NATURE 



593 



THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1882 



THE BURMAN 

 The Burman : his Life and Notions. By Shway Yoe, 

 Subject of the Great Queen. (London : Macmillan and 

 Co., 1882.) 



TH E author of these two lively little volumes tells us 

 that Shway Yoe is the name he is known by in 

 Burma (Shway means "Golden," and is a common Bur- 

 mese epithet). He himself writes in the character of a 

 Burman, but Englishmen who have lived in the country 

 say that there is no native capable of having written a 

 page of such a book. Accordingly, while respecting the 

 writer's incognito, we must consider him to be an English- 

 man who does not care to publish his name ; Lut whoever 

 he is, it is plain he knows the land and its language and 

 ways intimately. To Europeans going there, his work 

 will be a guide of practical value, the more so because 

 their difficulties so often arise from misunderstandings 

 which knowledge of native habits would prevent. For 

 example, an Englishman, eager to push forward on his 

 journey on a Saturday, is furious because his servants 

 cannot be got to buy bullocks for the cart till next day. 

 He declares it is dilatoriness or the desire to stay and see 

 some feast, whereas the real reason is that the day is un- 

 lucky — " it is a matter of conscience, and was taught to 

 the Burman in a rhyme when he was a little boy at 

 school." On the other hand, the Englishman himself 

 gets into trouble when out shooting by going on regardless 

 of a finger-post which gives notice that a monastery lies 

 near, and that animals must not be killed there. While 

 the lay Burmese are generally rather slack in condemning 

 violations by hunters and fishers of the Buddhist law not 

 to take life, and indeed are not averse to enjoying the re- 

 sults in the shape of curry and strong-smelling fish-paste 

 yet it would be too much to expect such profanation to be 

 allowed under the very eyes of the holy ascetics. Another 

 way here mentioned in which our English officials both 

 take and give offence, really arises out of an idea belong- 

 ing to the early philosophy of religion having survived 

 with great tenacity in this corner of the globe. The Bur. 

 mese have not yet come to our advanced opinion that 

 dreams are mere subjective impressions of the sleeper's 

 mind. The animistic view still prevails that dreaming is the 

 actual experience of the person's life or soul, which they 

 conceive to go forth from his body in butterfly-shape 

 and flutter about ; this leip-bya, as it is called, only going 

 to places its owner has visited before, which accounts for 

 dreams being of known localities. The working-out of 

 this theory as to the causes of disease and death (vol. ii., 

 chap, xi.) is a good specimen of the author's style. It is 

 because of the absence of the butterfly that the Burmese 

 (like other peoples in the same intellectual stage) are un- 

 willing to wake a sleeping man, for his spirit might be 

 wandering far away and not have time to get back, so 

 that its owner would fall ill. Foreigners do not always 

 understand this primitive biology. 



"An English assistant commissioner rides unexpectedly 



into a small townlet in his sub-division and calls for the 



headman. That worthy is having his afternoon siesta, 



and the good wife announces this with a composure which 



Vol. xxvi. — No. 677 



almost surprises the young sub-janta walla into swearing. 

 He says, ' Well, then, wake him, and tell him to bring his 

 accounts along to the traveller's bungalow.' Old Mah 

 Gyee shudders at the very thought, and flatly refuses. 

 The Englishman gallops oft* in a fury at the dreadful im- 

 pertinence of the people, and Mah Gyee calls together all 

 her gossips to hear of the brutality of the young ayay- 

 baing, who actually wanted her to imperil her good man's 

 life. It needs something more than passing examina- 

 tions and being a smart report- writer to govern the people 

 well." 



This dream-theory seems one of the many points of 

 earlier and cruder religion which the Burmese keep up, 

 notwithstanding their conversion to Buddhism. Thus 

 they still propitiate with offerings and prayers the nats 

 or spirits which they regard as swarming over land 

 and water, in house or forest. That this is the old local 

 religion is proved by its prevalence among indigenous 

 tribes who have not learnt Buddhism, or have not assimi- 

 lated its teachings so far as the Burmese proper. Thus 

 no low class Talaing would think of eating a morsel with- 

 out first holding up his platter in the air, and breathing a 

 prayer to the village nat ; while at the entrance to a 

 Kachin village may be seen not only the remains of food 

 and drink put out for the spirits, but even axes and chop- 

 pers for them to fight with, and all this not for the love of 

 these beings, but to give them whatever they want, so that 

 they may let the villagers alone. It is not surprising that 

 the subtle metaphysics of Buddhism should be over the 

 heads of the uneducated in Burma as elsewhere. Thus 

 Buddhist doctrine does not recognise a separate surviving 

 soul after death. Physical individuality ceases at a man's 

 death and dispersion into the elements, but a new per- 

 sonality arises in the being which succeeds him, condi- 

 tioned by karma (Burmese kan), the result of the deeds 

 of the whole line of predecessors. European students 

 like Rhys Davids may well admire this speculative at" 

 tempt to account by a chain of causation for each man's 

 disposition and character, and may notice its foreshadow- 

 ing of modern evolutionist ideas of inherited characters ; 

 but the tillers of the paddy-fields of the Irrawaddy must 

 find much easier the simple physical conception of a 

 dream-soul. 



In the more learned Burmese monasteries Buddhist 

 doctrine is studied, and scholars may be found to dis- 

 cuss the distinction between karma and transmigration 

 of souls, or to show that nirwana (Burmese rieh'ian) is 

 not annihilation, as so many Europeans erroneously sup- 

 pose. The author even claims " that at the present time 

 Buddhism exists in Burma in a form much nearer to that 

 which Shin Gautama taught than is found in any country 

 where the Three Precious Things are held in reverence.' ' 

 Now Burmese Buddhism is doubtless purer than that of 

 the gross and dull Tibetans, but it is setting the disciple 

 above the master to put it thus into competition with the 

 Buddhism of Ceylon, whence the Burmese received the 

 missionaries and had translations of the Pali books. As 

 to the moral rules which even more than philosophic be- 

 liefs are vital to Buddhism, their effect doubtless still 

 manifests itself in a mildness and kindliness of life con- 

 trolling the natural character, which is described as hot- 

 blooded and combative. But the observance of the moral 

 precepts has fallen so much away from the original stan- 

 dard, that we have here an instructive example of religious 



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