File:Yachow and Burma - the escape, the return (1896) (14753649996).jpg

Identifier: yachowburmaescap00upcr (find matches)
Title: Yachow and Burma : the escape, the return
Year: 1896 (1890s)
Authors: Upcraft, William M
Subjects: Missions Missions
Publisher: Philadelphia : America Baptist Publication Society
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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ight while we slept, andpray that the son she has left may be strengthened tofollow and serve thee, were the missionarys wordsin the morning prayer. Who is it ? was our ques-tion when the prayer had ended. An old woman at BURMA THE RETURN 55 Cha-yeng, and arrangements were already made forthe funeral to take place that day, so we went to seeand learn. A Kachin house is a bamboo cage on posts, dividedinto little apart-ments in keepingwith the smallforms of the own-ers. A Kachinvillage is a collec-tion of such cagesplaced with a dueregard to disorderand distance. Anotched treeslanted in posi-t i o n before thedoor serves asstairs for entranceand welcomeever smilesupon the visitingmissionary. The people hadalready gatheredfor the funeralwhen we arrived and made our way to the house withthe new presence there we call death. The coffin, arough box as roughly covered with red muslin, stoodjust inside the door ; a group of elderly women wasformed around a fire in one corner of the room (just
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KACHIN GIRLS. 56 YACHOW AND BURMA why these bamboo houses dont all burn down is a con-stant wonder) ; while behind a bamboo partition theyounger women were collected in a similar way; we canjust see them through the hole left to act as doorway. A couple of mats were laid on the ground outside, thecoffin was carried and placed in the center, the neigh-bors gather around in the position known as squatting,and the missionary gives out the hymn, Theres a landthat is fairer than day, and commences the serviceof comfort and hope. A fair land is the land lyingbefore us, the brown of the stubble fields in the fore-ground shading off in the nearer distance into the longgrass and waving bamboo, while beyond all are themountains, with the blue spread across them with opalclouds lying on the skys open face. They take the loose lid from the coffin and the poorwithered face is shown on which the storm of years hasleft its scars ; the feet too are seen, begrimed with thedust of many roads, but all s

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