He From Blackwood's Magazine. BURMESE WOMEN. details through him. All this is told | travagantly the achievements to come by way of apology to Wordsworth when that great work is finished. But eighteen months later, when Crabb it would be brutal to grudge such a Robinson made up the quarrel. Words- salve to the remorse which is always worth, of course, disavowed the offen- ready to rise up in his mind, as the sive words, though he could not quite death of the albatross came back to disavow the substance; and if Cole- his mariner. The letters, indeed, are ridge had applied to him at once, the often so plausible that the reader, who quarrel might have been nipped in the does not learn the facts from outside, bud. As it was, it became one of the may easily miss the real point; and it "four griping and grasping sorrows" is perhaps, therefore, permissible to of his life-a mysterious phrase in a point out that with a little study they letter to Allsop which long puzzled his may be made to yield more remarkable biographers. It is creditable to the revelations than lie on the surface. persons concerned that after all the gossip the story was so long kept from public notice; but we can read it now without regret. Nothing could better illustrate Coleridge's character. had suffered, he says, more from his "amiable propensities than from his worst faults and most erroneous habits." That is the natural effect of his strange paralysis of will. He could love Wordsworth so warmly and sincerely as to suffer agony from a belief of his friend's unkindness. He could weep and faint and pour out his sorrows to others, and cultivate the morbid feeling till every allusion became a torment; but he could not make the one effort of asking for any explanation. It is easy to weep with sympathetic friends; but it requires a certain exertion of will to put to a friend the embarrassing question: "What did you mean by it?" NOWHERE under the sun has any nation accorded to its women such absolute freedom, such entire command of their lives and property, as have the Burmese. They stand in every way on an absolute equality with men, as far as law, as religion, and as custom are concerned. Just as no conquest has ever obliged the Burmese to resort to feudalism, so it has never caused the seclusion of the women, nor been the reason of one-sided laws of inheritance. In the face of the law man and woman are alike. Girls share equally with boys in all inheritance, and they inherit absolutely. There are no trus| tees between a woman and her property, and when she marries she retains it. Her husband has no control over it at all, neither has he any legal control over her. From her childhood up she is free. Parentage has never been another form of slavery in Burma, as It would take Coleridge's own power of ingenious analyzing and moralizing to follow out these tortuous workings of a nature so rich in emotion and intellect, and so absolutely devoid of volition. Nobody could lecture more it has been elsewhere. Children are sagaciously on his own defects, point not so much ordered as guided and out the evil results, and even suggest cared for, and when comparatively the remedy. The charm of the man young they are practically given conis that in all the strangely various, and trol over their own doings. Not withsometimes markedly keen, emotions to out advice carefully and usefully given, which he gives utterance, there is no not without every precaution against ill touch of morose or bitter feeling; at that care can devise, but there is little most, he shows a certain annoyance at command and no compulsion. Chivthe success of men of inferior ability; alry, which praised women as gods and he is a little apt in the retrospect to treated them as slaves, never came to exaggerate his own past achievements, Burma. No Burman lover sings his as well as to over-estimate more ex-mistress as something too good for this VOL. VI. 811 LIVING AGE. They are not so universally educated to read and write as are the boys, because they cannot go to the monastery schools, where all the boys are taught. Yet, nevertheless, nearly all the women of the class above the peasants can read and write, and many of the latter can too. world, and then treats her as some- | conscious, rarely coquettish, and their thing infinitely inferior to himself. voices are soft and sweet. Their religion has never considered them as the source of all evil, has never warned man against them as snares to lead men to hell, and no pope has ever called them the "sole hope of the Church." There has been no secondrate literature to give them false ideals of themselves, of man, and of the world. They have always been held for And they have no accomplishments. what they are, and they have had free- They do not play any instrument, they dom to find their own place in a very are not taught to sing, though many real world, unfettered by conventions sing ballads correctly and naturally. and rules. They have always had fair Of dancing, of sketching, of the use play, both from men and from them- of the globes, they know nothing at all. selves, and they have been held the But of all household matters they are best judges of what will soil them. thoroughly acquainted. They can all No artificial ideals from long past ages weave and cook and sew, and some have been held up to them as eternal can embroider. And they understand copies; it has been left to their own the life around them. Nothing is more good sense and to the eternal fitness of surprising than to find how well even things to determine what is womanly the young girls know the men and and what is not. Thus they have women that they meet, how clearly found what under the varying circum- their sweet eyes see the world about stances of life is the best life for them, them. The opinions and thoughts of a and as circumstances change so will girl are always worth hearing, for they they. Of all women in the world none are founded on what she sees, they are are more womanly than she is, none no dreams of a night of ignorance, possess in greater strength all the they are beautiful as only the thoughts nameless attraction of a woman. She that come from knowledge can be. is no Helen, she is no Aspasia, least of all is she an Amazon; but to those who know her she is everything that is lovely and desirable in womanhood. And when I say that Burmese women are not beautiful it must not be supposed that they are ugly. Beauty in women is a matter of convention. What was beautiful two hundred years ago in England is not beautiful to-day. So new-comers to Burma wonder at those who speak of charm in a woman who has a fair-sized waist, a small bust, and who wears a loose jacket. Nevertheless, it is there, and no one who knows them fails to discover it; but no one can describe it. It is the light within that shines through every look and gesture and illumines their whole life. Their complexion is fairer than that of the men, and they have large brown eyes - those restful eyes that men love. Their manners are quiet and self-restrained, never self Burmese boys are at an early age formally admitted to Buddhism, in a ceremony that takes place at the beginning of Lent. They are made inmates of the monastery, perhaps for three months, perhaps for a day only, but they are always admitted. But with girls it is not so. Neither do they ever become nuns. Old women sometimes take the vows; but it is the last thing a Burmese girl would ever think of. Probably the absence of any leisured class is the principal cause of this. The amusements of a girl are not very many. There are the pwès to which she may go, where she will hear plays of all kinds, and there are boat-races and festivals of different sorts during the dry weather, and she will have many friends to see and talk to, but of games they have none. In every household the daughter has her appointed work. In all but the richer merchants' houses And the girl will receive roots; and if a very favored suitor come, she may even light his cheroot for him, and thus kiss by proxy. the daughter's duty is to bring the | courtesy. water from the well evening and morn- them all, and she may give them cheing. It is the gossiping-place of the village this well, and as the sun sets there come running down all the girls of the village. As they fill their jars And is the girl alone? Well, yes! they lean over the curb and talk, and .To all intents and purposes she is it is here that is told the latest news, alone; but there is always some one the latest flirtation, the latest marriage, within call in the house, for no one can the little scandal of the place. Very tell who may come to the verandah, few men come. Water-carrying is not and some meu, we know, are but their duty, and there is a proper time wolves in sheep's clothing. But the and place for flirtation. So the girls girl carries on her love-making herself, have the well almost to themselves. and she is free to marry whom she Almost every girl will weave. In every house there will be a loom, where the girls weave their dresses and those of their parents. And very many girls will have stalls in the bazaar, but of this I will speak later. Other duties are the husking of the rice and the making of cheroots. Of course in the richer households there will be servants to do all this; but even in them the daughters will frequently weave, either for herself or for her parents. Almost every girl will do something, if it be only to pass the time. will. No one will object, provided only he be of good reputation, and able, with such assistance as she can give, to maintain the household. And if there should be any difficulty? Well, then there is usually an elopement, and a ten days' scandal. And often, too, there is an elopement for no reason at. all, save that hot youth cannot abide the necessary delays. easily hidden in a favorable place. You only want a jar to cook it, and there is enough for two for a week. Or it is brought day by day by some trusted friend to a place previously agreed on. For life is short, and though to-day be to us who can tell for the morrow? During the full moon there is no night, only a change to silver light from They do not marry very young. golden. And the forest is full of deFrom sixteen to twenty is the usual light. There are woodcutters' huts in age, but it is often later. It entirely the ravines where the water falls, soft depends on the girl herself. It is in beds of torn bracken and fragrant her own hands, whom she marry and grasses, where great trees make a shelwhen. There is a delightful custom all ter from the sun. And for food, that through Burma, an institution in fact, is easily arranged. A basket of rice, called "courting-time." It is from with a little salt-fish and spices, is nine till ten o'clock, more especially on moonlight nights, those wonderful tropic nights, when the whole world lies in a silver dream, when the little wandering airs that touch your cheek like a caress are heavy with the scent All up and down the forest there are of flowers, and your heart comes into flowers for her hair, scarlet dak blosyour throat for the very beauty of life. soms, and pale orchid sprays, and jasThere is in front of each house a mine stars. And for occupation verandah, perhaps three feet above through the hours each has a new the ground, and here the girl will sit in world to explore, full of wonderful, the shadow of the eaves, sometimes undreamt-of discoveries, lit with new with a friend, but usually alone; and lights and mysterious with roseate her suitors will come and stand by shadows, a world of "beautiful things the verandah and talk softly, in little made new" for those forest children. broken sentences, as lovers do. There So that when the confidant, an aunt, may be many young men come, one by maybe, or a sister, meets them by the one if they mean business, with a sacred fig-tree on the hill and tells friend if the visit be merely one of that all difficulties are removed, and their friends called together for the | my tent, there came to me the mother marriage ceremony, can you wonder of the girl, and sat down before me, that it is not without regret that they and said she had something of great fare forth from that enchanted land to importance to impart; and this was ordinary life again? that all had been arranged between It is not always the man who is the the families, who had found work for proposer of the flight. I had a Burmese servant, a boy who may have been twenty, and he had been with me about a year, and was beginning to be really useful. He had at last grasped the idea that electroplate should not be cleaned with monkey brand soap, and he could be trusted not to put up rifle cartridges for use with a twenty-bore gun. And he chose this time to fall in love with the daughter of the headman of a certain village where I was in camp. He had good excuse, for she was a delicious little maiden, with great coils of hair, and the voice of a wood-pigeon wooing in the forest, and she was very fond of him without a doubt. So one evening he came to me and said that he must leave me that he wanted to get married, and could not possibly delay. Then I spoke to him with all that depth of wisdom we are so ready to display for the benefit of others. I pointed out to him that he was much too young, that she was much too young also she was not eighteen and that there was absolutely nothing for them to marry on. I further pointed out how ungrateful he would be to leave me; that he had been paid regularly for a year, and that now, when he was at last able to do something besides destroy my property, he was about to go away. The boy listened to all I had to say, and agreed with it all, and made the most fervent and sincere promises to be wise, and he went away after dinner to see her and tell her, and when I awoke next morning my servants told me the boy had never returned. the boy whereby he could maintain some They must have been in hiding close by, for it was early next morning that the boy came into my tent alone and very much abashed, and it was little time before he recovered himself, and began to talk freely as he would before, for he was greatly ashamed of himself. But, after all, could he help it ? If you can imagine the tropic night, and the boy full of high resolve passing up the village street, now half asleep, and the girl with shining eyes coming to him out of the hibiscus shadows, and whispering in his ear words - words that I need not say; if you can imagine all this, you will understand how it was that I lost my ser vant. They both came to see me later on in the day, after the marriage, and there was no bashfulness about either of them then. They came hand in hand, with the girl's father and mother, and some friends, and she told me it was all her fault. She could not wait. Shortly afterwards the headman" Perhaps," she said, with a little came to say that his daughter had also laugh and a side-glance at her husdisappeared. They had fled, these band-"perhaps if he had gone down two, into the forest, and for a week we heard nothing. At last one evening, as I sat under the great fig-tree before with the thakin to Rangoon, he might have fallen in love with some one there, and forgotten me. For I know that they are very pretty, those Ran- | babies they carry this prefix, and margoon ladies, and of better manners riage does not alter it, so that there is than I, who am but a jungle girl." And when I asked her what it was like in the forest, she said it was the most beautiful place in all the world. nothing to denote whether a woman be married or not. Marriage does not alter her status in any way. She retains her own property, and any property she may acquire subsequently is also her own. Property acquired jointly with her husband is held jointly. If you inquire who is the owner of a garden, you may be told it belongs to Maung Han Ma Ni, the former being the man's name and the second that of his wife, and both names are used frequently in business and legal proceedings. But it is not always that a man and his wife are in the same business. They may have totally different pur Sometimes things do not go so well. Suicide for love! we read of it in fiction, do we ever see it? Not in England I think, but I have seen it once and again in Burma. I have held an inquest over the fair innocent body of a girl not seventeen, who drowned herself for love. Only that. He never had cared for her, he never would, for he was in love elsewhere. And so one morning, ere the mist had risen from the water, she gave herself and her hot | despair to the cool forgetfulness of the suits. One may be a cultivator, the great river. other a silk-dealer; the man may be a And I have seen a girl in man's at- pleader in court, the wife may own tire killed in a surprise attack upon an brick-kilns outside the town. Of insurgent camp. She had followed her course there are cases where marriage outlawed lover there, and in the mêlée necessitates the abandonment by the she caught up sword and gun to fight woman of her trade, whatever it may by his side, and was cut down through be; but she can do as she thinks best. neck and shoulder; for no one could There was a friend of mine a Bursee in the early dawn that it was a girl. mese girl-perhaps she was twentyShe died about an hour afterwards; five, and she kept a dainty little and though I have seen many sorrow-silk-stall near the gate of a certain ful things in many lands, in war and great bazaar. She was the daughter of out of it, the memory of that dying girl, held up by one of the mounted police, sobbing out her life beneath the wild forest shadows, with no one of her sex, no one of her kin, to help her, comes back to me as one of the saddest and strangest. Her lover was killed in action some time later, fighting against us, and he died as a brave man should, the best of all deaths. He played his game; he lost, and he paid; but the girl? Marriage is not a religious ceremony among the Burmese. There is a ceremony, of course; but the only necessary and binding part of it is that the couple should, in the presence of witnesses called together for the purpose, eat out of the same bowl. A girl does not change her name. Family names are unknown, and there is no Miss or Mrs. Every woman, married or unmarried, has the prefix of Ma or Mi, which are the same word. Even as a well-to-do rice-merchant, and she kept the stall for her own amusement and profit. This profit must have been considerable, and as she lived with her parents and had few expenses, she was well off. She was very pleasant to talk to, as one passed the bazaar returning from office, or smoked a cigarette with her in the evening in her father's verandah. She was a graceful, charming girl, and she had had many lovers; but she had not cared for any of them, and it seemed to me as if she never would marry. Yet one day she surprised every one by marrying a sergeant of police, whose pay cannot have been a quarter what she made with her silk-stall. I had a long talk with her shortly before the marriage, and I asked her what she intended to do with her silkstall, for her husband was stationed in a guard some thirty miles away, so she could not both marry and keep on her |