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
