Photo by Helen Woodsmall IJldredge 



A BRIDE AND HI^R ATTENDANTS AT A KACHIN WEDDING I BURMA 



When Kachin girls are of marriageable age they leave their homes at night, with the 

 consent of their parents, to stay at a house set apart for the purpose. There they meet the 

 bachelors of the village and choose a husband from among them. The formal wedding 

 takes place when the girl is quite sure which man she wishes to marry. After the ceremony 

 she walks to her new home between rows of pigs, which are slaughtered as she passes, their 

 blood wetting her feet. 



owner and family often live aboard (see 

 page 839). 



Here and there wallow herds of half- 

 wild water buffalo, and now and then 

 appear enormous elephants, beside which 

 the native and his tiny hut look like toys. 



The moonlight nights are entrancing, 

 with the gauzy mist over the paddy fields 

 (rice is ''paddy" till it is harvested), 

 while from some near-by pagoda comes 

 the musical sound of gong or hollow 

 tube as the kneeling worshiper attracts 

 the attention of his gods. Everywhere 

 one hears the rhythmic "thump, thump" 

 of wooden tamps in long hollow troughs 

 as the rice is threshed, often to the sound 

 of music; for the Burmese dearly love 

 to work to such accompaniment. 



THE PAGODA CITY OE THE OI.D KINGDOM 



Going up the Irrawaddy, there is noth- 

 ing of special interest below Mandalay, 

 except the ruins of Pagan, which richly 

 repay a visit. Here, scattered over a 

 considerable area (some 8 miles along 



the river and 2 miles wide), lie the ruins 

 of a city the story of whose building and 

 decay vie in romantic interest with that 

 of Carthage. Here were once thousands 

 of pagodas, some very beautiful; and a 

 few, in a fair state of preservation, still 

 exhibit the varied styles of the peculiar 

 architecture of the time and country. 



It was about the beginning of the 

 Christian Era that Pagan was founded; 

 but ijOOO years later, Anawrata, King of 

 the Burmese, made it the great city 

 known to history. It seems that a hostile 

 tribe dwelling on the shore at Thaton 

 had received direct from Ceylon — center 

 and head of the Buddhist faith — the pure 

 doctrine and teachings of Buddha. The 

 Burmese king sent to this tribe, asking 

 for copies of these "books of the law/' 

 but was refused. 



Therefore he went in person with an 

 army, destroyed the capital of this selfish 

 people, and took back with him not only 

 the books of the law — seven elephant- 

 loads of them — but the king's wives, his 



S43 



