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BIRMAH.
institutions. There, no individual, through
fear of
personal defilement, is deterred from acting in every
ease according to those rules which secure entire freedom
of intercourse between man and man. While, in
many other countries, official rank, wealth, and re-
spectability of character, create the only lines of dis-
tinction, the path to honour and influence is here
equally open to all, without the least distinction.
" The priests have their religious peculiarities; but
even these have no relation to caste. These peculiari-
ties are seen in their monastic habits, their yellow
apparel, their shaven heads, their unshod feet, their
sober, meditative demeanour, and in their morning
perambulations to receive the voluntary contributions
of the people. Their monasteries may be considered
as the
literary as well as the religious institutions of
the country. Into these, without restricting them-
selves to any limited term, young men in their novici-
ate enter, considering it as a merit which will hereafter
meet its sure reward, to deny themselves indulgences
enjoyed by other men, to assume the yellow cloth, to
deprive the head of that ornament which nature has
bestowed, to taste the fancied sweets of abstraction,
and employ their minds in committing to memory
extracts from the books they esteem sacred. The age
or previous character of candidates for the priesthood,
forms no objection to their admittance. Present in-
tention is the only subject of investigation, and this
is done by an established catechetical form. Persons
of all ages, from the mere youth to the hoary head,
assume the sacred habiliments and character: even
conjugal and paternal affection are not unfrequently
smothered by the superstitious wish of self-consecration
to this sacred order. To reject a wife and family, to
abandon them to distress and suffering, are esteemed