BURMESE SUPERSTITION.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XI, Issue 972, 12 May 1917, Page 6

BURMESE SUPERSTITION.

A Barman attaches great importance to the hour and day of birth. He is told to believe, and he does implicitly believe, that it makes all the difference to him whether he was born on a Sunday or a Wednesday. To be born on Sunday is to be bad-tem-pered; on Wednesday, short-tempered; on Thursday, good-tempered. The whole existence of a Burman from the day of his birth to his death, and even subsequent to his death, is fraught | with superstition. Tt is, therefore, not surprising to find the Burman calling in the aid of a bedinsaya—or soothsayer—to enlighten him as to his future. A soothsayer never allows himself to be caught. If an answer is impossible', he does not admit defeat, but states that a d&fmite reply is impossible owing to the indistinctness of the indication. Further occurrences or happenings are fixed at a reasonably distant date to prevent awkward qu< , That the occupation—if one may use the word—of a bedinsaya, is also the life of the mendicant ponna, is profitable cannot be denied. I have been at some pains, writes lan Spearman in "Chambers's Journal," to discover whether these ponnas really make the large sums they are reputed to do, and I have come to the sorry conclusion that the Burman does allow these men to return to their homes in Mandalay the wealthier by fifteen to twenty pounds sterling. ,/ It is extraordinary what little effect, if any, Western thought and education have had on this fascinating race of children at school.