The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1891-06-06
BURMESE WOMEN.
They Hold the Purses and Manage
Their HusbandS-Belles
aud Cigars.

advanced of the East. The
Japanese wife is addressed as slave by
hershusband. and sine V appears
to help him entertain his guests. The
Corean madam has no right to go on
the streets except after dark, and the
small footed Chinese girl is the slave
OF her mother-in-law. She has no
rights that her husband is bound to
respect, and he can sell her when he IS
tired of her. The Siamese girl
though a step higher in the order of
human rights, has to support the
family, and she is. according to the
law. the property of the king. The
Malay woman is secluded in the
harem of her husband. and the mil
lions of women of India, Egypt and
Turkey are never seen upon the
streets. The Burmese girls are the
brightest characters of the country,
and their CAV silks, bright eyes and
graceful figures fill every place with
color and beauty. They mix with
the men and they have equal rightsin
property and social standing with
their husbands.
During the first years of the mar
riage the man must live with and
help support his mother-in-law, and
he is by no means the master of the
house. The woman holds the purse.
She is the business nan OF the family,
and though at times it is said that
wife beating takes place in Burmah,
such instances are few and far be-
tween. | heard of one today in
which a man, enraged by a shrewdish
wife, attempted to strike her. A
crowd gathered around and she taunt-
ed him, saving:-'Beat me beat mel"
The man raised his stick, and
brought it down again and again
within an inch of the wonan's back,
but did not dare to strike her.
The business of Burmah is
aged by the women as much as is the
business of France. The city of Ran
COON has about 140, 900 people. and it
is the centre of trade OF Lower Bur
NAH. Much of the native business is
done in immense baZars covering
many acres. These bazars are rooted
with heavy wood or iron to keep out
the sun, and some of them cover sew
erai blocks. Their interiors are
divided up into streets, which cut one
another at right angles.
These streets are walled with Eases
of goods of all kinds. which rise from
the back of a ledge five feet and as
high as a chair seat. Upon these
lodges the bazar's sellers sit with their
goods piled around and behind
them, and in these bazars the Bur-
1mese women compete with merchants
from all over the east. They are as
sharp at a bargain as the Parsee mer-
chants and the turbaned Mahometans
who have stalls adjacent to them, and
the Burmese manufactures of all kinds
| are sold by them. Without education
in arithmetic and without knowing
how to read and write, they a count
profit and loss like so many lightning
| caIculators. l bought some silk of one
| of them today, The price first asked
was three times what / finally gave,
and the girl who sold me made, |
doubt not, % per cent. profit.
She was a typical Burmese beauty,
and she sat with her legs crossed fiat
on the straw mat of her booth, with
shelves of silks behind her and with
gay colored cloths on the floor all
around her. In her mouth was a Bur
mese cigar at least a foot long and a
full inch in thickness. She offered
me q Whit when l looked at her goods,
but upon my refusing she handed the
| cigar over to her sister and attended
to business. Pulling down one piece
| of bright silk after another. shespread
them out on the mat before me and chat
ted and laughed while she sold. Girls
mature here at thirteen and fourteen,
and this bazaar daisy was perhaps six
teen year old. She was as straight as
a post and as plump as a partridge,
and her rich Burmese dress was well
fitted to show out her beauties.
The Burmese women are clad in
two garments. One of these is a
jacket of silk or cotton which reaches
to the hips. and the other is the
tamehn. This a wide strip of bright
silk about five feet square, which
is wrapped around the waist and the
limbs and fastened with a twist at the
front. 1t has the effect of a tight
American ~pull-back without the
hustle, put on without underskirts.
The opening of the skirt is at the
front, but the women walk with g
throwing out OF bare heels, which pre-
vents the folds opening TO an immod-
est degree. The wealthier ladies wear
their dresses so long that they trail
upon the ground. The colors are
those of the rainbow, and the mosi
delicate of yellows, of pinks and o.
blues are used.
Burmese women are treated well il
the family, and they are the equals o.
the men in family affairs. They have
their say in all business matters, anC
the only place in which their inferior
ity is noticeable is in religion. The
Burmese are Buddhists, and a Bud
dhist woman has no chance to go K