Burma . ia andother countries with a plutocracy and a proletariate arenot paralleled among the Burmans. Nevertheless in-dividuals amass tens of thousands of rupees, which for the most part they spend on works of religious merit. Monogamy is the received and almost universal practice in Burma. Second-wives are taken by a proportion of the officials and men of wealth. Hence it comes that the Burmans wonder more at the moderation of Europeans than at such license as they indulge. This license is not nearly so great as in India, but it is more open, corresponding to the higher status of the women
Burma . ia andother countries with a plutocracy and a proletariate arenot paralleled among the Burmans. Nevertheless in-dividuals amass tens of thousands of rupees, which for the most part they spend on works of religious merit. Monogamy is the received and almost universal practice in Burma. Second-wives are taken by a proportion of the officials and men of wealth. Hence it comes that the Burmans wonder more at the moderation of Europeans than at such license as they indulge. This license is not nearly so great as in India, but it is more open, corresponding to the higher status of the women of Burma, and thus it provokes more scandal in comparison. Unions of this sort among the Burmans are by mere mutual consent. A separate es-tablishment in a different quarter of the town is maintained for the second wife or concubine (inaya-ngi). Her children are under no disability, but she is not acknow-ledged by the first, and generally older, wife {mayaji), whose husbands love she is 154. an 72 BURMA said to have stolen. The vast majority of couples go through hfe faithfullyand helpfully. The best influences of regular family life are developed. Thedissolutions of marriage which take place are chiefly on account of incompati-
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookidcu31, booksubjectethnology
