BURMESE COURTSHIP.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 8379, 3 June 1889, Page 4

BURMESE COURTSHIP.

When ji Burmese <Ar\ comes to courting age, the fact ia duly announced by the family, and the young men benn to call. Sunset is the children's beii' ; 'ie; nine o'clock the old folks. Youny folk may . sit up to 11 or half-past. As soon as father and mother have re- . tired the yonns girl attires herselt in a .- bright silk dress, a white jacket, and a sort of shawl-like sash. She puts flowers in her back hnir, and lights a lamp, . ' which rshe sets in the wiudow. Thereupon the beaux gather. She sits upon a \ mat in the middle of tho floor, and they all sit about her. All smoke, and the young men begin telling all the derogatory stories they know of each other, try- , ing to pr»ve this one a coward, that one ' laity, the other untrnthful or a braggart. The tact ot the young girl is shown by treating all alike. Any favoritism may bring about a quarrel. Finally she ; chooses one, and this being settled they ■' are married at once. It is sometimes a long while before she makes her choice, ' for she is in the way of hearing a great deal ag&inst her suitors. The parents ■ . never interfere, not even when some jealous swain brains another on the threshold, or shoots him from behind a tree. The courting time belongs altogether to young tolk. . • The marriage is a civil contract, or family compact, and the priest, who is a Buddhist, never performs it. His vows of celibacy prevent him from being present at a wedding.