secreted in the houses of Chinese merchants who said that they sold it regularly to Burmans. It is true that under King Thebaw’s rule most of King Mindon’s edicts became dead letters, and even _pôngyis_ became addicted to opium. The opium question attracted much interest, both locally and in England. The Anti-Opium Society took it up and much correspondence took place, which resulted in the total prohibition of opium to Burmans in Upper Burma and the rigid restriction of issues to them in Lower Burma. The reason for this is concisely put by Sir A. Mackenzie, Chief Commissioner of Burma, in a Minute: “I do not believe that opium in India or China does any great harm to the majority of those who use it, _i.e._, to moderate smokers and eaters. But here, in Burma, we are brought face to face with the fact that the religion of the people specifically denounces the use of the drug; that their native kings treated its use as a heinous offence; that these ideas are so deeply rooted in the minds of the people that every consumer feels himself to be, and is, regarded by his neighbours as a sinner and a criminal; that the people are by temperament pleasure-loving and idle and easily led away by vicious indulgences; that they have little self-restraint and are always prone to rush into extremes. When a Burman takes to drink or opium he wants to get drunk or drugged as fast as he can, or as often as he can. All this seems to me to point to the necessity of special treatment.” FOOTNOTES [1] For a full account of the history of opium, see the Appendix at the end of the book. [2] One tola is equivalent to 180 grains. Eighty tolas equal one _seer_. [3] Government does not vend opium directly to the people. A selected “licensee” undertakes this under the supervision of a Government officer, usually an Excise Inspector. [4] _Chandoo_, the Indian name for prepared or clarified opium used in smoking. The Burmese name for it is _Beinsi_. [5] Three tolas is 540 grains, or 1½ oz. [6] Mahaffy, “History of Classical Greek Literature,” 1-81. [7] “Down sank his head, as in a garden sinks A ripened poppy charg’d with vernal rains; So sank his head beneath his helmet’s weight.” Iliad. (Lord Derby’s translation, VIII.) [8] “Huic, nuntio, quia, credo, dubiæ fidei videbatur, nihil voce responsum est, Rex, velut deliberabundus, in hortum ædium transit, sequente nuntio filii: ibi inambulans tacitus, sum apapaverum capita dicitur baculo decussisse.” Livy i., 54. [9] “Lethæo perfusa papavera somno.” Georg.: i, 78. [10] “Soporiferumque papaver.” Aeneid: iv, 486. [11] “Natural History.” [12] “Materia Medica.” [13] “The Coasts of East Africa and Malabar,” by Duarte Barbosa. Translated from the Spanish and edited for the Haklvyt Society by the Hon’ble H. E. J. Stanley in 1866. [14] Paper by Dr da Cunha in the transactions of the Medical and Physical Society of Bombay, 1882. [15] “Discourse of voyages unto ye Easte and West Indies.”