APPENDIX D.-Memorandum on the comparative progress of the pro- vinces now forming British Burma under British and Native rule BURMA, PAST AND PRESENT. CHAPTER I. LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. The Burmese the standard language of the country.-The Talaing little used. — The Burmese and Talaings received their religion and alphabet from India. - Description of the Burmese and Talaing languages. - Great reverence paid to the numerals III. and IX.-Use made of the numeral V.-Burmese metaphysical works are in the Pali language.-Books, how formed.-Writing of the Burmese.-Burmese literature. -Their sacred books.-The Bee-da-gat-thoon-bon and the Baideng.--Secular literature. -The disputed wife. -The Burmese drama.-Description of a Burmese theatre.-Dress of the actors.-The orchestra.-Plots of the plays. -A ballet at the Palace at Maudalay.—Burmese great lovers of both vocal and instrumental music.-Translation of a Burmese drama, The Silver Hill. THE Burmese is the standard language of the country, in which the administration of affairs is conducted, and is spoken generally by all classes of natives, including, also, in many instances, the hill tribes. In a few villages coast-ward, however, peopled by descendants of the old kingdom of Pegu, and remote from the main sources of access to the principal towns, the Talaing, or Mon language -notwithstanding the efforts of the Burmans during their rule to stamp out all knowledge of it-is VOL. II. B still taught in the Buddhist monasteries, and the sacred writings expounded in that dialect. It is, I consider, a source of regret that nationality of language was not restored to the Talaings on our occupation of the country. It would have removed the feeling of degradation of a conquered race, and, together with the grateful sense for such a consideration, have served as a check on any combination by them with the Burmese, which might possibly arise in the future. The Burmese, as well as the Talaings, received their religion and alphabet from India. Their alphabets differ very slightly, both being a circular variety of the ancient Deva Nagri ;* but the two languages have no radical affinity, the Burmese being cognate with the Tibetan, and the Talaing (as stated in the previous chapter) with the aboriginal Indian tribes of the north-east, Monda, or Kól family. The former is labial and soft as the Italian, the latter harsh and guttural as Arabic. In combination of words and sentences and in idiom they are entirely different. In the Talaing language† the subject usually precedes the verb, and the object follows it, as in English; but in a Burmese and Tibetan sentence the order of the words is inverted. * A specimen of Burmese writing, being a transcript of a petition made to me when Chief Commissioner of British Burma, is given on the opposite page. The Rev. Dr. Mason, "Burma," p. 126. |