BURMESE SUPERSTITION.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 287, 26 June 1917, Page 4

BURMESE SUPERSTITION.

A Burman attaches great jnipoftance to the hour and day of He is told to believe, and he does implicitly believe, that it make's all the difference to him whether he was born ion a Sunday or a Wednesday. To be born on Sunday is'to be b¥d:tempered; on Wednesday, short-tempered; on Thursday, good-tempered. TKe whole existence of a Burman from the day of his birth to his deatjjj and even subsequent to his deajh, is fraught with superstition. It is, therefore, not surprising to find the Burman calling in the aid of a be&nsaya—<?r soothsayer—to enlighten hfm 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 definite reply is impossible owing to the indistinctness of the indication. Further occurrences or happenings are fixed at a reasonably distant date to prevent awkward questions. 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 al* low 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.