The country of Arakhan, which next claims our attention, and concludes our consideration of the races of Burmah, stretches along the eastern shore of the Gulf of Bengal, from about 21° to 18° of north latitude. Having in ancient times formed a portion of the empire of Magad’ha, they were for centuries connected with India. The Burmans themselves derive their origin from them; but this is only indirectly true. The solution of the problem remains yet to be told. The opinion of the Burmans regarding the antiquity of the Rúkheng, or Arakhan dialect, is fully borne out by Dr. Leyden. The chief modifications it has undergone are traceable to the Pali.[24] The ethnology of the Burman empire is neither so intricate or so unsatisfactory as some others. There does not seem to have been a similar extent of change of race, and probably to that very circumstance do they owe the feebleness of character, which, however willingly we would omit seeing, does not fail to make itself conspicuous in a consideration of their prowess, social institutions, and advancement. The very fact of their quiescent state has debarred from progress, as the most mixed race is ever the most energetic. Witness our own, where so many various bloods have commingled, and formed a nation, which, emphatically speaking, is a progressive one, and now more than ever. The Burmans have not made the advancement they might have made. There has been sluggish, age-lasting improvement in their empire, and it has been the want of a stimulating and decisive energy alone that has kept them back. Simplicity forms, too, no inconsiderable part of the national character, and this, by leading them to accept various doctrines without examination—a quality usually observable in semi-civilised races—has not given them any reason to think and to look around. Like the American races, they proceeded to a certain point, and then improved but little. Colonel Symes, who was inclined to magnify the importance of the nation in every way, applied some remarks to them, which, however applicable now, were certainly not then. With those remarks I shall terminate this chapter, leaving their truth or falsehood to be discovered in the course of the work.