyi hills lie the tangled valleys and hills which the people
call the Ku-hnit-ywa and Shit-ywa gyaungs or glens, the latter lying to the
north. East of the Salingyi uplands the country slopes, gradually except in the
south, to the Chindwin, and to the north-west the high land rises to
Powindaung, a hog-backed hill which forms a conspicuous natural feature. In
the north-eastern corner rise several isolated hills of some height, Letpadaung
1,053 feet, opposite Mônywa, being the most prominent. The watershed of the
South Yams, except in the east near its mouth, is a hardly noticeable ridge, in
few places more than a mile north of the stream, and the North Yama takes all
the drainage of the Pagyi slope. From the north the North Yams receives the
drainage of sandy, high-lying, infertile country, but none of the streams flows
except after heavy rain. From the north-west comes in the Tinzôn, which
drains the southern slopes of the Mahudaung, an outlying spur of the Chin
Hills system, east of and parallel to the Pôndaung.
The Salingyi uplands are prolonged across the North Yama, north of which
there is no extensive level plain, the highest point being Wazein, 1,177 feet, in
the south-east of the Kani township. Above Wazein a volcanic ridge pushes
north-east to the Chindwin at Shwezaye, and in this ridge
Lower Chindwin District. 3
occur several explosion craters, the best known being at Twin village. The
ridge continues east of the Chindwin, and on that side are two similar craters.
Where the Chindwin has forced a way through this ridge, its waters are
confined within forbidding cliffs at the Shwezaye defile. Fifteen miles above
the defile the Chindwin, at Kani, receives from the west the Yews, a non-
perennial stream which drains the middle slopes of the Mahudaung. North of
Kani the country is a tangle of hills and valleys, the ranges having a general
north and south trend and the hill streams flowing north. The hills reach close
up to the Chindwin, and cultivation is all but confined to the narrow fringe of
low land between them and the bank. Apart from this fringe, the cultivation
north of Kani is found in the valleys of the Thingadôn and Patolôn streams.
The first named drains the northern slopes of the Mahudaung and meets the
Chindwin just south of Kin on the northern boundary of the district. The
second rises in the forest reserves between the Pôndaung and Mahudaung
ranges, near the Alaungdaw Katthapa, a venerated Buddhist shrine, and flows
due north, entering the Chindwin below Mingin in the Upper Chindwin
District. The cultivated area along this stream is the Sèywa glen, about fifty
miles west of Kani, isolated and without means of approach by cart.
East of the Chindwin.
East of the Chindwin the country may be regarded as falling into two
portions: the southern contains the area between the Mu and Chindwin rivers.
The uplands exhibit the same north and south trend as is noticed west of the
Chindwin. On the east the valley of the Mu rises gently to an infertile, often
rocky, upland of red soil. The western limit of this upland is the steep ridge
which culminates in Kyaukka hill, 1,245 feet in height, ten miles east of
Mônywa, and which contains further north other conspicuous hills at
Taungtalôn and Okpo. On the Chindwin side the main drainage stream is the
Tha-te, for the greater part of the year a dry stream bed, on each side of which
occur areas of black cotton soil. The northern portion consists of high-lying,
gravelly red soil, rising north-east to the sandy Hnaw forest of Shwebo in a
gradual slope which is interrupted east of Kanè by the isolated hills of
Natyedaung. The drainage lines run south-west, and the only considerable
stream is the Inbanng, a non-perennial stream which meets the Chindwin a
few, miles north of Kanè.
The Chindwin.
The Chindwin enters the district from the north at Kin, and flows south-
east. Until it reaches Mônywa its valley
is narrow, and at Shwezaye, about half-way down, becomes a defile, and its
course cannot be materially affected by the process of silting. Below Mônywa,
where the valley widens and slopes down on the east, the bed has silted up, and
the river annually overflows the adjoining country. The chief outlet is the
Ywathit, a natural, unregulated, inundation canal. In the rains the Chindwin has
a strong current and varies much in breadth; at Mônywa the flood channel
approaches a mile in width. It is navigable for steamers of some size
throughout the year.
The Mu.
The Mu, a tributary of the Irrawaddy, rises in Mansi in Katha district, runs
in a southerly direction, keeping a general course parallel to the Chindwin, and
flows into the Irrawaddy near Myinmu in Sagaing district. It forms for some
twenty miles the boundary between the Lower Chindwin and Shwebo districts.
The course of the Mu is remarkably sinuous, and the stream has in places out
across the chord of the arc formed by its old course, leaving a dry stream-bed
available for cultivation. The Mu has no perennial tributary within the Lower
Chindwin district, but in the rains numerous torrents drain the high-lying
country between the Mu and Chindwin, flowing for a few hours at a time. The
chief are the Pèwet on the north and the Wetkè on the south.
The Alaungdaw gorge.
The most interesting natural feature in the forests of the west is the
Alaungdaw gorge, in which is the Alaungdaw Katihapa shrine. The Paya
stream, a tributary of the Patolôn, has cut through the limestone rock and
formed a deep gorge with cliffs on either side. Just above the site of the
reclining figure of the Buddha, the stream goes underground for a short
distance and emerges later in a narrow, deep channel.
Lakes.
There are no lakes, properly speaking, in the district, but along the
Chindwin there are depressions behind the river bank which fill with water in
the rainy season, when the river is in flood, and contain more or less water for
the rest of the year after the river has subsided. The most noteworthy of these
flooded depressions are in the north of the district, at Kin, Yiu, Bônmazin, a
little to the south, and Kanè: and there are others at Shabye, north of Alôn, at
Letpadaung, opposite Mônywa, and at Thitsein, near Nyaungbyubin.
Diversity of the district.
The district presents extreme diversity of feature, of which a few instances

may be noticed. The recorded rainfall in the west is over fifty inches, that at
Mônywa is twenty-seven inches. Altitudes vary from 222 feet to more than
4,000 feet above sea level. The cultivated soils range from black soil, largely
independent of rainfall, to arid gravel-strewn hillsides, and from fertile silt to
all but mere sand. Among the standard crops in different regions are the early
variety of sesamum, the late variety, white millet, red millet, cotton, beans,
maize and several kinds of rice. The same species of cultivation, for instance
embanked rice land, exhibits extreme variation of soil. In the north-east of the
district, near Kudaw, the rice soil is a thirsty red; south of Mônywa it is silt; in
portions of the south-west of the district it is a black clay. The district utilizes
almost all the ordinary forms of village irrigation. Natural springs are also
used, and there is one variety of irrigation which appears not to be found
elsewhere, i.e., the tapping of the subsoil water by means of bamboo pipes. In
one part along the South Yams, there is a considerable number of impermanent
irrigation wells. A rice crop is being harvested somewhere in the district in
every month of the year except two.
Area
The area given in the Census Reports is 3,480 square miles. The areas
ascertained in the year of Regular Settlement were as follows :--
Sq. miles.
Cadastrally surveyed, 1,657,422 acres or 2,589'00

Unsurveyed land, outside cadastral survey boundaries
but not falling within a reserved forest 203'98
Reserved forest 741'00
The total area, 3,533'98 square miles, does not agree with the census figure,
the authority for which is not known. In area the district is smaller than many
of the districts of Upper Burma, but few have a greater extent of cultivation or
a more numerous population.
Surveys.
Triangulation.--Two series of the Great Trigonome-trical Survey of India

traverse the Lower Chindwin district, vis., the Manipur Minor Meridional
Series, connecting the Manipur Longitudinal Series with the Burma Coast
Series, and the Mandalay Minor Longitudinal Series, connecting the Manipur
Minor Meridional Series with the Mandalay Meridional Series. The former
series was observed by No. 24 Party of the Survey of India between , 899 and
1902 and the latter series by the same party in 1899-1900.
Geographical and Topographical Surveys.--A Geographical Survey, on the

scale of 1 inch = 4 miles, of the area now included in the Lower Chindwin
district was made by Nos. 11 and 21 Parties of the Survey of India between
1887 and 1891, The 1 inch Topographical Survey of the district was carried
out between 1903 and 1909 by Nos. 3 and 10 Parties; an area of some 800
square miles in the north-west of the district still, however, remains
unsurveyed.
Forest Surveys.--Practically all the reserved forests in the district were
surveyed on the scale of 4 inches=1 mile by No. 20 Party between 1902 and
1906.
Cadastral Surveys.--The Cadastral Survey of the Lower Chindwin district
was commenced in 1896 by No. 3 Party, Surveyor India, and was finally
completed in 1907 by No. 7 Party. The work was based on traverse surveys,
and extended over an area of 2,610 square miles comprising 1,606 kwins or
survey-blocks, and 1,074,343 fields. The scale of survey was 16 inches = 1
mile.
Geology.
Little is known of the detailed geology of the district. The rocks are
entirely of tertiary age. In the extreme west nummulitic limestones and shales
are exposed. These are followed to the east by miocene clays and sandstones,
and these again by the soft sandstones which cover the greater part of the
district and belong to the pliocene period. On the Pôndaung ridge the principal
rocks are limestone and sandstone. Granitic rocks and quartzes occur in places.
On the Mahudaung, sandstone is the prevailing rock, but calcareous strata and
ferruginous or gravelly conglomerates are plentifully distributed. At the foot of
the main ridges laterite and than kyauk (iron stone), a kind of hard, black rock,
possibly a tuff, are common. Large pieces of the so called ingyin kyauk, or
fossilized wood, formed out of petrified ingyin (pentacme siamensis) are met
with all over the drier areas, especially along the foot of the Mahudaung. The
soils in the hills where laterite does not prevail are usually sandy, with
interspersed tracts of sandy loams, sometimes approaching clay in appearance.
Petroliferous areas.
In the north of the district, on the eastern slopes of the Mahudaung, occur
several small escapes of crude petroleum, usually in the beds of or close to
streams, which are known as yenan chaung (stinking-water streams). Near
Yèwaing, where there is a Forest Department fire protection camp, just below
the crest of the Mahudaung, is a midwin or fire hole, which sometimes glows
spontaneously in the intense heat of the hot weather. There is no sign of coal,
and the incandescence is probably caused by the escape of subterra-nean gases
generated by oil. Petroleum occurs in other parts of the western hills, vide
Chapter V.
Black soil areas.
There are extensive stretches of 'black cotton' soil. Of these the most
important is the nearly level plain between the Salingyi uplands on the east and
the Pagyi hills on the west, between the Yamas. Another important area of
black soil lies east of the Chindwin and extends from Nyaunggan in the north
to below Mônywa in the south. As with the western tract, the favourite
cultivated grain in this tract is millet. Pockets of black soil are found in other
parts of the district, but, north of the North Yama on the west and of
Nyaunggan on the east, their occurrence is infrequent.
The red soils.
But the bulk of the soil consists of red sands and gravels, sometimes
interspersed with ferruginous conglomerate, and to this kind of soil are to be
assigned all the hilly country east of Kyaukka, most of the country in the
neighbourhood of the Chindwin on either bank, and most of the hilly forest
land in the west and north of the district.
Volcanic rocks.
Opposite Mônywa there is a group of hills formed of petrosiliceous

volcanic rocks and other isolated hills, in one of which are the remains of a
copper mine which was worked in Burmese times. The output of copper was
probably not considerable, as the only traces now to be found consist of a few
stains of green carbonate. The presence of volcanic rocks is, however, stated to
be interesting as forming a further link in the volcanic chain running north
through Narkondam and the extinct volcano of Pôppa, which is a continuation
to the north of the great Eastern line of volcanic outbursts running through the
Eastern Archipelago.
Explosion craters.
A ridge of volcanic rock, forming at its midway point the Shwezaye defile,
runs from south-west to north-east, from Lèshe, east of Wazein hill, north of
Yinmabin, to Nyaunggan, west of Budalin. In this ridge occur the broken peaks
of some extinct volcanoes and, besides, eleven explosion craters. These
remarkable geological phenomena have been examined by Mr. R. D. Oldham,
vide Bibliography.
The compound crater at Lèshe, in the south-west of the tine of craters, is

one and a half miles long and has a width of three-fourths of a mile, and is
surrounded by a precipitous scarp. The central and deepest basin is 150 feet
below the level of the scarp and contains a lake of brackish water. The craters
are believed to be due to single eruptions of great violence but short duration.
Besides the Lèshe crater, there are large craters at Twin and Taungbyauk, west
of the Chindwin, and at Twin, east of the Chindwin. At Twin West, the old
volcanic cone and part of the original crater can be traced. At Twin East, there
are remains, of the old volcanic cone, and the crater pit is 300 to 350 feet
below the level of the scarp. The craters are distributed, as follows :--
2 near ôkaing. 1 at Twin, east of the Chindwin.

3 at Taungbyauk.
1 at Twin, west of the Chindwin.
3 at Lèshe.
1 more to the west of these, probably a crater.
Total ... 11
There are no signs of difference of age, and their formation seems to have
been subsequent to the cessation of volcanic activity of the normal type The
action by which they were produced appears to have been of the nature of a
violent explosion of steam or vapour, unaccompanied by the great heat which
is the accompaniment of volcanic activity of the normal type.
Artesian wells.
In the neighbourhood of Powindaung hill the soil is marshy, and the

subsoil water is drawn off for the purpose of rice cultivation by means of
hollow bamboos. Most of the springs appear to be artesian, of the nature of the
spring wells in the Gangetic alluvium, but the water in some of them rises
appreciably warm, and as Powindaung lies in the line of the explosion craters
and extinct volcanoes it is possible that igneous action may account for, at any
rate, some of them. The springs do not appear to have been reported on
scientifically up to the present. Natural springs also occur, the most noticeable
being about a mile west of Lèngauk. In this neighbourhood and at Zidaw on
the North Yama and Taya, near the South Yama, are quaking bogs, nagabwet
or nagachit.
Saline efflorescence.
Saline efflorescence occurs, but not on an extensive scale. Near Yèdwet, in

the north-east of the district, there is a marsh which gives to a stream known as
the Yengan, or salt stream, a perennial supply of brackish water. The
efflorescence also occurs along the course of the Taya and other streams in the
angle of country between the Chindwin and the South Yama. In the artesian
area round Powindaung the outcrop appears, but not on a large scale, and this
is no doubt due to the fact that a good deal of the subsoil water is drawn off
through the pipes, whilst the holes dug to receive the pipes facilitate drainage
to the lower levels, and capillary action and evaporation are thus minimized.
Saline impregnation also occurs around the lakes formed in some of the
explosion craters, and is no doubt due to washing down of the salts from the
soils forming the inner face of the scarp.
Rainfall and climate.
The rainfall varies inversely with distance from the hills on the north and
west. The average rainfall at Mônywa ( 1895 to 1909) was 26'86 inches.
The average rainfall at other recording stations is shown in Chapter VIII,

and the figures reflect the fact that the district is partly wet-zone. The rainfall
variation from year to year is, however, great, and the showers are local, a
widespread downpour being the exception. The minimum recorded
temperature at Mônywa has been 47 degrees (1905) and the maximum 112
degrees (1908 and 1909). In the dry-zone regions, although the heat in April
and May is excessive, the climate is healthy at all times of the year. Under the
hills in the west and north malaria prevails in the rains, and the valleys are
feverish until the cold weather sets in, when for the four months from
November to February they enjoy a bracing climate. The climate of the dry
portions of the district is stated to be suitable for persons suffering from
complaints of the chest. The prevailing winds are from south-west to north-east
from the middle of May to the middle of October the monsoon period and in
the opposite direction for the remainder of the year.
There was a hailstorm in November 1896 which ruined the crops in several
riverine villages near Le-mye on the Chindwin, and was so violent as to throw
down trees and houses. The occurrence of hailstorms is, however, most usual
in the northern half of the district, where they not infrequently occur in March
and April.
[The following notes on the wild fauna of the district. Indigenous beliefs in
regard to animals. etc., have been supplied by Mr. J. P. Connor, Superintendent
of Land Records, Lower Chindwin District :--]
Fauna: quadrupeds.
All the varieties of wild game found in Upper Burma, except the
rhinoceros, occur in the Lower Chindwin district. The localities in which they
are found vary according to the vegetation appropriate to each species, ranging
from the scrubby thorn jungles of the dry zone to the bamboo-covered and
heavily afforested hills of the northern and western humid zone.
In the former, thamin (brow-antlered deer, panolia Eldi) and hare abound,
and barking-deer, pig and leopards are occasionally found. Thamin cast their
horns during the rainy season, and, when the new ones appear, avoid the
society of the does, which spitefully take advantage of their defenceless
condition to bite the tender growth. They avoid dense jungle as the shape of
their horns renders them likely to be caught by creepers, especially in parts
where the runs are not familiar to them, and also because they are best able to
outdistance their natural enemies in open country, being the fleetest of deer.
The hare not only eludes its pursuer by its speed, but also by running along a
carefully prepared track, which has apertures bitten through the tangled shrub
at the side, through which its pursuer cannot follow with equal facility. When a
hare first breaks it runs in a leisurely manner, as if about to stop, but when it
turns a corner it doubles its speed, and does not check till it has covered a good
distance. When a hare is captured, a Burman will pull off the tip of the tail for
luck. The hare has its form under a low tuft of grass or bush, where it makes a
smooth bed by beating the ground with its rump.
In the humid regions, which include the hills, bison (Gavæus gaurus), saing
(wild bull, bos sondaicus), sambhur (rusa Aristotelis), tigers, bears and the
goat-antelope are met with. The suing is one of the wariest animals that can be
hunted. Burmans say that "it teaches the hunter." It is said to be so expert with
its horns as to be able to pick a plum off the ground, transfixed on one of the
points. It is also said to be unsafe to take refuge from an enraged saing in a
bamboo clump, however thick, as the beast will overturn it or break it down. A
man pursued by a bison is believed to be safe if he lies down fiat on the
ground, as the beast cannot reach him there, owing to its short thick neck, and
generally rushes past, avoiding the prostrate form.
Elephants, leopards, pig and barking-deer occur in both the humid and dry
zones.
The tusks or canine-teeth of the barking-deer (cervulus-aureus) are

considered to be poisonous. When agitated, this deer is said to emit a sound
like the chattering of teeth in ague, which can only be heard at close quarters. It
is a nervous, watchful creature and, when frightened, utters the bark from
which it takes its name. When a deer is pursued by wild dogs it makes for the
nearest stream, presumably with the object of throwing them off the scent. It
can make a good fight when pressed, and has been known to attack-human
beings in the last resort, as for instance when caught by accident in a hare net.
In the rains pig rear their young in comfortable nests (wet thaik)built of
grass. The tops of these are sloped like a thatched roof in order to keep out the
rain.
Elephants are considered to be the most sagacious of animals. A herd is

protected by sentinels, kin, which take
up favourable positions and warn the herd on the approach of danger. A

wounded elephant, unable to keep up with the herd, is said to be helped away
by its companions, which prop it up on either side, and, if a steep place is
encountered, one also pushes from behind.
Leopards usually play havoc in a jungle for a short time, and then
disappear. This is accounted for by the belief that they live for one month on
water, one month on earth, one month on air, and one month on flesh. When a
leopard scratches the earth to sharpen its claws the phrase used is ganantwet,
it" is calculating," that is to say, it is working out a sum to ascertain where it
will meet with its prey. At night, when a leopard scares fowls off their perch in
the trees, it is believed to blow them off. Its bite is reputed to be poisonous.
The power of the leopard to lead away a large and heavy victim before killing
it is referred to as "calling away" (hkaw thwa thi). This, no doubt, is effected
by the grip on the throat, whereby the head is twisted round and the strain on
the animal's neck causes it to plunge madly forward, unable to resist and
ignorant where it is being led, until a secluded spot is reached, where it is
killed and devoured.
At all seasons the localities where game may be found depend on the
prevailing food-supplies--thus, elephants usually remain in the northern forests
till the winter harvest approaches, when they come down into the dry zone to
share in the harvesting. Occasionally they descend at an earlier date, when the
fruit of the toddy-palm is ripe. This they consume, and the seed passes through
the alimentary canal intact and may be found after a few days germinating on
the ground. Powerful tuskers destroy palm trees by butting and overturning
them. They- do this in order to obtain the sweet pith at the crown of the tree,
known as htano, and containing the sap. To get at the core, the elephant splits
the trunk by treading on it and hammering it with its fore-legs.
In the same way herbivorous animals confine themselves to the hills during
the rains, when their favourite food, the bamboo shoot or myit, is available.
From October to June they feed at the foot-hills, where grasses and shrubs are
more plentiful than on the high hills, which are then becoming arid. They are
particularly to be found in these grassy regions in the early rains, when the
tender shoots of grass begin to sprout.
Big game has undoubtedly increased since annexation; because of the

general withdrawal of fire-arms; but the
lesser kinds, except the brow-antlered deer, are held in check by netting,
hunting with dogs, and trapping. There has been a marked decrease of wild pig
in recent years, owing, it is said, to epidemics of rinderpest, contracted when
disease has prevailed among domestic cattle. Brow-antlered deer have
increased, but the proportion of does is steadily outgrowing that of stags, since
the latter are easily shot down from carts with the accurate modern rifle of long
range, with the result that mature stags are insufficient in point of numbers, and
herds are seen with immature stags or none at all. In Burmese times the native
hunter did not discriminate between the sexes, but shot what offered the best
target (just as he does now when he has the opportunity), and the does, being
more numerous and confiding, suffered most, but the proportion of males to
females was not disturbed. This variety of deer does great damage to the
sesamum and bean crops: particularly the does, since they are bolder than the
stags owing to the protection they receive. The stags, seeming to be aware that
their horns attract attention, keep out of the way of man. It is stated that it
would save the cultivator's crops and improve the breed of deer if a certain
number of useless does were removed.
Reptiles and lizards.
The reptiles include many kinds of snakes, some of which, such as the
linmwe, the common rat-snake,-are occasionally eaten. The flesh is said to
taste very much like fish. The poisonous snakes include the Russel's viper
(mywe-bwe), cobras (mwe-hauk) and several kinds of hamadryad--ngandan,
the banded hamadryad; nganthan-gwin-zut, the chain-pattern hamadryad;
nganbôk, the dusky hamadryad: nganwa, the yellow hamadryad--and others.
These are found chiefly in the hills. The Russel's viper is, as its name implies,
viviparous,-and Burmans believe that the young, when mature, eat their way
out of the mother's body and so cause her death. In hot weather this snake
frequents sandy places, and is especially fond of lying in the deep dust of
roads, and is a source of danger to passers-by. Hamadryads are dreaded, as
they are aggressive, the popular idea being that if one is destroyed its mate will
sooner or later come to avenge itself on the aggressor. There are many other
kinds of snake, poisonous and non-poisonous. Some of the non-poisonous and
fangless snakes, such as the common rat-Snake, are classed by Burmans as
poisonous; and the poison is said to be of a very deadly nature, the popular
belief being that, when a thin-skinned animal is bitten, the poison, not being
deep-seated, is washed
out by the rush of blood, but, when a thick-skinned animal like a buffalo is
bitten, the result is fatal as there is no bleeding likely to wash out the venom.
The poison of this snake is even said to be more deadly than that of the cobra,
but it is nevertheless considered useful to have one about the house, in order to
keep the latter reptile away. How little truth there is in this statement may be
gauged by the fact that a cobra has been killed * which contained a large rat-
snake which latter had previously swallowed a trout-spotted lizard. The
sabagyi, or boa-constrictor, is a handsome snake and grows to a large size. It
feeds on animals up to the size of the barking-deer, but is not known to have
injured or attacked human beings. It is believed to secure its prey through
fascinating its victim by displaying its navel. This belief no doubt reflects the
fact that the snake is rampant and ready to strike when its unwary prey walks
within its reach. In the hot weather, when the jungles are burnt, this snake takes
to pools, where it lies submerged and secures its prey when it comes to drink.
In talking of poisonous snakes: Burmans, from superstitious motives, refer to
them as po, worms. Snakes are reported to make a chirping or whistling noise,
one of these calls resembling the chirping of a carpenter beetle. There is a cliff
on the Chindwin river, to the south of Yin village, known as Mwe-paing Taung
(Severed Snake hill). The fable runs that a mythical snake was cut in two, the
head falling down- and the tail up-stream, which accounts for the fact that
poisonous snakes are common below this point, but even when found above
are comparatively innocuous. The same legend accounts for the belief that
Kani has no snakes, while Kanè on the opposite bank is infested.
The lizards include the rankle, or trout-spotted lizard, three varieties of

iguana, hputmwe, hput-hnyin and hput-gya, and the hpadat. The black variety
of trout-spotted lizard (Gecko guttatus) is believed to be exceedingly
poisonous, and mysterious deaths are attributed to it if no signs or traces of a
snake can be found. It is essentially a climbing lizard and, if one is caught and
liberated on an open piece of ground, it will invariably run up the legs of the
liberator, as the nearest object up which it can scramble to imagined safety. It
is said to be overcome by the odour of new onions, and can be stupefied and
captured by the application to its nose of an onion fixed on the
* By the contributor of these notes.--J.P.H.

14 Lower Chindwin District
end of a stick. At first the lizard retreats and lashes its tail, but gradually offers
less resistance, and finally- runs about aimlessly. The hputmwe is believed to
cause great poverty in any house into which it may climb. It is edible, and its
eggs also are considered a delicacy. They are deposited in the nest of the white
ant, or termite, during the rains. The lizard scratches a hole and enters the ant-
hill, and deposits twelve to fifteen eggs in the midst of the ant larvæ; these
serve the young lizard, when hatched, for food, and the mound at the same
time affords the young ones ample protection till they are strong enough to
force their way into the outer world. After laying its eggs, the lizard leaves the
mound, carefully plastering up the hole of exit and entrance. This appears to be
done when the earth has been moistened by rain, as claw marks can be seen on
the surface and serve to identify the ant-hills in which eggs have been laid.
Burmans are expert at detecting such an ant-hill. The hpadat (Liolepis guttatus)
is another edible lizard. It lives in holes in the ground, and has to be dug out to
be captured. The tail is particularly fleshy, and is the portion favoured by the
Burmese gourmet. The lizard is met during the day feeding on insects, which it
secures by darting out a snake-like tongue, to which its prey adheres. When
disturbed it raises its body off the ground and runs rapidly to the shelter of its
hole. At the beginning of the rains these lizards are hunted with dogs, since the
holes are water-logged and it is easy to dig them out Occasionally dogs are
seen digging them out for their own benefit. Two kinds of tortoise are found.
They are eaten, and the shells are used for ladling or measuring out oil. Turtle
are found in fields and tanks. They and their eggs are usually discovered by
following their tracks; but in some cases dogs are used to track them by scent.
Game birds.
Amongst game birds, jungle-fowl (Gallus ferrugineus), partridge (the

Chinese francolin) and two or three varieties of quail are found in the plains. In
the hot weather, when jungle-fowl frequent waterless places, Burmans believe
that they suffer no inconvenience from thirst, as the smooth round pebbles
found in their crops turn into water. It is at any rate remarkable that jungle-
fowl that are unable to obtain water during the hot season are hardier and more
tenacious than those found near it; the latter after a flight or two on a hot day
become exhausted, and may be run down by men or dogs. The migratory birds
include two varieties of geese (the bar-headed goose and the grey-leg
goose), two varieties of snipe (fantail and pintail), golden plover, and several
varieties of duck and teal, which arrive in December and leave again in March.
These birds are supposed to retire to the Himawanta Forest, the Himalayas, in
order to observe the Buddhist Lent, and jungle-fowl too are said to observe
Lent during the rains, when they moult, since during that season the cock is
seldom heard to crow. Besides game birds, certain hawks and other birds are
seen to migrate in large numbers, and are considered by the people to be of a
superior nature to those that do not. The perching goose, whistling teal, cotton
teal and spotted-bill duck do not migrate, but breed during the rains in tanks
and swamps. The perching goose builds its nest in hollow trees. The game
birds in the humid forest regions comprise the pea-fowl. two kinds of pheasant-
argus (daung-min) and kalig (yit)-imperial pigeon (hnget nga nwa.) and green
pigeon (ngu), as well as jungle-fowl and partridge.
Predatory birds.
The fish eagle, known as hnget ta-nga, the fisherman -bird, is the largest of
the predatory birds. It frequents backwaters and lagoons, and makes its nest on
a large tree near the water's edge. It seizes fishy, and occasionally birds and
small animals, darting on them from above whilst on the wing.
The next in size is the linyon, a forest eagle which is very common. This
bird preys on jungle-fowl and hare, and other small animals and birds. Its
method of hunting is to sit silently on a stump or branch until its prey emerges.
well into the open, when it is pounced upon. This bird might be useful in
countries where the rabbit is a scourge, as it confines itself to forests and is not
large enough to carry away lambs and kids. The thein is a large falcon,. swift
on the wing, which preys on small animals and on birds up to the size of a hen.
It does not shun human. abodes like the linyon, and is destructive to poultry.
There is also a smaller falcon which is found in the dry tracts. It feeds
chiefly on snakes and, as it destroys large numbers of these pests without
harming poultry, it should be protected. A nest was found containing two
young ones, with a snake hung across the branch, and the young ones were fed
from the snake from time to time. This precaution of keeping a supply of food
for the young ones would indicate that the bird is not able to count on a regular
supply, and the comparison of the European shrike may be noted. In dealing
with a large snake this bird has been seen parrying the darts of the snake with
its wings, and at the same time striking the snake with them, until it has
secured a hold on the neck or head. When the snake is a large one, the body
and wings of the falcon are sometimes implicated in the coils of its victim, and
it is temporarily unable to fly. A smaller variety again is the gyothein, the dove
hawk or sparrow hawk, which preys on small birds. Its tactic is to get a plover
or pewit out in the open and pursue it until it is exhausted. The victim flies in a
zigzag course screaming with fear, endeavouring to avoid the swift darts of its
pursuer, but is overtaken unless it can reach the cover of bushes where it can
hide and run away, the hawk being unable to follow owing to its clumsy talons.
This hawk has been seen to single out a crow from a flock flying across a river
to roost, and, alter one or two manæuvres, strike it with an impact that rendered
its prey powerless, and victor and vanquished fell on to a sandbank in mid-
stream. No doubt the falcon had chosen its ground with this object in view.
There is also a pied hawk which ranges over grass lands and fields and picks
up rats and insects. Amongst owls, the largest is a forest owl, hngetso-gyi (bird
of ill omen), a term which is, however, applied to all owls and night jars, since
they are said to cause death by the circumstances under which and the number
of times they call. The next in size is the didôk, or horned owl. Others are the
zigwet, or screech owl, and the myinwun owl. The jay, hngetkha, and crow-
pheasant, bôk, also feed on insects, lizards and snakes, while the latter also
attacks small animals such as young hare.
Hunting: indigenous methods.
There are no special rules regulating the hunting of wild animals in the
district. and those in force for the Province generally apply. There are no
professional hunters, and the wholesale vend of flesh and feathers is unknown.
No attempt is made to capture elephants. Animals are taken in nets of various
kinds according to their size, and birds and small animals are occasionally shot
with a cross-bow, du-le. As the range is limited, the hunter lies concealed in an
ambush made of leaves and branches (ôn). Nets for the capture of pig and
small animals are made of half-inch mesh in a convex shape and are about two
yards in width. Several of these are fixed up at the end of converging hedges
and the jungle is beaten towards them. A hunter sits concealed a short distance
in front of each net, and when an animal has passed him he jumps up and
shouts, and the noise causes the game to dash blindly into the net, in which it is
enveloped, rolling over and over in its struggles. The hunters, who are armed
with pitch-forks (hmein) or spears, then rush up and despatch the quarry.
For the capture of brow-antlered deer, an undertaking not often attempted,

long and high nets are used. The netting of hare is common, and is either done
by driving the hare towards the net, or by waiting for it to descend to its
feeding ground at nightfall. In either case low hedges are made, in order to
guide the animal towards the net, and it follows these without attempting to
jump them. The net used for night-snaring resembles a tennis net. The lower
edge is pegged out taut and the upper edge is pursed over-and propped with
slips of bamboo. As the animal's scent and hearing are keen, the hunter takes
up a carefully-screened position near by. In advance of the net a thin line is
fixed, and to this is attached a bell still further in advance. When the hare
leisurely approaches the net it touches the invisible line, which causes the bell
to ring behind it, and it rushes forward into the net. The impetus of its rush
displaces the bamboo props, and the top edge of the net falls over, enveloping
the hare. Sometimes the hunter supplements the effect of the bell by throwing a
stone after the hare. Hare are also hunted with a dark lantern (mi-ôk saung) by
means of which large numbers can be destroyed in a single night. They are also
noosed at favourable apertures in hedges. By blowing a doubled leaf, hpet
hmôk, to imitate the call of a young barking-deer, deer and other animals may
be decoyed to close quarters, when the hunter, who is in hiding, shoots at them
with a cross-bow or gun. In villages where nets are found, barking-deer and pig
are naturally scarce.
Snake-charming, as understood in India, is not practised in the district, but

it is believed that certain devices can be tattooed on the skin, so as to confer
immunity from the effects of snake bite, when the person tattooed can handle
deadly serpents with impunity.
European methods.
The district offers moderate attractions to sportsmen. For brow-antlered

deer, the season commences in February and closes in May, before which
month the horns are not clear of velvet. For bison and wild bull, the best time
is from June to September, when they are feeding on fresh grass, and, later on,
on bamboo shoots; but these animals can only be shot in the remote Pôndaung
hills in the west, where supplies and transport are difficult to obtain.
Game fish.
The sporting fish comprise the nga-gyin and nga-myin, Besides angling for
small fish, the Burmans have two methods of fishing known as nga-sin-daing-
htaung and nga.sin-yaik. In the former method, by which the nga-gyin is often
taken, a baited line is attached to a float of bamboo. The fisherman watches
from the bank until he sees the float disturbed, when he pursues it in his cance
and, after securing the end of the line, plays the fish. The latter is a nearer
approach to fly-fishing. A long line attached to a rod is used to whip the water.
Throughout its length the line is baited with hooks and tufts of cock's feathers.
This is swung round and pulled up the current; the nga-myin, which is a
voracious feeder, is the chief fish taken by this method. In lakes, fish are also
taken on lines baited with small live fish, which are hooked by the dorsal fin.
Trade.
There is no trade in fur, feathers or skins, but travelling agents go from

village to village and buy up the horns of brow-antlered and other deer. Most
of these are shed horns, whilst a few are the horns of animals killed by wild
dogs, the carnivora, etc. Few, if any, belong to animals that have been shot, as
the horns of these are kept as trophies.
Superstitions.
Some superstitions and fancies have been mentioned above. A few others
may be added. The tiger is looked upon with superstition, and is usually
supposed to be the embodiment of the local nat, or spirit of the forest. The tiger
does not interfere with humam beings unless they have in some way offended
the nat. The nat, for instance, objects to a cooking-pot being used instead of a
dipper for the purpose of taking up water from a stream. Wood for fuel must
not be partially dragged, but must be carried clear of the ground. Besides
roaring, the tiger has a shrill call resembling the bell of the sambhur. This call
is said to be used as a decoy. In the jungle, Burmans are reluctant to use the
word tiger and refer to the animal as hinmyo (curry), to express a contempt
which they are far from feeling. A band of wild dogs in chasing its quarry is
said to distribute itself on either flank, one or two only following on the line of
the scent in order to keep the animal on the move. These by their yapping
inform the flanking parties of their progress, and thereby enable them to take
short cuts and intercept the quarry, should it swerve to either side. Wild dogs
bite out the eyes of their victims at an early stage in order to render them
helpless. When bells are rung in a monastery and the dogs howl in chorus, their
sympathy is ascribed to the fact of their being near man's estate (lu bawa ni bi),
in accordance with the Buddhist theory of transmigration.
The pelican is popularly supposed to live on the froth which is seen

floating down large rivers. If this bird is required for food, it should be well
beaten before being eaten, to prevent it resolving into froth.
The pea-fowl is said to have four annas weight of gold in the feathers of its
tail. This represents the accumulated gold dust picked up by the bird in the
sands of hill streams.
The pewit sleeps on its back at night with its feet upwards, in order to keep
the sky from failing on it.
Monkeys come down from trees during the night to see whether the earth is
still in its place, or has slipped away. It is on these occasions that they fall an
easy prey to the leopard.
The hoopoe, taung bizu, is said to call out when asleep and so deceive the
wild cat, which fancies the bird is awake and does not waste labour in stalking
it. When awake, the hoopoe is silent but watchful, and the wild cat stalks him,
but in vain.
The life history of the loris, a species of sloth (myauk lè pwe), is hinted at
in. its name. It is originally a mole (pwe). As it burrows under the earth it finds
its way into the hollow of a bamboo, and continues to burrow till it comes out
at the top. It then becomes a monkey (myauk) to suit its new environment. This
creature may be beaten to death, but on a puff of wind passing over it, it is
restored to life. It can escape from a cage when a strong wind blows.
Butterflies originate from the leaves of certain trees; one of these produces
the swallow-tail butterfly. As a matter of fact, the caterpillar feeds on the leaf
and undergoes the usual transformation before emerging as a butterfly, but the
Burman is not aware of the transition, which he has never watched closely.
If a dove's nest is discovered, the bird is said to remove its eggs to a new
hiding place by placing them on the end of a twig, to which moist clay has
been applied in order to make them adhere. The bird flies away holding the
eggs, so balanced, in its beak.
A powerful charm used by hunters to attract the carnivora is to cut the tail
off a kill and stick it like a flower in one of the ears, which is slit for the
purpose, naban hto. The charm is so effectual that the animal is immediately
attracted and the hunter must lose no time in concealing himself.
The armadillo or ant-eater (thein ko gyat) is said to repeat the names of

persons that it has heard shouted in the jungle, and if the unwary owner of the
name responds he will inevitably die.
The carnivora are said to satisfy the cravings of hanger by eating a whitish
clay (chit) when their natural food is not available.
The thaliga or hill myna (eulabes Javanensis), which learns to speak in

captivity, is said to possess this power even in its wild state, and to bewilder
men who traverse dense jungles by making them think that they are being
addressed by human beings or nats.
CHAPTER II.
History and Archæology.
History.
Early history.
Few details of the early or even the more recent history of the district have
come to light. What is now the Lower Chindwin district was no doubt part of
the kingdom of Burma from early times, but no special mention of it appears in
the history given in the British Burma Gazetteer, although it must have been
many times traversed in the marches and counter-marches of early expeditions
between Burma and, Arakan.
There are some allusions to the district in the History of the Alaungpaya
Dynasty, written by Maung Tin, A.T.M.
At the beginning of Alaungpaya's reign, in 1752, Kyauk-ka, Thazi, Alôn

(Badôn), Amyin (in Sagaing), and Tabayin in Shwebo, joined Talaings who
had escaped from the Talaing garrisons in Upper Burma on Alaungpaya's
accession to power, and rose against that monarch. They entrenched
themselves at Tèdaw in Shwebo, but Alaungpaya despatched a flying column
in their rear, burnt Alôn, Ngapayin and Kinzan, both east of Kudaw, the
Burmese contingent deserted, and the Talaings in the garrison were easily
overcome. Some of the Talaings fled to Kyaukka, but were massacred by the
Burmans of that place. Alaungpaya left garrisons in the villages east of the
Chindwin, appointed headmen, and took oaths of allegiance.
There was another rising in the following year. Yazadirit, a Talaing who
had been living at Indaing, fearing arrest at the hands of the new garrisons,
went to Mingin, collected a following and proceeded down-stream as far as
Kani, burning the villages on either side of the Chindwin. He was joined by the
feoffee of Kinu, who had risen against Alaungpaya and been defeated by the
Nyaunggan garrison. The commander of that garrison received orders to
proceed against the two rebels, but did not encounter them, and they fled first
to Thitkauk (possibly the place of that name in the Sèywa), then to Kyaukka
(in the Yaw subdivision of Pakôkku) and finally to Taung-u.
The expedition of Alaungpaya to Manipur, undertaken in 1758, traversed

the Lower Chindwin district, and Thitsein
(near Nyaungbyubin), Mônywa, Wunbo-where he established a military base.-

Kani and Bônmazin, south of Kin, are mentioned as halting places.
Bandula, a native of Ngapayin village near Kudaw, in the north-east of the

district, was one of the principal leaders in the Burmese invasion of Arakan
which was the direct cause of the First Burmese War. He was killed at the
taking of Donabyu in April 1825. His son, Maung Gyi, received the same title
of Maha-Bandula, commanded the Burmese forces in the Second Burmese
War, and surrendered at Rathemyo in October 1852.
In 1837 Maung Taung Bo, Governor of Pagyi, "a .noto-rious robber"

(British Burma Gazetteer, Volume 1, page 351), is mentioned as being placed
in charge of Ava on the rebellion of Prince Tharrawaddy, and it has not passed
out of recollection that men from the Lower Chindwin joined the unsuccessful
rising of the Myingun Prince against King Mindôn in 1866.
Maung Po, a physician of King Mindôn, and a native of the district,

founded the anticlerical sect of the Mans in 1856. He taught that there was no
obligation to support the Buddhist Order. The sect was proscribed in Upper
Burma, and its founder was arrested and impaled.
Here and there in the later history given in the Gazetteer. of Upper Burma
occur military titles of officers of infantry corps recruited from the district. The
Kinwun Mingyi, Warden of the Marches, who took a prominent part in the
events of the reigns of Mindsn and Thibaw and whose death occurred recently,
was--it may be noted--a native of Mindaingbin in the south-west of the district.
Save for these few echoes of great events, its history is, at present, a blank. It is
a matter for surprise that a district which recruited the major portion of the
infantry forces of the late Burmese Kings should have left so small a mark in
the records. Practically all that can be said at present is that in the middle of the
sixteenth century it formed part of the kingdom of Ava, that it was involved in
the downfall of that kingdom before the Peguans about 1740, and shared in its
restoration under Aungzeya, known in history by the royal title of Alaungpaya.
No doubt troops from the district took part in the operations of the First
Burmese War, and in the operations of 1852, but the particular part they played
has not been discovered.
History after the annexation of 1885.
For a detailed description of the causes which led to the organized dacoity
of the years succeeding the last annexation of 1885, and of the conditions of
jungle warfare in
Upper Burma, a reference may be made to pages 147--155, Volume 1, Part 1,

Sir J.G. Scott's Gazetteer of Upper Burma. The Lower Chindwin district shared
to the full in the disturbances, a contributing cause being the fact that the
district was familiar with the use of arms, as it had in Burmese times supplied
the twelve regiments of the Outer and Inner Brigades. In the paragraphs which
follow, an attempt has been made to focus the chief seats of disorder and to
show how each came to be pacified. The source of information is the Gazetteer
of Upper Burma, from which extracts have been made, often verbatim.
(a) East of the Chindwin.
One of the most prominent dacoit leaders was Bo* Hla U, who maintained
himself persistently throughout 1886 in the tract of country which now forms
the southern border of Shwebo, the north-west of Sagaing, and the south-east
of the Lower Chindwin. The leaders on this side were mostly old-established
dacoits, and they instituted a very effective system of terrorism. The Chindwin
Military Police levy, over 500 strong, arrived at. Alan in July 1886, and was
distributed in posts in the Alôn subdivision, and was con-tinuously employed
in the pursuit of Hla U and his followers, Min O and Tha Pwe. The last-named
was killed in August, but the north-west of Sagaing district beyond the post of
Myinmu on the Irrawaddy, and the south-east of the Lower Chindwin,
remained practically in the hands of robber bands. Vigorous efforts were made
in 1887 to capture Hla U. Four columns operated in the triangle between the
Irrawaddy and the Chindwin. Several camps were surprised, and Hla U was
pursued for miles by mounted parties, but always escaped and always
reappeared. Eventually, in April 1887, he was. killed at Wadawma, near
Ayadaw, by one of his own followers, Bo Tôn Being. The occurrence, seemed
to promise the breaking up of the band, but his lieutenants, among whom the
chief were now Nyo O, Nyo Pu and Min O, remained, and after a slight
appearance of calm, and notwithstanding that numerous bodies of troops were
in continual pursuit of them, they steadily gathered strength, and the people
remained as little inclined as ever to put their trust in British authority.
Myinmu, where there was a military and police garrison, was twice attacked
and partly burnt, in April and May 1888. Full use was therefore made of the
Village Regulation. Villages which fed the gangs were removed or fined.
Relatives of dacoits furnishing supplies or information were also deported,
until the dacoits were surrendered or captured. The process was slow but
effectual. The dacoits had no rest in the forests and no refuge in the villages,
while clemency was freely extended to all except the most heinous offenders.
* Bo = military official, a leader.

Disarmament of the people and restoration of a limited number of guns only

accompanied these steps, and by the end of 1888 many leaders, including Nyo
O and Nyo Bu, had been killed, and many others, including Min O, captured,
and most of their followers had surrendered. By the end of the rains of 1889 all
the large gangs in the east of the district had been broken up.
(b) West of the Chindwin the southern portion.
The portions of the district which now form the Salingyi and Palè townships in
Burmese times constituted the Pagyi nè or Governorship, and an outlying
portion of the Amyin Governorship. Pagyi remained uncontrolled throughout
1886. Much of it was in the hands of a pretender calling himself the
Shwegyobyu Prince, who had formerly been a vaccinator in Lower Burma. At
the close of the year the Kani wun, or Governor, who had been continued in
office from Burmese times, was murdered by dacoits under Bo Po Tôk at
Myogyi, near Yinmabin. Punitive expeditions dispersed the gang which had
murdered him, and there was a skirmish near Kyadet on the South Yama, in
which Po Tôk is supposed to have been killed, but the country was far from
quiet, and in October 1887 a serious outbreak took place. The Shwegyobyu
Prince had held during 1886 a position at Kanlè, near the Pahkan (Pakôkku)
and Chindwin border. He remained here undisturbed for some time, and when
he was driven out corrupted certain honorary con-stables in Pagyi. Mr. W.T.
Morison, the Deputy Commis-sioner, was wounded in an attempt to capture
one of the renegades and a few days afterwards an attack was made on the
pretender at Chinbyit on the North Yama. There was a stubborn fight, in which
Major Kennedy, of the Hyderabad Contingent, and Captain Beville, the
Assistant Commis-sioner, were killed (vide Minor Articles, Chinbyit) and two
sepoys wounded. The dacoits, however, left forty dead, and several of their
leaders were killed. This effectually put an end to disturbances for nearly a
year, but the seeds of mischief remained. Towards the end of 1888 another
attempt to excite a rising took place, but the ring-leader, a pretender calling
himself the Naga Bo Prince, was arrested at Mônywa, tried, and executed.
Military Police were sent into the glens bordering on the Pakôkku district on
the west, and the disaffected persons moved across the hills into the Yaw
valley of that district, where their attempts to disturb the villages were the
cause of special operations in 1889. Some of the rebels had, however, been
driven back into the Lower Chindwin district, and these, under Bo Saga,
immediately began to give trouble. A Military Police post was therefore
established close under-the hills at Zeiktaung, and a special officer
successfully-brought the tract to order. Bo Saga was hunted down and killed by
a party working under the Township Officer of Western Pagyi, a nephew of the
Kinwun Mingyi, and his gang surrendered and gave up their arms. By the end
of 1889 fifty dacoit leaders had been killed or captured or had surrendered.
Only one notable leader--the Shwegyobyu Prince--remained out, and he had
been driven to take refuge in the unadministered hill country inhabited by the
Chins.
(c) West of the Chindwin the northern portion.
In Kani, the Burmese Governor had been continued in office, and had from
an early date kept order with the help of irregular levies, and the records
contain no account of disturbances in this part of the district.
(d) Along the Chindwin.
Along the Chindwin itself, pacification was an easy--matter. In February

1886 a Deputy Commissioner was established at Alôn. The country in the
immediate neighbourhood of the post was first settled, and in April a garrison
arrived, and was followed in July by the Chindwin Military Police levy.
Pacification continued along the river, where the villages at no time gave
trouble.
Serious disorder may therefore be said to have been con-fined to the south-
east and the south-west of the district,. and to have terminated by the close of
1889, when the district became, as it has remained, one of the most peace--able
in the Upper Province.
Archælogy.
The antiquities of the district have not been examined in detail, and no
reports exist.
In a note contributed by Mr. Taw Sein Ko (Census Report of 1901,

Volume XII, Burma, Part 1, Report, page 32) it is stated that the Chindwin
valley is full of ancient historic sites. Unfortunately, no record of these ancient
sites has come to light. There are remains of an old walled city (Kan) on the
North Yama, but no history is extant. Taya, near the South Yama, was once a
myo, or walled town, and the remains of the wall exist. The remains of other
walled towns can be traced at Kani and Sinshin.
The chief village in nearly all the old Burmese circles of villages .preserves
a copy of the Register of 1145 B.E. or of that of 1164 B.E. (A.D. 1783 and
1802), called for by King Bodawpaya from every jurisdiction in the Burmese
Empire. As an example, the Register, sittan, of 1145 B.E. of Taya village may
be given. After reciting the boundaries of the Taya village-lands, it continues :-
The Register of Taya.
"From rice land bestowed as a gift on the Church, the Church dues are one-
tenth of the outturn, and there are, in addition, the writer's fee, the grain-
dealer's fee and the village headman's fee, one basket of unhusked rice to each.
On lands cultivated with dry crops, the Church dues amount to twice the
amount of the seed sown, and there are similar additional dues. The State
revenue is collected from Royal lands at the same rates, and there is a customs
duty, on all food-grains sold, one-hundredth part of the value. The mortgage
money payable for a slave is one viss* of silver: · the purchase-money is three
times that amount. For every ox and buffalo sold the customs due is one-eighth
and one-fourth of the value respectively. Raw cotton pays one viss for every
cart-load sold, and earthenware is mulcted in the fine of one pot for every cart-
load. For every basket of pickled tea sold, the headman claims half a viss of the
leaves as his due. One-twenty-fifth of the value is the duty leviable on all other
sales, and half the receipts go to the captain of the militia regiment which
recruits from Taya village. When a head of cattle dies, the headman's share is
one rump and one rib. In litigation over cattle, half the court-fee goes to the
headman and half to the captain of the regiment. Within the jurisdiction are the
villages of Nyodôn, Mwedôn, Tanè, Hlawga, Inmati and Ngayaukthin, and all
criminal cases from all these villages are friable by the Taya head-man, to
whom are payable fees for his presence at the taking of the oath, or at trial by
the ordeal of eating rice, or of immersion in water."
There are some widely celebrated and many locally celebrated places of
religious interest. To the first category belong :--
Places of religious interest; the Alaungdaw Kathapa.
(1) The Alaungdaw Katthapa, situated near the water-shed between the
Patolôn and North Yama streams, in the western forests, vide Chapter
1. Pilgrims from all parts of Burma visit it, usually in February and
March. The follow-ing account of its history is given :-
Maha Katthapa, the Buddhist monk who conducted the first synod held
after the Buddha's death, with the co-operation of Azatathat, King of
* 3'65 Pounds
Yazago (Patna in India) in 543 B.C., came to Burma, where he died,

expiring upon a bedstead made for him by the nats (spirits) in a forest cave
where the shrine now is, and where there was then the shrine of an earlier
saint. There was a single door to this cave, and that the nats closed with a
rock, to prevent savages and heretics from desecrating the corpse and
despoiling it of the precious offerings that had been brought and placed
near it. A rest-house was, later, built near the cave, and a reclining image in
the likeness of the dead man was placed on an ornamental bedstead inside.
The lithic inscription relating to the Alaungdaw is printed in Volume II of

the Bodawpaya inscriptions.
The Powindaung caves.
(2) The Powindaung cave temples.--The south-eastern slope of the

Powindaung, a range of hills running east and west, at a few miles'
distance north of Salingyi, contains a great number of images of the
Buddha, placed in recesses hollowed out of the sandstone rock of the
hillside. The hill is honeycombed with these caves, and new ones are
constantly being excavated as works of merit. The hill possesses great
antiquarian interest; some of the Buddhas are of old date, and the
ceilings and walls of the recesses contain early examples of mural
painting. The antiquities do not appear to have been examined
scientifically, but an expert report would doubtless disclose material of
archæological value, and in the interests of the preservation of early
forms of art, it might be desirable that the caves should be placed
under control. The recesses are said to contain four hundred and forty-
four thousand four hundred and forty-four images of the Buddha.
Pyumin and Pyôn-min, Princes of the Pagan dynasty, commenced
them. The legend of the hill is recounted at length in the article Lower
Chindwin in the Gazetteer of Upper Burma, Part II, Volume 11.
Pagodas.
To the second category belong the following pagodas :-In Mônywa

township, the Shwekuni, at Kyaukka; the Shwegu, at Alôn; the Sutaungpyi, at
Mônywa. In Budalin township, the Sinyan, at Sinyan; the Wetye, at Wetye; the
Myakundaung, at Maungdaung; the Myatheindaw,at Ye-budalin; the Shwe-
hmôkdaw, at Wunbo; the Sagaing Wun, at Nyaunggan; the Pôndu, at Lèmun;
the Payagyi, near Thakuttanè. In Salingyi township, the Shwemyindin, at
Kyaukmyet; the Shwezigôn, at Paungwa; the Shwemyôzu, at Kyadet; the
Sithupan, at Salingyi; the Shwezigôn, at Lè-ngauk; the Shwe-sawlu, at
Myogyi; the Shinma-nandaung, at Taya. In Palè township, the Shwezedi, at
Mônthwin; the Shwegu, at Kyinin; the Payanè, at Sinshin; the Sinmyayin, at
Palè; the Neikban Seik-u, at Mwedôn. In Kani township, the Shinbin-yatgyi, at
Kani. Other less important pagodas are at Thazi, Myobaw zedi, at Mônthwin;
the Shwegu, at Kyinin; the Payanè, at Sinshin; the Sinmyayin, at Palè; the
Neikban Seik-u, at Mwedôn. In Kani township, the Shinbin-yatgyi, at Kani.
Other less important pagodas are at Thazi, Myobaw and Bawga in the
Mônywa, and at Yeyo in the Budalin township.
Inscriptions.
The following list of pagodas, with lithic inscriptions, has been supplied by
Mr. Taw Sein Ko, Superinten-dent, Archæological Survey. The original
inscriptions are engraved on tablets of stone, which-were in Burmese times
placed within the precincts of the Arakan (Mahamuni) pagoda in Mandalay.
Transcriptions have been printed in the published Collections of Inscriptions:--
East of the Chindwin, the Tada-u pagoda at Ma-u-gyi; the Môk-htaw at Ma-u-
ngè; the Maung-pato at Thitsein; the Shwe-guni at Kyaukka; the Tayindaing at
Tayindaing; the Pauk-hmôkdaw Pônmasè at Ma-u-gyi; the Thazi at Thazi; the
Thalayaung at Wayaung; the Thathana-thawbani chapel (thein) at
Maungdaung. West of the Chindwin, the Maha-peinne at Ywalin; the
Shwezedi Shwegu at Pyaungbya; the Shwezedi at Lè-ngauk; the Kadin at
Yemein; the Shwesawlu at Myogyi; the Taungsin at Salingyi; the Pôndaunggyi
at Pôndaunggyi; the Teinban at Padauk-kaung; the Kundawbyin at Panywa; the
Labo at Labo; the Kadin at Kani; the Alaungdaw Katthapa; the Thein-daw
Hlehlaing at Ngakôn; the Powindaung (bell). The dates of the inscriptions
range from B.E. 416 (A.D. 1054) to B.E. 1165 (A.D. 1803). The inscriptions at
Thazi, Pyaungbya and Myogyi near Yinmabin mention the dedication of
slaves, those at Thazi being foreigners.
Folk-lore: the Bodawgyi legend.
Much of the tradition of the district centres round Bodaw-gyi, or Batha-

gywè, and introduces the Buddhistic revival of the eleventh century A.D.
Bodaw-gyi was the son of the king of the island of Thitala and, on their father's
demise, he and his brother contested the succession. Batha-gywè was defeated,
and the younger brother, Patai-kaya, ascended the throne. The elder entered the
service of Anawrahta, King of Pagan, won his way into favour, and was
allowed to assume the prerogatives of a king under suzerainty and to choose
his own capital. He pro-ceeded up the Irrawaddy arid Chindwin; captured a
white elephant, Nga-yan-aung, at Sinbyu-gyun; landed at Kinmun, now on the
Sagaing side of the Lower Chindwin border, and was presented with the skin
of a lizard, out of which he made a drum. It was on this occasion that he met a
maiden selling cakes and made her his queen, after the fashion of Cophetua
and the beggar maid. Mônywa means the village of cakes and commemorates
the incident. Continuing his march, he fixed on Kyibadôn (Badan or Alôn) as

the site of his palace. Every three years Ba tha-gywè paid tribute to Anawrahta
and, after that monarch's death, to his successors up to the time of Sawmunit,
when he refused tribute. Sawmunit marched on Kyibadôn and surrounded the
place, but Batha-gywè mounted Nga-yan-aung, beat on the magic drum, and
routed Sawmunit and his army. Sawmunit then employed Brahmans to win the
ear of Bathagywè. They came to his court and persuaded him to cover the
drum with another kind of skin and to cut off Nga-yan-aung's tusks. Sawmunit
again attacked Kyibadôn, and this time with success. Batha-gywè fled to
Salun, a few miles north of Alan on the Chindwin, was closely followed, and
threw himself into the river, where he and his company, thirty-seven in
number, perished. The further development of the legend will be found in the
paragraphs on animistic worship in Chapter III. The same legend, with
variations, is told of Kani, but the founder is there styled, not Batha-gywè, but
Kani Nawrahta or Myinbyushin, Lord of the White Steed, from the colour of
the horse on which he sought death by leaping from the precipitous ridge
above Kani into the river.
CHAPTER III.
The People.
The main stock.
The people of the district belong to the main Burmese stock, of which the
British Burma Gazetteer writes (Volume I, page 142):--
"However much the details of this enforced emigration as given in the

native histories may be unhistorical interpo-lations, it appears clear that the
Burmans are of a kindred race with the Thibetans and originally come from
Thibet."
As to the route which that shadowy migration followed, opinions vary, but
the traditional route from the north-west is the most likely (Upper Burma
Gazetteer, Part I, Volume I, page 483). Whether the immigrant body crossed
the hill-ranges in the north, where they drop to the Hukawng valley, or to the
south, through Manipur, the fertile valley of the Chindwin would offer an early
halting place.
Traces of admixture of other races.
Hardly any definite trace of admixture of races within. the district presents
itself at the present time. Under the Pôndaung hills in the west there are
remembrances of occasional colonization by Chin tribes, and the inhabitants of
these isolated valleys speak the Burmese language with a recognizable
divergence from the accent of the people in the east. But in the language
spoken and in their mode of dress and daily life they do not differ from the
Burmans of the plains. In the north of the district, if there has been admixture
with Shan stock of the Upper Chindwin, no distinctive characteristic can now
be eliminated. The Yaws, a hill tribe with a separate dialect, are mentioned in
the census reports of 1891 and 1901, and their country is, properly speaking,
the Yaw subdivision of the Pakôkku district. Locally, everything to the west of
the Pagyi hills in the Yinmabin subdivision is spoken of as the Yaw country by
the Burmans of the plains, while, west of the Pagyi hills, the villagers disclaim
the title and apply it, and properly, to the inhabitants of the Yaw valley still
further west. No one in the district admits that be is a Yaw, and there is no
trace of a peculiar dialect or peculiar modes of life in the western glens. Along
the Yamas are found the descendants of captives taken from Zimmè (Chieng-
mai) in Siam by Tha-lun-min-ta-ya-gyi.* Intermarriage of these Shan captives
with Burmans took place freely, and, although the remembrance of Shan
ancestry was kept alive and still exists, all racial and domestic peculiarities
have lang disappeared, and the Shans are not to be distinguished from
Burmans.
Census figures.
The population at the present day is, in fact, almost entirely Burmese, The
principal races and castes at the census of 1901 were as follows :-- Indigenous:
Burmans, 274,193; Karens, 43. Non-indigenous: Pathans and Shaikhs, 635;
Hindu castes, 296; Sikhs 209; Zairbadis, 115; Chinese, 65. The total
population was 276,383. The languages spoken were :-
Burmese by 274,508 Gujarathi by 29

Karen 44 Punjabi 33
Chinese 68 Tamil 91
Hindustani 1,126 Telugu 24
Hindi 233 English 69
Bengali 97 Others 61
By religion 274,249 were recorded as Buddhist, 67 as Animist, 911 as

Hindu, 786 as Musalman, and 370 were of
* The date given by local tradition is B.E. 999 [A.D. 1637], which would
correspond with Thado-dhamma-yaza, brother of Maha-dhamma-yaza, in whose reign
Zimmè was annexed to Burma. Tha-lun-min-ta-ya-gyi, of the Burmese sittans, or
official lists, appears in the Hsenwi Chronicle (Upper Burma Gazetteer, Part I,
Volume 1, page 246) as Sao Lông Mengtara. The date given in the sittans is no doubt
approximately correct.
other religions. Of the numerically insignificant non-Burmese population, the

Chindwin Battalion of the Military Police accounts for about half, and the
remainder are made up of the small trading colony of Chinese in Mônywa,and
European and Eurasian officials and their non-Burmese servants, also in
Mônywa, Away from Mônywa the alien population could almost be counted
on the fingers done hand. The few found are often retired military policemen,
who have settled down as cultivators and graziers. The population by census is
shown in the following statement :--
Persons
Total Average Area of Density wholly or Area
population per the per partly under
Year. Houses. houses district. square depen- culti-
mile. dent on vati-
agricu- on.
lture.
Acres.
1891 .. 41,794 233,316 5'58 3,48 67 130,086 179,121

1901 .. 60,956 276,383 4'53 3,480 79 165,624 347,194
In the ten years the population Increased by 43,067, or 18 per cent., and the
houses by 19, 162, or 45 per cent. The disproportionate increase under the
latter head has no particular significance, as the house for census purposes is a
term which allows of elasticity in local interpretation. At Regular Settlement,
the population in 1906 was estimated to have numbered 300,041, an increase
on the 1901 figure of 8'55 per cent. In other words, the rate of increase during
the census decennium appears to have been maintained in the succeeding
quinquennium. The programme of Public Relief Works for 1908-09 estimates
the population of the district at 3,04,021, this estimated figure being exceeded
by three Upper Burma districts only, namely, Pakôkku, 3,56,489, Shwebo,
322,676, and Myingyan, 360,877. All three districts have a much larger extent
than the Lower Chindwin. The population in the year of Settlement, 1906-07,
was estimated at 303,167.
Densities.
The density in that year was--(a) to the occupied square mile, i.e., to the
mile of land claimed as in the possession of some one, whether cropped or not
cropped, 251; (b) to the. crop matured square mile, 445. The densities vary
considerably in different parts. Taking into consideration both land in
occupation and land not yet taken up, but culturable, that is to say, excluding
hill sides and other unculturable waste places, it was estimated that the
densities in the Settlement year varied from 1,008, 425, and 248 in some of the
closely cultivated and densely peopled soil-tracts near
Mônywa: 363 in the southern half of the valley of the Chindwin: and 332 in the
irrigated region along the North Yama stream; to 42, 48, 96, 99 and 103 in
remote tracts on the north and west; some of the latter figures (since the
averages do not take into account areas not cadastrally surveyed, nor the areas
of reserved forest) would be still further reduced if the culturable waste south
of Kani, at present not surveyed, were included. The population is therefore
pressing on the land in some parts of the district.
The densities by Settlement soil-tract are shown in the following table,

which assumes 4'84 souls to the thathameda household :--
Thathameda Estimated Total culturable Density

Soil tract. assessed population. land in acres & per
house-hold. square miles square
miles
I 776 3,755 9,683 = 15'1 248

II 2,585 12,511 7,956 = 12'4 1,008
III 6,042 29,243 43,986 = 68'7 425
IV 4,973 24,069 95,587 = 149'3 161
V 5,298 25,642 78,090 = 122'0 210
VI 5,258 25,448 155,184 = 242'4 104
VII 1,718 8,315 45,633 = 71'3 116
VIII 2,304 11,151 57,801 = 903 123
IX 3,664 17,733 62,590 = 97'7 181
X 3,655 17,690 31,223 = 48'7 363
XI 1,504 7,279 27,957 = 43'6 166
XII 4,371 21,155 71,929 = 112'3 188
XIII 2,625 12,705 24,449 = 38'2 332
XIV 5,558 26,900 106,675 = 166'6 161
XV 1,432 6,930 28,303 = 44'2 156
XVI 793 3,838 57'645 = 90'0 42
XVII 2,474 11,974 66,960 = 104'6 114
XVIII 262 1,268 16,954 = 26'4 48
XIX 3,010 14,568 51,419 = 80'3 181
XX 171 872 5,519 = 8'6 96
XXI 544 2,632 5,254 = 8'2 320
XXII 1,272 6,156 39,675 = 61'9 99
XXIII 2,349 11,369 70,526 = 110'1 103
Total 62,638 303,167 … ...
The district density figure, according to the census area of the whole
district, about the accuracy of which there is some doubt, was 79, which is
identical with the average for the whole of the dry zone of Upper Burma. By
townships, and estimating on the total area of all conditions
of land, the Salingyi township, on the west bank of the Chindwin river in the
south, is one of the most thickly populated townships of Upper Burma, whilst
in the Kani township in the north-west the inhabitants are as scattered as in
some of the wildest areas of the province. The densities by township were, vide
Imperial Gazetteer :--Budalin, 123 per square mile; Mônywa, 185; Kani, 27;
Salingyi, 172; Palè,68.
Preponderance of females.
The census of 1901 showed that the district had in March of that year a
higher proportion of females than any other district in the Province. The
figures were; males 121, 967, females 154,416. The excess appeared at the
preceding census also, which was taken on the 26th February 1891; and it may
be ascribed to the annual emigration of adult males to Lower Burma and
elsewhere, operating directly in reducing the population of males on the day of
That- Esti- Settle- That- Esti-
ham- mated ment ham- mated
eda popu- soil eda popu-
asse- lation tract. asse- lation
ssed at 4· 84 ssed at 4· 84
Se- Towns and house souls Towns and house souls
ttl- villages. holds to the villages. holds to the
em- in house in house
ent 1906- hold. 1906- hold.
07 07
Nyaungbyubin 359 1,737 VI-- Naunggyi-aing 332 1,606
II Thitsein 209 1,011 concld Ayadaw 45'2 2,187
Kyehmôn 406 1,965 Myenet 205 992
Mônywa with … 7,869
Hlègu (census Maungdaung 409 1,979
figure). Kinzan 212 1,026
III A1ôn with 604 2,923 VIII Ngapayin 450 2,178
Kônyat
Mônywe 315 1,521 Yèdwet 287 1,389
Lezin 227 1,098 IX Salingyi 265 1,282
Kyaukka North 309 1,495 Kangôn 233 1,127
Kothan 290 1,403 X Satôn 331 1,622
IV Thazi 622 3,010 Linsa-gvet 209 1,011
Myobaw 227 1,098 XI Ngakôn 231 1,118
Kyauksitpôn 222 1,074 Kyadet 280 1,355
North. 1,321 XII Hlawga 245 1,185
V Nyaunggan 273 1,321 Nyaunggôn 225 1,089
Budalin 489 2,366 XIII Kônywa 207 1,001
Ngwedwin 268 1,297 Chinbyit 227 1,098
Wayaung 260 1,258 Mônthwin 215 1,040
Minywa 226 1,093 XIV Kyinin 266 1,287
VI Indaing 231 1,118 Letpagan 220 1,064
Malètha 254 1,229 Palè 2,47 1,195
Kanbyu 219 1,059 XVII Yinbaungdaing 213 1,030
census, since the tide of return has not in March reached its highest point, and
indirectly in raising the reproductive age
Towns and large villages.
Upper Burma Land and Revenue Regulation and Mônywa is a Municipality.

Their population, and the estimated population of other villages which contain
200 households or over, is shown in the following statement. The figure is for
the Settlement year :--
The district is one of large villages, and their number appears lobe
growing, for at the census of 1901 there were 20 villages only with 1,000
inhabitants--the equivalent of 206 assessed households--or over, whilst the
number was 41 in the Settlement year.
Social and religious life: Buddhists.
The social life of the Burman in the Lower Chindwin district is that of his
fellows in the dry zone, and the Buddhism of the district is the Buddhism of
Upper Burma, with no outstanding distinctive feature. There is a list of
Buddhist dioceses in the district Record Room, but it dates from 1895, and
there have no doubt been changes since that year. There is, in the Buddhist
hierarchy of the district, no central authority within its borders. The gaings, or
dioceses, are small and numerous, and no gainggyôk (abbot) or gaingôk (prior)
acknowledges the authority of any provincial superior, sayadawgyi, resident in
the district. The gainggyôk and gaingôk state emphatically that there is no
authority between them and the thathanabaing, or Grand Superior. The Lèdi
sadaw, or sayadaw, famous throughout the country though he is, has no
administrative authority outside his own monastery precinct.
Among the monks, there are two sects, calling themselves Shwegyin and
Thudamma, corresponding with the Sulagandi and Mahagandi sects of Lower
Burma respectively. The split is an ancient one, and in Burmese times was
more pronounced than it is now. The growing slackness of the Order in all
sections is said to be tending to a rapprochement. The sects are distinguished
by no separate ecclesiastical organization, and may in that respect be compared
with the High and Low parties in the Church of England. The tie of discipline
is, however, so loose, and the authority of the gainggyôk so shadowy; that the
few Shwegyin monks in Mônywa will assert that they are not under the
authority of the Manywa gainggyôk, but claim to be under the nearest
gainggyôk who happens to be at Shwegyin. The only one in the district is at
Kyehmôn, south of Mônywa. The Mônywa gainggyôk is, however, emphatic
that all the forty-nine monasteries in Mônywa, including the four Shwegyin
monasteries, are within his control, and it is probable, at any rate theoretically,
that the claim is correct, though in practice it is doubtful whether a recalcitrant
monk would be punished. The Shwegyin sect practise austerity, whilst the
Thudamma monks allow themselves great laxity in minor matters, such as
smoking tobacco, witnessing theatrical exhibitions, and the like. In number the
Shwegyin have always been fewer than the Thudaroma, and they have never
supplied a thathanabaing. The two sects do not mingle at Buddhist ceremonies
and there is much mutual hatred.
The pôngyis, or monks, of the district have a fair reputation for learning
over the whole province, and one of them, the Lèdi sadaw, is the most famous
and widely venerated expositor of Buddhist texts now living in Burma. They
also enjoy a well-deserved fame for chastity and sanctity. Judged, however, by
other than Burmese standards, the priesthood in the district is believed to have
a low average of Pâli learning, and there are few monasteries which possess
complete copies of the Buddhist scriptures. The monk has usually a scanty Pall
vocabulary, and no syntax. All can repeat texts in the original with fluency,
while generally ignorant of their meaning.
The religion is generally believed to have a slightly weaker grip on the

mass of the people than in some other districts, such as Kyauksè, Sagaing or
Mandalay. This is partly explained by the deeper and firmer substratum of
animism, which permeates the religious life of all classes, including the
priesthood, and has so deep an influence with large numbers as to make their
Buddhism little more than a name. No doubt the British annexation is also in
part responsible. The policy of Government has taken education largely out of
the hands of the monks, and the cords of monastic discipline have become
relaxed. Monks have in many places diminished their influence by accepting
Government grants for their schools, amassing property of all kinds,
witnessing theatrical performances, and even allowing plays to be performed
within the precincts. The practical interference in affairs, which was a right of
the priesthood in Burmese times, has also disappeared and, with it, some of
their hold on the people. All these influences are tending towards the relaxation
of the old Buddhism.
It is stated that there exists among the people of the district a distinct Theistic
tendency, inconsistent with Buddhism, which expresses itself among the more
intelligent by reading into Buddhism the doctrine of a supreme intelligence,
analagous to the Christian idea of an eternal God and in the more ignorant by
an approach to idolatry, such as the worship of the image of the Zidaw nat,
vide infra. The bulk of the people are so ignorant of the essentials of Buddhism
that its hold upon them is, it is stated, little more than conventional. The Lèdi
sadaw has moved the people at intervals to a temporary zeal and strict
observance of precepts, but his influence is spasmodic, save upon a few earnest
people who have formed a sort of "Holy" club in Mônywa.
There are individuals among the laity who style themselves "Paramats." They
are few in number, but are said to be generally men of intelligence and
independence of character. Their views seem to bear a resemblance to those of
the schismatics in the heresy of the Mans, vide Chapter II. They will not use
images nor pay respect to the monks, but profess to follow Gautama Buddha's.
teaching in its abstract and pure excellence.
The English Wesleyan Mission.
The English Wesleyan Mission has had some success in evangelization.

The attitude of the Burmese community is stated to be generally carelessly
tolerant. No material inducement is offered to a convert: on the contrary, the
people have socially and materially much to lose by becoming Christians.
Since the commencement of the Mission in 1892 there have been 139 adult
baptisrrs and there are now 118 adult church members, the number of members
for every fifth year having been--1893, 2; 1898, 16; 1903, 49; 1908, 118. This
small community has built its own church and supports a Burmese pastor,
besides subscribing liberally for mission work in the district. It represents
every class and occupation, and is in regard to livelihood independent of the
mission. The educational work of the mission is described in Chapter XII.
Roman Catholics.
There is a Roman Catholic place of worship at Mônywa, the mission being

administered as a branch of the Chaungu Mission in Sagaing district. The
number of adherents is 200, for the most part officials, native Christians, and
Karens of the Military Police with their families. Shortly after the annexation,
a permanent mission was established and a church erected near the present
Civil Hospital. On the priest in charge dying, no successor was appointed, and
services have since been conducted by visiting priests. The first church was
rebuilt on a new site near the Civil Police lines a few years ago, and a brick
church is now in process of erection. The mission contains a few descend-ants
of Portuguese and other captives, who were--according to local tradition-
brought from Syriam near Rangoon, and settled in Payeikma near Amyin, in
1647. [The date given in the British Burma Gazetteer, Volume II, page 673,
sub. v. Syriam, is 1613.] Their numbers were added to by captives taken at the
second capture of Syriam by Alaung--paya in 1756. The Chaungu Mission had
been established in the interval, in 1721, by Barnabite brothers acting under the
auspices of Nerini.
Animism:The Alôn festival.
The legend of Bathagywè has been noticed in Chapter II. The account goes on
to say that Sawmunit was inflicting on the corpses the indignity of beating
them with his cane when they suddenly became nats, or spirits. This so
impressed him that he founded a palace at Nandaw (now Alôn) for their
habitation, and appointed nattein, guardians of the cult, to look after the palace
and preserve the worship by an annual celebration, which has remained in full
vigour up to the present time. There are still nattein who are said to be
descendants of the original guardians appointed by Sawmunit. There are also
natka-daw, sibyls, women of the neighbourhood who for the time being profess
to be possessed by the spirit. The word means spouse of the spirit. They
combine the functions of intermediates between the spirit and humanity, able
to offer up prayers as adepts, and of prophetesses. The nattein are presented
with offerings in money and kind, and in return give to the donors cups of
water of the Chindwin rivets, which is supposed to become, when so presented,
a panacea and a charm against all dangers. The sibyls will prophecy on receipt
of payment; they perform frenzied dances round a fire during the nights on
which the festival is in progress.
The celebration begins annually on the fourth of the waning moon of the
month of Tabaung, about the beginning of April, when the natkadaw and
nattein enter the Nandaw quarter in carts drawn by buffaloes. They do not on
this occasion receive offerings or dance, but their entry is the signal for the
commencement of the fair. On the 5th waning a similar procession takes place
at Salun village, a few miles north of Alôn, and here offerings are received and
dances take place for two days, when the scene shifts to Shabyedaung for two
days. Finally, on the 9th waning, the nattein and natkadaw again enter Nandaw
when the most important part of the festival begins. Offerings. amounting in
value to as much as two thousand rupees are said to be received by the nattein;
the natkadaw do not receive so much. The attendance at the fair increases, and
buyers and sellers come from further afield than in the earlier part of the
proceedings. At the end, the nattein and natkadaw, as atonement for their
temporary aberration from the true religion, make an offering to the monks of
part of their earnings. The right to be a guardian of the cult descends in the
female line and is jealously guarded. As recently as five years ago, it was the
subject of a suit in the Civil Court. There are different nattein for the different
places Nandaw, Salun, and Shabyedaung,--where the festival is held. The
status of natkadaw is not inherited, and anyone is liable, as the spirit seizes her,
to 'confess the god.' The woman who dances round the fire in a frenzy this year
may be a calm spectator next. There is a general opinion that some of those
who appear as natkadaw are moved more by the hope of gain than by the spirit
within them. The same natkadaw appear at Salun and Shabyedaung, and take
in turn the exhausting duty of dancing. The spirit into which Batha-gywè is
said to have been translated is now called the Bodawgyi or Badôn nat.
The Zidaw festival.
The Alôn festival is the most important celebration of the worship of nats
or demigods, but there are others, and the one next in importance is held at
Zidaw, west of Yinmabin, and, as at Alôn, the occasion serves as a fair, which
is attended by traders from long distances. The legend, which as usual
embodies a history of death against the course of nature, is connected with
Anawrahta of Pagan, as is the Alan legend. The festival is held at the
beginning of April. The worship of an image of the nat Ma Ma Gyi, or Mè Min
Gyi forms part of the ceremony, and some of the natkadaw are said to be men
dressed up in women's clothes.
Other spirit festivals.
There is a festival at Pyanhlè, a few miles north of Yinmabin, but it is of

minor importance. Whether at Zidaw or at Pyanhlè, it is unlucky to talk of
boats or of travelling on the Yama stream, since the nats lost their lives by
drowning in it.
A spirit-festival is held at Ma-u, an offshoot of the Alan festival, as

Pyanhlè is of Zidaw. Ma-u village is about five miles south of Mônywa on the
Myinmu road. Natgyi on the Chindwin also has a festival.
Distinct from what may be called the worship of personal nats, the spiritual
descendants of human beings, is the worship of the spirits of nature*--the
pixies, trolls, elves--which inhabit the house, the marsh, the jungle. This is
universal, and the ritual presents no exceptional features.
Caste.
There is no trace of caste in the true sense among the Burmans of the
district. The labouring class--coolies--are in a minor degree looked down upon,
* There is possibly an etymological connection between the word nat and

nature: it may be noted that the natural course which a stream would follow if
it were not diverted by irrigation is the nat chaung; so the wild form of a
cultivated fruit is indicated in Burmese by prefixing the word nat.
but the man who is a cooly this year may be a cultivator next, and is under no
permanent social ban. Outside one or two villages there is a separate location
for the families of pagoda slaves, who are professional beggars, and act as
grave-diggers also, and these families are in fact under a social stigma, and are
isolated, and intermarriage with other families does not take place. But their
origin, as is manifest from copies of the old kyauksa, or lithic inscriptions, in
which the names of the original pagoda slaves sometimes appear, was not
Burmese. The dedicated persons are in some inscriptions stated to be
foreigners, and in others, although the fact of a foreign origin is not recorded in
the inscription, the names are Indian names transliterated into Burmese. No
doubt they were captives taken in war, and the separation is not one which
arose among people of one race. Nor is it the expression of any attempt to
crystallize a craft. There are several places where a craft has crystallized, and
the craftsmen congregate in one place, e.g., Wayaung and Kyehmôn, but there
is no caste. There is a record of pagoda slaves at Thazi, Myogyi near
Yinmabin, and Salingyivide Chapter II ;--and some are to be found at Mônywa
and no doubt at other places.
Standard of living. Average agricultural income.
The standard of living varies a good deal. The average income of the
agriculturists examined in detail at the thatha-meda enquiries made at the
Regular Settlement of 1906--1909 is exhibited in the following statement, by
Settlement tracts :--
Soil Average Soil Average Soil Average Soil Average

tract. income. tract. income. tract. income. tract. income.
Rs. Rs. Rs. Rs.
I 216 VII 139 XIII 115 XIX 82

II 49 VIII 121 XIV 92 XX 50
III 91 IX 81 XV 77 XXI 53
IV 116 X 75 XVI 67 XXII 86
V 107 XI 72 XVII 70 XXIII 63
VI 123 XII 113 XVIII 68
The figures are the total of the gross income--not excluding cost of
cultivation--on the agricultural side of account, and of the net income,--i.e.,
after cost of tools, etc., has been excluded--on the non-agricultural side. There
is a special reason why the Tract II figure is low. Only one village was
examined, and there happened to be a considerable number of absentees. The
average income of an agriculturist is, as a matter of fact, high in this tract. The
average income over the whole district was Rs. 95. It will be seen that the
average was the resultant of widely separated extremes. In the alluvial tract
south of Mônywa (I) the average income was found to be Rs. 216,a figure
which recalls the incomes ascertained in the rich delta districts of Lower
Burma. In most of the developed tracts in the south-east, e.g, IV, V, VI, VII,
the average income of the agriculturist exceeded Rs. 100; the arid, infertile
plateau between Kyaukka and the Mu (VI) was not an exception, the
precarious and restricted income from the land being largely supplemented by
the sale of cattle. West of the river the generality of soil-tracts exhibited an
average income lower than the district figure, but the irrigatedregion along the
North Yama (XIII) and the black-soil tract which lies to the south (XII)
exceeded it. Before, however, it can be utilized as a criterion of the standard of
living, there are certain qualifications which require to be applied to the figure
of average cash income. In the first place, the store of food-grain raised from a
cultivator's fields was estimated at the village price and counted as a cash
receipt. It follows that in calculating the average income of a cultivator. living
in the neighbourhood of Mônywa, whose fields supplied him with food
sufficient for the year, and of another cultivator in a remoter part, also provided
with food from his own fields, the recorded figure of income of the cultivator
living near Mônywa, in a tract of high prices, would largely exceed that of the
other living in a remote village, with a small demand for field produce and
prices correspondingly low, although the food-grain and the amount of it
consumed-important items in the standard of living-might be identical.
Moreover, in the remoter parts of the district, services renderedare often
remunerated by services returned, as when a practised cultivator sows his less
expert neighbour's field with sesamum--the sowing of sesamum calls for a
skilled hand--and, later on, receives a day's weeding free; or as when--the
commonest instance of all--the neighbours assemble and reap each other's crop
in turn. There is no out-of-pocketexpense and there is no entry in the income
account, where as in a developed tract, there would be cash transactions,
swelling the figure' of income. This also tends to exaggerate the figure of
income in the developed tracts, but the enhancement represents no real
difference in the standard of living. On the whole, it may be said that there are
more wants and that there is a higher standard of living in the accessible,
developed tracts in the south-east, but that the standard of living in the more
distant tracts is not so much lower as the figures of average
income--recorded in the manner explained--might in some cases suggest.
Food.
The food-grain, it is said, has not changed since Burmese times, It was then
and is now, rice alone in the rice-growing tracts and in the richer tracts which
do not grow rice, such as some of the inundated lands south of Mônywa: millet
alone or millet and rice mixed in the millet-growing tracts: and, in the tracts
adjoining forests, rice mixed with jungle plants, yams of several sorts, and
other wild products, the proportion of these varying directly with the adversity
of the season and the deficiency of the rice crop. The food-grain which is best
liked is rice. There is not much evidence that it is more generally eaten than in
Burmese times. Of the millets, the variety consumed is almost exclusively the
red millet. The usual statement of the people is that the grain of the white
millet, sanp yaung, is rougher to the palate than that of red millet, kunpyaung;
the opposite statement is made in most other districts and in the parts of the
Lower Chindwin where white millet is extensively grown, south-east and
north-east of Mônwa. As a matter of fact, the taste for white millet is an
acquired taste and, when acquired, the people like white better than red. The
District Fund receipts from, slaughter-houses have steadily risen, and suggest
that there is no lack of money with which to purchase meat, of which-the
Burman is fond.
Housing.
His house is seldom the object of much expense to a Burman, and

practically all the houses are unsubstantial structures of posts of jungle-wood
and bamboo-matting, differing only in the material used for the roof.
Occasionally, a wealthier villager may build himself a plank house, but it is the
exception. There are no prolonged rains to call for stout roofs and walls, and
the house, if flimsy, rises all the more easily and cheaply from its ashes when
the village undergoes--perhaps in one hot weather out of five--its. periodical
burning. A plank house is therefore a sign of wealth, but a house made of
matting is not a conclusive indication of poverty. As regards roofing material,
three kinds are used. The most expensive, the most water--tight and fire-proof,
is of bamboos, split lengthwise and spread out fiat. No bamboos are grown in
the district except in the west and north under the hills, and the variety grown
there is said to be subject to the depredations of insects and is not used for
roofing. All the bamboos used in roofing are therefore purchased, and a large
supply is available annually at Alôn, where many of the rice and
timber-carrying rafts from the Upper Chindwin are broken up. Like the plank
house, the presence of a bamboo roof is an indication of prosperity, though the
absence of such a roof does not necessarily connote poverty. In the parts of the
district near Mônywa, many of the houses are roofed with this material and,
although no data are available for comparing the existing number of houses so
roofed with the number in Burmese times, there is no reason to think that they
are fewer, whilst the price of bamboos has risen greatly, and this indicates
greater purchasing power. Next in order of expense comes the roof of
thatching-grass, and this is found in the tracts along the river and near marshy
places where thatching-grass grows. Least expensive of all is the roof of the
leaf of the tari palm, and this is found in the palm-sugar tracts, the uplands
between the Mu river and Kyaukka, and south of Salingyi. The villages
generally, although as a rule they afford no suggestion of opulence, seldom
present a squalid appearance, even in the poorest tracts.
Clothing.
In the less developed tracts the wife spins the cotton and weaves the
clothing for the family. Nearer the Chindwin and in the richer inland tracts the
clothing is purchased, or, more frequently, the material is purchased and made
up in the house, or given to a Burmese tailor to make up. The material, if
coarse, is often woven in the district of Manchester thread, or of that and native
thread mixed. The chief weaving centres--all the weaving is done in the house:
there are no factories--are in the cotton tract and underneath the Kyaukka hills
to the west of it, and near Salingyi. Home-sewn garments are usually sewn by
the husband, not by the wife. The people agree that the domestic loom is
disappearing before the advent of cheap, made-up cottons In the inundated
tracts south of Mônywa there is said to be no domestic spinning at all now,
whereas in Burmese times every house spun and wove its own garments.
Expenditure on works of public utility.
Less money than formerly is now expended on works of public utility,

bridges, wells, rest-houses, causeways. The figures reported to the authorities
have been, taking the average annual expenditure in five-year periods,--
1894 to 1898 Rs. 27,720 per annum.

1899 to 1903 Rs. 28,865 ”
1904 to 1908 Rs. 7,334 ”
The consensus of opinion confirms the tendency shown in the figures, and
the reason assigned is neither diminishing.
prosperity nor a failing away from the Law, but the much greater expense of
purchasing timber and bricks and engaging labour. To these reasons, which are
valid, may be added the further one that in Burmese times it was unsafe to be
rich, and the rich man, by devoting his savings to the erection of a work of
merit, removed a possible source of danger to himself and simultaneously
obtained the approbation of the world.
All the monasteries are substantial structures of timber.
Agricultural stock
Agricultural stock has largely increased, as may be gathered from the

following figures :--
Population
Total (by census Average per
Year. number of except for soul.
cattle. (1906-07).
1890-91 99,589* 233,316 42

1900-01 228,066* 276,383 '82
1906-07 258,257† 303,167 ‡ '85
* From the Revenue Administration Report.

† By Settlement count.
‡ By estimate, from the households assessed to thathameda.
The agricultural households enumerated in the thatha-meda rolls of 1906-

07--vide Chapter VI--were 35,724, the families having agriculture as a
subsidiary occupation were 3,661, and the betel-vine tenders numbered 229, in
all 39,614; and it is the cultivating households which own the majority of the
cattle. Estimating the households mainly or partly engaged in agriculture at
45,000, the average stock of cattle per household exceeds six head, a high
figure. The enquiries at Settlement disclosed the fact that in the high-lying
plateau between the Kyaukka and the Mu there was considerably more than
one head of stock per head of the whole population, whether agriculturist or
non-agricultist, and including workers, non-workers, and the indigent. The
district has therefore a source of considerable wealth in its cattle.
Agricultural in debtedness.
Enquiries were made at Regular Settlement in 190 out of the 322 village-
tracts, all but two of the Settlement soil-tracts being represented. The enquiries
related to the extent of indebtedness at the close of 1907-08, a calamitous
agricultural year, and embodied the statements of the
headmen and elders. The usual method of obtaining loans was stated to be as
follows :-
Villages.
On-demand promissory notes: in 151
Bond 14
On-demand promissory notes, with property pledged as well 8
Document or parabaik (a sheet of black paper, written
on with a pencil) unstamped 5
Verbal promise 4
Bond with mortgage of property 4
[No loans 4]
The agriculturist can therefore almost always procure a loan on note of

hand, and his credit is good. The rates of interest on small loans below Rs. 50,
embodied in an on-demand promissory note with a single signature, were
stated to be--
Highest rate--- in 36 60 per cent. per annum or
takulat, the principal and
half as much again as
out of 45 villages interest, after the
expiration of ten months.
Do. in 6 48 do.
Do. in 3 Less than 48 do.
Usual rate----- in 30 60 do.
Do. in 6 48 do.
Do. in 8 out of 45 villages 36 do.
Do. in 1 Less than 36 do.
Rates are therefore high for small loans, but there is no rate higher than 60
per cent. per annum. The rates of interest for larger loans, on note of hand as
above, were stated to be--
Highest rate--- in 1 60 per cent. per annum.
Do. in 7 48 do.
Do. in 2 45 do.
Do. in 24 36 do.
Do. in 5 30 do.
Do. in 2 24 do.
Usual rate----- in 6 48 per cent. per annam,
Do. in 1 45 do
Do. in 26 out of 42 villages 36 do,
Do. in 6 30 do.
Do. in 2 24 do.
Thus the usual rate for large loans is 36 per cent. per annum, i.e., it drops to
almost half the amount asked for
small loans. The rate is not extravagantly high, when the nature of the security
is taken into account and the prevailing rates of interest in an eastern country.
In 141 villages the record was not separated for large and small loans, and
these villages gave the following information for undifferentiated loans of the
kind explained above :-
Highest rate--- in 98 60 per cent. per annum.

Do. in 24 48 do.
Do. in 12 36 do.
Do. in 1 24 do.
Do. in 1 18 do.
Lowest rate--- in 17 60 per cent. per annum.

Do. in 8 48 do.
Do. in 1 45 do.
Do. in 16 36 do.
Do. in 1 25 do.
Do. in 13 24 do.
Do. in 1 20 do.
Do. in 1 18 do.
Do. in 1 12 do.
The figures suggest that--as in the 'separating' villages--60 per cent. is the
usual rate for a small and 30 to 36 for a large loan, and that on large loans the
rate occasionally falls a good deal below the latter figure.
The average indebtedness of a cultivator--exclusive of loans made by

Government--was said to be--
Soil Rs. Soil Rs. Soil Rs. Soil Rs.

tract. tract. Tract. Tract.
I 28 VII 41 XIII 50 XIX 23

III 33 IX 35 XV 29 XXI …
IV 47 X 38 XVI 30 XXII 20
VI 64 XII 52 XVIII …
The average indebtedness--cultivators not in debt as well as those indebted

being included--was, by local statement, forty-two rupees. It has to be
remembered that practically all mortgages are usufructuary, and, if a cultivator
has mortgaged his land, the mortgage-money does not appear
in the debt figure. Much of the land is in the hands of mortgagees, who are
seldom non-agriculturists. On the other hand, the year preceding the record
was very bad for the crops and certainly increased the debt figure in many
tracts. Bearing this in mind, the burden of agricultural indebtedness cannot be
considered great.
All the 190 villages, except one, recorded as the cause of indebtedness
maintenance or cultivating expenses, or both; the exception borrowed in order
to pay the land revenue. No village admitted indebtedness due to expenses
incurred on edifices or ceremonial, and this is borne out by the figures of
expenditure on works of public utility. The credit of the cultivator being good
and his indebtedness low, it follows that he must be described as
unextravagant. If not thrifty in the sense of saving much, he is certainly not
spendthrift.
Sixty-two villages were asked whether the rate of interest had fallen since
Burmese times; twenty-eight replied that they had, and the remainder that they
were the same. The people generally have a wider knowledge than these
figures would indicate of what is certainly a fact, namely, that interest rates
have fallen everywhere, and largely. It was a rare occurrence in Burmese times
to secure a loan at less than the takulat rate, 6o per cent. per annum, but this
rate is now high for a loan of any magnitude.
Agricultural loans are for ten months, but the creditor is not precise to the
date. Emigrants' loans are often for five months, from the date of departure for
the reaping to the date of return. Chetties--the money-lending caste of Madras-
-are not found except in Mônywa, where there are one or two. The usual
money-lender is a rent-receiving Burmese landlord, and he is to be found in
Mônywa, Kani, Padu, Kanè, Kônywa, Budalin and many other of the larger
villages.
The local terms for the usual rates of interest are--Nga-mu-do, interest of
five mu, or takulat, the other half, 50 per cent for ten months or 60 per cent per
annum.
Le-mu-do, interest of four mu 48 per annum.

Thôn-mu-do, interest of three mu 36 “
Mat-do, interest of one-fourth of a rupee 30 “
Hna-mu-do, interest of two mu 24 “
Hta-mu-hta-bè-do, interest of one mu and one anna 18 “
There is a custom along the Mu, and possibly elsewhere, where herds are
numerous, by which the debtor herds his creditor's cattle and pays no interest
on the loan. He may not use the cattle for ploughing. the sabape custom--both
principal and interest repaid in kind--is unknown, and the sabanyun custom--
the principal repaid in money, the interest in kind--occurs but rarely.
The relation of agricultural debt to income was also examined in detail at

Settlement, and, although the average debt was found to be--generally--higher
in the south-eastern part of the district, where the average income was higher,
there were found to be several tracts with a high average income where the
average debt was small, and in practically all parts of the district it was found
that as the income increased the amount of debt fell. The figures were as
follows, 3,109 agricultural households being examined. The income was that
recorded in detail at the that hamedaenquiries and is gross on the agricultural
side, i.e., cost of cultivation has not been excluded. It is net on the non-
agricultural side:--
Average debt, in Rupees, incurred by Examinees, including

those indebted and those free from debt, With income from
Soil tract. Nil Rs. 51 Rs. 76 Rs. 101 Upwards

to to to to of
Rs. 50 Rs. 75. Rs. 100. Rs. 150. Rs. 150.
I 108 125 100 75 47

II 76 57 38 Nil Nil
III 17 32 4 51 35
IV 31 35 23 23 9
V 44 51 34 51 26
VI 61 42 31 34 17
VII 80 56 56 53 42
VIII 28 35 32 29 23
IX 14 11 1 1 4
X 16 8 7 9 4
XI 19 12 7 13 10
XII 12 14 3 4 Nil
XIII 4 3 3 6 1
XIV 6 7 2 1 Nil
XV 2 3 1 Nil Nil
XVI 5 4 14 6 Nil
XVII 29 23 7 1 28
XVIII 24 17 28 14 9
Average debt, in Rupees, incurred by Examinees, including

those indebted and those free from debt, With income from
Nil Rs. 51 Rs. 76 Rs. 101 Upwards

Soil tract. to to to to of
Rs. 50 Rs. 75. Rs. 100. Rs. 150. Rs. 150.
XIX 18 93 8 4 2
XX 13 27 12 14 Nil
XXI 4 6 Nil Nil Nil
XXI 4 5 2 1 Nil
XXIII 13 9 8 6 3
Whole district 21 15 12 18 17
Percentage of 56 46 34 41 34
indebted to total
number in each
grade over the
district.
Total number of 1,301 … … … …

Indebted families
It will be noticed that more than half of the families incurred no debt at all;
that there is in most tracts a fairly regular diminution in debt as the income
rises--it is in five only out of twenty-three tracts that the three higher grades of
income contain the highest average debt for the tract in eighteen the highest
average debt is reached by the two lower grades of income: and that the
numerical percentage of debtors falls, in a reasonably steady series, when the
income rises.
The average indebtedness of individual cultivators examined in detail at the

thathameda enquiries was, over all examinees, whether indebted or not :--
Soil Rs. Soil Rs. Soil Rs. Soil Rs.

tract. tract. tract. tract.
I 60 VII 48 XIII 2 XIX 9

III 29 IX 7 XV 1 XXI 4
IV 29 X 8 XVI 6 XXII 2
VI 30 XII 4 XVIII 20
Although some agriculturally good tracts, e.g., I, II and V, exhibit

comparatively high figures of debt, other good tracts, e.g., XII, XIII and XIV,
reported practically no debt at all. Reading this with the preceding paragraphs,
the statement that the debt of a Burman rises with his credit appears not to be,
in all cases, true of this district. The average indebtedness, in the one year, of
all examinees was
Rs. 16. This harmonizes with the figure of average debt up to date,
including a very bad year, given by the village elders, namely, Rs. 42'50.
Comparing the last debt table with the last but two above, it will be noticed
that, although there is no marked correspondence in the tracts with the highest
or lowest amount of debt, the tables agree in reflecting a small extent of
agricultural indebtedness on the whole, and in supporting the proposition that
debt does not necessarily vary directly with credit.
In some of the poorer red-soil tracts, the practice of mortgaging the

standing crop, or of selling it when standing, is common, and may be in part
attributed to the fact that the bulk of the taxation is at present collected during
the first three months of the year--at a time when all the crops have not vet
been garnered. The prices obtained for a crop so sold vary with the interval
between the loan and harvest, but are always low.
Land values.
The bulk of the occupied land is held on a full private tenure, with no
restrictions on transfer, vide Chapter X. Most of the land is owned by peasant
proprietors, and is divided into a large number of small estates. The value of
land in transfer is therefore germane to a consideration of the prosperity, or
otherwise, of the mass of the people. In the paragraphs which follow, statistics
have been shown for non-State land only, since the private tenure of land
predominates.
Sales.
Sales are rare. The area of land which was reported as having been
obtained by purchase up to the date of the Settlement year 1906-07--from
whatever year the sale dated --was 5,014 acres, made up of sales of wet (rice)
land, 900; dry-crop land, 2,696; and mixed wet and dry land, 1,418 acres. The
average purchase-money per acre over the whole district was Rs. 50; of wet
land Rs. 85, of dry land Rs. 45, and of mixed land Rs. 39. The corresponding
figures for mortgages, vide infra, are: over all, Rs. 37-wet Rs. 62, dry RS.29,
mixed Rs. 31. The sale-value is therefore about half as much again as the value
in possession mortgage. Correlating sale-values with existing (Summary
Settlement) acre-rates in the manner described below for
mortgages, the average sale-value over all was found to be 86 times the land
assessment. This figure indicates that land rates are low.
The wet-soil sale-values ranged from Rs. 300 per acre in the inundated
rice-tract south of Mônywa to Rs. 21 in the remote Ruhnitywa glen in the
south-west of the district. Comparing the values in the last quiuquennial period
with the average over all periods, it appeared that sale-values have tended to
fall slightly, which should no doubt be attributed to the imposition of acre-rates
on non-State land at the Summary Settlement. The dry-soil values ranged from
Rs. 88 in the silt-bearing inundated tract south of Mônywa, and Rs. 102 in the
similar tract on the opposite bank of the Chindwin, to Rs. 13 in the poor red
soils of the Chindwin-Mu plateau.
Mortgages.
The area reported as having been acquired by mortgage and still in the
hands of mortgagees, whether simple or usufructuary, in the year 1906-07--
from whatever year the mortgage dated--was 115,258 acres, or 14 per cent of
the whole occupied area of the district, made up as follows :--
Acres.
Wet land mortgages 25,559

Dry land mortgages 70,613
Mixed wet and dry land mortgages 19,086
Mortgages are almost invariably usufructuary. The average mortgage

money of wet land was Rs. 62 per acre; of dry land Rs, 29; and of mixed wet
and dry land Rs. 31. This statistic affords some indication of the relative value
of wet and dry lands. Wet land is about twice as valuable as dry. The average
mortgage money, over all, was Rs. 37 per acre. The area occupied--cropped,
with failed and fallow--in 1900-07 was 772,710 acres, and the land-revenue
collection Rs. 3,01,005; adding to this 50 per cent on account of land-revenue
taken in the shape of thathameda, the land-revenue collections in that year may
be estimated at Rs. 4,51,507, or 58 of one rupee per occupied acre. The
average mortgage value per acre was therefore some 63 times the average
assessment, a high figure.
The wet soil mortgage values ranged from Rs. 117 per acre in the
inundated tract south of Mônywa, and RS. 223 in the irrigated region along the
North Yama, to Rs. 23 in the poor red soils in the north-east of the district. The
latest quinquennium--as with sales--showed a diminution in mortgage values.
The values in dry-crop
land ranged from Rs. 83 and Rs. 129 in tracts with silt south of Mônywa, to Rs.
12 in the Chindwin-Mu plateau, and Rs. 4 in the poor soil in the north-east of
the district. The general opinion of the people is that the same area can be
mortgaged for more money now than in Burmese times, in spite of the belief
that the produce of the soil is less than it was and the grain return to an
usufructuary mortgagee smaller. The explanation which the people themselves
give is that there is more money in circulation now and that the population has
increased, and there may be added the further reason that, although the grain
return may be smaller, the price obtained for it is greater. It is also stated that
the value of dry land has increased because, on account of the uncertainty of
the rice crop through decreasing rainfall, a larger area of dry land has to be
cultivated now than before annexation, and there is more com-petition for such
land. In the irrigated tract west of Kani it was stated that the return to a non-
cultivating landlord from rice land taken on usufructuary mortgage was about
12 per cent.; this is a fairly high rate of interest on money lent on the security
of land. The sentimental element in the value of land is considerable, and a
comparison of the landlord's nett receipts with the mortgage values indicated
that the return is usually less than 12 per cent.
Alienations to non-agriculturists.
Of the land reported as having been acquired by sale, the area found in the
hands of non-agriculturists in 1906-07 was 1,171 acres: ' rent receivers ' held
700 and merchants 171 acres of this. The area sold to cherries was '92 of one
acre. Of the land reported as having been acquired by mortgage, the area in the
hands of non-agriculturists was 20,790 acres. Rent receivers held 10,698,
merchants 4,899, and coolies 1,540 acres of this Many of the rent receivers
were in their youth cultivators. No land was found in the possession by
mortgage of chetties. The tracts in which mortgages to non-agriculturists are
extensive are those in the vicinity of Mônywa: the riverine tracts, the black-soil
tract west of the Chindwin, and the irrigated tract along the North Yama. The
coolie mortgagees are for the most part from the south-east of the district,
where emigration is most common and brings in a good deal of money. The
figure in the Yewa valley was high in relation to the cultivated area in that
tract, and the alienees, the Kani money-lenders, are said to be unsympathetic.
The ratio of land mortgaged to non-agriculturists to the whole area acquired by
mortgage was 18
per cent. The figures do not at present indicate dangerous concentration of land
in alien or unsympathetic hands.
Indigence.
The households exempted from the household tax on account of indigence
in the year 1906-07 numbered 3,746, and of these about three-fourths were
recorded in the villages in the south-east of the district, where the arts and
crafts preponderate. This is due to the fact that the artizan, when his strength
fails, has often saved too little to support his declining years; he owns no land
from which to obtain a small rental, and becomes a charge on the charity of the
village. The unanimous opinion is that the cultivator is better off than the
artizan and uns killed labourer. This is supported by statistics; on the west of
the Chindwin the percentage of indigent to the total number of households was
found to be, in 1906-07, 4'6, and cultivation largely preponderates on that side:
whilst on the east of the river, where are found the arts and crafts, the
percentage was found to be 7'2.
Wages.
The monthly rate of wages at headquarters is stated in the B Volume of the
District Gazetteer to be Rs. 7 for an agricultural labourer, Rs, 10 for a cooly,
Rs. 22 for a carpenter, and Rs. 30 for a blacksmith. The wage for an
agricultural labourer presumably is for an adult male and does riot include
food: it averages annas 3'7 per diem and--with an allowance for food--would
be about equal to the wage in agricultural tracts ascertained at Settlement,
namely, with food, about five annas per diem. The rates of hire for skilled
labour are rising.
Growth in prosperity.
The prosperity of the district has much increased since annexation, vide the
remarks in Chapter X on its assessable capacity, and there appears to be no
doubt that the power of the people to resist adversity is greater than it was in
Burmese times. Such a year as 1907-08 would, the people confidently assert,
have led to the entire desertion of numbers of villages in Burmese times, but
there was actually not one which was deserted nor were there any signs of
emaciation.
Agrarian customs.
The customs on various points of agrarian and village interest were
recorded in selected villages at the Revenue Settlement of 1906-09.
(a) Inheritance of land.--The custom of division of land among the heirs in
unequal fixed shares, according to the dhammathat, or code of traditional law,
has fallen into disuse, and in most places it would seem that there is no
recollection that it had ever been practised. The general custom is to divide the
inheritance equally among all the children, without regard to sex. Prior to
annexation, the eldest son was in some places given a slightly larger share than
the other children, possibly on account of his liability to render official
services, and the privilege of a larger share was also, to a less extent, enjoyed
by the eldest daughter. Division according to the dhammathat is, however,
practised occasionally. If any of the heirs objects to equal division and the case
comes into court, the shares are arranged according to the dhammathat; the
heirs, in case of such an objection, sometimes divide forthwith according to the
dhammathat, without going to court.
(b) Sale of land.--The right of sale existed, but was rarely exercised, in
Burmese times. A right of pre-emption, by relations existed. The persons who
were coheirs, with the owner of the land, in the inheritance of which the land
which was the subject of the sale formed a part, had a right of pre-emption
before other persons, whether related or not. In certain places, owners of
adjoining lands had a right of preemption which, however, could only be
exercised subsequently to that of relations, and was probably seldom actually
exercised at all. The right of pre-emption by relations occasionally prevailed,
even where the pre-emptor was unable to offer quite as good a price as an
outsider, but, if the difference of price was large, the land could always be sold
to the outsider.
(c) Mortgage of land.--The right of redemption of mortgaged land endured

in Burmese times for an indefinite period, and there was apparently no period
of limitation. The custom of allowing the mortgagee three years' possession
before redemption was general, but in most places certainly and in all places
probably, the custom was not recognized unless embodied in the mortgage
contract. When this condition was not included in the contract, the mortgagor
could redeem at any time when a crop was not on the ground, provided
generally that the mortgagee had been in possession for one season. If
redemption occurred before the mortgagee had had any return for his capital,
the mortgagor was required to pay, in addition to the principal, a sum varying
from five to ten per cent, of it as compensation.
(d) The occupation of land held in undivided inheritance. --Land obtained

by inheritance and held in joint ownership may be worked before division
either by each heir in turn or by one heir as tenant of all the heirs. These two
arrangements seem to be about equally prevalent, and in most villages both
arrangements exist. When the heirs work in rotation, the period during which
the inheritance land is in possession of each is one year, and the heir in
possession pays no rent to the joint account. When one of the heirs
works as a tenant, the rental goes into the joint account, that is, the landlord's
share of the produce is divided equally among all the heirs, including the
working heir. Rarely, the undivided inheritance is given to the poorest of the
heirs to work free of rent. In one or two places the custom exists of heirs
working roughly ascertained shares of inheritance land, prior to formal
division. After division, a small portion of the property is sometimes left
undivided, so that family relationships may not fade from sight. This portion is
worked by the heirs in turn.
(e) Division of inheritance.--There is no fixed custom throughout the

district regarding division of inheritance, and the matter seems to depend for
the most part on the wishes of the heirs. Division does not usually take place
until both parents have died; though it may take place if the surviving parent
consents, or marries again. After the death of both parents, the inheritance is in
some cases immediately divided; sometimes it is kept joint for a few years; and
sometimes for several generations. Early division is the usual practice when
the heirs are living separately at the death of the parents, or when they are not
in agreement among themselves, or when the inheritance is large, or when the
heirs have no other land in single ownership. Division is postponed if any of
the heirs are minors, or if the heirs agree to work jointly, or if they have
sufficient other land, or if the land to be divided is small. When division is
amicable, there is usually no document of partition. If the division is not
amicable, the land is sometimes divided by the elders of the village and lots
cast; sometimes it is divided equally and a document of partition drawn up;
sometimes it is divided by the elders according to the code of customary law.
Sometimes it appears to be the case that documents of partition are drawn up,
whether the partition is amicable or not. An exception to the custom that
property is not divided until the death of both parents has been reported from
one village, where property is divided immediately on the death of the father.
(f) Field embankments and party-hedges.---The property in the

embankment between adjoining holdings of rice-land is determined by the
flow of the water. If B's field receives water which has first passed through A's
field, then A owns the embankment between the two fields. He has the duty of
keeping it in repair and the privilege of opening or closing it to the flow of
water at his pleasure. If as is rarely the case--there is no flow of water from A's
field to B's, or vice versâ, then the embankment is joint 5
property, and each repairs it when he thinks necessary. In the infrequent case
of the existence of embankments separating holdings in dry-crop land, the
same rule is followed; and fences on land of this nature are repaired by the
cultivator who desires that the repairs shall be carried out. For example, the
fence between A's holding and B's is repaired by the person who has his crop
first in the ground.
(g) Cultivation of waste land.---The general rule is that before waste land is
occupied, the headman of the village mast be informed, but this rule is open to
many exceptions. In some places the land is cleared, and the headman
informed afterwards. Except in a few villages, waste land adjoining an existing
holding is assigned by the headman to the owner of the adjoining holding, in
preference to another. The person who first informs the headman of his desire
to cultivate is, however, given the land in some cases, whilst in a few villages a
portion of such waste is given to the adjoining cultivator and a portion to the
applicant. When the waste does not adjoin an existing holding, the person who
first informs the headman of his intention to cultivate is usually given the
preference, though at some places the waste is given, if two persons apply, to
the applicant who has the least land. When cultivators from other village-tracts
come and settle in the village, they are allotted waste in the same manner as
other villagers, if they apply. The right of a resident of another village-tract to
enter on and clear waste, while remaining resident in the other village, is not
always recognised.
(h) Cultivation of alluvial land: myenu, recent alluvial land; and myeyin,
old alluvial land.--The customs regarding the division of myenu differ widely
over the district. In several places, on streams so far apart as the Mu, the
Chindwin, the South Yama, North Yama and Tinzôn, it is not divided at all,
but the custom of ngôklaik prevails, by which the owner of permanent land on
the mainland pushes forward his boundaries into the bed of the stream to
embrace the new alluvial formation. In other places myenu is divided once for
all by the head-man and elders, and in these places, if land reappears on the site
of land which has once been carried away, it is owned by the original occupier.
In other places, annual division by the headman and elders is the rule, and land
which reappears on the site of land which has once been carried away is also
divided, but one village reports that, even where such a custom of annual
division exists, the original owner has a valid claim to the new land. In nearly
all cases of division, myenu is allotted equally to the applicants in strips

running at right angles to the direction of the stream. One or two exceptions to
the rule of equal division are reported. In one village the width of the strips is
fixed with reference to the working capacity of the applicant; in another,
enough land is given to turn a plough in, when the area of available myenu is
small. When division is made, the elders always assist the headman, and only
the residents in the village-tract are eligible as allottees. Division between two
village jurisdictions on the same bank of new alluvial land lying along the
bank, is made by producing the common boundary of the village-tracts at right
angles to the bank of the stream. One exception was reported, where this
procedure resulted in disputes, and the revenue surveyor now makes an annual
division. Myeyin, old alluvial land, is not divided at all, but remains in
possession of the same occupant from year to year.
(i) The deep-stream rule in regard to the possession of islands.--An island

in a stream belongs to the village-tract which is separated from it by the
shallow, not the deep-, arm, i.e., the deep stream is the inter-village boundary,
There are, however, exceptions; in one village the original cultivators continue
to occupy the land although the deep stream may have shifted; in another the
survey-block boundary is followed, and this is the usual rule in cases where the
jurisdictions involved are the Lower Chindwin and some other district. In one
village on the Chindwin south of Mônywa, where there is a dispute, the custom
prior to annexation it is said did not recognize the deep-stream rule.
(j) Right of way to an interior holding during cultivation and after.--In most
places the cultivator of an interior holding has a right of way to his land during
the planting season. In one or two, it is stated that the permission of the
exterior landholder must be obtained. The interior landholder must, however,
in nearly all cases walk along the field embankment or close to the fence; and
if the path along the embankment or fence is narrow, he must lead his cattle
and carry his harrow. In some places he must leave his harrow once for all on
his holding; in others, this is optional. Thus the custom ensures the growing
crop against damage. In one village it was stated that any damage done to
crops must be made good, the village being one where the interior cultivator is
permitted to cut across crops in the early stages of growth. After a crop has
been reaped there is a universal right of way over the field.
(k) Right to jungle products.--Anyone has a right to

collect all sorts of jungle products on unoccupied land, except that reserved by
Government. In one place it is, however, recorded that part of the jungle is
reserved by mutual consent for fuel for palm-sugar workers. On private land,
the rights to grass, firewood, etc., are not clearly defined. In some places it is
said that anyone has a right to these minor products and can take them at any
time. In others the right can only be exercised during the non-cultivating
season; in others again, the right of the holder to prevent the common use of
any product of his land at any time is recognised. If he wants to prevent the
cutting of grass he has, however, to surround his land with a fence. The right to
valuable pro-ducts, such as fruit-trees and large jungle trees, always vests in
the owner of the trees. The general conclusion to be drawn from the record is
that the owner of non-State land has a recognised right to all the products of his
land, but permits the free use of those which are of minor value.
(l) Fruit trees planted by mortgagees, tenants, or co-heirs--There is little

uniformity of custom in the treatment of fruit trees planted by a tenant during
his term of tenancy, or by a mortgagee while the land is in his pos-session. In
some cases the tenant or mortgagee owns the trees until the expiration of his
tenancy or until redemption; in some cases the trees descend to his heirs.
Sometimes the tenant or mortgagee pays a share of the produce of the trees to
the landlord or mortgagor from the outset. On the determination of the tenancy,
or on redemption, the landlord or mortgagor sometimes pays no compensation
for trees planted: sometimes the cost of planting; sometimes half, and
sometimes the full value of the trees. The landlord or mortgagor generally
endeavours to terminate the interest of the tenant or mortgagee in the trees
when the land returns to his possession. The consent of the landlord or
mortgagor is usually necessary before trees are planted and, if it is not
obtained, tenants or mortgagees are treated less liberally than if it is. The
planting of long-aged fruit trees is regarded as indicative of--or likely to lead to
a claim to--ownership of the land. There is also no generalisation to be made
regarding the property in fruit trees planted on inherited land by one of several
heirs. Sometimes the consent of the coheirs is required and sometimes not. The
tree is sometimes the property of the planter and sometimes joint property:
occasionally it is the property of the planter for his life and then becomes joint.
Sometimes the planter pays a share of the produce to the coheirs and
sometimes not. In almost every place the right of the owner of a tree to visit it
at any time, irrespective of the ownership of the land on which the tree is
growing, is recognised. Occasion-ally the permission of the owner of the land
is required when there are crops on the ground. With regard to fruit trees,
nearly every village-tract seems to have a separate custom, and this is due to
the fact that valuable fruit trees are rare, and customs have not crystallized.
(m) Right of grazing cattle on field embankments-During the open season

cattle from anywhere, even from another village-tract, may graze on the
embankment of any one's field or on the field itself. There are few places in
which the right of grazing cattle on a field embankment, during the cultivating
season, is recognised as vesting in strangers as well as in the owner. If the right
is recognized, the cattle must be led by a rope, and leading is sometimes
required even in the case of an owner grazing his own cattle on his own field
embankments. In one place it was stated that, though no one but the owner of
the land might graze his cattle on the embankment, any one could enter and cut
grass. At this place also the owner of an interior holding could not graze his
cattle on his own embankment, as the exterior owner did not permit passage
through the crops after planting.
(n) Repair of old rest-houses, monasteries and pagodas. --The custom

generally is for old edifices to be repaired by the original benefactor or his
descendants. If these remain in the village, their consent must apparently be
obtained before repairs can be carried out by others. There are few places
where the headman has by custom the authority to direct villagers to repair
rest-houses and monasteries.
(o) Repair of drinking-wells for men and cattle--It is recognised in the

majority of places, but not in all, that the headman has power to call out the
villagers to repair wells. Nevertheless, few wells have been constructed by the
joint effort of villagers, as there are generally individuals anxious to acquire
the merit of digging a well.
(p) Construction and repair of tanks.--In regard to the construction and

repair of tanks for men and cattle, no definite custom prevails. Some tanks are
constructed by private benefaction, others by persons interested, others by the
village jointly. There was no definite custom in Burmese times either.
Sometimes a tank made by a private person is repaired by joint effort.
(q) Communal land.--There is no cultivated communal land in the district.

Cemeteries are regarded as communal, and so are, in many cases, the sites of
rest-houses, monasteries, pagodas, tanks and villages.
(r) House.sites.--The general rule is that sites are allotted by the headman
on waste land within the village fence or, with the permission of the occupiers,
taken from the curtilage of existing houses. The right of evicting existing
residents does not seem to exist. House-sites are bought and sold, but not in
many villages. In one such village it was reported that the headman, though he
might not appropriate a small house site for a new-comer, could appropriate a
portion of a large house-enclosure. Rentals are taken by ancestral owners of the
house-site in some villages.
(s) Main roads and much-frequented paths.--Main roads between villages

must not be closed for cultivation. A road, varying in breadth from that
required for the passage of one cart to that required in order to allow two carts
to pass, must be left. Much-frequented paths across fields must not be closed at
all, in most places. In others, such a path may be closed temporarily, when
there are crops on the land.
Ten ants.
All tenancies depend on contract, and there is at present no legislation, nor

any custom having the force of law, conferring fixity of tenure. The landlord
has the right, throughout the district, to eject tenants at the end of any
cultivating season, whatever the previous duration of the tenancy. Mortgagors
who work as tenants of their mortgagees have no special right of occupancy,
and the mortgagee can eject at pleasure.
The area rented.
The area of land held by tenants was found at the Settlement of 1906-07 to
be 231,218 acres, or 29 per cent of the whole occupied area of the district.
Fifteen per cent. of all the State and 32 per cent of all the non-State occupied
land was rented. In the more developed parts of the district, in proximity to the
railway and the river or to large villages, the percentage of rented to occupied
land was found to be high. In exception to the general rule that the high
percentages appear in the developed, populous tracts, a high figure--more than
50 per cent.--was found in the remote, land-locked Sè-ywa valley, but it was
judged that, so far as the economic relations of landlord and tenant are
concerned, the high figure was of less importance, inasmuch as the landlords in
that region were content with low rentals.
The rent fractions.
Of the rented area, all pays rent in produce except (a) about two per cent.,
which pays cash-rents; and (b) about four per cent., which pays no rent to the
landlord but only the land-revenue. Of the produce-rented area, very little pays
a fixed rental. Nearly all pays a fraction of the crop, and the fractions vary
from one-half to one-tenth.
In nearly every case, the payment of land-revenue is shared between

landlord and tenant. More than one-half of the rented rice land pays one-half of
the gross harvest, but in such half-gross rentals the landlord, on the mètayer
principle, usually contributes some of the expenses of cultivation, the most
usual contribution being the whole of the seed. In lower fractions than one-
half, the landlord often contributes nothing at all, but occasionally contributes
half the cost of planting or reaping. About one-third of the rented dry land pays
two-fifths gross or more than two-fifths; about one-third pays one-third-gross;
and the remainder pays either low fractions or a fixed rent or no rent.
Fixed rents.
The area let at a dead, or fixed. rent was 13,549 acres in all, or about five
per cent only of the tenanted area shown above. Of this. the cash-rented area
was 4,858 acres, or two per cent of the whole area, and the remainder paid a
fixed rent in produce.
The wet-land produce figures which are everywhere small, are highest in
the inundated tract south of Mônywa, and reflect the certainty of the crop in
this region, which · can count on a good crop of red bean, if the rice fails. The
dry-land produce figure is high in the same region, where the crop of beans is
secure and good; and in the western black-soil tract, which enjoys a certain
crop. In the cotton tract the trouble of paying, on the occasion of each picking,
a fraction of a long-harvested crop, cotton, and possibly in some cases the
poverty of the soil, has led to a considerable area paying a fixed rental,
sometimes in millet or rice, frequently in sesamum oil. The rentals are paid in
unhusked rice or red bean in the inundated tracts south of Mônywa, and in red
millet in the western black-soil tract.
The dry-land cash-rented figure is high in the cotton area, for the same
reason which makes the dead rent in produce common; and in the western
black-soil region, for the reason given above, namely, certainty.
In most parts of the district the people strongly dislike the idea of fixed
rents. The feeling is prompted by experience of the uncertainty of the seasons.
Fractional rents.
As regards the fraction taken from wet lands, the high fractions are found
in old-established tracts, in proximity to markets or with facilities for
irrigation. The nature of the soil appears to be a minor consideration. Thus, in
the inundated silt lands south of Mônywa and in the irrigated lands along the
Yamas, the usual fraction is one-half. The few wet lands in the cotton tract--
which is without irrigation and somewhat difficult of access--usually pay one-

fifth or less and along the Mu, where rice is the predominant cultivation and
there is an easier means of transport, but markets are not near and there is no
irrigation, the fraction is one-fourth. In the less developed tracts in the south-
west, the iraction is usually one-third, and the same fraction predominates in
the northern half of the district, except where, as in the Chindwin, Yewa and
Inbaung valleys, it rises to one-half for irrigation or proximity to markets, or
falls, as in the Sè-ywa, where remoteness leads to a low iraction, namely, one-
fifth.
The considerations which govern the fraction taken from dry-lands are
proximity to markets and the degree of development generally, and the quality
of the soil. The silt soils south of Mônywa on the eastern bank of the Chindwin
usually pay a dead rental in produce; the same soils south-of Mônywa. on the
opposite bank of the river, pay one-half --a high fraction for dry-crop lands--
and this is the fraction which predominates in the eastern black-soil tract and
on the strip of soil--much of it assisted by silt deposit from the hill; torrents--
beneath Kyaukka. The opposite strip of country, that between the eastern
black-soil basin and the Chindwin, mostly pays the next lower of the fractions
used, namely, two-fifths. As distance from markets increases and the quality of
the soil becomes worse the fraction falls, and in the Mu-Kyaukka plateau the
thirsty, often infertile, uplands usually pay one-fifth or less. In the west and
south-west of the district--not yet opened out.--the prevailing fractions are one-
third or one-fourth, and in the remote Sèywa glen the fraction falls to one-fifth
or lower, and in other remote, regions, the Kuhnitywa and Thingadôn valleys,
most of the rented land is held free of any rental proper, the tenant simply
undertaking to pay all the land-revenue demand.
In many parts of the district rentals appear to have passed the customary
stage and to be on an economic basis, and subject to the rule of supply and
demand. The influence of custom is, however, still to be detected, particularly
in the fact that, however favoured, wet lands do not pay a higher fraction than
one-half.
Longharvested Vcrops.
Cotton has been mentioned already. Rentals from other long-harvested

crops-.-brinjals, tomatoes, vegetables--are sometimes fixed; sometimes the
tenant estimates the total sale-proceeds at the end of the season, and pays a
fraction in cash or unhusked rice or millet; and frequently the land-lord merely
takes what he wants from time to time for his own consumption.
Duration of tenancies.
The duration of tenancies was found to be as follows in 1906-07 :---
Area held by Acres.
One-year tenants 49,882

Two-year tenants 34,491
Three-year tenants 37,945
Four and five-year tenants 49,459
Six-year to ten-year tenants 44,404
Eleven-year tenants or over 15,035
Regarding the district as a whole and remembering that all tenants are
tenants at the will of the landlord, it appears that the tenant enjoys, without
special legislation, a reason-able degree of fixity of tenure. In the tracts with
high percentages of rented to occupied land there appears to be at present-no
tendency to evict tenants. The tract of inundated rice-land south of Mônywa,
with almost the highest percentage of tenanted land, was found to have the
highest percentage of long-established tenants. The con-verse was found to
hold. Tracts with the highest percentage of short-term tenants had the smallest
percentage of tenanted area. The figures suggested that in the best tracts--
where much of the land is rented--the landlords do not at present take so high a
fraction as to cripple the tenant, whilst, in the remote tracts, the tenants would
appear to resign their holdings in spite of low rent-fractions.
Customs of tenancy.
The custom of appraisement, by which the landlord (or his agent) and the
tenant visit the field when the crop is nearly ripe, estimate the total yield and
the proper amount of it which should be paid to the landlord, according to the
fraction at which the land is let, and then agree to delivery of that amount, is
found, but not in many places. It is usually disliked, the reasons being that
there may be deterioration after appraisement, when the tenant would suffer by
having to pay a fixed amount; that it is expensive --for the land-steward, if
such a person is employed, has to be paid a commission, which is in addition
to the rental proper: and that it is accompanied by abuses. The com-mission
usually paid to a land-steward is two and a half per cent of the total
appraisement. When tenant and landlord fail to agree to the appraisement, it is
not the custom to reap a sample of the field: the whole field is sheaf-divided.
Produce division.
Produce division is effected in three ways, which are as follows, in the

order of infrequency:--(a) Plot division. When the crop is ripe, landlord and
tenant visit the field and mark it off into the landlord's portion and the tenant's.
Each has no further concern with the portion assigned to the other, but reaps
his own portion, at his own expense, when he pleases, and retains the whole of
the straw from it. This method of division is seldom met with. (b) Sheaf
division. This usually implies a certain amount of distrust on the part of the
landlord. Landlord and tenant visit the field at reaping time, the field is reaped,
and--usually after the reapers have been paid their hire in sheaves from the
field--landlord and tenant divide the remainder according to the fraction at
which the land was let. The landlord usually carts away his portion of the
sheaves: his oxen tread out the grain and he takes the straw from his portion.
(The straw is usually looked upon as belonging to the person whose oxen tread
out the grain.) (c) Grain division. The landlord is usually not present. The
tenant reaps the whole field, his oxen tread out the grain, and the tenant carts
the rent grain to the landlord's house and retains the straw from the whole field.
This is the most usual form of produce division and is consonant with the easy-
going nature of the Burman, and it indicates the harmonious character of the
relations which at present exist--in nearly all places--between landlord and
tenant.
In tracts where there is good land and competition for tenancies, like the
irrigated tract along the North Yama, the tenant sometimes gives a present to
the landlord on entering upon the tenancy, and the landlord frequently exacts
ser-vices, such as the cutting of firewood, assistance when he is giving an
entertainment (a-hlu), and the like. If the land is bad, the landlord sometimes
gives a present to the tenant at the commencement of the tenancy.
On the whole, the relations of landlord and tenant are harmonious, and
there is little rack-renting. In the great majority of cases the landlord accepts
the amount of rent-grain which the tenant brings him and asks no questions,
and there is no doubt that the tenant often pays less than the exact amount
which he ought to pay, if the full fraction on which he holds his tenancy were
claimed. This arises in part from the easy-going nature of the people and in
part from the fact that there is no well-defined line separating the tenant from
the landlord class. A's landlord is as often as not B's tenant, and, if he does not
demand the full fraction from A, he will expect to be allowed the same
indulgence when paying his own rent to B.
Large estates
The total area of estates exceeding one hundred acres was; in I906-07,
8,610 acres, divided between 34 persons . It is probable that some estates
escaped notice. The only very large estate is that of the headman of of
Mônywa, 3,826 acres. Excluding that estate, the average area of the large
estate was found to be 145 acres. There is therefore little indication of the land
becoming concentrated in a few hands.
CHAPTER IV.
Agriculture and Irrigation.
Agriculture.
Number of agriculturists.
The prevailing occupation is agriculture. More than one-half of the

households in the district are engaged in cultivation, either as the single or as
one of two or more avocations. Moreover, the unskilled labourers are for the
most part dependent on agriculture in the form of field labour, either within the
district or in Lower Burma at the annual emigration. In the south-west of the
district, from the line at which the western- black-soil plain begins, there is
little emigration and few craftsmen are found. In this part of the district the
ordinary household is purely agricultural.
Absorption of waste land for cultivation.
Much of the level, good soil of the district appears to have been long
settled. An early Deputy Commissioner, Mr. (now Sir H.) Adamson, writing in
1889, says:--"In many parts (of what is now the Salingyi and Palè townships)
are to be seen expanses of cultivated land, as far as the eye can see, on all
points of the horizon. Here, too, there is very little waste land, except such as is
high-lying and unfit for the ordinary crops, and any small areas of cultivable
waste lying between villages are claimed by the villagers as bobabaing
(ancestral)."
The stages by which cultivation has extended are shown in the reports as
follows :--1890-91 179,121 cultivated acres; 1896-97, 295,580 acres; 1902-03,
396,298 acres. The figures are not based on survey and are only valu-able as
giving a general idea of an undoubtedly large expansion. About ,1903-04 the
policy of issuing leases in the dry-zone districts ceased, and unrestricted
occupation of waste land was encouraged. In the absence of survey figures it is
impossible to estimate what stimulus this gave to
extensions. From 1905-06 figures based on survey are available and are as
follows :--
Acres. Acres.
1905-06 442,928 1907-08 464,780

1906-07 460,093 1908-09 519,614
This rapid increase in cultivated area has absorbed most of the good
culturable land. In the Settlement year, 1906-07, the area surveyed cadastrally,
2,589 square miles, was made up as follows :--
Area occupied and crop matured 35,441

Area occupied, but failed or fallow 37,267
Area not yet occupied, and culturable 88,298
Area not yet occupied, but not culturable,
hillside, stony ground, and the like 96,414
Decimals omitted 2
Total 1657,422
Of the area already occupied, much of the failed or fallow portion cannot
be expected to be placed under crop in addition to the existing cropped area;
the failed area in the year mentioned was about normal. Of the land not yet
occupied and shown as culturable, the major portion is red sandy soil of poor
quality, culturable, but probably not regularly nor with the more valuable
crops.
There are certain Iacunæ, at the time of writing, in the field-to-field or

cadastral survey of the district. There is a large area of sandy, high-lying,
waterless waste south of the Yewa stream, and an equally large area of forest-
clad hillside north of that stream. Neither area contains cultur-able land of the
best quality. and it may be anticipated that extension into the waste will
proceed more slowly in future years.
Wet and dry crops.
The favourite food of the Burman is rice, and he wilt grow that grain to the
exclusion of others when the supply of water permits. Under the hills in the
rainy west and north of the district the main crop is therefore rice; and, where
the flooded river inundates its margins and adds, something to the rain from
above--a condition of affairs which is best exemplified by the tract of country
immediately south of Mônywa--rice again is the standard crop. Nor is it only
when Nature, unaided by man, confers the measure of precious water which
will fill his fields, either by inundation from a large river or by the rain from
heaven, that the cultivator attempts rice. In many parts of the
district, particularly in the west, the cultivator's own effort supplies his field
with water. At numerous places along the small streams unambitious dams are
placed across the channel, and the waters of the pent-up pool so formed are led
on to the cultivated field by means of artificial ducts. The methods of irrigation
will be found described in a later paragraph. Where the rainfall is too scanty
for the cultivation of rice, and no extraneous supply is available, the cultivator
must perforce rely upon a dry crop, and, apart from the vicinity of the western
and northern hills and the course of the Chindwin and its affluents, it is usually
the dry crop which provides him with food or the means of purchas-ing food.
Area under the under the crops.
In the year July 1906--June 1907, the area on which a matured crop was
raised was divided as follows between the chief crops :--irrigated rice, 14,148
acres; unirrigated rice, 74,375; millet, 147,864; sesamum, 105,220; red bean,
21,300; cotton, 18,451; and gram, 9,924 acres. There was very little orchard
cultivation. The variety of crops is great, and this brief list ignores all but the
main crops. It will be observed that rice takes the third place in point of area.
The figures of the area under each crop before 1904-05 were not based on
survey, and they are not reproduced.
Double cropping is often attempted, especially in the west of the district,

where an earlier-rainy season allows a crop of sesamum to be reaped before the
main crop of rice or millet is sown. In the same year the area successfully
double-cropped was 10,774 acres. Mixed cropping is also practised, and, in the
same year, there were 8,540 acres under a mixed crop.
Dry crops on rice land.
Often the rice crop on lands dependent on the rainfall alone fails, or there
comes no rain suitable for planting, and in that case the cultivator sometimes
plants his rice field with a dry crop. Of such cultivation there was in the
Settlement year--
Acres.
On rice land inundated from a river 2,946
On rice land dependent on the rainfall alone
or irrigated from weirs or other sources 12,578
--15,524 acres in all. Rice land--except in regions where the nature of the water
supply renders the soil salty, as in the irrigation near Kudaw--is frequently
good for a dry crop, and the dry crops raised on rice lands which receive a
deposit of silt from river inundation are especially good.
New crops.
New crops have been introduced, the most important being groundnut,
which will produce a crop on the sandy,
poor, red soils of the uplands. Other new crops are:---pè-sein-sa-u, a kind of
coarse parsnip, on the silt soils north of Mônywa; the intermediate.aged variety
of late sesamum, gya-hnan, in many parts of the district; Bombay and Calcutta
onions along the South Yama; wheat in the black soils on the west, the
cultivation being still inconsiderable; and red bean and white millet in the
northern half of the valley of the Chindwin.
Normal area of crop failure.
The series of years for which figures of the crop-failed area are available is
small: the area which was sown, but failed to mature, was, in 1905-06, 12 per
cent of the whole sown area; in. 1906-07, 10 per cent., and, in 1908-09, 9 per
cent. The figure in 1907-08 was 32 per cent., but that year--vide Chapter VIII--
must be regarded as exceptional: the average figure, excluding years of
exceptional calamity, may be taken to be about 10 per cent.
Dry and wet lands and the main orders of soil.
In this district, as in the dry-zone districts generally, there is au essential
difference between rice land and dry-crop land; rice land can grow other crops
as well as rice; but dry-crop land cannot grow rice,* for it is not carefully
levelled and embanked, and rice will not thrive except in levelled fields
provided with embankments which will retain water. The orders of cultivation
occurring in the district can there-fore be grouped according as the fields
belong to the embanked or unembanked categories. Within the former fall the
many varieties of rice cultivation. Within the latter fails the ordinary dry-crop
cultivation of food-grains, oil-seeds, and fibres; orchard cultivation; and the
cultivation on inundated land--too much exposed to the force of the river-
currents to allow of the cultivator maintaining the embankments of a rice field-
-of the spring-ripening crops, beans of many varieties, groundnut, onions,
tomatoes and many miscellaneous crops.
The crop-matured rice land, or wet land, was found divided as follows
between the various orders of 'wet' soil, in the year 1906-07 :-
Acres.
Dependent for water on the rainfall only 65,009
Inundated from a large river 7,704
Irrigated from weirs and dams 11,689
Irrigated from natural springs and artesian wells 1,579
Inundated from a large aver and planted with
the hot-weather variety of rice 1,530
Irrigated from a saline stream 1,361
These figures do not include the area of rice land under a dry-crop,
mentioned above.
* Rice will grew on a hillside in a region with a heavy rainfall, but the area
so cultivated in the Lower Chindwin district is small.
The dry-crop land was found divided as follows :-
Acres.
Red soil 215,605
Black soil 104,951
Upland rice cultivation 8811
Dry-crop land, without embankments,
inundated from a large river 8,485
Orchard land 405
The standard crops indifferent parts.
In spite of the multiplicity of crops and apparent confusion of agricultural

conditions, it is possible to select the custom-ary crop over a compact area, and
this is found to depend on two chief factors--the nature of the soil and the
nature of the water-supply. In the west of the district the chief crop on
embanked land is rice, sometimes preceded by a crop of early sesamum or
mixed with a late crop of beans (pè-nauk); on the unembanked land, which is a
red loam, early sesamum followed by beans rotates in successive years with
red millet (andrapogon sorghum).The day is short in the glens under the high
hills, and the late-sown variety of sesamum would not ripen. The Pagyi hills
fall rapidly on the east to a fertileplain of black soil. Here the proportion of rice
land varies directly with propinquity to the hills, and the crops grown on the
wet land are rice, occasionally following an early crop of sesamum,
occasionally mixed with beans. The stiff black soil of the unembanked land is,
for some three years out of four, under red millet and in the fourth year the
cultivator may put down an early crop of sesamum and follow it with a late
crop of gram. On the southern edge of this tract, along the South Yama, maize
is grown, and several hundred impermanent wells, sunk along the margin of
the stream, supply valuable garden crops with water. This favoured champaign
is bounded on the north by Powindaung hill, and between that elevation and
the North Yama is found the best irrigated rice land in the district. Most of the
fields obtain their water-supply, enriched with the fertile silt of the western
hills, from dams erected in the stream, but there are several hundred small
artesian springs which give water for an easy, certain, in some cases double
crop of rice. The transition from the fertile country south of the North Yama to
the arid, sandy, ravine-scarred country north of it is abrupt. Here there is hardly
any black soil, little irrigation, no wells, no springs. The depressions in to
which descends the rainfall are terraced for rice, and the unembanked soils are
scratched and sown with red millet and sesamum in alternate years. In this part
of the district, the line which separates the early
from the late sesamum is sharply defined. In the west, nearer the hills, early
sesamum can be sown, but in the east, as the Chindwin is approached, the only
variety cultivated is late sesamum, the latest to come to maturity of all winter-
ripening crops. North of this arid tract, the hills again close in and bring a
heavier rainfall, and rice on the wet land and early sesamum on the dry are the
prevailing crops.
The valley of the Chindwin has numerous forms of cultivation. The

extensive stretch of inundated rice land .south of Mônywa has been mentioned,
and smaller stretches of the same species of cultivation are found all along the
river on either side. The configuration of the valley is that of a river running in
a slightly elevated bed, having on either side depressions which the flood
waters of August and September fill, and leave full after the river has sub-sided
to an exiguous stream in the cold weather. Beyond these metes rise uplands of
red soil. The depressions have been terraced for rice cultivation from time
immemorial and, as the waters subside and evaporate, the higher fields are ·
sown and, later, transplanted with winter-ripening rice. In December this crop
is reaped, but the depression still contains some water, and from January
onwards the lower tiers, as they gradually emerge, are sown with mayin rice, to
be thenceforward laboriously irrigated with water baled up from the daily-
shrinking pool and finally to be reaped in the heat of April and May, save
when a hailstorm dashes the hopes of the cultivator by beating down the
ripening ears. Hot-weather rice is an arduous and, in the north of the district,
not quite certain crop. All along the river the true islands, as they emerge from
the face of the flood, are sown with beans, wheat, and many other crops, which
will ripen in March and April. Further inland, where the margins of the mere
rise to the limit of the river valley, the red soil slopes are under red millet and
late sesamum.
The agricultural scheme east of the Chindwin differs widely-from that

followed on the west and described above. The smaller rainfall and more
ardent sun rule early sesamum out. Beginning with the valley of the Mu river,
there is a fringe of low-lying land which, although not subject to inundation,
receives the drainage of a sandy high-lying plateau on the west. This fringe is
terraced for rice cultivation, and the slopes beyond are under late sesamum,
and there is hardly any millet. The plateau itself has no rice cultivation. The
crops are late
sesamum, cotton, and red millet; one year of each. It is in this part of the
district alone that cotton is extensively grown. The cotton country ends
abruptly at the Kyaukka ridge, and in the valley beneath there is a marked
change m soil conditions. The torrents which drain the plateau on this side run
at first within deeply cut, precipitous walls, but, lower down, debouch on to the
plains and inundate the surrounding country and eventually lose themselves by
percolation, and none of them reaches the Chindwin. The inundation, although
liable to wander from year to year, confers fertility on the soil, which is, for the
most part, red, and the chief crops are white millet, red bean and late sesamum,
and there is little rice cultivation. Further north, between the Kyaukka
watershed and the Chindwin, is an extensive stretch of black soil, which has
been mentioned in Chapter I. As in the western black-soil region, the favourite
crop here is red millet, but the rotation crops are gram and late sesamum; there
is no early sesamum. To the north, this tract ends beneath the volcanic ridge
which is dominated by Twin hill, east of the Chindwin. North of this tract, near
Kudaw, village irrigation has afforded the chance of a rice crop, and the
cultivation presents the aspect of a gently-sloping plain of terraced rice-fields.
To the north-west, there is no level country, all crops are precarious, the
valleys are terraced for rice, and on the gravel-strewn hillsides scanty crops of
sesamum and red millet often hardIy return the seed sown. North of this again
the northern hills are approached. The teak tree becomes a familiar object in
the landscape and rice resumes the first place in the agricultural scheme.
The average area of the holding.
There are no authentic figures of the average area of a cultivator's holding.
Agricultural advances.
Government advances made under the Agriculturists' Loans Act (takkavi), for
the purpose of commencing or extending cultivation, are utilized freely. The
average disbursement for the four years ending with 1907-08 was Rs. 45,000.
Up to the present, cattle have not been accepted as security, the guarantee of
landed property held in full ownership and in possession being required, i.e.,
land held on usufructuary mortgage cannot be offered as security. The usual
period of repayment is two years, and loans have generally been given out in
June. This date is somewhat late, as agricultural operations are then just
beginning.
No remission of these advances has been sanctioned in any year.

No loans have been made under the Land Improvement Loans Act.
Modes of agriculture.
The agricultural year commences officially on the first day of July, but
preparations for the new season begin in April or May. If the cultivator lives in
a rice-growing tract, his holiday began before the middle of January, when the
last of the rice left the threshing-floor; if in a dry-crop tract, it may have been a
month later before the threshing-floor was cleared of late sesamum. A plough
bullock may have to be purchased. The harrow-teeth must be looked through,
and a stock cut from the wood of the dahat (tectona Hamiltoniana)or the cutch
tree (acacia catechu). The cultivator will not--in the red-soil regions, at any
rate--require to go far to find these trees growing in the jungle. The uprights
which confine the neck of the harnessed bullock are easily broken; the same
journey which brings back the wood for the harrow-teeth brings also a stock of
uprights, and probably a spare cross-beam for the harrow, in case of accidents.
These and all the wooden appurtenances of husbandry are for the most part cut
and fashioned by the cultivator himself; it is only the wealthier, less energetic
cultivator, living in the developed tracts near Mônywa and the larger villages,
who finds it too much trouble to prepare his own implements. The pagoda and
spirit festivals which have followed one another in close succession from
November, when the heavy rains ended, have given frequent opportunity of
purchasing, and there is, besides, a regular trade carried on by the cultivators in
the northern wooded tracts on the Shwebo border, who come down every
spring to Mônywa and the neighbourhood with cartloads of shaped harrow-
teeth, cross-beams and the like, for sale. There are the ropes to be looked to --
those which pass through the nostrils of the harnessed cattle, others which
confine the neck of the bullock to the uprights fixed in the yoke-beam; and
those which serve the purpose of reins. These the cultivator often twists for
himself out of fibre-that he has gathered in the jungles. His cart will be in
frequent, and early, use, for one of the first operations of the new year will be
to convey manure from the byte to the field. The cart therefore requires
inspection. The stock of carts in the district in the year 1907-08 was 27,561;
35,724 families were recorded as cultivators in that year, so that some three out
of every four cultivators owned a cart; not all of them the easily-running,
modern cart, with spoked wheels and
iron tyres, but the greater number are of this kind, and it is only in the
backward tracts that the creaking, ante-diluvian cart is met with--its wheels
fashioned either cut of a solid disc of wood, the section of a tree trunk and as
much square as round, or of a patchwork of two segmentary pieces and a
middle slab. These older carts are now seldom made, and it is every cultivator's
ambition to buy a cart of the new fashion. Seed, if none was put by from last
year or if a new variety is to be tried, must be purchased.
When all has been looked to and the thagyansa * consulted to see whether
the early rains are likely to be good or bad --a pious observance which in no
way deters him from sowing with the first favourable showers, whatever the
prophets may have said--the cultivator waits for the rain, and at the end of May
or the beginning of June harrows his field and sows his early sesamum, if his
village is not too far from the western hills. The early rains are not used for an
immediate sowing east of the Chindwin, except of pèdi and cotton.
The modes of agriculture are time-honoured. The general custom is to put

seed aside at reaping for the next season. This rule applies to seed of all crops,
and the good is separated from the bad. There are, however, several places
from which it is reported that no seed selection is made, and it is not in all
places that every sort of seed is selected. A common practice is to mix seed
with earth, ashes, or sand, in order to prevent the ravages of insects, and the
receptacle in which the seed is set aside is sometimes covered with a piece of
cloth and a layer of ashes placed above. Rice seed is sometimes covered with a
layer of straw and cowdung.
It is only in the inundated areas along the large rivers, where a layer of stiff
silt is deposited annually, that the plough, with a share, is used. The implement
is fashioned of wood, and the share is often steel-shod. Everywhere else,
whether for rice cultivation or for a dry crop, the seed bed is prepared by
means of a wooden harrow, though the cross-beam of the harrow used on rice-
land is in many places less massive than that used for dry-crop cultivation,
Roughly-fashioned wooden teeth, varying in number from three to seven, are
inserted in the cross-beam, from which run shafts connected with a yoke which
is placed upon the necks of the plough cattle. A bow of bamboo rises
* The prediction of the events of the coming year. published by the

Mandalay astrologers in April, at the beginning of the Burmese New Year.
vertically from the cross-beam, and the ploughman supports his back against
this whilst directing the cattle. The custom of giving a field an occasional
ploughing is not followed: the harrow atone is used, year in and year out,
except on slit soils. The choice of deep or shallow harrowing is governed by
the nature of the soil: the sandier the soil, the shallower the tilth. This is the
general rule, but stiff black soils are not ploughed deeply. The method of
deepening the tilth is by removing some of the teeth from the harrow. The
harrow as often as not serves the triple purpose of preparing the tilth, of
uprooting the weeds which spring up between the first harrowing and the
sowing of the seed, and of thinning out the plants when they have attained
some growth.
The plough cattle are nearly always bullocks. Under the hills, where a
heavier rainfall fills the rice fields abundantly, along the large rivers, where
inundation produces the same result, and in some places where there is
irrigation, the fields become so deeply water-logged that bullocks-cannot draw
the harrow. In these places the water-loving buffalo takes the place of the
bullock in ploughing the wet cultivation, but, over the whole district, the
relative number of buffaloes is small: the figures for the year 1906-07 were--
Bulls and bullocks in the plough 85,498

Buffaloes in the plough 6,211
Cows are seldom seen drawing the harrow. Occasionally, when an

outbreak of disease has carried off his bullocks or a season of scarcity
compelled him to sell them, a cultivator may be seen driving a heterogeneous
team of cows and calves, sometimes four abreast in the yoke, but it is the
exception. Cow buffaloes are, however, as strong as the male, and take an
equal share of the labour in the moister parts of the district, where buffaloes are
used.
Nearly all crops are broadcasted, the exceptions being rice on embanked
land, occasionally rice on unembanked land (upland rice), chillies, red bean
(usually), groundnut, and--very occasionally--white millet.
Weeding, where it is not done by means of the harrow, is effected by hand,

and there are varieties of the weeding hoe. One, wielded in both hands, is
brought down from above with a chopping and drawing action; another, also
long-shafted and requiring the use of both hands, is pushed through the soil;
the single-handed small hoe, in shape not far removed from a trowel, is also
used. All these articles are of local origin; the shaft is usually cut by the
cultivator in the jungle; the iron head is purchased at one of the pagoda
festivals from sellers who have bought a supply in one of the villages where
blacksmiths congregate. When use has worn away the edge, the itinerant forge
serves to put on a new edge of hard steel.
Reaping is performed by means of the curved sickle, with a rasped, sawing

edge. That, too, is locally made. All crops are reaped. There is no custom of
uprooting the whole plant.
In some parts of the district it is the custom to prepare the threshing-floor

in a corner of the reaped field; in others, the fields round the village-fence are
used; in others, the house-enclosure serves the purpose. The soil of the floor is
harrowed and watered and smoothed, and often leeped with cowdung. The
valuable sesamum crop is always beaten out on a floor which is very carefully
smoothed. The sheaves of rice and the heads of millet are arranged in a circular
swath on the threshing-floor, and the plough cattle are driven round and round
and lazily tread out the grain. There is no Buddhist precept forbidding the
muzzling of cattle during this operation, and they are more often muzzled than
not. The final operation is winnowing, and this is performed by elevating the
grain on trays and pouring it on to a mat below; the wind carries away the
chaff and extraneous particles. The grain is then carted to the house and placed
in a large cylindrical, or occasion-ally square-shaped, bin, the sabagyi, made of
bamboo wattle.
In the more developed parts of the district, where money is easily come by,
the operations of husbandry are often carried out by means of hired labour. As
civilization recedes, there is less hiring; when the cultivator and his family do
not suffice for the necessary work, their friends and neighbours give them a
day's help, and the assistance is returned later on. The custom is known as
letsa, mutual labour. Where hiring is the rule, the rates vary according to the
village custom and the nature of the work, and, occasionally, the sex of the
labourer. Sometimes the payment is in kind, sometimes in money, sometimes
partly in kind and partly in money; usually one, sometimes two, occasionally
even three meals are provided, and these are taken along with the family. Often
the farmer must provide so many cheroots, or some betel leaf and areca nut, or
some pickled tea, for the labourer's refreshment. It would not be far wide of the
mark to say that the usual rate of hire for a man for field labour is equivalent to
five annas a
day, and for a woman three annas. There are certain kinds of labour which are
peculiar to a sex. Women only bed out the rice plants, an operation during
which they may occasion-ally be heard singing--to lighten the labour--in what
to a Western ear is an astonishingly doleful recitative. Only men pull up the
rice seedlings: and it is a woman's task to top the millet plants. The other
operations are carried out by men and women alike. Women are, however,
rarely seen ploughing.
The rotation of crops has been mentioned, The periods in the rotation vary
with the capabilities of the soil; as a general rule it may be said that--except in
tracts where rice is the main crop--millet will be grown on the dry soil as long
as the land will stand it. The reason is that millet provides food for the
cultivator and fodder for his cattle, and he therefore prefers it to sesamum--a
more precarious crop--although the profit from the latter in a good year is
greater and the cultivation of it less laborious. Where the main crop is rice,
there is not the same pre-ference for millet; so, along the Mu, and in the west,
the dry-crop lands are chiefly under sesamum.
Manure.
No use is made of cowdung for domestic purposes, such as making cakes

for fuel. It is, however, used in leeping rice bins and to level and fill the cracks
on the surface of threshing-floors. No trouble is taken to store the manure in
pits. It remains in the byte until it is carted to the land at the commencement of
the cultivating season. Nothing is done to preserve the liquid constituents of
the excreta. They are allowed to run to waste, and litter is hardly ever used.
The general custom is to apply the manure to the land before ploughing; in
some places it is deposited in heaps on the field as early as March, but in most
not until May or June. Where the supply of manure is sufficient, it is applied
both to rice and dry-crop land. There are, how-ever, places where little use is
made of manure. In inundated rice land, manure is occasionally ploughed in
before the water enters. When the supply is insufficient for both wet and dry
lands, the rice lands have the preference. Fresh manure is used as well as old,
except in a few villages, where only old manure is used. As a general rule,
cattle are not turned out on the fields to manure them, but in many places cattle
are folded on dry lands during the rains in order to avoid the mud and slush
within the villages and, incidentally, their excreta benefit the soil, The position
of the folds is in some places--notably the stony, infertile cotton region--
changed every few days, and here the primary purpose of folding is that the
manure may fertilize the soil. In most cases cattle manure is the only fertilizer
used; village rubbish is, however, occasionally
utilized and is generally burnt. Bushes growing on dry-crop land are also
sometimes cut down and burnt for manure. Very rarely, oil-cake is used as a
manure. Silt is never applied, except to the betel-vineyards in Nyaungbyubin,
south of Mônywa. Cattle manure is not burnt before application to the soil.
There is hardly any sale of manure. The stubble of crops is grazed down by the
cattle, whilst the roots remain in the ground and help to enrich the soil. As the
custom of using cow-dung cakes for fuel is unknown, practically all the
contents of the byre go on to the field.
Furrow irrigation is practised in onion cultivation. Pump irrigation is

unknown. Millet stalks are chopped by hand for cattle fodder--a laborious task.
One or two machines, after the type of the chaff-cutter, are in use, and it would
probably prove remunerative to exploit them systematically in the millet-
growing tracts. Reaping is done by hand. A simple reaping machine might
succeed in the black-soil tracts east and west of the Chindwin, where there are
extensive level stretches under millet, uninterrupted by field hedges or
embankments. There is a substantial body of opinion--the outcome of
generations of experience--that the fertility of the soil for next year's crop is
increased by a bean-crop, but assent is not universal and is sometimes
qualified. The fertility of the soil is generally believed to be the same as in
Burmese times, and the belief that the outturn is less than it was follows on the
idea that the rainfall, not the soil, is deteriorating.
Description of the Chlef crops rice.
The people classify the numerous varieties of rice broadly according to

age. The shortest-aged variety is reaped some three months, and the longest
some four and a-half to five months, after sowing. On inundated lands, high-
lying fields are sometimes broad-casted before the river-water enters and
reaped after they have subsided. These fields are not transplanted. The lower-
lying fields are ploughed once or twice before inundation, harrowed after the
water has receded, and then transplanted with seedlings taken from the
nurseries, which have been sown after the first heavy rain in the highest-lying
fields, out of reach of inundation. It is in these lower-lying fields that the
longer-aged varieties of rice are grown. Their water-supply is more certain, but
they are not exempt from the risk of being drowned by a late rise of the river in
September or October.
The processes of cultivation in rice lands which depend on the rainfall

alone are similar, except that they are never ploughed; only the harrow is used.
The outturn of a trans-planted being greater than that from a broadcasted field,
the cultivator always transplants, if the rainfall favours him. He will, if

possible, sow in a wet seed-bed and transplant to a wet field. But rainfall is
often scanty, and he may be compelled to sow in a dry nursery and--whether he
has sown in a dry or a wet nursery--to watch his seedlings withering under a
hot sun and be left, when the heavy rain falls and fills the fields, with no
seedlings to transplant. All that he can then do is to broadcast the field without
the possibility of transplanting later, for the season is now too far advanced for
that.
Of the rice-growing regions the following are, at present, the best: the
irrigated land along the North Yama stream; the inundated tract south of
Mônywa; the irrigated tracts along the South Yama and the Yewa; the hot-
weather rice lands along the Chindwin in the north; and the rainfall rice lands
along the Inbaung and in the eastern black-soil area.
Dry crop land.
Of the dry-crop lands, wherever silt is present the land is of value; and,
apart from silt soils, the black-soil tracts are generally more valuable than the
red. The largest compact areas of silt soil are found south of Mônywa, on the
east bank of the Chindwin, and between Letpadaung and Ngakôn on the west
bank.
In the west of the district a few fields are found under upland rice,
broadcasted soon after the first rains and reaped in September. This form of
cultivation does not require a level, embanked field, as the rainfall near the
hills sufficus to mature the crop. The mode differs from the ordinary
cultivation of rice on hillsides in hilly regions, only in that a gentle slope or a
fairly level depression is selected.
Millet.
The method of cultivation of kunpyaung, the red millet, in the south-west

of the district, where large areas of black soil are under this crop, is as follows
:--The seeds are not selected with care. The topped ears for next year's sowing,
are taken from the field and exposed for from ten to fifteen days and nights on
the threshing-floor outside the village. They are then trodden out in the usual
way, and are placed aside in any convenient receptacle in the house. The seed-
grain is liable to depredation from insects (the rice weevil) and rats, and the
receptacle is occasionally, but not often, covered. Ashes are not mixed with the
gram. Grain more than a year old is believed to lose its germinating power.
The grain is not beaten--to separate the husk---before sowing.
Preparation of the soil--The soil is never ploughed: the seven-toothed

harrow alone is used, and with this the soil is stirred, in order to remove weeds,
as soon as the early rains fall. The seven-toothed harrow gives the shallowest
tilth, and the stiff black soil does not call for deep ploughing.
Manure.--The fields are not manured: the contents of the village byre are
either burnt or used for the wet cultivation, and cattle are not folded in the
fields. The fields are never fallowed, and on the better soils millet can be
grown up to three or four years in succession, when a crop of late sesamum or
gram, or of early sesamum followed by beans, is taken.
Sowing.--Seed-time lasts from the beginning of July to the end of August.

The seed is broadcasted and a seven-toothed harrow drawn over the field
immediately, in order to cover the seeds with earth. The seed in the earth is
said not to be subject to depredation from pests, but the young plant is attacked
by the cockchafer grub.
Between seed-time and harvest.--As soon as the plant is a few inches high
the field is thinned once with the seven-toothed harrow: it is also weeded by
hand, and when the plants are from one to two feet high the field is again hat-
rowed, partly to thin out the crop which, if too thick on the ground, dies or
gives a diminished yield, and partly to remove weeds. It is also occasionally
hoed with the hand-hoe; when the plant has grown tall, the weed growth is
removed with the sickle. No pruning of the leaves is carried out. The crop is
not watched. In this region there is no jungle growth to afford shelter to birds,
and no fear of depredation from the larger animals.
Diseases, etc.--Smut, hmo-kyet-taung, causes the grain to turn from bright

red to greyish black, and the outer integument fills with a black powder. The
stalk occasionally snaps with heavy rain or wind, when the ear is lost. Heavy
rain and wind also lay the plant, but if a bent or laid plant is tied up to a
standing neighbour, no damage is done. Certain insects damage millet, vide
infra.
Harvest.--The crop is reaped with the hand-sickle in January and February.

Rarely, the harrow is driven through the plants to lay them and facilitate
reaping. The stalks are at once topped and when, after a varying interval, all
the stalks from his field have been topped, the cultivator carts them to the
threshing-floor and his oxen, which are usually muzzled, tread them out. The
threshing-floor is prepared in the manner described above.
The winnowing-presents no peculiar feature.
Sesamum.
The dividing line between early and late sesamum fol-lows approximately
the eastern boundary of the western black-soil tract, Early sesamum is usually
followed by a second crop of beans (pènauk) or gram, or; less frequently,
millet.
There are two main varieties of late sesamum--(a)late sesamum proper, a

90-day crop; (b) intermediate late sesamum (gya-hnan), a 75-day crop. The
latter is replacing the longer-aged variety--on all except the black-soils--in the
tracts east of the Chindwin.
The following note has been compiled on the cultivation of late sesamum
east of the Chindwin :--The eight principal kinds are: (1) hnan-net-gyi, the seed
of which is black in colour; (2) thadunbyu, whitish; (3) bôkmwe, maroon; (4)
gawya ; (5) shanga-le ; (6) padetha ; (7) gwado, all of which are whitish; (8)
gyo-lè-byauk, grey. Of the above, 5 to 8 are grouped as gya-hnan. Hnan-net-
gyi and thadun-byu are the most common. There is no careful selection of the
seed. Seed is put away in an earthen jar, the mouth of which is covered with a
piece of cloth on which is placed sand or ashes, up to the level of the rim.
Cultivators of large holdings keep their seed in a pôk, a large, open-mouthed,
bamboo basket, well leeped with cowdung.
The field is cleared of weeds by a double or triple harrow-ing with the

seven-toothed harrow. After the first rains, it is harrowed two or three times
with the four-toothed har-row, twice with the three-toothed harrow, and is then
left until more rain has fallen. The field is harrowed thus not less than four
times, the favourite interval being ten days, but this is governed by the rainfall.
If the field happens to grow weeds during a long dry interval, it has to be har-
rowed afresh; the more borrowings the better. A field of one acre can do with
ninety to one hundred baskets of cow-dung ;old well-rotted manure is
preferred. The best means of fertilizing the soil is considered to be folding
cattle on- the field. Dusty and sandy soils are manured, but black-cotton and
silt soils not.
The seed is broadcasted and the field cross-harrowed twice or thrice with a
three-toothed harrow, in order to cover the seed. An acre takes about one pyi,
one-sixteenth of a basket, * of seed. Indifferent cultivators and women call in a
skilled cultivator to sow their fields, and repay the service with weeding,
herding or the like. The sower is
* In capacity a little less than nine gallons.

seldom willing to give his assistance for hire in money or grain, but usually
asks for repayment in service.
Weeding is done--usually before sowing--when the soil is damp; the small

weeds are removed by hand, the large by means of the hoe. There is little
weeding after sowing. Very occasionally, however, a field is gone over with
the four or three-toothed harrow. Pwinbyu, the small white-flowered weed
which is popularly supposed to do so much damage to millet, does not harm
sesamum.
When the leaves along the lower part of the stalk become yellow and fall,
the field is reaped with the sickle. Reaping is done in the morning, for if the
plants were cut in the heat of the day the seeds would fall from the opened
pods. The stalks, after reaping, are carted to the threshing-floor. They are
heaped there for three days, so that all the pods may become well ripened. On
the fourth day, the stalks are thinly spread over the surface of the threshing-
floor, to dry in the sunshine, and on the fifth day they are threshed with a flail.
After four such threshings the stalks are placed aside. The fallen seeds are
gathered up, heaped, and passed through a sieve, which collects most of the
leaves and extraneous matter, and are finally winnowed.
Cotton.
The field is cleared of weeds with the seven-toothed harrow at the end of
April and, if the soil is of inferior quality, cowdung manure is deposited in
small heaps, to be ploughed into the soil subsequently. The heaps are never
burnt. If the soil is naturally rich, it is not manured, lest the plant should grow
rank and throw out fewer boils. There is no custom of selecting seed. Seed is
purchased, either, at eight annas for a basket, from the households which spin
and weave country cotton cloth in the villages or--and this is the prevailing
custom--from Myinmu in Sagaing district, the seed in the latter case being
imported from the Myingyan mills. Seed is sold in Myinmu at the rate of one
rupee for ten viss (thirty-six pounds). Five viss of seed are equivalent to one
basket in capacity, so that the price of the two purchases is the same. But the
Myinmu purchase has to be carted for varying distances, and the seeds are also
considered inferior to the village product, as they have to be sown half as
thickly again. As soon as the rains. commence at the end of May, the field is
harrowed twice with the four-toothed harrow and is then left until the next
burst of rain, when it is again harrowed, with the three-or the four-toothed
harrow. Immediately after this final harrowing the seed is broad easted, and the
field cross-harrowed to cover it. The plants grow to a height of about
one span in a month from sowing. The field is then weeded with the hoe. The
rates of daily hire are four annas for a man and two annas for a woman, in
addition to two meals. If rain follows, the field may require a second,
occasionally even a third, weeding. A well-grown field gives six pickings, the
fourth picking yielding most. The average yield from a field sown with one
basket of seed is as follows--at the first picking six viss, second eight viss,
third ten viss, fourth twelve viss; fifth eight viss, and at the final picking about
four viss. The customary hire of labour for picking cotton is one-tenth of the
pick, and no meals are provided. Only a small amount of the yield is spun for
use as coverlets and jackets. The seeds are not now used as fodder, and oil is
not extracted from them. It is naï vely admitted that the weight of the cotton is
increased by watering, the excuse given being that the purchasers use false
weights and the device of watering corrects the injustice.
Most of the crop is sold in advance to Messrs. Jamal Brothers' brokers from
Myinmu, who sell the seed for next year's crop, as already noticed. The highest
village prices are those prevailing in December, and the bulk of the crop is
picked in October and November. The expense of carting the cotton to
Myinmu is borne by the cultivator or the purchaser, according to the terms of
the particular contract. If the crop fails and cotton cannot be delivered then the
contracted amount is valued at the price prevailing at the date upon which
delivery should have been made, and so much money has to be paid. The
brokers will not buy ginned cotton, without the seed.
The great cotton (wa-gyi), a three-years' plant, is found in a few fields here
and there, but is nowhere habitually grown.
Red bean.
The following description of the cultivation of the red bean applies to the
inundated tract south of Mônywa :-Not much attention is paid to selection of
seed. When the seed beans are selected and not purchased, the better-looking
of the trodden beans are dried in the sun for two days and placed aside in an
uncovered receptacle. Depredations are not expected, whether from insects or
other vermin. Before the river water enters, the field is harrowed and then
ploughed, and after subsidence it is ploughed and harrowed. The soil is silt,
and does not require manuring. The field is given a final three-teeth harrowing
and the seeds, three at a time, are dropped in the furrows so left, at intervals of
about eighteen inches. As the sower progresses he draws with his foot a light
covering of earth over the seed sown.
The seed beans are seldom broadcasted, but the maize with which in this tract
red bean is almost invariably grown mixed, is thrown broadcast. The field is
weeded once with the long hoe. The maize plants are cut when young for
fodder, and that their shade may not impede the growth of the bean, which is,
when ripe reaped with the sickle close to the ground. The plant is ripe when the
pod turns dry and yellow. The bines are trodden out by cattle in the usual way.
The field is not ploughed after harvest. The white bean (pè-byu-ga-le),
Phaseolus lunatus, is in the plant indistinguishable from the red bean. It is not
extensively grown, and the methods of cultivation are the same as of the red
bean.
Groundnut.
Groundnut is also grown on the silt soils south of Mônywa. The two chief
varieties are known as the Large Chinese and the Small Chinese (talôk-gyi and
ga-le), the only difference between the varieties being that the Large has a
larger and better-looking pod. Next year's seed pods are carefully selected, for
size, in the pod, sun-dried for six or seven days, to prevent them getting musty,
and placed aside in a covered receptacle, to guard them against rats.
Depredations of insects are not expected, and no other precaution is taken than
covering the pot or basket. The field is ploughed in the same way as for the red
bean, but to a greater depth. A few days before sowing the seed pods are
shelled, being tapped with a stick until the husk is separated; sowing is done in
the same way as with the red bean. The field is hoed twice with the long hoe,
on the first occasion to remove weeds, on the second to bank up the earth over
the branches and so protect the young pods from crows. There is no manuring,
as the soil is silt. Some cultivators arrange cotton threads across the field to
scare the crows away, and the crop is also watched during the daytime. The
long-handled hoe is again utilized to grub up the whole plant when ripe. The
bines are taken to the house and the pods stripped by hand. Such pods as are
left on the ground are gleaned without payment by the first-comer. The field is
not ploughed after harvest.
Pèdi.
This bean, which when ripe has a slender black pod about three inches long
containing small beans of a green colour, is grown as an early crop on the
reddish soils east of the Chindwin. The bean in a good year throws out three
crops. In some localities it is sown mixed with the large white bean (pègyi).
The pèdi ripens in the rainy season, whilst the white bean is not picked until
December and January.
Onions.
Onions are cultivated in four ways: (a) without irrigation, in pure silt soil,
south of Mônywa, often for sale green as spring onions; (b)with irrigation
(flush) from training-banks; (c) with irrigation (lift) by means of trough-lifts
(ku) and swing-baskets (kanwè): these two methods occur along the South
Yama; (d) with irrigation from wells, by means of the bucket and lever. This
method is found in many places. The following note on the cultivation of
onions at Ngakôn on the South Yama was recorded by Mr. S. A. Smyth, I.C.S.,
Assistant Settlement Officer. The cultivation is most extensive in this region
and the methods of irrigation in use are (b) and (c) above :--
Varieties.--The onions planted are mostly kyetthunni, or red onions, of

which there are several varieties. The following are the chief :--(i) Shan.--This
is the commonest sort: each plant produces from five to ten different shoots
and bulbs; (ii) Meiktaung.--This variety produces three or four separate shoots
and bulbs; (iii) Meikkwè (or Burmese), also produces three or four separate
bulbs; (iv) Katta (Calcutta), which produces two or three separate bulbs of a
good size. This variety was introduced by a native of India who had settled in
Ngakôn; (v) Bônbaing (Bombay), which has a single large bulb to each plant:
this is also a recent introduction. A few plots of kyetthunbyu (white onions),
which are similar in appearance to leeks, are also planted. They are preferred to
red onions for culinary purposes and are more pungent, and they command a
considerably higher price. The bulbs only are used, the leaves being thrown
away. Only one bulb is produced by each plant, and the yield is not so large as
in the case of red onions.
Preparation of the soil.--The preparation of the soil is a tedious and

troublesome business, and the area which can be prepared by the owner of a
pair of bullocks does not exceed two acres or thereabouts. Those who possess a
supply of manure place seven or eight cartloads per acre on the land, about the
end of May. Ploughing begins a month later. The ground is first harrowed
several times, beginning with a seven-toothed harrow and reducing the number
of teeth by one at each harrowing, the number at the last harrowing being
three. It is then ploughed with a htè or proper share, and left to the action of the
rain. From July to October it is harrowed occasionally with a six-or seven-
toothed harrow, in order to keep down weeds. The planting of the ordinary
kinds of red onion takes place at the beginning or end of December, according
as the late rains cease early or late. Before planting can take place, the soil, if it
is silt, must be subjected to a repetition of the process of harrowing and
ploughing carried out in June and, in addition, the clods must be broken by the
alternate use of a harrow and a clod-crushing log (cheik). If the soil is coarse,
ploughing and clod-crushing is not required, and one or two turns with a six-or
seven-toothed harrow suffice. When the ground has been reduced to a fine
state of tilth it is left for five or six days and then harrowed again. It is then
ready for planting.
Planting.--Twelve persons are required to plant ten baskets of seed onions

in a day on coarse soil. One man divides up the ground into small
compartments called chin, each about twelve by seven feet, surrounded by
small ridges of earth, and separated from each other by channels, to be utilized
later for the conveyance of water. A second constructs furrows in the chin,
either by drawing a three-toothed harrow across them himself or by driving
bullocks across them with a seven-toothed harrow. In these grooves ten women
plant the seed bulbs, and cover them up. Working in this manner, two acres can
be planted with an expenditure of thirty baskets of seed bulbs in three days.
Each basket of seed bulbs weighs ten viss and costs the cultivator anything
from Rs. 1-8-0 to Rs. 4 a basket, if he has not been fortunate enough to save
from last year's crop; On silt soil the planting of seed bulbs is easier than on
coarse soil, and about six women can plant ten baskets in a day.
The Katta and Bônbaing varieties are generally grown from seed, which is
sown in nurseries towards the end of October. These varieties require to be
planted somewhat earlier than the indigenous sorts, and they are also longer in
coming to maturity. The transplanting is carried out when the nursery plants
are about six inches long.
Subsequent cultivation.--Too large a supply of water is fatal to newly

planted onions, and it is generally a month or thirty-five days after planting
before the first watering is given. After this, water is supplied at intervals of
twenty or twenty-five days, as it becomes evident that more water is wanted. It
is reckoned that, at most, five waterings suffice for the indigenous varieties.
For Katta and Bônbaing, a more frequent supply is necessary, and as many as
ten waterings may be given. White onions require the same amount of water as
the native varieties of red onion. As soon as the bulbs form and the crop is
approaching maturity, larger supplies of water are given at each watering than
at the earlier stages of growth. One man can raise enough water with a trough
or basket-lift in three days to water two acres of onions. The same quantity of
water is required by onions planted on silt and those planted on coarse soil.
Besides watering, it is necessary to weed the beds repeatedly, as fresh weeds
come up after each watering.
Harvesting and sale.--The crop is mature at the end of April, when it is dug
up and removed to the cultivator's house in carts. The leaves, which are yellow
and withered when the crop is ripe, are removed, and the onions are ready for
sale without further preparation. An average crop on two acres is 3, 000, and a
good crop 4,000 viss. A labourer can dig up the bulbs from an area sufficient
for planting 1½baskets in a day on silt soil, and in one-third less on coarse
soil. Onions decrease gradually in weight, if kept after harvesting. A crop of
3,000 viss dug up in April does not weigh more than 1,500 viss in December.
If the quality of the crop is poor, a still greater decrease-may take place.
Onions are always sold by weight. Purchasers come in boats from Mônywa,
Myingyan, Pakôkku, Myinmu and other places, and buy at Ngakôn. There used
to be extensive trade with boats from Lower Burma, but this has fallen off of
late. Many of the more prosperous cultivators hold up their onions for a rise in
price. Some sell to cultivators who require seed in December, and cultivators
who cannot pay cash for the purchase engage to repay the amount in onions in
April at the rate of 100 viss for every Rs. 4 or Rs. 5 worth of seed.
Rates of hire of labour.--The rate for planting, weed-ing and working a

trough or basket-lift is four to six annas per diem (according to the demand for,
and supply of, labour), with morning and evening meals, for each man
employed. For digging, the rate is said to be eight viss of onions a day,
together with the morning meal and some refreshment--palm-sugar and the
like. Women receive for planting and weeding two annas per diem and one
meal.
Miscellaneous.--Onions are often planted year after year on the same

ground; but the crop deteriorates unless rotation is practised. The best results
are obtained by planting onions every third year, and rice in the intervening
years. Onions are attacked by two diseases:one appears in the form of spots on
the leaves, beginning at the tips and descending to the bulb. The spots are like
the spots on the trout-spotted lizard, rankle, and the term applied to the disease
is therefore taukte kyathi. This is a disease of old standing, but within the last
few years another has appeared which attacks the bulb and roots. The roots
become brown and the bulbs and leaves turn yellow and shrivel up. Both
diseases are attributed to insects, which have, however, not been seen by the
cultivator, so that the etiology remains doubtful. The water for the cultivation
is derived from a sand-training bank in the South Yama, which also supplies
Linzagyet. Fields that lie too high to allow of the water entering flush are
watered by means of the trough-and basket-lifts. Higher up, the Yama stream
gives way to well irrigation.
Plantains.
Plaintains are usually a three-years' crop, and the varieties favoured are the
coarse kinds, pi-gyan and yakaing. At the end of the three years, the stumps are
grubbed up, and the plot is placed under a field-crop. The gardens are usually
found on silt soils along the banks of streams.
Betel-vine.
The cultivation of betel-vine, the leaves of which are used as a wrapping

for the areca nut which is consumed by all Burmans, occurs in homestead plots
in Nyaungbyubin, Thitsein and Mayogôn, south of Mônywa, and--to a small
extent--in Twin village east of Shweza-ye, Alôn, and in Ngwedwin near the
Mu. The description is of the method of cultivation followed in the villages
south of Mônywa :--The plants are generally put in in the month of July. A
vineyard of five hundred uprights covers about '04 of an acre, and the bed
takes sixteen kyin of silt soil. A kyin is one hundred cubic cubits. After the soil
has been deposited, it is left for a year in order to settle down. The surface is
then harrowed for a morning. The soil is not manured. After levelling, the
surface is divided into five compart-ments which are marked with bamboos
and at intervals along the boundary of each compartment posts are driven in,
each having a length of twelve feet and a girth of sixteen inches. These main
posts are usually made of weed of the cutch tree, but sometimes sections of the
tari palm, borassus flabelliformis, are used instead. At a height of ten feet holes
are bored and cross struts, each a foot in length, inserted. On the strut on each
side a bamboo is placed horizontally and tied to it with strips of the leaf of the
tari palm. In the avenue between each two rows of main posts two small
parallel channels are dug, and in them the young plants are bedded in a line.
The young plants are at first trained up small sticks, and in order that their
heads may not droop, are tied loosely to the sticks with dried strips of plantain
leaf. They are sprinkled with water three times a day. At the outset the
vineyard is shaded overhead with dried cocoanut leaves, which are placed on
bamboo rafters tied to the top of the main posts. When the new roots strike,
long bamboo uprights are driven in by the side of the small guiding sticks,
which are removed, and the uprights are tied to the horizontal bamboo above
with dried strips of palm leaf. The plants on being trans-ferred to the uprights
are tied to them, to prevent drooping. After the transfer, the small channels are
watered daily, morn-ing and evening, from a well, the water being raised by
means of the bucket and lever and conveyed to the vineyard in a trough made
of the hollowed-out trunk of a palm.
The vineyard begins to thrive in about a year, when the leaves can be
picked. At the first picking, the yield of a vineyard of five hundred uprights is
about ten viss, or thirty-six pounds. The second takes place after an inter-val of
twenty days, and the produce is about twelve-and-a-halt viss, and the same
amount is yielded at the third. The leaves are picked three times in two months.
At later pickings the produce gradually increases to fifteen viss. After
December the yield steadily decreases to eight viss. The diminution is ascribed
to the increasing heat. Altogether, a vineyard is picked about eighteen times in
the year. The yield in succeeding years follows the same course. At the end of
the third year the plants are old, they are detached from their supports, coiled
up, and the coil is embedded in the ground at the foot of the upright. New soil
is laid on the old bed and the new growth commences from the scion of the old
coiled plant. The leaf finds a ready sale in Mônywa and at the Satôn bazaar,
west of the river.
Borassus flabelliformis, the tari or toddy palm.
The turf palm grows in large numbers in the south of the district along the
western bank of the Chindwin: on the Mu-Chindwin plateau: round Okpo: and
south-east of Natyedaung.
The number of palms was counted in the year of Settlement, 1906-07, and
there were found to be :--climbed in that year for the sap, 164,267; unclimbed,
594,019; total, 758,286. Of the unclimbed trees, it appeared that a very large
number was sap-bearing. The amount of fuel consumed in boiling down the
sap of the palm to sugar is large, and it is usually held that the industry entails
a destruction of tree-growth which may be leading to deterioration, either in
the actual amount of the rainfall or in the utility of a constant fall. The work of
climbing is arduous and dangerous and the owner of trees usually lets them
out, at a rental which is sometimes fixed for the grove of a large number of
trees, and sometimes fixed by the number of productive trees, the rent in the
latter case being usually one viss of palm-sugar per climbed tree, whether male
or female. Occasionally, half a viss is the rent taken for a male against one viss
for a female tree. The occupation of climbing is often subsidiary to agriculture.
The average gross value of the produce of a climbed tree was estimated at
Settle-ment to be, according to the tract, from Rs. 1 '75 to Rs. 1'40, and the net
value (i.e., the gross value less the cost of cultivation) from Rs. 1'35 to Re.
1'00.
The following account of the economic aspects of borassus flabelliformis is

based on a note recorded by Maung Po Myin, Assistant Settlement Officer. It
relates particularly to the method of cultivation and the incidents of growth of
the tree in the region between the Yamas, where the palm-sugar industry is
most extensively followed :-
The male and female tree cannot be distinguished until the fruit--if it is a
female tree, or the shoot--if it is a male tree--has made its appearance, that is,
in the case of trees of either sex, if planted in good soil in fifteen to twenty
years, if planted in inferior soil, in twenty-five to thirty years. Sap can be
extracted only when the fruit or the spicule has appeared. The period during
which a tree can be 'tapped' extends from one hundred years to a maximum of
one hundred and twenty-five years. Even then sap could be extracted, for the
tree continues to bear fruit and spicules, but the great height of the tree renders
climbing dangerous.
The many uses to which the tree can be put are noticed in the Sagaing
Settlement Report. The chief use is the production of palm-sugar. Fuel for the
season's work is collected in November and, roughly, each tree takes a cart-
load. A cart-load of the bark of the thitya tree (shorea abtusa) is also collected,
to be placed in the pots for the purpose of · checking fermentation. The bark
used by the climbers in this locality is collected in the jungles north of the
North Yama. The short and long ladders, yinzwè and yindaung, are then
constructed. The yindaung is a long, narrow ladder of bamboo, which is carried
from tree to tree; the yinzwè is a short ladder, used for mounting to the top of
the tree from the end of the yindaung, and tied to the tree once for all. If the
yindaung is long enough to reach to the top of the male tree, a yinzwè is not
required. But the yinzwè is required for all female trees, as the branches
bearing the clusters of fruit hang down, and the yinzwè affords a support for
the feet of the climber, when operating on them. The galaing is a sort of
boatswain's chair, tied to the branches to afford a seat to the climber. The other
implements are :--
A htan-hli dha, or slicing knife.
A hta-dwin dha, a knife used for cutting the stalks and the reticulated parts
covering them.
A bu-do dha, a knife used for cutting away the rough bark from the
branches in the preliminary stages of the work. This knife is never used for
female trees.
A hta-du, a short, crooked, iron bar, in shape not unlike a bent spanner used
for clearing the interstices of the stem between the clusters of fruit, and for
bruising the stalk and fruit.
A dha-hni-ein, a wooden scabbard for the knife.
A thanbat, the iron rim round the scabbard.
A than-gyeik, or iron hook, connected by means of an iron ring to the rim,

on which are hung the small collecting-pots when the climber is mounting the
tree.
The kinds of pot used are :-
The myu-o, an earthen pot with a capacity of a quart or thereabouts, which

is suspended from the branch to collect the sap.
The ywet-o, an earthen pot large enough to hold the contents of several
collecting-pots. It is used to convey the sap from the tree to the oven.
The o-ma-gyi, a large jar used as a receptacle for the contents of the ywet-o.
The chet-hpyin-o, the jar in which the sap is boiled on the fire.
The other appurtenances are ropes for the pots and ladders.
The process of extracting and converting the sap is as follows :--
(a) Male trees--first season: tabo-nu-yit--binding the branches when tender.
The first stage is to clear away unnecessary branches, htabo-hnwe, so that

only young and tender branches remain. Some of these are split lengthwise
with the knife, and are
then bound up. After an interval of three days about three-fourths of the bound
branches are sliced off at the end in the morning. and again in the afternoon,
for two or three days in succession, by which time the sap has begun to ooze
out. Slicing is continued daily, morning and evening, and collecting-pots are
suspended, one on each branch. Gene-rally five to six pots are suspended on
each tree. At the outset, pots are usually tied up in the evening and not in the
morning. The pot is covered with reticulated fibre to protect the sap from
crows. Before the hanging process begins, the collecting-pots, if quite new, are
soaked in water, so as to prevent transudation. If the pots are old, they are first
washed in water, then placed, with mouths facing, in parallel rows at a distance
of one span; dry leaves of the palm are placed in the space between and set on
fire. This is done in order to remove from the pots all traces of last year's sap,
and it is said that no other kind of fuel will effect this or cleanse the pots
properly, and in an uncleansed pot the new sap turns bad, and the palm-sugar
will be of poor quality.
After the collecting-pots have been cleansed in this way, about two ticals *
weight of chips of the bark of the thitya are placed in each pot to retard
fermentation. If the tree is a female tree, it is usual to mix a little lime with the
bark. The climber never conveys the collecting-pots to the oven himself. His
children perform this duty or, if he has none, a hired servant is engaged and
paid one-and-a-half to two rupees per mensem; in addition to which he is
permitted to drink ad libitum of the unfermented sap, and to consume as much
of the sugar as he wants, and he also receives his meals. The contents of the
collecting-pots are poured into the receiving-pot (ywet-o), which is emptied at
the ovens into the large supplying-pot.
This season of working begins at the end of March and lasts for about
fifteen days. The daily yield of palm-sugar from one tree is about fifteen ticals'
weight, and the total produce comes to some three viss--between ten and
eleven pounds--for the season.
Should there be rain after completion of the preparatory processes, the

branches often rot. They are also subject to damage from squirrels and insects,
particularly a kind of black beetle with wings which, after biting away the
rough parts, eats the delicate portions inside. This insect is said to be about the
size of the tip of a finger. There is also a
* 100 ticals = 1 viss or 3'65 lbs.

white insect which attacks the branches in rainy and cloudy weather. The
boiling work is left to the women of the climber's family. The process
commences with the preparation of arrange of six or seven ovens, dug in a tine
on the ground. The sap from the supplying-pot is ladled out in a collecting-pot
and poured into the boiling-pots placed ready over the ovens. At the
commencement, the first three pots are filled up nearly to the brim, while the
last three are only half filled. The first pot is styled the chwe-o or hpo-u-o; the
next, cha-o or hmwe-o; and the rest, su-o. The attendant remains at the side of
the range of ovens and it is her duty to transfer, with a ladle often made out of
a cocoanut, the boiling sap from one pot to another. Powdered castor-oil
seedsare pasted round the brim of the pots inside, a device which ensures the
contents from boiling over, for the bubbles sub side when they touch this
preparation. When the liquid has become very thick the pot is removed from
the oven, and its contents are taken out in a wooden dipper and placed upon a
tray or in a shallow basket, made into small balls, and left for some time to
cool and dry. Rice powder is sprinkled over the balls of sugar to prevent them
from sticking to the tray. The sap collected at all seasons is boiled down to
sugarin the same way.
(b) Male trees--second season: hta-bo hnyat--compressing the matured

branches.
In the hta-bo-nu-yit season the main stem was protected from breaking, and
left uncut. Each of these branches in the hnyat season is tightly pressed
between sticks of woodor bamboo placed crosswise, in order that it may
become soft. Each branch is marked off into two parts, and each part is tied in
four places and two pots are suspended, one from each part. Three days after
the branches have been tied in this manner, the ends are sliced off evenly in the
morning, If, after the squeezing process, no flow follows, the wooden nippers
are cut off and thrown away, the reason given being that, if they are thrown
away instead of being left on the tree, other climbers will not know that there
has been a failure. The process of compression appears to be a delicate one,
and failure may result from over or under-pressure. If the trees remain
unworked for a day, the yield of sap falls for the next two or three days, and if
the tree sremain unworked for two or three days at a time, the flow fails
altogether. The hnyat season begins at the middle of April and lasts for about a
month. The yield for the
whole season is about four-and-a-half viss--some sixteen pounds--of sugar.
(c) Female trees--first season: tama-yaung--extraclion when the fruit is tender.
The season begins when the fruits begin to form and swell (yaung). The
first stage is the employment of the hammer to bruise, to softness the
interstices of stalk between the clusters of fruit. The degree of softness is tested
by the climber holding with one hand the main part of the branch and with the
other the extremity and shaking the branch to and fro, in order to ascertain
whether it has been sufficiently beaten. If it has been, after an interval of three
days, the short ladder is tied along the trunk, from the termination of the long
ladder, and about two inches are cut from the ends of the branch; and in the
evening collecting-pots are hung up. On the following morning, the ends of the
cut branches are again thinly sliced, never more than three or four slices being
removed. The branches that remain unsliced are left to be worked during the
following season (thiyin--videinfra). The yield of sap will not increase, even if
all the branches are operated on. As with the process of squeezing the branch
of the male tree, so in bruising the stalk of the female tree the degree to which
the operation should be carried calls for a nice judgment or there will be a
complete failure of the flow. But if failure results from insufficient bruising,
the branch bears fruit and is therefore not cut and thrown away. On the other
hand, if the failure results from excessive bruising, the branch dries up and will
bear no fruit, and in such a case it is cut and discarded. If no climbing is done
for three days at a time, the flow ceases and working must be abandoned. The
season begins at the same time as the squeezing of the male tree, both
operations are carried on together, and the yield from both is converted into
sugar at one boiling. Extraction from the female tree goes on, however, up to
the end of May: its duration therefore is about a month and a half. The average
yield of a tree per diem is the contents of one collecting-pot, from which
twenty ticals of sugar can be manufactured. At this rate nine viss in all--or
thirty-three pounds--can be obtained in the whole season.
(d) Female trees--second season: tama thiyin--extraclion when the fruit is

mature.
The climber mounts the short ladder and, supporting himself against it,
beats the branch with its clusters of fruit against the tree. If the bunch is a large
one, he will beat it as many as two hundred times, and the least number of
times a small bunch is beaten is fifty. After an interval of three days, the
climber mounts the tree, removes two or three of the fruits from the extremity
of the bunch and slices about two inches off the fruit-stem.
The process of beating is generally repeated; and when successive slicings

have removed all the exposed portion of the stern, another cluster of fruits is
removed and the newly exposed portion is sliced in the same manner. The
interval between beatings does not exceed three days when the days are bright,
but, if there is cloudy weather, the beating is postponed until the weather
becomes fair. A long interval between beating does not spoil the working. The
yield is collected every morning and evening. If the bunches are beaten against
the tree too violently, the fruit falls off. On the other hand, if the bunch is
beaten too little, sap will not flow. If climbing is neglected for two successive
days the flow ceases altogether. The clusters of fruit are never beaten during
rainy or cloudy weather, but only on sunny days. The season commences
towards the end of June but may be delayed as long as one month beyond that;
it lasts for two-and-a-half months. The yield of sugar from a tree in a season is
six viss or twenty-two pounds.
The following generalizations may be noted:-
The flow is in all trees inconstant.
A tree in the prime of life produces more than an older tree.
A tree growing on good soil yields more than one growing on inferior soil.
Trees on low-lying ground yield more than those on rising ground.
The flow is greater in a year of favourable rainfall than in a year of drought.
Male trees yield more than female trees.*
The flow is better on a cool rainy day than in a day of sunshine, but is thinner
and produces less sugar.
A south wind reduces the flow, whilst a north wind increases it.
The sap flows more freely in the coolness of morning than in the coolness of
night.
A man can climb twenty-five lofty trees in an old and forty trees in a young
grove.
The processes followed in the tari areas east of the Chindwin are substantially
the same as in the description above.
* i.e., The daily flow. But the season is longer for the female tree.
Damage from floods.

The liability of cultivated lands to damage from floods is slight. The
seedlings in inundated embanked land, if very low-lying, are liable to be
drowned by a late rise in the river, and the lowest-lying of the hot-weather rice
fields are subject to the same risk, but from an early rise. On the whole, the
loss is greater when the rivers fail to rise to the usual height than when they
exceed it. Along the banks of the small streams, an early-sown dry-crop may
be destroyed by flood, but the loss is invariably repaired by a second sowing,
of the same or some other crop, according to the time at which the loss takes
place.
Insect pests.
In general, the cultivator knows nothing of insect pests, and takes no steps
to protect the crop from them. The following pests have been reported :--
(1) The larva of the cockchafer, podi-gaung, which attacks the roots of
sesamum, red-bean, groundnut and millet. Of all the pests, this is the one
which does most obvious damage. The popular belief is that it does less
harm in a wet season, and that rain at intervals of ten days will drive it
away. Some cultivators sprinkle ashes on the field as a remedy; others
scatter, at night, some seeds of cooked rice taken from a house where
there has been a funeral.
(2) The Til Sphinx caterpillar, nga-hmyaung-daung, eats the beans and roots
of the red-bean, and is also a pest of the rice plant.
(3) An insect known as the kyet-hle, probably the white borer of cane,
attacks the shoots of the millet plant, and also does damage to beans and
tobacco.
(4) The wabo-ni, the red cotton bug, is common. but is generally considered
harmless, for the cultivators have as often as not never noticed the
insect's sucking-beak.
(5) The cotton-leaf roller, nyaunglein or ywettôk, occurs and is recognized as
a pest.
(6) The white ant attacks the roots of gram and groundnut.
(7) The hpalanbyu attacks the rice plant. The insect has not been identified
generally, but the name is applied in the west of the district to a species
of grasshopper.
(8) CriCkets damage the plants of sesamum and red-bean.
(9) Various kinds of caterpillar attack several field crops.
(10) The stored grain of millet, and no doubt other grain also, suffers from
the rice weevil, against which no special precautions are taken.
(11) The Rhinoceros beetle is found, but no damage has been reported.
(12) Other insects, which have not been identified, are known by the name of
the part of the plant which they attack: such are the sitpo, the joint-pest--
possibly the rice-stem fly or the wheat-stem borer. The larva is reported
to be slender, yellowish in colour, with a brown head, and to be half an
inch long. The stem of the plant fails over, after attack; and the myitpo,
the root-pest of the rice plant, and of wheat and onions.
(13) The podaung-de, described as a small, brown, hairy insect, attacks the
shoots of rice and millet.
(14) An unidentified pest of the millet plant is known as the chaing; and of
the betel-vine, the suppya insect.
Damage is also ascribed to insects which have never been seen and to
which fanciful names are given, e.g., ataungbi, pya, supposed pests of
sesamum; in the same way, the ywetchauk-po, the insect which causes the
sesamum leaves to wither, has no ascertained existence.
Other pests.
The greater pests are also found and, as they are more obvious, some steps
are taken against them. Parrots and other birds raid the ripening ears of grain,
and the diligent cultivator will fill his fields with scarecrows, ingeniously
shaping out of a leaf of the palm tree a passable representation of a hawk on
the wing, tying it to a bamboo, and leaving the wind to stir it to a semblance of
life; or will sew some rags together into the shape of a man, or paint a gourd
into a grotesque simulacrum, or make and stuff a complete doll, limbs and all,
and fix it up in the field or in a tree near by. The millet crop--except where, as
in the black-soil areas, all the country is so closely cultivated that there is no
forest growth at hand to afford shelter to the birds--is particularly liable to
depredation, and it is the usual custom to erect a lofty stand in the middle of
the field, on which the children of the family are stationed, to frighten the birds
away. Sometimes the defensive measure takes the shape of a bow discharging
clay pellets, sometimes the pellets are discharged from a sling, sometimes a
clapper is used, sometimes the platform is connected with every part of the
field by means of radiating lines, fixed on to uprights and armed with palm
frouds. The watcher notices in what part of the field the birds are
contemplating a descent, takes up the strategic line, shakes it vigorously, and
the agitation communicated to the palm fronds may scare away the marauders.
They are, however, bold, and probably drop again a few yards away.
Crows do damage, especially to the groundnut crop, of which they eat the
young sprouts, besides attacking the newly formed pods. Pig and barking deer
raid the crops in the tracts under the hills on the north and west, and the
sesamum crop east of the Chindwin suffers from the brow-antlered deer and--
occasionally--the hog-deer. Along the east of the district; from the Upper
Chindwin border to the cotton country and through the centre of that region
past Kyaukka to the Sagaing border, elephants are an annual menace to the
crops. Guns and ammunition cannot be carried except by licensed holders, and
an elephant, unless charging, cannot be shot except with the special sanction of
the Commissioner of the Division. The damage to the crops is therefore
generally done with impunity. Scientific hedging, to protect the crop against
the smaller marauders, is unknown. Hedges are formed of the thorny branches
of the zi (jujube, zizyphus jujuba) and serve to keep out cattle, but ground
game and pig make light of them. In the black-soil tracts-where cultivation is
close, the jungle distant, and serious depredation from wild animals less--long
stretches of cultivation occur without hedges.
Weeds.
The destructive weeds are numerous, but have not been examined. The
most harmful is considered to be the pwin-byu, a small weed with a white
flower, which springs up in millet fields. The popular belief that the weed kills
the millet is probably erroneous; the weed no doubt springs up in an exhausted
soil, in which millet has been grown for too many years in succession, and the
remedy is a rotation crop. It is occasionally stated that pwinbyu, whilst it
strangles or blasts* red millet--both forms of damage are imputed--does not
hurt white millet. Other weeds harmful to millet are myat-le-ni, yônpadi,
gyosa-kauk, gyat, ya-kazun, probably the same as the taung-kazun or bizat-
kamet, and nga-yan-balu. They have not been identified.
Other destructive weeds are ;---to rice: tagunbyu (white streamer), possibly
merely descriptive of the appearance of a rice plant attacked by the rice hispa;
in a dry year, nga-tha-yaung and wunbèsa grass; in a wet year, the weed
namathi; and yedama, a green scum which forms in a rice field; to sesamum, in
a wet year, bizat; to crops in gene-ral: shwe-za-naing or wet-gyi-panè and
buttani. None of these weeds has been identified except wunbèsa, which is
panicum crus galli.
* An alternative name is thagya laung-mi, fairy-scald.

Saline efflorescence.
The people are aware that the efflorescence rises more in a year of hot sun
and that, if there is sufficient water the harmful elements pass away in solution.
No measures are taken designedly to retard surface evaporation, for instance
by fencing or growing special crops, but in some places the application of
horse-dung or millet bran is believed to be beneficial. The probable effect of
the artesian well irrigation round Powindaung has been noticed in Chapter I.
Cattle.
Before annexation, years of misgovernment had encouraged cattle-theft

and restricted grazing, and the stock of cattle was small. It has increased more
than fourfold in the last twenty years, vide the figures given in Chapter III. The
figure recorded for 1906-07 differs by a small amount only from the headmen's
figure reported to the Deputy Commissioner, and as the enumeration by the
Settlement was conducted on different lines, may be accepted as substantially
correct. The district has been free from devastating cattle-disease for a decade
and, although it cannot be expected that serious outbreaks will not recur, there
is support in the statistics for the conclusion that the precautionary measures
enforced in the villages have been accompanied by success. There are three
Burmese vete-rinary assistants on the staff of the district office; their chief duty
lies in the prevention and treatment of outbreaks of cattle-disease.
There are few parts of the district where the conditions required by the
water-loving buffalo prevail, and the number of buffaloes, 11,328, is small.
The stock of cattle was enumerated as follows in 1906-07 :-
Plough-cattle: buffaloes 6,211

Bulls and bullocks 85,498
Other than plough-cattle: buffaloes 4,357
Bulls, bullocks and cows 162, 191
Total 258,257
The stock of plough-cattle divided into the matured acreage of that year--
435,533 acres--gave an average per pair of plough-cattle of 9'48 acres. In
addition to the area of matured crop, the cattle are called upon to plough the
area which has been sown but on which crops have failed to mature--this may
be estimated at 10 per cent of the matured area--and about 11,000 acres of land
which is twice cropped. Correcting the figure of average area
accordingly, it may be estimated that each pair of plough-cattle is called upon

to plough about eleven acres, an area which it can easily manage. As a matter
of fact, the district exports plough-cattle. The district does not breed goats, of
which only 834 were enumerated in 1906-07. In that year there were counted
2,579 horses of all sorts.
Grazing and breeding
No care is paid to the breeding of cattle. The young stock--bulls and cows--
graze together until, at the age of breeding four or five, the bulls undergo the
operation of castration. Practically all bulls are castrated, since they would not
otherwise be docile in the plough.
There are few places in the district where the plough-cattle do not require
to be stall-fed at some period of the year and, when grazing is not available or
the animals are in hard work, they are stall-fed with chopped millet-stalk, rice-
straw, millet bran, the sliced fruit of the tari palm, and oil-cake. Usually all the
cattle are kept out as long as the grazing in the neighbourhood of the village
lasts. After that, the plough-cattle are stall-fed, besides being grazed. In
addition to the species of fodder already noticed, many kinds of bean-bines are
fed to the plough-cattle, but certain sorts are rejected, namely, the bine of the
Soy bean, pe-nga-pi; of pelun, a late bean; and of gram, which is said to cause
emaciation. Maize stalks are also used as fodder and, when cultivated fodder
fails, the leaves of several kinds of jungle trees are cut and fed to the cattle.
The stall-feeding available from the produce of the holding, when insufficient,
is supplemented by purchase, invariably of millet stalk and frequently of
sesamum oil-cake. Special fodder crops are very little grown, but in the silt
tract maize is mixed thinly with red bean, and cut green for fodder, and an
occasional fodder crop of millet, sown thickly and left unthinned in order to
grow to stalk, is met with.
The plough-bullocks are generally good, sturdy beasts, and in the silt tract
south of Mônywa, where a proper plough is used and a strong animal is
required, are exceptionally well made. No use is made of the milk of the cow,
whether in its simple form, or as butter or clarified butter, and no care is
bestowed on the cows. They, with the young stock, remain in the byre, often
standing or lying knee-deep in slush, until the family have finished the
morning meal, when they are driven out to pasture. Cows are grazed only.
They are not stalled nor stall-fed, except in the inundated tract. They are
usually weedy in build, and it is surprising that the plough-bullocks bred from
them are as strong as they are.
The height of a four-year-old plough-bullock is gene-rally said to be two cubits

and a span, but taller animals are found in those parts of the district where the
plough is used. Material upon which to base an opinion whether the breed has
improved or not since annexation is lacking, but, as there has been no change
in the methods of breeding and tending, there has probably been none in the
build of the animals. The weight of the harrow used in cultivation is the same
now as it was in Burmese times. The few professional graziers are natives of
India, very often pensioners from the Military Police Battalion. Some have
settled in the villages along the Mu. They sell their young stock, which they do
not stall-feed, and their herds have not, up to the present, acquired the notoriety
for disease which usually accompanies the native-of-India grazier.
Cultivation has extended into the waste and with the increase in stock and
the pushing out of forest reserves, grazing difficulties are arising. Fortunately,
the face of the country is so diverse that there is usually gazing available at
distances which are not prohibitive. South of Mônywa, the riverine tract of
country is subject to inundation from July to October, and is thereafter under
close cultivation, and there is no stubble. In a year of good inundation the
village site, like the cultivation, is flooded. The cattle stall has therefore to be
raised to a height of a few feet with earth. There is no breeding in this tract,
few cows are kept, and such as are must be stall-fed. The herds from the
adjoining tract on the east are driven to graze on the slopes of Kyaukka, about
ten miles to the east, when they are not stall-fed; and there are properly fenced
cattle-paths leading through the cultivation up to the foot-hills. On the west of
the Chindwin, the black-soil plain mentioned in preceding paragraphs is under
close cultivation, and there is little grazing available, between July and
December. Herds are driven east to the uplands south of Salingyi or south
across the South Yama to the slopes of the Myaing hill range in Pakôkku
district. The grazing fee in this region is one basket of red millet for each head
of cattle for the grazing season. Elsewhere, an ordinary custom is for the herd
and the owner to divide the natural increase, the herd taking, as his share,
young stock equal in value to one-half of the whole natural increase whilst the
herd has been in his charge.
There are no reserved grazing-grounds in the district, but the jungles, all
the year round, and the cultivation, when crops are off the ground, are open to
any one's cattle.
Irrigation.
Types.
There is no Government irrigation in the district, and all irrigation works

are constructed, maintained, and managed by the people themselves. Of such
petty irrigatior. works, taking the shape of dams of earth entirely blocking up
the stream bed--a type of work found in the black soil tracts, where the streams
run in well-defined, narrow, fairly deep beds--or of sand training-banks,
pushed out to a varying length across the channel, a type found in the red soil
tracts, where the torrents run in wide, ill-defined, shifting beds between low
banks, 348 were counted in the year of Settlement, and this figure excluded
some small systems from which less than three holdings benefited. These are
the chief types of irrigation work, but there are variations: sometimes the dam,
instead of being constructed of earth alone, is made of alternate courses of
roughly-hewn stone and earth, and the interstices are packed with rice-straw.
Sometimes the dam is a dike of large stones thrown roughly together: in one
case the water is diverted by means of barège of logs placed one upon another
and packed with brushwood. Sometimes the dam is strengthened at the canal
head by means of bamboos driven down vertically. In some cases, at the toe of
the embankment on the upstream side a row of stakes is driven into the ground,
with the primary object of collecting the drift wood brought down when the
stream comes into flood, and the ultimate object of forming a breakwater.
Rude aqueducts, constructed of the hollowed-out trunks of trees, are met with
in many systems, where a depression or stream bed interrupts the commanded
area. Custom, the nature of the channel, and the degree of control the village
headman or other official in charge of the work can bring to bear modify the
form a particular work takes. Nearly all the works are on the west of the
Chindwin, and this is attributable partly to the fact that the rainfall is greater
there than on the east, and irrigation would naturally be attended with more
success, and partly also to the fact that that part of the district is remote from a
railway and cut off by the Chindwin, has felt the disintegrating effect of
civilization less, and the village headmen have greater authority with the
people. The conditions favouring irrigation are not materially different along
the Inbaung and the Yewa streams, yet along the former stream there were in
1906-07 only two systems, whilst along the latter there were more than one
hundred, most of them constructed by the Kani landlords.
The Burma Canals Act, recently enacted, contains provisions which will
enable the manager of a small irrigation work to assemble the beneficiaries,
where the old custom was for all to join in putting up a dam or unsilting a
channel.
Irrigation customs.
In many of the western systems the beneficiaries sign a bond--annually or

once for all--stating that they will help in the work or find substitutes, or, in the
alternative, submit to a fine from which the manager of the work can engage
labour. Along the Hmyaing stream, which flows into the Chindwin north of
Kani, the numerous small systems are grouped into an upper, a middle, and a
lower block, and each block takes water in turn. With this exception, there is
no stream on which the rights of upstream and downstream systems are in any
way regulated, and the same applies to right-bank and left-bank systems. Every
system pushes out its train-ing-bank as far across the stream as it wishes, to a
height which suits its convenience, and when it likes. No down-stream system
can object, nor can the people on the other bank interfere.
Within the system, customs are surprisingly diverse. For instance, labour is
rostered in some systems per capita: each beneficiary is liable for an equal
amount of work, whether his protected area is large or small, near the water-
supply or distant from it. In other systems, whilst all equally help in erecting
the weir, only the nearest fields are required to turn out for current repairs. The
distant fields are exempt. In others, again, the number of labour units leviable
from the beneficiaries varies according to the area of the particular holding. In
most, the area unit is a certain number of bundles of rice seedlings, e.g., a man
whose fields take 1,500 bundles supplies one labour unit; the man who plants
750 bundles, half a unit, and so on. But here, again, local custom varies. In the
estimation of the labour unit it is the usual, as it is the logical, custom to regard
water-supply only. No one can claim reduction in his labour unit because of
any soil defect. Here, again, an occasional exception is found which allows soil
quality to be considered when estimating the area to be counted as one unit.
The roster having been made, the tasks are divided, usually in twelve cubit
lengths, and are allotted by the weir official, and subsequent calls for labour
are assigned pro rata, subject to the special exemptions allowed by the custom
of the system. The calculation of the amount of labour due appears to be
accurate. Occasionally, the distant fields, doubting whether any weir water will
reach them at all, refuse to turn out .on the works. In such a case, the
custom is for the fields, if they do get water, to pay the weir officials so much
for every hundred bundles of seedlings planted.
From the weir-head, a main canal leads to the block of cultivation, and
there, or in some cases earlier, divides into main distributaries, each of which,
at a convenient place, branches out into subsidiary ducts. The distributaries and
ducts are led along favourable contours of the ground, the aim being to make
the fall as gentle as possible. The division of water between the chief
distributaries is a matter of immemorial local custom. Sometimes one
distributary will take all the day water, and another all the night water;
sometimes each takes a whole day; sometimes one is allowed to 'drink' only
after the other has taken all that its fields require. So along each distributary:
there is often a series of small stopdams which divert the flow to successive
blocks of fields; the distribution between the blocks is fixed by custom, and is
closely watched. The fields with the first claim are almost invariably those
which are near the weir-head and to which the water would flow of itself by
gravitation: the high-lying fields above the upper course of the main
distributary almost always have the last claim to water.
With regard to the distribution of water between interior fields, which do

not lie along any distributary, major or minor, local custom varies: in some
systems the officials disclaim all responsibility for the water-supply of these
fields, and admit liability only for fields lying along distributaries constructed
by the common effort. In such a case, the cultivator of the upper of two interior
fields not on the same level controls the lower field embankment. In other
systems, the weir official controls the water-supply of interior fields as well as
of fields along a distributary. It is with regard to these interior fields that water
disputesarise.
The weir officials are, in a large system, the kanôk, weir manager, who
controls the arrangements generally: a varying number of kandaings, each
responsible for the due completion of a section of the work and for the
distribution of water to the fields in the section: and a kansaw, who acts as
messenger in the issue of orders, calls for labour, and the like. Smaller systems
work with a kanôk only` and the appellations are not always these. Election of
the weir officials is the rule, and the electors are all the beneficiaries, who have
each one vote; the appointment is subject to revision at any time, should the
beneficiaries think that the allocation of work or water has been improper. But
most elected 8 officials serve on for many years, and water disputes are rare. In
some few systems the weir official is hereditary, but in that case, too, he holds
office subject to approval. Remuneration in cash or kind is rare, but the
officials, in his degree, are exempt in whole or part from labour on the works.
The Pyaungbya weir.
The principal irrigation work in the district is the Pyaungbya weir. The
headworks are at Sadawbyin, a few miles west of Yinmabin. They consist of a
training bank in the North Yama stream, approaching a length of three-quarters
of a mile and constructed of alternate layers of sand and rice-straw, and of
several distributing channels. The irrigable area exceeds two square miles.
Traces Shan of influence.
It is noteworthy that in the parts of the district where village irrigation is

most successful, along the Yamas, there is a history of Shan colonization, and
it is possible that the Shans introduced simple methods of irrigation.*
Salinewater irrigation.
The salt stream which flows south-west from the marsh near Yedwet has
been mentioned in Chapter I. Its waters are diverted by small training-banks.
Artesian wall irrigation and irrigation from springs.
Around Powindaung hill, south of the North Yama stream, there is a

peculiar variety of irrigation, which has been noticed in Chapter I. Hollow
bamboos are driven through the surface soil to a maximum depth of twenty
feet or so. If a spring is struck, the water rises in the bamboo, the soil round the
mouth of the bamboo is removed so as to form a cup to receive the outflow,
one side of the cup thus formed is broken down, and a duct made to convey the
water to the cultivated fields. Often several of these tiny ducts converge into a
larger distributary which conveys water to the distance of a mile or more.
Seven hundred and three of these artesian springs were counted in the year of
Settlement, 1906-07.
In the same part of the district and near Taya, a few miles from the South
Yama, occur areas irrigated from natural surface springs. The number of
springs giving water in the Settlement year was forty.
The same jealousy of water-rights appears in these pipe-and spring-

irrigated areas, and an even greater diversity in the plans for regulating the
division of water. In some systems the water-right attaches to the compact
holding comprising many fields, and the cultivator may let in the water to any
field he pleases: in others to the particular field: and the cultivator must either
lead the water on to
* Vide Gazetteer of Upper Burma, Part I, Volume, I, page 275.

that field or let it go by altogether. The reason given is that if a cultivator were
once allowed to select a fresh field on which to use his limited supply he might
next year claim water for both fields, on the ground that both fields had
received water in the past. Water-rights go with the field or holding on transfer
of the latter, and cannot be disposed of apart from the field. As a corollary to
the possession of the water-right, the holder of that right claims, and has had
from time immemorial, possession of the water-bearing waste land from which
his spring flows, or in which his well has been bored. No one else can enter
this area to make a fresh boring.
Division of water between the small distributaries is in some of these

systems secured by the custom of dôndit,--literally, notching a log. A log is
placed across the main stream at the junction, in such a way as to close the
flow entirely, and two sections, of the same depth but of varying width, are cut
out of the upper surface of the log, so as to allow the water to flow over to each
distributary. What-ever water the stream bears enters the particular distributary
in proportion to the width of the section, and the width is fixed in accordance
with the extent of the water-right. This ingenious device gives to each
distributary its proper share always: the more common plan of closing entirely
each distributary in turn leads to inequalities when, on the open day, there is a
more than ordinarily abundant or scanty flow in the stream. Another device is
to place the cylindrical section of a hollowed tree trunk in the bed of each
distributary at the junction. These sections are packed on each side with earth,
so as to confine all the flow to the section of trunk. The water which each
distributary receives is by this means regulated to the capacity of the section,
and if sections of equal diameter are chosen the supply will be equal.
Unambitious as are the small irrigation works described above, they are of
great practical importance and value. The rainfall is local; one village may get
a heavy down-pour, whilst, a mile off, the next village get nothing. The petty
irrigation system, which adds to the local rainfall the rainfall of the adjoining
village, ensures a rice crop where--without it--there would have been, at the
best, uncertainty and, at the worst, the certainty of no crop. In a bad year, when
a large proportion of the rice fields which depend on the rain from heaven fails,
the majority of the fields irrigated from these small systems succeed, whilst in
a good year, when all the rice fields secure a crop, the irrigated fields receive a
greater supply of water and yield more abundantly.
Lift irrigation: wells.
Along the Yamas there is a good deal of irrigation of valuable garden

crops, onions, tomatoes, brinjals and tobacco, from impermanent wells. They
are from six to twelve feet in depth, and are lined with a wattle of bamboos for
six feet or so from the bottom. The water is drawn out by means of the bucket
and lever. The cost of digging and wattling such a well does not exceed four
rupees, and after the well has been in use for two years it is usually abandoned
and a new well dug at another corner of the field. The number of impermanent
wells giving water in the Settlement year in this part of the district was 716.
There are no masonry irrigation wells in the district.
Other modes.
Hot-weather rice is irrigated by means of the trough lift (ku) and the swing
basket (kanwè). Veryrarely, inundated rice land is similarly irrigated, and,
along the South Yama, onion beds are occasionally irrigated by means of the
trough lift--vide supra. The yit, or water-wheel, is hardly known, but one or
two are found along the Chindwin in the south-west of the district, and are
used for irrigating nurseries of late rice. Near Nyaungbyubin, south of
Mônywa, the water for the fields of hot-weather rice is drawn from wells,
sometimes as deep as eighteen feet, by means of the bucket and lever.
Tanks.
There are numerous small tanks, or pools, but no large one. The largest,
covering thirty-six acres, is at Thindigan, south-west of Yinmabin. Usually the
water-area does not exceed two or three acres and suffices to irrigate a few rice
fields. Nearly all dry up in the hot weather, but cultivation is rarely carried on
in their beds.
Possible irrigation works.
New projects of irrigation on a large scale appear to be impracticable. The

Chindwin river below Mônywa overflows, chiefly through an inundation
channel which discharges most of its waters into the north-western corner of
Sagaing district, where it floods a considerable area. If this channel fills in
October after a late rise in the Chindwin, the inundation water drowns much
that has been sown, and delays fresh sowings. The practicability of excluding
the late flood, by a series of dams or otherwise, is under consideration in the
Public Works Department. The diffi-culty lies in the fact that the water enters
by several subsi-diary channels, in addition to the main channel, and all would
require to be controlled.
Elsewhere, possible sources of irrigation appear to consist of flesh schemes

of village irrigation along the course of the torrents,
the creation of small tanks, and the trial of artesian irrigation in new places, for
instance near the marsh from which flows the Yèdwet stream. No official
scheme of irrigation embraces any part of the district, so far as is known.
CHAPTER V.
Forests and Minerals.
[The Forests section compiled from material supplied by Mr. A. E. Ross,

Imperial Forest Service, Deputy Conservator of Forests, Lower Chindwin
Forest Division.]
Forests.
Boundaries and drainage of the Lower Chindwin Forest Division.
As at present constituted, the Lower Chindwin Forest Division is drained

by three main rivers: the Chindwin, the Irrawaddy, and the Mu. The Forest
Division is not coincident with the Civil district, but is situated partly in the
Lower Chindwin and partly in Shwebo districts. The boundary between the
districts in the north-east is an artificial line, whereas the boundary of the
Forest Division follows the watershed between the Chindwin and Mu rivers
thus including within the Forest Division a portion of the Shwebo district.
In the east the Division boundary follows the district boundary along the
Mu to the Sagaing border; thence runs west to the Chindwin along that
boundary, to a point opposite Paungwa; thence down the Chindwin to the
mouth of the South Yama; thence along the South Yama westwards to the
Shwetagyi spur, at the southern end of the Pagyi hill range. From that point,
instead of following the watershed between the Chindwin and Irrawaddy
rivers, the boundary runs southwards along the Shwetagyi for seven miles, and
then due west to the Pôndaung, cutting across the Letpan and Kinè. streams,
which are tributaries of the Kyaw river, itself a tributary of the Irrawaddy
flowing south. Thence it follows the Pôndaung northwards to a point approxi-
mately west of the Alaungdaw; thence a cross ridge running in a westerly
direction to the Pônnya range; thence it runs north for a few miles along the
Pônnya; thence east again to the Pôndaung, encircling the Petpa stream
drainage: thence north to a point at the head-waters of the North Thitkauk
stream, south-west of the Sè ywa glen, from which point it proceeds in a north-
easterly direction along the Upper and Lower Chindwin district border, across
the Patolôn river and along the Shwethamin ridge,
to the junction of this ridge with the Mahudaung. Thence it runs northwards for
some twelve miles, as far as the point at which the district boundary turns east;
thence the district boundary is followed to the Chindwin, east of which river
the Division boundary follows a ridge in a north-easterly direction as far as the
Mu-Chindwin watershed.
Physical features.
The Pôndaung, which rises to a height of a little over 4,300 feet north-west
of Mayin village, isa long, precipitous ridge, running north and south and
separating the Patolôn and North Yama drainages from the Taungdwin and
Kyaw streams. Oaks, chestnuts and pines are found near the summit. In the
south it drops to a comparatively low ridge, barely 2,000 feet in height. The
Mahudaung is a much lower ridge, rising to a little over 2,000 feet and running
north and south between the Patolôn stream and the Chindwin. Near its crest
on both sides it is usually very steep. It ends to the south in a curious fiat-
topped hill, Kodaung, due east of Mayin. East of the Mahudaung is a still
lower ridge called in different parts the Pindaung, Ngapyôndaung and Pagyi
range. The Pôndaung and Mahudaung are joined by the Sameikôn ridge, which
forms the watershed between the North Yama and Patolôn streams.
Situation of forest-bearing areas and principal timber-floating streams.
The forests to the east of the Chindwin south of Budalin are of little value,
except for fuel. Within the inbaung drainage in the north-east of the district and
in the vicinity are the Hnaw forest of Shwebo and the Inbaung and Okma
below Yin forests of the Lower Chindwin: these, though greatly damaged by
reckless felling and burning, still contain valuable in (dipterocarpus
tuberculatus), ingyin (pentacme Siamensis) and thitya (shorea obtusa).
To the west of the Chindwin the forests are drained by the following main
tributaries of the Chindwin :--The Pato-lôn, which flows northwards between
the Pôndaung and Mahudaung, with its lower reaches in the Myittha Forest
Division, and enters the Chindwin a little below Mingin in the Upper
Chindwin district; the Thingadôn, flowing north-wards along the foot of the
eastern slope of the Mahudaung, and entering the Chindwin a little south of
Kin; the Yewa, flowing eastwards from the Mahudaung and entering the
Chindwin near Kani;the North Yama, which rises near the Sameikkôn cross
ridge and flows south between the Mahu-. daung and Pôndaung ranges until it
reaches Wunbè-u, two miles south of Zeiktaung, where it turns due east, finally
entering the Chindwin at Kyaukmyet, a little above-Mônywa-: it is joined a
little below Kônywa by the Tinzôn from the north-west; and the South Yama,
which rises in the Shwetagyi spur and flows due east to the Chindwin. Owing
to their great breadth and shallowness, the Thin-gadôn, Yèwa, Tinzôn and
South Yama are practically useless for floating logs. Even the North Yama,
after cutting through the Pagyi range, spreads over a wide bed and contains
little water for the greater part of the year. The Patolôn is a rocky stream of
some size, and contains water all the year round, but is not navigable for boats
or rafts even in the rains. In all cases, the teak logs are caught on arrival in the
Chindwin at or a little below the months of its tributaries.
Geology.
The geology of the hills which form the western forest area has been
noticed in Chapter I.
History before annexation.
The revenue from the Chindwin and Mu forests in 1884, before annexation,
was Rs. 1,00,000. This was from all the forests along the two rivers, and the
portion assignable to the forests of the present Lower Chindwin Forest
Division cannot be stated. Under the Burmese monarchy, teak (tectona
grandis) was a Royal tree, and no one was allowed to cut it except under a
license from the king. The people were, however, permitted to use dead and
fallen teak in the construction of monasteries and works of public utility, and,
if sufficiently influential, sometimes used it for house-building. There were
local areas, for instance the eastern slope of the Mahudaung, where extraction
by small traders took place, but no one, so far as can be ascertained, worked
the teak forests of what is now the Lower Chindwin Division on a large scale
except Messrs. the Bombay Burma Trading Corporation, who obtained a
license from king Thibaw, in 1880, to work all the teak forests in the Chindwin
drainage. The lease was to run for eight years and had therefore not expired at
the time of annexation.
After annexation.
After annexation it was found that there had been great destruction of good
teak forest by fire and, to a certain extent, by the mode of rice cultivation
known as taungya, which necessitates the burning of tree-growth over large
areas in clearings on the hillside. Immature trees had also been girdled and
thereby killed, and there had been felling of green teak. It because necessary,
therefore, to introduce the Upper Burma Forest Regulation, and this became
law in August 1887· Besides teak, five other species were made reserved trees.
During the first few years, the country was in a disturbed state, little could be
done to enforce forest rules, and the Corporation was permitted to girdle.
On the 18th August 1888, the Corporation obtained a lease of the Chindwin
forests until the end of 1900: under this lease all girdling had to be carried out,
not by the lessees but by the officials of the Forest Department. This put an end
to injudicious girdlings. A minimum annual extraction, under penalty of a fine,
formed also one of the stipulations. Until 1891 the forest staff was for the most
part engaged in examining unknown tracts for reservation, in making rough
surveys, and in carrying out girdlings for the lessees. Changes in the extent of
the Division took place in 1892 and 1896, vide Revenue infra.
The Upper Burma Forest Regulation was repealed in 1898, the Burma
Forest Act being substituted. In March 1901, the Corporation were granted a
new lease of the Chindwin forests, which expires in 1910. Girdlings are now
done by the selection method under a fifteen-years' girdling scheme, calculated
to yield about 2,500 trees per annum in the Lower Chindwin teak forests.
Surveys.
All the reserved forests except the Thingadôn Extension have been
surveyed on the scale of 4´´= 1 mile, by No. 20 Party of the Survey of India
The area so surveyed is 753 square miles, and the cost has been Rs. 1,50,337.
The Thingadôn Extension, 29 square miles in area, has recently been surveyed,
on the scale of 1½”= 1 mile, by No. 3 Party.
Settlement of reserves.
The first reserve formed was the Patolôn, of which the boundaries and the
rights allowed for the future were notified in 1893. The last formed has been
the Thin-gadôn Extension, gazetted in 1908. The total area of reserved forest is
now 782 square miles. Other reserva-tions are contemplated, of areas adjacent
to existing reserves on the west, and in the Inbaung and Hnaw regions, east of
the Chindwin.
The area of unclassed forest, i e., forest land which has not been reserved
and which has not been occupied for purposes of cultivation, is estimated to be
648 square miles. Beside reserves contemplated for revenue purposes, the
advisability of reserving other areas in the interests of fuel conservation and
rainfall protection is under consideration. The areas which might be reserved
for these purposes are situated in the southern and eastern parts of the district.
There are no "protected" or village forests: all the forest land is either Reserved
or Unclassed.
The existing reserves, which form one more-or-less compact block of

forest, lie to the west of a well-defined natural line formed by the Thingadôn
stream in the north and the Pindaung, Ngapyôndaung and Pagyi ridges in the
south. Their names and areas are shown in the following statement:
Area on 30th
Civil District. Name of Forest. June 1908, in
square miles.
Reserved Forests.
Patolôn Reserve 47
East Patolôn Reserve 240
Patolôn Extension 142
Thingadôn 23
Lower Chindwin Thingadôn Extension 29
Pindaung 55
North Yama 84
Sindôn 30
Satha 39
Lègan 93
Total 782
Unclassed Forests.
Hatti 10
Didôk 8
Patolôn 22
Lower Chindwin Pindaunggale 73
Kani 79
Thingadôn 6
Inbaung 280
Budalin 100
Shwebo Hnaw 70
Total 648
Reserve boundaries.
The total length of reserve boundaries, artificially demarcated and

maintained in repair under a five-years' scheme, is 365 miles. There are 206
miles of natural boundaries, not requiring demarcation other than a boundary
post at distant intervals. The total length of exterior reserve boundaries is
therefore 571 miles.
Working plans.
The total area of reserved forest for which working plans are required is
782 square miles: of this area, 137 square miles, namely, the Thingadôn
Reserve, its Extension, the Pindaung, and the Sindôn Reserves, were examined
in 1908-09 for the purpose of preparation of a rough working plan; 645 square
miles of reserved forest remain to be examined.
Description of the forests: teak-bearing areas.
The most important tree in the reserved forests is teak,and the chief teak
forests are found in the Patolôn and North Yama valleys, on the eastern slopes
of the Pôndaung and on the western slopes of the Mahudaung. There is a little
teak forest on the eastern slope of the Mahudaung, principally at the
headwaters of the Thingadôn stream, but all except the very large and most
inaccessible trees were felled in Burmese times. The teak-producing areas
contain also pyinkado (xylia dolabriformis), padauk (pterocarpus
macrocarpus), yemanè (Gmelina arborea), and many other varieties.
Other than teak.
The pine forests on the top of the Pôndaung are so inaccessible that they do
not call for detailed description. Though evergreen forest does occur near the
crest of the Mahudaung and along some rocky streams, as the Paya stream in
the Alaungdaw gorge, the type covers an inconsiderable area. By far the
commonest type is indaing the forest of dry, sandy, red soil regions which
merges into dry teak forest, and that again, near streams and in moist localities,
as below the Mahudaung crest, into moist teak forest. It is not known how
many square miles of each type of forest there are. The common and more
valuable species in the indaing and dry forests are: in (dipterocarpus
tuberculatus), ingyin (pentacme Siamensis), thitya (shorea obtusa), than
(terminalia Oliveri),.taukkyan (terminalia tomentosa), thitsi (melanorrhœa
usitata) and sha or cutch (acacia catechu).
In the plains, cutch (acacia catechu), than (terminalia Oliveri), dahat

(tectona Hamiltoniana), thitpôk (dalbergia purpurea), beinnwè (hiptage
candicans), lein (terminalia pyrrifolia) and ngu (cassia fistula) are common,
especially in the fuel tracts in the vicinity of Powindaung and Kyaukka. The
reserves east of the Mahudaung are as a rule very dry, and contain little teak
and much indaing forest. Though the forests on the western slope of the
Mahudaung are mostly of the same type, there is teak near the streams and just
below the crest. The richest teak-bearing areas are undoubtedly those situated
on the eastern slopes of the Pôndaung, and the most valuable reserves are the
Patolôn and the North Yama.
Extraction and trade. Teak.
In the Lower Chindwin Division as it now exists, hardly any attempt has
been made by local traders to extract teak. Practically the only demand for teak
is for the building of monasteries and rest houses, and up to the present this has
been met by the issue of free licenses on a large scale. The tonnage of teak
extracted by the Bombay Burma.
Corporation and delivered at Pakôkku for the three years ending in 1908-09
was: 1,105, 505, and 1,694. Owing, however, to confusion of the hammer-
marks struck on the lessees' teak logs, it is certain that many Lower Chindwin
logs have in past years been credited to the Myittha and Yaw Forest Divisions.
In; bamboo:thitsi.
There is a considerable local trade in in (dipterocarpus tuberculatus), which

is cut under licenses in the Okma and Inbaung forests for export to Lower
Burma. Thitya (shotea obtusa), ingyin (pentacme Siamensis), and pyinkado
(xylia dolabriformis) are also extracted. The in logs extracted are of good
quality and very cylindrical, and the trade is profitable. Bamboos are extracted
in consider-able quantities from the Thingadôn and Hmyaing forests, which are
close to the Chindwin on its western bank.
The thitsi tree (melanorrhæa usitata) is tapped for the wood oil, or varnish,
on an inconsiderable scale; the industry centres in Nyaungbinlè in the north-
west and the Hnaw forests on the north-east. Licenses are issued at Rs. 7-8-0
per chisel per annum. The method is described at page 779 of Watts'
Commercial Products of India.
Cutch.
Cutch is extensively manufactured in the unreserved areas between the

Tinzôn stream, the chief tributary of the North Yama, and the South Yama. No
fee is charged for a cutch license, but duty is charged on all cutch exported
from Burma. A few years ago cutch trees were marked for felling in the North
Yama Reserve, and cutch-boiling under licenses was permitted within the
reserve, but the danger from fire and the difficulty of supervision were so great
that, on the introduction of the system of free cutch licenses in unreserved
areas, it was decided to encourage the working out of cutch from such areas,
and, since the free license system came into force no applications to work
cutch in reserves have been entertained. In the last two years the average
number of cauldrons at work has been 1,425, and the average quantity of cutch
exported to Lower Burma has been 543,512 viss or approximately 850 tons.
The local method of preparing cutch does not differ materially from that
described in The Commercial Products of India, page 9.
Communications: roads.
Forest There is a five-years' scheme for the construction of forest roads or

bridle-paths in the reserves, which is approved by the district authorities and
framed in conjunction with the scheme of district roads. So far no roads have
been made by the Forest Department over the Pôndaung into Pakôkku district
but several roads running from east to west over the Pindaung and Mahudaung
have been made or improved by departmental agency.
Over the Mahudaung.
The most northerly road over the Mahudaung leads from Pahè, near the
mouth of the Thingadôn stream, into the northern portion of the Sè-ywa valley.
The easiest road is, however, that leading from Myaunggôn, half-way between
the mouth and the source of the Thingadôn stream, into the north-east of the
glen. This is the road into the Sèywa which might possibly be most easily
converted into a cart-road. The track which is at present most used, as it is
more central for Kani, is the Yaygi-Kunbinyè-Saingdè road, Yagyi being
situated near the head-waters of the Yewa stream, and Saingdè, at the southern
end of the Sèywa. The road branches after leaving Kunbinyè on the
Mahudaung crest, the other path leading in a north-westerly direc-tion to
Tantabin, a village midway up the glen. Another track leads from Nyaungbinlè
north-west over the range to Kuseik in the south of the Sèywa. Further south is
the Kabaing-Alaungdaw track, used by pilgrims to the Alaung-daw shrine in
February and March. South of this again is the Kabaing-Pyaswè-Sityin path,
the main road from Kabaing to Mayin in the Shitywa valley. All these are foot-
tracks and, except for one or two rough cart-tracks in the south of the Lègan
Reserve over the Shwetagyi ridge to Kyetyin and Letpan villages in the
Irrawaddy drainage, there is no good cart-road into the south-western glens, the
Kuhnitywa and Shitywa, and the encircling reserves, except the Chinbyit-
Aingma-Zeiktaung road, which has lately been repaired and made
comparatively easy for cart traffic.
Other roads.
Besides the above tracks running east and west, the Forest Department
have opened up a bridle-path from Kuseik to Mayin vid the Alaungdaw. This
road is 40 miles in length. Other branch paths lead from Mayin to Sityin, from
Kyawdaw to Wetkya, in the Shitywa, from Yagyi to Bawdibin in the south of
the Thingadôn, and from Yagyi south to Kabaing. By making firelines along
the same alignments annually, the department has also opened up foot-paths in
several other parts of the reserves.
Tracks over the Pôndaung.
The most frequented tracks through the reserves over the Pôndaung into
adjoining districts are-(1) from Thitkauk in the Sèywa into the Taungdwin
valley of the Upper Chindwin district, vid Kaiklaikbin, which is well over
3,000 feet in height; (2) from Mindôn in the Patolôn Reserve up the Petpa
stream and over the Pônnya range into the Gangaw valley of Pakôkku; and
four tracks in the south-west of the district, all leading into the Kyaw valley of
the Gangaw subdivision of Pakôkku, namely, (3) from Mayin to Kye,
a very steep road; (4) from Kyawdaw, north-west of Zeik-taung, to Saga; (5)
from South Gyat, south of Zeiktaung, to Kyaw; and (6) from Kinè to Kyaw. Of
the six paths, the first two are seldom used except by elephants of the forest
lessees. The Gyat-Kyaw: track is the one most used by pedlars proceeding into
the Kyaw and Gangaw valleys.
A bridge, sixty feet long, across the Pays stream, immediately opposite the
Alaungdaw shrine, has recently been made by the Forest Department for the
benefit of pilgrims.
Licenses for free timber for bridge building are given whenever asked for,
but usually only narrow foot-bridges are built by the villagers.
Conservation of the forests :fire protection.
Fire-protection was successful over 223,903 acres in 1906-07; 231,535 in

1907-08; and 234,770 in 1908-09. The number of fire-watchers employed is
232, under 16 subordinate officials; 159 miles of outer and 163 miles of inner
firelines are cleared annually. The reserves not protected are the Patolôn
Reserve, west of the Patolôn stream; the Thingadôn Extension; the Lègan
Reserve; and the southern half of the Satha Reserve. The protection from fire
has been successful on the whole, but the cost, which works out to about Rs.
37 per square mile, is high, and the doubt has been expressed whether the
expenditure of so much money annually on the protection of reserves which
contain much dry forest is advisable. The teak forests to the west of the Patolôn
stream, which have suffered severely from fire for many years past, are in great
need of protection, but to ensure this the Taungdwin Reserve to the west of the
Pôndaung would probably require to be protected as well. In parts of the Satha
Reserve and in the North Yama Reserve, where the myinwa bamboo
(dendrocalamus strictus) has flowered and died over a large area between the
Yama stream and the Mahudaung, a thorough burning of the forest for the
purpose of consuming the thick layer of dry bamboo dèbris would, it is
believed, be beneficial, provided the dry teak trees and logs were first extracted
or, as far as possible, fire-protected. An unregulated spontaneous burning of
the forest would do much damage to dead and girdled teak, to felled timber
lying in the forests and to neaped logs in the streams.
Grazing.
The area of reserved forest closed to grazing throughout the year is 706,
and the area closed for part of the year 13 square miles. The area open to
grazing throughout the year is 49 square miles, There is no restriction on
grazing, so far as the Forest Department is concerned, in the unclassed forest.
In practice, villagers who live near reserved forests graze their animals in
reserves where they like, the forest staff being inadequate to prevent them. It is
estimated that 3,601 animals are grazed in reserved forests free, in accordance
with rights admitted at the Forest Settlements. As the total number of cattle in
the district exceeds 250,000, it may be said that practically all grazing-if the
law were enforced-should be carried on outside reserves.
Forest offences.
The average number of forest offence cases is 60 per annum, of which

about one-quarter are taken to court and the remainder compounded. Offences
are, generally speaking, not serious, and the villagers near the Reserves are
comparatively law-abiding. The number of offences un-reported may,
however, be great, for, during the dry season, almost the entire staff is engaged
in fire-protection and other works within the forests, and no one is available to
detect and report offences committed outside reserves.
Improvement of the forests.
There are no regular plantations, but teak has been sown at stake in the
flowered bamboo areas in the Satha Reserve, and small experimental patches
of Andaman padauk and sunzè or sunletthè (cæsalpinia digyna) have been
planted in the Pindaung Reserve. Much good is done on a small scale to the
teak forests (usually in the areas within which the annual girdlings are carried
out) by the systematic cutting of creepers and the felling or girdling of inferior
species dominating the teak, and by the felling of teak and other trees which
are badly attacked by epiphytic ficus. Paucity in the number of skilled
subordinates renders improvement-fellings on a large scale impracticable.
Administration of the forests :establishment.
The sanctioned strength of the staff on the 1st June 1909 was-On the
permanent establishment: one Deputy Conservator; two Rangers, for the Pagyi
and Kani ranges; four Deputy Rangers, five Foresters, twelve forest guards,
four clerks, two range clerks, two elephant mahouts, and four menials. One
Probationary Ranger is on the strength, and awaits deputation to the Forest
School. On the temporary establishment: four Deputy Rangers, four Foresters,
four forest guards, one range clerk and three menials. Small monthly
allowances are also given to ten caretakers at forest inspection bungalows.
There are four stations for the collection of forest revenue, namely,
Mônywa, A1ôn, Kônvwa on the North Yama, and Sôngôn in the Shwebo
portion of the Division. The Alôn revenue-station is the most important check
station on the Chindwin. There are two drift-collecting stations, at ALôn and
Uma, opposite Mônywa: all the drift delivered by the licensed drift-collectors,
the Bombay Burma Corporation, is delivered at Urea. The two principal rafting
stations of the forest lessees are at Kaing village, a little above Alôn, and
Kyaukmyet, at the mouth of the North Yama.
Forest inspection bungalows.
Near the eastern boundary of the reserves are the following Inspection
Bungalows and wooden rest-houses, from north to south :-
Yezo
Bawdibin Near the Thingadôn stream.
Shaukbin rest-house
Kunbinyè rest-houses Near the Mahudaung crest.
Yagyi Near the Pindaung Reserve.
North Gyat
Kabaing Near the Sindôn Reserve.
Within the forests in the south-west, on the road from Kabaing to Sityin,
are the two Ywama rest-houses, and at Aingma, on the road from Chinbyit to
Zeiktaung, are two rest-houses. In the North Yama valley there are forest
bungalows at Sityin, Segyi, south of Sityin, and Kyawdaw, and two rest-
houses at Tinchaungwa. In the Patolôn drainage there are bungalows at Kuseik
in the south, and Natma in the north, of the Sèywa valley, and two rest-houses
at Tôngaung camp.
Changes in administrative bound aries.
At first the entire Chindwin drainage formed one Forest Division, called
the Chindwin Division, a Deputy Conserva- tor, whose headquarters were
placed at Alôn, being appointed in May 1887. In 1889-90 the headquarters
were moved to Kindat, and in 1892-93 to Mônywa, where the Chindwin
Division was divided into the Upper and Lower Chindwin Divisions. In 1896-
97, the Mingin subdivision of the Lower Chindwin Division was formed into
the Myittha Division.
Revenue.
Since that year the revenue has fluctuated considerably, being Rs. 63, 106
in 1897-98, Rs. 93,612 in 1900-01, Rs. 40,557 in 1903-04, Rs. 18,267 in 1907-
08 and Rs. 47,887 · in 1908-09. The fluctuation is partly due to seasons of low
flood in the streams, and consequent diminution in the number of logs brought
to the revenue-stations. and largely to Lower Chindwin logs being credited in
some years to other Divisions, owing to confusion in the hammer-marks struck
on the lessees' timber. In the north, logs extracted from the Division have been
credited to the Myittha Divi-sion and, in the south, about half of the .Lègan
Reserve is in the Irrawaddy drainage, and all the logs extracted from that
reserve by the Bombay Burma Corporation are credited to the Yaw Division.
This results in the Lower Chindwin, Division being exhibited as working at a

loss, whereas in reality there is a surplus of revenue. The absence of a local
trade in teak and the fact that teak is given free for religious structures and
works of public utility have to a small extent acted adversely on the revenue.
The amount of unmarketed timber in the forests is also large. It is esti-mated
that 20, 000 teak logs are lying in the floating streams, and that the number of
marketable dead teak trees standing in the forests approaches 10,000. The
Division has as yet realized no revenue from this large quantity of teak. The
advisability of increasing the rates of duty on in timber, and of taxing the fuel
consumed in the palm-sugar industry has been suggested.
In 1908-09 receipts from timber accounted for Rs. 33,143: from bamboos
for Rs. 2,147: from confiscated drift and waif wood for Rs. 7,994: and from
miscellaneous sources for Rs. 2,393 of the total revenue.
Expenditure
The expenditure rose from Rs. 37,799 in 1897-98 to Rs. 7o,435 in 1903-04,
chiefly owing to the cost of surveying. Reserves. It was Rs 50,026 in 1908-09.
Minerals.
There has been little exploration of the mineral wealth of the district up to
the present. Platinum-according to. early writers on Burma-was found in the
Chindwin and its western tributaries, near Kani (Mason's Burma, reprint of
1882, Volume I, page 9). No recent report has been made of its existence.
There are the remains of old workings for copper sulphate in the Letpadaung
hills opposite Mônywa. A license to prospect for gold, silver and copper in this
neighbourhood was taken out in 1901 and renewed in 1902, 1903 and 1904,
but no active measures of exploitation followed. Pyrites (bahan) occurs in the
Kyaukka ridge. Garnet, tourmaline and spinels have been found near Salingyi,
and gold is sporadically worked, on a very small scale and after indigenous
methods, in the Hlaing stream, a right-bank tributary of the North Yama, which
it joins at Chinbyit, in the south-west of the district. Alkaline efflorescence
(satpya) occurs in many places, vide supra. Clay, laterite, and gravel are found
all over the district. In 1908, 9,889 tons of clay, 16,242 of gravel, and 2,309 of
sandstone were extracted.
Lime.
Lime is slaked at Maukthayet, north-east of Yinmabin, and the adjacent

villages, The limestone, locally called hintha-kyauk, is dug out of gravelly
hillsides on the east of the village, broken into pieces, running up to seven or
eight pounds in weight, heaped, and a kiln excavated beneath for the fuel. The
resulting powder is slaked with water. The slaked lime is used for the purpose
of making good mortar, and when repeatedly slaked, can be consumed with
areca nut. One kiln produces about one hundred baskets, or something less
than two tons. The price per 100 baskets of lime at the kiln is Rs. 11 and there
are about ten firings in the year. The industry is not widely followed, and the
group of villages does not work more than fifty kilns in the year: some six or
seven licenses only are issued, The fee is Rs. 10 per annum for a kiln. Working
goes on in the cold weather. In Burmese times lime from Mauk-thayet was
sold east of the river, but the import of Sagaing lime by rail has closed this
market, and sales are now con-fined to the west. Within the last two or three
years, the industry has spring up in Yemein village, south of Salingyi.
A little limestone is quarried for road metal on the east of the Chindwin, at
Budalin and at Kyaukpyauk on the Kyaukka-Mu road. The figures of
extraction for the whole district have averaged 350 tons in recent years.
Salt.
Salt brine is extracted and concentrated in a group of eight villages in and

near Salingyi. The labourers are for the most part women and children, who
earn from Rs. 4 to Rs. 5 per mensem. The salt holdings, sabaing, are some
times rented out at Rs. 2 per month. Usually the owner works himself, that is,
he looks after the boiling, whilst hired labourers, chiefly women, prepare the
brine. Some of the owners are well-to-do, but only about 15 per cent. are
cultivators, and the hired labourers are decidedly poor. -[Messrs. Wingate and
Thurley's Report on the Salt Industry in Burma, 1908.] The wells-some of
which are said to have been in existence for centuries, the tradi-tional date of
the earliest sinking being B.E. 726, A.D. 1364-are protected with a lining of
slabs of stone or plank-walling, of teak or some other good wood. Depths are
said to vary from 75 to 180 feet. The mouth of the well is narrower than the
base. Complete renewal of a well--necessary once in twelve years or so-costs
Rs. 150. The brine is drawn up in cylindrical wooden buckets, in-dwè, , the
empty bucket descending as the full bucket rises. The buckets are made at
Yônbinyo and Mindaw villages, south of Salingyi. The brine is poured into a
small cistern dug near the well-head, and is carried thence and poured over the
soaking-bed, paing-ngan, the soil of which has been
ploughed or otherwise loosened. After an interval of two or three days, the

impregnated soil is dug up, powdered, and moistened repeatedly with brine. It
is then collected and placed inside a vat, painggwet. More brine is poured on to
it, percolates through the salt earth, and passes through pipes into receiving-
pots, kaung-yi-o, m the shape of concentrated brine. This is carried to a shed
and boiled. Boiling ceases before the stage of complete evaporation is reached,
for, although the workers could boil the brine down to desiccation, they are
afraid of the loss to their pots, to which the salt, if thoroughly evaporated,
adheres, when the removal of the salt is apt to break the pots.
The daily average outturn of concentrated brine from a salt holding

(sabaing) is said to be five viss, and the average annual outturn 1,800 viss,
equivalent to 900 viss of dry salt. This estimate assumes that the well works
daily throughout the year, but in rainy weather the process is suspended. The
salt is not suitable for fish-curing purposes. It was analyzed in 1908 and found
to contain, when wet, 77'76 and, when dry, 80'00 of sodium chloride, against
over 97'00 per cent. in the case of Liverpool salt. This would account in part
for the fact that the price of local salt has been consistently lower than that of
imported salt.
There were in 1908 197 soaking-beds at work and the number of persons
engaged in the industry was estimated to be 589, as follows-owners, 189;
members of the family of owners, 150; hired labourers, 250. The extent of the
industry is said to have diminished by. two-thirds since Burmese times. The
extraction is given in the returns at some 300 tons per annum, but the outturn is
calculated on an assumed average annual production which cannot be regarded
as reliable. The outturn and methods are the same now as in Burmese times.
The wholesale price of local salt in recent years has fluctuated round Rs. 1-
13-0 per maund, at Mônywa, this being always less, and sometimes
Considerably less, than the price of imported salt. The price of dry salt was
reported in 1887 to be one anna per viss, or Rs. 1-6-0 per maund.
In Burmese times revenue was levied on Royal holdings only, not on

privately-owned holdings, and the assessment was at so much per boiling-shed.
[Messrs. Wingate and Thurley's Report states that the duty was 20 viss of salt
per pan (sabaing) per month.] Revenue is now assessed at a rate per soaking-
bed, but the rate differs from one village to an other, vide Chapter X.
The salt is more pungent in flavour than the salt imported from Lower
Burma, but the colour of imported salt is better. It is said that wherever the sale
of local salt extends the people prefer it to imported salt: this merely amounts
to saying that the taste for foreign salt is an · acquired taste, like that for white
millet. In Burmese times the sale of Salingyi salt extended to the
Governorships of Amyin in Sagaing district, Alôn, the northern portion of
Pahkan (Pakôkku), and also to the Upper Chindwin, the Yaw subdivision of
Pakôkku, and the Chin Hills. Sales now extend only to the villages within a
few miles of Salingyi.
An insignificant amount of salt is worked in occasional years at Kyaukka,

the source of supply being a brackish stream.
There is no special establishment for the supervision of salt manufacture.
Petroleum.
The occurrence of petroleum at 'Pôndaung' in the Lower Chindwin district

is reported at page 137, Part II, Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India,
1895. The locality is probably that west of Kin (in the Mahudaung, not the
Pôndaung), in which experiments were carried out-unsuccessfully-by the
Burma Oil Company, between 1903 and 1905 Eight applications to prospect
for petroleum in the Kani township were received in 1902, and there were
numerous applications in the succeeding year, but Messrs. Finlay, Fleming and
Company for the Burma Oil Company alone received a license. Good results
were not obtained, and the license was surrendered. Petroleum occurs in the
bed of a stream a few miles from Kinè, in the south-west of the district.
Shallow wells are dug and the oil per-colates out, along with water. There are
also numerous places in the reserved forests in the west where occur oil-
springs or escapes of inflammable vapour, vide Chapter I.
Coal.
Coal has been reported as occurring in the Kin village-tract, and

applications to prospect for coal in that neigh-bourhood (in 1905) and near
Lèdama in the south-west of the district (in 1908) were made, but were
subsequently withdrawn.
CHAPTER VI.
Occupations and Trade.
Occupations.
Census of occupations.
Although the preponderating vocation is agriculture, the district has a

number of non-agricultural industries. At the
Regular Settlement, occupations were abstracted from the thathameda rolls of

the year 1906-07, and the chief categories were found to be:--
Number Number
Vocation. of house- Vocation. of house-
holds. holds.
Cultivators 35,724 Saddlers 165

Cultivators, with some 3,661 Physicians 155
subsidiary occupation. Musicians and dancers 148
nskilled labourers 12,736 Monastery scribes 142
(coolies). Shoemakers 139
Traders 2,413 Tattooers 61
Petty traders 1,891 Masseurs 57
Tari climbers 983 Mahouts 54
Cloth-weavers and spin- 882 Masons 50
sters. Pig-breeders and pony 50
Bamboo plaiters 562 traders.
Carpenters 466 Cloth sellers 48
Sawyers 279 Beggars 38
Cartmen 277 Lacquer workers 35
Fishermen 272 Salt-boilers 35
Betel-vine tenders 226 Cattle-breeders 31
Tailors 180 Brokers and money- 30
Blacksmiths 180 lenders.
Gold and silversmiths 168 Miscellaneous 331
Brass and coppersmiths 166
The 226 betel-vine tenders cultivate the vineries in Nyaungbyubin, south of

Mônywa, and are agriculturists, and, as the rolls often err in the direction of
recording under a non-agricultural heading, a person who combines with culti-
vation some other occupation, especially in the categories of carpenter, tari-
climber, sawyer, cartman, fisherman and cattle-breeder, the number of
households engaged in cultivation is really greater than the figures show. Of
the non-agricultural categories, the unskilled labour is mainly dependent on
agriculture, the coolies being for the most part field-labourers employed
throughout the year in the district, or persons who emigrate to Lower Burma,
also, in most cases, for the purpose of working in the fields. The figure of
cloth-weavers and spinsters is swollen by the inclusion-under one or the other
heading-of most of the widows and old women. The number of professional
weavers is not so large as the figures suggest. Mason is often a synonym in the
rolls for unskilled labour of any kind,
and masseur for the man or woman who earns a trifle occasionally by massage,
without following the art as a sole means of subsistence. The professed cattle-
breeders are few in number, but nearly every cultivator, except in the
inundated tract below Mônywa, breeds and sells a spare bullock occasionally.
Temporary emigration.
Whether the unskilled labourer will emigrate or not depends to a certain

extent on the nature and prospect of the season. If it is good, or promises to be
good, many reside in the villages throughout the year, but a numerous section
emigrates annually.
The lines of emigration are four-(a) South: the most numerous section go
from the south-east of the district to Lower Burma, either the whole way by
rail, or by rail as far as Myinmu in Sagaing district and thence by Irrawaddy
Flotilla Company's steamer, or by raft down the Chindwin. On arrival in Lower
Burma they take work for the ploughing and succeeding agricultural
operations, and after reaping-any work that presents itself. (b) South-east: to
Mandalay for miscellaneous porterage work, the emigration being confined to
a small area in the cotton region. (c) North and north-west, to the Upper
Chindwin for sawyers' work. (d) East, to the canal works in Shwebo, from the
tracts adjoining the Mu river.
Generalizing, it may be said that north of Kani the emigrants-a small

section of the people-go north, and south of Kani-a large section-go south. A
double trip is hardly ever made in the year. Lower Burma is distant, and the
trouble and expense of going and returning, first for the ploughing and
afterwards for the reaping, are prohibitive. There is some emigration for other
purposes than agriculture, e.g., for peddling oil in Lower Burma villages. Of
the emigrants, those who are not cultivators go down in May or June and return
in February and March. If the season has declared itself and will be a bad one,
the agricultural section, leaving their wives and children to reap what little crop
there is, follow in October and November, to return in March and April. In the
Budalin township, along the Shwebo border, where the crops are much preyed
upon by elephant, the women and children alone cannot frighten the animals
away, and if the crop, although poor, is not a complete failure, the men must
wait to reap it. They can not get away till January, their emigration is curtailed
to a few months, and they arrive in Lower Burma too late for the harvesting.
In the category of coolies fall also those persons who engage themselves to
the owners of large country-boats, which they tow or pole upstream: those who
help to propel the flotilla of rice and timber rafts which come down every year
from the Upper Chindwin; those who assist the master-worker in such crafts as
lacquer-work; and often the pedlar hired by the middleman to go from village
to village with goods for sale.
Traders and petty traders.
Traders includes the owners of large country-boats in the riverine villages;

the middleman generally, who buys pro-ducts for sale in a rising market; the
small shop-keeper, the lower room or verandah of whose house serves as a
store for the supply of articles of daily use: and the cart owner who goes round
from village to village with commodities purchased at the trading ports, Alan,
Satôn. and Mônywa. The line between the trader and the petty trader is not
clearly defined in the thathameda rolls, and the pedlar who carries cloth round
at his own risk is often classified as a trader. To the class of petty traders are,
however, assign-able the great majority of the pedlars, and all the women who
make a living by carrying round, in baskets on their heads, vegetables and
small supplies of other daily requirements.
Other occupations.
The palm-sugar industry is described in detail else-where. Cloth weavers

are found on the cotton platens and near Salingyi, vide Chapter III. Many of
the bamboo rafts which come down from the Upper Chindwin laden with rice
dispose of it at the villages they pass and are broken up at Alôn, where the
bamboos are sold to a group of villages round Kawègyin. Here are made large
numbers of mats, winnowing trays, baskets, and other plaited articles, and
these are exported, besides supplying the needs of all the villages east of the
river and some of the western villages. Under the western hills, bamboos are
also extracted and converted into mats, the hoods of carts, and other articles.
Sawyers and carpenters go as journey-men in search of work on the
construction of monasteries or private houses. Those living in villages in the
north of the district often look first to the Upper Chindwin for employment.
Cartmen are confined to the villages near the large trade centres, along the
main roads, namely, the roads between Ywashè, opposite Mônywa, and
Yinmabin; Satôn and Salingyi; Mônywa and Alan, and Mônywa and Myinmu.
Fishermen -often recorded in the rolls in euphemistic ways in order to slur over
the discreditable nature of the calling-work at a share of the profits under the
licensee of the fishery. They usually employ nets, but occasionally fish with
fixed rod and line, or with a short line attached to a floating gourd, which is
allowed to drift downstream and is retrieved, with the catch, lower down.
Lower Chindwin, District. 123
Tailors are found in many villages, but are most numerous in the
neighbourhood of Mônywa, where hand-woven articles are going out of use
and their services are required to make up the material purchased in the piece.
Isolated smithies are found in many villages, but most of the blacksmiths
congregate in Baunggya village on the Mu, and in Byammadat and Panywa in
the south-west of the district. Baunggya makes jungle-cutting knives and
supplies the east of the district. Byammadat makes sickles, and Panywa jungle-
cutting knives. Mônywa has a few households of craftsmen who cut out of
sheet iron the concentric circlets which form the spire (hti) of a pagoda. The
goldsmiths and silversmiths are not found congregating in particular villages,
but one or two in nearly every large village; there is nothing distinctive or
excellent in their art, which is confined to the making of bracelets and ear-
orna-ments, usually in gold. Wrought brass work-gongs, bowls, the bells
carried by cattle, and betel boxes-is made at Indaing, north-east of Mônywa,
and cattle bells, pagoda bells and roughly cast miniature representations of
episodes in the life of the Buddha at Kyehmôn. The gongs made at Indaing
have a wide reputation for excellence.
Saddles.
The industry of making Burmese saddles and the appurtenances centres in

Kyehmôn, south of Mônywa, and comprises several subordinate industries.
The first is the making of the actual saddle. The cloth for the seat is purchased
at Mandalay; the inner lining is often woven in the village. The stuffing is
either the seed of the ônbwè (literally, stuffing), a small bushy plant grown as a
field crop round the village-additional supplies are said to be purchased from
Myingyan at a price of half an anna a basket; the down of the cotton-tree,
bombax malabaricum-an ordinary price for the latter is said to be four viss for
a rupee; or the down of the mayu [Stevenson, the mudar], a common jungle
plant. The needles used are purchased from Mandalay, and the thread is spun
in the village. Most of the saddlers, of whom there are about fifty, work for
themselves, but there is some hiring, and hired workers are paid by the piece.
A separate industry is the embroidering of the saddle in coloured silks in a
raised design, which is often elaborate. This work is generally done by the
women of the house, but there is some hiring, when payment, is made by the
piece and varies with the simplicity or otherwise of the stitch. This work is
always done by women. The embroidered saddle is either sold to merchants in
the village, of whom there are several, or a carrier is hired to travel from
village to village with a load of several saddles for sale retail. The price of an
ordinary embroidered saddle varies from Rs. 6, for a saddle with tree-cotton
stuffing, to Rs. 12 for one stuffed with ônbwè.
The making of the reins, the crupper, and the tasselled cords suspended
from the crupper is separate. Both women and men engage in this work. The
stuffing of the reins is made of yarn Spun in the village, and the outer covering
is woven of foreign imported cotton. About twenty house-holds are employed
in this branch of the industry.
The making of the headstalls is also specialized, and this work is done by
women. Women also make the webbing (gyat) which serves for girths to the
saddle, straps for pattens--which are also made on a large scale in this village -
and webbing for bedsteads.
Other industries.
Monastery scribes engrave Buddhist religious Writings by means of a style

on sections of the leaf of the palmyra palm;the leaf, when the writing is
finished, is smeared with earth-oil, in order to darken the script and throw it up.
Thakuttanè, in the north-west of Budalin township, turns out in large numbers
the fans used by Buddhist monks. They are circular in shape and are made out
of the leaf of the palmyra palm. Wooden pattens are made at Kyehmôn out of
wood of the shitsha (cicca albizzioides) and sit, a kind of acacia. The timber is
usually floated down from the Upper Chindwin, but there is a small import
from Katha by train. Kanbya makes leathern sandals, peindan. West of the
Chindwin, an occasional house turns out the sandal of buffalo and ox-hide
worn by the Buddhist monk. Tattooors congregate in Wayaung, in the south of
the cotton country, and go far afield pursuing their art, proficiency in which
appear to be hereditary. The mahouts are confined to the villages in the
Thingadôn and Sèywa glens, and are in the employ of the Bombay Burma
Trading Corporation. Masons include, besides bricklayers, the master-
workman who ornaments in stucco the outside of pagodas. The professional
beggars are the descendants of pagoda slaves, and are grave-diggers also.
Lacquer.
The two villages of Kyaukka North and South, with 350 and 120 houses
respectively, are engaged in the industry of manufacturing bamboo lacquer. It
is not known when and by whom the industry was introduced. There are at the
present time five small firms which supply funds anti material and employ
about 80 men, 100 women and 100 girls daily. The industry is carried on
throughout the year, but the rainy season is most suitable. The articles
manufactured are trays, up to 16 inches in diameter; sets of trays in tiers
(ôkkwet), running up to two feet in diameter of the lowest receptacle;
bowls, running up to one foot in diameter; and small boxes. The variety of
bamboo used is the tinwa, which is imported from the Upper Chindwin, the
quality which renders it suitable being its pliancy. Each bamboo is cut up into
lengths of three or four feet, and each length is split into ten or twelve pieces.
The knots, the outer covering, and the pith are carefully removed, and the
remaining foil is finely dressed and coiled into the desired shape. Over this
shape, a thin coating of thitsi, the varnish extracted from melanorrhœa usitata,
the wood-oil tree, is applied, and the shape is left to dry in an under-ground
chamber. When dry, fresh wood-oil, mixed with fine teakwood saw-dust, is
applied. Wood-oil and saw-dust (thayo) are next applied to the inside of the
shape and, when dry, roughnesses are removed by friction with a stone. A
mixture of ash and wood-oil is next applied and, when dry, the surface is again
rubbed smooth with a stone, and the process is repeated. A thin coating of pure
wood-oil is then applied and the article is polished with the rough leaf of the
dahat (tectona Hamiltoniana). Another coating of wood-oil is applied, and the
article dried and polished with soft dust obtained from crumbled fossil-wood.
It is then placed in water and carefully cleaned. A coating of vermilion mixed
with shansi (Shan oil) and wood-oil is finally applied to the inner face and left
to dry, and the article is complete. In all Kyaukka lacquer-work the exterior
face is of au unrelieved black colour, and the interior of an unrelieved
vermilion. The vermilion (hintha-pada) is made from a mixture of hinyaing
(cinnabar red sulphuret of mercury, Stevenson)and some other unknown
ingredient, in Mandalay. The formula is a trade secret, and it is said that there
are only four persons in Mandalay who are acquainted with it, and that it is so
closely guarded that a husband will not impart it to his wile and a father only to
the most trusted of his sons. The price at Mandalay is Rs. 10 per viss. Little is
known locally about the Shan oil, beyond the fact that it comes from the Shan
States and is the oil of some kind of seed. It is sold at Rs. 2 per viss at
Mandalay.
Each article requires from two-and-a-half to three months to complete. The

hours of work are from 8 A.M. to 4 P.M. A man earns on the average five
annas a day; a woman three annas; and a boy or girl two annas. About Rs.
10,000 worth of lacquer are exported to Lower Burma annually.With the
improvement of communications by rail andsteamer, the industry has
expanded and the demand isrising. The large ôkkwet are used when making
cere-menial offerings to monks; the ordinary trays by women, forcarrying fruit
and vegetables to market; and the bowls andsmall boxes for miscellaneous
domestic purposes. Maungdaung turns out the shallow stands on which
thedishes are arranged at meal time, daunglan.
126 Lower Chindwin Distrlct.
Other industries.
A little salt is produced in Salingyi and the neighbour-ing villages. The

industry has been described in thepreceding chapter. A few households in
Nyaungbinlèvillage tap the wood-oil tree, vide Chapter V, and sell the
resulting varnish, which is used to protect the exterior of themore valuable of
the baskets in daily use, for instance the vil-lage measuring-basket of sixteen
pyi (nine gallons) capacity. Earthenware pots of various shapes and sizes are
made at Ayadaw, at Yèdwet on the Shwebo border, and west of the Chindwin
at Salingyi and Obo, Vide Mr. Taw Sein Ko's monograph on Pottery. They are
not glazed. Lèzin, afew miles south of Mônywa, makes ornamental haircombs
of kyungaung-nwè (?) wood, the log being imported by rail:from the Upper
Chindwin to Kyehmôn, and carted thence.The industry does not differ from the
description givenin the Shwebo Settlement Report. In the Sèywa, a few
households in the southern villagesof Kuzeik, Pwinga, and Saingdè breed
silkworms. There is a tradition that the industry spread into the glen fromAva,
where it was followed by prisoners of Alaungpaya,captured at the conquest of
Assam in 1755 A.D. The silk obtained is too coarse for use and is mixed with
foreignsilk before being woven. Yônbinyo village, near Salingyi, besides
making thechimney-pot-shaped wooden buckets used in the brine-wells, plaits
from imported bamboos a small barrel-shaped basket, yebôn, which, when
coated with wood-oil, serves tobring up water from the village well. These are
exportedto the villages east of the Chindwin. Farther south, Yemein village
makes baskets (tagaukpa) out of the outercovering of the leaf of the tari palm.
Forest occupations.
The forests provide permanent occupation for mahouts,subordinate officials of

the Forest Department, and employésof the Bombay Burma Trading
Corporation, and occasional labour to the villages near the Reserves, in cutting,
watching, and clearing fire-protection lines and forest roads: in the extraction
of bamboos, to be converted into mats, and of other minor forest produce; and
to the camps engaged in boiling down the wood of the cutch tree into blocks of
cutch for the market. The cutch trade is in the hands of Chinese merchants in
Mônywa, who often finance the camps. Out-side reserves, the trees are in
places being worked out, and the cutters have to make longer journeys to find
trees. The increased expenditure on labour is eating into the profits, and there
are also complaints that the Chinamen in Mônywa use false weights, when
buying the outturn. The industry will no doubt flag, if it is restricted to areas
outside reserves, but there are no signs of diminution at present.
Local distribution of ocupations.
The western and northern regions, in the zone of better rainfall under the
hills, together with one or two specially favoured tracts elsewhere, for instance
the inundated region south of Mônywa, are pre-eminently agricultural. It is
in the south-east of the district that are found most of the non-agricultural
avocations outlined above. The occupations of the people were censused by
Settlement soil-tracts in the year 1906-07, and it was found that the tracts
occupied by the Mônywa and Budalin townships comprised not more than one-
third of the whole number of cultivators pure and simple, whilst nearly all of
the part-cultivators, part-non-agriculturists came from the two townships,
which returned two-thirds of the whole number of petty traders, all the cloth-
sellers, and the great majority of the cloth-weavers, bamboo-plaiters,
carpenters, sawyers, tailors, blacksmiths, gold-and silversmiths, brass and
coppersmiths, musicians and dancers, saddlers, monastery scribes, shoe-
makers, tattooers, lacquer workers, cattle-breeders, masons and domestic
servants. The mahouts, the cutch-workers and the salt-boilers belong to the
western regions, as do the bulk of the palm-sugar workers. Traders, cartmen
and unskilled labourers are about equally divided between the two sections of
the district. There is great diversity of occupation in the riverine villages, along
the Chindwin. A village with certain and good inundation may contain no
households except of agriculturists or field labourers; others may con-tain few
but boat-poling coolies; others---where the set of the current has laid bare a
shelving bank suitable for mooring their large trading-boats,--a number of
well-to-do ship-owners. Generalizing, it may be said that the occupa-tions of
the people west of the Chindwin are almost exclusively farming, and that, east
of that river, there is a large admixture of miscellaneous artizans and
craftsmen, a good deal of annual emigration, and extensive trade in cattle.
Mills and factories.
There is no factory labour in the district, and the only steam-driven mill is a
small saw-mill, belonging to a native of India and situated on the outskirts of
Mônywa.
Trade.
Trade in Burmese times.
No details of the trade of the district in Burmese times are available. The right
of collecting miscellaneous revenue, comprising dues on forest produce,
customs, ferries, bazaar stalls, fisheries and brokerage, was farmed and
realized Rs. 35,000 per annum [Gazetteer of Upper Burma, Part II, Volume II,
page 86].
Markets.
There are daily markets at Mônywa (a Municipal market), and Salingyi.

There is a District Fund five.-day market at Satôn. The collection of market-
rents in 1907-08 was-at Mônywa, Rs. 8,898; at Salingyi, Rs. 743; at Salôn,
645. The collections appear to have diminished in recent years. As the
Municipal and District Funds incurred expenditure on the construction of
buildings and the enter-tainment of a supervising staff, the results are
disappointing.
Markets now abandoned.
There was a five-day market at Ngakôn from 1890-91 until 1904-05, a

daily market at Alôn between 1894-95 and 1904-05, and at Budalin from 1891
to 1905-06. Thazi village had a Government market for four years and Palè for
two. Both were abolished after 1894-95. Receipts had in all cases dwindled to
an insignificant figure before the markets were abandoned, the process of
decay being expedited in some cases by the decision that market-fees could not
be taken from shops outside, but in the vicinity of, the market.
Local substitutes for markets.
There is no indigenous custom-as there is in some of the districts east of

the Irrawaddy of each large village holding a market every five days, and this
to some extent accounts for the apparent failure of the markets. Inland,
commodities are either carted for sale from village to village, carried round by
pedlars, or-in the case of perish-able fruits and vegetables and miscellaneous
lighter articles generally by women, on their heads. In the larger villages, the
lower part of the house occasionally serves the purpose of a shop. The seller
can, however, never make sure of meeting a large number of prospective
purchasers as he would do in a market and this, in the case of fruit and
vegetables, is an effective check on extension of that form of cultivation, and
the absence of markets-this statement particularly applies to the more fertile
tracts in the south-west of the district, from which there is least emigration-also
tends to keep the standard of living low, by leaving the people in ignorance of
the existence of small luxuries. It would appear to be advisable to maintain
existing markets and attempt new ones, but the erection of a single market-
building, if of some degree of permanency, would strain the small resources of

the District Fund. It has been suggested that a circuit of markets, housed in
inexpensive bamboo structures, so that the loss would not be great if they did
not attract, might be created in five of the larger villages in the south-west of
the district.
Distributing centres and pagoda fairs.
The chief distributing centres are:-
East of the Chindwin Mônywa, Alôn, Budalin, Thazi, and Ayedaw.

West of the Chindwin-Satôn, Salingyi, Yinmabin, Kyaukmyet and Kani.
The annual pagoda and spirit festivals at Paungwa, Powindaung, Lè-ngauk,

Kyadet, Zidaw and Pyanhlè, west of the river, and at Alôn, Kyaukka, Natgyi,
Sinyan, Maungdaung and Wunbo, east of the river, serve the purpose of fairs
for the retail disposal of commodities of local or external origin.
Exports.
The principal exports from the district are a little unhusked rice from the
north-eastern riverine villages into the neighbouring Hnaw tract of Shwebo,
and from the south-western tracts into Pakôkku; cotton, sesamum seed and oil,
and a little oil-cake; millet, both red and white; beans of many sorts, chiefly the
red bean (pègya), the small green bean (pèdi), the large aromatic white bean
(pègyi), the late bean (pènauk), and gram; groundnuts; onions; maize-spathes;
palm-sugar; tamarind fruit; cattle, hides and horns; pigs; teak; a little timber of
other sorts; cutch; a little salt; coarse cotton cloth made from Burmese thread
spun locally; Burmese saddles and trappings; the fans used by Buddhist
monks; mattresses and cushions; baskets, mats, and plaited articles; a little silk;
a little lacquer-ware; brassware; and wooden pattens.
Imports.
The district imports salt fish; compressed fish (ngapi); fresh fruit; husked
and unhusked rice; cocoanut oil; flour ; maize-spathes from the Yaw
subdivision of Pakôkku; salt ; sugar; pickled tea; areca nuts; crude and refined
petroleum; lime; piece-goods; silks, chiefly Japanese, but there is a small
import trade in the Yaw paso or skirt, woven in the Pakôkku district, and in
Mandalay silks; cotton thread; hardware and cutlery; glassware and crockery;
candles; matches, chiefly Japanese; umbrellas; various sorts of timber, teak and
padauk for the manufacture of cart-wheels, timber of the hnaw tree (nauclea
cordifolia) for the manufacture of ornamental hair-combs, and of other sorts
for house-posts and pattens; bamboos for house material; steel for the use of
the village smith; and miscellaneous articles of domestic use.
Lines of trade: (a) The railway.
The length of railway-line in the district is eighteen miles only. In 1907 the
railway carried 6,370 tons outward, and 7,559 tons inward: the figures for the
first half of 1908 were--outwards 4,301, inwards 6,937 tons. The railway does
not tap that part of the district in which the surplus agricultural produce
accrues, namely., the Salingyi and Palè townships, and the river is a competing
means of transport. The figures are for all the four stations falling within the
district added together; the amount of traffic which enters the train at one
station within the district to be consigned to another within the district is no
doubt negligible.
(b) The Chindwin.
The Chindwin trade is carried by (i) the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company's

steamers; (ii) large, masted, country-boats the largest, not able to go further
than Mônywa, called hnaw; the smaller ones, called pein, laung, and tabagyi
running up to two thousand baskets* burden: and smaller boats, lôndwin, of
one or two hundreds burden;and (iii) rafts, sometimes of large size.
The Irrawaddy Flotilla Company.
The Flotilla steamers call for cargo at Paungwa, Ywa-shè opposite

Mônywa, Mônywa, Alôn, and Kani. Their service does not, however, attempt
to carry the whole, or even a considerable portion of the trade. The Manager of
the Company has kindly supplied the following figures of the merchandize
carried in the three years 1906, 1907, and and 1908: exports to Rangoon,
3,286, 4,355 and 2,547 tons; imports from Rangoon, 2,515, 2,400 and 1,455
tons. The chief items of export are cutch, palm-sugar, beans, hides and horns;
of import, salt, piece-goods, matches, iron and steel, and miscellaneous
articles. The figures presumably do not include the tonnage possibly of small
amount imported from or exported to stations intermediate between the district
boundary and Rangoon. They show the cessation of demand after a bad year
such as 1907-08.
Country-boats.
The native trading-boats the larger owned from Pakôkku, the smaller from
the Upper Chindwin usually
* The village basket contains from 40 to 50 pounds' weight of unhusked rice.

come up from the Irrawaddy with pressed fish, salt, petroleum and, to a smaller
extent, tobacco from the islands in Pakôkku and Sagaing, chillies, areca nuts,
water-pots, glazed 'Pegu' jars from Kyaukmyaung in Shwebo, and mis-
cellaneous articles, discharge a large portion of their cargo at Satôn or
Mônywa, fill with palm-sugar, sesamum oil and tamarind fruit, and proceed
upstream, disposing of their goods at the larger villages on the banks. They
bring back from the Upper Chindwin husked and unhusked rice, which they
discharge at Satôn, refilling as before, and with beans in addition, for the down
voyage. Two journeys can be made in the year the first upstream in December
and January, returning in March and April, the second upstream in May,
returning in October. When, as is nearly always the case on the first journey,
the wind does not serve, the boat is laboriously towed up or poled.
Rafts.
There is no rafting upstream; the usual procedure of a rice rafter is to

proceed to the Upper Chindwin either by Flotilla steamer or on foot and lay out
his capital on the purchase of unhusked rice, and a ready made raft, or the
bamboos for a raft, large enough to carry it. On the floor of the raft small
temporary bins are made of bamboo-matting and roofed with thatching grass,
and in these the grain is heaped. The largest raft has space for fourteen of these
improvised granaries, seven on each side. Labour is hired for rowing the raft
down, and the voyage often ends at Alôn, where the rice is sold, the raft broken
up, and the bamboos sold also. Usually only one voyage down is made in the
year. The number of rafts registered at A1ôn by the Forest Department in the
year ending the 30th June 1909 was-
Arrivals 2,041
Departures 1,743
About half the registrations were bamboo rafts. It is probable that many
rafts escaped registration.
(c) The Mu:
There is no rafting of rice along the Mu. Country cargo- boats ply, but the
months in which a passage is practicable are five only the rainy months from
May to September. The boats fill with kerosene oil, compressed fish, sesamum
oil and tobacco at Myinmu, and sail or pole upstream, selling as they go. For
the return voyage they fill with rice from Katha and Shwebo, which they
dispose of in the Sagaing villages. They can make two voyages in the season.
(d) Cartroads.
All the rest of the trade of the district is carried by road, and cart-roads, not
always available throughout the year and often far from good, traverse the,
cultivated area except-
(a) along the bank of the Chindwin, on both sides, north of Kani;
(b) into the Sèywa, in the north-west of the district.
As regards (a), the villages on the bank have a convenient waterway. and a
cart-road into the Sèywa (b) could only be constructed at great expense.
Communication by cartroad with adjacent districts is possible except-
(a) west over the Pôndaung range into the Yaw subdivision of Pakôkku;
(b) north and north-west into the Mingin subdivision of the Upper
Chindwin.
The construction of a cart-road over the Pôndaung would be costly, and the
trade consisting, inwards, of the skirt known as the Yaw paso, and of maize-
spathes, and outwards of palm-sugar and Japanese silks is not extensive. A
road from the Sèywa into the Upper Chindwin would lead into the Taungdwin
valley, which is itself land-locked.
Chief trade routes by road.
The chief lines of trade by cart are:-

East of the Chindwin--
(a) The Mônywa-Budalin road, which carries an import trade of nnhusked rice
from Shwebo, and conveys the surplus millet and green bean (pèdi) from
the central portions of the Mônywa and Budalin townships.
(b) The Mônywa-Ma-gyi-zauk road. Palm-sugar and green bean from the
Kyaukka plateau follow this route.
(c) South from Ayadaw in the centre of the same plateau to Myinmu in the
Sagaing district. The bulk of the cotton follows this road.
(d) The Mônywa-Myinmu road. Into this road converge the village roads along
which the red bean and groundnut pass from the inundated tract west of
Nyaungby-ubin, and there is also heavy general traffic between the Sagaing
and Lower Chindwin district.
West of the Chindwin-
(a) The Lè-ngauk-Salingyi road.

(b) The Kyadet-Salingyi road.
The former of these roads has a continuation west to Chinbyit, and also
receives a feeder road from Palè, The two roads bring into Salingyi most of
the surplus sesamum seed from the Salingyi, Palè, and the south-west of
Kani, townships together with most of the surplus gram and late bean,
pènauk.
(c) From Salingyi a main road leads to Satôn on the river, where the products
mentioned are sold to the large boat-traders.
(d) The Yinmabin-Palè-Kyadet road carries to Pakôkku a certain amount of
sesamum seed and cotton, together with the surplus rice from the south-
western rice-growing tracts.
(e) The Yinmabin-Ywashè road carries cutch from the forests in the west of the
district, late bean and sesamum from parts of Kani township, and there is a
large passenger traffic. This road also carries into the palm-sugar tract
between the Salingyi uplands and the river the firewood cut on the northern
slopes of Powindaung.
Distribution of exports:
Of the exports, the surplus cotton from the cotton tract is carted south to
Myinmu and is taken on to Myingyan to be ginned. Of the small amount
produced west of the river, a little is exported by cart to Pakôkku. The surplus
sesamum from the south-west of the district is purchased in the seed by oil
pressers from Sônda and Salingyi. The Salingyi delivery is expressed and
carted to Satôn, for shipment by river up and down stream. The Sônda portion
relatively inconsiderable is exported to Pakôkku by road. The crop from the
north-west of the district goes in part to Salingyi and in part direct east to Kani
and the larger riverine villages, for sale to the large trading-boats. The
sesamum from the south-east of the district finds its way to Alôn and Mônywa,
that from the north-east to Shwebo and Myinmu in Sagaing takes the surplus
from the Mu valley and adjoining region.
The surplus red millet of the south-west of the district is purchased in cart-
bads at a time by Pakôkku villagers, or sold to local merchants, who store it for
sale, chiefly to Pakôkku villages, but occasionally to Satôn for export by river.
East of the Chindwin, the white millet from the low land along the foot of the
Kyaukka hills leaves the district by rail. Some is said to be purchased from
Sagaing, in order to be ground and mixed with wheat flour, and some goes
down to Rangoon. The red bean (pègya: the Rangoon trade reports probably
mean this bean when they speak of Pai Hin) from the alluvial lands south of
Mônywa is purchased through Burmese brokers, some of whom live in the
villages, by Chinese traders in Mônywa, 10
and is exported by train to Rangoon. The ground-nut trade, still in its infancy,
is in the same hands and follows the same line of export. The green bean, pèdi,
is carted south and west into Mônywa. The late bean, pènauk, is purchased
from the cultivators in the west of the district by traders, mostly from
Yinmabin, Salingyi and the riverine villages, carted to the Chindwin, and
exported in country boats down-stream to Lower Burma. The ultimate
purchasers are said to be natives of India. Most of the gram produced west of
the Chindwin is sold to the owners of trading-boats and also taken south. The
Ngakôn onion crop is, for the most part, purchased by the owners of country-
boats and taken Up and down stream. A little is sold to Pakôkku villagers,
being exported by cart. Most of the palm-sugar manufactured in the groves on
the west of the Chindwin is purchased often for forward delivery by traders in
the riverine villages, and finally sold to boat owners and exported by river, the
bulk going down-stream, but a little north to the Upper Chindwin. A small
amount goes west by carrier over the Pôndaung into the Yaw subdivision of
Pakôkku. From the tracts east of the Chindwin which make palm-sugar the
yield is purchased also in many cases for for ward delivery--by Mônywa
traders, who send it down to Rangoon by train. Tamarind trees are plentiful on
the village-sites in the south-west of the district, and there is some export of the
fruit in part whole and in part with the stone removed-vid Satôn, the
middlemen being the large boat owners, or else traders from Pakôkku.
Cattle are bred most extensively in the villages of the Mu-Chindwin upland
and to the north-west and west of it. Purchasers come up to buy, and take away
the animals by road; most sales are made early in the year, in April and May,
to be ready for the ploughing season. Export. is sometimes made by raft. The
speculator buys a number of cattle on credit, rafts them down the river, and if
successful pays the agreed price on his return and retains the difference as his
profit. Hides and horns are brought into the large villages and finally make
their way into the go downs of Messrs. Fabricius and Company at Mônywa.
The hides are said to be of good quality, but small. A few buffaloes from the
northern tracts are sold to purchasers from southern districts, who drive the
beasts as far as Alôn and there entrain them. Cutch is carted to the godowns on
the Chindwin bank, chiefly at Ywashè opposite Mônywa, and taken down by
steamer. Most of the salt produced near Salingyi is sold locally. It is carted
round in kerosene-oil tins in the form of brine, or carried on the shoulder in the
same receptacle. Little of the production is sold dry. Export of Burmese
saddlery and appurtenances is by train.
Distribution of imports.
Of the imports, most of the compressed and salt fish comes up m country-
boats from Lower Burma, is dis embarked at Satôn or Mônywa, and disposed
of to small traders, to be carted for sale from village to village or else deposited
in their houses to await customers. The railway also brings in a large amount.
The eastern half of the district obtains its requirements of rice either by train
probably from Katha or from supplies rafted down the Chindwin to Alôn. If
the cultivator wishes to buy more cheaply than can be done by purchasing
locally he follows the Budalin-Ye-u road into Shwebo, probably filling his cart
with red bean, salt fish or sesamum oil at Mônywa, and returns with unhusked
rice, purchased at fifty rupees for a hundred baskets in Tabayin, a part of the
Ye- u subdivision of Shwebo district. Every year strings of carts can be seen
following this route. In the north of the district the cultivator frequently makes
a journey north and purchases in the Upper Chindwin just sufficient for his
own requirements, rafting it down in the usual way, The Flotilla Company in
most years sends up to Mônywa a fiat laden with salt, and the trading-boats
also bring it up. Some comes in by rail also. Petroleum arrives in the country-
boats from the oil-fields at Yenangyaung. Timber is for the most part floated
down from the Upper Chindwin. The other miscellaneous articles of import
arrive by rail and all are distributed by cart and carrier.
Prices.
Prices of field-products have risen largely since Burmese times. At the

Regular Settlement of 19066-07 the prices of that year and the preceding three
years were recorded, and disclosed a steady and marked rise in the four years.
Prices are highest in the neighbourhood of Mônywa, where the river and the
railway afford facilities of export, and rise generally with proximity to roads
and means of transport. The variations from tract to tract are great. At
Mônywa, the average prices assumed were unhusked rice, Rs. 105; white
millet, Rs. 105; sesamum seed, Rs. 395; and red bean Rs. 112, per 100
standard baskets.
Retail prices have also risen, but not to a large extent, since annexation.
The figures are shown in the B Volume of the District Gazetteer.
Weights and measures.
The measures in local use are the tin or basket, varying from village to
village, but nearly always a little less than the Government nine-gallon
measure, and its components, the pyi, one-sixteenth, and zalè, one-sixty-fourth.
They are plaited of strips of bamboo and are usually protected from weathering
by means of a covering of wood-oil. The weights used in the villages are often
lumps of stone, and are the viss of 3'65 pounds and its one-hundredth part, the
kyat or ticai.
CHAPTER VII.
Means of Communication.
The railway.
The Sagaing-A1ôn section of the Burma Railways, which was surveyed in

1896-97, constructed between September 1898 and April 1900, and opened for
traffic of all descrip-tions at all stations on the 15th April 1900, enters the
district at Kyehmôn and terminates at Alôn, eighteen miles to the north. The
intermediate stations are Mônywa and Nandaw, one mile south of Alôn. The
only bridge of importance within the district is over the Thazi or Obodaung
stream, six miles north of Mônywa. It was originally con-structed of one span
of 60 feet and six spans of 40 feet, with iron girders. The approaches were,
however, washed away by floods in 1900-01 and two additional spans of 40
feet were put in. The original estimate for the Sagaing-Alôn section of line was
at the rate of Rs. 53,624 per mile. Breaches of the line usually following on
heavy late rains in October have been frequent, and in 1905-06 the section was
breached three times, interruptions to traffic extending over ten weeks. Within
the district, the section most exposed to the risk of breaching is between
Kyehmôn and Mônywa stations.
The amount of goods traffic carried has been shown in Chapter VI. There
is at the present time a service of one mixed goods and passenger train up, and
one down in the day; in the cold-weather months, when the harvest is being
moved, an occasional extra goods train is run.
The Chindwin.
Apart from the railway, the chief artery of communication is the Chindwin.
There is a weekly service of small Government launches in each direction,
running between Mandalay and Kindat in the Upper Chindwin district. These
carry only Government stores and servants.
The Irrawaddy Flotilla Company maintain a service on the Chindwin. Their

first steamer was placed on the river in 1882, three years before annexation. It
was the stern-wheeler Kahbyoo, one hundred and seventy feet in length. This
vessel was found to be unsuitable for the low-water season and was withdrawn,
being replaced for a short time
by smaller paddle-steamers. As trade developed paddle-steamers gave way to

stern-wheelers, and the present fleet consists of six steamers of this type, which
provide a weekly service up and down stream between Pakôkku and Kindat, an
additional weekly service between Mônywa and Kindat, and an additional bi-
weekly service between Mônywa and Pakôkku.
Fuel is collected for the steamers, both of the Company and of

Government, at wood depôts situated at Mônywa, Aingdaing above Shwezayè,
Kani, Kaniè, and Okma below Yin.
The Chindwin is buoyed, snags are removed and blasting operations

carried out by Government. The only rocky ford in the portion of the Chindwin
falling within the district is at A1ôn, but between the Sagaing and Lower
Chindwin shores at the southern boundary of the district, near Amyin, there are
dangerous rocks. In low water launches are liable to run aground. The
conditions of the river especially the narrowness of the channel in places make
it impracticable to employ large steamers and the bulk of the trade is carried in
country-boats, vide Chapter VI. None of the tributaries of the Chindwin is
navigable even for the smallest boats.
The Mu.
The Mu is navigable for country-boats of some size for four or five months
in the year. The level of the water below the Shwebo canal weir has, however,
fallen, and will fall further when the Ye-u canal is completed. There is no
service of steamers on the Mu.
Ferries.
There are ferries at the following places, from south to north :-
On the Chindwin-Hnawkado, opposite Amyin in the Sagaing district; Satôn;

Tagundaing and Ywathit, south of Mônywa; the Hlègu quarter of
Mônywa; Gwegyi, between Mônywa and Alôn; Mindaung and Kaing
near A1ôn; Nailabo, south of Shwezaye; Natgyi; and Bônmazin, south
of Kin.
On the Mu--Sindalè, Zayit, and Aungtha The Deputy Commissioner of the

Chindwin the single charge which was later divided into the two
Chindwins reported in 1887 that there was not a single road, i.e., one
passable at all times of the year, in the district. Communi cations by land
are now fair on the east of the Chindwin, and generally poor on the west,
where the black-soil areas are more extensive and the rainfall is greater.
There is a programme of road projects, which is revised from time to
time, as circumstances change. Roads in existence are classified, the highest

class comprising metalled roads bridged and drained throughout, and the
lowest simple, cleared tracks. The higher classes are, with one exception,
maintained by the Public Works Department from Provincial Funds. Lower
classes are maintained by the District Fund. Petty repairs to village roads are
sometimes carried out without payment by the people, on whom rests a
contingent legal liability to keep tracks open from village to village.
Public Works Department roads.
The following tabulated statement shows the different roads and the
portions metalled :-
Name of. Length Length Total Bungalows

Road. metalled metalled Length. at
in miles in miles
1. Mônywa-Ye-u, in 8 241/8 321/8 Hpanga-gyin, Bu-

Shwebo district. dalin.
2. Mônywa-Myinmu, 1 10 11 Kyehmôn.
In Sagaing district.
3. Mônywa to Magyizauk 10 26 36 Kyaukka, Ayadaw.
4. Satôn-Kyadet 9 8¼ 17¼ Salingyi, Kyadet.
5. Salingyi-Lè-ngauk 33/8 9 123/8 …
6. Budalin-Kudaw 8½ 3¾ 12¼ Kudaw.
7. Tadaw, opposite Môn- 15½ … 15½ Tadaw,Yinmabin.
ywa Yinmabin
8. Palè-Yinmabin … 11 11 Lè-ngauk.
Total 553/8 921/8 147½
1 Mônywa-Ye-u Road. This road passes through A1ôn, the terminus of the
branch line of railway from Sagahing. An avenue of trees has been planted
from mile 1 to mile 5.
2. Mônywa-Myinmu Road. This section within the district is from Mônywa to

Mônywe.
3. Mônywa-Magyizauk Road This road passes through Kyaukka and Ayadaw.

The section from Mônywa to Kyaukkk is metalled. An avenue of trees has
been planted from mile 1 to mile 3.
6. Budalin-Kudaw Road. The road was commenced, as a famine relief work in

1891-92.
8. Palè-Yinmabin Road. The section from Lè-ngauk to Palè, a distance of

seven and a half miles, is impassable during the rains, as the road traverses
black soil and is neither embanked nor metalled.
The majority of the Public Works roads pass over low ground and, as funds
have admitted, embankments have been thrown up raising them above flood
level. Where the ground is low lying, the soil is generally black, and the
embankments have to be formed of this soil, as the cost of carriage of other
soil is prohibitive. A road so constructed, if without surface consolidation of
some other material, is a mere morass in and after rain, and all but impassable
for cart traffic. The wheels sink deeply into the soil, and every hundred yards
or so require to be cleared of their accumulations of mud, and the strain on the
draught-cattle is very severe. Consolidating stone metal over the surface was
tried, but without satisfactory results, as it was found that the stone worked
loose by sinking into the soil. For the last two years the road surface over this
black soil has been treated with sand, and the results so far are said to have
been satisfactory; the sand works into the black soil and forms a good road
material.
The official Road Programme suggests that the authori-ties recognize the
advisability of opening out first the fertile tracts in Salingyi and Palè, and it is
in them that funds can no doubt be most advantageously expended. The
following suggestions for improvements east of the river have been made :-
(a) Raising the class of the road south from Ayadaw in Settlement Tract VI.
This is the road along which the cotton is carted to Myinmu.
(b) Constructing a metalled road south-east from Mônywa to the villages

between the railway line and the Kyaukka hills. The villages are large and
the country is closely populated
(c) Raising the class of the existing road between Budalin and Nyaunggan and,
in continuation,
(d) Improving the existing road from Alôn along the river bank to Lemye, and
thence north-east to Nyaunggan. This road skirts the black-soil Tract V,
which cannot be traversed in the rainy months.
(e) Making a permanent cart-road from Nyaungbyubin to the Mônywa-

Myinmu road, in order to open up Tract II in the rains.
(f) Raising the class of the Kyaukka-Indaing road, and continuing it to Thazi.
(g) Constructing a road north and south to connect the riverine villages on the
Mu, and to continue to Myinmu in Sagaing district.
West of the Chindwin the following improvements have been suggested :-
(a) Making a cart-road into the Sèywa (Tract XXI). The road would be
expensive to make and maintain, but the tract is traversed by a peren-nial
stream which could produce two rice crops. At present the export of
unhusked rice is im-practicable, and the price does not exceed fifty rupees
for one hundred baskets.
(b) North of Kani there is no cart-road along either bank of the Chindwin,
except for a short section south of Yin, and, as rocks come down in places
to the water's edge, it is possible that the cost of constructing a marginal
road would be pro-hibitive, but the practicability of constructing a road
between Kani and Mèdin has been suggested.
(c) Improving the existing track between Kabaing in Tract XVI and
Yinbaungdaing on the Yama. The sesamum from the north-west of the
Kani township comes by this route into Salingyi.
(d) Making a permanent cart-road north and south through Kyinin in Tract
XIV to the existing roads.
(e) Raising the class of the unmetalled section of the Salingyi-Ywashè road.
(f) Constructing a new road from Sônda on the Salingyi-Kyadet road to Taya,
raising the class of the existing road from Taya to Linzagyet and
constructing a new road on to the Chindwin at Ngakôn.
(g) Raising the class of the road between Mintaingbin and Chinbyit.
(h) Raising the class of the road between Paunggada and Satôn.
(i) Raising the class of the Yinmabin-Kônywa road. The traffic is considerable.
(j) Raising the class of the Yinmabin-Pyanhlè road.
Road bridges.
The road bridges in the district were, until recently, constructed entirely of
timber, but the present policy is to replace timber abutments by abutments of
dry stone masonry. Several have been completed.
Expenditure.
The annual expenditure on roads which varies with the amount that can be
spared for the district from Provincial revenues, has averaged Rs. 60, 000 in
the past four years. New works have absorbed an average of Rs. 12,000 of the
grant.
District Fund roads.
The chief roads maintained by the District Fund are : (1) Palè to
Mintaingbin; (2) Salingyi to Ywashe, opposite Mônywa; (3) Kani to
Nyaungbintha, north of Yinmabin; (4) Mônywa to Thazi; (5) Salingyi to
Paungwa; (6) Kudaw to Yèdwet; (7) Kanè south-east to Thakuttanè;(8) Buda-
lin to Lemye; (9) Budalin north-west to Payagyi near Thakuttanè; (10) Budalin
court-house to Budalin village; (11) Alôn to Lemye; (12) Kyaukka to Indaing;
(13) Yinmabin to Kônywa; (14) Yinmabin to Pyanhlè; (15) Kani south to
Thityaung; (16) Chinbyit to Zeiktaung. The total length of these roads is 163
miles. All have been raised above the simple, cleared track stage. Number 10,
the small section connecting the Budalin court-house and village, is metalled,
bridged and drained. None of the others is metalled. The road from Palè to
Mintaingbin, number 1, is bridged and drained throughout; all the others are
only partially bridged and drained. The expenditure incurred by the District
Fund on roads in recent years has been as follows:-
Rs. Rs.
1905-06 2,433 1907-08 1,597
1906-07 17,359 1908-09 4,898
Village Roads
Besides the roads supervised by the Public Works Department and the
District Fund, there are in all parts of the district simple, cleared, hundred-foot
tracks, petty repairs to which are sometimes carried out by the people without
payment. These had an aggregate length of 384 miles in 1905-06. Where they
traverse high-lying, red-soil regions they are open throughout the year.
Communications within the forests have been described in Chapter V.

CHAPTER VIII.
FAMINE.
Rainfall.
The average rainfall over all years for which records existed up to 1906,
was as follows: for the sake of comparison the rainfall at two stations in
adjoining districts has been included; the order of the stations is from east to
west:-
Inches.
Saingbyin, in Shwebo district, north-east of Budalin. 29'29

Budalin 31'09
Mônywa 27'17
Salingyi 25'82
Palè 32'11
Kani 37'99
Mingin, in the Upper Chindwin district, in about
the same latitude as the most northerly point of the
Lower Chindwin district. 50'00
Zeiktaung 53'90
The Salingyi record is for a single year. The Zeiktaung record was taken
for two years only, but as the average figure agrees with Mingin, which is in
approximately the same longitude and similarly situated near hills, the average
of the two years is no doubt an accurate indication. The rainfall varies
inversely with the distance from the hills on the west and north. Thus it
increases steadily from Mônywa (27) and Salingyi (25) through Palè (32) to
the Pôndaung range, underneath which lies Zeiktaung (53); and through Kani
(37) and Mingin (50) to Kindat (70). Although a rule can be observed in the
averages, the variation from year to year is very great, the recorded extremes at
M&nywa being 16 and 40, Budalin 20 and 48, Palè 24 and 44, and Kani 26
and 53 Not only is the variation very great, but the fall is local. Thus the four
stations mentioned have recorded their highest rainfall each in a different year,
and their lowest each in a different year.
Examination of the popular belief that the rainfallis dirni
The unanimous opinion of the people is that the rainfall is getting worse. It
is often stated that the actual fall is diminishing; it is almost invariably stated
that it is morecapricious and undependable than it used to be. The people
sometimes ascribe the supposed deterioration to the fact that the world is now
in a declining cycle of the Buddhist cosmogony, or to a general failing away in
religious feeling.
Grouping the yearly figures by periods of years the resulting averages are:-
Average Annual Rainfall, in Inches

Year
Mônywa Palè Budalin Kani
1893 to 1897 28'38 31'40(four 29'67(four …

years only). years only).
1898 to 1902 26'37 33'21 29'00 37'46
1903 to 1907 28'7† 31'57 34'30 37'60
There is therefore no indication in the figures that the amount of the rainfall
is decreasing.
As regards the charge of greater capriciousness, the number of rainy days

in each year, abstracted similarly by periods of five years and averaged to an
annual figure, has been as follows:-
Mônywa Palè Budalin Kani

Remaining months
Remaining months
Remaining months
Remaining months
May to October.
May to October.
May to October.
May to October.
of the year.
of the year.
of the year.
of the year.
Years
Total.
Total.
Total.
Total.
Up to 1897 38'7 5'8 44'5 38'0 5'7 43'7 39'7 6'5 46'2 … … …
1898 to 1902 42'4 3'4 45'8 39'8 3'2 43'0 46'4 4'0 50'4 46'8 3'6 50'4
1903 to 1907 38'4 5'0 43'4 39'2 6'8 46'0 41'0 4'6 45'6 38'8 6'2 45'0
* Average of seven years. † Average of four years,
The period for which figures exist is short, but they do not suggest that
there has been either diminution in the number of rainy days in the whole year,
or that change in the Seasonal distribution is taking place.
The dry zone in the eighteenth century. Sangermano.
It is possible to compare the aspect of the dry zone more than a century ago
with the aspect it presents today. The Italian missionary Sangermano was in
Burma from 1783 to 1808, and writes thus of the climate of Ava, which is part
of the dry zone :-
"The kingdom of Ava, although situated more to the north than Pegu, is
nevertheless subject to the greatest and longest heats. * * *In Ava, after a little
rain that falls in May, and there are some years when even this does not come,
the south-west wind carries away all the clouds. * * * * * After a little rain,
which falls in May and the beginning of June, and which is called the first rain,
two months and a half pass over without any more in the kingdom of Ava. But
from the middle of August to the beginning of October, what are called the
second rains fall, but not always in the same abundance. * * * * * * * It
sometimes happens that these second do not come at all, or are not sufficiently
plentiful, and then a great scarcity is always the consequence. * * * * Nor are
the inhabitants of the latter kingdom [Ava] entirely devoid of resources when
the rice crop fails. * * * They will also mix with what rice they have * * * wild
fruits and the roots of different trees steeped and afterwards boiled in water."
The account coincides closely with the circumstances of the present day.
Symes.
Symes, in his Embassy to Ava, describes the neighborhood of the

Irrawaddy thus. The date of his journey was July 1795 :-
"Sills-mew [Salè in the Myingyan district] * * * * * In the evening we

brought to near Keahoh, a poor village, where the inhabitants get their
livelihood by extracting molasses from the palmyra tree.
* * * * * * * * * *
"The land about Pagan scarcely yields sufficient vegetation to nourish

goats. [Volume I, Chapter II †.]
* * * * * * * * * *
"The grounds [Sameikkôn in Myingyan] in the neighbourhood were

embanked for the cultivation of rice. The soil appeared to be good, but the
inhabitants expressed the utmost anxiety on the subject of rain. Not a drop had
yet fallen here, although, in the common course of seasons, the monsoon
should have commenced three weeks earlier. The poor people were carefully
husbanding their rice straw for
† Constable's Miscellany Edition, 1827

Lower Chindwin District 145
the support of their cattle, large herds of which were endeavouring to pick up a
subsistence from the parched blades of grass in fields that were covered with
dust instead of verdure. The appearance of these animals bespoke excessive
poverty, if not actual famine.
* * * * * * * * * *
"Notwithstanding the drought in the champaign country [Ava in Sagaing]

had been greater this year than usual, the river was swollen to its regular height
which, I was informed, it rarely fell short of, or exceeded. Indeed, this part of
the country is seldom refreshed by copious rains, but, like Egypt, depends on
the overflowing of its river to fertilize the soil." [Volume II, Chapter I.]
The description might have been written of the dry zone of the present day
in a year in which the early rains are long delayed, and it seems probable that
so far as external aspect goes, the dry zone is much the same as it has been for
a century. So far as the Lower Chindwin district is concerned, it must also be
remembered that there has been great extension of cultivation since
annexation; it is the higher-lying, worse soils which are now coming under the
plough: it is these soils on which the crops first fail; and it is clear that, given a
year of equally bad rainfall now and twenty years ago, the proportion of the
failed to the sown area must be greater now than in the earlier year, simply
because there is now a greater proportion of the poor soils under cultivation.
Hence in a year of bad rainfall, the volume of complaints is greater than it
would have been in a similar year before annexation. The voice of the people,
by itself, cannot be regarded as proof of a diminishing rainfall.
Indications of a diminished water supply.
There are, however, other indications, not of a diminishing fall, but of

diminished utility in a fall which may be admitted to be constant. They are: (a)
the existence not only under the hills in places where waste is abundant,
population scanty, and the climate unhealthy, but in the most thlckly-peopled
and the healthiest tracts of stretches of abandoned rice fields; (b) the fact that,
although there has been since annexation a steady and rapid increase in
population and great expansion in the area under cultivation, there has been
little embanking of new rice lands: the people, in fact, sometimes say that the
tendency is in the opposite direction, namely, to level down the old field
embankments; (c) the substitution in recent years of short-lived staples, of
which the chief instance is the
seventy-five day variety of late Sesamum; (d) the abandon-ment in the west of
the cultivation of upland rice for the ordinary dry-crop cycle of millet and
sesamum. With regard to (a), a Burman would not at any rate in the less remote
tracts give up trying to raise a rice crop on a field already embanked for that
form of cultivation, unless he felt quite sure that the attempt to secure a crop
would be fruitless. The fields once won a rice crop, and it appears certain that
they must once have had more water than they can now count upon. With
regard to (b), much of the land which was brought under the plough soon after
annexation is in the south-west of the district, where the soil is black clay, of
excellent quality for the growth of rice, and almost level, so that the minimum
of labour would be needed to embank it. In other tracts, again, some of the new
land lies in natural depressions, which would lend themselves to the process of
embanking. Rice is the favourite food-grain of the Burman, and the cultivator
is prepared to undergo toilsome labour, not one year but every year, if he
thinks that there is a chance of reaping a rice crop at the end. It is difficult to
account for the absence of new rice land except by admitting a deficiency in
the supply of water available for cultivation. With regard to (c), the shorter-
lived variety of sesamum is rather more expensive to plant, and a little less
lucrative than the longer-aged crop. With regard to (d), the up land rice cycle
(one or two years rice, one year sesamum, five or six years fallow) calls for a
large area of land and pressure of population is contributing to diminish that
form of cultivation, but the people also adduce decreasing rainfall as a reason.
The causes assignable.
Taking all the facts into consideration, it is difficult to escape the

conclusion that the available water-supply is less than it used to be, and that the
reason lies in the denudation of forest growth. Chapter IV contains figures
showing the increase of cultivation and, although the figures for the early years
are estimates, there is no doubt that there has been great extension To the west
of Taya, in the angle of the Chindwin and the South Yama, there was, until
after the annexation, tree-jungle in which roamed herds of elephant. Now, on
that side of the river, there is no herd within fifty miles, and cultivation
stretches with hardly a break to the foot of the Pagyi hills. Similar accounts of
the expansion of cultivation are given in most parts of the district. In many
places firewood and house posts, which were in Burmese times cut in the
village waste, have now to be brought from distant forests. The tari palm has
no doubt largely contributed to the denudation. No early figures are available,
but the figures of the present day are enormous, vide Chapter IV, and the drain
on the tree
growth for fuel must be great. There are many places where climbing is said to
have increased since annexation. The Burmese authorities did not favour the
cultivation of the tree, since it provided the people with facilities for
drunkenness.
Erosion.
The process of erosion has accompanied denudation of tree-growth; many

of the hill torrents come down in flood rapidly, noticeable examples being the
streams flowing west from Kyaukka hill, and the streams in the neighbourhood
of Bôksu, south of Salingyi; in both places there has been extensive clearing of
tree-growth on the upper levels. The preservation of tree-growth in the
interests of the rainfall in the dry zone generally, is, it is believed, under the
consideration of Government. No land in this district has, up to the present
time, been reserved for purposes of rain protection, and there has been no
experiment of controlling the upper courses of streams.
The practice of terracing.
In the Lower Chindwin district denudation has perhaps not gone so far as
in some other of the dry-zone districts, and the practice of terracing dry-crop
fields in order to catch the silt from the fields above and to prevent good soil
from being washed away, although carried out to a small extent in many, of the
red-soil tracts, does not yet occur on a large scale.
Tracts less exposed to the risk of extensive crop failure.
Certain portions of the district are exposed to the risk of widespread crop
failure. The history of the seasons since annexation proves this, and it is
indicated in the figures of recent years, showing the caprice of the rainfall. The
regions which are least liable to crop failure are the western tracts under the
high hills, which enjoy a better rainfall, though years of failure of rainfall are
not unknown, even there; the extensive plain of black soil in the south-west
which, besides deriving a slightly higher rainfall from propinquity to the hills,
is rendered more secure by the cool, moisture-retaining nature of the soil; the
areas irrigated from the larger torrents, namely, the two Yamas; the riverine
tracts south of Mônywa along either side of the Chindwin, which may in
perhaps one year in six fail to receive inundation, but which can, in such a
year, grow a spring-ripening crop of beans of many kinds; the country north of
Kani, where the rainfall is better; the valley between the railway line and the
Kyaukka ridge, which receives silt deposit from torrents; the eastern black-soil
region; and the small areas which are irrigated from artesian wells and natural
springs. Excluding these areas, there remains much more than half of the
district exposed to the possibility of crop failure, though the degree of risk
varies.
History of the seasons since annexation.
Some idea of the expectation of the seasons may be gathered from an

examination of the nature of the years since annexation. They are shown in the
following abstract, in which a grade has been assigned to each year on an
examination of the remarks contained in the Revenue Administration and Crop
and Season Reports :-
Year. Agricultural quality.
1888-89 Middling.
1889-90 Rainfall above the average; good.
1890-91 Rainfall much below the average; bad.
1891-92 Rainfall much below the average, and said to have been the
lowest for thirty years; bad.
1892-93 Rainfall good in most parts; middling.
1893-94 Rainfall fair, but the late rains failed; middling.
1894-95 Rainfall good; good.
1895-96 Rainfall poor; bad.
1896-97 Rainfall poor; bad.
1897-98 Rainfall fair and timely; good.
1898-99 Rainfall good, but failed towards the end of the season;
middling.
1899-1900 Rainfall good; good.
1900-01 Rainfall untimely; middling.
1901-02 Rainfall untimely and insufficient: early long drought;
middling.
1902-03 Rainfall untimely and insufficient; early rain favour able,
but followed by prolonged drought; middling.
1903-04 Early rains bad, late rains exceptionally good; good.
1904-05 Rainfall above the average and well distributed; good.
1905-06 Rainfall badly distributed; middling.
1906-07 Rainfall fair and well distributed, but no late rain fell;
middling.
1907-08 Rainfall very bad; widespread crop failure; bad.
1908-09 Early rains had, late rains good; good.
Out of the twenty-one years: seven are classified as good, five as bad, and nine
as middling. In the last eleven years only one year falls within the 'bad'
category, and there are four good years. This cannot, however, be taken as
indicating an improvement in the seasons. Before the construction of the
railway, local scarcity could not to the same extent be remedied by emigration;
some of the early years were no doubt on this account officially reported as
middling, which would be regarded as good at the present time, when sporadic
crop failure is of less importance. It may be stated that, on the average, out of
three years one may be expected to be good, one bad and one middling.
Seasons of pronounced scarcity : 1890-91
The years of pronounced scarcity have been as follows:- In 1890-91, in

parts of the north and north-west of the district, scarcity was imminent and, in
the Sèywa and Shitywa glens in the extreme west, actually occurred. The
thathameda tax was reduced from ten rupees per household to five and four in
the affected areas, which were not, however, extensive, and it is an illustration
of the rapidity with which population returned after the troubledtimes of the
annexation that the collections from the tax rose for the whole district.
1891-92.
The succeeding year, was much worse. The Western subdivision (now the
Salingyi and Palè townships) secured average crops, but elsewhere both early
and late crops were bad. The bad harvest of the year before had depleted
supplies of grain. Distress became acute in the Eastern (now the .Mônywa)
subdivision. Conditions were worst on the Kyaukka plateau and in the region
to the north-west, as far as the Inbaung. It was estimated at the beginning of
December 1891 that relief would be required in the Ayadaw township for
3,281 persons for eight months, at a cost of Rs. 1,44,000. Relief works were
opened in September and October 1891, and closed in July 1892. The cost of
the operations in the townships of the Eastern sub-division was Kudaw, Rs.
50,752; Ayadaw, Rs. 34,492; Kani, Rs. 3,-903; Mônywa, Rs. 678; in all, Rs.
89,825; and, of the original demand from the household tax, a sum of Rs.
95,474 'was remitted. The Financial Commissioner had sanctioned as famine
wage in order to prevent emigration, which the authorities then regarded as
undesirable 6 annas for a man, 4 annas for a woman, and 2 annas for a child.
On the 28th September 1891, instructions were received to reduce the rates to
annas 4, 2, and 1 respectively. These were apparently the rates for daily labour.
In January 1892 women and children were being paid on piece-work at rates
which enabled women to earn 2 annas and children 1 anna perdiem. The piece-
rate for men was apparently 2½annas. A proposal was made to raise the rates
to 2½and 1½annas for women and children respectively, but was rejected by
the Financial Commissioner. On the 7th April 1892, the Deputy Commissioner
reported that men would not work for 2½ annas, and requested sanction to
restore the old, higher rates, subject to the proviso that a man should not
receive more than 4 annas. The labourers on the Tapôn tank in the Inbaung
were at the time asking 10 annas for a task of 100 cubic feet of earthwork with
a 100 foot lead, and, for daily wages, 8 annas and 4 annas for a man and
woman respectively. The proposal to raise the rates was not sanctioned, as a
fresh scale of general rates came into force almost immediately (Chief
Commissioner's Resolution 1S-2, 1892, dated the 14th April 1892). The
average cost of the maximum Code ration was stated in the Resolution to be
annas 2½, 2 1/3 and 1 1/3 for a man, a woman, and a child, respectively; the
standard daily task of a B (agricultural) family, of husband and wife with two
children, was estimated at 100 cubic fret, and the piece-rate for such a family
was estimated at 9 annas for that amount of earthwork. These rates were
introduced on the 24th April, and the people remained on the works in Budalin,
but not at Tapôn. On the 7th of June, orders were issued to dose operations as
the works in hand became completed. No death took place from starvation. A
population of 30,000 was affected by this famine. The highest daily attendance
on the work was 4,332 persons, and the units relieved from the beginning to
the end of the period of scarcity numbered 362,856.
1895-96; 1896-97.
The same region was affected in 1895-96, when remissions of the

thathameda tax were required; and again in the succeeding year, when the
initial demand of the tax fell by R. 18,000, and there were also remissions
amount-ing to Rs. 16,000.
1903-04
At the end of July 1903 there were reports of impending scarcity from the
rice-growing region east of Kudaw and the upland villages between Kudaw
and Natyedaung, which grow dry crops for the most part. A test work, the
embankment of the Kudaw-Winmana road, was opened neat Kudaw on the
30th August. The numbers on the work were :- 3oth August, 847; 31st, 1, 117;
1st September, 1907; 2nd, 2,278; 3rd, 2,450. On the 3rd there was rain in the
west, and some villages left the work. On the 6th and 7th there was general
rain, and about 2,000 persons left, in order to resume agricultural operations.
The work was closed on the 9th. The wage for an adult male performing
Lower Chindwin District 151
a full task appears to have been fixed at the low rate of one anna seven pies,
and rice was selling on the work at Rs. 3-9-0 per local basket of about 55
pounds. The wage was small, but there were few tools and overseers available,
it is not clear that tasks were measured, and it cannot be stated that a full task
was taken. The practical desertion of the work after one or two days' rain
showed that the people were not destitute. The work was in fact no real test of
the existence of famine, since the agricultural season had not yet gone by, and
the people can always maintain themselves until the sowing rains. They appear
to have come to the work, not because they would have starved otherwise, but
because it suited them to obtain a small wage for a task which was no doubt
not rigorously set, rather than eke out their food with roots gathered in the
jungle until such time as the sowing rains fell.
1907-08.
One of the worst years within memory was 1907-08. All the late crops
failed generally. Relief works were suggested, but were not required and were
not started. Emigration was encouraged, and Rs. 1,33,000 of the thathameda
demand remitted. This did not represent the full measure of relief afforded.
Whereas, in earlier years of widespread failure, the household tax was
practically the single form of taxation, in 1907-08 the district was under a
Summary Settlement and subject to the payment of Land Revenue, and land is
not assessed at all if less than one-fourth of an average crop is gained from it.
The land revenue demand fell from Rs .301,074 in 1906-07 to Rs. 2,16,091 in
1907-08. The parts of the district affected were again the red-soil tracts
between the Mu river and the Kyaukka divide. They lie about midway between
the Shan hills in the east and the Chin hills in the west, and the history of the
years of scarcity shows that they, With the tract to the north-west, are the
regions most likely to be implicated.
Improbability of famine condition arising.
It is to be anticipated that failure of crops will occur in the future at least as

frequently as it has occurred in the past: probably more frequently, since the
higher-lying precarious soils are those which are now coming under
cultivation, and the denudation of tree growth appears to be diminishing the
utility of the rainfall. The year 1907-08 made it clear, however, that
widespread crop failure need not necessarily be accompanied by famine
conditions. The people are not impoverished; in an earlier chapter it has been
noticed that there is nearly one head of cattle to each soul of the population;
most of the land is held in
private ownership, on what is practically a full free holdtenure, and in small

estates: land has considerable value in, exchange. There are no caste
restrictions operating to confine industry to a particular form or to impede
travel; emigration .is easy, and the people do not shrink from emigrating
temporarily. Given the usual bounteous rice-harvest in Lower Burma, there
will be a steady demand for agricultural labour, and the labour of the Upper
Burman is preferred to that of the Indian cooly. Hence, in a bad year, the
cultivator whose crops have failed has many ways of tiding over the months
before the next season opens; he may sell a bullock, mortgage his land, send
his sons down to Lower Burma, or emigrate himself. So long as these
favourable conditions exist, there is little likelihood of famine conditions, as
the term is understood in peninsular India, arising. There is, however, a
sanctioned scheme of projects to betaken in hand in the event of a famine, and
the existing list of Public Relief Works includes the improvement or
construction of numerous tanks for the supply of drinking, water.
Policy of suspension of revenue demand not followed.
The policy of temporary suspension of the revenue demand in a year of

failure of crops, the arrears being collected subsequently, has not been applied
in this district. So far as the land-revenue demand is concerned, since the
matured crop only is assessable, arrears cannot accrue on a crop-failed field.
Temporary reductions of the rate of the household tax have been sanctioned
occasionally on account of un favourable agricultural conditions, and
remissions of land revenue are granted for a short crop, but such abatements
have hitherto been final: the remitted portion has not been demanded in the
following year. The rapid, recuperation of the district after years of agricultural
calamity is exemplified in the paragraph dealing with; gross revenue
collections in Chapter X, and suggests that the existing policy is well suited to
a district most of which falls within the dry zone.
Substitutes for the ordinary food grains in times of scarcity.
The absence of caste restrictions affecting his diet, and his lack of
fastidiousness as to the food he eats also help the Burman when the food-crops
fail. The following roots and plants are eaten in times of scarcity :-
Pe-u (corypha umbraculifera), the palmyra palm. The tree is felled and the
pith extracted, sundried, pounded to powder, baked and eaten. The powder is
also boiled in water to a thick mass, and eaten thus. The diet is said to cause
diarrhœa.
Thindauk-u, a root; it is boiled and eaten mixed with sesamum-oil and salt.
The diet is said to be wholesome, but it causes an irritating rash.
Kywè-u (dioscorea dæmona). The root is sliced, steeped in water for three
days, compressed, usually by treading, sundried, and eaten boiled or baked,
along with palm sugar. The tood is wholesome, if properly prepared; otherwise
it causes giddiness.
Môndaing-u or madaing-u, the root of the môndaing (cycas), a kind of

small tree-fern. The root is sliced and steeped in water for at least twelve days;
it is then com-pressed, sundried, baked with palm-sugar and eaten. The food is
wholesome, if properly prepared; otherwise it is said to cause death. Kyi-che-u;
this root is pounded to powder, mixed with water, and baked. It is said to be
wholesome.Wa-u, a tuber. It is sliced, washed, sundried, pounded, and
steamed, and eaten mixed with salt or palm-sugaro The food is poisonous
unless the processes are carefully carried out. The seed of the grass known as
wunbèsa (panicum crus galli) is occasionally used as a substitute for the
ordinary grains. The seed is pounded and the grain cooked like rice, and it is
said to be more palatable than millet. Wild yams of several kinds are used as
an ordinary article of diet in the rainy tracts under the western hills.
Local division of the rainy season.
The people divide the rains into three periods: the early rains of May and
June, the middle rains of August and September, and the late rains of October
and, in occasional years, the beginning of November. The early rains are of
value, since they cool the soil, soften it for the ploughing later and provide
grazing, but they are not much utilized for sowing except in the west, where
early sesamum is grown, and on the Kyaukka plateau, where cotton and green
bean, pèdi, are cultivated. When these rains fail or when, after sowing, there is
and this frequently happens a prolonged break which withers the young plants,
the cultivator, after the fashion of farmers all the world over, grumbles loudly.
But early sesamum, profitable as it is if it succeeds, is a catch crop only. Land
sown with early sesamum can always take a second crop, of beans or late
sesamum or millet; and cotton and pèdi cover a small area on the whole. The
early rains are therefore not critical rains. Nor are the middle rains critical, for
there is always a fall sufficient to make sowings practicable. It is the late rains
of October which are the critical rains. If these fail altogether, or if the interval
between the general sowings and the occurrence of the late rain is so great that
the plants wither, the main harvest has perished. The spring-ripening crop of
wheat and beans is of minor importance, and abundant late rain cannot save the
situation if it falls too late to revive the fields of rice and millet and sesamum.
CHAPTER IX.
ADMINISTRATION, GENERAL AND JUDICIAL,

PUBLIC WORKS, ETC.
[The paragraphs dealing with the Civil Police compiled from material
supplied by Mr. J. H. Leggett, Officiating District Superintendent of Police,
Lower Chindwin District; those dealing with the Military Police compiled
from material supplied by Captain A. B. Merriman, I.A., Officiating
Commandant, Chindwin Battalion.] For a detailed description of the officers
forming and the methods followed by the central Burmese administration and
of the judicial procedure obtaining in late Burmese times, reference may be
made to the British Burma Gazetteer and the Upper Burma Gazetteer, Chapter
XVI.
Burmese administrative divisions within the district.
The Burmese nè, or Governorships, which fell within the present Lower
Chindwin district were :- (a) Alôn; bounded on the north by the Governorships
of Kani and Tabayin (now in Shwebo district); on the east by the Mu river; on
the south by the Amyin Governorship (now in Sagaing); and on the west by the
Chindwin. Its boundaries correspond approximately with those of the existing
Mônywa and Budalin townships. The officials were :-
Rs.
A wun, or Governor, remunerated by a salary of 200 [300 ? ]

Two sitkè, subordinate judicial officers, each with a salary of 100
Two na hkan officials with clerical duties 65
Two myosa-ye 50
Six yazawut-ôk 50
One kunbodein-wun 30
One kinôk.
One myothu-gyi.
Sixty-six ywathu-gyis.
All were appointed by the king. The civil jurisdiction of the Alôn wun is
said to have been limited in Thibaw's time to suits not exceeding Rs. 1,000 in
value. Yazawut-ôk were police magistrates, with some additional civil power
of small extent. The kunbodein-wun supervised those heads of revenue which
under existing classification would be
ascribed to Law and Justice. The kinôk was the Royal lessee, to whom the
exclusive right of collecting certain classes of revenue had been sold by
auction.
(b) Kani Its boundaries were: on the south, the North Yama stream; on the west
the Pôndaung range of hills; on the north the Khampat Governorship,
which had its head quarters at Kindat, now in the Upper Chindwin district;
on the east, the Tabnyin Governorship, the Alôn Governor-ship, and the
Chindwin. The officials were: a wun, two sitkè, two myosa-ye, one
myothugyi, and 98 ywathugyi. The charge included, besides the existing
Kani township, five village groups now in the Mingin subdivision of the
Upper Chindwin, namely, Bin, Thindaw, Singu-le, Thanbauk, and Tôn; the
eight villages of the Shit-ywa valley in the south-west; and the Shwezayè
village group east of the Chindwin.
(c) Pa-gyi (Bangyi)was bounded on the west by the Pôndaung, on the north by
the Shitywa villages of the Kani nè and the North Yama; on the east by the
Kyaukmyet group of boat villages and by a tongue of the Amyin
Governorship, and on the south by the South Yama. It comprised the
country which is now the Salingyi and Palè townships, less (i) the Shitywa
villages, (ii) the Kyaukmyet group, and (iii) the riverine villages between
Letpadaung and Ngakôn. The officials were: a wun, two taiksa-ye, one
myothugyi, and a number of ywathugyi. The court of the wun and taiksa-ye
was at Salingyi. The Governorship was known as the Pagyi talk or riding,
and this accounts for the appel-lation taiksa-ye.
(d) Amyin Ngamyo,* the Five Towns This Gover norship fell for the most part
within what is now the Sagaing district, but the littoral from Ngakôn at the
junction of the South Yama and the Chindwin to Letpadaung opposite
Mônywa and a few villages near Nyaungbyubin were part of it. The
boundaries of the riverine fringe of Amyin were on the west the Pagyi
Governorship; on the north tha Kyaukmyet boat villages; on the ease the
Chindwin; and on the south the South Yama. The officials were a wun, one
nahkan, one saye-gyi (chief clerk), and a varying number of myosa-ye.
(e) Kyaukmyet.-This small group of villages, .situated at the junction of the

North Yama and the Chindwin, provided boatmen for the Royal fleet.
The extent of the authority of these officials in late * They were Amyin,
Payeinma, Kyaukyit, Nabet and Allagappa, all now in the Sagaing district.
Burmese times is described in detail
at page 509 of Part I, Volume II, of the Upper Burma Gazetteer.
Military and Marine forces in Burmese times.
The district supplied a great part of the standing army in late Burmese
times, and it is therefore of interest to trace briefly the growth of Burmese
military administration. Sangermano, who arrived at Ava in Upper Barma in
1783, writes:-
"The soldiery of the Burmese Empire is on a very different footing from

ours: it does not consist of regiments of soldiers with various ensigns, who live
separately from other members of society in barracks, castles and fortresses * *
* Those who in this country perform military service are the whole Burmese
nation * * * * . The population of the kingdom, which amounts to nearly two
millions of souls, may be considered as divided into so many small corps, each
of which has its own head who is called Sessauchi (thwe-thaukgyi), and
corresponds to our Sergeant. * * * Each of these different corps has a
Mandarin (wun) in the capital for protector. "When the Emperor orders any
military expedition, either into hostile countries, or against rebels, he fixes at
the same time the number of soldiers who are to march, and nominates
immediately the General who is to command them. The Lutto (hlutdaw Central
administrative office)in the capital and the Ion or Rôndai (yôn, the governor's
office) of the provincial cities then exact from the heads of the different places
under their jurisdiction, not only the number of men ordered by the Emperor,
but also a certain quantity more. * * * * * * *
* * * * * * *
"As soon as the order for marching arrives, the soldiers, leaving their
sowing and reaping, and whatever occupation they may be engaged in,
assemble instantly in different corps, and prepare themselves."
It appears from this account that there was then no standing army in
barracks at the capital, and that the obligation to serve rested on every one
alike.
Symes in the Embassy to Ava states that every man in the kingdom was
liable to military service, and war was deemed the most honourable
occupation. There was a small regular military establishment at that time
(1795), not exceeding the number of which the royal guard was composed, and
such as were necessary to preserve the peace of the capital :-
"Infantry and cavalry compose the regular guards of the King. The former
are armed with muskets and sabres * * * * * . The infantry are not uniformly
clothed. I heard various accounts of their numbers: 700 do constant duty within
the precincts and at the several gates of the palace. I think that on the day of
my public reception, I saw about 2,000 and have no doubt that all the troops in
the city were paraded on that occasion."
There had therefore grown up, by the end of the eighteenth century, the
nucleus of a standing army.
Either Symes was misinformed as to its strength or later kings largely

added to it, for in 1879 it much exceeded 2,000. The History of the
Alaungpaya Dynasty, compiled by Maung Tin, A.T.M., gives the strength in
Thibaw's reign as 24,000 men.
The twelve regiments.
The Lower Chindwin district furnished the greater part, if not the whole, of
the twelve regiments which composed the Inner and the Outer Brigades, of six
regiments each. These regiments were stationed at the capital, and the con
script was supposed to receive monthly pay, which was ten rupees in Thibaw's
reign. The pay was, in fact, intermit-tent, and his circle of associated families
(daing) had to make a grant-in-aid, nauk-htauk-gye, of the conscript, and this
averaged five rupees per mensem.
The Inner Brigade (adwin-chaukso) was composed of the following six

regiments :-
Myauk Taya-nga-sè. Taung Dawè.

Taung Taya-nga-sè Myauk-ma-yapin.
Myauk Dawè. Shwepyi-hmangin.
These were recruited from the Alôn Governorship. The Outer Brigade
(apyin-chaukso)also comprised six regiments :-
Natsu Letwè. Ywe Letya.

N atsu Letya. Letwe-gyaung.
Ywe Letwè. Letya-gyaung.
This is the list usually given, but there are variants, and some lists include
the Shwe-hlan, Natshin-ywe, Taung Maha-yapin, Daing, and Linzin regiments.
The Outer Brigade was recruited from the Pagyi Governorship.
There were also minor regiments, of which the Tagani were recruited in
part from the north-east of the district, and the Yun corps of lictors was
recruited from certain villages between the Yamas.
The strength of the Taung Dawè regiment is said to have been-
One thousand privates (ngè-tha or tattha).

One hundred corporals (akyat).
Twenty sergeants (thwe-thaukgyi).
Two company officers (tat-hmu).
Two adjutants (thenatsayè).
One colonel (bo).
All the regiments were not of this strength: some were larger and some
smaller.
The system of division into daing, or circles of house-holds, each

responsible for one member of the standing army, was not universal. The
Amyin villages and the greater part of the Kani Governorship remained
unorganized. They were liable for occasional service, but there was no
regiment of the permanent forces recruited from these regions, and when called
out for service the levies were not tattooed. The regular soldiers were tattooed
with the regimental device, on the back of the neck in some cases, on the wrist
or the waist in others. The unorganized tracts were known as the thin country,
whilst the organized tracts were eintaungzôn (literally, household troops). How
the difference arose has not been ascertained. The thin country is not so rich as
to warrant the suggestion that it bought off the liability to serve, nor is it so
remote as to suggest that it was exempted on account of difficulty of control.
Possibly there was an idea that the fighting quality of the Burmans in the thin
tracts was poorer, but there is no evidence on the point. Further details of the
military service will be found in the paragraphs concerning land tenures in the
next chapter.
The boat villages
The district also furnished a war boat, the contributing villages being
Kyaukmyet and the villages near. The Embassy to Ava describes the drill of a
war boat, and the Gazetteer of Upper Burma, Part I, Volume 1, 497 et seq.,
contains an account of military and naval practice in the later days of Burmese
rule.
Administration after annexation. Boundaries external.
The district falls within the Sagaing (until 1896-97 the Central)
administrative Division. Chindwin, as it first existed as a single district, was an
enormous charge, including the whole of the valley on both sides of the
Chindwin river, and extending northwards for 500 or 600 miles, until it was
lost in the ranges of hills separating Burma from Assam. In February 1886 the
Chindwin valley was divided into two districts, the Manipur Agent being
placed in charge of the Upper part, with headquarters at Kindat, and the Lower
Chindwin forming a district under a separate Deputy Commissioner, with
headquarters at Alôn. in thedisturbed state of the country, effective
communicationbetween Manipur and the Chindwin proved, however, tobe an
impossibility, and in July the whole of the Chindwinvalley was again placed
under a single Deputy Commissioner.In October so much of the Amyin
jurisdiction of Burmese times as lay east of the Chindwin was transferred to
Sagaing. The whole of the Chindwin country remained as a single charge
throughout 1887, but in January 1888 the valley was divided into the Upper
Chindwin and Lower Chindwindistricts· Within the Lower Chindwin district
was includedthe Kani Governorship of Burmese times, which was,
howeverpoliced by local levies and administered by the Burmese wun
(Governor) as Township Officer until it was broughtunder the ordinary district
administration in 1890-91.
Later changes have been of small importance. The boundary with Sagaing,
both in the east along the Mu andin the west along the Bônmano stream near
Nyaungbyubin, has been from time to time the subject of dispute, owing in
each case to the fact that the original boundary was liable to change through
river action. In 1893 several villages were transferred from Sagaing district and
added to the Nyaung-byubin group, and this is the most important change in
external boundaries that has taken place since the present district was formed
in 1888. The present boundaries have been described in Chapter V (the western
boundary) and Chapter I.
Internal boundaries.
The administrative divisions up to the end of 1894 were as follows:-
Subdivisions. Townships. Area in square miles.
Mônywa 340
Eastern Kudaw 312
Kani 1,736
Ayadaw 284
Western Eastern Pagyi 295

Western Pagyi 432
The Ayadaw township included all the country between the Kyaukka ridge
and the Mu; the Mônywa township was the southern, and the Kudaw township
the northern, portion of the country between that ridge and the Chindwin: the
Kani township as now bestrode the Chindwin, includ ing practically all the
country north of the North Yama on the west of the Chindwin and the Inbaung
villages and the adjoining fringe of the Chindwin on the north-east. Eastern
Pagyi was the eastern half of the country between the Yamas, and Western
Pagyi the western half.
It was proposed in 1893 to make the Chindwin the boundary between the
subdivisions, but the arrangement did not commend itself, and by a notification
of the 15th November 1894 the charges were rearranged into the Budalin
subdivision, with Budalin and Mônywa townships; and the Palè subdivision,
with Kani, Salingyi and Mintaing bin townships. This effected the absorption
of the Ayadaw township, the northern half of which fell to Budalin (formerly
Kudaw)township and the southern to Mônywa township: and it transferred the
Kani township intact from the Eastern to the Western subdivision. The new
subdivi sions were named the Budalin and Palè subdivisions. Eastern Pagyi
was renamed the Salingyi, and Western Pagyi the Mintaingbin township.
The existing administrative divisions are as then formed, but the names of
the subdivisions have been changed from Budalin to Mônywa and from Palè to
Yinmabin, and the name of the Mintaingbin township has been changed to
Palè.
The District staff.
The superior officers of the district staff are one Deputy Commissioner,
who is also District Judge; one Superintendent of Land Records, one Treasury
Officer, who is also Headquarters Magistrate and Additional Township Judge,
two Subdivisional Officers, live Township Officers, one Akunwun, in
subordinate control of the collection of various heads of revenue, one Deputy
Conservator of Forests, one Superintendent of Post Offices, one Assistant
Superin-tendent of Telegraphs, one District Superintendent of Police, two
Inspectors of Police Circles, one Commandant of Military Police, one Deputy
Inspector of Schools, one Civil Surgeon, who is also Superintendent of the Jail,
one Executive Engineer, and one Public Works Department Subdivisional
Officer.
Village administration.
There are over 1,000 hamlets, or self-contained groups of houses, in the

district, and these are controlled by 671 headmen. The indigenous custom of
administration, under which the headman of a village or of a group of villages
was
responsible for the maintenance of order in his charge and for the collection of
the revenue, is the existing policy. Now, as in Burmese times, the headman's
remuneration is a percentage of his revenue collections. But whereas, in
Burmese times, many of the headmen's charges comprised a large area of
country and twenty or thirty villages, each under a subordinate village
headman, who m many cases received no remuneration at all, the existing
policy is gradually, as occasion offers that is to say, when the headman of one
of the old large circles of villages dies or is removed for fault to rearrange the
component villages in several smaller groups, and within each small group to
appoint a single headman, drawing the full commission on the revenue
collections. Thus one independent village headman will take the place of all
the old subordinate village headmen within the new group; there will be a
single remunerated official, instead of several unremunerated. The trend of
policy is exhibited in the decrease in the number of headmen of large circles of
villages from 127 in 1902 to 88 in 1908, and in the corresponding increase in
the number of independent headmen of small groups from 152 to 239.
Remuneration.
In the large groups or circles, the general rule is that the headman enjoys all
the commission on the revenue collections. There are two special cases. The
headman of Thitgyi-daing, near Zeiktaung in the Kuhnit-ywa, besides
receiving the whole of the commission from his own circle, receives one-tenth
of the commission earned by the headmen of other circles and independent
groups in that glen and the Shit-ywa, north of it. The arrangement dates from
1893. The headman of Tawa in the south-west of the Kani township receives,
in addition to the commission on his own collections, one-third of the
commission of the Let kabya headman.
The number of headmen invested with civil and higher criminal powers has
been-
19902 1 1907 10
19055 2 1908 31
Little use was made of the powers until 1908, when numer-ous cases were
tried.
Civil Justice.
The Civil Courts in the district are the court of the District Judge, two
courts of Subdivisional Judges, and six courts of Township Judges, one for
each of the five administrative townships and one presided over by the
Headquarters Magistrate of Mônywa, as Additional Township Judge. There
were, at the end of 1908, 31 village headmen empowered to try civil suits of a
petty nature, vide supra.
Growth in litigation.
The number of suits instituted in the district in each year was beginning
with 1889--306, 345, 443, 526, 565, 526, 371, 599 and, in 1897, 609. From
1898, details by courts are avail able and exhibit a general upward tendency.
Cases instituted in the Township Courts for the ten years beginning with 1898
have numbered 410, 508, 636, 616, 777, 701, 683, 647, 969, 993. The increase
in the middle period and in the concluding two years may, be attributed in a
degree to the Summary and Regular Settlements (1900 to 1903 and 1906 to
1909), since Settlement operations lead to the investigation of titles to land and
the discovery of points of dispute as to ownership, and in recent years the
winding up by chetty money-lenders of their businesses in Mônywa is also
ascribed as a reason. In the same decennium the number of cases instituted in
the Sub-divisional Courts was 11, 6, 8, 56, 71, 53, 55, 61, 125, 132. The
upward tendency commencing in 1901 is to be attributed partly to the
Summary Settlement and partly to the fact that the trial of suits involving land
was removed from the Township Courts in that year. The increase in the
concluding period may be ascribed to the general causes mentioned above.
Suits of high value, which require to be instituted in the Court of the District
Judge, average hardly more than one in each year. The bulk of the land in the
district is privately owned, and most land disputes therefore come before the
Civil Courts. Out of the whole number of suits, suits for immoveable property,
beginning with 1893, have numbered 120, 84, 63, 64, 111, 91 and, in 1899, 88.
The large number instituted in 1893 is ascribed to the return of emigrants after
pacification and the revival of dormant claims to land. From 1902 the numbers
have been 44, 28, 24, 25, 53, 55 and 109, the increase in the last three years
being attributed to Settlement operations. The effect of the return of emigrants
in the early years and of Settlement operations in the later can also be seen in
the figures of mortgage suits, which have been, from 1893 to 1899, 57, 24, 13,
6, 1, 1, 1, and from 1902, 25, 16, 18, 16, 27, 35 and 28. Applications under the
Probate and Administration Act averaged 13, and applications for declaration
of insolvency 5, in the six years ending with 1907. The duty and penalty
realized by Civil Courts on documents not duly stamped averaged Rs. 238 for
the seven years ending 1907. The figures do not suggest any general tendency.
Duration of cases.
The average duration of cases has steadily risen. From 1889 to 1899 the
figures were 16 days, 16, 18, 18, 19, 15, 26, 26, 25, 32 and 34. The average
duration of contested (original cases rose from 32 to 51 days in the period
from1902 to 1907, whilst the percentage of uncontested cases rose from 66'04
to 76'62.
The value of suits.
The value of suits instituted in the courts of Township -Judges shows a

gradual upward tendency; the figures from 1891 to 1907 have been as follows,
in rupees : 59, 59,53, 54, 53, 47, 59, 61, 65, 60, 65, 57, 55, 50, 61, 64 and 76.
The figures for the courts of Subdivisional Judges can be profitably contrasted
from the year 1901 only, when land suits of small value became friable in
them. They have been, in rupees, 288, 155, 266, 245, 253, 323, 329.
Registration.
The Transfer of Property Act has never been in force in the district, and
oral transfer of interests in immoveable property is permissible. The legal
obligation to register executed documents transferring interests in immoveable
property, however small the value of the property, has been in force in the
district since the 7th January 1890, when a Registration Office was established
at Mônywa under the provisions of the first Upper Burma Registration
Regulation. The obligation at first extended to immoveable property situated
within the limits of Mônywa Municipality only. Registration of documentary
transfers of land in the rural areas was optional up to 1892-93, when optional
registrations were prohibited. On the 1st January 1896, the registration of all
documentary transfers of interest in land (subject to exception in the case of
certain classes of documents) was made compulsory, not only in town areas,
but over the greater part of Upper Burma, and this change brought the whole of
the Lower Chindwin district under the operation of the law. In 1896-97, leases
of house-sites by Government in Mônywa town were exempted from
registration. In November 1897 a revised Upper Burma Registration
Regulation (11 of 1897) issued, and optional registration was again permitted
in certain cases; there was no change in the law requiring all documentary.
transfers of immoveable property to be registered. Otters granting loans and
instruments for securing the repayment of loans under the Agriculturists' Loans
Act, 1884, were exempted in 1899, and security bonds relating to ferries,
fisheries, and excise and opium licenses in 1904. Three more Registering
Offices were created in 1897-98, at Budalin, Kani and Palè. The office at Palè
has since been abolished, and one at Yinmabin opened.
Numbers of documents registered.
These changes in the law and in the orders regulating the administration of
the law make it difficult to draw inferences from a comparison of the number
of documents registered from year to year. Beginning with 1890-91, the
numbers have been--50, 141, 101, 99, 121, 109, 162, 236, 325, 278, 1, 724 (in
1900-01), 811, 708 (in 1902), 556, 444, 377, 634, 678, and 761. The increase
in 1900-01 and in the concluding three years is in part attributed to Settlement
operations. The advantages of registering documentary transfers are becoming
more widely realized by Burmans in the rural areas. Most registrations are,
however, still effected at Mônywa, the total registrations at the three rural
offices. having numbered in 1905, 150; in 11906, 269; and in 1907, 262 only.
Values of each registration.
The average value of each registration is high, as the value of much of the
land in the district is high. The average value of the interest in registered
mortgages of immoveable property has been, beginning with 1897-98 Rs. 926,
878, 461, 232, 552 (in 1902), 296, 307, 309, 374, 338, 326. The lower range of
values in recent years may be ascribed partly to the fact that until 1896 only
transfers of the valuable land within Mônywa Town could be registered, and
partly to a general tendency even after the law had been extended to all rural
areas for transfers of the more valuable land near the larger villages to find
their way first to the Registration Office. The smaller trans actions in more
distant regions are probably now being registered. There is no information as
to the extent to which executed documents evade registration.
Registering establishments.
The registering officers are the Treasury Officer at Mônywa, the

Subdivisional Officer at Yinmabin, and the Township Officers at Budalin and
Kani. The clerical work of registration is conducted by the general staff of
clerks, who are remunerated out of the fees paid for registration, except at
Mônywa, where there is a special registration clerk.
Civil Police administration.
The Civil Police force comprises a District Superinten dent of Police; a

Deputy Superintendent; two Circle Inspectors, one for each of the Magisterial
subdivisions, Mônywa and Yinmabin; one Court Inspector; one Sub Inspector
at each police station; 30 sergeants in three grades; 268 constables in three
grades; two clerks, and five menials. The stations manned in the different
townships in 1907 were Budalin, Kudaw, Ayadaw, Lemye, Magyizauk
(Budalin); Mônywa, Alôn, Thazi, Minywa (Mônywa); Kani, Kin, Inbaung,
Chaungmadaw, Kônywa (Kani); Salingyi, Yinmabin, Paungga, Kyadet
(Salingyi); Palè Mintaingbin, Zeiktaung (Palè). There is also a station of the
Railway Police at Mônywa.
The strength rose from 229 men in 1888 to 376 in 1891, when the Kani
posts were first included, and was increased, on reorganization, to 512 in 1893.
In 1895 it was reduced to 391, in 1899 to 367, and it is now 298. The men are
for the most part Burmans, recruited and trained in the district, but there are 17
natives of India, entertained for duty within the Mônywa Municipality. The
Railway Police are a separate establishment, and are not controlled by the
District Police authority. The cost of the Police (excluding the Municipal
police) was Rs. 1,17,197 in 1893, when the number on the establish ment was
high, and fell to Rs. 87,298 in 1903. In 1905, it rose to Rs. 1,05,281, on the
introduction of the Police reorganization scheme, and fell, with reduction of
the strength, to Rs. 97,190 in 1907.
Military Police extent of command.
A Military Police Levy, called the 'Hindustani Levy '-the designation was
changed to 'Chindwin Battalion' in 1887 was raised early in 1886. Its
headquarters were fixed at Alôn and later, in October 1887, were moved to
Mônywa. The command embraced the whole of the Chin-dwin valley, and the
duties were in the early years purely military. In January 1888, when the
Lower Chindwin district was separated off, the battalion was also divided. The
command of the Lower Chindwin Battalion was confined to the district until
1891, when Sagaing district was added, the Sagaing Battalion being absorbed.
The Ye-u district was added in 1893, and Shwebo in 1894; in 1895 the Ye-u
district was abolished, but the command remained the same. In 1900 the Upper
Chindwin district was added to, and Sagaing and Shwebo districts detached
from the command; there have been no subsequent changes and the command
now embraces the two Chindwins. The designation was changed from 'Lower
Chindwin' to 'Karen' Battalion in 1899 when Karen companies were
transferred from Toungoo and to 'Chindwin' Battalion in 1900.
Strength.
The strength of the 'Hindustani Levy' at the end of 1886 was 733 men: of
the 'Chindwin' Battalion, at the end of 1887, 1,311 ; of the 'Lower Chindwin'
Battalion, at the end of 1888, 779; at the end of 1889, 881; at the end of 1890,
676; at the end of 1891, on the amalgamation of the Sag aing Battalion, 790; at
the end of 1893, on the amalgama tion of the Ye-u Battalion, 1,069; at the end
of 1899, on a reduction of two companies, 811; at the end of 1900, on the
incorporation of the Upper Chindwin and the detach ment of the Sagaing and
Shwebo contingents, 1,059; the 12 sanctioned strength has since been ten
companies and 1,130 men, comprising 10 subadars, 20 jemadars, 60 havildars,
40 naiks, and 1,000 sepoys; with 65 followers, one salutri; two armourers,
three clerks and a Karen inter preter. The class composition is four companies
of Sikhs, and two each of Hindustani Muhammadans, Punjabi Muhammadans,
and Karens. The strength at headquarters varies with the time of year, and is
greatest in he rains, when the frontier posts are unhealthy.
Outposts.
Besides headquarters at Mônywa, the following out posts within the district
have been held at various times :-Maungdaung, Salingyi, Budalin, Thazi,
Lemye, Kudaw, Baunggya, Nyaunggan, Alôn, Kyadet, Lè-ngauk, Yèdwet,
Chinbyit, Mindaingbin, Magyizauk, Zeiktaung, Palè and Yinmabin. Since
1902 there has been a single outpost in the Lower Chindwin district at
Yinmabin.
History.
The military and semi-military Operations of the early years after

annexation have been outlined in Chapter II. Notable encounters with dacoits
took place in 1888 at Kudaw and Kyadet, and in the Shitywa valley. The Batta
lion sent a force into the Yaw valley of Pakôkku in 1889, and there was an
encounter with dacoits at Kudaw in the same year. In I891, on the occasion of
the Manipur rebellion, a detachment was ordered to proceed from Mônywa,
and, after forced marches for a portion of the way, reached but was recalled
from Tammu near the Manipur border.
Miscellaneous.
Besides garrisoning frontier and important interior posts, the Battalion

supplies escorts over prisoners and treasure; guards over jails, lock-ups and
treasure; and personal escorts to district officers.
Cost.
The cost of the Battalion in recent years has been-
Rs. Rs.
1905 2,86,909 1907 2,77,189
1906 2,84,882 1908 2,81,376
Criminal Justice.
The magistrates exercising powers in the district are the Deputy
Commissioner, who is District Magistrate, two Sub divisional and five
Township Officers, who are magistrates for the civil subdivisions and
townships respectively, a Headquarters Magistrate, and a bench of three
Honorary Magistrates. This was constituted in August 1908. The Battalion
Commandant is a special magistrate, and exercises powers of the first class for
the trial of offences under certain Acts. Thirty-one headmen are invested with
power to try petty criminal offences.
Amount of crime.
The number of crimes reported has been, beginning with 1889 : 357, 488,
538, 641,593, 533, 535, 505, 457, 624, 612, 628, 677, 904, 790, 792, 763, 803,
867 and 870. The figures in the reports indicate that in the early years of the
period the volume of important crime triable under the Indian Penal Code
tended to fall, and that triable under special laws to rise. In the later years, the
opposite tendency emerges. The total volume of crime has risen steadily. The
increase is no doubt in part true and due to normal causes, namely, increase of
population, the coming of the railway and the freer movement of the people,
and in part apparent and due to better investigation and greater readiness on the
part of the public to report offences.
Offences against property up to 1899.
The number of offences against property (dacoity, robbery and attempts at

robbery, house-breaking, house trespass, criminal trespass, cattle-theft, other
theft, and receiving stolen property) diminished rapidly as the district came
under control. The figures of cases decided to be true are, beginning with 1889:
142, 205, 239, 289, 240, 211, 210, 129, 122, 117 and, in 1899, 94.
Class III cases since 1898.
The true cognizable cases falling within Class III, serious offences against
the person and property or against property (dacoity, robbery, serious mischief,
house-trespass of the graver kinds, receiving stolen property), have been as
follows since 1898, and show no marked tendency to increase : 44, 34, 38, 40,
43, 45, 43, 42, 45, 44 and 53.
Offences against the human body up to 1899.
The opposite tendency is exhibited in the statistics of offences against the

person (murder, attempt at murder, culpable homicide, attempt at culpable
homicide, grievous hurt, rape, hurt, and criminal force). The true cases, year by
year, have been as follows, beginning with 1889 : 45, 51, 71, 81, 94, 99, 82,
96, 97, 103 and, in 1899, 125. These figures are, however, of all kinds of crime
against the body. The graver offences are few in number, and the growth in the
general figure is, no doubt, in pare attributable to better reporting and possibly
to the courts being less ready to allow the composition of offences of hurt.
Violent crime.
The cases of violent crime (murder, attempted murder, culpable homicide,

dacoity, robbery and house breaking of the graver kinds) have numbered, from
1889 : 48, 2, 6, 13, 10, 8, 5, 3, 5, 8, 8, 6, 4, 6, 9, 5, 9, 9, 16 and 17. There was

an exceptional number of murders and attempts to murder in 1907 and 1908.
Dacoity.
Dacoity is sporadic, and there are no gangs. Excluding four years (of which
the records have been destroyed), the only years in which dacoities have been
reported are: 1888, when it was stated that the number must have approached
100; 1889, 26; 1900, 1; 1902, I; 1903, 4; 1904, 1; 1906, 1. The decrease from
100 in 1888 to nil in 1890 indicates the progress of pacification. It is noticeable
that in 1908 there was no successful case of dacoity and no increase of
robbery, although the year was one of widespread failure of crops. The most
noteworthy dacoities of recent years have been: in 1904, when there was a
dacoity with firearms, but all the members of the gang, with the guns, were
captured and three of the gang were convicted: and in 1907, when an undertrial
prisoner, an ex-monk, U Athapa, escaped from the Yinmabin Police Station
with arms, and, forming a gang, attempted to dacoit Paunggada village. The
attempt was unsuccessful, but the leader of the gang is still at large, though
some of his followers and some of the guns have recently been recovered.
Robberies.
Robberies are also infrequent. Excluding the same four years (1894 to
1897), the figures have been 1889, 18; 1890, 1; 1891, 0; 1892, 7; 1892, 6;
1898, 4; 1899, 2; 1900, 2; 1901, 1; 1902, 3; 1903, 3; 1904, 2; 1905, 3; 1906, 4;
1907, 5; 1908, 5.
Cattle-theft.
There are more than 250,000 head of cattle in the district, but cattle-theft is
not now and never has been conducted on the organized and extensive scale
met with in Lower Burma. The figures of cattle-theft cases, reported to be true,
have been as follows, beginning with 1890 : 57, 51, 31, 25, 18, 17, 13, 28, 23,
14, 15, 23, 11, 26, 19, 19, 28, 45, and 19. The decrease in the earlier years was
the natural result of the pacification of the country. The high figure of 1907 is
to be ascribed to the failure of the rains, which diminished grazing and caused
the cattle to wander, whilst at the same time enhancing the temptation to steal.
The district may be said to be practically free from cattie theft. The
infrequency of this form of crime is usually, and no doubt rightly. attributed to
the law-abiding nature of the people. Up to the present, the orders requiring
villages to be stoutly fenced and closed at nightfall have been enforced and, as
cattle are almost always kept within the village at night, the chance of theft is
minimized.
Opium.
The use of opium is exceptional. The number of cases under the Opium Act
has risen steadily, from two in 1899 and seven in 1904 to twenty-seven in
1908, but the rise is attributable to the presence, in recent years, of a special
excise preventive establishment, and all the cases have been of a petty nature.
There is believed to be no smuggling on a large scale. though the bamboo rafts
which come down the Chindwin afford an easy means of concealing opium.
Excise.
Excise cases have numbered, from 1898, 23, 23, 39, 60, 60, 54, 59, 102,
48, 75 and 92. The increase in cases from 1901-02 is ascribed to the larger
number of tari shops and the increased area to which the sanctions of the tari
law became applicable. The large number of tari palms affords facilities of
obtaining fermented liquor, and it is stated that a high proportion of the crimes
of violence can be traced to the influence of drink: the range of figures is,
however, at present too small to establish the existence of a ratio between the
number of excise cases and the amount of violent crime. The special Excise
Establishment now consisting of one Resident Excise Officer, one Sub
Inspector, one clerk and two menials was, up to 1908, under the immediate
control of the District Superintendent of Police, but now reports directly to the
Deputy Commissioner. The smallness of the Excise staff, the fear on the part
of village headmen that they will become unpopular if they check drinking,
and the extent of the palm groves, it is stated, combine to make offences
against the Excise law common.
Gambling.
The habit of gambling pervades the district, and is said to be especially rife
on the Shwebo border. The number of cases taken up by the Police has been as
follows :-1897, 29; 1898, 74; 1899, 1118; 1900, 103; 1901, 47; 1902, 71; 1903,
77; 1904, 61; 1905, 134; 1906, 166; 1907, 162; 1908, 166. The connection
between gambling and crime is often denied in the reports, and the figures
suggest no inference on the point. Professional gambling has not been noticed
except in 1903, when a Chinese gambling club was opened in Mônywa. It was
closed, by authority, in the same year.
The preventive sections.
The number of persons proceeded against under the preventive or 'bad

livelihood' provisions of the law, in virtue of which certain classes of habitual
offenders and suspected persons can be ordered to show cause why they should
not give sureties for their good behaviour, has been, since 1889, 27, 22, 14, 25,
6, 7, 6, 18, 17, 82, 40, 34, 10, 4, 14, 15, 17. Since the disturbances ensuing on
annexation terminated, the district has been generally more free from serious
crime than most districts of the province. In 1893 it was stated that the people
of the country [Upper Burma] might be said to be essentially criminal in
disposition, and to require little provocation or inducement to be led into
breaking the law. [Report on Criminal justice, 1893, page 10]. This
condemnation was, however, inapplicable to the Lower Chindwin district. The
number of cases cognizable directly by the Police (excluding nuisances) was,
in each year from 1892 to 1897, the equivalent of one to over 500 souls of the
population: in 1898 of one to between 400 and 500 souls; that is to say, in six
of the seven years for which this statistic is furnished in the reports, the district
was either alone, or one of a few districts, in the category showing the lowest
percentage of crime to population, and in 1896 the. Commissioner of the
Sagaing Division stated that crime of a serious nature was almost unknown.
The volume of crime has increased since 1898, but the district remains
relatively law-abidlng.
Prisons.
There is a fourth class district jail, with accommodation for 100 prisoners,
at Mônywa. It was opened in the latter part of 1888. The buildings stand within
a rectangular enclosure of 400 by 184 feet, surrounded by a lofty brick wall.
Prisoners sentenced to terms up to and including five years by the courts of the
Lower Chindwin district are confined in the jail. Supervision is secured by a
subordinate staff of one jailor, one deputy jailor, and fifteen warders. The
services of convict warders are also utilized. The control of the jail rests with
the Civil Surgeon of the district. The average daily jail population in the six
years ending with 1907 has been 77, 72, 78, 81, 87, 101 (males), 4, 2, 2, 1, 0, 0
(females). With the exceptions of 1893 and 1898 in the latter year there was an
outbreak of cholera the health of the jail has been uniformly good. The water-
supply is drawn from a well just outside the main building. Analysis in 1891
described the water as doubtful in quality. Recent analysis (January 1909)
describes it as good, potable water. The use of the grain of millet, which is the
food of a large proportion of the people of the district, as an article of jail
dietary was tried in 1893 and discontinued in 1894, the sickness in the jail in
1893 being attributed to it. The experiment was again tried in 1902, but was
discontinued in 1903, as the grain was suspected of leading to gastric
disorders. There have been escapes from the jail, in 1895 and 1898. The
statistics of the jail confirm the usual experience that habitual prisoners are
more prone to commit jail offences than ordinary prisoners, and, so far as the
structural arrangement
of the jail permits, habituals are kept apart from ordinary prisoners. The
number of prisoners who are found to have been in the habit, in freedom, of
consuming opium, is small. Jail industries comprise the grinding of wheat for
the use of the Chindwin Military Police Battalion, carpentry, and a little
bamboo work. There are also small receipts from the sale of vegetables
produced in the jail garden. The annual receipts have fluctuated, chiefly with
the demand for wheat from the Battalion, but the average annual earnings per
prisoner may be estimated at Rs. 25, and the gross cost at Rs. 92.
Public Works administration.
The district formed a separate Public Works Division from 1891-92 to

1893-94; in the latter year it became one of the three subdivisions of the
Chindwin Division, and the headquarters of that division and of the Executive
Engineer are at Mônywa. The executive and clerical staff consists of one
permanent upper subordinate, one temporary store keeper, one sub-overseer,
one accountant, five clerks, two draftsmen and six menials.
Public buildings.
The chief public buildings borne on the books of the Public Works
Department are at Mônywa: seven barracks for the Military Police; a Military
Police Hospital, with accommodation for 102 patients; quarters for a Subadar
Major and eight Native Officers; married quarters for forty-seven families;
quarters for a Hospital Assistant and compounder; a Battalion office; stables
for 70 ponies and 74 transport ponies; Post Office; Telegraph Office; Jail
buildings; Deputy Commissioner's court-house and Record-room and Land
Records office; Executive Engineer's office; Civil Police station; a cemetery
and chapel; Survey school; an opium shop; quarters for the Deputy
Commissioner, Battalion Commandant, District Superintendent of Police,
Executive Engineer, Civil Surgeon, Civil Police Sub-divisional Officer, and
Public Works Department Accountant; Postal Superintendent's office and
quarters. There are court-houses at Alan, Budalin, Kani, Palè, Salingyi and
Yinmabin, and Civil Police stations at Alan, Ayadaw, Budalin, Kani, Kin,
Kudaw, Palè, Salingyi and Yinmabin. There is a court and circuit house at
Mônywa, for the use of the Commissioner of the Division and other high
officers of Government; a dâk, or travellers.' bungalow at Mônywa; and
circuit-rooms, for the use of judicial inspec ting officers, in the court-houses at
Budalin, Palè, Alôn, Salin gyi, Kani and Yinmabin. There are ten inspection
bunga lows controlled by the Public Works Department, vide
Chapter VII; and six inspection bungalows, erected at the cost of the District
Fund and controlled by the Deputy Commissioner, at Alôn, Kani, Kin,
Chaungmadaw, half-way between Kani and Yinmabin, Mintaingbin, Chinbyit,
Zeik taung and Magyizauk. The Forest Department bungalows have been
noticed in Chapter V.
Postal and Telegraph arrangements.
A daily service of postal runners to Mônywa was established in 1888-89,

and the mails were carried by them until the opening of the railway in April
1900. The district dâk (Post) system was extended to the district in December
1899, and in 1905 the District Fund paid for the Post offices at Salingyi and
Palè, and for runners' lines from Mônywa to Yinmabin, Yinmabin to Palè,
Yinmabin to Salingyi, and Alôn to Budalin. These offices and establish ments
were provisionally transferred to Imperial Services from the 1st of March
1906, when the district dâk was abolished. For purposes of administration, the
district now falls within the Chindwin Postal Division, of which the head-
quarters, under a Superintendent, are at Mônywa. There are Post offices at
Mônywa (erected in 1888-89), Alôn, Budalin, Kani, Palè, Salingyi and
Yinmabin. The six last named are branch offices, and are usually worked at a
loss, and the Burmans of the district have not yet learnt to make much use of
the Post. There are, however, some signs of development, particularly in the
Savings Bank branch. There were no Burmese depositors in 1904, whereas at
the time of writing (1909), one-fifth of the accounts at the Mônywa Post Office
are in the names of Burmans. The Post Office establishment consists of one
postmaster, six branch postmasters, five clerks, five mail runners, one mail
overseer, one mail contractor, six postmen, one packer and one menial.
Temporary telegraph lines were opened soon after annexation, in order to

facilitate operations against the dacoit bands. The existing line from Mônywa
through Myinmu to Sagaing was opened in 1886, and dismantled and
reconstructed along the railway during 1898-99 It was connected with Manipur
in 1889-90. The line follows the eastern bank of the Chindwin as far as
Shwezayè, crosses the defile by an overhead line, and thereafter follows the
western bank of the river until it leaves the district at Kin. A line was erected
for the railway, between Sagaing and Mônywa, in 1899-1900, in which year a
Railway Telegraph office was opened at each of the four railway-stations
within the district. For purposes of
Telegraph administration, the district falls partly within the Chindwin and
partly within the Mandalay subdivisions of the Upper Burma Division, the
portion of the district west of Alôn railway-station belonging to the Chindwin
sub division. There is a separate Telegraph office at Mônywa and a joint Post
and Telegraph office at Kani. The latter was opened in 1900-01. Mônywa is
the headquarters of an Assistant Superintendent of Telegraphs.
Ecclesiastical.
There is no Government chaplain permanently stationed at Mônywa, but

the Riverine Chaplain, a member of the Additional Clergy Society, visits the
station on one Sunday in each month. The missions which work in the district
have been noticed in Chapter III. There is a cemetery, under Government
control, for the interment of Christians, at Mônywa.
CHAPTER X
Revenue Administration.
For accounts of the revenue of the Burmese kings in early times, a

reference may be made to Sangermano's Descrip tion of the Burmese Empire
and Symes' Embassy to Ava. The British Burma Gazetteer (Volume I, page
446) describes the method of collecting the revenue in 1826, at the time of the
cession of Arakan and Tenasserim.
Revenue in Burmese times: thathameda.
Athough the right of the king to one-tenth of the produce was, apparently
from the earliest times, recognized as theo retically just, it is not known in
what year the household tax, thathameda, was first imposed. It was certainly
imposed throughout the greater part of king Mindôn's reign, and is said to have
been originally fixed at one rupee per house. It had risen by 1886 to Rs. 8 and
in most places Rs. 10. It was up to the time of annexation the chief as it is still
a considerable source of revenue. The method of assessment of thathameda
was in late Burmese times through assessors selected by the villagers
themselves. The assessment rolls were submitted by the headmen to the local
Governor (wun) of the administrative district (nè), who submitted them to the
hlutdaw, the central administrative office at the capital, together with the
revenue collected. A detailed account of the method of collection is given at
pages 413 to 416 of the Gazetteer of Upper Burma. The assessment rolls were
seldom checked. The Burmese divisions comprised within what is now the
Lower Chindwin district have been enumerated in the preceding chapter. The
thathameda demand from these areas is stated to have been as follows in
Burmese times (Upper Burma Gazetteer, Part I, Volume II, page 420) :-
Burmese
Divisions. 1869. 1884-85. Remarks.
Rs. Rs.
Pagyi 79, 172 33,744 The whole collected

from villages falling
within the district.
Kani 45,135 27,560 The greater portion
collected from villages
falling within the district.
Alôn 1,62,156 76,056 Do.
Total 2,86,464 1,37,360
To which should be added (a) on account of Amyin, approximately one-

half of the demand from the Amyin and Chaungu jurisdictions, the two
together contributing as follows :--
1869. 1884-85.
Rs. Rs.
50,700 44,968
and (b) the demand from the 550 households in the Kyaukmyet villages. The
rate in 1869 is said to have been Rs. 8, and in Thibaw's reign Rs. 10 :-
1869. 1884-85.
Rs. Rs.
4,400 5,500
These figures, taken for what they are worth, indicate that in king Mindôn's
time, when thathameda was at its highest -the rate is said to have reached Rs.
10 in most places in 1869 the demand from the district was over three lakhs of
rupees, and immediately before annexation, when the Burmese Government
had lost its grip of the administration, to something over a lakh and a half. In
the latter year
hardly more than one-half of the enumerated households appear to have been
actually assessed; there was no scrutiny of the thathameda rolls and, in the
Alôn Governorship, owing to the prevalence of dacoity, the tax was collected
at a six-rupee instead of a ten-rupee rate. To the demand in Mindôn's time
should be added the Governor's salary (Rs. 3,600, vide Sagaing Settlement
Report, paragraph 54) and ten per cent. for the cost of collection, making the
total demand in Mindôn's time some three lakhs and a half.
Royal lands: collections in Burmese times.
On the few Royal lands in the district, the assessment in Burmese times
was a fraction of the produce of the land converted into money at the current
market rates. The right to collect this assessment was sold by auction, and the
farmer of the revenue exacted as much as he could from the cultivators. Royal
lands contributed a few thousand rupees only in 1884.
Miscellaneous revenue in Burmese times.
The sources of miscellaneous revenue were levies on forest produce,

customs, fines, rents of market-stalls, fisheries, and brokerage, and these in
Burmese times realized in the Alôn Governorship Rs. 43,000 per annum; the
sum appears to have been made up chiefly of the Chindwin customs duty, Rs.
34,000, and the Chindwin rubber duty, Rs. 5,000. The collection was farmed
by an official, who was styled kinôk (supervisor of toll stations). The
collections under these heads in the other governorships are not known. Law
and Justice receipts brought in annually Rs. 8,000 from Alôn; the amounts
contributed by the other governorships are not known. From the Chindwin
forests, some of which fell within the district, was collected one lakh of rupees.
The right to collect dues from market-stalls at the following pagoda and spirit
festivals was sold and produced a small amount :-
In Amyin at Thitsein, near Nyaungbyubin.

In Pagyi at U-hnauk and Nyaunggan in the south-west of the district; at
Myogyi, near Yinmabin; at Kyadet, Taya, Lè-ngauk, Lettaung near
Palè, Palè, Teinnè, east of Chinbyit, and Powindaung.
In Alôn at Kyaukka, Yelègyun, south of Mônywa, Ngwechaung, Bawga,
Pyinzinkan, Kanbya, Yeyo, north-west of Ayadaw, Kyetsugôn,
Wan-o, Mônywa, Lèzin, Sinyan, Wetye, north of Kudaw,
Kawkathan, Pôndu, Nyaunggan, Maungdaung, Thazi and
Letaungpyin.
Estimate of total collections in Burmese times.
The collection from the district in the latter part of Mindôn's reign may
therefore be estimated at--
Rs.
Thathameda- Pagyi, Alôn, Kani 2,86,000
Amyin 25,000
Kyaukmyet 4,400
The salary of three Governors 10,800
3,26,200
One-ninth more to cover. the cost of collection 36,244
3,62,444
Royal land 2,000
Miscellaneous sources (Alôn) 43,000
Law and Justice (Alôn) 8,000
A portion of the Chindwin rubber duty and the
Chindwin forests duty, and miscellaneous and
judicial receipts from Kani, Pagyi and Amyin
Total 4,15,444
In king Thibaw's time the collection probably did not exceed one-half of
this.
The Military aids.
In addition to the revenue paid in the shape of formal imposts in Burmese
times, each conscript circle, vide infra was required to supply a sum varying
from Rs. 4 to Rs. 6 per mensem to the conscript. Placing the strength of the
regiments of the Inner and Outer Brigades at no more than five hundred men
each, this would imply a total annual contribution of Rs. 2,88,000,* a very
large addition to the State demand. The subvention was called nauk-htauk-gye.
Gross revenue since annexation.
The gross revenue since annexation has increased steadily: from Rs.
2,81,955 in 1888-89, Rs. 4,40,844 in 1892-93, Rs. 5,52,677 in 1896-97 and Rs.
6,58,964 in 1901-02 to Rs. 7,01,967 (the land revenue and thathameda heads
only) in 1908-09. The bulk of the revenue comes from the acre-rates on the
land and from thathameda.
* 500 × 12 (regiments) × Rs. 4 (monthly subvention) × 12 (.months) =

annual subvention of Rs. 2,88,000.
Land revenue: State-land assessments after annexation.
After annexation, the small areas of Royal land taken over from Burmese
times and later extensions into the waste were assessed at one-third of the gross
produce, commuted into money. Appraisement was made by the headmen and
assessors [in Kani until 1889 by the ayadaw ôk, or supervisor of State lands],
who also fixed the opening village price at which the State share was
commuted.
Early surveys.
Lists of Royal lands were submitted by headmen in 1887 and, beginning with
1889, Royal lands were surveyed.
The townships of Mônywa and Kudaw (the western half of the existing
Mônywa and Budalin townships) and Eastern Pagyi (Salingyi) were found to
contain 1,453 acres of Royal land. The survey was by the block, not by the
holding or field.
The cadastral survey.
With a view to the introduction of a scientific settle ment of the land
revenue, a cadastral, or field-to-field survey was carried through in the years
1897 to 1902, the only areas excluded being-
(a) the Forest Reserves in the west of the district, in which there is no
cultivation; and
(b) some isolated blocks of uncultivated land, of which the most extensive
occur north and south of the Yewa valley.
The cadastral survey divided the whole culturable area into survey-blocks,
each block taking up an area of from one to four square miles of cultivation
and adjacent waste.
The Summary Settlement.
The next step in imposing an acre assessment is ordina rily the regular
Revenue Settlement, but, as the organized settlement parties were otherwise
employed, the district was at the outset settled summarily, the operations
lasting from the end of 1900 until December 1903. A separate 'ring fence' area
was settled in each year, but there was no sub division into assessment tracts
varying with the local circum stances. Each of the four summarp settlement
blocks formed one large assessment-tract, with one schedule of acre rates
applicable to all the cropped land within it. The district was settled thus-
1900-01. The Mônywa township.
1901.-The Budalin township, together with the portion of Kani east of the
Chindwin river.
1902.-The Salingyi township and the immediately adjoining portions of Palè
and Kani townships.
1903.-The outlying portions of the Palè and Kani townships.
The cultivated land was classified, the classification being naturally
unelaborate, since the Summary Settlement was to hold good only until the
were also few. From Burmese times the bulk of the land actually in cultivating
occupation that is to say, land other than the waste had been claimed as non-
State i.e., as privately-owned. The Summary Settlement recorded the tenure of
each holding as State or non-State, and differentiating rates of land-revenue the
higher applying to State and the lower to non State land were imposed for
certain orders of soil, e.g., rice land, but not for others, e.g., ordinary upland
dry-crop land. The revenue on the large number of tari palms is, under the
Summary Settle ment, collected in the shape of an acre rate. Trees are not
assessed unless they form a grove, i.e., there must be forty or more trees to the
acre; and a grove is not considered assess able unless it contains at least twenty
climbed trees to the acre.
Before Summary Settlement, the bulk of the revenue of the district was
collected in the thathameda, which was the product of the number of assessable
households* in the district into ten rupees, the sanctioned district rate. The
village demand was distributed among the households by village assessors,
chosen by the people themselves. As a corollary to the imposition of land-
revenue on the privately owned land, it became necessary to reduce the
demand from the thathameda tax, in order to ensure that the cultivator should
not pay twice over, once in the shape of the acre rates and again in the
thathameda. The reduc tion in the district rate of thathameda sanctioned at
Summary Settlement was from ten to six rupees.
The district is, at the time of writing, assessed at the rates of land revenue
sanctioned at Summary Settlement, and at the reduced six rupee rate of
thathameda. The range of rates per acre on the main orders of soil is: State
rice-lands from Rs. 2'25 to RS. 1'50; non-State rice-lands from Rs. 1'75 to Rs.
1'125; upland dry crop (ya) land from Re. '75 to Re. '25.
The Regular Settlement.
The operations of Regular Settlement commenced in April 1906 and
terminated in June 1909. The soils of the occupied area were reclassified, a
degree of elaboration being attempted; for example, the dry-crop black soils
were classified in an order by themselves, independently of the red soils.
Numerous crop experiments were conducted. Enquiry was made into the cost
of cultivation of the standard crops, and the net produce per acre of each class
of soil was calculated. Detailed enquiries were also made into the income of
* Various categories of households are exempt, e.g., the newly married,

ministers of religion and school-masters, village officials, and indigent
persons.
arrival of the Regular Settlement. The main orders of soil recognized by the
Summary Settlement were few in number, and the classes within each order
the agricultural section of the people, with a view to readjusting the rates of
thathameda. The circumstances of tenancies and the rentals paid were
investigated.
At the time of writing, the report on the operations of Regular Settlement is

being printed.
Land tenures.
The orders as to tenures passed at Summary Settlement were on account of

faults of procedure set aside when the operations of Regular Settlement
commenced in 1906, and tenures were settled afresh. Two tenures only were
recognized by the Regular Settlement, the State tenure and the non-State
tenure.
The non-State or private tenure.
The enquiries made it clear that practically all land in the district had been
held in Burmese times, and was still held, on a tenure which included full
rights of transfer, inheritance and leasing. The right of sale was everywhere
asserted, though sales hardly ever took place. Mortgages were very common.
A large portion of the district was found to be occupied by soldiery and
reserves and their descendants, but there was no restriction in Burmese times
on the transfer to whomsoever they pleased of the land occupied by them, nor
could they exercise any special right of preemption, apart from that which
originated in blood relationship. Except in a few instances in out-of-the-way
parts of the district, the exclusive proprietary right of the first clearer, the
dhama-u-gya right, was found to be strongly asserted.
The State tenure.
The following paragraphs deal briefly with the five categories of State land
specified in the Upper Burma Land and Revenue Regulation :-
(a) Royal land. Small areas of recent cultivation were found in the Kani
township which had been in Burmese times assessed as Royal land at one-tenth
of the gross pro duce. Theinzu, confiscated lands, occur here and there, the
most considerable area being the lands in the Palè and Salingyi townships
known as Maung Taung Bo's escheat. Sônthe amwebyat, land reverted to the
Crown for failure of heirs, was also met with.
(b) Service land: Major regiments. These are enumerated in the preceding
Chapter. It is not known when they were organized, but they are said to have
been created gradually, as successive kings of Burma found the need of a
larger militia. Recruitment appears to have been as follows. On the first
creation of a regiment the quota of guns to be supplied by each village was
fixed, and the existing families were organized into circles, daing, each liable
for one gun. It is probable that all the families in a circle were, at the outset,
blood relations, although, towards the end of the monarchy, the blood tie had
disappeared. On the occasion of a casualty in the regiment at the capital, the
circle to which the casualty belonged was required to supply a substitute.
Hiring was not forbidden, and if the heads of families in the circle were men of
sub stance they usually hired their relief. If they were too poor to hire, one of
their number had to serve. Although the fact of belonging to a regiment was a
source of pride, the actual service was extremely unpopular. As often as not,
wife and children accompanied the conscript to Mandalay, no doubt as
hostages against misbehaviour and desertion.
As regards the tenure of the lands occupied by the regular soldiers and
reserves, a soldier on departing for his regiment could dispose of his land as he
pleased, subject to the right of blood relations to the pre-emption or mortgage,
and all rents received went to him. The reserves of his circle could not, as such,
exercise the right of pre-emption. He was exempt from the household tax so
long as he was on service, but paid it at the village rate on his return. The
reserves paid the tax throughout, and there was no special rate of thathameda
applying to them. On death, his land went to the heirs by blood of the
conscript, his daughters shared equally with his sons, and, on marriage of a
daughter, her land went over with her to her husband's side. There was no
restriction on marriage: a daughter could marry into her father's circle or into
some other circle. In short, so far as the tenure of their land went, the infantry
and their reserves were on exactly the same footing as the man who belonged
to no daing and was not liable to regular service. Having regard to the fact that
in the case of the Shan soldiery, vide infra, the right to hold land is admitted to
have depended on service, whilst this restriction is nowhere recognized in the
case of the Burmese infantry, it seems probable that the service was imposed,
not on original settlement of the lands, but at some later date, by means of an
exercise of sovereign power on the part of the Burmese king. The land
occupied by the regular soldiers and reserves was allowed as non-State at
Regular Settlement.
Minor regiments (aso-the). The incidents of organization and land tenure
did not differ from those of the twelve regiments, and there was nothing to
indicate a State tenure.
Occasional levies. These were called thin, a term the derivation of which is
obscure.* No evidence was forth
* Athin, an association, has been suggested, but does not accord with the
facts. There was no association. It has also been suggested that the word is a
corruption of athi, a stranger (as in the phrase athi ala win ne kappa, new-
comers, but etymologically it seems doubtful whether the verbal transition
from athi to athin is possible, and there is no history of foreign blood.
coming as to the original separation of the thin country. There was no

organization into reserve circles. There were no restrictions on the right to
transfer land, and thin lands were allowed as non-State.
Shan Service land. Small areas of Shan service land of the Yun Kaungban
corps were met with in several places in the Pagyi Governorship, and in one or
two places in Kani, chiefly along the North Yama stream. There was evidence
that the Shans were not allowed to alienate their land. All Shan service lands
which could be pointed out were declared State. In later times the corps is said
to have been recruited from Pagan, Sagu, Allagappa in Sagaing, and
Sininthawatti (?), besides the Shan villages in the Lower Chindwin.
Shan service land of the Tat Kaunghan corps is mentioned in a sittan, or

official report, from Thigôn village near the North Yama, and along the Taya
stream near the South Yama. The Shans were brought from Zimmè in Siam,
apparently at the same time as the Yun Kaunghan.
There were two other branches of this small corps, the Win Kaunghan and
the Daing Kaunghan. The Tat Kaunghan served as lictors in attendance on the
ministers in the hlutdaw, or Great Council. The Yun policed the exterior of the
palace stockade. The Win were armed with muskets, and stood on sentry guard
at the gate of this stockade. The Daing were also armed and guarded the Red
Gate and the postern gate. The four branches of the corps are stated to have
been under the control of the Kaunghan wun, or governor, the Yunsu wun, the
Windaw hmu, and the Daing wun. The gradation of ranks in the Shan corps
was the ngétha, or private; above him, the o-thugyi or o-sa-gyi; the a-hmu, the
sa-ye, and the wun, the highest rank.
Small areas of thugyisa land the appanage of the office of headman came to
light, and, to the south of Mônywa, there is some land which was assigned to
members of the Royal family. These were declared State. Other parts of the
district were the titular appanage of members of the Royal family, but no rents
were paid, and the services rendered appear to have consisted in making a
trifling present occasionally.
(c) Islands and alluvial formations. The true islands in the Chindwin are
small; in the Mu there are no islands; and in the smaller streams such islands as
appear from time to time are inconsiderable sand-banks. True islands were
declared State. All low lying land in the beds of streams and rivers was
declared State.
South of Mônywa there is an extensive area of alluvial land, some of

which, though high lying, is occasionally submerged (chaungdein). The non-
State tenure was generally asserted over these permanent, though periodically
inundated, formations, and the claim was supported by old mortgage deeds
and, when this part of the district was transferred from Sagaing in 1894, had
been allowed by an order of the Deputy Commissioner, Lower Chindwin. The
non-State claim was allowed over the major portion of this land. Small areas of
chaungdein land along the Chindwin were known as Royal land and were
declared State, but most of the chaungdein land, in whatever part of the district
situated, was admitted as non-State.
(d) Waste land. There is no doubt that there was great extension of
cultivation into the waste subsequently to the 13th July 1889, when the Upper
Burma Land and Revenue Regulation came into force, and that much new
cultivation was not reported and escaped survey. The Regular Settlement took
as the point of departure the cadastral survey map of 1897-1902, and the
Summary Settlement map which immediately followed it. All land found waste
at the Regular Settlement was declared State. All land shown in waste survey
numbers on the cadastral survey maps and not claimed at the Summary
Settlement was treated as primâ facie State. The claim to the whole of the
waste as the private property, not of the villagers as a body but of particular
individuals, was occasionally put forward. It was not admitted. All village sites
were ab initio declared State, and claims were decided in the usual way. The
non-State tenure was allowed in a few villages, most of which disclosed a
history of the site encroaching on adjacent cultivation, but for the most part no
claims were made. The private right may be said generally not to have grown
up in the village site, the tenure of which was, in a sense, communal, although
the occupant of a house site could not be ejected.
The water bearing waste in the spring and artesian-well areas near the
Yama streams was declared State, and, in order to ensure existing water-rights,
the persons who were found in actual customary possession of the exclusive
right to bore in the waste for water were recorded as State tenants. The beds of
the numerous small tanks are rarely cultivated for a winter crop. They were
allowed as non-State in a few cases.
(e) Abandoned land. The earliest cadastral survey map was taken as the
point of departure. Land shown within field numbers at the survey and not
claimed as non-State at the Summary Settlement was treated as primâ facie
State.
Tenures: miscellaneous.
In the Mayin village-tract, comprising six remote survey blocks in the

south-west of the district, there is a history of successive colonizations in late
Burmese times. In king Mindôn's reign the village was last colonized, but
residence was made a condition of possession of land. Land could be, but was
not usually, taken away from a resident in order to be allotted to a new-comer.
No rent was paid to the headman. The headman but no one else claimed the
right to mortgage land. The tenure resembles the thu-win-nga-twet tenure of
Magwe (Magwe Settlement Report, paragraph 125), and arises from the need
of having a numerous body to resist aggression, and the right of mortgage is
due to aggrandisement by a pre eminent family among the colonists. The
whole village tract was declared State.
In some other village tracts, also situated under the hills in the south-west
of the district, the same tenure was found, but in isolated survey-blocks, not
throughout the whole of the village tract. These lands were declared State.
Cases of aggrandisement by headmen came to light in some places.

Usually the aggrandisement dated from many years back and was acquiesced
in by the people, and in such cases the Settlement accepted the facts and
allowed the non-State claim.
The only communal land recognized is the village-site, in most cases; the
cemetery, in all cases; the sites of rest houses and tanks in most cases. The sites
of monasteries are also regarded as communal. There is no communal
cultivated land in the district. No special conditions were attached to the tenure
of any land declared State. The tenure of lands falling within the Municipal
area of Mônywa and the Town area of Alôn was not dealt with at the Regular
Settlement.
Property in fruit trees.
The property in fruit trees of the longer-aged kinds, e.g., tari and cocoanut
palms, and mangoes, is regarded by the people as distinct from the property in
the land on which they grow. The private ownership of tari palms growing on
waste (State) land was usually claimed, and in most cases admitted.
Area of land by tenure.
The area of State and non-State land (excluding the: forest reserves and
unsurveyed areas) as ascertained at Regular Settlement was-
Acres.
State land 102,004
Non-State land 670,704
Thathameda before Summary Settlement. After Summary Settlement.
It has been mentioned that the household tax was the main source of
revenue before the Summary Settlement. The individual assessments varied
between house and house, according to the relative means of each from all
sources.
After acre rates have been imposed on non-State land by means of a

Revenue Settlement, the principle of apportionment of the thathameda tax
changes. It becomes incorrect to assess a household to thathameda according to
its means from all sources. Thathameda is to be assessed only on the non-
agricultural sources of income, e.g., trading profits, receipts from the sale of
cattle, profits of emigration, profits from the wage of unskilled labour.
Agricultural profits, which are assessed (fully, if the settlement is a regular
one) in the acre-rates, are to go free of thathameda. There will still be a general
household rate, prevailing over a compact area and fixed in accordance with
the general ratio within that area of non-agricultural to agricultural profits: but
no agricultural profits will be assessable to the tax. The pure agriculturist will
pay no thathameda.
Before this policy can be realized it is, however, necessary to ascertain the
ratio of non-agricultural to agricultural profits by means of an elaborate
enquiry, and, as such an enquiry could not be made at the Summary
Settlement, the existing thathameda rates are only approximately correct. It
was necessary to reduce the old ten rupee rate: and, pending Regular
Settlement, this rate gave place to a rate of six rupees. Attempts have been
made in subsequent years to arrange the villages in groups according to their
general prosperity or the reverse not according to the extent of non-agricultural
income and a different rate has been imposed on each group of villages. Such a
discrimination, based on general prosperity, is not in accordance with the
principle described above. It was recognized at Summary Settlement that the
thathameda rates were approximate, that the land rates were less than full, and
that what, under an elaborate Settlement, would have been collected in the
shape of acre-rates would continue to be taken in the shape of thathameda. The
headman and assessors were, however instructed to pay, some attention to
fixing the individual thathameda assessments ac cording to the extent of non-
agricultural income. The attempt has not, up to the present, been successful.
The answer to the question whether a particular source of income is
agricultural or non-agricultural is not always, at first sight, easy. The extent of
non-agricultural receipts from such sources as trading, emigration, and interest
on loans is difficult to ascertain. But the main obstacle lies in the fact that in
some parts of the district, e.g., the south-western black-soil region, there is a
numerous body of cultivators pure and simple who, whilst not yet exempt
altogether from the payment of thathameda, should nevertheless pay much less
than they were paying before Summary Settlement. In order to secure this, the
non-agricultural section usually field labourers without means of any extent
would require to be assessed at much higher rates than they could afford to
pay. The dilemma is the necessary result of land rates which are too low and a
thathameda rate which is too high. The actual practice followed in the villages
has been one of two: either all households alike have agreed to pay at the
village rate, without discrimination a method which gives no trouble and
imposes no problems on the assessors, or, the pre-Summary Settlement
assessments have been reduced pro rata, whether the particular household is
agricultural or non-agricultural.
Thathameda: Regular Settlement proposals.
The thathameda rates suggested by the Regular Settlement are in several

tracts lower than six rupees, the lowest deduced rates appearing in the regions
west of the Chindwin, where the rainfall is better and the cultivator can count
on getting a living from the produce of his fields. The higher deduced rates
appear east of the river, where there is, in some parts, much emigration, in
others extensive cattle-breeding, in others a large population of crafts men.
Collections of land revenue and thathameda.
The collection under the head of Land Revenue has been in 1889-90, Rs.
3,944; in 1901-02, Rs. 9,273; in 1902-03, Rs. 57, 238, the increase being due
to the inception of Summary Settlement land rates; in 1908-09, Rs. 3 23 984
The collections of thathameda have been in 1888-89, Rs. 2,66,726; 1893-

94, Rs. 4,82,413; 1901-09, Rs. 5,81,890; 1902-03, Rs. 5,05,810, the diminution
being due to the reduction of the rate after Summary Settlement; and in 1908-
09, Rs. 3,77, 983. The collection under the two heads together has steadily and
largely increased, the figure for 1906-07 and this was not the year of maximum
collection being 139 per cent. higher than the figure of the earliest year for
which figures are available, nineteen years before. The rise in the total revenue
in the years beginning with 1902-03 was due to the general enhancement
secured at Summary Settlement, namely, some 20 per cent. over the existing
thathameda plus land-revenue demand. There had, however, been a steady rise
before the Summary Settlement, the 1901-02 figure being 109 per cent. Higher
than the earliest recorded collection. The growth in collections up to 1901-02
was not due to enhancement in the thathameda rate, which was except for
occasional local abatements from the commencement of administration until
1902-03 Rs. 10 per household; nor, except to a small extent, to revision of
boundaries. The only serious set backs in prosperity and assessable capacity
were the two years of widespread crop-failure, 1891-92 A.D 1907-08. In 1891-
92 the collection under the two heads fell from Rs. 3,64,566 to Rs. 3,12,122,
but rose in the next ) year to Rs. 4,32,441. In 1907-08, it fell from Rs. 6,75,273
to Rs. 4,57,845, but rose in the following year to Rs. 7,01,967.
Dates of collection of revenue.
Collection of the thathameda tax at present commences on the first of

January. There are four seasons at which land-revenue is collected. The spring
ripening crops for the most part the bean crops grown on islands and the
inundated margins of streams, and the gram of the west of the district are
marked on the maps, and collection of the revenue due commences on the 15th
April; the revenue due from the hot-weather ripening crops chiefly the variety
of rice known as mayin, grown in the meres on either side of the Chindwin
valley is collected from the 15th of July; that due on crops which ripen in the
rainy season chiefly the kaukti variety of rice, grown in the North Yama
irrigated areas, and the early sesamum of the west from the 15th October; and
that due on the main winter-ripening crops of rice, millet and sesamum, from
the 15th February. Only those fields are marked as liable to assessment which
have produced one-fourth or more than one-fourth of an average crop. If his
field returns to the cultivator less than one-fourth of an average crop, it is not
assessed at all.
Coercive processes for the recovery of land revenue and thathameda.
Judged by the usual test of the ratio of coercive processes to the amount of
revenue collected, assessrnents in the Lower Chindwin district appear to be
light. Since Summary settlement for every Rs. 24,000 of revenue collected,
there has been, on the average. one attachment of property.
No outstanding balance whether of land revenue or thathameda has

appeared since 1898-99, with the exception of the year 1902-03 when there
was a land revenue arrear of Rs. 1,659; this was due to delay in the preparation
of the rolls owing to the inexperience of the new Land Records staff, the year
being that in which the first Summary Settlement tract came under assessment.
Incidence of taxation.
The incidence of taxation under the two main heads of revenue was found
to be Re. 1'55 to the crop-matured acre, and Rs. 2'22 per head of the
population, in 1906-07.
Prosperity or otherwise of the district.
From the data presented in this and the preceding Chapters it is possible to
select the salient features of the district, so far as they bear on its prosperity
and revenue paying capacity. The increase in the population of 1906, as
estimated at Regular Settlement, over the census population of 1891, was 28
per cent. In the same period the thathameda plus land revenue collection rose
from Rs. 3, 12, 122 to Rs. 6,65,296, an increase over the earlier figure of 113
per cent. The percentage increase, though large, is in reality less than this,
since 1891 was an exceptionally bad year, and the revenue collection was
below the average. The cultiva ted area has risen largely. The rapidly-
expanding revenue has been. collected with ease. The cultivators are of a
single stock, energetic when they can see a certain crop of rice as the goal,
moderately industrious everywhere, slovenly in husbandry on the poorest soils
only, contented, law abid ing and amenable to the control of the head man,
remarkably cheerful in adversity and, although much attached to the soil and to
the right of private property in land, willing to emigrate temporarily when the
prospect of the seasons is clouded. The district touches a zone of higher
rainfall, and has a number of standard crops and several reaping seasons; all is
not lost, even if the early or the middle or the late rains fail utterly. Recovery
of the revenue, after a year of scarcity, has been rapid. Emigration has several
directions in which to move, and the river and the railway afford easy means of
leaving the district. The burden of indebtedness is light, even at the present
time (1909), when the district has passed through the worst year within
recollection. Communications are not good, but increased demand has raised
the prices of produce. The population is beginning to press on the land in parts
and rents are rising, but there is little rack-renting, nor has much of the land
passed out of the hands of cultivators. Land values are high. There is wealth in
cattle. Money is more easily come by than it was, and interest rates., although
high, are falling. The incidence of existing revenue per cultivated acre and per
capita is high when compared with some Indian standards, but probably low, if
Burmese and Indian standards of living are taken into account. Labour is more
fluid than in other provinces. Widespread failure of crops may occur, but will
probably never lead to famine conditions. On the other side of the picture are
indications of deterioration in the water-supply.
Minor sources of revenue fisheries.
There are no important fisheries: the revenue averages Rs. 8,000 and varies
little from year to year. Most of the leased fisheries are situated in the flooded
depressions left on the land side of the banks of the large rivers, the Mu and the
Chindwin, when the waters subside at the end of the rainy season, but there are
a few in the main channels. The lakes which have formed in the basins of some
of the explosion craters produce the twin-po, an insect which is considered a
delicacy by Burmans. It is caught in nets of coarse cloth, dried, and eaten fried,
with pickled tea: the right of collection is auctioned in the case of two craters.
The right to fish with casting nets less than nine feet in length, with small
funnel-shaped baskets (saung), and to angle except in a leased fishery is free.
Certain forms of nets are prohibited, and there is a close season, from April to
July. The productiveness of the fishermen varies directly with the rise in the
rivers. The fisheries of the Mônywa and Kani townships bring in the bulk of
the revenue. There were 33 demarcated leased fisherles in the year 1906-07.
The fishing rights are sold by auction in April-June, usually for a term of three
years. Hot-weather rice is cultivated in the depressions which are leased as
fisheries. Occasionally the lessee objects to letting the water escape, whilst the
cultivator wants the level of the mere lowered, in order to expose his rice-fields
for cultivation, or the lessee would let out the water more quickly than suits the
cultivator, but the claims of the latter are regarded as paramount, and disputes
between the fishing and cultivating interests are rare.
Miscellaneous Land Revenue includes receipts under the Village Act,

survey fees on the grant or lease of land, royalties and fees on minerals, and
other sources. The receipts under all these heads amounted to Rs. 4,243 in
1907-08.
Revenue from
The stamp revenue is a growing source of income. It has risen from Ms.
7,949 in 1890-91, and Rs. 16,86o in 1899-1900, to Rs. 33,293 in 1907-08.
Both Judicial and non-Judicial stamps haste shaxed in the increase.
The Summary and Regular Settlements, which led, in the one direction, to
the investigation of titles in the courts and, in the other, to the substitution of
properly stamped documentary for oral, or imperfect documentary, evidence of
interests in land account for a portion of the increase in the later years. The
introduction of unified postal and revenue stamps in October 1905 had no
marked effect in retarding the growth of revenue. The practice of pledging
property as collateral security with a promissory note bearing a one-anna stamp
was noticed at Regular Settlement in some villages. There are no salaried
vendors of stamps; stamps are procurable from one ex-officio vendor, the
Treasurer of the District Treasury, and from 121 licensed vendors, 98 of whom
are village headmen. Vendors are remunerated by a small discount on the sales
effected.
Excise administration: in Burmese times.
The position under the Burmese kings was that the law forbade drinking,
but winked at it; and that public opinion reprobated, and the law occasionally
punished, scandalous drunkenness. [Statement of U Pe Si, Magistrate of the
city of Mandalay, both under king Mindôn and king Thibaw, and for a
considerable period Governor of the Sagaing nè or Burmese administrative
district; quoted at page 268 of the collection of papers relating to Excise
Administration in India, 1890.] It is stated that the authorities occasionally
punished both the buyer and seller, in the case of drunkenness.
After annexation.
Under the Regulation of the 19th March 1886, the sale of opium and spirits
to Burmans was prohibited, and all licenses to sell opium or spirits were issued
under condition that these things should not be sold to Burmans.
Excise on liquor.
It was reported at the beginning of 1888 that there was then in the Lower
Chindwin district great facility for obtaining intoxicating drink, especially in
the rural parts, and that a large proportion of the population from 20 to 30 per
cent were in the habit of using stimulants. [The same page of the collection
cited above.] The indigenous sources of liquor were then and are still (a) the
sap of the tari palm, which is fermented and drunk in that condition (tari or
toddy), fermentation being accelerated by the addition of alin, a yeast made
from rice water and sour toddy; (h) seinyè, or country beer, made from palm
sugar; (c) country spirit, (i) distilled from palm sugar, (ii) distilled from rice.
The prohibition of the sale to Burmans of any intoxicating liquor other than tari
and country spirits is in force in Upper Burma. The privilege of vending other
liquor than tari is disposed of by the sale of licenses, either at fixed fees or by
auction. With regard to fermented tari, where palms abound and the traffic
already exists, the site of a shop is fixed and the exclusive privilege of sale for
drinking purposes is auctioned. Within a radius of five miles from the shop, the
fermented sap of the palm may not be sold by the public except (a) to the
licensed vendor of the shop for resale; or (b) to a manufacturer of molasses or
palm sugar, or vinegar, for manufacture. A Burman may possess up to four
reputed quarts of tari and one reputed quart of country spirit within five miles
radius of a shop. Beyond a radius of five miles from the shop, any one may
ferment the sap and sell it to any one for any purpose, without restriction.
Since legal restrictions on handling tari exist only within a radius of five miles
from a licensed shop, the first step towards controlling consumption in any
area is to establish a shop within the area.
Gross revenue.
The total excise revenue on liquor rose from Rs. 6,590 in 1890-91 to Rs.
20,320 in 1906-07, and had fallen to Rs. 14,945 in 1908-09. The large increase
in the period ending in 1902-03 may be ascribed in part to the creation of more
licensed shops for the vend of tari and in part to the opening of the railway and
the growth of the native-of-India population in Mônywa: but combination or
the reverse amongst bidders, who are mainly Chinese or natives of India, is a
factor which affects the excise revenue.
Revenue from tari.
The bulk of the revenue comes from the sale of toddy shops, the number of
which has varied from 11 to 13 since 1901-02. Local opinion is consulted
before a new shop is opened. Temporary licenses for the sale of tari at festivals
are also issued, on the application of licensees of existing shops. Six such
licenses were given out in 1904-05 and 13 in 1905-06. Licenses for the vend of
tari realized in 1889-90: Rs. 2,000 , in 1894-95, RS. 4,285; in 1900-01, Rs.
9,525; in 1904-05, Rs. 13,089; and in 1908-09, Rs. 9,595. Com bination of
bidders at the auctions is noticed as having led to low receipts in 1903-04 and
1908-09, and illicit sale near Mônywa is said to have helped to reduce the
auction value in the latter year. The licenses are usually auctioned separately.
Revenue from other licenses.
The rest of the excise revenue accrues from sale of the privilege of vending
foreign liquors and spirits manufac tured in India according to European
methods. The number of licenses has varied little; at the present time there are:
one license for the vend wholesale of imported liquors and of locally produced
spirits excised at the tariff rates (i.e., spirit produced at large distilleries worked
on European lines); and two licenses for the retail vend of the same.
There has never been a licensed distillery in the district, and there has been no
licensed outstill since 1888-89.
Preventive staff and offences.
A special Excise and Opium preventive establishment, working in

conjunction with the district police authorities and under the immediate control
of the District Superinten-dent of Police, was established in 1904. Control was
trans ferred to the Deputy Commissioner from the beginning of 1909. The
chief offences against the liquor laws are the unlicensed vend or illicit
possession of fari and of native fermented liquors other than tari, seinyè. Illicit
distillation is also detected, the number of stills suppressed in each year having
been as follows, commencing from 1889-90 : 1, 0, 25, 2, 39, 11, 29, 6, 2, 2, 12,
9, 2 and, in 1902-03, 0. Other details of excise offences have been given in the
preceding Chapter.
Opium.
The district is not one of the few in which the cultivation of the poppy is
permitted, and the law concerning opium is that which applies to Upper Burma
generally. Except for medical purposes or under one of the special licenses
issued to medical practitioners, doctcrs, tattooers and pharmacists, a Burman in
the Lower Chindwin district may not possess opium at aI1. Non-Burmans may
possess up to three tolas,* but must purchase it frcm the shop of the licensed
vendor at Mônywa.
Opium administration before 1888.
The Opium Act was brought into force in Upper Burma with effect from
the 15th September 1888. Before that date the sale of opium, except to Chinese,
was prohibited. The possession of opium by Burmans in Upper Burma was
absolutely prohibited. Licenses for the retail vend had been granted, generally
at fixed fees, and the Lower Chindwin licenses appear to have realized Rs. 250
in 1888-89.
After 1888: first period: 1889 to 1894.
A shop for the retail vend of opium was established at Mônywa in 1889-90,
and the license to vend retail has been sold annually since. Purchase would, it
was then thought, be practically confined to the non-Burmans in Mônywa, who
were estimated to number 536 in 1890-91,and it appears to be so confined at
the present time. The vend was by auction to the highest bidder: the limit of
possession and of retail sale was ten tolas, or about a quarter of a pound. There
was no limit to the amount of opium a licensed shop might sell in a year, and
supplies of opium might be imported from the Yünnan frontier or the Shan
* So tolas = 1 seer = about two pounds.

States, in which case they paid a duty of Rs. 15 per viss of 3'65 pounds, or be
purchased from the Government Treasury supply of Bengal Excise opium, in
which case they paid a duty of Rs. 32 per seer of about two pounds.
The quantity of opium sold from the shop was 177 seers in 1890-91; 150
seers in 1891-92; and 70 seers in 1892-93. The revenue from the vend in the
same years was Rs. 3,050, Rs. 2,360, and Rs. 2,050. The decrease in sales in
the last year was probably not due to diminished consumption, for in the
following eleven years, when issues from the Treasury to the shop were
allowed up to 120 seers per annum, the maxi mum amount was always taken.
The decrease, coupled with a progressive decline in the fees obtained, suggests
that opium was being smuggled into the district and could be obtained more
cheaply illicitly than from the licensed shop.
Second period 1894 to 1904.
New arrangements were introduced from the beginning of 1894. In order to

check licensed vendors from taking out more than the local demand required,
with a view to smug gling the surplus to Lower Burma, a maximum annual
issue was fixed for the shops in Upper Burma. This was 120 seers for the
Mônywa shop. The temptation to con sumers to sell such of their licit supply
as they did not them selves want was checked by reduction of the maximum
amount which could be sold retail and which could be lawfully possessed from
ten to three tolas. The price at which the shop could obtain its supplies of
foreign and Government opium remained the same, and there was, as before,
no limit to the retail price at which the shop might sell to consumers. Increased
attention was paid to the detection of smuggling. The vend was granted by
auction as before, and realized, beginning with 1893-94-Rs. 1,900, 3,700,
3,350, 6,500, 4,050, 4, 100, 5,730, 6,302, 7,035, 4, 106 and, in 1903-04, Rs.
2,900.
The retail price of raw opium at the shop rose steadily from 12 annas per
tola in 1893-94 to Rs. 1-6-0 in 1901-02. Beginning with 1896-97 the duty on
Government opium was raised to Rs. 33 per seer and on foreign (Yünnan and
Shan States)opium to Rs. 17. This accounts in part for the rise in retail price.
There was a special reason namely, the uncertainty produced by the
introduction of the new arrangements into Lower Burma to account for the
drop in the vend fees in the last two years of the period. The annual reports
give as a general reason for the decline in these receipts in Upper Burma in
these two years the further fact that smuggling from Upper Burma to Lower
Burma shops had become less easy, owing to better pre ventive measures. So
far as the question of smuggling a surplus supply is concerned, inasmuch as the
issues at Mônywa in the succeeding period of years, when preventive measures
were more stringent than ever, rose above the old maximum of 120 seers, it
seems doubtful whether it was the possibility of smuggling surplus supplies to
Lower Burma which led to the maximum issues being taken in the period
ending with 1903-04. There were no large seizures: and the fact that retail shop
prices rose with the amount payable as license fee, and the progressive increase
in the license fee, suggest that, along with an effective local demand for the
maximum issue, the vendor controlled all supplies and was able to fix his own
retail price, and that there was not much smuggling or if there was any it was
conducted by the vendor.
Third period from 1904. Existing arrangements.
New arrangements came into force on the 1st April 1904. In place of the
disposal of the opium shop by auction to the highest bidder a method which,
when coupled with restriction of sale to an annual maximum tempted the
licensee to smuggle and sell illicitly in order to recoup his expenses the license
is disposed of, at a smaller fixed fee, to a selected vendor. This amount of
issues is unrestricted, but the selling price is fixed and at a lower price than the
local retail rates prevailing formerly; this is in order to induce consumers to
procure their supplies from the shop instead of from smugglers. For the same
purpose, the number of shops was increased, and preventive establishments
were strengthened. The sales from the shop since 1904-05 have been 141 seers,
188, 195, and 168. The retail prices fixed were Re. 1 for raw, and Rs. 1-4-0 for
cooked opium, per tola. The increase in sales is noticeable. The maxi mum
legal possession remains at three tolas, but, in order to check sales, the policy
is, within this maximum, to restrict the amount sold to each customer to the
amount he actually requires, and thus leave no surplus for hawking. The trend
of the policy is exhibited in the sales figure for the last year.
The opinion of district officers is that among the Burmans of the district there
is hardly any opium smoking, and this is confirmed by the small percentage of
prisoners who are found on admission to the Mônywa jail to be addicted to the
opium habit. A consideration of the figures collated in the preceding tables
would suggest that there is not much smuggling, that sales are confined to the
opium smoking portion of the non-Burmese population of Mônywa, and that,
so far as this district is concerned, the traffic has come under control and that
the habit is not spreading among the Burmans.
The village of Wayaung, on the Kyaukka plateau, con tains some eighty
households of tattooers, who usually anæsthetize their subjects with opium
when performing the tattooing process. Only one tattooing license, in 1898-99,
has been issued in the Lower Chindwin district, and the tattooers, who travel
far afield, if they obtain licenses at all, obtain them in other districts. Some
must omit to obtain licenses, as the number of households of tattooers is
greater than the total number of tattooers' licenses issued in the province.
Gross revenue from opium.
The total revenue from opium has been in 1890-91, Rs. 3,244; in 1894-95,
Rs. 7,545; in 1904-05, Rs. 8,600; and in 1907-08, Rs. 11,42o.
Other narcotics.
Ganja (hemp) is occasionally smuggled through the Post, by or rail and

river, by the increasing Indian population, and it is said that morphia
preparations have found their way into Mônywa.
Salt.
The salt revenue, except for a few rupees, is derived from composition
duties on the soaking-beds at Salingyi, an account of which has been given in
Chapter V. The revenue has been : in 1893, Rs. 1,735; 1896, Rs. 1,520; 1897.
Rs. 1,965; 1902, Rs. 2,045; 1908, 1,760.
Fluctuations have been due to two causes, namely (1) changes in the rates
of composition duty per vat, and (2) variation in the number of vats worked.
The original duty, fixed in 1887, was Rs. 12 per vat, which was subsequently
raised to Rs. 20, with effect from the 1st July 1890, and reduced, in September
1894, to Rs. 10 and Rs. 25, and in 1896 to Rs. 5 and Rs. 12-8-0, for non State
and State vats, respectively. This explains the decrease in revenue in 1896. The
increase in 1897 is attributable to a reversion to the higher rates, namely, Rs.
10 and Rs. 25. An increase in the number of vats in 1900 and 1901 was
neutralized by the introduction, in July 1899, of a lower rate, namely Rs. 5,
which was levied on the non-State vats in Pyawbwè and Paingdaunggyi
villages. At the present time, the Rs. 10 rate applies to non-State vats in other
villages than the two mentioned; and the Rs. 25 rate to one State vat. The
progressive decline in revenue, subsequently to 1902, has accompanied a
diminution in the number of vats worked. The policy of Government is to
approximate the inci dence of composition duty to the incidence of the import
duty on foreign salt, namely, Re. 1 per maund. The latest Salt Administration
Report that for 1908 estimates the incidence on a maund of local salt at nine
annas only, but the estimate is based on an assumed outturn which is the result
of enquiry, not measurement, and is probably excessive, in which case the
incidence is higher than that calculated. The fact that, whilst prices of local salt
have been almost stationary since 1902, and prices of foreign salt have shown
a tendency to rise, the output diminished steadily until 1907 and rose very little
in 1908, which was a year of crop-failure and scarcity of agricultural means of
livelihood, suggests that the owners find it difficult to engage labour and pay
rising prices for firewood, and that the existing rates of duty are checking the
industry.
CHAPTER XI
LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT.
MUNICIPALITY (MÔNYWA).
[At the beginning of 1906 the Municipal Office was destroyed by fire, and
with it many of the records. It has therefore been found impracticable to
compile a full and connected account of the Municipality.]
Constitution.
The Mônywa Municipality was constituted on the 25th April 1888, under
the Upper Burma Municipal Regulation of 1887. It was reconstituted on the 1st
April 1905, under the Burma Municipal Act of 1898. The Committee consists
of fifteen members, seven of whom are ex-officio, and the remainder appointed
by the Commissioner, Sagaing Division. The ex-officio members at the present
time are The Deputy Commissioner, who is President; the Civil Surgeon, who
is Vice-President; the Headquarters Magistrate; the District Superintendent of
Police; the Executive Engineer; the Commandant, Military Police;and the
Subdivisional Officer, Mônywa Civil Subdivision.
The clerical and executive staff consists of a secretary; an overseer; 43

conservancy menials; a market overseer, with six market menials; five other
menials; and two registrars of births and deaths.
Population.
The population of Mônywa, according to the census of 1901, was 7,869

persons. There were 1,248 rate payers in the year 1907-08.
Revenue and expenditure.
The income has increased from Rs. 9,411 in 1890-91 to Rs. 33,269 in 1907-08;
and the expenditure from Rs. 6,954 to Rs. 3 31,297, in the same period. In the
first year of its existence the sources of income consisted of a house-tax and
lands, which had been placed temporarily at the disposal of Municipalities,
were resumed by Government, and compensation was given in the form of a
grant. The Mônywa fund received an annual grant of Rs. 400 under this
heading up to 1904-05, after which year thee grant was withdrawn.
By 1902-03, the rate of assessment of the house tax on Government

buildings had been raised to one pie per square foot per annum on the area
covered by buildings, exclusive of out houses, and a new heading of receipt
hackney carriage licenses appears in the reports. In 1903-04 a scavenging tax,
at the rate of eight annas per mensem per household, was sanctioned. In 1906-
market fees. In 1891-92 the Committee levied a toll on carts, whilst Rs. 7,049
was spent on public works chiefly the construction of markets and a beginning
was made of a conservancy service. In 1895-96 expenditure on Public Works
rose from Rs. 293 to Rs. 8,325, apparently on account of the construction of
the Chindwin embankment. Of the increased revenue and expenditure in 1902-
03 and all suc ceeding years, a portion is nominal, as compensating entries
appear m the accounts for the purpose of exhibiting the adjustment of the
moiety of the ferry license receipts payable to the District Fund. In 1904-05 the
new scavenging tax added a small sum to incomings. In 1905-06 the Munici
pality was relieved of Police charges (Rs. 1,780) for the first time. In 1906-07
the new house-frontage tax enhanced receipts.
Sources of revenue and heads of expenditure.
It is mentioned that in 1893-94 a cess on the thathameda, or household tax,

was levied, but details are wanting. The chief sources of income in 1897-98
were (a) a house tax, assessed at the rate of Rs. 2 per house per annum, in the
case of private individuals, and, in the case of Government servants and
Government buildings, at the rate of one-fourth of a pie per square foot of the
area covered by buildings. Beside this tax, rent was assessed on Government
land lying within Municipal limits, according to the class to which the land
belonged. For first class land the rate was one rupee; for land of the second
class, twelve annas, and of the third class, eight annas, for each plot of land.
Presumably the basis of classification was advantage of sit.nation, and assess
ment varied with the area, but this is not stated ;(b) tolls on roads and ferries, in
particular the Mônywa-Ywashe ferry; (c) market rents and fees; slaughter-
house fees; hack-cart licenses; fees from cattle-pounds; and fines under the
Municipal Act and under special laws. In the same year the mair heads of
expenditure were (a) establishment salaries and charges of collection and audit;
(b) Police; (c) conservancy; (d) charges in connection with the Municipal
Hospital and vaccination; (e) charges in connection with markets, slaughter
houses and cattle pounds; (f) the con struction of roads; (g) interest on debt.
[This heading has been blank since 1899-1900, when the Government Ioan for
the construction of a central market was cleared.]
There was a separate Hospital Fund up to the close of I897-98. On the 1st
April 1898 the fund was amalgamated with the general fund, and from that
date the Government grant was shown as a receipt in the General Municipal
Accounts. At the close of 1897-98, the receipts from town
07 the house tax was abolished, and a general tax under the Burma Municipal
Act, varying with the length of street frontage occupied by each building,
introduced; an are tax was imposed on buildings not assessed to the street
frontage tax. There is no octroi tax. The thathameda collected within the
Municipal area is credited to Provincial revenues.
Incidence of taxation.
The incidence of the house tax per head of the population within Municipal
limits was four and a half annas in 1905-06. The incidence of the street
frontage and area tax was eight annas and four pies in 1906-07, and Rs. 1-4-7
in 1907-08. The incidence is apparently calculated on the population shown at
the last census and assuming that there has been a normal growth in the
population since 1901 the inci dences shown for recent years are higher than
actual.The fund accounts are audited locally by the Local Fund section of the
office of the Accountant General, Burma.
Heads of revenue: marketrents and slaughter houses.
The system of farming the right to collect market stall rents was abolished
in 1898-99, and the rents are now collected directly by servants of the
Municipality. The receipts under the heading Markets and slaughter houses
have risen from Rs. 8,563 in 1893-94 to Rs. 11,784 in 1907 -08.
Tolls and ferries. Tolls and ferries.
The sale of the right to collect tolls at the Mônywa-Ywa-she and Ywathit
ferries is auctioned annually, a moiety of the receipts each being credited to the
Municipality and the District Fund. Municipal receipts under the heading Tolls
on roads and ferries have steadily increased. The tolls comprise a tax of two
annas on each cart-load entering Municipal limits, and of two rupees per
annum on carts owned by residents, with some exceptions. The figures have
risen from Rs. 1,670 in 1893-94 to Rs. 11,090 in 1907-08.
Expenditure.
The Municipality, beyond an occasional grant-in-aid, has not devoted its

funds to education.
Public works.
The central market has been mentioned. Until 1895-96 very little of the
revenue went directly to the construction of public works, the reason being
that, until a protecting embankment had been thrown up along the margin of
the Chindwin for which purpose the Municipality was hus banding its
resources the periodical flooding of the town would have rendered it a waste of
money to construct roads and drains. The existing substantial embankment was
commenced at Municipal expense in 1895-96 and completed in 1896-97, since
which year the town appears to have escaped flooding. The embankment was
strengthened in 1902-03. All roads within municipal limits, except the sections
of the Alôn-Myinmu and Mônywa-Kyaukka roads, are maintained and
constructed from Municipal funds. A Municipal Office was erected in 1901-
02. It was burnt down it is believed through incendiarism in May 1906.
Conservancy.
In 1895-96, the service accounted for Rs. 2,057. The service has steadily
expanded since: enlarged establishment for night conservancy was employed
in 1902-03, and of recent years expenditure has averaged Rs. 8,000. An outline
of the system of conservancy and of the drainage or lack of drainage will be
found in Chapter XIII. The system of private pit-latrines came to an end in
April 1904. For the purpose of judging of the practicability of a regulated
drainage system, levels were taken in 1900-01 and again. in 1906-07, and the
Sanitary Engineer and Sanitary Commissioner have prepared different
schemes, but matters have not attained to the stage of a sanctioned project.
Hospital.
From the 1st April 1893, the management of the General Hospital situated
within municipal limits was trans ferred to the Committee, and a provincial
grant made to the Municipal Fund. Municipal expenditure on hospitals and
dispensaries has in recent years averaged Rs. 6,000. The construction of a
contagious diseases ward was commenced in 1896-97 and completed in the
following year. Registration of births and deaths has been in force since May
1897, see Chapter XIII.
Water supply.
A description of the water supply will be found in Chapter XIII. The town
is still without a protected supply.
Precautions against fire.
Half the town was consumed by fire on the 4th February 1898, and the
opportunity was taken to prevent crowding of houses on re-erection and to
insist on the less inflammable kinds of house material being used. Every house,
other than those which are roofed with shingles or tiles, is required to supply
itself with a ladder, a certain number of filled water-pots, and hooks, by means
of which to tear off the roof in case of fire. There are two small municipal fire-
engines, but these have not been utilized up to the present. Small fires are of
almost annual occurrence.
THE DISTRICT FUND.
Constitution.
Under an executive order of the Government of India, District Funds were

established for each of the districts in Upper Burma with effect from the 1st
April 1888, and certain revenues and expenditure were assigned to them.
Subject to restrictions necessitating sanction of the Commis sioner or the Local
Government in the case of large works, the Lower Chindwin Fund is
administered by the Deputy Commissioner. There is no Local Board. In
general, no receipts from the municipal area of Mônywa are credited to the
District Fund, nor does the Fund undertake expenditure within municipal
limits.
Heads of revenue and expenditure.
The main heads of revenue are: slaughter house licenses, cattle-pound fees
and fines, and the sale proceeds of un claimed cattle; market rents and daily
collections; cattle market fees and fines; and miscellaneous rents, including
rents from temporary trading stalls erected at some of the spirit-festivals,
receipts from the lease of the right of collecting tolls at ferries, and from
staging bungalow rents. There is no tess on the land revenue or thathameda.
The main heads of expenditure are: the establishments connected with pounds,
slaughter houses, markets and bungalows; conservancy in rural areas; and
public works. Until the end of 1905-06 the Fund also paid for certain district
dâk, or postal, lines in rural areas, vide Chapter IX.
Public works.
If the project or maintenance scheme is a large one the dividing line is

ordinarily drawn at projects costing Rs. 2,500 a sum is transferred to the Public
Works Depart ment (District Fund) Budget, and the work is carried out through
the agency of the local office of the Public Works Department. If the project is
a small one, it is carried out by the Deputy Commissioner, assisted by a
subordinate stall under the immediate supervision of a District Fund overseer.
The public works on which the Fund incurs expenditure are: roads, district and
dâk (staging) bungalows (vide Chapter IX); arboriculture, in the shape of the
planting of roadside trees; cattle-pounds, markets and slaughter houses;
improvements to the water supply, effected by excavating or Improving tanks
and assisting village irrigation works.
There are at the present time thirty-one cattle pounds, two markets (at
Satôn and Salingyi), nine slaughter houses, fourteen ferries, one dâk bungalow
(at Mônywa), and eight district bungalows. The most important of the ferries is
that connecting Mônywa and Ywashe, vide supra. The Fund also supervises
cattle markets at four places, Alôn, Budalin, Salingyi and Palè
Establishment.
The establishment of the Fund is, at the present time, 24 cattle-

poundkeepers; two market overseers; two market menials, one District Fund
overseer, with two menials, one dâk bungalow cook, and eight attendants at
district bungalows.
Revenue and expenditure.
The revenue has increased from Rs. 5,374 in 1890-91 to Rs. 30,317 in
1907-08; and the expenditure from Rs. 2,022 to Rs. 23,518 in the same period.
The revenue in the later year included, however, a grant from Provincial
revenues of Rs. 12,500. Excluding receipts from Provincial grants, there has
been a progressive increase from 1901-02, and this is attributable to steady
growth in the receipts from slaughter-house licenses and cattie-pound fees.
Market rents have shown a tendency to fall, and receipts from the lease of tolls
and ferries are rising, but with no great Iapidity.
On the expenditure side, all available funds go to public works of the kinds
already noticed. The Fund has not, up to the present, helped education, and
there has been no expenditure on Medical services since 1892-93.
CHAPTER XII.
Education.
Literacy: census figures of 1901.
The population of literates was in 1901-
Males 407 to every thousand males.

Females 18 to every thousand females.
Both sexes 189 to every thousand.
The corresponding figures for the dry zone portion of Upper Burma
(excluding the urban area of Mandalay) were males, 446; females, 23. The
literacy of the district is therefore apparently slightly below the average of the
dry zone, but there is reason to think that many of the scholars in monastic
schools have been recorded as illiterate. The figures of literacy are slightly
ahoy e the average of the whole of Burma. The literate figure per thousand
was, by
localities Mônywa town, 304; Salingyi township, 211: Palè, 191; Mônywa,
179; Kani, 179; and Budalin, :77.
Of the rural areas, literacy appears to be most widely diffused in the

Salingyi township, the figures of male literacy for which area are better even
than those for Mônywa town. The classification followed at the previous
census of 1891 was into learning, literate and illiterate, and the district figures
were, per thousand males learning, 73; literate, 371; total 444. There was in the
decennial period an apparent decrease in the literacy of males, but the Census
Report of 1901 explains that comparison of the two results requires to be made
with caution, owing, among other reasons, to the difference in classification. It
appears probable, from an examination of the literacy by age period figures,
that the learning category of 1891, i.e., scholars in monastic schools, may have
been generally recorded as illiterate in 1901.
Administration.
The district forms a sub-circle of the Northern Educa tional Circle, and a
Deputy Inspector of Schools is stationed at Mônywa, with a staff of one clerk
and one menial. He is assisted by six itinerant teachers one for each of the five
civil townships, and one for Mônywa town.
Primary education in Public schools.
There are 158 Public Primary Schools. The aggregate attendance at the
annual inspection of 1908-09 was male scholars, 2,688; female, 1,171 . The
number of schools and of male scholars in that year fell below the numbers
reported in 1890-91, the year in which the first return was submitted (346
schools: 4,619 scholars); but in the early years the Chindwins formed a single
educational charge, and the reported figures were for the two districts together.
The succeeding years show a steady diminution down to 1899-1900, when the
numbers began to rise (105 schookls: 1,517 male scholars), and have continued
to rise since. Other causes of the diminution in the middle period were
increasing stringency in the test required before a school could be registered,
and the substitution as the examining agency of the Education Department for
the school managers.
The monks in charge of monastic schools often demur to obtaining

registration, on the ground that the superior eccle siastical authorities do not
favour it. The fact that registration, except in special cases, carries with it the
obligation to teach to a prescribed curriculum no doubt also deters the scanlily
educated among them. Moreover, the incentive to registration of new schools
rests in the main with the Deputy Inspector or the itinerant teachers, and these
officers are unable to visit all the indigenous schools. There is a generally
expressed opinion that the local ecclesiastics view the system of English
education with disfavour, and this view appears to receive some support from
the statistics. As elsewhere in Burma, the number of females receiving

education has increased steadily, and the chief impediment to a more rapid
increase is stated to be the dearth of trained mistresses.
Unregistered private schools.
The number of unregistered private schools; i.e., schools which need not
teach to a curriculum and which, on the other hand, are not eligible for grants-
in-aid, is stated to be 834, with an attendance of 5,990 male, and no female
scholars, Whilst the number of schools has increased steadily, the attendance
figures exhibit wide fluctuation from year to year. The figures of attendance in
these schools are, however, an approximation only, derived from such reports
as may reach the Deputy Inspector. The reported number is probably below the
truth. The number of villages in the district exceeds 1,000, and each village has
at least one monastery; many have several, and the number of scholars who are
receiving instruction in the rudiments of learning must be great. The
attendance reported to officials is usually that found in the cold weather, when
the Deputy Inspector and itinerant teachers conduct their tours, and the
attendance of scholars at that season is lessened owing to harvesting
operations. Practically all the private schools are monastic. Very occasionally,
a private lay school is opened, but such schools seldom endure for long. They
are said to be opened sometimes from motives of rivalry felt towards and in
order to detach scholars from a neighbouring school which has accepted
registration and Government aid; and instances have occurred where the
pseudo manager has inaugurated a school in order to benefit by the exemption
from the household tax accorded by Government to schoolmasters.
Secondary education in Public schools.
There are five schools graded as Middle schools, and the total attendance at
the date of the annual inspection of 1908-09 was males, 312; females, 68. The
number of schools and of pupils has increased, the figures in, 1893-94 the first
year for which returns were submitted having been: number of schools, 2; male
scholars, 133; female, nil. The schools are the Wesleyan Mission School and
one monastic school at Mônywa; the Government Vernacular Model school at
Alôn, and two indigenous girls' schools at Mônywa.
Mission education.
The English Wesleyan Mission Middle School is the largest and most
important school in the district. The following account of the schools of this
Mission has been supplied by the Rev. E.J. Bradford :-
"The Mission undertakes Anglo-vernacular, vernacular, and female

education. Anglo-vernacular education was commenced in Mônywa town in
1892. A small school was opened in a rest house as a branch of the Anglo-
vernacular Mission School at Pakôkku, a Burmese assistant master being
placed in charge, supervised by the missionary resident at Pakôkku. Within a
few months an English missionary was stationed at Mônywa and the work
placed on a proper basis. The school soon won its way to favour and, as the
practical value of English letters became obvious, all who could afford to pay
sent their children to learn English. The numbers on the register have grown
from 15 in 1892, 45 in 1897, 84 in 1902 and 136 in 1906, to 183 in 1909, and
the school was officially classified by the Inspector of Schools at the close of
1908 as "one of the most efficient schools in the Northern Circle. There is an
hostel attached to the school, in which 40 boys find accommodation. They are
drawn from the Upper and Lower Chindwin districts, as far north as Homalin.
Government in 1908 sanctioned the raising of the school from the Middle to
the High Grade.
Vernacular mixed schools are maintained at Shaukka near "Mônywa, in

Mônywa town, at Kanbya, and at Lèzin.
A girls' school was opened at Mônywa in 1900. Judged by educational

results, the school has been very successful. It teaches to the seventh standard:
needlework of all kinds and singing are taught, in addition to the ordinary
Government vernacular curriculum. The school has an attendance of between
40 and 50 girls.
The schools of the Mission have risen from 1 to 6, and the number of
scholars from 26 to 341 since 1893."
Expenditure on education.
The amount expended in the district on education in the three years ending
with 1908-09, exclusive of direction charges, was Rs. 15,355, 18,363, and
21,985.
The expenditure on Anglo vernacular Secondary education (results-grants)

averaged Rs. 1,200, in the five years ending with 1908-09.
The bulk of the expenditure has been on vernacular and, for the most part,
Primary education, and in the shape of results-grants. The figures have risen
from Rs. 4,092 in 1902-03 to Rs. 11,154 in 1908-09.
Technical and other grants to vernacular Primary schools cost Rs. 2,631,
and to vernacular Secondary schools Rs, 976, in 1908-09. In preceding years
there had been little expenditure under this head of vernacular education.
Survey school.
There is a Government Survey School, in Mônywa, for the purpose of
imparting instruction in surveying.
General remarks.
The outstanding features of education in the district are at present--
(a) the steady growth in female education;
(b) the success of the Wesleyan Mission Anglo-verna-cular Middle School.
There is little to show that the primary education of males in supervised
institutions is becoming more sought after by the people.
CHAPTER XIII.
PUBLIC HEALTH.
[From material furnished by Mr. W. St. M. Hefferman, Civil Surgeon,
Mônywa.]
Burmese surgery.
The practice of surgery among the Burmans in the Lower Chindwin
district, as in other parts of the province, is still primitive. Beyond the opening
of small abscesses and the setting of fractures, they can perform no surgical
operations. Abscesses are generally opened with one or other of the following
instruments :-
(1) A clasp knife. (3) A heated needle.
(2) A razor. (4) A broken piece of bottle.
Proper lancets are unknown: after the matter has been let out, a piece of
twisted thread is inserted to act as drainage. As a rule, however, the opening
for drainage is not large enough, and in consequence quick healing is retarded.
Attempts are sometimes made to eradicate tumours by the application of
escharotics, and this generally results in the formation of foul-smelling ulcers.
The ingredient chiefly used consists of sulphate of copper or crude arsenic,
with a base of wax or fat. The setting of fractures of bone is also undertaken.
Rough splints, made of spliced bamboos matted with strings, are applied round
the limb over the seat of fracture and tied with pieces of cloth. Charmed oil
(sweet oil) is then poured over the injured limb until the fracture is set. As a
rule, the tying is so firm as to cause impediment to the circulation, resulting in
the formation of blisters, and in some cases gangrene of the limbs sets in. In
fracture of bones of the lower extremities deformity generally results, such as
shortening or curvature of the limbs.
Indigenous medicines.
Herbs, roots and fruits are used in the form of boluses and rough powders
for all ailments. The native practitioners of the present day collect their
ingredients from shops in the markets (parasesaing). The roots, etc., are always
old and mouldy, and the doctors generally have no knowledge of their
therapeutic value. The shopkeepers from whom they purchase seldom keep
genuine medicines. The older school of doctors as a rule picked fresh herbs in
the jungles and prepared the medicine themselves. There are two schools of
physicians :the first beindawsaya prescribe medicines; the second datsaya
administer no medicines, but treat patients by diet atone; certain animal and
vegetable foods are given in rotation, a certain number of days being fixed
during which each article of diet pre scribed must be taken. The diseases in
which the dietary method is generally applied are chronic diarrhœa and uterine
disorders. No specially noteworthy indigenous methods are applied, whether in
surgery or physics. Diseases like syphilis and yaws are treated by means of
crude preparations of mercury, in many cases with great damage to the
patients.
Hospitals.
There are Civil and Military Police Hospitals at Mônywa, each with 32
beds. The average monthly attendance at the Civil Hospital in 1908 was indoor
patients, 28: out-door, 42. The average of operations was 26. There are Civil
Dispensaries at Yinmabin and Budalin.
The number of Hospital Assistants employed is four: one each at Mônywa,
Yinmabin and Budalin, and one on special duty for the treatment of yaws.
The Mônywa Municipal Hospital.

The old Civil Hospital at Mônywa, opened in 1887, was situated near the
present Civil Police lines and had accommodation for 20 patients. It was
dismantled when the present building was occupied in 1896. The cost of
construction of the hospital was borne by Government. An operation building,
with accessory rooms, is in course of construction. Funds for this work were
allotted by the Municipality, Government also assisting. The erection of a new
out patient department has also been sanctioned and funds provided.
There is a separate section with six beds, reserved for female patients. The
attendance, both indoor and outdoor, has grown steadily. Additions to the
inferior hospital staff have been made from time to time, and it now consists of
a nurse, a female ward-servant for females, three male ward-servants, and four
menials.
No portion of the pay of the Civil Surgeon or the Hospital Assistant is
charged to the Municipality. The income in 1907 was Rs. 6,090 and the
expenditure Rs. 6,336.
In the early years the income consisted for the most part of grants from
Government; at the present time the major portion of the receipts is from
Municipal contributions There is no Municipal Hospital cess, but a varying
grant is made annually.
The Civil Dispensary at Palè, opened in 1896, was closed in 1901 and
reopened in Yinmabin, owing to the .change of the headquarters of the Civil
subdivision. At both Yinmabin and Budalin the dispensaries are for outdoor
patients only; at the latter place the dispensary has recently been made
permanent.
Chief diseases: cholera.
The chief diseases are malarial fever, dysentery, worms, diseases of the
eye, and endemic yaws. Small-pox and cholera occur in epidemic form in most
years, especially cholera, which has attacked the town of Mônywa seriously
not less than seven times within eleven years, and lately for three consecutive
years, each epidemic costing from 80 to 90 lives. Although the headmen of
outlying villages have been instructed in the measures of segregation which
should he taken on the occurrence of disease, there is no doubt that in rural
areas outbreaks are frequently not reported. Within Mônywa town outbreaks
cannot be concealed, and active measures are practicable. These have consisted
in the disinfection of houses with solution of per chloride of mercury, and of
wells with potassium permanganate, the burning of infected bedding and
clothing, the supervision of food-supplies within the market, and protection of
them from contamination by flies; the inspection of houses in which aërated
water or bread are prepared; the provision of boiled water free within the town;
and pro hibition of drawing water from the margin of the Chindwin river.
These measures have, up to the present, failed in efficacy, mainly owing to the
apathy or active distrust shown by the people, and, for the town of Mônywa, a
protected water supply is under consideration.
Malarial fever.
The indigenous treatment of malarial fever is often with nandôk or ngansi,

one of the ingredients in which is said to be the seed of the samônnet, a kind of
anise. It is frequently mixed with quinine. All types of malarial fever are found
in the district, but the severe (malignant tertiary) cases come from Kani and the
northern regions. The disease yields to the ordinary quinine treatment. Sale of
quinine is effected through the Post offices, by the vaccinators in their tours
through the district, and by Township
Officers. Until recent years, more sales were effected by vaccinators than bY
the other two agencies, but sales from the Post office are now rising and have
been in the last three years, in large packets of 102 grains each 1906, 10; 1907,
51; 1908, 90. The total sales by all agencies have risen from 36 packets in 1900
to 114 in 1908.
Yaws: frambœsia.
The only special disease of importance is yaws, which is endemic in the

greater part of the Lower Chindwin. It has been reported upon by Military
Assistant Surgeon McCarthy, late Civil Surgeon, Mônywa. The similarity of
the symptoms to those of syphilis, and the identity of the curative methods
employed, are noticeable. A Burmese Hospital Assistant is employed specially
for duty in connection with this disease. He travels from village to village
distributing medicines, and has succeeded in combating the disease to a great
extent. It is understood to be the intention of Gov ernment to depute a trained
parasitologist to investigate the disease, which is most prevalent in the Kani
and Budalin townships.
Plague.
The district has enjoyed, up to the time of writing,* practical immunity

from plague. In the three calendar years 1906 to 1908 there were 24 cases
admitted to the Mônywa hospital, 20 of which terminated fatally. The monthly
dis tribution has been in the month of February four admissions, of March
eighteen, and of April two. All the cases were imported, ten of them from
Mandalay.
Vaccination.
Vaccination was introduced into Mônywa town and district in 1888. The
Vaccination Act was brought into force in Mônywa in 1893. The figures of
successful vaccination have risen from 960 in 1890-91 to 14,092 in 1908-09.
In Mônywa the number rose from 238 to 435, between 1899 and 1907. The
vaccination staff has steadily grown. At first there was a single vaccinator for
the town and district. In 1893 one vaccinator for the Municipality was, and is
still, employed, and two for the district. Since 1901, five rural vaccinators have
been employed, one for each township. A Native Superintendent has been em
ployed since November 1906. The cost of operations has risen from Rs. 269 in
1890-91, Rs. 949 in 1896-97, and Rs. 1,619 in 1903-04, to Rs. 2,871 in 1907-
08. The percentage of successful operations to the whole number of operations
was 95 in 1907-08. Lymph is supplied by the vaccine depôt at Meiktila.
Vaccination has been accepted * There has been a severe outbreak since.
willingly. Some opposition was experienced in 1905, when plague broke out in
the province, and in subsequent years, but it was confined to a few places, and
is attribut able principally to rumours, spread by ill-disposed persons, that
inoculation for plague was to be substituted for vaccina tion. During the last
ten years, the occurrence of the practice of inoculation against small-pox has
been reported twice only: once in 1901, from Ngayaho village on the Mu river,
and from Zipani the south-west of Salingyi township, in 1907.
Water supply and sanitation. In Mônywa Town.
Little improvement has been made in the sanitation by the district, while
Mônywa town is yearly menaced of cholera owing to a contaminated water
supply, namely, the Chindwin river. A protected pipe system has, however,
been discussed and decided upon, and Government have contributed a grant of
Rs. 30,000 towards the project. The existing water supply is derived mainly
from the Chindwin river, which is constantly fouled by the riverine villages
above Mônywa. During the high-water season, the water is charged with silt
and becomes turbid, and is decanted from pots after the sediment has settled.
There are nine public and fifty-two private wells in the town. Of these, five
only contain fairly potable water; the water of the remainder is brackish and
cannot be used for drinking purposes. In the Civil Station and the Military
Police lines there are four wells which contain good drinking water. Good
water is also obtained from six wells situated outside and to the east of the
town, about one-and-a-half miles away. This water is used by about eighty-five
per cent. of the population when the river is in high flood.
The main supply being derived from the river, prevention of pollution is
impossible. The water is carried, mostly by women, in earthen water pots and
is stored in the same kind of receptacle inside the houses. Usually the supply is
drawn from the margin of the river. The system is obviously unsafe and in
sanitary. In the hot weather, when the river is low, islands are exposed and the
eastern marginal waters stagnate, as the stream for some years past has
followed the opposite or western bank. At the close of 1907, the marginal
backwater was bridged in numerous places, in order to enable the people to
draw their supply from the flowing stream, but, as mentioned above, complete
supervision is impracticable and there have been recurring epidemics of
cholera.
About one-third of the town is on a lower level than either the region near
the river bank or the eastern and
northern parts. Storm water flows from the higher levels into this area, which
in turn drains into large excavations. Water accumulates in these during the
rains, becomes stagnant, and gradually disappears by evaporation and
absorption. Only one large masonry drain exists, leading from the Jail through
the Military Police lines. Sulliage from houses, owing to the want of proper
drains, is thrown into the kennels, where the liquid portion becomes absorbed,
whilst the dry residue is blown about in the vicinity of house enclosures. No
recommendations for the improvement of the drainage have been made. but
levels were taken, with a view to an ultimate drainage system, in 1901 and
1907. There are six pairs of iron Horbury Patent latrines in public use, and the
pan system of private latrines was introduced in April 1904, when private pit-
latrines were closed. The only places now using cesspits are the numerous
Buddhist monasteries. Private conservancy is undertaken by the Municipality,
which assesses a special scavenging tax for the purpose. Conservancy is
effected in Crowley carts, the ultimate process being dry-earth trenching
outside the town limits. Day conservancy is also carried out by the
Municipality with an establishment of eleven dust-carts, and there are sixty
public dust bins placed along the roadsides.
In rural areas.
All villages situated on or near the Chindwin obtain their supply from the river.
The inland villages draw their water from wells and tanks, or from shallow
holes dug in the dry beds of streams and filling by percolation. In most
instances wells are protected with parapets and a platform, and are lined either
with masonry or timber, or both. The position of wells in relation to sub soil
pollution is generally defective. They are either inside the villages or in low
ground outside, where surface drainage from the village lodges. In a few
villages wells are kept fairly clean, but in the majority the surroundings are
dirty, and the spill from the water drawn forms a puddle. In parts of the
Budalin, Kani and Salingyi townships, water is scarce in the hot weather and
has to be carted from a distance. Tanks, by which term should be understood
simple, excavated depressions or ponds, are neglected ;they are almost
invariably open to animal and vegetable contamination. It is the exception to
find one protected with wooden railings. The Sanitary Commissioner, Burma,
has recently recommended the introduction of Abyssinian tube wells, and
sixteen rive rine villages have been provided with these wells, thirty-four in all.
They have in most instances been sunk in the sandy bed of the river, at
convenient distances from the villages, and are freely used.
There is no artificial drainage in the rural areas. Many village sites lie low
and become swampy during the rainy season. In the great majority, domestic
cleansing and conservancy are in a primitive condition. Rubbish is thrown
outside the village fence, and is only used for the purpose of manuring land
when the immediate vicinity of the site is under cultivation otherwise it
remains where it is thrown, and is seldom burnt. In large villages along the
main routes, house enclosures are kept fairly clean: in the remainder, little
attention is paid to cleanliness. Penning cattle within the village enclosure is a
universal practice. The accumulated ordure is removed only once in the year,
at the beginning of the cultivating season, and in the rains the bytes become
evil smelling beds of slush. The accumulation steadily rises and, becoming
desiccated in the hot weather, is blown about. The bytes are doubtless
contributing factors in the causation of disease, more especially of small pox,
which is essentialiy a disorder brought by filth. There are no private or public
latrines in rural areas except at Budalin. Resort is had to the bush growth
outside the village fence until the gates are closed at sunset, when the village
area and its surrounding fence are visited.
The introduction of correct sanitary methods throughout rural areas is now

and--it is to be feared must remain impracticable. The prevalence of dacoity
and cattle theft in the previous generation, and the risk of attack from wild
beasts, have made the people averse from leaving cattle outside the villages at
night, so that the byre would appear to be a necessary evil. The suggestion has
been made that conservation of at any rate the village site might be secured
without the opening of the gates at night, by the introduction of moveable
cesspit latrines. The doubt may be expressed whether such a measure would
prove successful in practice, disregard of sanitation being in grained in the
people.
Vital statistics.
The registration of vital statistics in the rural areas began in January 1899,
deaths only being recorded. The registration of births was brought into force in
January 1907. In Mônywa, the registration of births and deaths began on the
13th May 1897. Births rose from 111 in
1897 to 286 in 1908, and deaths from 137 to 200. The opinion is expressed
that registration in Mônywa town is carried out with a fair degree of accuracy.
Deaths in the
rural areas rose from 4,486 in 1899 to 6,743 in 1908, in which year 9,955
births were reported.
Owing to the ignorance of village headmen. the classification of the causes

of mortality in rural areas cannot be relied upon; in Mônywa, where the
classification may be accepted as substantially correct, the chief causes have
been cholera, fevers, and respiratory diseases. The ratio, at Mônywa, of deaths
per thousand has been, since 1899--54, 26, 27, 31, 42, 26, 43, 39, 36 and, in
1908, 25.
The true ratio is no doubt less than that exhibited in recent years, as no
allowance has been made for increase of population since the census of 1901.
CHAPTER XII.
MINOR ARTICLES.
Mônywa Town. The headquarters of the Lower Chindwin district, situated

in 22° 6' N. and 95° 8' E.; on the left or eastern bank of the Chindwin river,
about fifty miles north of its point of junction with the Irrawaddy, and sixty-
five miles west of Sagaing, with which it is connected by a branch line of
railway. The town, which is low-Tying and well shaded by tamarind and other
trees, is protected from the annual rise of the river by an embankment along the
water's. edge. The high road from Sagaing and Myinmu to Alôn and Ye-u, in
Shwebo, traverses Mônywa. A list of the public buildings has been given in
Chapter IX; all are situated at the northern end of the town. The railway station
is about a mile from the river on the east. The few private residences and a club
are situated in or near the civil, station, which skirts the river on the north of
the town. The legend of the origin of the name has been noticed in Chapter II.
The town was of little importance in Burmese times, the headquarters of the
Burmese Governorship being at Alôn, about seven miles further up the river,
and the headquarters of the British district were not changed to. Mônywa until
1887. The town contained at that time 345 houses, and the population may
have numbered 2,000 souls. In the census year 1891 it was 6,316, and in 1901
had ineleased to 7,869 with more than a thousand natives of India. The town is
divided into two quarters, Hlegu in the north and Mônywa in the south, and
each is divided into wards for purposes of administration. Mônywa is a
thriving trade centre and is one of the chief ports of call for river steamers on
the Chindwin. The town is well laid out and is intersected by good
thoroughfares. An account of the. Municipality has been given in Chapter XI,
of the medical and sanitary, arrangements in Chapter XIII and of the Wesleyan
Mission Middle School in Chapter XII.
Mônywa Subdivision.-- One of the two subdivisions of the district,

comprising the Budalin and Mônywa townships. Its headquarters are at
Mônywa. The boundaries of the subdivision are on the east, the Mu river, for
some 20 miles in a direct line south from a point a little north of Baunggya
village; on the south. the district border with Sagaing, a line which traverses
natural features in a westerly direction to the Chindwin river; on the west the
Chindwin, as far as Chaungwa village between Shwezayê and Kanè. and
thence an ill-defined line following the general direction of the drainage in a
northerly direction past the Natyedaung hills to the Shwebo border, and
traversing the southern slopes of the Hnaw forest; on this side the subdivision
marches with the Salingyi and Kani townships of the Yinmabin subdivision;
and on the north, the district boundary with Shwebo. This also is an ill-defined
line and, about midway in its course to the Mu, a wedge of the Shwebo district
intrudes south for some miles between flanking portions of the Lower
Chindwin district. The subdivision corresponds approxi mately with the Alôn
Governorship of Burmese times. The area and population by census have been-
Area in Total Budd- Agricu-

Year square popul- Males Females. hist lturists
miles tion
1891 938 122,818 52,219 70,599 121,834 68,943

1901 938 145,611 62,221 83,390 144,004 77,764
The preponderance of females has received comment in Chapter III. The

figures of cultivation have been as follows:--
Year. Acres cultivated.
1903-04 238,566
1907-08 234,376
The land-revenue and thathameda collections together rose from "Rs.

2,56,649 in 1902-03 to Rs. 3,17,895 in 1906-07.
Budalin Township.-- The north-eastern township of the Lower Chindwin

district, lying on the east of the Chindwin river between 22° 14' and 22° 37' N.,
and 94° 56' and 95º 35' E., and having an area of 451 square miles. The town
ship was formed in 1894 and comprises the whole of the old Kudaw township,
together with the northern villages of the old Ayadaw township, that is, the
northern half of the Kyaukka-Mu plateau. The boundaries of the township are--
on the east, the sub-divisional boundary, the Mu river, for a distance of about
twelve miles south from Baunggya, near the Shwebo border; on the south, an
irregular line, approximately bisecting the Kyaukka-Mu plateau and, west of
the Kyaukka ridge, traversing the Kyaukka-Chindwin valley to a point a few
miles north of Alôn on the Chindwin, and separating the Budalin from the
Mônywa township; on the west and north the subdivisional boundary, vide
Mônywa
Subdivision. The headquarters station is Budalin, an inland village twenty

miles north of Mônywa. The population and area, by census, have been-

miles tion
1891 451 50,847 21,305 29,542 50,687 28,217*

1907 451 55,447 23,168 32,279 55,384 36,743
* Figures approximate only.
The area cultivated was 116,291 acres in 1903-04 and 117,627 acres in
1907-08. Land-revenue contributed, Rs. 136 in 1902-03 and Rs. 60,838 in
1906-07; thatha meda contributed Rs. 1,00,731 in the former year and Rs.
72,638 in the latter. The increase under land-revenue and the decrease under
thathameda were caused by the imposition of acre-rates on non-State land and
the reduction of the general thathameda rate at Summary Settlement. The
township is for the most part high-lying, but there is low ground on the south-
west: near the Shwebo border, east of Kudaw, there is a fairly level stretch of
rice land, assisted by small irrigation works. There are conspicuous hills in the
north-west, near Natyedaung and Twin, the latter an extinct volcano with an
explosion-crater containing a lake; the conti nuation of the Kyaukka ridge
divides the township and finally loses itself in the slopes of the Hnaw forest of
Shwebo and, off this ridge, at ôkpo, there is a prominent elevation. The only
perennial stream in the township is the Ye-ngan (sc. brackish) stream, which
rises in a marsh near Yèdwet village on the north. Its waters are slightly saline.
Ayadaw.-- A village in the south-east of Budalin town ship, in the centre of

the Kyaukka-Mu plateau. The population was estimated at 1,491 persons in
1896-97, 2, 134 in 1901 and 2, 187 in 1900-07. The village lies high and
during the hot-weather months water is scarce, as percolation and evaporation
diminish the supply in the tanks. Most of the villagers are cultivators, but there
are some black smiths and potters and a good many makers of bamboo battens.
The village was the headquarters of the Ayadaw township until 1804, when
that township was absorbed, vide Chapter IX. The Government buildings are a
Civil Police station and a Public Works Department inspection bungalow. The
main road from Kyaukka to the Mu traverses Ayadaw.
Budalin.-- The headquarters station of the Budalin township, situated on

the Mônywa-Ye-u road, twenty miles north of Mônywa. The population was
estimated at 2,611 in 1896-97, 2,577 at the census of 1901 and 2,366 in 1906-
07. The water-supply in the hot months was scanty in the early years after
annexation, but a tank of some size was improved at Government expense, and
this now provides a sufficient supply. The Government buildings are the
Township Officer's court-house, a Civil Police station and a Public Works
Department inspection bungalow.
Kanbyu.-- A village in the south-east of Budalin town ship. The population

was estimated at 1,285 persons in 1901 and 1,059 in 1906-07.
Kinzan.-- A village in the north of Budalin township, a few miles east of

Kudaw. The population was estimated at 659 persons in 1896-97 and 1,026 in
1906-07. Agricul ture is the 'only occupation.
Maungdaung.-- A village seven miles north of Budalin in the Budalin

township, with an estimated population of 1,956 persons in 1901 and 1,979 in
1906-07. The village makes lacquerware, especially the low tray on a circular
stand known as daunglan. The festival of the Kwandaung pagoda is held in
December.
Naunggyiaing.-- A village situated a few miles north of Ayadaw, in the

north of Budalin township, with an esti mated population of 1,365 persons in
1901 and 1,606 in 1906-07.
Ngapayin.-- A village in the north of Budalin township, situated to the east

of Kudaw village and adjoining an extensive stretch of rice cultivation. The
population was estimated at 2,050 persons in 1901 and 2, 178 in 1906-07. The
village was the birth place of Maung Yit, better known by his title of Maha
Bandula, the commander of the Burmese forces in the first Burmese war of
1826. He was killed at Danubyu.
Nyaunggan.-- A village five miles south-west of Budalin. The estimated

population in 1901 was 1,293 and in 1906-07 1,321; the village contains a
number of carpenters. Nyaung gan lies near the northern edge of the black-soil
region east of the Chindwin river, and to the north the level of the country rises
rapidly.
One mile south-west of the village is a shallow explosion crater without a

lake, and four miles further in the same line is the crater of Twin, east of the
Chindwin, vide
Chapter I. This has a circular basin two thousand yards in diameter and three
hundred feet deep, and contains a lake three-quarters of a mile wide, The lake
has a greatest depth of one hundred and eight feet: the water is bright green in
colour and is said to be impregnated with sulphate of soda. Shocks of
earthquake are stated to be of frequent occurrence within a radius of eight
miles from Twin. The insect known as the twin-po is found in the lake. The vil
lage of Twin, situated on the margin of the lake, is said to suffer from a kind of
skin-disease resembling leprosy [probably yaws (frambœsia), vide Chapter
XIII].
Yèdwet.-- A village in the north of Budalin township, near the Shwebo

border. The estimated population in 1906-07 was 1,389 persons. East of the
village is a marsh from which flows a small perennial stream. The water is
brackish, but is diverted for purposes of irrigation, and supplies a certain crop
of indifferent rice. Much of the Soil near Yèdwet is alkaline. The village makes
unglazed earthen pots on a considerable scale.
Mônywa Township.-- The south-eastern township of the district and one of

the two townships of the Mônywa Subdivision, lies between 21° 55' and 22°
21' N. and 95° 3' and 95° 39' E. It is bounded on the north by the Budalin
township, q.v., on the east by the Mu river, on the south by the Sagaing
district, and on the west by the Chindwin river, vide,Mônywa subdivision. The
township in its present form dates from 1894, when it absorbed the southern
half of the old Ayadaw township.
The eastern half of the township forms the southern half of the Kyaukka-
Mu plateau and is high-lying and broken. West of the Kyaukka ridge the
country, is a low-lying plain, watered by the torrents which descend from the
east, and in the south-west by inundation from the Chindwin. There is no
perennial stream, The headquarters are at Alôn, the terminus of the Sagaing-
Alôn branch-of the Burma Rail ways. The population and area, by census, have
been--

miles tion
1891 487 71,971 30,914 41,057 71,147 40,726*

1901 487 90,164 39,053 51,111 88,620 41,021
* Figures approximate only.

The area cultivated was 118,480 acres in 1891 and 116,749 acres in 1901.
The land-revenue collections amounted to Rs. 52,7'2 in 1902-03 and Rs. 73,
238 in 1906-07, and the thathameda to Rs. 1,03,060 in 1902-03 and Rs.
1,11,181 in 1906-07.
Several important local industries occur in this township, e.g.,the

manufacture of saddles at Kyehmôn, sandals at Kanbya, clogs or pattens at
Kyehmôn, brassware at Indaing, combs at Lèzin and a neighbouring village,
Thekkè-gyin, lacquer at Kyaukka, and bamboo plaiting at Kawè-gyin, and
there is a good deal of annual emigration.
Alôn.-- The headquarters of the Mônywa township, situ ated seven miles
north of Mônywa on the left bank of the ChindWin river. The population of
Alôn, with Kônyat, an adjoining hamlet, was estimated at 2,923 persons in
1906-07. The town lies on the main road connecting Sagaing and Mônywa,
with Ye-u in Shwebo district, and is the terminus of the Sagaing-Alôn section
of the Burma Railways. Alôn was in Burmese times the headquarters of the
wun, or Governor, of the Alôn nè, the Burmese administrative district, vide
Chapter IX. An account of the Alôn spirit-festival is given in Chapters I and II.
Indaing.-- A village about ten miles north-east of Mônywa in the Mônywa

township. There is an extensive industry in wrought brasswork, particularly
gongs, for which the village has more than a local reputation, The population
was estimated at 905 persons in 1891 and at 1,118 in 1906-07.
Kothan.-- A village seven miles north-east of Mônywa in the Mônywa

township. The population was estimated at 1,321 in 1891, 1,109 in 1901, and
1,403 in 1906-07. A small amount of silk-weaving is carried on.
Kyaukka North.-- A village situated on the Menywa-Mu road, at the foot of

Kyaukka hill, ten miles east of Mônywa in the Mônywa township. The
population, which was estimated to number 1,32o persons in 1901 and 1,495 in
1906-07, is largely occupied in the manufacture of bamboo lacquer: the
industry is described in Chapter VI. The festival of the Shwekuni pagoda takes
place in May.
Kyauksitpôn North.-- A village six miles north-east of Mônywa in the

Mônywa township. The population was estimated at 1,028 persons in 1901 and
1,074 in 1906-07.
Kyehmôn.-- A village on the Mônywa, Myinmu-Sagaing road, with a

railway station, ten miles south of Mônywa in the Mônywa township. The
population was estimated at 1,521 persons in 1890-91,1,737 in 1901 and 1,965
in 1906-07. There are several industries, of which the most important
is the manufacture of Burmese saddles and their appurtenancesl vide Chapter

VI. Other industries are the manufacture of Burmese sandals and small articles
of brass ware.
Lèzin.-- A village four miles south-east of Mônywa in the Mônywa

township. In 1891 the population was estimated at 921, in 1901 at 1,160 and in
1906-07 at 1,098 persons. The village manufactures ornamental hair-combs,
vide Chapter VI.
Malètha.-- A village near the Sagaing border, in the south of the Mônywa
township, about thirty miles east of Mônywa. The population was estimated at
851 persons in 1891, 1, 152 in 1901 and 1,229 in 1906-07. The village lies in
the south of the Kyaukka-Mu cotton country.
Minywa.-- A village in the south-east of the Mônywa township, some

thirty-two miles east of Mônywa. The population was estimated at 1,093
persons in 1906-07. The road from Ayadaw in the centre of the Kyaukka-Mu
plateau to Myinmu m Sagaing district passes through this village.
Mônywe.-- A village situated on the Mônywa-Myinmu-Sagaing high road,

not more than a stone's throw distant from Kyehmôn village in the south-east
of the Mônywa township. The population was estimated at 1,357 persons m
1891, 1,298 in 1901 and 1,524 in 1906-07. Besides the industries mentioned
under Kyehmôn, the villages in this circle make Burmese mattresses and
cushions.
Myobaw.-- A village ten miles north-east of Mônywa in the Mônywa

township. The population was estimated at 969 persons in 1891 and 1,098 in
1906-07. There is no special handicraft.
Ngwèdwin.-- A village in the north-east of the Mônywa township near the

Mu river. The population was estimated at 1,090 persons in 1901 and 1,297 in
1906-07.
Nyaungbyubin.-- A village situated on the Ywathit inundation outlet of the

Chindwin river, six miles south of Mônywa, in the Mônywa township. Some
of the subordinate hamlets originally belonged to the Kaing-Sèywa circle of
Sagaing and were transferred to the Lower Chindwin district in 1894. The land
on either side is subject to inundation and is fertile, the region on the west up to
the true bank of the Chindwin river being cultivated with beans and other
spring ripening crops, and that on the east being terraced for rice cultivation.
The village contains some thirty acres of betel vine. It had a population of
1,472 persons in 1891 ; 1,627 in 1901; and the number was estimated to have
risen to 1,737 in 1906-07.
Thasi.-- A large village fifteen miles north-east of Mônywa in the Mônywa

township, situated on the Thazi stream, a torrent which descends from the Mu-
Kyaukka watershed and empties itself into the Chindwin south of Alôn. Thazi
is a distributing centre for the villages on the Kyaukka-Mu plateau and
contains a number of small traders. The population numbered 3,489 persons in
1891, and was estimated at 2,700 in 1901 and 3,010 in 1906-07. There is a
Civil Police station.
Thitsein.-- A village a few miles south of Nyaungbyubin, in the south-west

of the Mônywa township. The popula tion was estimated at 1,012 persons in
1901 and 1,011 in 1906-07. The village contains some betel-vine cultivation,
and also cultivates rice, some of which derives the water required for a cold-
weather crop from river inundation, whilst the remainder is laboriously
irrigated for a hot-weather crop with water drawn from wells by means of the
bucket and lever.
Wayaung.-- A village situated near the Sagaing border in infertile, gravelly

country, in the south of the Mônywa township, some twenty miles east of
Mônywa. The popu lation was estimated at 1,258 persons in 1906-07, and
includes about eighty households of tattooers, vide Chapter VI.
Yinmabin.-- Subdivision. One of the two subdivisions of the district,

comprising the Kani, Salingyi and Palè townships, and, in the north, bestriding
the Chindwin river. The head quarters are at Yinmabin, a village with a
population of 643 souls, in the Salingyi township, about sixteen miles west of
Mônywa. The boundaries of the subdivision are: on the east the western
boundary of the Mônywa subdivision, from the Shwebo border in the north to
Chaungwa on the Chindwin, and thence the Chindwin river to the mouth of the
South Yama stream; on the south, that stream divides the subdivision from
Pakôkku district for some twenty-five miles, as far as Kyaukkôn village,
whence the boundary is an ill-defined line running up to the Pôndaung hill
range; on the west the subdivisional boundary is the district boundary, which is
described in Chapters I and V; on the north the subdivisional boundary is the
district boundary with the Upper Chindwin, and, as far as the Chindwin river,
is described in Chapter V. East of the Chindwin the subdivisional and district
boundary is an ill-defined line, traversing main drain age lines in an easterly
and then south-easterly direction to the northwest corner of the Mônywa
subdivision.
The area and population of the townships comprising the present subdivision
have been, by census-

miles tion
1891 2,542 110,498 49,572 60,926 110, 355 61,143

1901 2,542 130,772 59,746 71,026 130,245 87,860
The figures disclose the same preponderance of females as in the Mônywa

subdivision, and the subdivision is almost wholly Buddhist and to a greater
extent than the eastern subdivision agricultural. The area cultivated has been-
Acres.
1903-04 149,819
1906-07 225,355
The large extension of cultivation has been in the two outlying townships,
Palè and Kani, and is probably due to more accurate registration in the later
year, after the Summary Settlement. The collections of land-revenue and
thathameda together have risen from Rs. 3,06,489 in 1902-03 to Rs. 3,57,378
in 1906-07.
Kani Township.-- The northernmost of the three townships of the

Yinmabin subdivision, and the largest of the five townships in the district. It
lies between 22° 2' and 22° 50' N. and 94° 16' and 95° 5' E. and, in the north,
bestrides the Chindwin river. The boundaries are: on the east, the Mônywa
subdivision, fide supra; on the south, the North Yama stream from Kyaukmyet
village at its mouth to a point north of Chin-byit village in the west, thence an
artificial line north to the Thapan stream, a left-bank tributary of the North
Yama; thence that stream for a few miles north, thereafter a tributary, and
finally an artificial line running west to the district border on the Pôndaung; on
the west and north the township boundary is the district boundary with the
Pakôkku, Upper Chindwin and Shwebo districts, vide Chapters I and V. The
township was transferred from the Easter (renamed Budalin, now Mônywa) to
the Western (renamed Palè, now Yinmabin) subdivision in 1894. The township
corresponds approximately with the Kani-Mingin nè, or administrative district,
of Burmese times, vide Chapter IX. The nature of the township is hilly,
especially on the western side, where it runs up to the parallel ranges of the
Mahudaung, Pôndaung and, for a few miles, Pônnya, the first-named averaging
2,000 feet in height and the second and third from 3,000 to 4,000 feet. The
hilly regions on the west and north-excluding the Sè-ywa glen on the north-
west have been constituted reserved forest :a description of them is given in
Chapter V. The rainfall varies from semi-wet-zone con ditions in the north and
west to dry zone conditions in the south-east, vide Chapter VIII. The area and
population by census have been--

miles tion
1891 1,788 41,232 18,956 22,276 41,231 21,386

1901 1,788 48,717 22,589 26, 128 48,393 35,537
The cultivated area in 1904-05 was 82,613, and in 1907-08 78,502 acres. The
collections of land revenue amounted to Rs. 1,126 in 1902-03 and Rs. 55,066
in 1906-07; the thathameda amounted to Rs. 1,09, 140 in the former, and Rs.
68,777 in the latter year. The headquarters are at Kani, a prosperous village on
the right bank of the Chindwin.
Kônywa.-- A village on the north or left bank of the North Yama stream,
on the southern border of the Kani township, twenty-one miles west of
Mônywa. The popula tion, which is for the most part engaged in the cultivation
of early wet-weather (kaukti) rice irrigated by means of a sand training-bank
pushed out across the Yama stream, vide Chapter IV, Irrigation was estimated
at 1,001 persons in 1906-07.
Yinbaungdaing or Yinmadaing.-- A village on the north or left bank of the

North Yama Stream, on the southern border of the Kani township. The
population was estimated at 1,030 persons in 1906-07. Palm-sugar is produced
in some quantities at this village.
Salingyi Township.-- The south-eastern township of the Yinmabin

subdivision. The boundaries are: on the east, the Chindwin river; on the south,
the South Yama stream, from Ngakôn at its mouth to a point west of
Shwelaung
village, six miles west of Kyadet; on the west, an irregular tine in most places
artificial and in some places sharply re-entrant running from that point
northwards to the North Yama stream, which it meets west of Zidaw village;
on the north, the North Yama. The township lies between 21° 49' and 22° 8' N.
and 94° 47' and 95° 10' E. It was known until 1894 as Eastern Pagyi. On the
south and west, the township is a low lying plain of the so called black cotton
soil; on the east and north it rises to an upland of red soil, from which emerge
conspicuous hills at Letpadaung and Powindaung. Round the latter hill occur
many small artesian springs, vide Chapters I and IV (Irrigation). There is
irrigation from both Yamas and, on the whole, the conditions of soil and water
supply favour cultivation. The area and population by census have been--

miles tion
1891 296 43,658 18,914 24,744 43,626 23,288

1901 296 50,814 22,581, 28,233 50,746 25,219
The headquarters are at Salingyi. Except for palm sugar working in the riverine
fringe, oil-pressing, the salt industry and pot making at Salingyi, and one or
two incon siderable crafts in other villages, the occupation of the people is
agriculture. The cultivated area was in 1903-04 93,818, and in 1906-07, 86,529
acres. The collections from land-revenue amounted to Rs. 2,0994 in 1902-03
and Rs. 64,770 in 1906-07; and from thathameda to Rs. 1,18,049 in the earlier
and Rs. 73,972 in the later year.
Kangôn.-- A village near the southern angle formed by the North Yama
and the Chindwin river, in the north-eastern corner of the Salingyi township.
The population was estimated at 1,127 persons in 1906-07· One or two house
holds make drums (osi), but the village is mainly agricultural.
Kyadet.-- A village on the north bank of the South Yama stream, in the
south-west of the Salingyi township, about ten miles west of the mouth of the
stream. Kyadet lies at the southern terminus of a metalled road which leads
through Salingyi to the important market-town of Satôn on the Chindwin river,
and is on the, border of a
fertile plain of black soil. The population was estimated at 1,386 persons in
1906 and 1,355 in 1906-07.
Linzagyet.-- A village on the South Yama stream, six miles west of its
mouth at Ngakôn and on the southern border of the Salingyi township. The
village depends on the cultivation of winter ripening rice, which is irrigated by
means of sand-banks pushed across the South Yama. The population was
estimated at 1,011 persons in 1906-07.
Ngakdn.-- A village situated at the mouth of the South Yama stream, in the
south-eastern corner of the Salingyi township. The soil in the neighbourhood
of the village is irrigated both from the South ,Yama and from the Bôksu
stream and produces an abundant crop of onions; the method of cultivation is
described in Chapter IV. The population was estimated at 1,061 persons in
1901 and 1,118 in 1906-07.
Salingyi.-- The headquarters station of the township of the same name, is

situated in high-lying, uneven country, a few miles west of the Chindwin, with
which it is connected by a metalled road, terminating at Satôn on the river.
Salingyi was in Burmese times the headquarters of the wun, or Governor, of
the Pagyi nè, or Burmese administrative district. The population was estimated
at. 1,503 persons in 1901 and 1,282 in 1906-07. The predominant industries
are the pressing of sesamum oil in indigenous presses (sizôn) worked by
bullocks, and the extraction and concentration of salt brine, vide Chapter V,
Minerals. Earthen pots are also manufactured.
Satôn.-- An important village on the right or western bank of the Chindwin

river, a few miles south of Mônywa. The village has a District Fund market
and is a regular port of call for the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company's steamers.
Much of the sesamum (in the form of seed, oil, or cake), palm-sugar, and gram
from the south-west of the district is shipped on steamers or on native cargo
boats at Satôn, and salt, salt fish, kerosene oil, matches and other
miscellaneous com modities are disembarked here for ultimate distribution
among the inland villages of the Salingyi and Palè townships, Vide Chapter
VI, Trade. The population was estimated at 1,609. persons in 1906-07.
Palè Township.-- The south-western township of the Yinmabin

subdivision, lying between 21° 48' and 22° 10' N. and 94° 25' and 94 55' E.
The boundaries are: on the east, the Salingyi township (q.v.); on the south and
west, the district boundary; on the north, the Kani township (q.v.). The
township was known as Western Pagyi up to 1894 and,
later, as Mintaingbin. The country is level in the east, but in the west runs up to
the Pagyi hills, and, beyond them, to the lofty Pôndaung range: between these
ranges lie the Kuhnit-ywa and' Shit-ywa valleys. Climatic conditions range
from semi-wet-zone in the west to those of the dry zone in the east (vide
Chapter V). The area and population by census have been-

miles tion
1891 458 25,608 11,702 13,906 25,498 16,469

1901 458 31,241 14,576 16,665 31,106 27,104
The headquarters are at Palè. The ratio of agricultu rists to the whole
population is high. Except in the western villages, where bamboo mats are
plaited often as a subsidiary occupation agriculture may be said to be the sole
avocation. The cultivated area was 58,427 acres. in 1905-06. and 62,911 acres
in 1907-08. The land-revenue amounted to Rs. 1,250 in 1902-03 and Rs.
47,093 in 1906-07;4 thathameda to Rs, 74,830 in the earlier and Rs. 47,700 in
the later year.
Chinbyit.-- A village on the south bank of the North, Yama stream, on the
northern border of the Palè township, The village is situated on the eastern
slope of the Pagyi. hill, and a road sixteen miles in length crosses the hills and
leads to Zeiktaung in the Kuhnit-ywa valley, immediately beneath the
Pôndaung range.
Two British officers, Major Kennedy and Captain. Beville, were killed in
an engagement with dacoits at Chin byit in October 1887, vide Chapter II and
are buried six miles away at Mintaingbin, their graves being placed beneath, a
tree in a monastery near that village. The population was estimated at 679
persons in 1901 and at 1,098 in 1906-07.
Hllawga.-- A village in the south-east of the Palè township. It lies at the

western edge of the western black soil region, and the population was
estimated at 1,250 persons in 1891 and 1,185 in 1906-07·
Kyènin.-- A village in the east of the Palè township; The population, which
depends chiefly on. the cultivation of winter-ripening rice, was estimated at
1,287 persons in 1906-07.
Lower Chindwin Distrlct. 225
Letpagan.-- A village in the south-east of the Palè township, near an

extensive plain of black soil. The popu lation was estimated at 1,064 persons in
1906-07.
Mônthwin.-- A village in the north of the Palè township, east of Chinbyit.

The population was estimated at 1,041 persons in 1906-07.
Nyaung-ôn.-- A village in the south-east of the Palè township, north-east of

Panywa. The population was estimated at 1,089 persons in 1906-07, and
includes several households of blacksmiths and sandal-makers.
Palè.-- The headquarters station of the township of the same name. The
village was for some years the head quarters of the Palè (now Yinmabin)
subdivision. The public buildings are a Township Officer's court-house, a Civil
Police station, and an inspection bungalow. The popula tion was estimated at
1,274 persons in 1891 and 1,195 in 1906-07
226
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
[The authority for statements and statistics in the text is generally the
District Annual Administration Report for recent, and the Provincial
Administration Reports for earlier, years, and, in places, the B Volume of the
District Gazetteer and the Deputy Commissioner's Main Files. The authority
for special sections and statements is often quoted in the text. For the passages
dealing with, Burmese history and administration, besides the sources
mentioned below, there are the British Burma Gazetteer of 1880; and Mr. (now
Sir J. G.) Scott's Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan States, 1901. The
Census Reports of 1891 and 1901 contain an occasional mention of facts
concerning the district, as do some of the Industrial Mono graphs. The major
portions of Chapter III, The People ; IV, Agriculture and Irrigation; VI,
Occupations and Trade; VIII, Famine; and X, Revenue Administration, are
derived from information collected at the Revenue Settlement of 1906-09.]
Inscriptions copied from King Bodawpaya's collection,. placed in the

Aracan pagoda at Mandalay; edition of 1897; Volume I, Sagaing section,
Amyin sub-section, pages 407,408; Volume II, Lower Chindwin section.
[The Alaungdaw inscription is at page 547.]
Inscriptions collected in Upper Burma, collection of 1900, Lower Chindwin

section.
Mason. Brma.
Maung Tin, Township Oficer of Singaing. History of the Alaungpaya Dynasty,

1905.
Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India, 1895 Part II The Occurrence of

Petroleum in Burma, by Dr. Fritz Noëtling, F.G.S., Chapter VI, page 137.
Records of the Geological Survey of India, 1906, Part II I. On Explosion

Craters in the Lower Chindwin District, by R. D. Oldham, A.R.S.M.,
F.G.S.; and Volume XX, Part IV, 1887, Notes on Upper Burma; and 1895,
Part II.--The Development and Sub division of the Tertiary System in
Burma. By Dr. Fritz Noëtling, F.G.S.
Report on the Summary Settlement of the Lower Chind win District [the
first in manuscript filed in the District Office, the remainder in print.]
228
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Report on the regular Settlement of the Lower Chindwin District.
Sangermano.-- A description of the Burmese Empire, 1833. Reprint at the

Government Press, Rangoon, 1885.
Symes.-- Embassy to Ava in 1795. Edition of 1872. Wingate and Thurley.

Report on the Salt Industry in Burma, 1908.
229
FILES.
[Chapter IV.-- Waste Lands] . Deputy Commissioner's Revenue Department

1N/10L. of 1889.
[Chapter VIII. Scarcity of 1891-92]. Deputy Com missioner's General

Department (Scarcity and Famine) File 12 (1S.-12) of 1892, 1S.-4 of 1903.
[Scarcity of 1895-96] . Deputy Commissioner's General Department (Scarcity

and Famine) 1S.-1 of 1895, 2 (1S.-1) of 1896, 3 (1S.-2).
[Scarcity of 1903]. Deputy Commissioner's General Department (Scarcity and

Famine) 1S.-4 of 1903, 1S--5 of 1903.
[Chapters IX and X. External and Internal Boundaries]. Deputy

Commissioner's Revenue Department 1N/1L. of 1895, General Department
Miscellaneous/Territorial Divisions 13N/13 2T.-3 of 1892, 13N/2T.2 of 1893
and 4/2T.-1 of 1894.
[Chapter X. Royal Lands] . Deputy Commissioner's Revenue 1N.,/7L 1N./12L.

of 1887, 1N./3L. of 1888, 1N/11L. of 1889.
INDEX
A PAGE
Abandonad land. tenure of 182

Abyssinian wells 209
Administration in Burmese times----see Chapter IX.
----existing----see Chapter IX.
----revenue----see Revenue.
Advances, Government 69
Agrarian customs----see Chapter: III
Agricultural year 70
----holding. area of 69
----average income 38, 178
----households, number of 42, 63, 120
----diversity 67
Agriculturist, average debt of----see Chapter III.
----loans to----see Chapter III and 69, 163
Aingdaung 137
Aingma 112, 115
Alaungdaw Kathapa 3, 4, 25, 27, 110, 112, 113
Alaungpaya 20, 21, 35, 126
Alienation of land to non-agrlculturists 50
Alluvial land 54
Alôn 20, 24, 26, 28, 32, 36, 40, 85, 114, 115, 119,
122, 128, 129, 130, 131, 133, 134, 136, 137,
139, 154, 155, 157, 159, 164, 165, 166, 171,
172, 174, 175, 183, 200, 202, 216, 217.
Altitudes 4
Amyin 20, 35, 119, 137, 154, 155, 158, 159, 174
Anaw-hra-ta----see Pagan dynasty.
Anglo-vernacular education--see Chapter XII.
Animism----see Chapter: III.
Appraisement 61, 176
Aqueducts, irrigation 99
Area of cadastral survey 51
----of cultumble waste 64
INDEX
PAGE
Area of district 5
----of forest 5
----of holding 69
----of irrigation 66
Area of unculturable waste 64
----cultivated by pair of cattle 96
Areca-nut----see Betel-nut,
Armadillo----see Fauna, Chapter I.
Artesian irrigation 8, 67, 96, 102, 148, 182,222
Arts and crafts----see Chapter VI.
Assessments and land-values-see Chapter III.
----on tari palms 178
Athapa 168
Aungtha 137
Ayadaw 16, 129, 132, 138, 139, 149,159 , 160, 164, 171, 213, 214
Ayadaw-ôk 176
Badôn-see Alôn.
Bamboos 11, 40, 111, 113, 114, 116, 120, 122,
124, 126, 130, 131, 171, 217, 224
Bandula 21, 215
Barking-deer----see Chapter I, Fauna 95
Baskets----see Kawe-gyin.
Batha-gywè----see Bo-daw-gyi 126, 129, 135
Battalion----see Police, Military.
Baunggya 123, 166, 212
Bawdibin 112, 115
Bawga 175
Beans----see Chapter IV 130, 131, 147, 154, 186, 218
Betel-nut 129, 131
Betel-vine 42, 85, 120, 218, 219
Bison-see Chapter I, Fauna.
Black soil 5, 6, 39, 59, 67, 69, 75, 76, 94,95, 98,
99, 137, 139, 146, 147, 148, 178, 185
Blacksmiths 51, 73, 120, 123, 130, 214, 224
Bo,-Hla U; Min O; Nyo O; Nyo Bu; Po Tôk; Saga; Tha Pwe;
Tôn Baing see Chapter II
INDEX
PAGE
Boa constrictor----see Chapter I, Fauna.

Bodawgyi legend----see Chapters II and III. Bodawpaya 25
Bôksu 147,223
Bombay-Burma Trading Corporation----see Chapter V 124,126
Bônmano 159
Bônmazin 4, 21, 137
Boundaries of district----see Chapters I, V, IX 186
----of Forest Division 105
----of Forest Reserves 108,109
----of interior charges-see Minor Article. 159
Brass-workers 120,133,217,218
Breaches in railway line 136
Breeding----see Cattle.
Bridges----see Chapter VII 113
Brow-antlered deer----see Chapter I, Fauna 95
Buckets 126
Budalin Township 32, 121, 127, 138, 160, 177, 201, 207, 213
Budalin 45, 106, 109, 117, 128, 129, 139, 142, 143,
150, 163, 164, 166, 171, 172, 200, 205, 215
Buddhism----see Chapter III. sects of 33
dioceses 33
monks 33,34
relation to Animism 34,36
Buffaloes 72, 96, 134
Buildings, public 171
Bungalows, inspection----of Public Works Department----see Chapter VII.
----of Forest Department-see Chapter V.
----Dâk and ,District Fund-see Chapter IX.
Burma Oil, Company 119
Butterflies----see Chapter I, Fauna.
Byammadat 123
Cadastral survey 5, 6, 64, 177, 182

Canals Act 100
Candles 130
INDEX
PAGE
Captives 35, 38
Cans, carting 70, 120, 122, 128, 130, 133, 134, 135, 139, 196, ,197
Cash rentals 58, 59
Caste 37, 152
Caterpillars----see Insect pests.
Cattle, breeding, etc., see Chapter IV 120, 121, 134, 185, 210
----disease 96, 98
----folding of 74, 77
----paths 55, 98
----markets 199, 200
----pounds 196, 199, 200
----sale of 39, 128, 129, ,134
----stock of 42,72, 96, 145
----as security for loans 69
----theft of 167, 168
Caves at Powindaung 26
Cemeteries 57, 173, 183
Census----ses Chapter III.
Chaplain 173
Chaungdein land 182
Chaungmadaw 164, 172
Chaung-u 35, 174
Chaung-wa 212
Chatties 45, 50, 162
Chiengmai
Chinbyit 23, 112, 115, 132, 140, 141, 166, 172, 224
Chindwin 3 ,54, 60, 68, 104, 105, 121, 127, 130,
132,136, 137, 140, 158, 175,188, 198, 208
Chinese 29, 30, 127, 133, 169, 190,191
Chins 28
Cholera 170, 206, 208, 211
Church dues in Burmese times 24
Circuit-house 171
----rooms 171
Civil Justice 161
Civil station 212
Clay 20,116
Climate----see Chapter I.
Clothing of the people 41
Clags----see Pattens.
Coal 119
INDEX
PAGE
Cobras----see Chapter I, Fauna.
Cockchafer, grub 77, 93
Cocoanut and oil 129, 183
Coercive processes 186
Colonization by Chins 28
----by Shans 29
Combs 126, 130, 217, 218
Commission on revenue collections 161
Communal land 57,182, 183
Composition duties----see Salt.
Confiscated land 179
Conscription----see Military forces.
Conservancy----see Chapters XI and XIII.
----of Chindwin 137
Convict warders 170
Coolies----see Emigration 37,50, 51, 120, 122
Copper----see Chapter V 7, 120
----sulphate 116
Cotton 59, 60, 65, 69, 71, 74, 79, 80, 121,
122, 123, 129 130, 132, 133, 139, 153
----bug 93
----cloth 41, 79, 120, 129
----tree 123
Country-boats 122, 127,130, 131, 133, 134, 135, 137
Cows 72, 97
Craters----see Volcanic formations.
Creeper-cutting 114
Crickets 93
Crime----see Chapter IX.
----violent 167
Criminal Justice----see Chapter IX.
Critical rains----see Rainfall, divisions of
Crockery 130
Crops, different, and areas----see Chapter IV.
----experimental reaping 178
----failed area 64, 66, 96, 147
----stubble of 75, 98
Crows 81, 89, 95
Cultlvation, ----see Chapter IV 145, 146, 178
Customs dues, Burmese 175
Cutch 70 ,110, 111, 127, 129 ,130, 133
INDEX
D. PAGE
Dacoity----see Chapter II 167, 168, 210, 224

Dahat 70, 110, 125
Daing 157, 158, 176, 179
Dams----see Irrigation, Embankment of Chindwin.
Daunglan 126, 215
Dead rentals 59
Debt, agricultural----see Chapter III 187
----and ceremonial 45
Deep-stream rule 55
Defile of Shwezayè 3, 172
Densities of population----see Chapter III.
Denudation of forests----see Forests.
Dhama-u-gya right 179
Dhammathat 51
Dioceses, Buddhist 33
Distribution of commodities----see Chapter VI 223
----of game----see Chapter I, Fauna.
District dâk 172
----Fund----see also Chapter XI 128, 119, 141, 172
Division of crop 61, 62
Dôndit 103
Double cropping----see Chapter IV.
Doves----see Chapter I, Fauna.
Drainage of Mônywa 198
Drift timber 115, 116
Dry crop land----see Chapter IV 178
----value compared with wet 48, 49, 50
----tenancies----see Chapter III.
----on rice land----see Chapter IV.
Dry-zone 1, 9, 66, 144
Drums 222
Duck-see Chapter I, Fauna.
Duration of tenancies 61
----of suits 162
Eagles-see Chapter I, Fauna. Ecclesiastical arrangements 33, 35, 173

INDEX
PAGE
Education----see Chapter XII 34, 197

Eintaungzôn 158
Elephant----see Chapter I, Fauna 95, 121, 146
Embankments, field 53, 54, 57, 66, 145, 146
Chindwin 196, 198, 212
Embroidery----see Saddlers
Emigration 63, 121, 151 152, 162, 185, 187, 217
----effect on population 32
Erosion 147
Estates, large 63
----small 48
Ethnology----see Chapter III.
Eurasians----see Chapter III.
Europeans----see Chapter III.
Eviction from house-sites 58
----of tenants 58, 61
Excise 163, 169
----revenue----see Chapter X.
----crime 169, 191
Explosion-craters----see Chapter I 188, 214, 215
Exports 94, 129, 130, 123
Fabricius and Company, Messrs. 134

Factories 41,128
Fairs----see Chapter VI 36, 37
Falcons----see Chapter I, Fauna.
Fallowing----see Chapter IV 146
Famine----see Chapter VIII 51
----improbability of 151, 188
----relief works 138, 149, 151, 152
----test work 150, 151
----wage 149, 150
Fans 124, 129
Fauna----see Chapter I.
Females----see Population.
INDEX
PAGE
Female, education of 201, 202,204

Ferries 137, 163, 196,197, 199, 200
Festivals----see Festivals.
Finaly, Fleming and Company, Messrs. 119
Fires 40, 198
Fire-protection----see Chapter V, Forests 127
Fish, ----see Chapter I, Fauna.
----eagle----see Chapter I, Fauna.
Fisheries and fishermen 120, 122, 163, 175, 188
Fish, salt 120, 135
Five-day markets 128
Floods-see Inundation 75,93, 98, 115, 136, 139, 188
Fluctuating assessment 186
Fodder 74, 75, 81, 97
Food of the people 40, 64, 74, 146, 152, 170
Forests----see Chapter V.
----denudation of 146, 147, 151
----establishment 114
----fire-protection 113
----fuel and rainfall reserves 108
----hammer marks
----leases of 107, 108
----licenses in 110, 111, 113
----plantations 114
----occupations 126
----reserves 108
----revenue-stations 114
----revenue----see Chapter V 175
----surveys 6, 108, 116, 117
----trees 110
----unclassed 108
----working-plans 109
Fossil wood 125, 126
Fractional tenancies 59
Frambœsia see Yaws
Fruit-trees 65, 67
----property in 56, 183
Fuel for steamers 137
----for tari boiling----see Tari 56, 116, 133, 147
----reserves 106, 108, 110, 147
Furrow irrigation----see Onions and Betel-vine,
INDEX
G. PAGE
Gaing, -gyôk, -ôk, -dauk----see Buddhism.

Gambling 169
Gangaw 112
Ganja 194
Garden crops 67
Garnet 116
Geese----see Chapter I, Fauna.
Geology----see Chapter I.
Girdling 107,108, 114
Glassware 130
Goats 97
Gold 116
Goldsmiths 120, 123
Gongs----see Indaing.
Gram 65, 67, 78, 97 129, 133, 134, 186
Grass, property in 56, 57
Gravel 116
Grazing 30, 97, 98
----customs 46, 56, 57 6,98
----grounds 98
----in Reserves 113
Ground-nut 65, 66, 72, 81, 93, 129, 130, 134
Gwe-gyi 137
Gya.hnan sesamum 66, 78, 145
Gyat, South 113
Gyat, North 115
Habitual prisoners 170

Hackney carriage licenses 197
Hailstorms 168
Hamadryad----see Chapter I, Fauna.
Hammer marks 115
Hardware 130
Hare----see Chapter I, Fauna.
Harness-making-see Saddlers.
INDEX
PAGE
Hatti 109
Hawks----see Chapter I, Fauna.
Headman----see Thâgyi.
Hedges, Hedging 53, 54,56,95
Hides 124, 129, 130, 134
Hills----see Chapters I and V.
Hindu population----see Chapter III.
Hindustani Levy----see Police, Military.
Hiring----see Wages 73, 123, 180
Hlaing 116
Hlawga 25, 224
Hlègu quarter of Mônywa 137, .212
Hlutdaw 156, 173, 818
Hmyaing 100, 111
Hnaw timber 130
----Forest 3, 106, 108, 109, 111,129
Hnawkado 137
Hoes 72, 80, 81
Hog-deer 95
Holding----see Estates.
Homalin 203
Honorary Magistrates 116
Hoopoe-see Chapter I, Fauna.
Horns, sale of----see Chapter I, Fauna 129, 130, 134
Horses 97, 120
Hospitals----see Chapter XIII 198
Hot-weather rice----see Rice,
Houses, kinds of 40, 107, 146
House sites 58, 182, 210
----tax in Mônywa 194, 196
Hpadat----see Chapter I, Fauna.
Hput----see Chapter I, Fauna.
Hunting, methods of----see Chapter I, Fauna.
Iguana----see Chapter I, Fauna.

Imports 129, 130, 135
INDEX
PAGE
In timber 106, 110, 111, 116

Inbaung 3, 60, 76, 99,106, 108, 109,111, 149, 150, 160, 164
Incidence of taxation 187, 188
Income, relation of debt to----see Chapter III.
Indaing forest 110
Indaing 123, 140, 141, 217
Indigence 50, 178
Ingyin 6, 106, 110
Inheritance of land 52
----undivided 52
----division of 53
Inner Brigade 22, 157, I76
Inoculation against small-pox 208
Inscriptions----see Chapter II, Archæology.
Insect pests----see Chapter IV.
Insolvency suits 162
Interest, rates of----see Chapter III 187
Inundation 4, 59, 64, 66, 68, 69, 71, 72, 74, 75, 80, 93,
97, 98, 104, 121 127, 145, 147, 182, 186, 218
Irrawaddy Flotilla Company 121, 130, 135, 136
Irregular Police 24, 165
Irrigation----see Chapter IV 5, 82, 199
Island lands, cultivation of 55, 68, 186
----possession of 55
----tenure of 181
Itinerant Teachers 201
Jail----see Chapter IX 193

----industries 171
Jamal Brothers, Messrs 80
Jungle-fowl----see Chapter I, Fauna.
Kabaing 112, 115, 140

Kaing 115, 137
Kan 24
INDEX
PAGE
Kanbya 124, 175, 217

Kanbyu 215
Kandain,-gaung, -ôk, -zaw----see Chapter IV, Irrigation.
Kanè 4, 13, 45, 137, 141
Kangòn 222
Kani Township 32 ,133, 160, 165, 174, 176, 177, 201,220
Kani 13, 20, 21, 24, 27,28, 45 50, 99, 106,
109, 116, 121,129, 130, 133 137, 140,
142, 143, 147, 149, 155, 158, 159, 160,
163, 164, 171, 172, 173, 206,, 207, 221
Kani wun 23, 150
Kanwè 82, 104
Karen-Battalion-see Police, Military
Kauk-gyi, -lat, -yin, -ti, varieties of rice----see Rice 221
Kawe-gyin 122,217
Khampat 155
Kin 3, 4, 106, 119, 161, 171,172
Kindat 115, 136 ,137, 155, 158
Kinè 105, 113, 119
Kinmun 27
Kin-ôk 154, 155, 175
Kinwun Mingyi 21
Kinzan 20, 215
Kodaung 106
Kônywa 45, 106, 114, 140, 141, 164, 221
Kothan 217
Ku 82, 104
Kudaw 5, 65, 159, 138, 149, 150, 159, 160, 164, 166, 171, 177, 213
Kuhnit-ywa 2, 49, 60, 112
Kunbinye 112, 115
Kunbodein 154, 155
Kuzeik 112, 115, 116
Kyadet 23, 26, 129, 132, 133, 138, 164, 166, 175, 222
Kyaukka 3, 20, 26, 27, 39, 41, 42, 60, 69, 95, 98,
110, 116, 119, 124, 129, 133, 138, 139,
140, 141, 145, 149, 151, 173, 175, 217
Kyaukmyet 26, 115, 129, 155, 158, 174
Kyaukpyauk 117
Kyauksitpôn 217
Kyaw 105, 106, 112, 113
Kyawdaw 112, 113, 115
Kye 113
INDEX
PAGE
Kyehmôn 33, 38,123, 124, 126, 136, 138, 217

Kyenin. 26, 140, 224
Kyet-yin 112
Kyibadôn----see Alôn.
Kyiche-u 153
Kywe-u 153
Labo 27
Labour, division of-see Chapter VI,
----Irrigation and Occupations, Chapter VI.
Lacquer 120, 122, 124, 129 217
Lakes----see Chapter I 68
Land held in undivided inheritance 52
----island 54, 55
----inheritance of 51, 179, 180
----communal 57
----lords 62, 63
----mortgage of----see Mortgage.
----pre-emption of 52, 179, 180
----redemption of 52
----rights-of-way on 55
----registration of transfers of 163
----sale of 52
----as security for loans 69
----Suits 162
----tenure of----see Chapter X 152
----values----see Chapter III 152
Land-revenue----see Chapter X.
----administration (Burmese) 173
----coercive processes 186
----dates of collection 186
----farm of Royal lands.
----from Royal lands----see Royal lands.
----shared by landlord and tenant 59
----Summary Settlement rates 178
Language----see Chapter III.
Laterite 6, 116
Leases of waste land 63
INDEX
PAGE
Leases of forests----see Chapter V

----of house sites 163
Ledama 119
Lèdi Sayadaw 33, 34
Lègan 109, 112, 113, 115
Legends----see Chapter II.
----Archæology, and III, Animism.
Lemye 139, 141, 164, 166
Lè-ngauk 8, 26, 27, 129, 132, 138, 139, 166, 175
Leopards----see Chapter I, Fauna.
Lè-she 7
Letkabya 161
Letpadaung 2, 4, 76, 116, 155, 222
Letpagan 225
Letpan 105, 112
Letsa 73
Lettaung 175
Lèzin 126, 175, 217, 218
Licenses; Forest----see Chapter V.
Lift irrigation----see Chapter IV.
Lime and limestone 116, 129
Linzagyet 85, 140, 223
Literacy 200
Lithic inscriptions----see Chapter II.
----Arch æology 38
Lizards----see Chapter I, Fauna.
Loans, methods of securing 43
----period of 45, 69
Long-harvested crops 60
Magyizauk 132, 138, 164, 166, 172

Mahouts 114, 120, 124, 126
Mahudaung 2,3, 6, 106, 110, 112, 113, 221
Maize 5, 67, 81, 97, 129, 132
Major regiments 157, 179
Malarial fever, 9, 206, 211
Malètha 218
Ma Ma Gyi 37
Mandalay 121, 136
Mango 183
INDEX
PAGE
Manipur 20, 28, 158, 159, 161, 172

Mans----see Buddhism, sects 21, 35
Manure 74, 77, 78, 79, 80, 82, 85, 210
Marine forces, Burmese----see Chapter IX.
Markets 127, 175, 195, 196, 197, 199, 206
Marriage 180
Masons 120, 124
Masseurs 120
Matches 130
Matting work 122, 127, 129, 214
Mattresses 129, 218
Matured crop 64, 96, 186
Ma-u 27, 37
Maukthayet 116
Maungdaung 26, 27, 126, 129, 166, 175, 215
Maung Po 21
----Taung Bo 21, 179
Mayin----see Rice.
Mayin village 106, 112, 113, 183
Mayu 123
Meat as food 40
Metalled roads----see Roads.
Mêtayer tenancies 59
Middle Schools 202
Military aids----see Mauk-htauk-gye.
Military forces, Burmese----see Chapter IX 176
Milk of cows 97
Millet----see Chapter IV 5, 40, 129, 132, 133, 170, 186
----white 5, 40, 69, 72, 95, 119, 133, 135
Mindaingbin 21, 140, 141, 160, 164, 166, 172, 224
Mindaung 137
Mindôn 21, 173, 175, 183
Minerals----see Chapter V 188
Mingin 106, 115, 132, 142, 155
Minor regiments 157, 180
Minywa 164, 218
Missions----see Chapters III and XII.
Mixed cropping 65
Model school 202
Monasteries 42, 57, 58, 107, 110, 116, I22, 183, 202, 209
----writers in 120, 124
Monastic schools 200, 201, 202
INDEX
PAGE
Môn-daing-u 153
Mônthwin 27, 225
Mônywa Subdivision 160, 212
----Township 32, 126, 160, 177, 201, 216
Mônywa----see Chapters XI, XII, XIII 21, 26, 18, 30, 32, 41, 45, 49,
50, 59, 63, 76, 86, 98, 114, 115, 122, 123,
128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 136, 137, 142, 143, 149,
159, 164, 170, 171, 173, 175, 201, 202, 205, 212
Mônywe 138, 218
Mortgage of land 44, 52, 69, 162, 179, 180, 183
----values of land----see Chapter III.
----of crops 48
Mortgagor tenants 58
Mu 4, 54, 60, 68, 74, 105, 131, 133, 137, 140, 159, 188
Municipal area----see Chapter XI. 32, 163, 165, 183
Mural paintings 26
Musalman population----see Chapter III.
Myaing 98
Myaunggôn 112
Myenu, myeyin 54
Myingun rebellion 21
Myingyan 79, 123, 133
Myinmu 22, 79, 80, 121, 122, 132, 133
Myinwa 113
Myittha Forest Division 106, 111, 115
Myna----see Chapter I, Fauna.
Myobaw 218
Myogyi 23, 26, 27, 38, 175
Myo 24
Myosaye 154, 155
Myothugyi 154, 155
Myowun----see Wun.
Nagabo Prince 23
Nagabwet, nagachit----see Quaking bogs.
Na-hkan 154, 155
Nandaw 36, 136
Nat----see Chapter I, Supervisions, Chapter III, Animism.
----etymology 37
INDEX
PAGE
Natgyi 37, 129, 137

Natkadaw, nattein----see Chapter III, Animism.
Natlabo 137
Nama 115
Natyedaung 3, 86, 150, 213, 214
Nauk-htauk-gye 157, 176
Naung-gyi-aing 215
Navigable streams 137
Nè 154, 173
Netting of game----see Chapter I, Fauna.
New crops 65
Nga-gyin, nga-myin----see Chapter I, Fauna.
Ngakôn 27, 76, 82, 128, 134, 140, 155, 223
Ngapayin 20, 21, 215
Ngapi 129, 131, 135
Nga-pyôn-daung 106
Nga-yaho 208
Ngôklaik 54
Ngwechaung 175
Ngwèdwin 85, 218
Non-agriculturists----see Chapter VI 184
----alienation of land to 45
Non-indigence among 51
----State land 58, 177, 178, 179, 182, 184, 187
Nyaungbinlè 111, 112, 126
Nyaungbintha 141
Nyaungbyubin 85, 204, 120, 132, 139, 155, 159, 218
Nyaung-gan 7, 20, 26, 139, 166, 175, 215
Nyaunggôn. 175, 225
Obo 126
Obo-daung 136
Occupations----see Chapter VI.
Officers of the district staff 160
Oil-cake 75, 97, 129
----pressing 222, 223
Oil springs----see Chapter V.
Ôk aing 8
INDEX
PAGE
Ôkma 106, 111, 137

Okpo 3, 86, 214
Onbwe 123
Onions 66, 76, 82, 104, 129, 134, 223
Opium----see Chapter X 163, 168, 171, 188
Orchard cultivation 65, 66, 67
Ordeal, trial by 25
Outer Brigade 22, 157, 176
Owls----see Chapter I, Fauna
Pacification of the district----see Chapter II.

Padauk 110, 114, 130
Padu 45
Pagan dynasty 26, 27, 37
Pagodas, pagoda festivals 26, 57, 58, 70, 129, 175, 199
----slaves 35, 124
Pagyi 2, 21, 23, 29. 106, 155, 157, 159, 160, 174
Pahe 112
Pakôkku 119, 133, 137, 203
Palè 27 , 128, 132, 133, 138, 139, 142, 143,
163, 164, 166, 171, 172, 175, 200, 206, 225
Palè Township 32, 63, 160, 201, 223
Palm-sugar----see Tari.
Palmyra palm 124, 152
Pangagyin 138
Panywa 27, 123
Parabaik 43
Paramat 35
Parrots 94
Partition 53
Partridge----see Chapter I, Fauna
Party-hedges 53, 54
Patolôn 3, 4, 105, 107, 108, 109, 113
Pattens 124, 129, 130, 217
Paung-ga 105, 164
Paung-wa 26, 129, 130, 141
Paupers----see Indigence.
INDEX
PAGE
Paya 4, 110, 113

Payagyi 141
Pea-fowl----see Chapter I, Fauna.
Pèbyu 81
Pèdi 71, 81, 129, 132, 134, 133
Pegu jars 131
Pègyi 81, 129
Pelican----see Chapter I, Fauna.
Pèlun 97
Pènauk 67, 78, 129, 133, 134
Pè-ngapi 97
Pè-sein-sa-u 66
Petpa 105, 112
Petroleum-Chapter V 6, 129, 131, 135
Pe-wet 4
Pheasant----see Chapter I, Fauna.
Physics, Burmese 120, 205
Pickled tea 129
Piece goods 129, 130
Pig----see Chapter I, Fauna 95, 120, 129
Pigeon----see Chapter I, Fauna.
Pi-gyan----see Plantains.
Pindaung 106, 109, 112, 115
Pine forest 106, 110
Plague 207
Plantains 85
Platinum 116
Plough 71, 74, 75, 80, 81, 82, 98
Police, Civil----see Chapter IX.
----Military----see Chapters IX and II 30, 35, 98, 171
Pôndaung 1, 6, 17, 28, 105, 106, 110, 112, 119, 132, 134, 142, 155, 220
Pôngyi see Buddhism 201, 202
Pônnya 1, 105, 112, 221
Pôppa 7
Population, density of----see Chapter III.
----increase in----see Chapter III 186
----of Mônywa 32, 194
----preponderance of females 32
----recuperative power of 152, 206, 207
Post Office----see Chapter IX.
INDEX
PAGE
Pottery 126, 214, 216, 222, 223

Powindaung 2, 8, 26, 27, 67, 102, 110, 129, 133, 175, 122
Pre-emption 52
Preventive law 169
Prices 39, 41, 42, 51, 80, 135, 140
----of salt 118
----of saddles 124
Primary education 201, 203
Prisons----see Chapter IX.
Probate and Administration suits 162
Produce rentals 58
----methods of division 62
Promissory notes 43, 189
Property, offences against 167
Prosperity of district, estimate of 51, 151, 187
Protection of tenants 58
Pwinbyu 79, 95
Pwinga 126
Pyanhlè 37, 129, 140, 141
Pyaungbya 27, 102
Pyi 135
Pyinkado 110, 111
Pyrites 116
Quail----see Chapter I, Fauna.

Quaking bogs 8
Quinine 206
Rack-renting 62, 187

Rafts 41, 121, 122, 130, 131, 134, 135, 169
Rafting stations 115
Railway----see Chapters VI and VII 58, 121, 149, 167, 187, 190
----Police 164, 165
----Telegraph 172
INDEX
PAGE
----In timber 106, 110, 111, 116

Rainfall----see Chapter VIII 4, 9, 99, 168
----deterioration of 50, 75, 86, 142 145, 151
----divisions of 133
----local nature of 103, 142
----rice land----see Chapter IV.
----variation in 142
Ratsnake----see Chapter I, Fauna.
Reaping 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, 121
Red bean 59, 65, 72, 80, 93, 129, 132, 133, 135
Redemption of land 52
----of trees 56
Red soils 7, 49, 64, 67, 99, 110, 147, 151, 178
Regiments, Burmese----see Chapter IX 21, 25
Registration----see Chapter IX.
----average Value of mortgages registered 164
----of schools 201
----of vital statistics 198, 211
Relief works 149, 151
Religious life, ----see Chapter III.
Rents----see Tenancies.
Rents customary 60
----of salt wells 117
----of tari palms 87
Reptiles----see Chapter I, Fauna.
Reserve, forest----see Chapter V.----see Military forces.
Rest-houses----see Chapter IX 41, 57, 58, 110, 183
----District Fund----see Chapter XI.
----Forest----see Chapter V.
----Public Works Department----see Chapter VII.
Revenue----see Chapter X.
----collection of 48, 160, 185, 187
----dates of collection of 186
----from excise 190
----from fisheries 188
----from forests----see Chapter V.
----from land----see Land-revenue.
----markets 128, 200
----opium 194
----salt-see Chapter X 118
----stamps 188
INDEX
PAGE
Revenue suspension of tari 152, 178

----miscellaneous, in Burmese times 175, 176
Revenue-paying tenancies 58, 60
Rice 40, 64, 65, 66, 72 75, 93, 122, 129, 131, 133, 135, 178, 186
----hot-weather.(mayin) 68, 76, 93, 104, 186, 188, 219
----upland 66, 67, 76
----land, abandoned 145, 146
Right-of-way 55, 56
Riverine Chaplain 173
Rives----see Chapters I and V.
Roads----see Chapters V, VI, VII.
----encroachment on 58
----expenditure on 141
----metalled 138, 141
----programme of 139
----roadside trees on 138, 199
Robberies 167, 168
Roman Catholics----see Chapter III.
Roofing material 40
Roots, jungle, used as food 144, 152
Ropes 70
Rotation of crops-see Chapter IV.
Royal lands 25. 175, 176, 177, 179, 182
Rubber duty . 175
Russel's viper----see Chapter I, Fauna.
Sabagyi 73
Sabaing----see Salt.
Saba-nyun 46
Sabape 46
Sadawbyin 102
Saddlers saddle 120, 123, 129, 135, 217, 218
Saga 113
Saing----see Chapter I, Fauna.
Saingbyin 142
Saingdè 112, 126
INDEX
PAGE
Sale of land 52, 58, 179

----Value of land----see Chapter III.
Saline formations 8, 9, 65, 66, 96, 116, 216
Salingyi 26, 27, 38, 41, 98, 102, 116, 117, 122,
126, 128, 129, 132, 133, 134, 138, 140,
142, 155, 164, 166, 171, 172, 200, 222, 223.
Salingyi Township 32, 63, 160, 177, 201, 221
Salt, salt-brine 117, 120, 126, 129, 130, 131, 134, 135, 194, 222
Salun 28, 36
Sambhur----see Chapter I, Fauna
Sameik-kôn 106
Sandals 124, 217, 218, 225
Sandstone 116
Sangermano 144, 156, 173
Sanitation 208, 209, 210
Sanpyaung----see Millet, white.
Satôn 86, 122, 128, 129, 131, 133, 134, 135, 137, 138, 140, 200, 223
Satpya----see Saline formations.
Sattha 109, 113, 114
Savings Bank, Post Office 172
Sawmunit 28, 36
Sawyers 120, 121, 122
Scarcity----see Chapter VIII.
Scarecrows 94
Scavenging-tax 196, 197
Seasons since annexation 148
Secondary education----see Chapter XII.
Seed 59, 71, 76, 78, 79, 80, 81
Sein -yè 189
Services by tenant 62
----land 176
Sesamum----see Chapter IV 12, 59, 129, 131, 133, 135, 153, 18
Settlement, Summary, Revenue 49, 151, 162, 177, 184, 186, 187, 188
Summary, assessment tracts 177
----Regular Revenue 42, 51, 58, 120, 127, 135, 162, 178, 185, 188
----Forest 108, 114
Sèywa 3, 20, 58, 60, 112, 115, 124, 126, 132, 140, 149
Sha----see Cutch.
Shabyè 4, 36
Shans 29. 102, 180, 181
Shaukka 203
Shitsha 124
INDEX
PAGE
Shit-ywa 2, 12, 149, 155, 161, 166

Shoemakers 120
Shrines----see Chapter II.
Shwebo canals 121, 137
----king.
Shwegyin sect 33
Shwe-gyo-byu Prince 23
Shwe-tagyi 105, 107, 112
Shwethamin 106
Shwezaye 2, 3, 4, 7, 155, 172
Silk, Silkworms 126, 127
Silt 5, 49, 50, 60, 65, 67, 71, 75, 76, 80, 82, 85, 97, 148, 208
Silversmiths 120, 123
Sindale 137
Sindôn 109, 115
Sinshin 24, 27
Sinyan 26, 129, 175
Sitkè 154, 155
Sittans 25. 180
Sityin 112, 115
Slaughter-houses 40, 196, 199, 200
Slavery 25, 27, 38
Sloth----see Chapter I, Fauna.
Small-pox 26, 210
Snakes----see Chapter I, Fauna.
Snipe----see Chapter I, Fauna.
Soil classification 65, 176, 178
Sônda 133, 140
Songôn 114
Sonthe-amwepyat 179
Sowing 72, 75, 77, 78, 79, 81, 83
Soy bean 97
Spinels 116
Spirits----see Excise.
Spirit-worship----see Chapter III, Animism.
Springs 8, 102, 148, 182
Stamps 162, 188
Standard crops----see Chapter IX 4
Standard of living----see Chapter III.
State dues, Burmese----see Chapter X.
INDEX
PAGE
State land 58, 176, 178, 179, 184

Steamers 136
Steam-launches, Government 136
Steel 130
Straw of crops 62, 97, 144
Subdivisions----see Mônywa and Yinmabin.
Sugar 129
Suits, Civil----see Civil Justice.
Superstitions----see Chapter I, Fauna.
Surgery, Burmese 204
Survey----see Cadastral 5, 177, 182, 188
----block 177
----number 182, 183
Survey school 204
Symes 144, 156, 173
Syriam 35
Tabayin 20, 135, 154, 155

Tadaw (Ywashè) 138
Tagani Regiment 157
Tagundaing 137
Taiksaye 155
Tailors 41, 120, 123
Takkavi 169
Takulat 43
Talaings----see Chapter II, History.
Tamarind 129, 131, 134
Tammu 166
Tanks 57, 58, 104, 150, 152, 182, 183, 199, 209, 215
Tantabin 112
Tari palm and sugar----see Chapter IV 11, 41, 116, 120, 126,
129, 130, 131, 132, 134, 144, 147,
169, 178, 183, 189, 190, 221, 222
Tattooing 77, 120, 124, 158, 191, 194, 219
Taungdwin 106, 112, 113, 132
Taungpyauk 7
Taungtalôn 3
Taungya 107
INDEX
PAGE
Tawa 161
Taya 2, 8, 24, 25, 26, 102, 140, 146, 175, 181
Teak 69, 107, 110, 113, 116, 129, 130
----extraction of 107, 108, 110
----plantations 114
Teal----see Chapter I, Fauna.
Teinnè 175
Telegraphs----see Chapter IX.
Temperature at Mônywa 9
Tenancies----see Chapter III.
Tenures----see Chapter X 48
Terracing, practice of 147
Tha-gyan-sa 71
Thakuttane 26, 124, 141
Thaluh-mintayagyi 29
Thamin----see Chapter I, Fauna.
Than 110, 180
Thatching-grass 41, 131
Tha-te 3
Thathameda 149, 150, 151, 173, 174, 176, 178, 180, 184, 185, 196, 202
----rolls 120, 173, 175
Thathanabaing 33, 34
Thazi 27, 38, 128, 129, 136, 141, 164, 166, 175, 219
Theinsu 179
Thekkègyin 217
Thibaw 156, 174, 176.
Thibeto-Burman stock 28
Thigôn 180
This 158
Thin-dauk-u 153
Thindigan 104
Thingadôn 3, 60, 106, 108, 109, 110, 111, 113, 124
Thitgyi-daing 161
Thitkauk 20, 105, 112
Thitsein 4, 21, 27, 85, 175, 219
Thitsi 110, 111, 125, 126, 136
Thitya 87, 89, 106, 110, 111
Thityaung 141
Threshing 70, 73, 77, 79
Thudamma sect 33
INDEX
PAGE
Thugyi (headman) ----see Chapter IX 25, 54, 57, 58, 99,

154, 155, 169, 183, 185, 206
----s'charges 160, 161
----civil and criminal powers of 161, 166
Thugyisa land 181
Thu-win-nga.twet tenure 183
Thwe-thauk-gyi 156
Tical 136
Tiger---- see Chapter I, Fauna.
Til Sphinx caterpillar 93
Tinzôn 2, 54, 106, 111
Tobacco 104, 131
Toddy----see Tari.
Tolls in Mônywa----see Chapter XI.
Tôugaung 115
Topographical Surveys 5
Tortoise----see Chapter I, Fauna.
Tourmaline 116
Town area 32, 183
Trade, traders----see Chapter VI 50, 219
----in lacquer 126
Training.banks----see Irrigation.
Train service 136
Trees----see Chapter V.
----roadside 138, 199
Triangulation Survey 5
Trout-spotted lizard----see, Chapter I, Fauna.
Turtle----see Chapter I, Fauna.
Twin, East 7, 69, 85, 214, 215
Twin, Wrest 7
----Zwin-po 188, 216
U-hnauk 175
Uma 115
Umbrellas 130
Unembanked land , 66
INDEX
V. PAGE
Vaccination 206, 207

Value of land----see, Chapter III.
Vegetable crops 60, 67, 104, 128, 171
Vermilion 125
Veterinary Assistants 96
Village administration----see Chapter IX.
----site, tenure of 58, 192
Villages large 32
Violent. crime 136
Viss 136
Volcanic formations----see Chapter I.
Wadawm 22
Wages 51 73, 80, 84, 117, 126
Wagyi 80
Walled towns----see Chapter II, Archæology.
Waste land, cultivation of 54
----extent of 63
----products of 55
----tenure 103, 182
Watching of crops 77, 81, 94
Water-rights----see Irrigation 182
----supply of Mônywa----see Chapter XIII 198
----supply of villages 209
Water wheels 104
Wa-u 153
Wayaung 27, 38, 124, 194, 219
Wazein 2, 7
Weaving 41, 120, 122
Weeds, weeding 72, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 95
Weevil 93
Weirs----see Irrigation.
Wells-see Irrigation 5, 67, 82, 85, 86
----drinking 57, 126, 208, 209
----salt-see Salt.
Wesleyan Mission----see Chapters II and XII.
INDEX
PAGE
Wetke 4
Wetkya 112
Wet-land----see Chapter IV.
----value compared with dry 48,49
----tenancies----see Chapter III.
Wetye 26, 175
Wet zone 19, 10
White-ant 93
Wild dog----see Chapter I, Fauna
Winds 9
Winmana 150
Winnowing 73
Wood depôts 137
Working-plans 109
Works of public utility 41, 107, 116
Wun 154, 155, 156, I73, 175
Wunbèsa 95, 153
Wun-bè-u 106
Wunbo 21, 26, 129
Yagyi 112, 115

Yakaing----see Plantain.
Yama, North 2, 31, 37, 39, 45, 49,
50, 59, 62, 67, 76, 87, 102, 104,
106, 109, 113, 147, 155, 181, 186
Yama, South 2, 54, 67, 76, 85, 87, 98, 104,
105, 107, 111, 147, 155, 181
Yams----see Chapter VIII 40
Yaw 24, 29, 119, 132, 134, 166
----Forest Division 111, 116
----paso 129, 132
Yaws----see Chapter XIII 216
Yazadirit 20
Yasawutôk 154
Yebôn 126
Ye-Budalin 26
Yèdwet 8, 102, 105, 126, 141, 166, 214, 216
Ye-lè-gyun 175
Yemein 27, 117, 126
INDEX
PAGE
Ye-ngan stream 8
Ye-u 135, 165
----canal 137
Yewa 3, 50, 60, 64, 76, 99, 106, 177
Yewaing 6
Yeyo 175
Yin 4, 13. 140
Yinbaungdaing 140, 221
Yinmabin 122, 129, 133, 134, 138, 140, 163, 164, 618, 171, 172, 205, 206
----Subdivision 160, 219
Yônbinyo 117, 126
Yun 157, 181
Ywashè 122, 130, 133, 134, 140, 141, 197, 200
Ywathit 4, 137, 197
Ywa-thugyi----see Thugyi.
Zayat----see Rest-houses.
Zayit 137Zeiktaung 24, 112, 115, 141, 142, 164, 166, 172, 224
Zi 95
Zidaw 8, 34, 37, 129, 222
Zimmè 29, 181
Zipani 208
G. B. C. P. O.-No. 3, Misc., 25-6-1912-400-J. A. P.

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BURMA GAZETTEER

LOWER CHINDWIN DISTRICT

OFFICE OF THE SUPERINTENDENT, GOVERNMENT PRINTING,

PART A. THE DISTRICT 1-211

Chapter I. Physical Description 1-20

Chapter II, History and Archæology 20-28

The Alaungdaw Katthapa shrine 25

Chapter III. The People 28-63

The main stock 28

Chapter IV. Agricalture and Irrigation 63-105

Chapter V. Forests and Minerals 105-119

Boundaries of the Lower Chindwin Forest Division 105

Chapter VI. Occupations and Trade 119-136

Census of occupations 119

Chapter VII. Means of Communication 136-141

The railway 136

Chapter VIII. Famine 142-154

Chapter IX. Administration, General and Judicial: Public

Burmese administrative divisions within the district 154

Public works: administration and chief public buildings 171

Chapter X. Revenue Administration 173-195

Revenue in Burmese times; the household tax, thathameda 173

Opium administration: before 1888 91

Chapter XI. Local Self-Government 195-200

The Mônywa Municipality: constitution 195

Chapter XII Education 200-204

Literacy at census periods 200

Chapter XIII. Public Health 204-211

Burmese surgery and physics 204

The chief diseases: cholera; malarial fever and the

CHAPTER XIV. MINOR ARTICLES 212-225

Mônywa Town 212

Chetty, the money-lending caste of Madras.

Myothugyi, vide ywa-thu-gyi.

Taiksa-ye, syn. myosa-ye.

Tari, toddy, borassus flabelliformis.

Thathameda, the household tax.

Thitya, the shorea obtusa.

Thugyi, ywa-thu-gyi, headman of a circle of villages.

LOWER CHINDWIN DISTRICT

PART A.--THE DISTRICT.

The district belongs to the Sagaing administrative Division or

On the west, the Pakôkku district;

south-eastern boundary with Sagaing is artificial. The south-western boundary

The boundary in the north-east is shown incorrectly in the 1 inch = 4 miles

The culturable portion west of the Chindwin.

East of the Chindwin.

The Alaungdaw gorge.

Diversity of the district.

The district presents extreme diversity of feature, of which a few instances

Cadastrally surveyed, 1,657,422 acres or 2,589'00

Triangulation.--Two series of the Great Trigonome-trical Survey of India

Geographical and Topographical Surveys.--A Geographical Survey, on the

The red soils.

Opposite Mônywa there is a group of hills formed of petrosiliceous

The compound crater at Lèshe, in the south-west of the tine of craters, is

2 near ôkaing. 1 at Twin, east of the Chindwin.

In the neighbourhood of Powindaung hill the soil is marshy, and the