gnorant commit sins in consequence of drunkenness, and also
make others drunk.'--_Acceptance into the Monkhood._

The Buddhist religion forbids the use of all stimulants, including opium
and other drugs; and in the times of the Burmese rule this law was
stringently kept. No one was allowed to make, to sell, or to consume,
liquors of any description. That this law was kept as firmly as it was
was due, not to the vigilance of the officials, but to the general
feeling of the people. It was a law springing from within, and therefore
effectual; not imposed from without, and useless. That there were
breaches and evasions of the law is only natural. The craving for some
stimulant amongst all people is very great--so great as to have forced
itself to be acknowledged and regulated by most states, and made a great
source of revenue. Amongst the Burmans the craving is, I should say, as
strong as amongst other people; and no mere legal prohibition would have
had much effect in a country like this, full of jungle, where palms grow
in profusion, and where little stills might be set up anywhere to
distil their juice. But the feelings of the respectable people and the
influence of the monks is very great, very strong; and the Burmans were,
and in Upper Burma, where the old laws remain in force, are still, an
absolutely teetotal people. No one who was in Upper Burma before and
just after the war but knows how strictly the prohibition against liquor
was enforced. The principal offenders against the law were the high
officials, because they were above popular reach. No bribe was so
gratefully accepted as some whisky. It was a sure step to safety in
trouble.

A gentleman--not an Englishman--in the employ of a company who traded in
Upper Burma in the king's time told me lately a story about this.

He lived in a town on the Irrawaddy, where was a local governor, and
this governor had a head clerk. This head clerk had a wife, and she was,
I am told, very beautiful. I cannot write scandal, and so will not
repeat here what I have heard about this lady and the merchant; but one
day his Burman servant rushed into his presence and told him
breathlessly that the bailiff of the governor's court was just entering
the garden with a warrant for his arrest, for, let us say, undue
flirtation. The merchant, horrified at the prospect of being lodged in
gaol and put in stocks, fled precipitately out of the back-gate and
gained the governor's court.