The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1889-08-09
WOMEN IN BURMAH.


They Are the Equals OF Men i'm All Affairs
of the Family.
Burmese women ara treated well in
the family and they are the equals OF
the men in family affairs. They have
their say in all business matters and
the only place in which their lnferl-
Ority is noticeable is in religion. The
Burmese are Buddhists, and Budd-
hist woman has no chance to go to
Heaven. save by her soul at death
passing into the body of man. If she
is wonderfully pious during this life
such TRANSPORTATION many take place.
and note that the chief wOrshipers at
the pagodas here are women. Budd-
hist teachers put women much lower
in the scale of morality than man, and
they maintain that the sins of one
woman are equal to the sins of
5000 of the worst men that ever
lived. There are about 200, 900, 900
Buddhist women in the world and
none of these have any other hope of
Immortality than this. Nevertheless,
/ am told that the Burmese women are
more honest than the men, and that
their business promises are more to be
trusted They are not educated, as a
rule, and it is only lately that there
have been schools in Burmah for wOm-
en-. The Baptist missionaries are do
ing great deal in this direction, and
visited a female seminary:here which
contained about one hundred girls
They were very bright-lOoking girls,
too. and the president of the school
told me that many of them could speak
three languages and that they were
fully as bright as the average Amer
lean girl During my stay an English
spelling match was gotten up for my
entertainment and class of thirty girls
were spelled down. They were all
clad in the Burmese costumes and
bare-fOOted, bare-headed, and with
these tight dresses about their limbs
they stood and spelled the words
almost as readily as the teacher could
utter them. They had q queer pro-
nunciation and accent, but they did
remarkably we'll, and two of the girls
remained on the floor for full half
hour, going almost through the spell
ing book in that time. AS the girls
missed they one by one went back to
their seats, some laughing and some
pOuting. But the two who remained
to the last tired out their teacher and
as she said enough" they walked of
proudly kicking out their bare heels as
they lifted them from the floor in this
approved Burmese fashion, which
serves to keep the dress closed in front,
The Burmese woman has few of the
troubles and pleasures of New En-
gland housewife. All of her cooking
is done out of doors at this time OF
year, and her range never gets out of
order. She builds her fire on the
ground, and her cooking utensils con-
sist of two or three earthen pots.
These and jar of water, with a CO.
coanut ladle, make up the kitchen
furniture, and our Burmese wife is not
troubled with table spreading nor dish
washing. She is never worried about
her flour aor her baking powder. The
Burmese use neither knives nor forks.
Their staple food is rice, and a huge
platter of this is cooked for
the family and placed upon the
floor. In addition there is a bowl
OF curry, a kind of soup. gravy-like
mixture. which is seasoned with fish
and pepper, and which is very hot.
The family squat around the rice dish,
and each has his own little bowl fo1
curry, and larger one for rice Every
one helps himself, putting his fingers
into the rice platter and taking as much
as he can squeeze up in his hands. The
food is conveyed from the bowl to the
mouth with the hand. and at the close
of the meal every one is expected to
wash his own dishes. No drinking is
done during the meal and at the end
each goes to the water jar and rinses
out his mouth. l have seen many
families at meals. and in no case have
l seen chop sticks or knives and forks.
The Burmese dinner is thus a perpetual
picnic. G. Carpenter, in Louisville
COurier-Journal.
How Halr.Cloth lie Mazda