BURMA AND THE BURMESE 9
A 19th century description of Burma, Burmese culture and Burmese customs

BURMA AND THE BURMESE 9

enter the houses, but, as they always arrive on some thieving expedition, their visits are very strongly resented. White ants, mosquitoes, and rats are some of the pests which are to be found in every house; flying bugs, and other disgusting insects, pay occasional visits. Several times during the early part of the rainy season I saw an army of ants on the march. It was really a wonderful sight, for as they advanced, about six abreast, they cleared their path of all animal and vegetable matter, leaving a long, barren trail which somewhat resembled a miniature railway cutting. Each army must have contained some millions of ants, and at their approach all other insects hurried quickly away. At intervals of about six or eight inches were large black fighting ants, and had another army of ants been met, these black ones would have given battle to their fighting ants. Unfortunately, I never managed to see an engagement, but several naturalists have witnessed some very fierce fights between them. The Burmese dress is most attractive, both men and women being very partial to bright colors. The men wear colored lungyis, or skirts, bright waistcoats, white jackets, and gorgeous turbans, in which their long black hair is done up. The women are still more picturesque, although

it is doubtful whether the cheroots, a foot long and two inches in circumference, which are nearly always in their mouths, add to their personal beauty. All the women, or at any rate all the young ones, have long jet-black hair, which they do up into a tight little chignon and adorn with a pink, white, or yellow flower. When their hair gets thin, they buy false hair and wind it up in their own. A Burmese lady will ingenuously take her hair down arid do it up again in the main thoroughfare, without attracting the slightest attention. Their tarnehns, or skirts, are always of some bright color, and frequently daintily flowered, but being somewhat tightly drawn round the legs, cramp their movements. But their little steps, and a curious way they have of turning their elbows towards the body and swinging their hands outwards give them a decidedly quaint and coquettish appearance, a fact of which they themselves are well aware. Unlike the women of other races around them, they enjoy perfect freedom, more freedom perhaps than any women in the world. They go about wherever they please, unattended and unveiled. They keep stalls in the bazaars on their own account, and get up < 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12 > Henry Charles Moore, "Burmese Traits" 1893