a loom, where the wife or daughter weaves for herself or for sale. But
many men weave also, and the finest silks are all woven by men. I once
asked a woman why they did not weave the best silks, instead of leaving
them all to the men.

'Men do them better,' she said, with a laugh. 'I tried once, but I
cannot manage that embroidery.'

They also work in the fields--light work, such as weeding and planting.
The heavy work, such as ploughing, is done by men. They also work on the
roads carrying things, as all Oriental women do. It is curious that
women carry always on their heads, men always on their shoulders. I do
not know why.

But the great occupation of women is petty trading. I have already said
that there are few large merchants among the Burmese. Nearly all the
retail trade is small, most of it is very small indeed, and practically
the whole of it is in the hands of the women.

Women do not often succeed in any wholesale trade. They have not, I
think, a wide enough grasp of affairs for that. Their views are always
somewhat limited; they are too pennywise and pound-foolish for big
businesses. The small retail trade, gaining a penny here and a penny
there, just suits them, and they have almost made it a close profession.

This trade is almost exclusively done in bazaars. In every town there is
a bazaar, from six till ten each morning. When there is no town near,
the bazaar will be held on one day at one village and on another at a
neighbouring one. It depends on the density of population, the means of
communication, and other matters. But a bazaar within reach there must
always be, for it is only there that most articles can be bought. The
bazaar is usually held in a public building erected for the purpose, and
this may vary from a great market built of brick and iron to a small
thatched shed. Sometimes, indeed, there is no building at all, merely a
space of beaten ground.

The great bazaar in Mandalay is one of the sights of the city. The
building in which it is held is the property of the municipality, but is
leased out. It is a series of enormous sheds, with iron roofs and beaten
earth floor. Each trade has a shed or sheds to itself. There is a place
for rice-sellers, for butchers, for vegetable-sellers, for the vendors
of silks, of cottons, of sugars and spices, of firewood, of jars, of
fish. The butchers are all natives of India. I have explained elsewhere
why this should be. The firewood-sellers will mos