THE SHANS AND THEIR CUSTOMS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVIII, Issue VII, 13 February 1897, Page 183

THE SHANS AND THEIR CUSTOMS.

XT is now 70 years ago that our troops, led by Sir Archibald Campbell, waged war against the three young princesses who governed the country of the Shans, says the Pioneer. These young ladies dressed as men, in black jackets and large straw hats ; they rode on horseback at the head ot their troops, and were believed to be enchantresses gifted with the power of turning a cannon or musket ball into a drop of water as soon as it left the mouth of the gun. Their magic, however, did not avail them, for two of them fell in a single battle, and the soldiers being grieved to find that they had caused their death, buried them with ‘ many sincere though unpolished expressions of regret.’ The Shans live in the mountainous regions which divide Bnrmah from the frontier States of the Chinese Empire. To the west of them lie the great plains of Burmah proper, watered by the Irrawaddy ; to the north and east lies the province of Yunnan, and to the south are the Karen Hills and Siam. The river Salwin flows through the country. To the

west of it are great rolling grassy downs, 3.000 to 5,000 feet above sea-level, backed by wooded hills which rise in places to 9,000 feet in height. To the east of the river the country is broken up into a confused mass of forest-clad hills and narrow valleys, with here and there a small oasis until the large plain of Keng-Tung is reached, and behind it the mountains, and behind the mountaius the river Me-kong. There is a tradition among the Shans that they once held an ancient and mighty kingdom in the north of the present Burmese Empire. The race is widely diffused, and is probably the most numerous of the Indo Chinese races. They are found from the borders of Manipore to the centre of Yunnan, and from the valley of Assam to Cambodia and Bangkok : ‘ Everywhere Buddhists, everywhere to a considerable extent civilised, and everywhere speaking the same language.' The kingdom of Siam is now the only independent Shan State ; the others are tributary to it or to Burmah or China. In the criminal law there is an admixture of the Jewish and the Teutonic ; the relatives of a murdered man or woman may take 30ors , or they may demand life for life. Dacoity is a capital offence, so also is the theft of valuable property ; and in

the case of the lowest and poorest, death is awarded even for petty thefts. A man’s relatives are responsible for his misdeeds, ‘ and in the case of horse or cattle theft or for dacoity, a whole village or even a small township is laid under contribution, should the immediate relatives fail to pay the required compensation.’ In Keng-Tung, when a man is to be executed, he is taken on market day through the bazaar, gets a drink at every liquor shop, and is taken to the ‘ Execution Tree,’ south of the town. His name and his crime are read out, and the slip of bamboo on which they are written is tossed over the criminal’s head. He then kneels down, his armsare tied behind his back, and his head is struck off, Chinese fashion. The Shans are, however, for the most part a law-abiding people, with a healthy reverence for their powers that be. Marriages are arranged on a sensible plan, the girl’s consent being an indispensable preliminary ; and this is followed bv presents of rupees, cloth, fowls, and eggs to her and her parents. The couple eat rice together out of one dish, the bridegroom promises to support the bride, and then follows feasting. It goes without saying that the Shans believe in witchcraft. They do not, however, beat the offending spirit out of a man with rods of the castor-oil plant, but they burn his house about his head, and turn him out of the village. Even a comely damsel who holds swav over such an attendant spirit is forced to go. A strange superstition is that the people believe that while a wizard s house is burning no other house will catch fire —a belief that certainly would not survive in India, where the strong west wind blows all through the hot weather. The Shans believe in lucky days, and although they are Buddhists they sacrifice to evil spirits ; a human sacrifice secures a good harvest, and a Chinaman capsized and offered to the spirit of the stream brings good luck to the ferry for the rest of the year. The further east one goes among them, the stronger is the belief in and the worship of spirits and the weaker is Buddhism. The Shans are not particular in their food ; they will eat a beast that has died as readily as one that has been killed ; and they are known on occasions to have eaten ponies that have died of surra, apparently without any sinister effects. They are a happy and contented people, unambitious and unenterprising, cheer r ul and fond of amusements, and con stitutionally lazy. The women do all the household work, and most of the outdoor work ; and a widower having lost the mainstay and prop of his existence, is henceforth exempted from taxation. Those of our readers who are curious for further information regarding this agreeable folk will find valuable and interesting details in an article by Colonel Woodthorpe published in the last number of the ’Journal ’ of the Anthropological Institute.