My informant couldn’t remember when her family first started telling her that if she left rice in her bowl, her future spouse will have ma, acne scars. The number of grains left would equal the number of scars. She remembers that one of her parents usually followed up this warning by saying, “see, your uncle used to leave lots of rice in his bowl”—the implication being that her aunt had a lot of acne scars.

My informant isn’t sure if this is an actual superstition; she has a suspicion that her parents just told her this to get her to finish her meals. The only correlation between finishing a meal and a future spouse that either of us could think of is that grains of rice stuck to the edges of a bowl and acne scars on a face have a similar spotted appearance. This saying was a way for my informant’s parents to direct her actions; her desire for a scar-free future spouse was motivating enough to get her to finish her rice.