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National Geographic : 1913 Jul
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Photo by Helen Woodsmall Eldredge A BRIDE AND HER ATTENDANTS AT A KACHIN WEDDING: BURMA When Kachin girls are of marriageable age they leave their homes at night, with the consent of their parents, to stay at a house set apart for the purpose. There they meet the bachelors of the village and choose a husband from among them. The formal wedding takes place when the girl is quite sure which man she wishes to marry. After the ceremony she walks to her new home between rows of pigs, which are slaughtered as she passes, their blood wetting her feet. owner and family often live aboard (see page 839). Here and there wallow herds of half wild water buffalo, and now and then appear enormous elephants, beside which the native and his tiny hut look like toys. The moonlight nights are entrancing, with the gauzy mist over the paddy fields (rice is "paddy" till it is harvested), while from some near-by pagoda comes the musical sound of gong or hollow tube as the kneeling worshiper attracts the attention of his gods. Everywhere one hears the rhythmic "thump, thump" of wooden tamps in long hollow troughs as the rice is threshed, often to the sound of music; for the Burmese dearly love to work to such accompaniment. THE PAGODA CITY OF THE OLD KINGDOM Going up the Irrawaddy, there is noth ing of special interest below Mandalay, except the ruins of Pagan, which richly repay a visit. Here, scattered over a considerable area (some 8 miles along the river and 2 miles wide), lie the ruins of a city the story of whose building and decay vie in romantic interest with that of Carthage. Here were once thousands of pagodas, some very beautiful; and a few, in a fair state of preservation, still exhibit the varied styles of the peculiar architecture of the time and country. It was about the beginning of the Christian Era that Pagan was founded; but I,ooo years later, Anawrata, King of the Burmese, made it the great city known to history. It seems that a hostile tribe dwelling on the shore at Thaton had received direct from Ceylon-center and head of the Buddhist faith-the pure doctrine and teachings of Buddha. The Burmese king sent to this tribe, asking for copies of these "books of the law," but was refused. Therefore he went in person with an army, destroyed the capital of this selfish people, and took back with him not only the books of the law-seven elephant loads of them-but the king's wives, his 843
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