Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/616

by a Burman for use or ornament—his ear-rings, cap of ceremony, horse-furniture, the material of his drinking-cup, if it be of gold or any other metal, the colour and quality of his umbrella (an article in general use, and one of the principal insignia of rank), whether it be of brown varnished paper, red, green, gilded, or plain white, the royal colour—all indicate the rank of the person; if any of the lower orders usurp the insignia of a higher class, he may be slain with impunity by the first person who meets him; and so exclusive is the aristocratical spirit of the higher orders, that such a usurpation would be sure of punishment.

When a merchant acquires property he is registered by a royal edict under the name of Thuthé or “rich man,” which gives him a title to the protection of the court, while it exposes him also to regular extortion. The priesthood form a separate order, who are interdicted from all other employment, and are supported by voluntary contributions. They are distinguished by the yellow colours in their dress, which it would be reckoned sacrilege in any other person to wear. A formal complaint was made, during the conferences with the British previous to the peace, because some of their camp followers were seen dressed in yellow clothes. There is also an order of nuns and priestesses, who make a vow of chastity, but may at any time quit their order.

The free labouring population consist of proprietors or common labourers; and they are all considered the slaves of the king, who may at all times call for their services as soldiers, artizans, or common labourers. Hence a Burman, being the property of the king, can never quit the country without his especial permission, which is only granted for a limited time, and never to women on any pretence. The British and others who had children by Burmese women during a residence in the country experienced the greatest difficulty, even with the aid of heavy douceurs, in taking them along with them. The Dhammasat numbers seven classes of slaves, of which the most important are prisoners of war, and those who have mortgaged their services for a debt. The class of outcasts consists of the slaves of the pagodas, the burners of the dead, the jailers and executioners (who are generally condemned criminals), and the lepers and other incurables, who are held in great abhorrence, and treated with singular caprice and cruelty. They are condemned to dwell alone, and in a state of disgrace; and any man who is infected with leprosy, however high his rank, is forced, by continual bribes to the officers of justice, to purchase an exemption from the penalties which attach to him. Prostitutes are also considered as outcasts. The women in Burmah are not shut up as in many other parts of the East, and excluded from the sight of men; on the contrary, they are suffered to appear openly in society, and have free access in their own name to the courts of law, where, if ill-treatment is proved, divorce is readily obtained. In many other respects, however, they are exposed to the most degrading treatment. They are sold for a time to strangers; and the practice is not considered shameful, nor the female in any respect dishonoured. They are seldom unfaithful to their new master; and many of them have proved essentially useful to strangers in the Burmese dominions, being generally of industrious and domestic habits, and not addicted to vice.

Revenue.

The taxes from which the public revenue arises are in general rude and ill-contrived expedients for extortion, and are vexatious to the people at the same time that they are little productive to the state. The most important is the house or family tax, which is said to be assessed by a Domesday Book, compiled by order of Mentaragyi in 1783. The amount varies greatly in different years, and to a remarkable extent in different districts. Next in order is the tax on agriculture, which is also very irregularly imposed. A large part of the cultivated land of the kingdom is assigned to favourites of the court or to public functionaries in lieu of stipends or salaries, or is appropriated to the expenses of public establishments, such as war-boats, elephants, &c.; and this assignment conveys a right to tax the inhabitants according to the discretion of the assignee. The court favourites who receive these grants generally appoint agents to manage their estates; they pay a certain tax or quit-rent to the crown, and their agents extort from the cultivators as much more as they can by every mode of oppression, often by torture. Besides this stated tax, extraordinary contributions are levied by the council of the state directly from the lords and nobles to whom the lands are assigned, who in their turn levy it from the cultivators, and generally make it a pretence for plunder and extortion. Taxes are also laid on fruit-trees, on the sugar palm, on the tobacco-land on the teak forests, on the petroleum springs, on mines of gold and precious stones, on the fishery of ponds, lakes, rivers, and salt-water creeks, on the manufacture of salt, on the eggs of the green turtle, and on esculent swallows' nests. As the consumption of wines, spirits, opium, and other intoxicating drugs is forbidden by law, they cannot, of course, be subject to any tax.

Arts and manufactures.

In many of the useful arts the Burmese have not made any great advances, while in others they are possessed of no small amount of proficiency. The architecture of religious edifices erected in the Middle Ages is of striking and effective character, though only of brick. The general style bears evidence of an Indian origin; but numerous local modifications have been introduced. Perhaps the feature of most interest is the use of the pointed arch as well as the flat and the circular, and that at a time long anterior to its employment in India. Modern buildings are chiefly of wood; palaces and monasteries, carved with extraordinary richness of detail, and often gilt all over, present an aspect of barbaric splendour. The dagobas, or solid domes, which form at once the objects and the localities of Buddhist worship, are almost the only brick structures now erected; and these are often gilt all over. In carving the Burmese artisans display unusual skill and inventiveness, and give full scope to the working of a luxuriant and whimsical fancy. As in our mediæval woodwork, sometimes there is often displayed a large amount of satirical and facetious caricature. The application of gilding is carried to an extravagant extent; as much as £40,000 is said to have been expended on this article for a single temple. The finest architectural monuments are to be found in the deserted city of Pagán; and many of the most magnificent are greatly shattered by earthquakes.^[1] The number of religious buildings, small and great, throughout the country is enormous; at every turn the traveller finds pagodas or kyoungs (monasteries), or lesser shrines, or zayats (resting-places for travellers founded by the Buddhists in order to acquire religious merit). The ordinary buildings are of a very slight construction, and the architect is prevented from giving them any great height by the whimsical prejudice of the people against any one walking over their heads. The whole process of the cotton manufacture is performed by women, who use a rude but efficient species of loom, and produce an excellent cloth, though they are much inferior in dexterity to the Indian artisans. Silk cloths are manufactured at different places from Chinese silk. The favourite patterns are zigzag longitudinal stripes of different colours, and the brilliance of the contrasts is frequently gorgeous in its results. The dyeing of the yellow robes of the priests is effected by means of the leaves of the jacktree.

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1. For full details the reader ought to consult Captain Yule's chapter on Pagán.