The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-07-17 00:00:00

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mosquitos were not so bad in the villages as they
were in the jungles, as in the former, people could
protect themselves at night by drawing mosquito cur-
tains around their couches; but in the jungle they
were completely at their mercy. There were also a
great number of flying gnats, who left their wings in
your soup, and were a source of great annoyance.
, They had such an immense amount of rain, and the
atmosphere was, in consequence, so moist and humid
that one didn ot feel dry during the six
months which it lasted. The ivories came
off barmonimns, the backs of books were ruined,
and the walls of the houses were bulged
and swelled out, and then opened in great cracks and
seams on the return of the dry season. With refer-
ence to wild animals, they had the whole tribe of
tigers in Burmah. He (the lecturer) had never seen
a live tiger in India; although he knew from report
that they were very numerous. He had walked
through grass nearly as tall as the sides of that room,
which was called-elephant grass, and when he asked
his guide whether there were any tigers there, the
latter replied, "Plenty." He was very happy to say,
however, he never met with one. There were also
wild cats, which were large and fierce animals, very
different to the domestic animal that we are acquain-
ted with. Teak, which was so extensively used in
shipbuilding, came from Burmah, and it grew in the
mountains and thick jungles of Burmah. Elephant
labour was largely used in the carrying of this tim-
ber from one place to another. After the trees had
been felled the elephants carried the timber up to the
saw mill, and they were very ingenious in doing this.
I They also carried the heasy guns belonging to the
military, and the heavy baggage was carried by them.
They knew when to stop work. As soon as the bell
had sounded for the men to leave work the elephants
left off of their own accord. In their wild state
sometimes an elephant will become a " rogue." .As
soon as he has done something wrens', his comrades
turn him out. He then roams about by himself in a
sullen, discontented manner, tearing up trees, tramp-
ling down rice fields, and doing other mischief, until
he was shot. Then there was another animal-7-a
snake which was about 12 feet long. They had also
six or seven difierent kinds of poisonous snakes, the
bites from which would kill in about half an hour.
More than 30,000 persons fell -s:ctims to the bites of
snakes and other animals during the year, India.
The people of Burnish were very honest. .....They
were different from the people of the west of India
in many respects. In Hindostan the national beset..
ting sin was craft and cunning; in Biumah the be-
setting sin was laziness. A Burmese would ,siot
work hard even if he were paid high wages. Euro-.
peaus might think this very reprehensible on their
part; but he (the lecturer) was of opinion that this
was principally owing to the climate. He (Mr. Trew)
knew that he never felt anything but lazy every day
he was there, and so would his hearers if they were
there. And this wag because it was so hot and so
moist that when a person got up in the morning he
felt as if he had been washed out, he was so very
limp. Notwithstanding this drawback Englishmen
did work, and that was the reason they were like,
hot-house plants, they. sometimes therefore broke
down. The Burmese 0-id not work because they did -
not look upon it as a duty to do so. He looked upon
time as something that he could do as he liked with.
He fishes principally. He also eats leaves and roots
and makes nice curries out- of things that those pre-
sent would not like. Some of those present might
like " Chow Chow," but if they
,knew what it was
made of the's, would not be go long of.it. The Bur-
mese were particularly tallmen. Their hair reached
from the top of their heads down to their knees. He
has a handkerchief tied round his forehead. He had
large holes in his ears, but did not wear ear-rings,
although he sometimes put flowers in them, or the
end of a partially smoked cigar. The Kaffirsbuy up
the brass match boxes and keeps snuff in them. The
Burmese do not shave. They get rid .of what they:
deem superfluous hair in a rather curious way. Every
man carried about with him a pair of tweezers, and
when he feels a hair he pulls it out. His body was
elaborately tatoooed. His dress consisted of a white
jacket, with a piece of silk wound round his body,
which would cost from .22 to .R 3. The silk of Bur-
mah is extremely good. The lecturer here declaimed
strongly against adulteration, which he characterised
as the worst form of robbery. He next exhibited a
a pair of shoes, such as were worn by the Burmese,
and they resembled sandals. When an Eastern came
to a house he slipped off his shoes, and only put
them on again when they came out. He then des-
cribed the process of sowing rice. They all remem-
bered the scriptural phrase which said "Cast your
bread upon the waters, and after many days it will
return to you." This was literally the practice with
regard to the sowing of rice. At the end of the long
rainy season the ploughman went into the field and
stirred up the mud and the water, and the sower
came after him with the rice, and cast them broad-
cast upon the waters, and in a very few days' time it
would show above the ground—first the blade and
then the ear. The seed soon gains strength and it
matures the grain, and the harvest is come. He next
exhibited a knife which was used by the Burmese for
every purpose—as a weapon of attack and defence,
to chop bamboos, or to pair their nails. The Burmese
were not Christians, and the welkler was they; did not
martyr all the Christians. They had a certain ra-
il= which was good as far as it went, but it was no
substitute for Christianity. He then described the
400 miles trip he had just after he left Rangoon; on
his way to the Carembe country. When he got to
his Journey's end the Carembes were waiting for him
at the water side. They brought a pony for him,
which he having mounted, they set off on their' jour-
ney across the hills. As they were descending the
hills the pony slipped down, and ultimately he was
compelled to walk, and the natives carried his lug-
gage in baskets, which were shingon poles. As soon
as he got to the first village, the inhabitants killed a
pig for him, but he could not eat. He expressed a
wish to have some milk, and although they did not
drink it themselves, they particularly wished to oblige
him. They therefore brought him a large buffalo to
milk. This was an animal which had never seen a
white man before, and it showed its aversion to him
in the most positive way. The Burmese buffalo was
a very different animal to an English cow. In the
first place it had no hair, and its hide was thick like
that of a rhinoceros. They stand in tanks of mud,
SO as to protect themselves from the insects, and as
the one which they brought to him had just come
out of one of these they might readily imagine it
did not present a very inviting object. Altogether,
he thought it best to decline attempting the feat of
milking such an animal. The lecturer then went on
to speak of Bhuddism, which was the religion of the
Burmese. Bhuddclism was believed in by 32 per
cit. of the whole human race. There weie a great
many more Bhuddists than Christians, and the reli-
gion was 600 years older than the belief in Christ.
About the time of the Prophet Nehemiah the foun-
der of Bhuddism lived. He was a good man who
wished to break. down caste, which even at the pre-
sent day had a very baneful effect over a great por-
tion of India. Polygamy was also the rule of India,
and woman was degraded and debased, and Gobowen
or Bhudda, as he was afterwards called, wished to
alter this. In Burmah, where Bhuddism prevailed,
their° was no caste and no polygamy. After Gob-
owen had commenced his labours he was called
"Bhudda," which means "„the inspired one." His
father was very much opposed to hia going out as a
missionary. Perhaps some of those present would
wonder' where he got his information from, and he
would tell th6m. It was from the Burmese books,
for the Burmese could read and write when the na-
tives of this country were going about habited in
that beautiful garb of blue. paint, which must have
been so very becoming. Resuming his description of
Bhudda, he said that one day the latter saw ail old
man bent down with age, and he said, "Youth,
how .pleasant is it, but youth 'ends in age." He
saw another man bowed down by disease, and he
said, "Youth, how pleasant is it, but youth ends
in sickness." And then he saw a skeleton, and
he said, "youth, how pleasant is it, but youth
ends in death.. He afterwards saw a fakil or her-
mit, and he determined to devote himself wholly
to religion. He (the lecturer) did not believe that
Bhudda ever taught the people to worship images.
Everyone must know how ven 'the followers of
Christ had gone away from what the founder
taught. Those people thirsted for 'knowledge';
they wanted a revolution in fact; and thus abuses
crept in. Now, they found the Bhuddists wor-
shiped images. They, found that there was a '
considerable amount of good in, their belief, but
the good things were wrapped up in a great deal
of evil. They believed that when a man died, if
there was sin upon his soul, the latter went into
one of the lower orders of the animal, and when
the animal died -the soul lived again abetter life,
and then it went to heaven; not as, the identical
soul it was at first, but it became a part of the
great soul of the Godhead. The missionary acted
upon the hint given by these doctrines. They told
them that if they believed in Christianity their
ssuls would be translated to heaven without first
havink t a pass through the body of an animal, and'
also without losing its identity. God had sent his
son Jesus Christ into this world to tell mankind
how this was to be done. They also had a belief
in an Incarnation, but our belief was 'different to.
theirs. They could also take hold of some other
things in their belief. He then exhibited a
.Bur-
mese image sof Bhudda, which consisted of two
larger and three smaller figures. He said five was
with them the perfect number, and the two larger
figures represented Bhudda, who svas being 'con.:
.stantly absorbed into the Godhead, and the three
smaller ones grew up and supplied their place. If .
they were telaisk an intelligent Burmese if lie wor-
shipped that image he would say, "No." .Upon
asking him what use it was to him, he would reply
—as most eastern people did—in a parable. When
he (the lecturer) addressed a similar question-to a"
Burmese, he received the following reply. "If you
ask ,me to look at a particular afar inAhe heavens,
there are a multitude of stars, and I cannot dis-
tieguish the one you mean. You then ask me to
look at the trunk of a tree, and then to raise my
eyes to a branch, and then to look in a line with

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the end of the branch and I should then see the
star. In like manner I look up from the image to
the Great Unseen. The lecturer then gave an
interesting descriptipn of a magnificent Burmese
temple, and of the vows and mode's of living of
the Burmese clergy.
The meeting was concluded with‘the usual for-
mulas.