other idea than this. To him men are men, and animals are
animals, and men are far the higher. But he does not deduce from this
that man's superiority gives him permission to illtreat or to kill
animals. It is just the reverse. It is because man is so much higher
than the animal that he can and must observe towards animals the very
greatest care, feel for them the very greatest compassion, be good to
them in every way he can. The Burman's motto should be _Noblesse
oblige_; he knows the meaning, if he knows not the words.

For the Burman's compassion towards animals goes very much farther than
a mere reluctance to kill them. Although he has no command on the
subject, it seems to him quite as important to treat animals well during
their lives as to refrain from taking those lives. His refusal to take
life he shares with the Hindu; his perpetual care and tenderness to all
living creatures is all his own. And here I may mention a very curious
contrast, that whereas in India the Hindu will not take life and the
Mussulman will, yet the Mussulman is by reputation far kinder to his
beasts than the Hindu. Here the Burman combines both qualities. He has
all the kindness to animals that the Mahommedan has, and more, and he
has the same horror of taking life that the Hindu has.

Coming from half-starved, over-driven India, it is a revelation to see
the animals in Burma. The village ponies and cattle and dogs in India
are enough to make the heart bleed for their sordid misery, but in Burma
they are a delight to the eye. They are all fat, every one of them--fat
and comfortable and impertinent; even the ownerless dogs are well fed. I
suppose the indifference of the ordinary native of India to animal
suffering comes from the evil of his own lot. He is so very poor, he has
such hard work to find enough for himself and his children, that his
sympathy is all used up. He has none to spare. He is driven into a dumb
heartlessness, for I do not think he is actually cruel.

The Burman is full of the greatest sympathy towards animals of all
kinds, of the greatest understanding of their ways, of the most
humorously good-natured attitude towards them. Looking at them from his
manhood, he has no contempt for them; but the gentle toleration of a
father to very little children who are stupid and troublesome often, but
are very lovable. He feels himself so far above them that he can
condescend towards them, and forbear with them.

His ponies are p