The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c15.48

v1.c15.48

Elsewhere in Burma are either rich crops, or the most luxuriant forests of tall leafy trees, full of game and haunted by poisonous snakes. Wild peacocks come from the woods to feed on the rice when it is ripe, and tigers are not unknown in the villages. Only a few years ago a tiger was shot on one of the ledges of the great pagoda in Rangoon. Notwithstanding the age of its civilisation Burma is still subject to a masterful nature. Moreover civilisation is confined to the immediate valleys and delta of the Irrawaddy and Salween. On the forested hills are wild tribes, akin to the Burmese in speech and physique—the Shans in the east, the Kachins in the north, and the Chins in the west. Burma contains but twelve million people—Burmese, Chinese, Hindus, and the hill tribes.