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 So hearty and wholesome is the love of life among these joyous optimists that it is difficult to persuade women to enter the religious houses. The Burmese girl does not wish to be a nun; she wants to taste all the pleasures of a healthy, normal life. She loves men, and wishes to bear children. Here is her sphere—in family love, the home, and domestic employments. The men are more inclined to pietism, and they often elect to live as monks. There are more monasteries than nunneries in the country.

Burmese women have the "rights" that they demand, and they have not been forced to fight for them. Buddhism has little or nothing to say for the position and the treatment of women. It is taken for granted that men are men, and women are women, and that the sexes want one another with an equal ardour. Sex equality comes simply and naturally among these cheerful, rational people.

There are very few divorces, for domestic concord is almost universal. Occasionally, there are tragedies, in spite of the prevailing felicity. Sometimes a girl commits suicide through unrequited affection, or through jealousy. Where love is accepted seriously we may expect to encounter the violent manifestations of passion.

Marriage is the destiny of every Burmese girl. But, as Mr. Fielding points out, the union of a pair