where dani is cultivated. There are, it is hardly necessary to say, Burmese carpenters and blacksmiths. But the best carpenters are Chinese. The Burman puts up his own house of bamboo, timber, mat and thatch; and Burmese masons build pagodas and other sacred edifices.
Weaving etc. The home industries of cotton- and silk-weaving were formerly universal. Every house had its loom whereon the girls wove pasos and tameins, the skirts worn by men and women respectively, and produced textures of bright and beautiful colours. Some of the elaborate silken webs are of exquisite design. It is to be regretted that these have to a great extent been supplanted by imported fabrics often of inferior kinds. Of late, there has been a revival of this occupation. There is a small school of silk-weaving at Amarapura; and silk weaving is now practised with profit. Co-operative credit societies of weavers have been formed and "the industry is regaining lost ground[1]." Gay and graceful umbrellas are made. For a time these were almost entirely displaced by common ugly European articles. But this industry, also, is reviving[2]. Kalaga (curtains) are made of cloth; some of the appliqué work on them is of a high standard. Bags of beautiful design, ornamented with bead patterns, are produced in the Shan country. In the Chin and Kachin Hills are woven saung, rough sheets, useful and of interesting patterns.
Cheroot making is a home industry widely practised. Basket- and mat-weaving are important occupations yielding pleasing and useful products. The delicate thin-byu mats made at Danubyu on the Irrawaddy have long been famous. More than a hundred years ago Symes wrote: "Donabew...is...celebrated for its manufactory of mats, which are made here in beautiful variety, and superior in
