red often before, but my version is taken
entirely from the Burmese song. It is, as I have said, known to nearly
every Burman.

I wanted to write only what the Burmese themselves thought; whether I
have succeeded or not, the reader can judge.

I am indebted to Messrs. William Blackwood and Sons for permission to
use parts of my article on 'Burmese Women'--_Blackwood's Magazine_, May,
1895--in the present work.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. LIVING BELIEFS 1

II. HE WHO FOUND THE LIGHT--I. 17

III. HE WHO FOUND THE LIGHT--II. 34

IV. THE WAY TO THE GREAT PEACE 46

V. WAR--I. 56

VI. WAR--II. 77

VII. GOVERNMENT 87

VIII. CRIME AND PUNISHMENT 102

IX. HAPPINESS 116

X. THE MONKHOOD--I. 127

XI. THE MONKHOOD--II. 153

XII. PRAYER 158

XIII. FESTIVALS 166

XIV. WOMEN--I. 185

XV. WOMEN--II. 205

XVI. WOMEN--III. 224

XVII. DIVORCE 228

XVIII. DRINK 242

XIX. MANNERS 248

XX. 'NOBLESSE OBLIGE' 256

XXI. ALL LIFE IS ONE 277

XXII. DEATH, THE DELIVERER 302

XXIII. THE POTTER'S WHEEL 322

XXIV. THE FOREST OF TIME 342

XXV. CONCLUSION 348

THE SOUL OF A PEOPLE

CHAPTER I

LIVING BELIEFS

'The observance of the law alone entitles to the right of belonging
to my religion.'--_Saying of the Buddha._

For the first few years of my stay in Burma my life was so full of
excitement that I had little care or time for any thought but of to-day.
There was, first of all, my few months in Upper Burma in the King's time
before the war, months which were full of danger and the exhilaration of
danger, when all the surroundings were too new and too curious to leave
leisure for examination beneath the surface. Then came the flight from
Upper Burma at the time of the war, and then the war itself. And this
war lasted four years. Not four years of fighting in Burma proper, for
most of the Irrawaddy valley was peaceful enough by the end of 1889; but
as the centra