“THE BURMESE LADIES ARE FAMILIAR WITH THE MYSTERY OF THE CHIGNON, AND WITH THE MANUFACTURE AND USE OF COSMETICS, FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE COMPLEXION, TO SAY NOTHING OF SCENTS AND ARTIFICIAL FLOWERS.”
CHAPTER XVII.
FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS.
It was during our second year in Burma that we opened two new mission stations, one at Kyaukse, and the other at Pakokku. Kyaukse is a town twenty-nine miles south of Mandalay, on the new line of railway, and the centre of the most fertile and best irrigated district in Upper Burma. Our work in Kyaukse has, from the first, been in charge of one of our Singhalese preachers, and its record, up to the present, has been chiefly of preliminary work.
Pakokku is a town of some size and commercial importance, as a river port and place of trade. It is situated at the junction of the Chindwin river with the Irrawaddy, and is likely to rise in importance, as the country behind it becomes more settled, and increases its productions, and as the trade on the Chindwin is developed. The Pakokku district was, during the earlier years of British rule, the scene of much disturbance, but this did not prevent us from taking the opportunity, afforded by the development of Pakokku, to establish our mission there. Mr. Bestall commenced the work there in the latter part of 1888. As the circumstances at Pakokku illustrate one or two points in mission work, I may with advantage relate them.
On his arrival at Pakokku Mr. Bestall was waited upon by the elders of the town, who were also members of the municipality, and men of influence, and he was politely informed that Pakokku did not want Christianity, and it would be better if he would not preach it amongst them. Here was a damper for the new missionary; they were determined, it seemed, not even to give him a hearing. He received them with good humour, and assured them that he would not teach them anything but what was for their good. He took a bamboo house to live and carry on his work in. It was not deserving of any better name than a hut; but for about a year he lived there, preached there, taught school there, and built up a singularly powerful influence, especially considering the disposition with which the people first greeted him. He commenced a school. At first the children who came to the mission school did so under difficulties, having to encounter the maledictions of the monks, and to go in face of the cheerful prospect, held out to them, of descending, in the next birth, to the condition of vermin, if they persisted in receiving the instructions of the missionary.
SCHOOL-CHAPEL AT PAKOKKU.