life to which he has reached ;
a man without reserve force,
without latent enthusiasms ; a
slave— such a man for instance
as the Chittagonian ; one of the
economic superiors of the Bur-
man. There is also the laziness
of the man with a fine physique,
with a sporting nature that exults
in athletic expression, in racing,
swimming, boxing, and rowing ;
o f t h e
m a n
w h o s e
mind is
ful l o f
l i v e l y
fancy, of
wi t , of
c r e a t iv e
CH IN E SE SH AN LA D Y
p owe r ;
of the man who enjoys life and
finds in it infinite possibilities
of amusement, of love, of good
fellowship ; a man who has
fashioned for himself a goodly
standard of life, who lives well
with little toil ; above all, of a
man whose being is permeated
with a philosophic contempt for C h i n e s e s h a n l a d y
-*> The Peoples
the accumulation of material
things, with a generous
desire to bestow in
charity and in good works
all that is over and above
his own needs. Such is
the laziness of the Bur-
man. It is reflected in
all his life.
Put him on the river
he loves, with a swift
and angry current against
him, arid he is capable of
superb effort. Turn his
beautiful craft, enriched
with exquisite carvings, t a u n g th u women
down stream, with wind
and tide in his favour, and he will lie all day in the sun,
and exult in the Nirvana of complete idleness. And this
is not because he
is “ a lazy hound,”
as I have heard
him called, but because
he is a philosopher
and an
a r t i s t ; because
there is a blue sky
above him which
he can look at, a
c h i n s o f m o u n t v i c t o r i a river before him