Shans at home . opy of the sacred writings may not be Shans read their scriptures with manifest sin-cerity and delight. In their homes, in rest-houses,in monasteries, or gathered round an open fire, Shansmay be seen listening with reverence to the risingand falling cadence, as their reader chants abirth story of their Lord Gautama, or of the beautyand bliss of Nirvana, pictured as the Home ofHappiness, the City of Gems and Gold, or smilingover semi-religious love songs, when the loversmeet in the sky—when their star palaces come inconjunction—to renew their love in perpetual youth.
Shans at home . opy of the sacred writings may not be Shans read their scriptures with manifest sin-cerity and delight. In their homes, in rest-houses,in monasteries, or gathered round an open fire, Shansmay be seen listening with reverence to the risingand falling cadence, as their reader chants abirth story of their Lord Gautama, or of the beautyand bliss of Nirvana, pictured as the Home ofHappiness, the City of Gems and Gold, or smilingover semi-religious love songs, when the loversmeet in the sky—when their star palaces come inconjunction—to renew their love in perpetual youth. The Chinese Shan literature of the upper princi-palities has been largely drawn from the shows Chinese influence, and many of their legendscome directly from that source. The Kham-ti Shanshave drawn both from their brethren in the southand from the Ahom of Assam, who have come underHindu influence. They have no historical writings ofany value. It is impossible here to indicate the rules for Shan. A MONASTERY. p. 214] A PEASANTS SONG 215 metrical composition. As in English, the metricalforms are bewildering in their variety. There areverses in short lines, and very long lines, in coupletsand quatrains, regular and irregular, with rhymingwords at the end of lines, at the beginning, or any-where between. Many lines in the specimen givenbelow are of unequal length, but all are written accord-ing to definite metrical laws. The late Dr. Gushing,the Shan scholar par excellence, says: The Shanlanguage favours poetical composition, by the modu-lation of its tones, and the abundance of its all religious books are written in a metricalstyle. . These books may be divided into twoclasses, viz. books which are written in a measuredprose, and those that are properly poetical. The following is a peasants song, sung at thebeginning of the rainy season: PI SA NI YA MA(THE BEGINNING OF THE [RELIGIOUS] YEAR) 1. Joyously composing and joining, 2. Humming the measure
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Keywords: ., bookauthormilneles, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookyear1910
