Conclusions: "Whatever the causes of Burma?s pre-colonial legal profession, they are to be found in factors which were unique to Burma. Burma, along with Laos, Cambodia and Thailand, makes a distinct family of Buddhist legal systems. The members share a common classical heritage which each has wedded to its distinctive national tradition. Burma?s dhammathat traditions are historically linked with the law texts of its Theravada Buddhist neighbours. Yet none of its Buddhist neighbours developed a legal profession remotely like the she-ne. The causes of the emergence of the she- ne must be sought in the peculiarly Burmese traditions, rather than in Pali classicism. Perhaps the polyglot and multi-cultural ethos of Pagan played a role. Perhaps it is linked to the fact that Burma had less of a landed nobility than its neighbours, and had to offer commercially services that elsewhere came as part of a feudal package. Perhaps it reflected certain deep Burmese assumptions about appropriate interpersonal behaviour. Burmese has a word for an emotion - anade - which has no precise parallel in other languages. It refers to a tongue tied deference, partly pleasant and partly humiliating, which is felt in the presence of someone of higher status. Hiring a she- ne to act as your mouthpiece before the judge might have acted therapeutically to dispel this particular feeling."