or there
would have been no religious command broken by going in the coach. It
was the pure influence of compassion towards the beasts and refusal to
be a party to such hard-heartedness. And yet, as I have said, I do not
think the law could have interfered with success. Surely a people who
could act like this have the very soul of religion in their hearts,
although the act was not done in the name of religion.

All the animals--the cattle, the ponies, and the buffaloes--are so tame
that it is almost an unknown thing for anyone to get hurt.

The cattle are sometimes afraid of the white face and strange attire of
a European, but you can walk through the herds as they come home in the
evening with perfect confidence that they will not hurt you. Even a cow
with a young calf will only eye you suspiciously; and with the Burmans
even the huge water buffaloes are absolutely tame. You can see a herd of
these great beasts, with horns six feet across, come along under the
command of a very small boy or girl perched on one of their broad backs.
He flourishes a little stick, and issues his commands like a general. It
is one of the quaintest imaginable sights to see this little fellow get
off his steed, run after a straggler, and beat him with his stick. The
buffalo eyes his master, whom he could abolish with one shake of his
head, submissively, and takes the beating, which he probably feels about
as much as if a straw fell on him, good-humouredly. The children never
seem to come to grief. Buffaloes occasionally charge Europeans, but the
only place where I have known of Burmans being killed by buffaloes is in
the Kale Valley. There the buffaloes are turned out into the jungle for
eight months in the year, and are only caught for ploughing and carting.
Naturally they are quite wild; in fact, many of them are the offspring
of wild bulls.

The Burmans, too, are very fond of dogs. Their villages are full of
dogs; but, as far as I know, they never use them for anything, and they
are never trained to do anything. They are supposed to be useful as
watch-dogs, but I do not think they are very good even at that. I have
surrounded a village before dawn, and never a dog barked, and I have
heard them bark all night at nothing.

But when a Burman sees a fox-terrier or any English dog his delight is
unfeigned. When we first took Upper Burma, and such sights were rare,
half a village would turn out to see the little 'tail-less' dog trotting
alo