ame, and everywhere there
are monasteries. Every village has one, at least; most have two or
three. A large village will have many. More would be built if there was
anyone to live in them, so anxious is each man to do something for the
monks. As it is, more are built than there is actual need for.

And there are rest-houses everywhere. Far away in the dense forests by
the mountain-side you will find them, built in some little hollow by
the roadside by someone who remembered his fellow-traveller. You cannot
go five miles along any road without finding them. In villages they can
be counted by tens, in towns by fifties. There are far more than are
required.

In Burmese times such roads and bridges as were made were made in the
same way by private charity. Nowadays, the British Government takes that
in hand, and consequently there is probably more money for rest-house
building than is needed. As time goes on, the charity will flow into
other lines, no doubt, in addition. They will build and endow hospitals,
they will devote money to higher education, they will spend money in
many ways, not in what we usually call charity, for that they already
do, nor in missions, as whatever missions they may send out will cost
nothing. Holy men are those vowed to extreme poverty. But as their
civilization (_their_ civilization, not any imposed from outside)
progresses, they will find out new wants for the rich to supply, and
they will supply them. That is a mere question of material progress.

The inclination to charity is very strong. The Burmans give in charity
far more in proportion to their wealth than any other people. It is
extraordinary how much they give, and you must remember that all of this
is quite voluntary. With, I think, two or three exceptions, such as
gilding the Shwe Dagon pagoda, collections are never made for any
purpose. There is no committee of appeal, no organized collection. It is
all given straight from the giver's heart. It is a very marvellous
thing.

I remember long ago, shortly after I had come to Burma, I was staying
with a friend in Toungoo, and I went with him to the house of a Burman
contractor. We had been out riding, and as we returned my friend said he
wished to see the contractor about some business, and so we rode to his
house. He came out and asked us in, and we dismounted and went up the
stairs into the veranda, and sat down. It was a little house built of
wood, with three rooms. Behind was a li