Burmese Sketches - Khamkoo

«r8
BURMESE SKETCHES.
As connected with the Thingyan ceremony, we must not
forget to mention about the popular belief among the
Burmans that the l^hingi/an period is the best time for tattooing,
not only the common marks on the legs prescribed by
national custom but also the tattooing of senis or red marks
which sometimes impart invulnerability to the tattooed person.
There are different kinds of ses or charms as ^kaya theik-di^—
freedom from all physical pain, and ^ piyatheik di '—amatory
charm. * Kayatheikdi ' again consists of * bullet proof,'
'sword proof' * stick-proof ' etc. We must give credit to
Maung Po's Western education for his disbelief in all this
charlatanry and quackery; but, nevertheless, according to the
inexorable tonzan (custom), he had to submit himself to the
tattooing of his legs.
CHAPTER IX.-COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE.
When a writer of fiction has created his hero, he is generally
expected to find him some heroine. In conformity with this
custom, we must, we suppose, evolve out of our inner consciousness
some heroine for Maung Po.
In the foregoing chapter we have already had occasion
to allude to one Ma Me of the Water Festival renown. She
was a chaste girl, and tall, comely, and lady-like ; and being of
respectable birth her hand was sought after by the fashionable
beaux of the village. Ma M^ and Maung Po had known each
other from their childhood. They had played together in
those golden days of boyhood and girlhood, and their partial
estrangement in later days was due to the coyness and maiden-
ly reserve on Ma Me's part-
Ma M^ was the only daughter of U Pi : the sole heiress of
his boats, houses and paddy fields. U Pi was a great conservative.
He hated every irmovation introduced by English-speaking
Burmans. Once at an Ahlu he gave vent to his hatred by
saying " I can't bear to see- young Burmans booted and stockinged
as if they are suffering from some cutaneous disease. "
At first, he had a strong objection against his daughter receiving
English-speaking young Burmans as her visitors because, he
said, " they are heretics and have no respect for their parents,
sayas y kyaungs and pagodas ; and besides, having no moral
backbone, they are given to gambling, and such vices. '*
But U Pi was not aware that in Ma Me he had a reasoner
with the tongue of an Eve in the matter of eloquence and persuasive
power. Ma M^ represented to her father that Maung