her
way, owning a garden, where grew many fruit-trees, and a piece of rice
land. She had also a share in a little shop which she managed, and she
had many gold bracelets and fine diamond earrings. She was much wooed by
the young men about there, and at last she married. He was a young man,
good-looking, a sergeant of police, and for a time they were very
happy. And then trouble came. The husband took to bad ways. The
knowledge that he could get money for nothing was too much for him. He
drank and he wasted her money, and he neglected his work, and at last he
was dismissed from Government employ. And his wife got angry with him,
and complained of him to the neighbours; and made him worse, though she
was at heart a good girl. Quickly he went from bad to worse, until in a
very short time, six months, I think, he had spent half her little
fortune. Then she began to limit supplies--the husband did no work at
all--and in consequence he began to neglect her; they had many quarrels,
and her tongue was sharp, and matters got worse and worse until they
were the talk of the village. All attempts of the headman and elders to
restrain him were useless. He became quarrelsome, and went on from one
thing to another, until at last he was suspected of being concerned in a
crime. So then when all means had failed to restore her husband to her,
when they had drifted far apart and there was nothing before them but
trouble, she went to the elders of the village and demanded a divorce.
And the elders granted it to her. Her husband objected; he did not want
to be divorced. He claimed this, and he claimed that, but it was all of
no use. So the tie that had united them was dissolved, as the love had
been dissolved long before, and they parted. The man went away to Lower
Burma. They tell me he has become a cultivator and has reformed, and is
doing well; and the girl is ready to marry again. Half her property is
gone, but half remains, and she has still her little business. I think
they will both do well. But if they had been chained together, what
then?

In Burma divorce is free. Anyone can obtain it by appearing before the
elders of the village and demanding it. A writing of divorcement is made
out, and the parties are free. Each retains his or her own property, and
that earned during marriage is divided; only that the party claiming the
divorce has to leave the house to the other--that is the only penalty,
and it is not always enforced, unless