News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1885-12-17
IN THE BRITISH INDIES.
What a British Eng Ger Saw in BurRlah
While Located There.

1t was my heavy task to do with the
crop destroying Irrawaddy what Canute
admitted his inability to do with the sea;
in other words, was told off to con-
struct an embankment against a river
that destroyed on an average one crop
in every three.
l had 5000 Burmese working for me
men, women and children. The en-
bankment was seventy miles, the swollen
water would have run over 1t had it been
less than twenty feet high; and would
have whirled it into the plain if its base
had not been a hundred feet broad.
Then we could only work by snatches
even in the dry months, aud not at all
during the long and dreary wet season.
MY workpeople returned to their homes
for the wet months, but l stayed on to
see that our foundation was not washed
away.
NV best laborers were the women.
The mass of them were not from British
Burmah, but slaves of the King of
Kings, the Burmese of the highlands.
If there is to be fighting, it Is from these
that the King of Burnah will draw his
army. Had they their own way, am
quite certain that there would be no war
They have not the practical experiences
of the English possessed by the natives
of British Burmah; but they know them
by repute and by their works. In the
heat of the day, when work was out OF
the question, have listened with aston
ishment and pity to their talk over the
everlasting cheroot. twas evident that
such an idea as not carrying out to the
letter the mandates of the King was in
conceivable to them.
| l have said that my workpeople re-
turned to their homes during the wet
i. season. TheTea no-=0Ption in the
matter; they had to do it. The king
takes a fatherly, interest in them, ant
secs that they pay for IL if they deser
him. His favorite method is to keel
! hostages, and my laborers had to leave
their families in his hands before they
came to me-. Had they failed to render
an account of themselves by the stipu-
lated time, the hostages would have
been given over to the state, and, if the
king desired it, trampled to death by
the elephant, which In Burmah discharges
the duties of public executioner. Out of
every rupee paid my laborers part had
to be laid aside for the king.
The Burmese smoke to a man, to a
woman, I almost might say to child.
I was phvsic amin chief to those under
me, and l soon learned to rely upon it
that when patient gave up smoking he
or she was really ill. The Burmese
ladies have very peculiar cigar case.
But there are two objections to its ever
becoming popular here, of which the
less important is that each cigar case
holds one cigar. And then the cigar
case is the lady's ear. Instead of wear.
ing ordinary earrings, the Burmese women
have large hole in their ears and wear
a cheroot in it till wan;ed The real
ly great advantage of this cigar case
is that it is never left behind. The men
would think it beneath their dignity to
carry cheroots in this manner, but they
do not mind helping themselves from
Kings wants to keep his women folks
together or to punish them, he strings
them, so to speak, by the ear. A long
cane is passed through the holes made |
for cheroots, dozen women or even |
more going to one cane.
Of late years there have been attempts
on a smaller scale to grow tobacco in
Burmah; but most of 1t is sent to Madras
in monster stacks OF tobacco leaf. The |
climate is not cold enough for growing
potatoes and other vegetables; and the
trade in ivory, etc., is so slight that the
natives may be said to live most entirely
on their rice. The German SPECTATORS
In Raugoon, who are always on the spot
to relieve the Burmese when in need of
are really their worst friends
The course of affairs is this: A flood
destroys the rice crop, and the natives
have no money to raise another. Then
the German puts in an appearance, offer
ing them so much for the next crop in
advance. The rupees they get are moth
ing like an equivalent for their crop, but
the native is glad to take thom. So far
as could learn, no respectable English
lent rupees to the Burmese on
these principles