May 4, 191 1] 



NATURE 



15 



trade with the Shans, but are allied to them neither i idyllic conception of their character and beliefs which 

 by race nor language. She is a careful and sym- is prominent in the accounts of Burman life and 

 pathetic observer, and has profited by information | psychology by enthusiasts like Sir J. G. Scott and 



Mr. Hall Fielding. The truth is that their 

 views are largely based upon the obvious con- 

 trast between the races of Burma and those of 

 the Indian plains. While the latter, mainly 

 owing- to the bondage of the caste system, are 

 reticent, suspicious, and unwilling to associate 

 with the foreigner, the former are cheerful, 

 kindly, and beset by none of those taboos of 

 food and personal pollution which in India 

 proper form an effective barrier between the 

 people and their rulers. 



Such views naturally lead to exaggeration. 

 In the case of religious beliefs, for instance, 

 -Mrs. Milne has failed to grasp the fact that 

 their beliefs are almost purely animistic, and 

 that Buddhism is only a thin veneer conceal- 

 ing the predominant workship of Nats or spirits. 

 It is true, as she observes, that among them 

 ■ there is no great fear of death ; they all feel 

 that they have all lived and died so often that 

 death and its mvsterv is not talked of in a 

 whisper, but is a favourite topic of discussion 

 in Shan houses." '"They place," she goes on 

 to say, "religion and the study of their scrip- 

 tures, and a temperate life on a higher level 

 than money or the comforts and luxuries that 

 money brings. Their lives are very happy. 

 Any man may marry the girl he loves if he can 

 persuade her that she loves him better than 

 any other man. There is always money 

 enough, and food for the children that come 

 to gladden their homes. Starving people do 

 not exist, and there are few unemployed, be- 

 cause any man or woman may easily earn a 

 livelihood by asking for jungle land, by clearing 

 and cultivating, and by selling the produce that is 

 grown upon it." When British rule was introduced 



Fig. I. — Circles of sand made by Shans in shallow parts of muddy streams, in order 

 tj act as water filters. From " Shans at Home." 



received from the officials of the American Mission. 

 At the same time, she has not avoided that almost 



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NO. 2X66, VOL. 86] 



Fig. a.— Market Day. From " Shans at Home. 



