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The animals of the country are very numerous. The domestic quadrupeds of the Burmans are the ox, the buffalo, the horse, and the elephant. The two first are very much used throughout the country. They are both of a very good species, and generally well kept. The ox is to them an expensive animal, as their religion forbids its use as food, and they have, therefore, no profitable manner of disposing of the disabled cattle. This, probably, led to the taming of the buffalo, an animal which has been in use among them from time immemorial. It is less expensive to rear, and is contented with coarser food. But it is not so valuable in some respects, for though stronger, it is not so hardy, and cannot endure long-continued exertion. The horse is never full-sized in Burmah, as in every Asiatic tropical country east of Bengal, and it somewhat resembles the Canadian pony. The animal is expensive, and rarely used except for the saddle. In some parts of the country it is almost unknown.

The elephant, well named the Apis of the Buddhists by M. Dubois de Jancigny,[16] is now much more the object of royal luxury and ostentation than anything else, and I shall, when speaking of the religious ceremonies of the Burmans, again refer to the place it occupies in their estimation. It is only used in Laos as a beast of burden.