The Imperial Gazetteer of India
Meyer, William Stevenson, Sir, 1860-1922.
Burn, Richard, Sir, 1871-1947.
Cotton, James Sutherland, 1847-1918.
Risley, Sir Herbert Hope, 1851-1911.
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New edition, published under the authority of His Majesty's secretary of state for India in council.
Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1908-1931 [v. 1, 1909]

266 SOUTHRN SHAN STATES
and a head constable. It is recruited locally, and there is no difficulty in obtaining men to serve, for the pay is higher than in Burma. The men are armed with cut-down Sniders, and 14 of them are mounted. Half of the force is stationed at Taunggyi, the rest at Loilem, Thama-
kan (Hsamonghkam), Loikaw (in Karenni), and Kengtung. Their duties are to investigate such cases as the Superintendent or his Assistants may direct, and to furnish escorts and patrols. With the preservation of order in the States they are not concerned. A military police battalion has recently been formed for the Southern Shan States, which has displaced the troops that formerly composed the garrisons at Fort Stedman and Kengtung. It consists of ten companies-nine and a half companies of Indians (Sikhs, Gurkhas, and Punjabi Musalmans) and half a company of Shans. It is officered by a commandant and five assistant commandants, and is distributed at all the principal stations. There are no jails in the States, only lock-ups at the headquarters, in which short-term convicts are confined. Long-term prisoners are sent to the Meiktila jail to serve out their sentences.
Education in the States is backward. Considering the large number of hill tribes, it is not surprising that the proportion of literate persons in 1901 was only 3.6 per cent. (7 males and 3 females). Indigenous teaching does, however, exist. To every village of any size is attached a Buddhist monastery, and there such smattering of letters as the priests can give is imparted. The ordinary peasant is, however, for the most part unlettered; for the period of novitiate in the monastery rarely exceeds a single Lent, and, except in the more richly endowed pon;yi-kyaungs, the monks themselves can scarcely be termed literate. Shan is naturally the language taught in the religious schools; but in the Taungthu districts Taungthu is the medium, although it does not possess an alphabet of its own. In the Western States the Burmese characters are adopted, and in the Eastern the Shan. Among the Inthas in the Yawnghwe State Burmese alone is taught ; and at all the chief places in the larger States
monasteries are managed by pongyis literate in Burmese, who teach that language. Very few details regarding the number of monastic schools are available, but it has been calculated that there were 294 in the Myelat in 1903. Lay schools do not exist except in the haws (palaces) of several of the wealthier chiefs, where the chief's children and relations receive a rudimentary education.
Schools are maintained in connexion with the American Baptist Mission at Mongnai, where Shan is taught in addition to English. In 19o1 a school for the sons of Shan chiefs was opened by Government at Taunggyi, with a staff of one head master and three assistantmasters. Admission to this institution is confined to sons and relatives of chiefs, their officials, and respectable commoners. At the begin-
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