Only one Western writer has ever been able to capture fully the spirit of the delightful inhabitants of Burma. Whether describing the childbirth rates, the function of the astrologers in Burmese society, or the Buddhist precepts by which the good Burman lives, "Shway Yoe" —the pseudonym of Sir J. George Scott, K.C.I.E., a British civil servant who spent more than thirty years in Burma—fills his book of observations with affection, keen insight and a broad sympathy for the Burmese society he knew. The Burman, His Life and Notions is an extraordinarily warm and human book, the validity and usefulness of which remains amazingly high even eighty years after its first appearance in 1882.
