They were the tillers of the soil, and were an industrious and hardy race.

The country was so rich that they not only raised sufficient for their own wants, but sent large supplies of grain and rice to Ava.

They were very heavily taxed but, as a rule, were exempt from conscription.

Nevertheless they had, on the present occasion, been forced to labour at the stockades, and in transporting food for the troops.
Their forest villages were small.

They consisted of little huts, erected either in trees shorn of their branches, or upon very strong poles.