196 MAN : PAST AND PRESENT. [CHAP. 



case the M'rama may claim a respectable antiquity, being already 

 mentioned in the national records so early as the first century of 

 the new era, when the land "was said to be overrun with fabulous 

 monsters and other terrors, which are called to this day by the 

 superstitious natives, the five enemies. These were a fierce tiger, 

 an enormous boar, a flying dragon, a prodigious man-eating bird, 

 and a huge creeping pumpkin, which threatened to entangle the 

 whole country 1 ." 



The Burmese type has been not incorrectly described as inter- 

 mediate between the Chinese and the Malay, more 

 refined, or at least softer than either, of yellowish 

 brown or olive complexion, often showing very dark shades, full 

 black and lank hair, no beard, small but straight nose, weak 

 extremities, pliant figure, and a mean height. 



Most Europeans speak well of the Burmese people, whose 

 bright genial temperament and extreme friendliness 



Character. *~ . 



towards strangers more than outweigh a natural 

 indolence which hurts nobody but themselves, and a little 

 arrogance or vanity inspired by the still remembered glories of a 

 nation that once ruled over a great part of Indo- China. Perhaps 

 the most remarkable feature of Burmese society is the almost 

 democratic independence and equality of all classes developed 

 under an exceptionally severe Asiatic autocracy. " They are 

 perfectly republican in the freedom with which all ranks mingle 

 together and talk with one another, without any marked distinc- 

 tion in regard to difference of rank or wealth. 2 " Mr Scott 



attributes this trait, I think rightly, to the great leveller, 

 BuddMsnf. Buddhism, the true spirit of which has perhaps been 



better preserved in Burma than in any other land. 

 The priesthood has not become the privileged and oppressive 

 class that has usurped all spiritual and temporal functions in 

 Tibet, for in Burma everybody is or has been a priest for some 

 period of his life. All enter the monasteries which are the 

 national schools not only for general instruction, but actually as 

 members of the sacerdotal order. They submit to the tonsure, 

 take " minor orders," so to say, and wear the yellow robe, if only 



1 G. W. Bird, Wanderings in Burma, 1897, p. 335. 

 ; J. G. Scott, Btirnia, etc., 1886, p. 115. 



