yan. 23, 1890] 



NATURE 



267 



Lavva spirits, so that they might be induced to allow the 

 waterneededfor the irrigation of the fields to flow down from 

 the hills. Human sacrifices at the obsequies of their chiefs 

 were offered by the Shans up to the middle of the sixteenth 

 century, when the States became feudatory to Burmah. 

 At the time the chiefs were buried, elephants, ponies, and 

 slaves were interred with them. The continuance of this 

 custom was strictly prohibited by the Burmese Emperor 

 Bureng Naung. Besides the legends, many humorous 

 stories and fables are current amongst the people, speci- 

 mens of which are given in the book. 



Buddhism, with the Shans, as with the Chinese, is merely 

 a cloak covering the belief inancient superstitions, ancestral 

 worship, and spirit worship of the people. Even the images 

 of Buddha in the temples are believed to be inhabited by the 

 spirits of deceased monks, and when an abbot, celebrated 

 for his learning and virtue, dies, it is the custom for those 

 who have spent their monastic life under his instruction to 

 prepare a shrine for him in some part of their house, or, 

 if still in the monastery, in their dormitory, where flowers 

 and food are placed for the acceptance of the spirit of 

 their deceased teacher. If he is treated with neglect or 

 disrespect, he may become a spirit of evil towards his 

 former pupils. This custom probably arises from the 

 monks being celibate, and therefore having no children 

 to carry on the ancestral worship of the family. Another 

 peculiar practice in relation to the images of Buddha is 

 the transferring to him of some of the attributes of the 

 Kwan-yin, the Chinese Goddess of Mercy, the offspring 

 of the lotus flower, who terminates the torment of souls 

 in purgatory by casting a lotus flower on them. In China, 

 miniature offerings are laid before this goddess as a hint 

 for her to convey the articles implied by their likenesses 

 to the spirits of friends or relations. The offerings, 

 frequently accompanied by a scroll stating who the 

 articles are for, consist of miniatures — -cut out of paper — 

 of money, houses, furniture, carts, ponies, sedan-chairs, 

 pipes, male and female slaves, and all that one on this 

 earth might wish for in the way of comfort. In Siam 

 and the Shan States, there being no temple of this god- 

 dess, Buddha, who is generally depicted as sitting on a 

 lotus flower, is besought to do her work, and similar 

 things are heaped on his altar, but cut out of wood, or 

 formed of rags or any kinds of rubbish, as paper is not 

 easily obtainable. The whole country outside the villages 

 is, according to the Shans, infested with jungle demons, 

 the spirits of human beings who have died when absent 

 from their homes. These endeavour to cause the death 

 of others by the same means as caused their own. Their 

 victims have to join the company or clan of demons to 

 which the successful demon belongs. Thus the clan 

 increases in numbers, and is ever becoming more potent 

 for mischief. The people believe in divination, charms, 

 omens, exorcism, sorcery, mediums, witchcraft, and 

 ghosts. Witch-hunting rages throughout the country, 

 and villages are set apart in which those accused of 

 witchcraft must reside. Mr. Hallett noticed that the 

 elephant-drivers every evening placed pieces of lattice- 

 work on tall sticks stuck in the ground on the paths 

 leading to and from the camp ; and on inquiry he learned 

 they were to entangle any evil spirit that might wish to 

 enter the camp and injure the party. The Shans con- 

 rsider such precautions fully sufficient to ward off their 



malignant foes. The spirits, in their opinion, have as 

 little intelligence as the birds of the air, and any scare- 

 crow device will keep them at a distance. The spirits of 

 those who die from abortion, miscarriage, or childbirth 

 are much dreaded by the widower. If the child dies with 

 the mother, its spirit joins hers in its rambles, endeavour- 

 ing to harm the living. The first object of their search is 

 the husband and father, whose death they do all they can 

 to accompUsh. Sometimes the man endeavours to escape 

 by becoming a monk in a monastery far from his home. 

 This belief, like most of the superstitions in Indo-China, 

 is also current in China. 



With reference to the condition of the people in the 

 Shan States, Mr. Hallett says : — 



" Nowhere in the Shan States is misgovernment and 

 oppression of the people so rampant as in Siam. Taxa- 

 tion in the Shan States is exceedingly light ; and the people 

 are not placed under grinding Government masters, but 

 have the power to change their lords at their will ; they 

 are not compelled to serve for three months in the year 

 without receiving either wages or food ; amongst them 

 gamblers, opium-smokers, and drunkards are looked 

 down upon and despised, and libertinism is nearly 

 unknown. The only loose women seen by me in the 

 Shan States were a few Siamese, who had taken up their 

 quarters at Zimme, the head-quarters of the Siamese 

 judge." 



Referring to Siam, he gives a fearful description of the 

 oppression ruling in the country, and he says : — 



" If it were not for slavery, serfdom, vexatious taxation 

 and for the vices of the people, the Siamese might be a 

 happy race. Living as they do chiefly upon vegetables 

 and fish ; in a country where every article of food is 

 cheap ; where a labourer's wages are such as to enable 

 him to subsist upon a fourth of his earnings ; where a 

 few mats and bamboos will supply him with materials for 

 a house sufficient to keep out the rays of the tropical sun 

 and the showers in the rainy season ; where little clothing 

 is needed, and that of a cheap and simple kind ; where 

 nine-tenths of the land in the country is vacant, without 

 owners or inhabitants — surely such a people might be 

 contented and happy. The land is so fertile and the 

 climate is so humid, that every cereal and fruit of the 

 tropics grows there to perfection. Yet among the 

 common people it is seldom a man or woman can be 

 found who is not the slave of the wealthy or the noble. 

 The Government battens on the vices of the people by 

 granting monopolies for gambling, opium, and spirits. 

 Government places the people under unscrupulous and 

 tyrannical Government masters — merciless, heartless, and 

 exorbitant leeches — who, unless heavily bribed, force the 

 peasantry to do their three months' corvee labour at times 

 and seasons that necessarily break up all habits of in- 

 dustry, and ruin all plans to engage in successful business. 

 Government imposes taxes upon everything grown for 

 human requirements in the country : fishing-nets, stakes, 

 boats, spears, and lines, are all taxed. The Government 

 net is so small that even charcoal and bamboos are taxed 

 to the extent of one in ten, and firewood one in five, in 

 kind. Fancy the feelings of an old woman, after trudging 

 for miles to market with a hundred sticks of firewood, 

 when twenty of the sticks are seized by the tax-gatherer 

 as his perquisite ! There is a land-tax for each crop of 

 annuals sown, and paddy and rice are both subject to 

 tax ; so that three taxes can thus be reaped from one 

 cereal. The burdensome taxation is levied in the most 

 vexatious manner that can be conceived ; for the taxes 

 are let out to unscrupulous Chinamen, who are thus able 

 to squeeze, cheat, and rob the people mercilessly. It is 

 no use appealing from the tax-gatherer to the officials. 



