Burmese Sketches - Khamkoo

BURMiJSE SKETCHES a^^
And let us now see what sort of a home Maung Po had.
We must say that it was a happy comfortable home — an
Elysium in fact. Maung Po consigned all his household cares
to his better half Ma M^, who was a capital housewife. She
was a good hand at accounts. Under her husband's directions,
she kept an account of all the daily expenses. She superintended
the cooking, managed the servants and personally
attended to the two chubby little children—for by this time she
had become a mother. Ma Me worked day and night in the
house ; she said she was the " Queen of the house " while her
husband must look to getting money for the maintenance of
the family. She was an early riser. She would get up at
5 a.m. every morning and prepare tea or coffee as the case
might be. for Maung Po, who, according to his occldentalized
habits, would not get up till after 7 a.m. The children were
washed at 6 a.m. After this, they were clothed and fed.
The rest of the morning was occupied in preparing breakfast
and eating it. In the day time, there was a stall to attend to,
and numerous bargains to be struck with people who came to
buy paddy—the produce of the ancestral land^. In the evening,
dinner had to be prepared, and children to be put to bed.
Then at 8-30 p.m. punctually, she had to bring a cup of tea
-with plenty of milk to Maung Po, who would be reading some
English books in his ' study ' with his legs cocked up in an
easy chair.
The two principal features of Maung Po^s home were, a
good and select hbrary in the Inside, and a delightful little
garden on the outside. The library was pretty well stocked
with the works of the principal English poets, essayists and
historians. It contained also the principal works in Burmese
literature. He was a great reader—and he could well afford
to be so with plenty of money, and plenty of time hanging on
his hands.
The garden outside was tastefully decorated after the European
fashion. There were gravel walks and pleasant sheets
of cool water. There was also a fountain fed by a mountain
rill. The garden arbour was the scene of pleasant memories
to Maung Po. It was there that he arranged some of his
love-meetings with Ma M^ in his youtiger days, and now, in
his maturer years, it served as a retreat from the heat of
summer, where he could read, muse and meditate.
Maung Po's parents, brothers, and sisters had all been
carried away by the cholera which raged a few years ago in