BURMA 



in 



marriages, as in India, and the people seem happy in their domestic affairs. Although 

 girls are considered to be the property of their parents, they are very seldom constrained 

 to marry against their will. The young men, too, make love pretty much where their 

 fancy leads them, obtaining first the consent of the parents. The period of day between 

 eight in the evening and midnight is called courting- time; in Burmese it is " loo-lyo-lai- 

 thee-kala." The Burmese mother is a great match-maker, but she uses persuasion rather 

 than compulsion. If she tries constraint, it generally results in the girl eloping with the 

 lover of her choice or committing suicide. The women carry on most of the trading and shop- 

 keeping, and are excellent housekeepers, as Mr. Rudyard Kipling shows in one of his short 

 stories of Indian life. Mr. E. W. Cuming's excellent book "With the Jungle Folk in Burma" 

 Avill be found to contain a very true picture of these people. 



DACOITS IN PRISON. 



Every jail in Burma contains a certain number of prisoners undergoing penal servitude 

 for life reckless desperadoes whose presence is a standing source of anxiety to those in charge 

 of them. The Burmese dread imprisonment above all things. Lazy and indolent by nature, 

 and accustomed to the unrestrained liberty of the jungle, they prefer death itself to being 

 shut up within the walls of a prison. The most revolting type of human ugliness is the 

 Burmese jail-bird, with his shaven head and the unmistakable stamp of "criminal" on his 

 vicious face. The dacoits have quaint devices tattooed on their bodies as charms against 

 death or capture. Some have rows of unsightly warts, like large peas, upon the breast and 

 arms, which mark the spots where charms have been inserted scraps of metal and other 

 substances inscribed with spells known only to the wise men who deal in such things. 



In the north of Burma are found the Singpos and Kachins, formerly supposed to be 



