BURMA AND THE BURMESE 8
A 19th century description of Burma, Burmese culture and Burmese customs

BURMA AND THE BURMESE 8

his friends, he engages a troupe of actors and actresses to give a performance in a space which he curtains off outside his house. Scenic effect is entirely dispensed with, the stage being simply a platform decorated with flags. When the actors and actresses have said their parts they step down from the platform to sit among the audience and smoke their cheroots until it is time for them to go on again. No dressingrooms are provided for them, and they are, therefore, compelled to make up before the admiring gaze of the audience. The play is, as a rule, far too realistic to please respectable Europeans, but the Burmese follow the fortunes of the prince and princess the chief characters are almost invariably royal personages with the greatest interest. The performance generally commences at nine oclock at night, and frequently the doings of the hero and heroine are strung out to such an enormous length that daybreak finds the actors still performing and the audience as interested as ever. Sometimes the play is so long that it takes three nights to get through it. With theatrical performances and dances at night - time, and boxing matches, cock-fights, boat, pony, and foot races during the day, the Burmese manage to thoroughly enjoy life, and the

greatest misfortune cannot damp their spirits for any length of time. Fires are of every-day occurrence in the dry season, but John Burman does not excite himself when his house is on fire, or make any great effort to extinguish the flames. When he sees that his house is doomed, lie calmly lights a cheroot and squats down in the road to watch the destruction of his home. His friends and neighbors gather around him to discuss the matter, and when the fire has burnt out they hold a concert almost over the ashes. Most of the houses are built of wood, and erected on piles some eight or ten feet from the ground. During the rainy season the wisdom of so building them is very apparent, especially in some parts of Burma where over two hundred inches of rain are registered during the year. The necessarily open nature of the houses makes them accessible to insects and birds, and bats fly about the rooms as erratically and freely as if they were in some old barn. Lizards are very plentiful, and creep about the walls in search of small insects, which they devour with a sound which greatly resembles a chuckle. Crows, too, frequently < 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12 > Henry Charles Moore, "Burmese Traits" 1893