• Among the Birmans, marriages are not contracted until the parties attain the age of puberty. When a young man wishes to marry a girl, her inother,or nearest female relation, first makes the proposal in private ; and, if it is well received, a party of his friends afterwards proceed to the house of the lady's parents, with whom they adjust the marriage portioa..
On the morning of the bridal day, the bridegroom sends the maiden three lower garments, three sashes, and three pieces of white muslin, with such jewels, ear-rings, and bracelets, as his circumstances will af ford. The parents of the bride prepare a feast, and .rmal writings are executed. The young couple cat out of the same dish, and the bridegroom presents the bride with some hepack, or pickled tea, which she accepts, and returns the compliment, which ends the ceremony. The law prohibits polygamy, and •re .cognises only one wife ; but concubinage is admitted to an unlimited extent. The concubines reside in the • same house with the legitimate wife, an are obliged by law to perform the menial services of the family ; and when she goes abroad, they attend her, bearing her water flaggon, betel box, fan, &c. When the man dies, his concubines, if bound in servitude to him, become the property of the surviving widow, unless he has emancipated them by a specific act previous to his decease.
In the Birman empire, prostitution is admitted, and is often attended with circumstances of peculiar wretchedness. Many who follow this course of life are not at their own disposal, nor do they receive the earnings of their unhappy profession. According to the Birman laws, if a person contracts a debt which he is unable to pay, he becomes the property of his creditor, who may claim the insolvent debtor as his slave, and oblige him to perform menial service until he liquidates the debt ; nor the unhappy man suffer in his own person only, for his immediate rela tions are often included in the bond, and are liable to be attached and sold to discharge the obligation. In consequence of this inhuman law, whole families arc often plunged into misery and ruin. Innocent wo men are dragged from the comforts of domestic life, and, on account of the folly or misfortune of the master of the family, are sold to the superintendant of the Jackally, who, if they possess particular at traction, pays a valuable consideration for them, and reimburses himself by the wages of their prostitution. Indeed, the lower classes of the Birmans make no scruple of selling their daughters, or even their wives, to foreigners who come to pass a temporary residence among them : this, however, reflects no disgrace on any of the parties, and even the woman is not disho noured by the connection. But when a man leaves
the country, he is not at liberty to carry his tempo rary wife along with him ; and even female children, born of a Birman mother, are not allowed to be taken away. Men may emigrate from the country ; but the Birmans think, that the expatriation of women would impoverish the state, by diminishing the sources of population. On this point the law is extremely rigorous. Before a ship receives clearance, it is care fully searched by the officers of the customhouse ; and even if their vigilance should be eluded, the wo man would quickly be missed, and should the vessel ever return to a Birman port, the property would be confiscated, and the master subjected to fine and im prisonment.
The Birmans do not shut up their women in the walls of a Karam, or surround them with guards, like most other nations of the East. Such low jealousy ,forms no part of the character of this extraordinary people. They do not conceal their wives or daugh ters from the eyes of men, hut allow them to have as free intercourse with the world as the rules of Euro pean society admit of. Infidelity, however, is not common among the Birman women. Indeed, they have in general too much employment to allow time for the corruption of their minds, for even women of the highest rank seldom sit in idleness at home. The female servants, like those of the Grecian dames of antiquity, ply the various labours of the loom, whilst the mistress of the house superintends and directs their industry. Col. Symes mentions, that, on oc casion of a 'formal visit to the mother of the present queen, they observed, in one of the galleries of his palace, three or four looms working by the damsels of his household. Indeed, weaving is chiefly a female occupation, and most females make all the cotton and silk cloth that is necessary for domestic consumption. In some respects, however, women are treated as if they did not hold the same place in the scale of crea tion as the men. , The evidence of a female is not received as of equal weight with that of a man, and they are not allowed to aseedd.the.steps of a court of justice, but are obliged to deliver their testimony on the outside of the roof.