UNTOURED BURMA 



By Charles H. Bartlett 



BURMA: What does that suggest 

 to you? You know it to be one of 

 England's possessions in the East, 

 and if you have circled the globe you re- 

 call having touched at Rangoon. You re- 

 member the Shwe Dagon Pagoda and 

 the "Burmese maid," with her "whacking 

 big cheroot." Perhaps you ran over to 

 Alandalay by train, slid down the river 

 by boat to Prome, and rejoined your 

 steamer by train to Rangoon. At least, 

 assuming you to be the average tourist, 

 this will nearly comprise your impression 

 of Burma. 



Yet you will have seen nothing of the 

 Burmese people nor of Burmese country. 

 Your guide was probably a Madrassi (of 

 no caste) ; all the gharri drivers are In- 

 dians and many shop-keepers are from 

 India or Armenia. Some Burmese there 

 are (in the small shops you find their 

 women), but they are quite metamor- 

 phosed, brought up to date, as it were. 



The commercial development of Burma 

 has been for the most part Scottish. It is 

 British, but not English, and therein lies 

 a distinction familiar to all who know 

 England and the English. One arrives 

 in Burma .only via English settlements 

 and by English steamers, and usually 

 without that enthusiastic interest which 

 disposes one to incur discomfort and to 

 overcome difficulties. 



Burma is governed as a department of 

 India. Her taxes are all paid into the 

 Indian treasury, and her Scottish resi- 

 dents complain bitterly of the policy 

 which doles out such funds as are ap- 

 propriated for local improvements and 

 the development of the country. Noth- 

 ing has been done in the way of road 

 building except for a few miles around 

 Rangoon. There are no good roads in 

 fact and no spring wagons outside the 

 large towns. For conveyance in the 

 country there are only the native bullock 

 carts, without springs, and here are none 

 of the trotting bullocks of India, even 

 could one endure a gait faster than a 

 walk over the rough trails, which are the 

 only roads. 



The Burmese have not reached the stage 

 of development requiring hotels ; hence 

 there are no Burmese hotels. Those in 

 the large towns, for foreigners and sup- 

 ported by foreigners, are bad and very 

 dear. 



Yet Burma is a country of surpassing 

 interest, and once outside the triangular 

 tourist's path, bounded by Rangoon, 

 Mandalay, and Prome (none of which is 

 typically Burmese), one may journey at 

 will among a simple, happy, kindly peo- 

 ple, still very young and wholly unspoiled 

 by contact with the West. It is a country 

 of mystery, where nats (nature spirits) 

 still dwell in mountains, trees, streams, 

 and temples — a country inhabited by 

 many tribes, widely diverse in customs 

 and physical characteristics, living as they 

 lived 1,000 years ago ; tribes among which 

 the Burmese are only one, but happened 

 to be in the ascendant at the moment of 

 England's conquest of the country. 



Much of this country may be reached 

 by the Irrawaddy and its estuaries, where 

 a comprehensive service is established. 

 For such a journey only a single servant 

 is necessary, as in India or Ceylon. 



THE NECKSSITY 01^ A PERSONAL SERVANT 



If the traveler arrives from the East, 

 he will secure a "boy" at Rangoon. Usu- 

 ally the "boy" will be a Madrassi, a no 

 caste— that is, an outcast — and so may 

 do any sort of work without trenching 

 on his religious principles. He is usually 

 a worthless, no-account fellow, whom no 

 resident, white or native, will employ. 



If Ceylon is visited first, the Cingalese 

 servant from there will be far and away 

 superior to the Indian. The writer kept 

 his Cingalese "boy" throughout India 

 and Burma with satisfaction. He had 

 "caste," and so did not carry luggage, 

 prepare baths, nor do other menial labor, 

 but he saw efficiently to the doing of all 

 these things, waited on us at table, cared 

 for our chambers, made our purchases 

 of supplies, paid the coolies, arranged 

 the tips; in fact, assumed full responsi- 

 bility for all petty details, leaving us free 



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