Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume III.djvu/471

Rh never very dark complexion, coarse, lank, black hair, abundant, and more beard than their neighbors the Siamese. The women are in general well formed, rather disposed to corpulence, and of a lighter complexion than those of Hindostan. The costume of the men differs little from that of the Chinese—a tight vest with long sleeves, and a velvet or satin robe falling to the feet; the laborers often have only short trousers. The dress of the peasantry is mostly black, yellow being a sacred color, and worn by priests only.

—Several distinct tribes inhabit the Burman dominions. The Burmans or Mranmas, as they style themselves, the rulers of the country, claim to have been originally celestial beings who descended to earth, where they gradually degenerated. The Salain live between the Salwen river and the Galladzet and Anapectomu mountains. The Shans, resembling the Siamese, are scattered over the E. and N. provinces. The Cassayans live chiefly in the capital. The Yo, probably a Chinese tribe who adopted Burmese customs, live on the Irrawaddy. The Kayrens or Karens, inhabiting a hilly tract between the Salwen and Sittoung, bear great enmity to the Burmans. Various Tartar tribes live in the north. The ordinary houses are made of bamboo and matting thatched with leaves or grass. Those of the priests are of a superior kind and built somewhat after the Chinese model. The temples are of different styles in different provinces. At Pugan they are heavy, broad, and surmounted by a spire; in the S. provinces they are pyramidal, and adorned with many figures of sphinxes and crocodiles. They are all richly decorated and gilt.—The language spoken by the bulk of the population is the Burmese. It belongs to the monosyllabic class

of languages, but words of several syllables have been introduced from the Pali, from which also the circular-formed writing is said to have been borrowed. The Burmese has been erroneously defined by some as a dialect of the Chinese, with which it has as little affinity as with the Sanskrit. The pronunciation often differs from the writing, the words being either abridged, or where a harsh-sounding letter stands, it is softened in pronunciation. To point out the difference between words spelled alike but having different pronunciations and meanings, there are two signs placed either under or after the word. A dot placed under the word gives it a long soft sound; two dots after the word give it a short abrupt sound. The Burmese language is characterized by its monosyllabic roots and its want of grammatical forms; yet this monosyllabism is almost lost sight of by expressing a thing by two words, one of which gives its general and the other its special meaning. There is no distinction between nouns and verbs except in the particles joined to the word. There is no inflection of words. Substantives and adjectives are formed by the aid of particles which by some have been styled affixes; these stand after the word, and between them the sign of the gender and plural (tó) is placed. The sign of the plural is also used in the formation of the plural of personal pronouns, which always appear in their original form, and are employed as affixes, but always stand before the verb. The plural, moods, and tenses of verbs are also formed by the aid of these particles. The passive is formed from the active by the addition of an aspiration; or the auxiliary verb shi, to become, is used. There have been recognized four moods, the indicative, imperative, interrogative, and gerund, and three tenses, the present, past, and future. Adverbs are formed by the repetition of the adjective. The Burmese literature is very rich. There are many translations with commentaries from the Pali. The popular language has also been considerably developed. Domestic annals and traditions are not without their importance, and there are many songs and epic poems. The temples and convents have large collections of books. The Bible was translated into Burmese by the American missionary Judson in 1835-'7.—The Burmese are Buddhists by faith, and have kept the ceremonies of their religion freer from intermixture with other religions than elsewhere in India and China. They believe that the religion was introduced by Gautama, the Burmese name for Buddha. Toward the close of the last century the Burman state religion was divided by two sects, or offshoots from the ancient faith. The first of these entertained a belief similar to pantheism, believing that the godhead is diffused over and through all the world and its creatures, but that it manifests itself in its highest stages of development in the Buddhas, who appear