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94
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[ MARCH, 1921
and Saturday, and (4) Wednesday and Râhu. It was clear to me from this astrological information that these very symbols influence the selection of tatu marks in Burma. I felt so interested in my astrologer that I told him I was born on a Tuesday. He said that in addition to the lion-the symbol of that day-I should tatu a garud and an elephant with tusks on my body. That, he said, would surely bring me good luck. This advice clearly disclosed the motives of the selection of these marks. I asked if he had any more advice to give me, and he added that I must not allow a tiger, a rat, a hare, or an elephant without tusks to be drawn on my body. They are unlucky for me. Outside the flag, I may select a cobra, if I undertake to drink milk every day!
I could get no explanation of the celestial duck tatued in Burma, either at the top of the eternal notch or at a point below the navel where the designs on the thighs meet. To these are added certain cabalistic geometrical designs (plate 1, flag B) with curious legends to account for each. The tatuer in Burma is credited with the knowledge of certain potent drugs which he puts in the punctures to ensure invulnerability from bullets, swords, or scythes! Belief in sympathetic magic can be traced in the selection of scorpions or snakes, as tatu marks.
I am assured by an Anglo-Burmese traveller holding an important position under Government, a Christian by birth, that he can vouch for the protection afforded by the concoction of certain poisons inserted into these tatu punctures! He proudly showed me his own tatu marks, adding that when he was stung by a scorpion, he felt no pain beyond that produced by a mosquito bite. He attempted a "scientific "explanation on the inocculation theory! The distribution of the designs thus selected, is also regulated in a certain manner. The tiger and the cat are always tatued on the thighs and arms because, I am told, they infuse into man the prominent powers of these animals in jumping. Like the birthday animals of the flag, there are birthday trees in Burma. Sunday for instance is represented by gangau, Monday by nega, Tuesday by muya, Wednesday by thambye, Thursday by thi, Friday by dhan, and Saturday by ongnun. Each of these treesymbols proves lucky to those whose birthday it represents.
I said above that women do not get themselves tatued in Burma, but I found an exception among the Chins.
Curved lines, radiating from the nose and the centre of the forehead, are drawn close to, and parallel to, each other in so delicate a manner as to represent a mask. It is said that the practice originated from the fact of the Chin women being more beautiful than the Burmese and that the rulers of the latter tribe forcibly carried away girls from among them. I found that married women alone are disfigured and maidens whose youth should naturally have formed the strongest temptation, are left blooming. This shows that the practice possibly owes its origin to sexual jealousy.
Tatuing is a sign of marriage among many Dravidian tribes in India and it may mean the same thing among the Chins.
The conclusion is that (1) sympathetic magic, (2) necromancy, (3) astrology, and (4) marriage custom govern the selection of the designs. The acquisition of the agility of the tiger and cat, the animistic belief in the power of cabalistic diagrams and legends, (5) the influence of the planets on the birthday of individuals, and (6) the indelible sign of ownership by marriage involving disfigurement out of jealous motives, form the basis. One incident deserves mention here. I met a Burman carrying a full-grown cat in a bamboo
