ON THE ROAD TO MANDALAY.
All of us who were singing "On the Road to Mandalay" a few yearsago--and there were mighty few of us who let it alone vocally--willbe a bit surprised to be informed that Rangoon, where the dawn comesup like thunder and other interesting things happen, looks to theapproaching tourist like an up-to-date American business centre.
In fact, according to a writer, the capital of Burma has many Americantowns beat a mile in the civic improvement line. "Its electric-lightedhighways, all broad, neatly paved and well drained; its brilliantlyilluminated boulevards, with rows of graceful, well-trimmed treesbordering both sides; its blocks of buildings, all laid out after acarefully considered plan, showing little of architectural beauty butmuch of austere regularity, astonish the stranger.
"When you take into consideration the fact that Rangoon has a systemof parks and parkways with beautiful shade trees, choice flowers,and crystal lakes, artificial and natural, dotted about them, andthat it provides breathing spaces for people living in congesteddistricts, you cannot but form a good idea of the aliveness of themunicipal corporation. A good horse-carriage service, now being rapidlysuperseded by the trolley, makes transportation easy and cheap. Thecity has provided splendid schools and playgrounds. Yet sixty years agoRangoon was a mere fishing village."
One item from Mr. Kipling's picture of Rangoon referred to theelephants hauling teakwood in "the slushy, squdgy creek." Well, theyare still at it, working with wonderful precision and an apparentsense of responsibility. They don't try to soldier, never get in oneanother's way or mixed up with the machinery, no matter how crampedthey may be for room.
Some of them take the teak logs which have been floated down the riverand tow them ashore. Then they drag them to the sawmills, eitherrolling them with one foot while they walk on three, pushing them withtheir tusks, or pulling them with a chain attached to a breast strap.
Inside the mill an elephant selects a log, picks it out with his tusks,kicks it up to the saw with his toes, then tying his trunk in a kind ofknot around the log, holds it against the teeth of the saw while it ismade into boards, pushing aside the outside slabs as they are cut offand adjusting the log to make boards of the proper thickness.
Then he piles the boards up neatly, standing off to examine the effect,and if he finds a board out of line carefully adjusting it. Sometimes apair of elephants working together exchange peculiar grunts, as if theywere giving and receiving directions.
They are used in Burma for various purposes. The young calves areridden like horses, with a soft pad and stirrups. They are foundespecially valuable in bad country, and may be ridden fifty or sixtymiles a day. A tap on the side of the head, a slight pressure of theknee, or a word whispered in the ear is all that is required to guidethem.
It is not at all a difficult matter for an elephant in prime conditionto outrun a fast horse, but they cannot jump. A deep ditch only six orseven feet wide is impassable to them.
Working elephants are in their prime when they are twenty-five yearsold. They are expensive to feed, it being declared in Rangoon that anelephant eats a quarter of his weight in feed every day. An averageday's food for one is certainly eight hundred pounds.
Socially Burma is unlike other Oriental countries. Men and women--evenyoung men and women--walk together in the streets and mingle in socialgatherings. Courtship always precedes the marriage.
The Burmans are ardent lovers, and when a young man and woman find thattheir parents do not approve of the match they usually repair to thewoods and return after a day or two as man and wife, sure of parentalforgiveness. Marriage among Burmans is an extremely simple affair.The only ceremony performed is the eating together out of the samebowl of rice. Usually a feast is given to the relatives and friendsof the families concerned. No sacrifices are offered, no services areperformed.
The Burman wears a smile on his countenance, laughs and looks uponlife through rose-colored spectacles. Both the women and the menwear rich-hued silken clothes. But while there is gayety there is noindecorum or impropriety.
For women Burma is a little heaven on earth, if we are to believeenthusiastic writers. Mrs. Burman is ubiquitous. Jewelry storescontaining untold wealth in pearls, rubies, and other gems are incharge of women. Markets and fruit stalls are run by women.
At the railroad station a woman sells you the tickets and another oneis ready to take dictation and to do your type-writing. Not long ago awoman stockbroker died leaving a fortune which she had made herself.But the Burmese woman does not let business interfere with motherhood.She runs the shop with one hand and the children with the other.
When she marries the woman retains her own name, and any propertyshe may have inherited or acquired. When divorced she is expected tosupport her children, but this is no hardship for her, since she caredfor them when she lived with her husband. The Burmese child rarely seesthe father, but is brought up to look to its mother for guidance andsupport.
The Burmese woman takes a great interest in public affairs, and theportals of the University of Rangoon have been open to her for a numberof years. Her intelligence, her beauty, her freedom from racial casteprejudice, all make her an acceptable bride in the eyes of foreignerswho go to Burma.
Marriage with a foreigner means as a rule that she can live in plentyand comfort without working. Naturally she looks upon such a marriagewith favor. The Burmans are of Mongolian origin, and consequentlythe Chinese and Burmese marriage produces a virile race. With thisexception the intermixture of races in Burma has not proved desirable.
This is especially so in case of marriages between Europeans andBurmans. The offspring of such marriages are termed Eurasians, whounfortunately seem to be looked down upon both by full-bloodedEuropeans and Burmans.
Almost as difficult a problem as that of the Eurasian is the tobaccoproblem in Burma. Men, women, and children smoke. The cheroot atwhich they almost incessantly puff is eighteen inches long and abouta quarter of an inch in diameter. It is wrapped in a banana leaf, andits mouthpiece consists of bamboo. The Burman tobacco is so strong thatonly one-fourth of the filling of the cheroot consists of tobacco. Thebalance is a mixture of innocuous herbs.
If possible the Burman exceeds other Asiatics in hospitality. Heis par excellence the host of Asia. Any stranger may stroll into aBurman dwelling and demand hospitality for at least three days. Noremuneration is expected. Opposite a Burmese house one usually findsearthen pots of water placed for the use of the traveler, under a roofespecially made to shelter the water from the hot rays of the tropicalsun. These pots are tightly covered with earthen lids, which protectthe water from dirt and dust.
The social life of the Burmans is interesting in the extreme. Theyindulge in boxing matches, pony, bullock, and boat races, cockfighting, splitting cocoanuts, snake charming, and juggling. Chess anddominoes are the favorite games. Theatres are in great vogue. The plotof the play is usually somewhat monotonous, for almost invariably thehero is a prince of the blood royal, the heroine is a princess, and therustics from the villages figure as clowns and jesters.
The dancing, though different from what it is in the Occident, isnot without interest to a Westerner. The motions of the dancers aregraceful and spry. Burman amusements last days and nights. The bestknown secular festival is the pwe.
The entertainment is melodramatic. Comedy and tragedy are introduced,music and dancing are included. The plot of the play is flimsy. Theperformance includes tricks of clowns who are masters of their art andintensely amusing. The musical instruments in the orchestra consist ofa circle of drums, gongs, trumpets, and wooden clappers, and the musicout-Wagners Wagner in its deafening noise.
Many religious festivals are celebrated. Probably the occasion whenpresents are distributed to the priests is the most interesting. Thepeople bring their presents and pile them up outside an alley made ofbamboo latticework. One brings candles, another matches, another brassvessels, etc., as though some previous arrangement had been made as tojust what each one shall give.
/> For the most part the donors are women, and all of them are dressed intheir best. The monks, attended by a boy carrying a large basket, passdown the bamboo alley in single file, and each basket is filled withpresents. A trio of masqueraders with faces blackened, dancing to comicmusic, follows the procession. Anything that has not been distributedto the priests is gathered up by them.