BURMA AND THE BURMESE 4
A 19th century description of Burma, Burmese culture and Burmese customs

BURMA AND THE BURMESE 4

priests. The leaves are placed between two wooden boards, and made into a volume by a string being passed through both ends of the covers and manuscripts. A few rare books are written on sheets of ivory, which are stained black, the characters being enamelled and the margins beautifully gilded. All the books belonging to a monastery are kept in handsomely gilt and varnished boxes made of teak. There are scarcely any books on science, art, or travel, but there are several on medicine. The doctors, who are grossly ignorant, are divided into two parties, one trusting solely to diet, and the other to medicine. Diseases are divided into ninety-six kinds, with several subdivisions, and the medical books describe these diseases and the treatment necessary for their cure. Nearly all their medicines are taken from plants, and most of their prescriptions have been in use for many generations. Surgery is a science of which they know absolutely nothing, and all deformities, congenital or otherwise, are left to take their course. Amputation is never attempted, although in the days of the Burmese kings it was frequently performed, deserters from the army being punished by having both their legs cut off, and then being left to bleed to death. The Burmese idea of the arrangement of the

universe is exceedingly novel. They maintain that the world is not spherical, but a mighty plain encircled by a chain of lofty mountains. In the centre of this plain stands Mount Meru, resting on three huge carbuncles, and resembling a cask floating end uppermost, half of it being elevated above the sea, and half of it descending below. Around Mount Meru are seven chains of hills, and between these chains are seven rivers, clear as crystal, but unable to support even the lightest feather upon their waters. The height of the first range of hills and the width and depth of the first river are the same. The second range is half as high as the first, and the second river half as wide and half as deep as the first one. In fact, the more distant the hills and rivers are from Mount Meru, the smaller they become, the third range and river being half the size of the second, the fourth half the size of the third, and so on. In the middle of the ocean, around Mount Meru, are four great inhabited islands, the Eastern, the Western, the Northern, and the Southern, and each of these has five hundred smaller islands belonging < 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12 > Henry Charles Moore, "Burmese Traits" 1893