s:

'She should fan and soothe her master to sleep, and sit by him near the
bed on which he lies. She will fear and watch lest anything should
disturb him. Every noise will be a terror to her; the hum of a mosquito
as the blast of a trumpet; the fall of a leaf without will sound as loud
as thunder. Even she will guard her breath as it passes her lips to and
fro, lest she awaken him whom she fears.

'And she will remember that when he awakens he will have certain wants.
She will be anxious that the bath be to his custom, that his clothes are
as he wishes, that his food is tasteful to him. Always she will have
before her the fear of his anger.'

It must be remembered that the Laws of Manu are of Indian origin, and
are not totally accepted by the Burmese. I fear a Burmese girl would
laugh at this ideal of a wife. She would say that if a wife were always
afraid of her husband's wrath, she and he, too, must be poor things. A
household is ruled by love and reverence, not by fear. A girl has no
idea when she marries that she is going to be her husband's slave, but a
free woman, yielding to him in those things in which he has most
strength, and taking her own way in those things that pertain to a
woman. She has a very keen idea of what things she can do best, and what
things she should leave to her husband. Long experience has taught her
that there are many things she should not interfere with; and she knows
it is experience that has proved it, and not any command. She knows that
the reason women are not supposed to interfere in public affairs is
because their minds and bodies are not fitted for them. Therefore she
accepts this, in the same way as she accepts physical inferiority, as a
fact against which it is useless and silly to declaim, knowing that it
is not men who keep her out, but her own unfitness. Moreover, she knows
that it is made good to her in other ways, and thus the balance is
redressed. You see, she knows her own strength and her own weakness. Can
there be a more valuable knowledge for anyone than this?

In many ways she will act for her husband with vigour and address, and
she is not afraid of appearing in his name or her own in law courts, for
instance, or in transacting certain kinds of business. She knows that
she can do certain business as well as or better than her husband, and
she does it. There is nothing more remarkable than the way in which she
makes a division of these matters in which she can act