In Thibet, the exchange of scarfs accompanies almost all the courtesies of life. When a visit is paid, scarfs are exchanged; and every letter is accompanied with a scarf, however distant may be its place of destination. White and red are in use; but the former is considered more genteel, and is respectful in proportion to its fineness. These scarfs are soft, thin, glossy, and of dazzling whiteness. They are woven with damask figures, and usually have some sacred motto near the fringe at the ends.
Women of the laboring classes are inured to a great deal of toil. They plant, weed, reap, and thresh grain, and are exposed to the roughest weather, while their indolent husbands are perhaps living at their ease.
The Birmans in their features resemble the Chinese. The women, especially those belonging to the northern districts, are fairer than the Hindoos, but less delicately formed, being generally inclined to corpulence. Their hair is black, coarse, and long. Both sexes color the teeth, the eyelashes, and the edges of their eyelids, with black. When women are in full dress, they stain their nails and the palms of their hands red, and strew their faces and bosoms with powder of sandal-wood, or of a bark called sunneka.
The hair is usually tied at the top of the head, and the fillet worn by people of rank is embroidered, and adorned with jewels. A long piece of silk or cloth is fastened round the waist, and falls to the feet, sometimes trailing on the ground. The upper part of the person is covered by a loose jacket, with long tight sleeves; but the lower garment being open, it is impossible to walk without exposing the limbs, in a manner that would be regarded as very indelicate by Europeans. Wealthy women wear shoes, that turn up with a pointed toe; the peasantry go barefoot. Girls are taught at an early age to invert their arms, so that the protruding joint of the elbow comes inside, and gives the arm the appearance of being broken.
The Birmans have less personal cleanliness than the Hindoos, who, though they seldom wash their garments, consider frequent bathing a religious duty. Though separated from the Hindoos only by a narrow range of mountains, they are strikingly unlike them in character. The Birmans are lively, active, and impatient. Their wives and daughters are allowed the same degree of freedom in social intercourse with men, as prevails in European society. Marriage is a purely civil contract, over which the priesthood have no jurisdiction. The law allows but one wife; but the wealthy usually keep a number of mistresses, who reside under the same roof with the wife, and are subject to her control. When she goes abroad, they attend her, bearing her betel-box, fan, &c.; and when the husband dies, they become the widow’s property, unless he has specifically emancipated them.
The formalities of courtship and marriage are similar to those of India. If the first private proposal be well received by the damsel and her parents, the relatives meet to agree concerning her dowry; the bridegroom sends a present of dresses and jewels, according to his wealth; the parents of the bride give a feast, and written contracts are signed; the new-married couple eat out of the same dish; the bridegroom presents the bride with some pickled tea, she returns the compliment, and thus ends the ceremony.
Divorces may be obtained under peculiar circumstances, but they are attended with a good deal of expense. The women are generally virtuous; for their constant occupation leaves little leisure for the mind to become corrupted. Ladies of the highest rank are busy at the labors of the loom. When the British envoy made a formal visit to the queen’s mother, he found her maidens in the gallery of the palace, weaving with the utmost activity. Nearly all the cotton and silk used in the Birman empire is woven at home by the women. Indeed, they take an active share in the general superintendence both of out-door and in-door transactions. When the governor of Maindu had a large ship on the stocks, his wife was seen to cross the river every morning in her husband’s barge, attended by female servants; she took her seat on the timbers, and superintended the workmen for hours; and she seldom failed to come again in the evening, to see that the day’s task had been completed. The Englishmen, who observed her, said her husband never accompanied her, and she appeared to have no need of his assistance.
But notwithstanding the Birmese ladies enjoy so much more of freedom and confidence than their neighbors, they share something of the degradation imposed upon all Asiatic women. Their evidence is not deemed equal to that of a man, and they are not allowed to ascend the steps of a court of justice, but are obliged to give their testimony outside of the building. A man who cannot pay his debts is liable to be sold, with his wife and children; hence innocent, industrious women not unfrequently suffer most cruelly for the vices or indolence of their husbands. Sometimes when criminals are condemned to death, the helpless wife and children share his punishment. When driven by poverty, the lower class of Birmans do not hesitate to sell their wives and daughters to foreign residents. Women are not considered as dishonored by these circumstances, and seem easily to resign themselves to their lot. They are generally very faithful to their new owners, and render themselves useful by keeping accounts, and aiding in the transaction of business. But foreigners are never allowed to carry these women or their children out of the country. If a vessel were discovered with a Birmese female on board, it would never again be allowed to enter any of their ports.
Orders of monks are established in the Birman empire, and formerly there were establishments of nuns; but, for political reasons, a law was passed forbidding any woman to seclude herself from society by a religious vow.