- Author:
- Grant, Colesworthey
- Publication Info:
-
Calcutta:
Thacker, Spink and Co,
1853,
pg 40
Text on page 40
40
independence" as to sit easy under their doubleaor at least divided, yoke. They are inimical to the rule of those who keep them in subjection, and who, particularly the Burmese, oppress them with taxes of the heaviest kind, and it has only been the interior position of their countriesathe inability, consequently, to escape from them, added to the jarring interests of their own chiefs, and the impossibility to rebel with success, which has kept them till the present time subservient, though unwilling slaves, to the Burman. Their traffickings to Maulmain, which are very extensive and increasing, have made them familiar with the mild rule and equitable institutions of the British power, and the conclusions they have drawn of these are so favourable that I am assured they would gladly pass from the thraldom of their present state to the peace and quiet they see enjoyed under European rule.
Like most other Europeans, by the way, I have spoken of the people here as Burmese without regard to the distinction which exists between the conquerors and the conquereda the real Burmese and the Talines or Peguers, which latter in Rangoon certainly form the bulk of the people. Dressing in the same
costume, though possessing, each a distinct
language, yet generally conversant with that of the conquerorsaprofessing the same faith, and intermarrying, there must naturally be so much amalgamation in general habits and appearance that a stranger is not likely to observe any distinction. For my own part, I should never, unaided, have discovered any. Yet, judging by the few faces I have drawn both here and in Maulmain, which of course occasioned a more nice observation than one is likely to bestow on a passenger in the street or a crowd, I should be led to say that a strong physiognomic difference exists between the two races. In the Burmese (I speak of the men) there is a squareness and even harshness of feature and expression, indicative perhaps of masculine firmness, whereas in the Peguer thelanguage, yet generally conversant with that of the conquerorsa professing the same faith, and intermarrying, there must naturally be so much amalgamation in general habits and appearance that a stranger is not likely to observe any distinction. For my own part, I should never, unaided, have discovered any. Yet, judging by the few faces I have drawn both here and in Maulmain, which of course occasioned a more nice observation than one is likely to bestow on a passenger in the street or a crowd, I should be led to say that a strong physiognomic difference exists between the two races. In the Burmese (I speak of the men) there is a squareness and even harshness of feature and expression, indicative perhaps of masculine firmness, whereas in the Peguer the
