The morning news., 1899-01-17
A PARADISE FOR WOMEN.
In Burmah They Are Practically the
superior of the Men.

Superior of the Men.
From the Ladies' Realm.
The Burmese are different from other
Eastern women. Burmah is a woman S
paradise There is no necessity to have
women's rights associations. A woman
is the equal of a man There are no ha-
rems, and no restrictions to love-making
except Irritation and kissing, which are
indecorous. All the business of Burmab
IS done by the women, while the men
stay at home to smoke and mind the ba-
bes. Every woman has a shop of some
sort and when her husband is not kind
she gets a divorce. She is probably bet
ter off than she was before Indeed. the
Burmese woman has far the best of it.
Yet when she goes 10 the pagoda it Is al
ways her wish that ia her next existence
she will be a man. The Burmese woman
is petite, and, though at first her features
seem strange and are not attractive, you
! soon get used 10 them. Every girl is an
artist, and she dresses artistically and
in bright, sunshiny colors. She wears a
square, loose-fiting, overlapping white
jacket, short in sleeves Her frock is a
piece of red or yellow or green silk tied
tightly, so that she walks with short,
m.ucing steps. The mold of the figure is
distinctly shown, but, as every girl walks
with a curious twist of the heel, there is
| nothing immodest
In Burmah, as in other lands, the pride
of a girl is her hair, and if it reaches to
the ground she has reason to be conceited.
She never wears bonnet, but there is al
ways a rose or some other flower stuck in
the folds of her treSses She is foad of
| jewelry, necklaces, bracelets and rings.
! but she is never Guilty of showiness. AS,
/ in the old days, our grandmothers and
| great-grandmothers used to turn a piece
| of silver over in the palm of a gypsy to
hear about some tall, fair man who would
| soon return from long voyage and make
them happy forever and ever so the Bur-
mese girl consuits witches about her fu-
lure husband, and wears charms which
she believes win attract certain youth.
Every Burmese boy is tattooed about
| the limbs. He knows that no nice girl
| VIII look at him till he has mass of tat
| too designs for, among other things,
! these signify that he must have undergone
much pain, and is therefore brave man.
| Sometimes a girl will have tattoo mark
! placed between her eyes. This is not Of
ten but only when she is afraid she may
! lose the Elections of her beloved. Be
! sides, with this tattoo mark, every girl
| feels chat she cannot possibly die an old
| maid. But if she has not the mark, and
there is a prospect of her being "on the
| shelf she win cut away the hair above
her ears, and this is a public sign thai
she would be infinitely obliged if somebody
would marry her.
As soon as she can toddle she starts
smoking. She smokes all through life and
! with her last breath Will probably puff
smoke. A Burmese cheroot is very mild
/ in flavor, but it makes amends in size. 1t as
anything from six inches to a foot in
| length and so thick that a winsome maid
ems mouth is stretched to the utmost. A
/ cheroor is seldom out of a Burmese girl S
mouth, and she puffs with the unceasing
regularity of an English girl munching
chocolates l have seen a little Burmese
! boy slide up to little girl and look sheep
| ishty al her till she offers him puff at
/ her cheroot, just as a London boy will dc
| TO his sister who owns an apple. For sew
eral people to smoke from the same che
root is quite the usual thing, and half a
dozen girls will sit in circle chattering
! and passing the torpedo-sized cigar
| around.
When first L went to Burmah 1 naturally
threw away my cheroot when had
enough. But afterward 1 always pre-
sented 1t with a bow to some non-smoking
| Burman, for in Burmah to give some one
| else your half-smoked cigar is as great an
honor as in Persia for your host to pick
tit-bit of stewy meat from his dish
! and stick it into your mouth with his
fingers.
There is much juvenile sweethearting
| among the youngsters of Burmah But a
| girl must give up such nonsense when she
| reaches u or 13 years of age, for then ii is
/ time for her he serious md crfx
thoughts to possibly being married. The
! transition stage in England from girl to
! young lady is the adoption of long skirts
! and the doing up of the hair. In Bur
NAH ii is when the ears are pierced The
ceremony is marked by great feast to all
her girl friends. The day and the
hour are fixed by a soothsayer
and then in the midst of the jubila-
! ton, the girl as seized and the needles run
through the lobe of the ear, and the
more she screams the louder all her friends
| chatter, and the native musicians outside
| get hot in banging douby hard at their in
struments. A piece of gold wire is usually
| passed through the ear, but later on thick
er material is used until there is quite a
| large hole, maybe half an inch in diane
] ter; and in this the girl-or young lady. as
! she is now-wears a tube, either of gold
| studded with precious stones or amber, or
! if she IS very poor, colored glass. After
the ear-boring a Burmese girl begins 10
| put on airs.
Love making in Mandalay is very much
| the same as itls in Bayswater A Young
man and young woman, by a strange CO.
incidence, are always meeting at friends
houses, or they happen to meet at pagoda
| feasts or at pwes, or native performances,
and people begin to remark the coinci-
dence and say things; and when the maid
en- is nteTogated on the point she proba-
| bly, bushes. When 1t is understood the
couple are to be married the young man
| does love making in the evening; but he
| never sees his sweetheart alone. She has
always three or four girl friends with her.
| and so all the nice things he wants to say
must be said I'm their presence.