A thousand miles on an elephant in the Shan States

by Holt S. Hallett

At times a youth serenades a girl alone, accompanying himself upon a peculiarly shaped two-stringed banjo; at other times he is accompanied by the village band. If the lad considers that he has won the lady’s affection, he asks his parents, or the kumlung of his family, to obtain the consent of her relations, and to arrange for the marriage.

If an illegitimate child is born, twenty-four rupees as well as the spirit-fine has to be paid to the kumlung of the girl’s family, and the man must likewise provide a sacrifice of an ox, or pig, or fowl, according to the requirement of the spirit of the woman’s family. No other claim can be made on the man, and the woman has to support the child.

According to Dr M‘Gilvary, the custom of levying the spirit-fine is strictly adhered to amongst the nobility as well as amongst the people. As an instance, he told me that on sickness occurring in the palace at Zimmé inquiry is at once made, and if any breach of delicacy has occurred, the male culprit is fined, and the spirits of the royal family are appeased. In case of the act having been a breach of the seventh commandment and the act has been between a serf and a slave of the palace, the man must either pay the spirit-fine and seventy-two rupees, the legal redemption price of the woman, or marry her and become a slave. The culprit, if a noble, is merely mulcted in the spirit-fine required by the spirits of the family, and is free from other charge. In cases of adultery, forty rupees has to be paid to the injured husband, as well as the spirit-fine. If the husband refuses to receive his wife back after her misconduct, he must hand the forty rupees received by him to her family, who must receive her. The Zimmé Shans, as a rule, are a chaste people, and the few soiled doves in Zimmé have flown there from Siam.

The marriage ceremony consists of paying the spirit-fee in the presence of the kumlung of both families, and drawing out an agreement for the payment of the ngeun kŭn soo, the sum a man has to forfeit if he divorces his wife. Both women and men amongst the Shans can divorce each other at will; but divorces without ample cause are looked upon with disapproval by the people, and the ease with which the marriage-tie can be broken has not led to experimental marriages as it did amongst the ancient Romans. If a woman divorces her husband, she has first to purchase the soo-han, or right of divorce, which seldom costs more than fourteen rupees; and in case of a divorce, the children pertain to the woman, except in the case where the husband is a slave, when the master has a right to one male child, or, in the absence of male children, to one of the other sex.

In the case of a woman marrying a slave, the master has a right to one male child, or, if there is no male, a daughter. If the slave of one man marries the slave of another, it is the custom for the master of the wife to purchase the husband. If the husband’s master refuses to part with him he can claim his freedom.

The judicial price of a man slave is fifty-four rupees, and of a female slave seventy-two rupees. Amongst the warlike races of the hills the opposite rules, the value of the male being greater than that of the female; but in the Shan States, where the woman does most of the work, the woman is decidedly as a worker worth more than the man.

In cases of debt, a man can either pay the debt, the interest of the debt, or serve his creditor in lieu of the interest. It is optional for a man to serve or pay the interest, unless a special agreement has been made. If a man owes more than he, his family, and possessions are worth, or having sufficient, will not pay, the creditor informs the court, which enforces the claim by putting the debtor in chains until the debt and court fees are paid. Men often linger out their existence in slave-bondage.

Any person may settle in and cultivate land in the Shan States that is not already under cultivation, and does not become a serf to the chiefs unless he marries a woman of the State; and even then he can remain free, with his wife, and any family that may be born to them, if he pays seventy-two rupees for her redemption. Unless this redemption money is paid, no woman is allowed to remove from the country.

All the Zimmé Shans, except the nobles, are serfs, but have the right to change their allegiance from one lord to another. This right is a great check against oppression, as the more serfs a prince has, the more powerful he is, and the more chance he has of becoming the future king of the State. On his marriage a male serf changes his allegiance to the lord of his wife’s parents, and resides near the wife’s family. Thus in the old days clans were formed, patriarchs became chiefs, and relations serfs. Captives likewise strengthened the community, for although they themselves were treated as slaves, their descendants would in time merge into the body of serfs. Slaves taken as wives must tend to influence the breed of the people, otherwise it is difficult to account for the difference in type between the Burmese Shans and the Siamese.

In Siam the right of changing their lord has been taken away from the people, the majority of whom are classed as prai-luangs, or Crown commoners, and all of whom, outside the Chinese and subjects of foreign Powers, are serfs of the Government, and are placed in classified gangs under grinding Government masters. A prai-luang must either serve for a month thrice in a year, or pay an exemption tax of ten dollars and eighty cents each year. The hardship and oppression that accrue to the people under this rule is thus referred to by the Rev. S. J. Smith in the preface to his translation of the Siamese ‘Laws on Slavery’:—