THE BURMAN AT HOME.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 8034, 23 April 1888, Page 3

THE BURMAN AT HOME.

{Com/nil.)

" Has your honor brought the medicine box this time ?" asks Shway Ilmaw in a tone of deep interest. I have brought the box as nsual, and my reply in the aflirmative elicits a general expression of opinion that "it is good." My stock of remedies is not extensive ; in fact it is as limited as

it is simple in character, consisting of vaseline, which is the universal course if a man has anything wrong outside him, and quinine, chlorodyne, and pills for inward application. Thus my patients run at least no danger of being poisoned, if they derive no benefit from the physic. 1 have travelled a great doa! with the above assortment of medicines, and, absurd as it may seem, can confidently assert that their production at the right time, when the country was disturbed and villages abounded with bad characters, saved me from many ditliculties. The men around me are already discussing the patients who may want medicine, and I overhear sundry remarks on the " cases " which, literally translated, read like exercise phrases from a very primitive grammar. "Can his honor's medicine cure Moling Pay's heel?" "I think Monng Pay will die ; he is very thin " " Moung Tay's inside is sick, therefore lie grows thin." "Bab Oo had much pain yesterday. "Yes, it was his belly he ate many mangoes." "The little medicine balls will be good for that." "Will his honor give me medicine for Mali Gyeo's cow?" " I cannot tell. Monn" Daw will ask him," and so on for live minutes while I am unpacking my provisions to get at the box required? "Those people who want iinglish medicine to-day may come to me and I will pive it to them," I say with the generous kindness of a man who has a boundless stock of health at his disposal. " Tell anyone who has hurt himself to wash and come to Moling Daw's house now," 1 continue with candor unusual in doctors. The injunctioa to wash is very necessary, as I have found by experience that the acquisition of a "nahponk" (sickhole), be it wound, burn, or sore, is followed by total abstention from the use of water until the place is healed. A curious thing, for the Bur-

man is cleanly in his personal habits, bathing regularly every day when water is convenient, and in that land of hervy rains few villages are not well supplied. Half a dozen little boys constitute themselves criers, and tlie proclamation is rapidly conveyed to every house in the village, resulting very shortly in a large assemblage of patients, some of whose troubles throw a striking side-light on the carelessness of tin- race. Mali Too's baby is the first. It b".s a sore head, acquired by being acoi''. .ally laid on the hot clay fireplace, a r tor the "ashes had been removed. The shaven head of the poor baby is sadly scarred, but the accident occurred some time ago, and there is nothing' to he done, as the injury is healing up. Bah Ooo's four-year-old boy. Above the piercing howls of the patient, I gathered that he kicked his father's dab as it lay stuck through the iloor, and cut his foot nearly through. In stentorian tones I prescribe washing, vaseline, and bandages to be applied at once ; and re- 4 covering breath, turn to Bah 000 himself.' Severe pains which he thought yesterday indicated cholera, but his friends ascribe to mangoes. Is better now, but would like medicine in view of a recurrence. Accepts one pill in both hands and chews itjwith mournful earnestness, dashed with dawning hope of good results to follow. Mali Gyee applies for advice regarding a large* boil on her neck. Gratefully receives a strong recommendation to wash, and a bread poultice, which she is uncertain how to use, and is too shy to ask me about. Correcting Mali Lays suggestion that her friend should eat it hot, I continue dispensing medical comforts and judicious advice, keeping an eye on my servant Moung Tso, who, acting on these occasions, as my assistant, displays great skill in the washing department. Indeed the liberal use of warm

water is the initial treatment in every instance, and it is two hours before the last patient takes his departure. l'ho Mvin, the subject, is lying on a

mat quite nude, with a dazed look in his

half-clored eyes, and breathing heavily. Moung Daw nods at him meaningly. " He has taken much opium," he siy's, grinning to me. f nni not surprised at it. If the IltoUwinsayahgyee was going to exercise his art upon mo for four or five

hours, I should follow the linrinan's plan ami take opium by way of an anu>stlietic. The tattooing will sjiow wollon the plump fair-skinned lad before us, and the professor evidently thinks he is a .subject to take pains with, as he sits carefully mixing hw ink in -a joint of bamboo, and

prepaiing his weapon. This is a bra«s rod nearly two feet long, and about half an inch thick; it is weighted at. the top with a little ornamental figure, and at

the other end has a hollow point divided by two cross slits into four fine pricks. The professor examines the " business end " critically, and having satisfied him-

self that it is sharp enough, tucks up his

puisne, and squats at Pho Myin's side. •Selecting a spot on the thigh, he places bofhfoeton it a few inches apart, and, stretching the skin tight, draws the out-

line of the first figure— a tigpr rampant — with an inky splinter of bamboo ; this is soon done, and relieving himself of a large mouthful of betelnut, the professor settles down to work in earnest. Leaning forward through his widely parted knees he balances the brass style daintily, and, clasping it with the finger and thumb of I lie right hand, makes a " bridge" of the left, which he rest on ti e surface between his feet. After sliding the instrument through his fingers once or twice, as if to take aim, lie makes a start and pricks away steadily with a light firm touch that is wonderfully quick and true. In less than five minutes the tiger with its surrounding border i* finished, and the artist removes his feet fiom the distended sl;in and washes oil" the Miperllous ink to see how his work has come out. Everybody presses forward too look at the picture, which shows up in bold relief on the rapidly formed swelling. Moung Saik exchanges a remark with his wife, and the tattooer resume* his working position to draw the outline of the next fignre. The boy, stupefied with opium, lies insensible to the pain, whilst one figure after another gradually appears on his .skin. Deep as the points of the style sink, they draw little blood, but the limb swells in a manner that would alarm anyone who did not know it would return to its normal size in a diy or two. Fever sometimes supervenes, and in that case the patient waits for a time befoie the work of illustration is resumed, so it often extends over a period of a week or ten days, during which the inconvenience suflered is considerable. Without the aid of opium the process would be a much longer one. I found that 1 could not endure the application of the style for more than thirty consecutive seconds without flinching so much as to interfere with the operators movements ; for the skin is pricked over so closely that it becomes too tender to sustain their repetition. Eight rupees is the usual fee paid to a tattooer for endowing a lad with breeches. The figures that compose them vary little, consisting as a rule of tigers, "nagas "(dragons), and "beloos" (devils).

Each one is surrounded with a border of sentence', generally illegible, invoking good luck upon the owner of the skin whereon they are inscribed. The waist and knees are neatly finished oil' with a tasteful edging of point or scroll pattern ; tlip«o sensitive, parts of the body aic the last to be done, and hit toners have told me that the pain can~i>d frequently ni ohm's the patient from hN torpor.