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BASSEIN DISTRICT.

196

of area, the population was returned at 270,200 souls, and by that of 1881 at 389,419, showing an increase during nine years of 119,219. Classified according to religion, there were

— Hindus, 4851

Muhamma-



dans, 4925; Christians, 21,324; Buddhists, 337,317; Nat or spirit worshippers, 20,967; Brahmos, 24; Jews, 7; and Parsis, 4. Total

number of towns and villages, 1699, or an average of '18 to each square mile; number of occupied houses, 69,812, with an average of 5

inhabitants to each.

’5 7

per square mile.

Average density of the population, 55 '26 Burmese,

Classified according to race, there were

—

275,544; Arakanese, 1909; Chins, 807; Karens, 96,008; Karenm's, 2; Toungthus, 12; Takings, 3948; Shans, 1225; Manipun's, 31; Chinese, 744; Malays, 8; Bengali's and Hindustanis, 6358; Uriyas, Persians, 9 ; Europeans, 845. Plere, as elsewhere throughout the Province, except in Kyauk-pyu and Tavoy, the males outnumber the

88

In 1881 there were 202,949 of the former to 186,470 of the This disproportion is caused by immigration from Madras, Chittagong, China, etc. The immigrants bring no wives with them, but marry Burmese women, whom they leave behind on their return to females.

latter.

their

own

country.

In former years, the Takings mustered strongly

but the conquest by the Burmese King, Akungpaya, and the cruelty

them by

whom

they had irritated by Burmese war, drove many into exile, and more than decimated the number of those who could not escape. The Karengs in this District differ only from those living in the hills of Tenasserim by having adopted the Burmese mode of cultivation. The Shans are settlers from the north many of the ]Iuhammadans, and the majority of Hindus, are mere sojourners in exercised towards siding with the

their rulers,

English during the

first



quest of

money

to be spent in their

own

land.

The Chins

in the hills to the north-west, the tribe stretching far

Burma and Arakan.

{See

Arakan Hill

away

Tracts.)

live chiefly

into

The

Upper

principal

occupations of the inhabitants are agriculture, carried on in the large of the District, and fishing along the sea-coast and in the numerous ponds, rivers, and tidal creeks in the south. The number of towns and villages in 1881 was 1699. The most important are Bassein, the head-quarters station, and one of the chief ports of the Province, on the Bassein river, 75 miles from the sea

plains

—

(population in 1881, 28,147); Lemyet-hna, kt. 17° 35' N., long. 95° 13' 30" E., on the banks of the Bassein river (population in 1881, 5355) Myaung-mya, kt. 16° 35' N., and long. 95° e., situated on the banks of

the river of the same kt. 16° 32' N.,

and

name

(population in 1881, 2315) ; Ngaputaw, on an island of the same name in

long. 94° 46' e.,

the Bassein river, built on the side of a low range of hills (population in 1881, 928); and Regyi Pandaw, kt. 17° 19' 30" n., and long. 15“ 10' E.,

on a creek of the same name, composed of the once separate