ourself to be discourteous in return. Take care of your
own soul, sure that in the end you will win, either in this life or in
some other, that which you deserve. What you have made your soul fit
for, that you will obtain, sooner or later, whether it be evil or
whether it be good. The law of righteousness is for ever this, that what
a man deserves that he will obtain. And in the end, if you cultivate
your soul with unwearying patience, striving always after what is good,
purifying yourself from the lust of life, you will come unto that lake
where all desire shall be washed away.

CHAPTER XX

'NOBLESSE OBLIGE'

'Sooner shall the cleft rock reunite so as to make a whole, than
may he who kills any living being be admitted into our
society.'--_Acceptance into the Monkhood._

It is very noticeable throughout the bazaars of Burma that all the beef
butchers are natives of India. No Burman will kill a cow or a bullock,
and no Burman will sell its meat. It is otherwise with pork and fowls.
Burmans may sometimes be found selling these; and fish are almost
invariably sold by the wives of the fishermen. During the king's time,
any man who was even found in possession of beef was liable to very
severe punishment. The only exception, as I have explained elsewhere,
was in the case of the queen when expecting an addition to her family,
and it was necessary that she should be strengthened in all ways. None,
not even foreigners, were allowed to kill beef, and this law was very
stringently observed. Other flesh and fish might, as far as the law of
the country went, be sold with impunity. You could not be fined for
killing and eating goats, or fowls, or pigs, and these were sold
occasionally. It is now ten years since King Thibaw was overthrown, and
there is now no law against the sale of beef. And yet, as I have said,
no respectable Burman will even now kill or sell beef. The law was
founded on the beliefs of the people, and though the law is dead, the
beliefs remain.

It is true that the taking of life is against Buddhist commands. No life
at all may be taken by him who adheres to Buddhistic teaching. Neither
for sport, nor for revenge, nor for food, may any animal be deprived of
the breath that is in it. And this is a command wonderfully well kept.
There are a few exceptions, but they are known and accepted as breaches
of the law, for the law itself knows no exceptions. Fish, as I have
said, can be obtained