In order to gauge with any accuracy the general effects of Buddha’s doctrines in controlling such propensities to evil as his devotees may have possessed, some knowledge of their condition before the promulgation of such teachings would be indispensable; and I am further prevented from forming a judgment in the matter by the fact that my ignorance of their language, at the period of which I am writing, afforded me but scant opportunity of mixing with the inhabitants.
Moreover, we were then virtually at war with them. We had, it is true, fulminated a “Proclamation,” annexing the country up to a certain point; but, ipso facto, beyond a few places along the river, we could not call an inch of territory our own. A guerilla warfare was maintained for some time, accompanied by reprisals and cruelties common to fighting in all countries and ages, no matter whether the combatants are barbarians or civilized. On the whole, however, I hardly think the Burmese displayed any special aptitude for inflicting torture, although a general idea somehow obtained currency that they were facile princeps in this respect. Most assuredly they never tarnished their nationality with such hideous and indelible stains as the natives of India brought on themselves during the whole ghastly course of the Mutiny, by unparalleled atrocities that sent a shudder through every land, branding them with infamy throughout all time. What more natural than that the Burmese, knowing from bitter experience their own inability to cope with us in the open field, and occupying every coign of vantage in their jungle fastnesses, should pounce down upon us when least expected?
We received more than one salutary lesson in this wise, and had to retreat under difficulties, often with loss; nevertheless, though the enemy were smarting under frequent repulses, no after acts of wanton cruelty could be brought home to them, such as are but too common when the civilized nations of Europe fly at each other’s throats, mowing down human life as if it merely represented so many fields of standing corn ripe for the harvest.
Irrespective, then, of its many glaring faults, there cannot exist a shadow of a doubt as to the beneficial influence which Buddhism exercises over its votaries in many ways, and we can scarcely feel surprise that these should number nearly one-third of the human race.
The doctrine of metempsychosis, if it taught them nothing else, brought home to them a widespread respect for life in all its forms: they evinced considerable reluctance to subjecting a certain human parasite to the microscope for fear of injuring it; they would not beat a dog that had offended, because of some fancied resemblance between its bark and the voice of a departed friend. Absurd such extremes, no doubt, yet fraught with signal benefit to Buddhists in general, far more so indeed than any opposite condition.
Another very conspicuous feature in their daily life was the unselfishness inculcated by their religion. In India the representatives of the “lords of creation,” both Hindu and Mohammedan, were exacting to a degree, first satisfying their own hunger, and then allowing wife and children to regale themselves with the “residue of the remainder,” the former being generally chastised, often killed, if the food were not prepared exactly to her lord’s liking, or ready the moment he returned home. Among the Burmese, however, father, mother, and children would share alike; and even if only one cigar were forthcoming, it would be passed round for every member of the family to take a few whiffs.
The moral code of Hinduism was at a far lower level than that of the other religion.
Almsgiving, to priests in the absence of beggars, was much more general in Burmah. As in every community, and under every form of religion, there were the good, bad, and indifferent. They were more unanimously guided by one light than any other nation I ever knew, and their religion, for all its exaggerated asceticism, partook more of the practical than that of many a professed Christian.
They could, it is true, boast a number of past-masters in the gentle art of appropriating other folks’ goods, yet during the whole of my stay in their country I never lost a single article, though many of the dwellings in which I resided had not even a single door! Scarcely, however, had I returned to India when I missed a bag of rupees and my watch and chain. Other crimes were equally uncommon among them. I think my position enabled me to judge of this; and I cannot recall a single instance of necessity for post-mortem on a victim of violence or poison; whereas in India not a day passed without one, and their multiplicity rendered life a burden. Corpses, masses of corruption that had run the gauntlet of a hundred miles of hot sun, were brought at all times to one’s private dwelling—one met them on the road—everywhere!
Nothing appeared to give such exquisite delight to some of our civil authorities as having plenty of dead bodies brought forth from every nook and corner to be examined and reported on, and if dead bodies were by some rare mischance not forthcoming, they would exhume a few bones, which were then decently shunted from pillar to post as evidence of a murder some score of years old!