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National Geographic : 1913 Jul
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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE and fraternities from Ceylon were wel comed, given separate quarters to live in, and permitted to "write, wrangle and ex communicate each other to their heart's content." The end of the 13th century saw the fall of Pagan, and it has ever since remained a deserted city. FLOATING DEPARTMENT STORES ON THE IRRAWADDY At Mandalay begins a journey into the country of the hill tribes, at war with each other till within a few years. It is said that "head-hunting" has not even now entirely ceased. From Mandalay the journey up the river should, by all means, be made by cargo steamer. Not only does the cargo boat stop at tiny villages and at many points where one sees no signs of a village, but she tows, lashed alongside, a barge nearly as large as herself. This barge and the great after-deck of the steamer form one big "department store." Space is rented to native merchants, who go back and forth each trip, supplying the native with every thing he needs, from sarongs to betel. Each merchant, in his few square feet of allotted space, arranges his wares exactly as in the little booth along the village street. Hundreds of natives swarm aboard at each stopping place, carrying baskets and bags for their purchases. One is reminded every hour of the day from how many and diverse elements is to be welded the Burmese nation of the future. All originating from the same parent stock (except, perhaps, the Selung tribe), the various tribes have through the centuries contended for possession of lands, hunting and fishing grounds, for life of the simplest form, till their char acteristics have become as distinctive as if of different races. There prevails, too, in most of the clans a curious system of endogamy, which is or was very strictly enforced. Only the people who live in certain groups of villages, for instance, may intermarry, or in some cases only cousins are permitted. The half-grown boys are separated from the girls and are kept apart till married. The Burmese, though in the ascendant, are really one of many tribes making up the population of Burma. THE MANY TRIBES THAT INHABIT BURMA Here are the stocky, picturesque Shans, with their bright plaids, heavily bedecked with brass and silver buttons, bells, and other ornaments. The Kachin women wear a score or more belts of narrow hoops, stained black and falling over the hips in a manner to require frequent ad justing. They come from the Shan States to the East; are rather attractive in form and feature; eaters of lizards, of beetles, of snakes-in fact, of every thing except human flesh, which is for bidden. Here are (so-called) white Karens, heavy and stolid and very dirty, of fairer skin than the Burmese and with a more distinctly Mongolian eye. They take kindly to Christianity, whole villages at a time, as also do the Red Karens, a tribe less numerous, small and wiry, with broad reddish faces. Heavy drinkers these, somber in mien, formerly very wild and savage, they have been reduced from stealers of men to stealers of cattle. Here are men and women of many clans or tribes, their characteristics in form, features, and dress sufficiently marked, but so varied and complex as to render classification difficult except after study and a longer acquaintance. The females of one branch of the Karens and Palaungs wear brass rings around their necks, arms, and legs, weighing, it is said, 50 to 60 pounds. The neck rings, as thick as the little finger, are put on the girl in infancy, four or five rings at first and others added as fast as she grows, till 18 or 20 keep the neck always stretched (see page 851). And so one journeys on and on, each day bringing new scenes, new types of people to study, and all at least I,ooo years behind the epoch in which we live. Everywhere are pagodas-great pagodas, little pagodas, all sorts and sizes of pago das, to fit the purses of the people who sought to "gain merit" in their building. The Burman is not provident. If he has money he spends it at once. He builds a "rest home," a pagoda, a shelter for a water-jar at the roadside for the wayfarer, and keeps the jar filled with water; always he gives to the monks, 852
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