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Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 13, p. 28.

HAIVTHA WARD .Y of the disarmament of the country, and their frequent appearance near Rangoon and the railway has lately caused annoyance. The fish-eating monkey and the short-nosed crocodile are at times seen along the tidal creeks. The climate is moist and depressing, but on the whole not un- healthy. From the middle of March until the rains break in May the heat is excessive. and at the end of the rains, in September and October, the nights are oppressive, and the days often muggy and trying. December and January are cool and pleasant, the average minimum being about 6o'. The southern. portion of the District is cooled by the sea-breeze, and the maximum temperature, which varies between 83° and 95°, increases in the north towards the drier zone of Tharrawaddy. The average annual rainfall at the recording stations is as follows 94 inches at Insein, 98 inches at Rangoon, and 119 inches at Kyauktan. The rainy season lasts, as elsewhere, from May to October inclusive ; a spell of two or three days' rain in early spring is not uncommon, and is a source of great inconvenience to the cultivators, whose grain at this time is usually on the unprotected threshing-floors. The country to the west of the Hlaing river is subject to inundation, especially in the north of the District. There were floods disastrous to cultivation in 1877, which have recurred in a smaller degree on several occasions. Abnormally high spring-tides, when the wind is in the south, sometimes damage the rice-fields bordering the sea. The District is, however, safe from famine, as the water-supply, although poor in many places in the dry season, is seldom seriously deficient. The name Hanthawaddy is derived from hantha or hintha (the Brahmani goose) and wadi, Pâli for `river.' Legend has it that in the south of the District in prehistoric days only History. the hill upon which the Shwedagon pagoda now stands was above sea-level, and that it once afforded a resting-place for a Gautama, who, in a previous incarnation, had been caught in the shape of a hintha in a storm in the neighbourhood of the eminence. In early historic days Hanthawaddy, like the rest of the country lying round the Gulf of Martaban, formed part of the kingdom of the Talaings. Shortly after the close of the sixteenth century, when the Talaings had for the time been subjugated by the Burmans, and when the Toungoo dynasty reigned in the old Talaing capital of Pegu, Syriam, in Hanthawaddy District, was one of the earliest European trading stations in Burma. The only remains of this early settlement which now exist are the fragments of the old city walls and the ruins of the church built outside the old town of Syriam in 175o by the Vicar Apostolic of Ava and Pegu. These are now preserved by Government. Hanthawaddy passed, with the rest of the province