120 



THE LIVING RACES OF MANKIND 



OUT FOK AN AFTERXOOX DRIVE. 



ly do justice to her charms; she would ruin the peace of mind of a hermit! When 

 rejected, the suitor becomes plaintive perhaps in the belief that "pity is akin to love "- 

 saying that he can neither eat nor drink, and will assuredly die before the morning! Far 

 from feeling embarrassed, the Karen maidens appear to be pleased at such expressions of 



devotion. Their answers are usually of a somewhat stereo- 

 typed character. The girl will declare that it is a shameful 

 thing not to be married, but that to be divorced afterwards 

 is much worse "to be like a dress that has been washed." 

 Another will declare that she is not going to give herself 

 away too cheaply. She lets the suitor know that she is not 

 like a day dim with the heat-haze, nor like a diamond that 

 has lost the foil below to set it off, nor like a peacock's tail 

 draggled in the wet. All this means that the wrong man has 

 applied, and the lucky swain will be a great fool if her eyes 

 do not let him know that, when his turn comes, the answer 

 will be favourable. A girl seldom says "No" outright; she 

 prefers a more indirect and less crushing mode of refusal. 

 But these cases are exceptional; for, as a rule, the girl has 

 made up her mind which young man she will accept, and 

 the others will .look elsewhere. The young people have met 

 before, and so matters are considerably simplified. When all 



ptwto by \\-uhdm ischannaitn, Berlin. the courting is over they retire, and are forthwith married. 

 A PAIR OF DWARFS FROM BURMA.* Then the elders go on with the funeral rites. 



* The writer saw these two little dwarfs, a boy and girl, of about eighteen and nineteen years of age respectively, 

 and a little over three feet high, at Herr Karl Hagenbeck's Indian Exhibition in Berlin, 1898, and is much indebted to 

 him for permission to reproduce the photograph, as well as another which illustrates India in this book. 



