The Armenians are a small but very respectable class. They are similar in
dress and habits to Europeans, and speak English. Many of their number
are to be found in Calcutta also, and in Rangoon, quite settled and
domiciled in the East. In Mandalay they have a church of their own, and
the priests of the Greek Church, to which they belong, pay occasional
visits.
Of Parsees we have a few; and here, as in their native place about
Bombay, they are an enlightened and very respectable people in good
positions.
There is quite a numerous section of the population belonging to the
Zarabadee community, as they are called. They are half-caste Mahomedans,
the descendants of Mahomedans from India settled in Mandalay, by Burmese
mothers. They supply an interesting example of the growth of a religious
community merely by the natural process, and apart from proselytising
efforts, when the natural increase of numbers is all absorbed by that
religious community. They are Mahomedan in religion, but largely Burman
in dress and appearance. They speak Hindustanee and Burmese.
[Illustration: “THE SHANS ARE DISTINGUISHABLE BY THEIR DARK, BAGGY
TROUSERS, AND THE VERY LARGE PLIABLE STRAW SUN-HATS THEY WEAR.”]
There is a class of people called Kathays about whom there appears to be
some special interest. They are the descendants of people from Manipur,
brought over formerly as the result of some conquest by the Burmans, and
long since settled in the capital. Their condition, at least as it was
originally, reminds one of the exile of the Jews in Babylon. They have
a language and religion of their own, but speak Burmese too. They are
a peaceable and industrious community, mostly employed in weaving the
pretty, bright-coloured, figured silk cloths worn by the Burmese women.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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