THE ADVANCED WOMEN OF BURMA

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 56, 29 November 1907, Page 3

THE ADVANCED WOMEN OF BURMA

The Burmese woman is clover, witty, wellinformed,, one of the shrewdest-, of business persons, usually an excellont housekeeper, as well as a good merchant. Her two errors seem to be: First, in marrying John Burman, who is generally lazy and unworthy of her: and, second, in submitting to the medical tomfoolery that the Burmese, for all their intelligence, still .practise. I might add for a third, if ono more be needed, the smoking of the Burmeso cigarette, which tends to twist out of shape her handsome mouth: vThis cigarette, by the way, is a.monstrous thing, often eighteen inches in length, and an inch and a quarter in diameter. • The Burmese woman not only manages all tho materia! interests of her housohold, but she keeps the Buddhist faith intact. Without her influence it may be'doubted if John Biirmari would care very much. He is too indolent and too. fond of his ease in smooth water.. But the women are strict in their performance of religious duties; you can see them' at all hours praying in the shrines where not often you see the men. If this theory abont the women is correct, if is wonderful testimony to their strength of mind, for Buddhism in Burma is rock-ribbed and 'apparently unassailable; and thon, in ,the last analysis, it must be to the womrin that we owe the beautiful pagodas, the excellent monasteries, and the gein-like shrines that dot this-pleasant country.—Charles E. Russell, in "Harper's."