The position of woman in Burma, notwithstanding the blemishes on their social system, is not nearly so down-trodden and degraded as in most Eastern countries. This undoubtedly arises from the fact that there are no zenanas among the Burmans, no keeping of women shut up. They are as free to come and go, and take part in the business of life, as women are in England, and they avail themselves of their liberty, and take a very considerable share in the business that is done. In money matters in the family they have always enjoyed an equality with the other sex, which was only of late years accorded to women in England; that is, the power to retain in their own right for themselves and their heirs the property they possessed before, or gained after, marriage. As the women, as a general rule in Burma, are far more industrious than the men, and quite as shrewd and business-like, this tends towards maintaining a healthy sense of equality with the other sex. If a man has a managing wife who can run a stall in the market, or greatly assist in supporting the family by keeping a shop at home, as is very often the case, the husband will think twice before he leaves her, or provokes her to leave him. The wife and mother sits by, and gives her opinion on things in general, in the family conclave, and hen-pecked husbands are not unknown in Burma. [Illustration: “MANY OF THE MORE NOTED MONASTERIES ARE QUITE A STUDY OF SUMPTUOUS CARVING IN TEAK WOOD.”] The Burmans are very fond of games. They have an excellent game of football which they very often play, but it is a very different thing from the rough game known in England by that name. English football is too violent an exercise for that climate. It is more on the principle of shuttlecock. Six or eight young men stand around in a circle, with their garments tucked up so as not to impede their movements. A light, hollow wickerwork ball is started by one of them, and the object of the game is to keep it going as long as possible. They must not touch the ball with the hand, but they show great skill and activity in catching it with the foot, either side of the ankle, the heel, the toe, the knee, the shoulder. It is a clever stroke to leap up two or three feet into the air, and meet and kick the ball with the heel, as it is descending; one still more difficult is to leap up, catch the ball between the feet, and jerk it up again into the air before reaching the ground. Each player takes the ball when it is tossed over into his vicinity, and he may keep it going any number of times, before kicking it off across to the other side of the circle. Few games are better calculated to exercise the limbs and render the young men strong on their feet than this.