THE WOMEN OF BURMAH.

Western Star, Issue 1389, 14 September 1889, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE WOMEN OF BURMAH.

The Burmese girls are the brighest characters of the country, .and their tjay silks, bright eyes, and graceful figures fill every place with colour and beauty. They mix with the men, and they have equal rights in property and social standing with thei? hue-

bands, .During the first years of the rrarriage the man must live with and help to support his mother-in-law, and he is by no means the master of the bouse, says a writer in the Chicago Times. She is the business man of the family, and, though at times it is said that wife-beating takes place in Burmah, such instances ar few and far between. I heard of one in which a man, enraged by a shrewish wife, attempted to strike he?. A crowd gathered around, and she taunted him, saying, “ Beat me!■ Beat me!” The man raised his stick, and brought it down again and again within an inch of the woman s back, but did not dare to strike her. The

BUSINESS or BURMA.U is managed by the women as much as is the businsss of France. The city of Rangoon has about 140,000 people, and it is the centre of trade of Lower Burmah. Much of the native business is done in immense bazaars, covering many acres. These bazaars are roofed with heavy wood or iron to keep out the sun, and some of them cover several blocks. Their interiors are divided up into streets, which cut one another at right angles. These streets are walled with cases of goods of all kinds, which rise from the back of a ledge five feet wide and as high as a chair seat. Upon these ledges the bazaar’s sellers sit with their goods piled around and behind them, and in these bazaars the Burmese women compete with merchants from all over the East. I made a purchase from one to-day. She was a typical Burmese beauty and eat with her legs crossed flat .on the stra w mat of her booth, with shelves of silks behind her and with gay-coloured clothes on the floor all around her. In her mouth was a Burmese cigar at least a foot long and a full inch in thickness. She offered me a whiff when I looked at her goods, but upon my refusing she handed the cigar over to her sister and attended to business. Palling down one piece of bright silk after another, she spread them out on the mat before me, and chatted and laughed while she sold. A maiden is not supposed to be a woman uniil her tars are bored, and the ceremony is quite as important to her as that of the first trail dress to the American girl. It takes place when; she reaches the age of 12 or 13. The family consults a fortune-teller for a good day and hour, and a big feast is prepared. All the sisters, cousins, and aunts are invited, and these squat down on the floor about the room, while the girl, with her nearest relatives about her, lies down on a mat at the back. A professional ear-borer does the business. He has needles of pure gold for the use of the rich, and silver for the poor.

THE BURMESE MARRIAGE is a very simple affair. It consists ordinarily of the eating rice together in the presence of friends, and of saying that the two propose to live together aa man and wife. The matches are sometimes made by the parents and sometimes by professional match-makers. The most common method, however, is by the young people jfixing the arrangement for themselves and carrying on their billing and cooing the same as [we do at home. The Burmese groom furnishes the wedding breakfast and he carries it to the house of the bride. THE HOUSES of the great majority are more like tents than anything else. They are made of plaited bamboo walls-thatched with palm leaves, which are pinned to rafters of bamboo the size of fishing poles. The most of the houses are of one story, and this is built |upon piles so high above the ground that you can walk under the floor without stooping. Under the house the live stock of the family is kept and there is sometimes a work-room inside this lower foundation. The house has no furniture in an American sense ; the family sleep on mats, and they keep their heads off the floor by resting them upon bamboo pillows. Still they are wonderfully civilised, considering their surroundings. They are the kindest and most winning people I have met since leaving Japan, and their women are bright, intelligent, and, in the cases of the younger ones, beautiful.