Page:Walter Matthew Gallichan - Women under Polygamy (1914).djvu/142

 the congratulations of everyone present. A professional ear-borer is in attendance, who pierces a hole in the maiden's ears, so that she may wear from henceforth the large ear-rings that announce her attainment to womanhood.

Boys in Burma, upon reaching puberty, undergo a ceremony of tattooing the legs with numbers of figures and artistic devices. There are various theories in explanation of the high position of women among the Burmese. Mr. Ferrass, who has given study to this question, remarks, in a letter to C. Gasquoine Hartley :—

"There is evidence to show that at one time Burma was as densely populated as other fertile lands. A sort of War of the Roses prevailed there during the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, which reduced the male element enormously. The women had to take up all the agriculture and manufactures. They learned to become independent, and, having learned it, stuck to it. The character must have much to say to it, for there are African tribes in which the women are driven to do all the work, and are in consequence not more independent, but less so than elsewhere. The Burman woman gives one the idea of being less