A BURMESE DIVORCE.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XV, Issue III, 20 July 1895, Page 61

A BURMESE DIVORCE.

When a Burmese husband and wife decide to separate the woman goes out and buys two little candles of equa, length, which are made specially for this use. She brings them home. She and her husband sit down on the floor, placing the candles between them, and light them simultaneously. One candle stands for him, the other for her. The one whose candle goes out first rises and goes out of the house for ever, with nothing but what he or she may have on. The one whose candle has survived the longest, even by a second, takes every thing. So the divorce and the division of the property —if you call that a division—are settled. It looks fair enough, but, as I once heard, appearances are deceitful. The wife on her way home with the caudles, takes a very little scraping from the bottom of one of them. A very little will be enough. If the husband and house are empty of pretty much everything but children, she takes the shortened candle and walks out free and content. But if the house is well furnished, and the husband's possessions are considerable, he gets the short candle and does the walking.