Not only do the spirits of all worlds influence her, but each act of the things around her has its meaning. If a hen should lay an egg upon a cloth, the lucky owner will receive a present; and if she is going on a journey and a snake should cross her path, her misfortune would be certain. If a dog should carry a bone into the house, she blesses him, as great riches and honour will come to all beneath her roof. But she is hampered in her actions by the number of lucky and unlucky days that control her destiny. There are days unfortunate for all the world, and others that apply only to her, when she must act with exceeding care, and understand the lore of the stars which were in the ascendant at her birth. Thursday is generally a good day for all, but if a woman was so foolhardy as to commence a work on Tuesday it might be fatal and she would lose her life. Friday is the day of days on which to commence a new enterprise, as success is bound to follow. The hair should be washed once a month, if possible, but never on Monday, Friday, or Saturday. A good mother on sending her son into the monastery would see that the rite of cutting the hair did not fall upon Monday, Friday, or his birthday, and it limits the choice of days, as this latter event, the birthday, occurs once a week. There are also a few months especially unlucky for a woman born under certain stars, and no undertaking should be commenced in those months. In fact, the Burmese woman is ruled by signs and omens from her birth to her death, and when the necromancers, the wizards, the doctors, and the witches are unable longer to keep the spirit, the little black butterfly, within the body, and she is gathered to her fathers, rules and traditions govern her laying away to her last resting-place.
In former days the dead were all cremated, but now burying has come into general use. When death comes to a family it means elaborate preparations and feasting from the time that the breath has left the body and the coin is put into the mouth to pay the ferryman for the last journey over the lonely river, until the seven days of mourning are over. Yet it is hard to speak of these days as days of mourning, for music, dancing before the bier, and the feasting in the home would cause the onlooker at a Burmese funeral to believe that he was witnessing a wedding-festival instead of a scene of sorrow.