There is amongst Englishmen in Burma a superstition that the Burmese do not and cannot work. They are "lazy." The men never work if they can help it, and all the work that is done is done by women. How this idea arose is an interesting study in the psychology of ignorance, but I need not enter into that now. The idea obtains universally, and is an acknowledged shibboleth. My young assistant was not with me many days before he brought it up. "Oh," he said, "the Burman is so lazy." "You are sure of that?" I asked. He stared at me. "Why, everyone says so." "Everyone said four hundred years ago that the sun went round the earth," I answered; "were they right?" "You don't mean to tell me," he said, "that the Burmese can work." "I don't mean to tell you anything," I answered. "Here are a quarter of a million Burmese in this district. Find out the facts for yourself." The necessity of having to support his theories with facts seemed to him unreasonable. "But," he objected, "I can see they are lazy." The Burman is lazy. That is enough said. What have facts to do with it? He did not say this, but undoubtedly he was thinking it. However, at last he did find what he considered a fact. "You remember, when we rode into that village the other day about noon, the number of men we saw sleeping in the veranda?" "True," I said. "Does not that show it?" "Suppose," I said, "you had got up at four o'clock in the morning and worked till ten, in the fields, would you not require a rest before going out at three o'clock again?" "Do they do that?" he asked. "You can find out for yourself if they do or not," I answered. He looked at me doubtfully. "But," he objected, "it is notorious." "So is the fact that the standard of living in Burma is very high. How do you reconcile the two? Laziness and comfort. The comfort is evident and real, perhaps the laziness is only apparent." "A rich country," he said. "Is it?" I asked. "Look at the dry, bare land, of which nearly all this district and most of Upper Burma are composed. Is it rich? You have eyes to see. You know it is not rich; why do you say it is?" He shook his head almost as if I had hurt him and searched about for a defence. "But Lower Burma is rich." "Certainly; and if you look at the export returns you will see the enormous amount of rice it grows and exports. Is that rice the product of laziness?" "But," he said at last in despair, "if this laziness of the Burman is untrue, how did the idea become general?" "Ah," I answered, "that is another matter. Let us stick to one thing at a time. We are concerned now with whether it is true or not. Decide that first. See for yourself. Find out an ordinary man's work and I think you will find it is sufficient. You have the opportunity of judging, and unless you use that opportunity you have no right to an opinion at all."