Burmese Sketches - Khamkoo

io6
BURMESE SKETCHES
in the i8th century. Ava was conquered by the Talaings in
1752 A.D. ; Alompra proclaimed himself King in the following
year ; and for ten years, the Burmans and the Talaings were
engaged in incessant fighting. In these wars, the belligerents
were still armed with bows and arrows and firearms decided the
fate of battles. These weapons of precision were supplied by
the Agents of the English and French East India Companies,
which, having made peace after an open war of five years in
the Carnatic, transferred their rival aspirations to Burmese soil.
The French had a factory at Syriam, and the British established
themselves at Negrais and Bassein. The prescience of the
latter in selecting the winning side in all disputes among native
rulers in India and Burma, and the East generally, is truly
remarkable, and is one of the chief contributory causes of the
expansion of British dominion over-sea. The English supported
the pretensions of Alompra, who was an upstart of no royal
lineage, against the claims of the King of Pegu, who had
unlimited resources at his disposal and, in the end, they were
quite justified in their choice.
MEMORANDUM OF A TOUR IN PARTS OF THE
AMHERST, SHWEGYIN, AND PEGU DISTRICTS.
In pursuance of instructions, which were subsequently
modified, that I should report on the amount of archaeological
work which remained to be done in the Province, I left Rangoon
for Moulmein on the Sth December 1891. As it was
my intention to explore the whole of the country which constituted
the ancient Talaing kingdom of Ramannadesa, with
special reference to the elucidation of the history of the places
mentioned in the Kalyawl Inscription, I went down to Am*
herst by boat and returned to Moulmein by land. The Mun
or Talaing language is still spoken in the villages between
Amherst and Moulmein, and is still taught in monastic
schools ; but, owing to there being no grants-in-aid given
for the encouragement of its study, it is not taught in lay
schools. The Talaing language has an unique literature of its
own ; numbers of inscriptions are recorded in it ; and certain
questions relating to the ethnography, history, antiquities, and
languages of the people inhabiting Burma, are awaiting so-
lution, because Talaing literature is still a terra incognita.
Considering that the study of the insignificant dialects of the
Karen language, which has no indigenous literature, and