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Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 9, p. 108.

ï< o8 B URMA key the late Bishop Bigandet, the scholarly Vicar Apostolic of Southern Burma. ` Mien' is the Chinese for Burma', and the Burmese name for Burma was and still is written Myanmâ, though ordinarily pro- nounced Bam& The Shans called Burma the country of the Mans, the term `. Man' having been originally applied by the Chinese to a group of tribes, including the Lolo and the Mantzu, who are found in considerable numbers in the Province of Ssuch'uan. The Mani- puns on the north-west frontier of the Province call the , Burmans Maran.' Burmans in Kachin and Maru are styled ` Myeng' ; and among the Palaungs, a Mon-Anam pre-Burman hill tribe inhabiting the north of the Shan States, who are absolutely free from the suspicion of exposure to Hindu influences, Burma is known as `Bran.' In short, internal evidence all points to a Mongolian derivation. '. Burma is split up into natural divisions by its rivers and mountain ranges. The valleys of the IRRAWADDY, CHINTSWIN, and SITTANG form a narrow strip of plain land, running down the centre Physical aspects. the main mass and widening out into the delta . country on either side of Rangoon. The sea forms the southern limit of this strip. On all other sides the central level is enclosed by hill ridges-in the north by the Kachin, in the west by the Chin, in the east by the Shan and Karen Hills; and, as the general direction of streams and ranges alike is north and south, a geographical dissection results in the presentation to the observer of a series of more or less vertical stretches of territory following the line of the coast. Prior to 1852 British dominion was represented by the provinces of Arakan and Tenasserim, two narrow fringes of the seaboard of Indo-China. The Burmese War of 1852 filled up the gap between the extreme ends of these two strips, and added to British territory the southern portions of the main central section of Burma lying along the valley of the Irrawaddy, and of the long stretch of highland rising between the Irrawaddy and the Salween. Thirty-four years later, with the annexation of Upper Burma, these actxetions were again extended to the north. The whole of the valley f the Irrawaddy, with its tributary the Chindwin, now forms an integral part of the Indian Empire, and the table-land - between the : Irrâwaddy and the Salween acknowledges British suzerainty as far north as the confines of Yünnan. At the same time control was acqui over the Chin Hills, an oblong strip of hill country in the nortli-weïR tnng part of the general mass of upland of which the Yoaa (' e') separating Arakan from the Irrawaddy valley is this most southerly spur. To the east of the Salween there is a further stretch of -try° bounded on its east by the Mekong. A large portiot-of this area belongs to the Shan Mates and forms part of the Indian Empire. Its. ' Cf. Marco Polo's ' Kingdom of Mien' and ' Province of AML-n?