Chin is of interest,' because he
reveals the material out of which
Bu d d h i sm and civilisation have
between them evolved the Burmese
people; the Chin, in short, is the
rough wood out of which the
Burman has been carved.
THE BURMESE
Of the Burmese as a whole
I do not propose to give here any.
formal account,
I seek only to describe the life
of the people as I have come
upon it in the course of many
years of travel in their country
and, for the most part, what I
have to say will be found interspersed
in .the narrative of travel.
But of the man himself I should
like here to say a few words.
Physically the Burman is, , for
his 'size, one of the finest of men.
He is short; but he is well made, broad-chested, stout-
limbed/ and muscular. A “ weedy ” Burman, outside
the small percentage of the large towns and the
sedentary occupations, is rarer1 The boatman, the
cartman, the peasant, the artificer, is nearly always
a strong man, capable, when put to it, of great
effort. Living as he does in a tropical climate,
32
SIYI'N CH IN