Title: The Karens of the Golden Chersonese
Author: A R McMahon
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Title: The Karens of the Golden Chersonese
Author: A R McMahon



The Karens of the Golden Chersonese
By
Lieut-Colonel A R McMahon, F.R.G.S. (fl. 1876)
Madras Staff Corps; Deputy Commissioner, British Burma

LONDON
HARRISON, 59, PALL MALL
Bookseller to the Queen and B.B.B The Prince of Wales
1876

LONDON
HARRISON AND SONS, PRINTERS IN ORDINALY TO HER MAJESTY
ST. MARTIN'S LANE.



PREFACE

When in charge of the frontier district of Toungoo, in British Burma, a
few years ago, I was called on to furnish information regarding the
origin, history, traditions, religion, language, habits, and customs of
the various peoples having their _habitat_ therein, in view to
incorporation in a Gazetteer.

Ethnologically speaking, Toungoo is perhaps the most important district
in this region, as in it are found representatives of most of the
various tribes and clans known under the generic name of Karen, whose
curious traditions, especially those which refer to biblical events, as
well as the marvellous success which has attended the efforts of
Christian missionaries among them, have enlisted much interest and
sympathy in their behalf. The late Dr. Mason and other missionaries who
had long devoted themselves to the people, and through whose writings
the Karens have become known to the outer world, were fortunately in
Toungoo at the time, and owing to their generous assistance I was placed
in possession of materials far in excess of the Government requirements.

The subject was in itself so interesting, however, that I pursued my
inquiries further, and the more I learnt the more fascinating it became,
especially when I was able, by intimate communication with the people in
my tours through the district, sometimes in jungles where a white man
had never been seen before, to confirm by personal experience much of
the information I had acquired from others or from books, and also to
collect much matter which had not been noticed by former observers.

Much has already been written about the Karens, but in somewhat a
desultory fashion, and not easily accessible to the general reader. By a
diligent search in American publications, secular and religious, most
excellent articles are to be found here and there scattered through
magazines, and books published in England and India; papers by Dr.
Mason, Mr. O'Riley, Mr. Logan, and others are published.

But no general account of the people noticing the different heads,
indicated in the Government circular, has ever been written. It
therefore struck me that I might endeavour to supply this desideratum
when the pressure of official work allowed me. But this was not to be
while in Burma, and it was only when I obtained leave to visit England,
that I was able to carry out this idea.

Even then, however, I did not see my way towards publication, as I was
aware that the best efforts in this direction would only appeal to the
sympathies of a limited circle of readers.

Much more interest having lately been taken in Burma and adjoining
countries, my friends in England with whom I left the MS., thought this
was an opportune time for publishing them.

With a hope that this may be the case, and at the same time conscious of
many imperfections in the work, it is with much diffidence I submit it
to the judgment of the public, whose indulgence I would crave for this
attempt to give a general account of a most interesting people.

To several friends my hearty acknowledgments are due for their kindly
assistance. To none more so than to the lamented Rev. Dr. Mason, who not
only favoured me with valuable memoranda on many subjects, but
generously allowed me to avail myself of his MS., and published papers.

To other Missionaries my thanks are also due for aid in prosecuting my
researches.

I am further not a little indebted for much valuable information,
especially about Karennee, from a perusal of Mr. O'Riley's interesting
journals.

A. R. McMAHON

Prome, 4th October, 1875


CONTENTS

I.    Introductory
II.   Etymology of the word Karen----Character and
      Physical Characteristics of the Karens
III.  Language
IV.   Education
V.    Government
VI.   Origin
VII.  Religion, Mythology, Folk-lore, &c.
VIII. Rise and progress of Christianity
IX.   Toungoo: its physical Geography and History
X.    Nattoung, or "Demon Mount"
XI.   Reminiscences of an Annual Gathering of Christian Karens
XII.  Among the Tsawkoo Karens
XIII. A Summer Tour in the Bwé-Karen Country
XIV.  Trip to the Gaykho Country
XV.   The "Happy Hunting-Grounds" of Meekyin
XVI.  Karennee, or the Country of the Red Karens

[ Illustration--VIEW OF BHAMO WITH KAKHYNI HILLS ]




THE KARENS OF THE GOLDEN CHERSONESE



CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY

From that comparatively unexplored, although prominent, region on the
confines of Tibet, lying between Assam and China, a number of noble
rivers rush to the east and to the south, the ethnological influence of
which, in reference to the tonic region, or that portion of the world's
surface which is solely occupied by peoples distinguished by
monosyllabic speech, is so paramount, as to claim more than ordinary
attention, when considering the probable directions of migration and
connection of the ultra-Indian and Chinese races. In this splendid river
system, of which the Hoangho and the Irrawaddy form the eastern and
western flanks respectively, we have included the Salwen, Mekong, and
Yang-tse-kiang, as well as the secondary basins of the Menam, Sonka, and
Hong-Kiang.

The great Himalayan chain which forms the southern boundary of its land
of origin, is intercepted on the south-east confines of Tibet by a
transverse mountain system, originating with the Yunling and allied
ranges, and also forming the ultra-Indian peninsulas, by which the
Hoangho is forced far north, and ultimately finds the way into the Gulf
of Pecheli.

The same cause operates in driving the Yang-tse-Kiang in a contrary
direction as far as the borders of Yunan, where becoming involved in
longitudinal ranges to the east of the Indo-Chinese river system, it is
abruptly turned, and, flowing parallel to the Hoangho, effects an exit
into the Yellow Sea.

We now come to the rivers comprising the western division of this
fluviatile region, namely, the Irrawaddy, Salwen, and Mekong.

The first two debouching into the Bay of Bengal, and the third into the
China Sea, are hemmed in for the most part by subordinate ranges of the
Himalaya, which take an independent turn to the south, and after vainly
striving, as it were, to emulate in colossal grandeur, the high places
of the earth they have left behind, sink into insignificance in the
promontory of the Malay peninsula, and are finally lost in the
archipelago to the south.

These rivers and their valleys were evidently the primeval highways by
which the peoples of Farther India came down from the dreary and
inhospitable margin of the great central plateau to their present
dwelling-places. And no doubt there was a time when there were no other
routes available, even in the more favourably circumstanced countries of
India and China. In this sparsely populated region, river and streams
for the most part regulate the distribution of its human inhabitants,
for it is on their banks the great bulk of the population is to be
found. This is, and will necessarily for a long time be the case, more
particularly in those portions of the country intersected by a labyrinth
of tidal creeks, such as characterises the delta of the Irrawaddy.

The same phenomenon is observable, although not to the same extent, in
the interior of the country, but the natural obstacles to communication
therein have been partially overcome by the energy of peoples who have
attained the status of separate nations, but who possibly for ages were
cut up into petty tribes on the banks of rivers or their affluents.

The whole of the region comprised within this river system is well
adapted for the habitation of man, as the rich and fertile alluvial
plains are capable of sustaining a large population, and the natural
means of internal communication by water abundant; while the valleys,
although separated from each other by high mountains, are united by the
highway of the sea.

The ethnology of the region from which these rivers take their rise is
still very obscure, but the little data we have is sufficient to warrant
us in coming to the conclusion that it will prove of extraordinary
interest in determining the many ethnological questions in reference to
the peoples of Farther India, which are now necessarily conjectural. For
in a country almost inaccessible from lofty mountains and other physical
causes, many of the inhabited districts must still be secluded, and the
numerous petty tribes to be found therein, retaining their original
languages and customs, probably afford the missing links for determining
whether the theories in regard to the affinities of language and
similarity of manners between the people influenced by these rivers and
the great table lands to the north are well founded. The relative
positions of the ultra-Indian races, as well as their languages, as far
as we known at present, give ample grounds for connecting them, with
what are supposed to have been their ancient location and subsequent
movements.

Geographically speaking, it is also almost a _terra incognita_ even in
regard to the sources of those fine rivers, which for a long time, it
was hoped, would prove the natural outlets of commerce from the greater
part of Western China. The subject was, it is true, exhaustively handled
by recent writers,[1] who prove that much of the ancient geography that
we pinned our faith upon is no longer to be relied on. No new light,
however, has been thrown on the question, and little to the credit of
our character for enterprise, no attempt appears to have been made to
solve this interesting problem by actual exploration.

It has been proved that the Salwen and the Mekong are impracticable, on
account of the many rocks and rapids encountered in their course. The
Irrawaddy, however, is navigable by ordinary river steamers for at least
one thousand miles from the sea. The Burmese, much to their honour, were
the first to prove this by the actual experiment of running a good-sized
steamer as far as Bhanio, or to the point where the old caravan route
from Yunan struck the Irrawaddy----a route which, it is hoped, will ere
long be revived, to result in such a measure of wealth and prosperity to
the region it will affect, as to enable it to claim, with some show of
truth, its ancient name of the Golden Chersonese.

The territory influenced by these rivers, extending from the Bay of
Bengal to the Chinese Sea, and as far south as the Straits of Malacca,
is inhabited by a branch of the great Mongolian family, many of whose
tribes, although differing somewhat in their mental and physical
characteristics, in the general affinities of their languages, as well
as in their manners and customs, have yet many striking features in
common, and possess a homogeneity sufficiently marked to enable us to
include them in one family, when speaking of the nations of the earth.
This family, divided into numerous people and languages, none of which
appear indigenous, is styled Indo-Chinese by ethnologists, and the part
of the globe they occupy, for want of a better name, is called Farther
India.

On the extreme west of this territory, and hugging the Bay of Bengal, is
a strip of country extending from the 10th degree of north latitude as
far as Chittagong, comparatively narrow up both ends, but of greater
bulk in the centre, having an area of nearly ninety-four thousand square
miles, and with a population of about two millions and a-half.

Of the three divisions of which it is comprised, the main or central one
consists of the fertile region of Pegu, the ancient kingdom of the Mons
or Talaings, which stretches inland for a distance of nearly three
hundred miles and includes the important valley of the Irrawaddy and a
portion of the Salwen.

Arakan, or the northern division, which was originally a powerful
kingdom till conquered by the Burmese, is a comparatively narrow tract,
extending from the borders of Chittagong to Cape Negrais, between the
sea and a high mountain chain, while the southern division of Tenasserim
is a somewhat similar piece of coast territory, stretching from the
Salwen river to the Siamese boundary on the south, comprising also the
islands known as the Mergui Archipelago.

After the first Burmese war, in 1825, Arakan and Tenasserim were
forteited to the English, Pegu being spared, as it was not then thought
advisable to deprive the King of Burmah of the whole of his seaboard.
But, after the second war in 1852--53, such forbearance was no longer
considered necessary, Pegu was accordingly annexed, and the kingdom of
Burmah was thus cut off from maritime intercourse, save through British
territory, China, or Siam. The three divisions we refer to were formerly
under separate administrations, but, in 1862, were constituted into one
province, and styled British Burmah, in contradistinction to Burmah
proper, whose seaboard it formerly was, while the name of the latter was
somewhat arbitrarily changed, in official quarters, into Ava, in
consequence of the confusion that is said to have arisen from the
indiscriminate use of the term Burmah.

It is with reference to this Burmah and its adjacent territory, in
connection with one of the most interesting races in the world, that we
would fain hope to enlist the attention of our readers. But it is not to
the Ava, or the Burmah of yesterday, we would claim this privilege, but
to its far more interesting equivalents of _Aurea_, _Regio_, _Chryse_,
_Survarna-Bhumi_, _Aurea_, _Chersonesus_ and _Ophir_, by all of which
synonyms this region was known to the ancients.

And what food for reflection does not the very name of Ophir suggest!
carrying us back, as it were, in imagination some three thousand years,
when the great and wise King Solomon, in organizing his plans for the
building of the temple which was to be the glory of his reign, entered
into a treaty of commerce and friendship with Hiram, King of Tyre, by
which the latter was to supply gold of Ophir, cedar-wood from Lebanon,
purple from the Tyrean looms and Zidonian workmen, in exchange for corn
and oil from the territories of King Solomon.

And when we call to remembrance the results of this famous alliance with
the Phoenicians, who were the great maritime and commercial people of the
ancient world, we are reminded that it marks an eventful era in the
history of the Jews as a commercial people, showing when they began to
take an interest in personal intercourse with foreign countries, which
hitherto they had hardly known by name.

For it was then that the ports of Elath and Ezirengeber, in the Red Sea,
were filled with their ships, and that Phoenician pilots and such as were
skilled in navigation were commanded by Solomon to go with his own
stewards "to the land that was of old called Ophir, but now the Aurea
Chersonesus, which belongs to India, to fetch him gold."[2]

With little effort, then, can we picture to ourselves the splendid
navies of Solomon and Hiram, built of the fir trees of Senir, with their
oars of the oak of Bashan, masts of the cedar of Lebanon, embroidered
sails, and ivory benches brought out of the isles of Chittim, manned by
the mariners of Zidon and Arphad, piloted by the wise men of Tyre, and
well found, in every respect, laying at anchor in the different emporia
of the Golden Chersonese, and tempting the inhabitants with embroidered
fine linen from Egypt, blue and purple from the isles of Elishu,
emerald, corals and agate from Syria, oil and palm from Judah; rich
wares, wine of Helbon, and white wool from Damascus; iron, cassia, and
calamus from Dan and Javan: for Ezekiel, speaking of the Tyre that was
"of perfect beauty," and "glorious in the midst of the seas," says, "thy
wares went forth out of the seas, thou filledst many peoples; thou didst
enrich the kings of the earth, with the multitude of thy riches and thy
merchandise."[3]

We can imagine with what zeal and diligence the wise and astute
astewards and servants of Solomon wandered over this beautiful country,
and while delighting in its magnificent and varied scenery, enquired at
the same time into its resources, to enable them to secure the more
readily their freights of gold, almug trees, and precious stones. And
with what pleasure they exchanged their beautiful wares for the silver
and ivory they needed, not forgetting to take with them zoological
specimens, in the shape of apes and peacocks, which, from their novelty,
would be appreciated in their own country.

We can also picture to ourselves the anxiety which these ships, absent
perhaps for nearly three years at a time, occasioned, and the delight
with which their return, laden with the rich treasures of the East, was
welcomed.

A great diversity of opinion, we are aware, exists as far as to the
identity of Ophir.

It is placed in Peru by numerous authorities, to whom the venerable
Purchas gave the appellation of "owls." Some place it in the East,
others on the West Coast of Africa, while Arabia, Ceylon, and Persia,
have their adherents in reference to the solution of this problem.[4]
But the balance of evidence is in favour of the Aurea Chersonesus of
Ptolemy. "A great deal has been written," observes Max Muller, "to find
out where this Ophir was; but there can be no doubt that this was in
India. The names for apeas, peacocks, ivory, and algum treesa re foreign
words in Hebrew, as much as gutta-percha or tobacco is in English. If,
therefore, we can find a language in which names which are foreign in
Hebrew are indigenous, we may be certain that the country in which that
language was spoken must have been Ophir." Mr. Buckton, on the other
hand, in reference to algum trees and peacock, says, "it has not been
proved that the words in Hebrew so translated are Sanscrit, and the same
may be said of the other articles in that country."[5]

In the Golden Chersonese, apes or monkeys and peacocks are common,
silver is plentiful on its borders, and although gold is not found so
abundantly as probably was the case in ancient times, it is met with and
worked in small quantities in many parts of the country.

The principal portion of the gold in use with the people now is imported
from China in the shape of gold leaf, which has from times immemorial
been extensively used in ornamenting their religious buildings, as well
as the palaces, carriages, boats, trappings, and other paraphernalia
belonging to the Royal family, or persons of distinction.

The term golden is also universally used when referring either to the
personal or mental attributes of Royalty, and is even tacked on to the
names of the humblest persons in the community. It was no wonder then
that even comparatively modern travellers seem to have been profoundly
impressed with the appropriateness of the term Aurea Regio. Nature again
has endowed the country with vast stores of mineral wealth, although it
is true that much of this lies dormant.

Rubies, sapphires, and gems of great value, are found in great
quantities, and it is therefore not improbable that the precious stones
intended for the Temple were obtained in this region.

In regard to algum or almug trees, we acknowledge there is a difficulty,
owing to the learned not being agreed as to what wood is referred to.
Some conjecturing it to be the sandal wood of the East, others ebony,
pine, coral, or shittim.

There are several species of acacia, to which the shittim of scripture
is allied----Burmah and two or three of the genus Erythrina or coral
tree.[6] Ebony is also plentiful, and pine is found on the hills, but
teak is the great tree of commerce, and as "it is hard, tough, smooth
and very beautiful," it is identical, in these respects, with the
precious wood so extensively used in the temple.

Josephus[7] tells us that about the time the Queen of Sheba visited
Solomon, "there were brought to the king from the Aurea Chersonesus, a
country so called, precious stones and pine trees, and these trees he
made use of for supporting the temple and the palace, as also for the
materials of musical instruments, the harps and the psalteries, that the
Levites might make use of them in their hymns to God. The wood that was
brought to him at the time was larger and finer than any that had been
brought before; but let no one imagine that these pine trees were like
those which are now so named, and which take their denomination from the
merchants who so call them, that they may procure them to be admired by
those that purchase them; for those we speak of were to the sight like
the wood of the fig tree, but were whiter and more shining. Now we have
said this much that no one may be ignorant of the difference between
these sorts of wood, nor unacquainted with the nature of the genuine
pine tree; and we thought it both a seasonable and humane thing when we
mentioned it, and the uses the king made of it, to explain the
difference so far as we have done."

Purchas, who gave early attention to the navigation of the Phoenicians
and the voyage of King Solomon's servant to Ophir, says, "The region of
Ophir we take to be from Ganges to Menam, and most probably the large
kingdom of Pegu."[8]

In his pilgrimage (page 756) he goes on to say that Dr. Dee, that famous
mathematician, hath written a very large discourse of that argument,
which I have seen with Dr. Hakluyt, much illustrating what the Ancients
have written of these seas and coasts, and concluded that Havila is the
kingdom of Ava, subject to Pegu, and Ophir is Chryse or Aurea, before
mentioned."[9]

Sir Arthur Phayre tells that by the name Thooewa-na-bhoomee (Survarna
Bhumi)[10] is meant the country inhabited by the Mon or Talaing race,
whose chief city was on the site of the present Thatung (Thatone), when
the Buddhist missionaries Oo-tara and Thau-na, deputed by Dham-ma Asoka
visited it in the year 308 B.C. "That gold was anciently found in that
vicinity," he adds, "is testified by the Burmese name of Showe-gyren,
literally 'gold washing' now borned by a town on the Sittang, and gold
is still found there, though probably in diminished quantity to what it
was anciently. This no doubt was the origin of the name 'Aurea Regio' of
Ptolemy."[11]

There are reasonable grounds for believing that a comparatively advanced
maritime civilisation existed on the seaboard of this region from the
most ancient times, and that a few tribes favourably placed became
considerable nations. These maritime races were exposted at intervals to
the irruption of inland peoples, impelled by the pressure of others
behind them from the bleak and arid regions of the north. The
ultra-Indian tribes, it woud, appear, have ever been distinguished for a
chronic proneness to mutual hostilities, and the comparatively civilised
peoples on the seaboard have frequently succumbed to stronger and more
warlike races.

The Mons, or Talaings, have been almost obliterated by the Burmese. The
Burmese, in turn, have been enveloped and pressed forward by the Shans
or Tais, which have also influenced the whole of the Menam basin, and
the upper basin of the Mekong, just as the former have influenced the
lower valley of the Irrawaddy. The ancient tribes, as Mr. Logan says,
were doubtless equally aggressive, and annexation and absorption must
always have been in progress.[12] It is therefore beyond the bounds of
probability that the archaic ethnic affinities of the region which
played such an important part in connection with the voyages of the
Phoenicians, and King Solomon's servants, can now be traced.

Although, then, in this crude dissertation, we do not presume to give
more than the tangible points illustrating the vexed question of the
identity of Ophir,----the elucidation of which interesting subject
requires far more learning than we possess----even were such a course
advisable in this narrative; still, a short digression seemed called for
to enable us to show that we have reasonable grounds for assuming the
title of "Golden Chersonese" for the country in which our scenes are
laid.

The traveller who has left behind him the sad-coloured and surf-bound
coast of Coromandel, with its monotonous rows of palms, or the equally
uninteresting sunderbunds of the Ganges, with their low lying, slimy
banks, covered with dank and miasma-breeding jungle----fit abode for the
alligator and the tiger, but deadly to human life----cannot fail to be
struck with the rich, varied, and glorious scenery of the Golden
Chersonese.

Whether his approach be through the tawny-coloured waves, which mark
where a great river, thickly charged with alluvial deposit, mingles with
the ocean, or whether it be through the clear blue sea that washes its
rock-bound coast, he is sure to be charmed.

Here a cluster of islets, covered to the water's edge with dense foliage
of varied hue, with beautiful headlands and tiny inlets, the
representatives in miniature of the bold bluffs and deeply indented bays
of the mainland, claim his attention.

There, grotesque and weather-beaten crags, crop out of the rich verdure,
marking the places where the natives of the Archipelago--the "Sea
Karens," or "Selungs," find lucrative employment in collecting the
edible birds' nests, the "Celestial" so dearly loves.

Ranges of lofty mountains, which claim relationship with the Great
Himalaya, at times looming in the distance, and anon throwing out
feelers into the sea, form a background of surpassing grandeur; while
the nearer inspection which a sail up its rivers affords, reveals new
beauties----approaching the sublime----when contrasted with what he last
saw, and worthy of comparison with the most favoured places in the
world.

Language is certainly a feeble agent in depicting the scene of Nature's
grandeur, which he is now privileged to witness. Hills, with rounded or
rugged contour, whose summits, as well as every other vantage ground,
are crowned with pyramidal pagodas, and quaint flagstaffs, whose silvery
bells tinkle in every breeze, diversified by sequestered, but
picturesque little nooks, planted with jack, mango, tamarind, and other
fruit trees, from which the triple-roofed monasteries of Buddhist monks
peep forth, are conspicuous objects in the foreground.

Plains, with vivid green, yellow or sombre patches, shining brilliantly
in the sun's rays, or temporarily obscured by passing clouds, with
curious masses of limestone, here and there heaved up and scattered over
them in the wildest disorder, form pleasing objects in mid-distance.
Horizons, now bounded by congeries of hills, that heap up behind each
other till lost in the misty distance, or again contrasted by range with
the most fantastic outline, which "Lift to the clouds their craggy heads
on high, Crowned with tiaras fashioned in the sky."

Deep rugged ravines and stupendous cliffs, often shooting up sheer two
thousand feet; streams that course down the mountain sides, forming
brawling cascades, or trending through undulating valleys, flash like
silver in the sunlight; great rivers, on which the ships of all nations
securely float; combining, one and all, many of the softer beauties of
wood and water, with all the stern sublimity of mountain scenery, give
to the landscape a character inconceivably fascinating, and taking the
beholders for the nonce, far away from the tropics, realize for a moment
the scenes of more temperate climes, justly famed for their exquisite
beauty.

That this description applies to the whole of the country it is far from
our intention to imply. Indeed, exception, at first sight, may, we
allow, be taken, in this respect, to the flourishing but not strikingly
picturesque port of Rangoon, but subsequent acquaintance proves that its
environs yield not in homelike, tranquil beauty, to the most favoured
localities. The intricate creeks of the delta of the Irrawaddy, fringed
with huge elephant grass, or interminable mangrove jungle, relieved
though it be, at intervals, by rich cultivation, that return
eighty-fold, ninety-fold, and even one-hundred fold to the "dogged
toiler," we must also allow, soon weary with their monotony; but, on
ascending some distance up the noble river, the landscapes become more
varied, and here and there culminate into a wild sublimity and grandeur
which vie with the magnificent scenery on the coat.

_Climate_----The unhealthiness of Burma some years ago was proverbial,
and not unjustly so, arguing by the results of our occupation. Its
climate, especially that of its seaboard, was then the theme of many
writers on hygiene, who generally condemned it. Subsequent experience,
however, caused them to moderate their views considerably, and the
balance of evidence, as collected from the different health reports of
the province, proves that the old impressions regarding the deadly
nature of its climate are without foundation; for the actual death-rate
among Europeans contrasts favourably with more temperate climes. Still,
of those who suffer from ill-health, a greater percentage apparently are
obliged to have recourse to more bracing climates than is the case in
less healthy portions of India. The climate is certainly depressing to
invalids; and to ensure permanent recovery, in many cases a trip to the
Nilgherries, or other hill stations in India, or perhaps to England,
becomes imperative. Much expense is entailed thereby on many hard worked
officers of the State, merchants and others, and a vast outlay is
incurred by Government on account of its invalid soldiers and families,
which might be spared if we had hill sanitaria in Burma.

It seems, therefore, worthy of the consideration of Government, whether
one or more of the hill sites within the province might not be made
available for the accommodation of its soldiers, and for the growing
wants of many of its subjects, who are now compelled to leave it when
change of air is necessary.

The average temperature is greatly affected by the sea breeze; and in
the hote weather some of the inland stations are some 14 or 15 degrees
hotter than those on the coast. Locality naturally affects the
temperature; and as Dr. Mason remarks, "ther Flora reads a lesson as to
the climate of the country that cannot be mistaken, and, in accordance
with it, where pines and rhododendrons are found, hoar frost is seen in
January." In the plains tropical luxuriance of verdure is seen in all
its variety; while on the hills, the Alpine plants and grasses, many of
which are common in Europe, testify to their temperature climate.

_Animal Kingdom_----The usual domestic animals found in India are
common. The buffaloes, especially those on the sea coast, are splendid
animals, while the other horned cattle, although small, are strong,
compact, and sturdy.

Of the wild animals, the following are the most noteworthy:----

_Carnivora_----Royal tiger, leopards (of three kinds rufus, black, and
tawny), Malay bear, monkey tiger, (_artictis penicillata_), otter, Malay
and Zibeth civet cats, tiger cat, leopard cat, and wild dog.

_Pachydermatœ_----Elephant, rhinoceros (single and double horned), Malay
tapir, and wild pig.

_Ruminantia_----Rusa deer or elk, brow-antlered rusa, barking deer, hog
deer, goat, antelope, bison, wild bull (_bos sondaicus_).

_Rodentia_----Hare, porcupine, and several kinds of squirrels and rats.

_Quadrumana_----White-handed and two-lock gibbon, several species of
monkey, lemur, and sloth.

_Products_----There are several valuable spontaneous products in the
country. Of these, teak (_tectona grandis_) is the most important; the
annual gross revenues of the Forest Department for the last four years,
exceeding L80,000.

Perhaps next in importance, and exceeding teak, as an article of general
demand, in some portions of the country, is the wood-oil tree
(_dipterocarpus lœvis_).

These magnificent giants of the forests, whose stems often measure from
twenty to thirty feet in circumference, and shoot up without a single
branch for more than one hundred feet, provide, as remarked by Mr.
O'Riley, a never-failing supply of an article almost as indispensable to
the people as food and clothing.

The following trees, used for house-building purposes, are
common:----_Eng_ (dipterocarpus grandiflora), _pyinma_ (lagerstrœmia
regina), and _pyingado_ (xylia dolabriformis).

_Thengan_ (hopea odorata) is much prized for boat hulls, some of which,
untouched by the adze, have been known to fetch as much as L80. The
solid cart-wheels of the country are generally made of this timber, as
well as of _padouk_ (plerocarpus dalbergisides). The latter is a
beautiful wood, nearly equal in appearance to mahogany.

The celebrated black varnish tree, _thitsay_ (melanorrhœa usitatissima),
so much in demand for the manufacture of the circular and other boxes
peculiar to the country, is common. It was the only tree, apparently,
which was conserved under the Burmese _régime_, and so highly was it
prized then, that persons injuring it were severely punished.

Among other spontaneous products may be mentioned cardamums, beeswax,
honey, dammar, cinnamon, gamboge, with numerous other drugs and gums of
more or less commercial value, but which, in common with much mineral
wealth, must remain dormant till the almost impracticable hill country
is opened by means of roads.

The whole of the vegetable kingdom not actually poisonous is appreciated
by the Burmese and Karens. In addition to the common fruits and
vegetables, the following indigenous forest products are used as food by
them:----Mayan, pierardia, edible salacca, bread fruit, Otaheite
gooseberry, earth nuts, and Chinese dates, sandoricum, horse mango, and
hog chesnut.

Rice is the staple product of the country. It is said there are thirty
varieties grown in the lowlands; some soft and sweet, intended for home
consumption, others of harder grain, more fit for export.

The Karens have distinctive names for more than forty kinds of all
colours, from pearly white to jet black. Different methods of rice
cultivation obtain in the lowlands and on the hills. In the former, the
seed is either sown broad-cast in the inundated fields or transplanted
from nurseries in June, and is not reaped till December; the latter is
planted in April, while the ground is yet dry, and the harvest is
gathered in some portions of the country as early as August, in others a
month or two later.

The Yabines and Karens cultivate the mulberry, and, rearing silkworms
extensively, supply the market with silk.

Arakan tea is proverbially excellent.

Different kinds of tobacco thrive remarkably well. Cotton flourishes,
but the cultivation might be improved and increased with advantage.

English vegetables grow well in the cold season.

Wheat and grain have been tried with success. The culture of English
potatoes, except of diminutive proportions, has hitherto failed, but it
is hoped it may yet prove successful. The best substitute for them is
the Karen potatoe (_dioxorea fasciculata_), the best vegetable produced
in Burma.

_Population_----No regular census of the people has ever been taken ever
in British territory, but a rough census is annually prepared by the
Thoogyees, or tax collectors, when submitting their returns of
capitation tax, recording results sufficiently accurate for all
practical purposes. But, owing to the exigency of the statistical
returns for Imperial use, the published records do not classify the
population of British Burma, so as to exhibit all the prominent races of
which it is composed; and as the Karens, who next to the Burmese, are
not even noted, it is, of course, impossible to estimate their numbers
therefrom. Roughly speaking, then, perhaps we would not be far wrong to
allow 600,000 of the 2 ½ millions in British Burma, 200,000 for
Karennee, and a like number for the various tribes in Upper Burma, as
well as those to be found between Karennee and Western China and in
Siamese territory, making in all a population of about one million.

Of the ancient records or chronology of the Golden Chersonese there are
no credible materials, and what records we have were apparently compiled
by persons who either drew on their imaginations for their facts, or in
subservience to the ambition of their kings, under whose direct
influence they were inspired, endeavoured to prove the descent of the
royal race from the people who brought them letters, science, and
religion. Some of the leading races are distinguished by having
elaborately written histories of themselves from the earliest times,
which are kept with religious care in their monasteries. These histories
or _thamines_, as they are called by the Burmese, replete as they are
with imaginary dates, and with the imaginary doings of their
semi-deified monarchs, are nevertheless more or less authentic records
of events since the twelfth century, excepting where they are
disfigured, as occasionally is the case, by manifest perversion of fact,
in cases where an obstinate adherence to truth may have been deemed
unadvisable.

The chief of these is the _Maha Radza Weng_, or the "Chronicles of the
Kings of Burma."

We are so fortunate as to have an authentic copy of this valuable work
in our possession, which we procured from the royal library at Mandelay,
and have also had access to two of three English translations thereof.
Of these the most valuable is by Sir Arthur Phayre.

As we are diffident in our abilities to improve his rendering by any
attempt of our own at translation, it appears to us that a few extracts
of his version, giving a succinct account of the antecedents of one of
the most prominent peoples in this region, appears, therefore, a fitting
prelude to our notices of a people to whom they stood in the relation of
the dominant power.

The _Maha Radza Weng_ commences with describing the self-development of
the world, and the appearance of man therein. The system of cosmogony
has, together with the Buddhist philosophy and religion, been derived
from India, and the Burmese kings profess to trace their descent from
the Buddhist kings of Kappilawot, of the Sakya tribe, to which race
Gautama Buddha belonged. The history contains the Buddhist account of
the first formation of human society; the election of a king, and the
grant to him of a share of the produce of the soil. These legends
constitute to this day the foundation of the authority, temporal and
spiritual, of the Burmese kings. The foundation of that authority they
continually refer to, and it is ever present to the minds of their
subjects. It is proper, therefore, briefly to record that portions of
their national history.

The history opens with announcing that, after a cycle of the great
revolutions of the universe, wherein worlds are destroyed by fire, by
water, and by air, had elapsed, the present earth emerged from a deluge.
A delicious substance, like the ambrosia of the gods, was left by the
subsiding water spread over the earth. The throne of Gautama first
appeared above the water. At the same time, the beings called Brahma,
who live in the upper world or heavenly regions, had accomplished their
destinies. They then changed their state, and became beings with
corporeal frames, but without sex.[13] Their bodies shone with their own
light, and full of joy they soared like birds in the expanse of heaven.
From eating of the ambrosia the light of the bodies of these beings
gradually declined, and because of the darkness they became sore afraid.
Because of the glory of those beings, and because also of the eternally
established order of nature, the sun, of gold within and glass without,
fifty yoodzanas[14] in diameter, and one hundred and fifty in
circumference, appeared above the great Eastern island (of the solar
system) and threw forth his light. The inhabitants of the world were
then relieved from fear, and called the sun (in Pali) _Shoo-ree-ya_.

In like manner the first appearance of the moon and stars is described;
the central mount _Myenmo_ (Meru) and the whole sekya or solar system.
The history then proceeds:----

"Of the world's first inhabitants, some were handsome, some not
handsome. As the handsome ones despised the others, in consequence of
the haughty evil thoughts thus engendered, the ambrosia of the earth
disappeared, and they ate of the crust of the earth. Then, in process of
time, selfishness and desire increasing, the earth's surface crust
disappeared. They then ate of a sweet creeping plant; when that
disappeared, the Thalay rice came up, which, as they gathered it, was
renewed morning and evening. Placing it in a stone jar, flames issued,
and it was prepared for food. Its flavour was whatever the eater
desired. From eating of this food human passions were developed, and the
beings became men and women. Then, as evil deeds began to prevail, the
wise censured and severely treated the others. The latter wishing to
hide their evil deeds, built houses. Then, the lazy among them having
stored up the food, the Thalay rice acquired husk, with a coating of
coarse and fine bran, and where it once had appeared it did not sprout
again. They then said, 'It is good for us to divide among us the Thalay
rice plants, to possess each his own.' Then they distributed the Thalay
rice plants. After that, an unprincipled one among them, fearing that
his own share would not suffice, stole the share of another. Once and
twice he was warned; in the third offence he was beaten. From that time
theft, falsehood, and punishment existed."

The world's first inhabitants then assembled, and thus consulted
together: "Now wicked times have come; therefore let us select an
upright, religious man----one having the name and authority of a ruler,
to reprove those who deserve reproof, and to expel those who deserve to
be expelled, and let us give him a tenth share of our Thalay rice." This
was agreed to, and an excellent man, full of glory and authority, the
embryo of our Gautama Phra, being entreated to save them, was elected
king, and was called Mahâ-tha-ma-dá."

This history represents King Mahâ-tha-ma-dá as reigning for an
_athen-khye_, being a period represented by a unit and one hundred and
forty cyphers. He had twenty-eight successors, who reigned in the
countries of _Malla_ and _Kotha_watler_. The next dynasty, which
numbered fifty-six kings, reigned in _Ayooz-za-poora_. The next, of
sixty kings, reigned in Bara-na-thee, or Benares. Then eighty-four
thousand kings reigned in _Kap-pi-la_, the native country of Gautama, in
distance after times. Next thirty-six kings reigned in Hatlipoora.
Numerous other dynasties are mentioned, which are presented as
established in various countries of India, and as lasting for many
millions of years.

Having brought down the narrative of events to the death of Buddha
Gautama, the first volume of the work proceeds to give an account of the
geography of the world of _Dzam-booo-dee-pa_, where the Buddhist kings
reigned.

The second volume opens with the following words:----

"In the first part we have narrated the history of the kings, commencing
from Mahâ-tha-ma-dá up to the time of the excellent Phra Gautama, there
being 334,569 kings in lineal succession. In this second portion we
shall narrate the history of thirty kings commencing from Peim-ba-thara
up to King Dham-ma-thau-ka."

The history of Dham-ma-thau-ka, as the great supporter of Buddhism, the
founder and encourager of missions, is narrated at considerable length.

The second volume of the history ends with the death of this king.

The third volume of the _Maha Radza Weng_ commences with the direct
history of the Burmese kings, in the following words:----

"We shall now relate the first commencement of the long line of the
Mrau-má kings in the great country of Tagoung; the origin of all the
kings who have reigned in the land; and also treat of the first
foundation and the progress of Divine religion in the Mrau-má country
under the Mrau-má kings."

From the history we learn, that at an early period there were three
tribes in the valley of the Irrawaddy, who appear to have been the
progenitors of the present nation. These tribes are called Byoo or Pyoo,
Kam-yan or Kanran, and Thek or, by the Arakanese, Sák.[15] They probably
were three allied tribes, more closely connected with each other than
were others of the same original stock, settled in the Upper Irrawaddy
Valley, or on the adjoining mountains. I see no reason for doubting that
they had found their way to the valley of the Irrawaddy by what is now
the track of the Chinese caravans from Yunan, which track debouches at
Bhamò on the river. There they probably remained for many ages without
being disturbed by any superior tribe.

We may then conclude that the rude tribes inhabiting the valley of the
Upper Irrawaddy, who at that time, like the hill tribes of to-day,
worshipped only the spirits of the woods, the hills, and the streams,
were converted and civilized by Buddhist missionaries from Gangetic
India. A monarchy was then established at Tagoung, which gradually
extended its authority, and appears from the history to have been
overturned by an irruption of (so-called) Tartars and Chinese. The names
given to the invaders are Ta-ret and Ta-rook. The latter word is
evidently the same as Turk, and is applied at the present day by the
Burmese to the Chinese generally. The destruction of the kingdom of
Tagoung led to the establishment of a monarchy at Tha-re-khet-te-ya,
near the modern Prome. Whatever this event, as told, may really mean, we
may consider it as certain, that the tribes dwelling in the country
round Tagoung, where Buddhism and some degree of civilisation had been
established under a powerful dynasty, were overwhelmed by a horde of
invaders from the north-east, and that many of them found a refuge among
their kinsmen the Pyoos.

Burmese history, elaborate though it be, is absolutely misleading and
consequently worthless in an ethnological point of view, especially as
regards their origin and the routes by which they arrived in the country
they now occupy. For being based on the assumption that their kings are
the lineal descendants of the royal race of Kappilawot in Hindustan, to
which the founder of their religion belonged, an emigration from thence
to Burma is actually invented for the natural history. Now when we come
to consider the impracticable nature of the country between the Ganges
and the Irrawaddy, and the little inducements which the valley of the
latter would afford to tribes which believed that Gangetic India was the
most favoured land of the earth; and when we also recollect that so
sea-hating a people would hardly have gone on a voyage of discovery for
the purpose of colonizing an unknown land; the supposed emigration,
therefore, seems very improbable. The more so, when we look upon the
face of the typical Burman, which has his Tartar genealogy marked upon
it in characters that cannot be mistaken.

The Karens, it is true, cannot boast of historical records, but their
real traditions, which points to Central Asia as their ancient home, and
which also indicate the route by which they came therefrom, are far more
trustworthy, and consequently of much more ethnological value than the
pretentious productions of the more civilized races that surround them.
Their religious traditions especially, which correspond so minutely with
many of the most prominent events in the Bible, and incidentally
corroborate what we may call their geographical traditions, have earned
for them a deep and intelligent interest among Christian communities,
which the marvellous success of the efforts of Christian missionaries
for their evangelization has enhanced.

A critical examination of their physical and moral attributes, their
mythology, their manners and customs, and the affinities of their
language, afford us at the same time considerable aid, if not unerring
data, in arriving at reasonable conclusions in reference to their
archaic history, indicated perhaps somewhat faintly in these traditions.

Burmese history does not assist us in our investigations in regard to
the Karens. The meek and lowly inhabitants of the plains were treated
with contempt by their former masters and little or no information could
be procured about them. The same may be said in reference to the more
independent tribes to the north, for, with that arrogance which is
characteristic of the Burmese, they estimated the neighbouring
hill-tribes as little removed from brute beasts and disdaining to
inquire into their habits, customs or capabilities for improvement,
superciliously disposed of them under the generic name of _Ayain_ or
"wild men."

Thus, on our occupation of the country, we found ourselves hampered with
a people declared to be so wild and so untamable, that none, excepting a
few adventurous petty traders, ever penetrated their country out of
hearing of the guns of Toungoo.

The annals of the Portuguese, who early in the 16th century established
a maritime empire in these regions, with Malacca for their capital,
contain much valuable information connected with the affairs of the
Golden Chersonese, during the 16th and early part of the 17th centuries,
but close somewhat abruptly about the year 1640, when the Portuguese
power was on the decline. The authorities for its later history are
taken from the _thamines_ already noticed, which deserve far greater
attention, and their translators more encouragement, than is at present
given them; from the accounts of Fitch and other English travellers, the
experiences of Symes, Cox, Crawfurd, and other envoys, as well as from
other sources, official and personal. From all these we can gather a
succinct and tolerably connected narrative of events connected with the
Burmese, Shans, and Talaings, especially from the time that Alompra
founded the dynasty which is still reigning at Mandelay. But in these
accounts we learn little of the ruder people which inhabit the country.

What is now known as Pegu was the ancient kingdom of the Mons or
Talaings, a people distinguished by a language that apparently bears no
affinity in its vocables to Chinese or any of the Indo-Chinese dialects,
and is not cognate with any of the cultivated tongues in Hindustan.
Little can be gathered of their ancient history, excepting what relates
to the introduction of the Buddhist religion by Asoka's missionaries.

Burmese concurs with Talaing history in representing the Talaings as a
civilised people, and in possession of the Buddhist scriptures at any
earlier period than the nations around them.[16]

Overlapping the Burmese at numerous points, and found from the borders
of Numnipoor to the heart of Yunan, and from the valley of Assam to
Bangkok and Cambodia, are the Shans or Tai, as they call themselves;
"everywhere Buddhist, everywhere to some extent civilized, and
everywhere speaking the same language with little variation; a
circumstance very remarkable amid the infinite variety of tongues that
we find among tribes in the closest proximity of location and probable
kindred throughout those regions."[17] Their ancient glories when the
kingdom of Pong (on the north of Burma) existed, have departed, and the
utter want of political unity, which is such a distinguishing
characteristic of the Indo-Chinese peoples, had split the race into a
great number of unconnected principalities; all their states, excepting
the kingdom of Siam (which preserves its independence), being subject or
tributary to Burma, China, Cochin China, or Siam.

Besides these prominent races which have played the historic part on the
field of Indo-China, there is, as Colonel Yule says, "A vast mass of
races of inferior importance, and generally termed _wild_ or
_uncivilized_.

"The fact is that their civilization varies through every degree of the
scale except the highest. Many of them are inferior to the so-called
civilized races whom they border, only in the absence of a written
language, while others are head hunters in almost the lowest depths of
savagery. Some are as elaborate in the cultivation of their rice
terraces as the Chinese themselves; others migrate in the forest from
site to site, burning down at each remove new arras on which to carry
out their rude husbandry. Nearly all on the frontiers of the states
claiming civilization are the victims of kidnappers and international
slave dealers.

"Among those, so to call them, uncivilized tribes, none are more worthy
of note and of interest than those called _Karen_, of whom so great a
number have, in our own time, become Christians, chiefly under the
teaching of American missionaries. Even before this closer claim a new
interest arose, they were remarkable for the value of their traditions,
both religious and what we may call historical."[18]

It is with reference to these Karens, of whom hitherto only fragmentary
information has been recorded that we claim, and shall endeavour to
justify, the interest of our readers.

The Karens, as will be explained hereafter, are divided into three great
families, the _Sgan_, the _Pwo_, and the _Bghai_ or _Bwé_, which are
again subdivided into numerous clans.

The Sgaus and Pwos proper form the bulk of the agricultural population
in the delta of the Irrawaddy, and also have their habitat in the
Sittang Valley and its adjacent mountain ranges as far as 18° 30´ of
north latitude.

Above this the Pwos practically disappear, while the Sgaus have
comparatively few representatives, the bulk of whom are confined to the
Pegu Yoma range and its numerous spurs. The Sgaus and Pwos are also
found on the interior of the Tenasserim division, as well as beyond the
boundary in Siamese territory, and in the Salwen Valley, about as far
north as they are to the west.

The Bwés are met with immediately above the Sgaus and Pwos, ion the left
bank of the Sittang, and on the water-shed between it and the Salwen.

North of the Bwés, mixed up with the Shans and extending as far north as
to touch the Kakhyens and Singphos, in north latitude 24° 25´, are
numerous tribes, such as the _Yens_, _Yenis_, _Yen-baws_, _Yen-seiks_,
and others of whom comparatively little is known. East of the last, and
located on the basins of the Salwen and the Mekong, and reaching as far
as Esmok, the border town of China, are the _Kakúis_, _Kakúas_, _Lawas_,
and others mentioned by Captain (now General) McLeod.

All these in their manners and custom, as well as physical
peculiarities, seem allied to the Bwé or hill Karens of Burma. Some of
them even exceeding in ferocity the most savage specimens of the latter;
in that international tribal feuds, which seem the normal condition of
all, are supplemented on the part of the _Lawas_, by raids simply for
the purpose of procuring human heads, which are much prized as
decorations for their houses, as well as for the purpose of propitiating
the genii of the woods, hills, and crops.

The Karen highlanders compare unfavourably with the lowlanders in
general physique, although in the exhibition of a warlike and
independent spirit, they are immeasurably their superiors; just as the
sturdy little Ghoorkhas, insignificant as they appear beside the tall
and martial-looking Hindustani Sepoys, excel them in "dash," as well as
in many other soldierly qualities. Secure in the almost unassailable
positions which they affect on the lichen covered heights of the
mountain systems near the Sittang and the Salwen, or in the obscure
gorges, where perennial streams, cool and refreshing and pure as
crystal, come tumbling over huge granite boulders, and wake up the
normal stillness of the forests through which they tread, the hill
tribes have ever showed a bold front and indomitable perseverance, in
resisting oppression, and by their self-reliance have commanded the
respect which their reputation for turbulent and undisciplined
behaviour, has not a little enhanced.

The people in the plains, on the other hand, with no such extraneous
advantages of position to boast of, endeavoured to escape observation by
hiding in the dense forests, or in the huge prairies of elephant grass
which cover the face of the country, or by resorting to secluded nooks
far from the haunts of other peoples, and meekly accepting the degraded
position they held towards the dominant race as a matter of course,
humbly endured the troubles and indignities they were called upon to
suffer. Patient and unrepining as they were under their grievous wrongs,
they felt them not the less acutely. But hopeless and dismal as their
lot appeared, they were, however, buoyed up with a firm conviction that
ere long they would be delivered from this bondage.

It has long been recognised as almost an axiom that different races
cannot live long together without a process of assimilation commencing
which extends to the various physical and mental attributes that
distinguish the human race.

It is also maintained that in spite of geographical barriers that may
exist, and the prejudices that may intervene for a time between man and
his fellows, these results may be anticipated sooner or later.

The rule, it is said, more particularly applies to those cases where
either civilized peoples meet or where they come in contact with ruder
tribes. In the latter cases, the superior race, while perhaps
revolutionizing many of the manners and customs, habits of thought,
religion, and language of the inferior, cannot help being influenced,
more or less in turn.

In no county is this argument more convincing than in the region of the
Golden Chersonese, for at this moment, a process of assimilation and
absorption is going on, which is fast removing the characteristic
differences between peoples who hitherto played as prominent a part in
its history as the English, French, Germans, and others have played in
the history of Europe.

As an instance of our meaning, we may cite the Mons or Talaings, who
formerly were the ruling power on the sea-board, but who have, within a
comparatively speaking recent period, been so incorporated with the
Burmese, as to have practically disappeared.

Dr. Anderson predicates the same fate for the Shans located in the
central basin of the Irrawaddy, near Bhamò.

The state of affairs that has long existed between the Burmese and
Karens, appears, however, exceptional.

The tribes in the plains, though influenced by Burmese contact, have not
been affected to an appreciable extent, considering the length of time
the two races have been living together.

Conservation has been carried out more in its integrity by the wilder
tribes on the hills, who are less exposed to the indirect influences to
which the others are subject, and who, in their isolated position,
influence none and remain uninfluenced by others.

Buddhism, the religion of the Burmese, has made little or no progress
with the Karens; but then it must be allowed that the Burmese, though
personally bigoted, have liberal views as to the obligations of others,
and do not interfere with their religious views in any way.

The Burmese, Shans, and Talaings, on the other hand, although strict
Buddhists, still retain as a substratum of their faith, the propitiation
of the _Genii loci_, which is the only worship of the Karens who have
not been affected by Christianity.

With few sympathies in common; with disdain and oppressive bearing on
the one side, and with fear, hatred, and a desire for revenge on the
other, the Burmese and Karens have long pursued parallel courses, making
little or no attempts to bridge the gulf between them by efforts towards
a better social intercourse, or the promotion of the more intimate
relationship, as well as humanizing influence of the marriage tie.

The case of the Burmese and Karens is paralleled by that of the Dryans
and Aborigines of Bengal, and what Dr. Hunter says of the latter can be
equally applied to the former. "Two races," he says, "the one consisting
of masters and the other of slaves, are not easily welded into a single
nationality. Concession must precede union, and a people have to make
some advances towards being one socially before it can be one
politically."[19]

The Karens, from the impetus that has been given to education, and the
independent spirit that has been evoked in them under a more liberal
system of government, are fast earning for themselves the social
position which was denied them by their former masters.

THE KARENS IN RELATION TO THE GOVERNING CLASS

Dr. Mason, in his work on "Burmah," passes somewhat severe strictures on
the governing class of that country in reference to its alleged
partiality for the Burmese as compared with the Karens, and this he
attributes partly to the fact that the English ruler usually belongs to
the "aristocratic classes," and having no sympathy with his own
countrymen, cannot be expected to have any "with the down trodden serfs
of the dominant race;" partly from his ignorance of the Karen language,
he is obliged to look at everything that concerns the Karens through
Burmese spectacles, and partly because he is swayed by the lavish
flattery of the Burmese, who thus distance a people who have no word for
flattery in their language.

In giving instances of the oppression to which the Karens used to be
subject, owing to these shortcomings on the part of their rulers, he is
not the less chary in awarding commendation in those cases where he
considers an improvement has taken place, and even modifies his extreme
views in favour of some officers who distinguished themselves in
"raising up" the Karens.

Now while we admit that the change of partiality may have been deserved
in days gone by, and that even now this reproach may not be groundless
in some instances;----for, owing to the imperfection of human nature,
the wisest among us may succumb to the cajolery of a race who are
described as knowing all the weak points of the man with whom they deal,
as being "as cunning as the old serpent in Eden, and as well able to
beguile men as he was to deceive women;" still, whatever sins of
omission may be brought to the account of those concerned in the
administration of the country----who, by the way, can hardly be said to
belong to the aristocratic class----the comparative want of sympathy
with the Karens must be attributed to other causes than caste prejudice.
As well might we say that the partiality which the American missionaries
who labour among the Karens evince in favour of their converts is
attributable to a democratic spirit which has no sympathy with the
aristocracy.

Oppressively treated as the Karens were for many generations by their
old masters, it naturally takes time for so diffident and so suspicious
a people to have that confidence in the intentions of the officers of
Government towards them, as it is the wish of the latter to inspire.

Encased, too, as they are in a hopeless imperturbability and
incorrigible apathy that encourages them to sit down meekly under
wrongs, unless some one else take the trouble and responsibility off
their hands, they afford a strong contrast to the Burmese, who naturally
possessing the art of "savoir faire" to a high degree, as well as
considerable amount of self possession, with a genial and independent
bonhomie especially taking, contrive to have more attention paid to them
than the Karens, who appear dumbfounded, let their case be what it may.

There is also a strong tendency on the part of the latter to make a
"stalking horse" of their pastor and master, in case they have dealings
with a Government official, and by so doing put both in a false
position. They even persist in doing so in cases where, to obviate such
necessity, one of their own people, chosen by themselves, and able and
willing to help them, has been appointed for the express purpose of
assisting them in all matters which they should have occasion to
negotiate.

Some missionaries of our acquaintance have, we know, done their best to
teach the Karens to be more independent, while others, we are sorry to
say, encourage them in an opposite course, by not taking sufficient
trouble to disabuse their followers of the idea they hold of the
impossibility of obtaining justice of any sort without the help of the
missionaries. So far is this carried out in some instances that the
latter occasionally entrust parties in cases before the Courts with
letters to the judge on the bench, a proceeding which is highly
objectionable, not only because it gives the Karen an idea he can obtain
justice more efficaciously and far less expensively than any one else
can proceeding in the usual way, for it affords the Burmese a handle to
imagine that it is in opposition to that spirit of fair play which he
expects to get when he appeals to an English judge, but it also tends to
lessen the sympathy which ought to exist between the governed and their
rulers, which all earnest men, whether clerical or lay, should be so
desirous of promoting. In recording these remarks in reference to a
small minority of that admirable body of men to whom we owe so much, we
can at the same time heartily endorse the following apposite remarks
recorded by Sir A. Phayre, in a minute written in May, 1863, in
reference to the results of missionary work in the Toungoo district:----

"Any one," he says, "who supposes that such a change could have been
wrought among a savage people by missionaries without their 'mixing
themselves up with the secular affairs' of the people, I am compelled to
differ with very materially.

"It was neither desirable nor possible for missionaries earnestly bent
on doing their duty, to avoid teaching the people in every walk of life,
or to abstain from advising or leading them in their social progress.
Such a people too, oppressed by the Burmese, when opportunity offered,
would naturally look to the missionaries as their advocates and
protectors. Even with the Karens in the plains, situate among the
Burmese, such action of Christian missionaries is most beneficial. I
could name many missionaries, both Catholic and Protestant, to whom I am
under deep obligations for having brought to my notice grievances great
and petty which otherwise would probably have never reached me.

"A district officer who fails to avail himself of such means of honest
and disinterested information, I consider neglects a very efficient help
to the performance of his duty."

In the deep despondency that occasionally oppressed the Karens under the
old régime, a cheering thought, like a ray of light in the gloom of
their morbid imaginings, encouraged them to look forward with hope, and
to recognize a silver lining in every cloud that overshadowed them.

Their traditions taught them that they were to look to the West for
their deliverers-----the white foreigners who were to come by the ocean,
bringing with them the Book, once theirs, which was to make them
acquainted with the true God, and free them from the yoke of the
oppressors.

The advent of the English was accordingly hailed by the Karens with a
delight that was intensified by the fact that the American missionaries
brought with them the Book for which they had so long yearned.

An opening was accordingly made and eagerly taken advantage of by the
Karens, their new rulers, and their new teachers, laying the foundation
of a feeling of mutual confidence, which has year by year become more
intelligent.

An impetus was given at the same time to the spread of Christianity,
resulting in a success that has placed the Karen Mission in the position
it so deservedly fills, as perhaps the most promising in the world----a
mission that claims our widest sympathy, not only because of the triumph
of the sacred cause to which its servants have devoted their lives, and
to which everything else must be with them subservient, but because that
victory has been achieved by the voluntary agency of the people
themselves, who gave their substance, and in some cases their very
lives, as an earnest of the sincerity of their religion.

It also deserves the cordial recognition of all thinking men, for the
fearlessness and tact with which it has attacked and broken down the
strongholds of ignorance, superstition, and savagery, fighting a good
fight in the cause of civilization, not indeed with carnal weapons, but
having as it were for its motto, the grand watchword that has been
handed down to us from the very dawn of Christianity----

"Peace on earth, and good will towards men."


CHAPTER II
ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORD KAREN.----CHARACTER AND PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
OF THE KARENS

_Etymology[20] of the word Karen_

Karen or Kayen[21] is a name we have adopted from the Burmese, the
etymology of which, as far as we can ascertain, has not been
satisfactorily determined. It conveniently designates a people, divided
into three great families, comprising numerous clans; having, it is
said, a language of common origin, embracing many dialects, but without
any common designation for themselves.

In this respect they do not differ from the peoples of Hindústan, dubbed
Hindús or "black men," by the Persians, and called so ever since. The
same may be said in regard to our own ancestors, till the seventh
century, when, by common consent, the term Angle, or the name of one of
their tribes, was adopted as general appellation for the whole race.

From Mr. Cross we learn that the word Karen is supposed to bear two
significations, "aborigines," and "wild people in general"; and that a
popular error prevails among Europeans generally that the Burmese call
the people Karen because they are uncivilized as compared with
themselves. This error, he says, arises from confounding two Burmese
words; _yine_ "savage, wild," and _yin_ or _yen_ "prior or first."
_Yine_, as he justly points out, would be used indiscriminately by the
Burmese, in reference to any wild tribes, and would even be applied by
them towards their own people if characterized by uncouth or savage
habits.

At the same time, he thinks that it is evident that they regard the
people whom they call Karen or Kayen, as the aborigines, because they
found them occupying the country when they first took possession of it.
We have frequently suggested this idea when consulting monks or other
learned or intelligent Burmese, in regard to the derivation of the word;
but, unless we put it so as to partly beg the question----when of course
a polite Burman will always accept the cue----we never obtained an
answer sufficiently clear to justify us in accepting the proposition of
Mr. Cross.

Another consideration that militates against, if it does not prove fatal
to his interpretation, is that _yin_ also signifies "civilized," in
antithesis to _yine_ "uncivilized;" so that the Burmese in talking of
the Karens, frequently discriminate between those that have been
affected by civilization, and the wilder tribes by calling them
Kayin-yin, "civilized Karens" and Kayin-yine, "uncivilized Karens,"
respectively.

Karen has been written in various ways by various writers, according to
their different notions of spelling. Thus Father Sangermano[22] styles
the people Carians, and Symes,[23] who first heard of them from
Sangermano, refers to them as Carayners or Carrianers. Cox, whose
otherwise interesting narrative is conspicuous for its ludicrous
perversity as regards rendering the English equivalent of Burmese names,
disposes of them as Carrians:[24] while in Crawfurd's more ambitious
work, the author, noticing the name Karian, explains that it should be
written Karen, and yet in his next chapter he alludes to the people as
Karyens.[25]

There is some excuse then for the fancies of some authorities, which
have connected the origin of the Karens with M. Pauthier's
Caraian----the Carajan of Marco Polo----which we know to be Yunan. This
fallacy has been disposed of by Colonel Yule in his recent work.[26]

To the Buddhist Bishop of Toungoo we are indebted for a suggestion that
Karen is derived from a Pali word meaning "dirty feeders," or "people of
inferior caste," and from a note thereon favoured us by Dr. Mason, we
find that the Burmese compilers of the Pali vocabularies, render Kirata,
"mountaineers, or outcasts of India," by the term Karen, simply because
they were a people of similar habits; and again in Wilson's Sanskrit
Dictionary, the word Kiráta is defined "a savage, one of the barbarous
tribes that inhabit woods and mountains----the Kinhadæ of Arian."[27]

But these examples prove nothing, and must be taken simply for what they
are worth.

The generic name that the Shans give the Karens in their own country is
Yang[28] which is softened in Burmese into Yen or Yein. Admitting this,
and taking Mr. Cross' theory so far as it goes, we are still in the
dark, as to the signification of the particle KA; although possibly it
may be urged that among the affinities of Karens with the Yuma dialects,
is a tendency to affect the prefix KA, which it sometimes unites with
the root.[29]

The Burmese in naming wild tribes have taken advantage of some
peculiarity in their dress or occupation to distinguish them; thus we
have "Red Karens," "White Karens, "Great butterflies," "Little
butterflies," "Wild bees," etc., or else they adopt the term used by
different tribes, in speaking of themselves.

Dr. Mason points out that Karen is sufficiently near Kayong and Kaya,
the names that the Gaykhos and Red Karens give them, to be the same
word. It is certainly nearer than the equivalents of Karen, furnished by
the European writers we have quoted; and as the Gaykhos and Red Karens
were probably the first tribes with which the Burmese came in contact,
before they conquered Pegu, Dr. Mason's suggestion as to the origin of
the word, commends itself to careful attention.

In the "Transactions of the Ethnological Society," vol. v, Sir A.
Phayre, quoting from Mr. Logan, says, "The root of Mranma is _ran_, one
of the forms of a widely spread Himalaic body for man, Karen has the
same root with the guttural in place of the labial prefix." Mranma,
which accords with the Arakanese pronunciation of the Burmese
orthography, would under ordinary circumstances be Myenma, in the
dialect of Pegu and Burma Proper, but is arbitrarily pronounced Bamá,
hence our word Burma.

Sir A. Phayre, on the authority of the "Chronicles of the Kings of
Burma," or _Maha Radza Weng_, records in the same article, that "at an
early period there were three tribes in the valley of the Irrawaddy, who
appear to be the progenitors of the present Burmese nation. These tribes
are called Byoo or Pyoo, Kanyan or Kanran, and Thek, or by the Arakanese
Sak."

Kanran softened as above explained would be Kenyen or Kenren. The
consonant _n_, too, when final in the first syllable of a word of two or
three syllables, is in Burmese often mute, so we should then have Keyen
or Keren. And in fact Father Sangermano does eliminate the _r_.[30]

If it be true, as Sir A. Phayre thinks probable, that these three tribes
were the progenitors of the present Burmese nation, it is just possible
that the title of Kanran, which is no longer applied by the Burmese to
any tribe of cognate origin, may have been transferred to the Karens,
just as Talaing,[31] the appellation by which the original Peguans or
Mons are still known, may (as suggested by Sir A. Phayre) have been
derived from the Telingas, a Hindu race which formerly had extensive
settlements on the Burmese coast.

Dr. F. Porter Smith somewhat authoritatively disposes of a question
which has hitherto baffled those most competent to form an opinion
thereon, as follows:----"There is little doubt that the word Karen comes
from the same root-word as Kara,[32] the Mongol word for black,
conveying also the idea of an inferior or subjugated race. The Chinese
call Karens the Wu-man, or the 'black aborigines,' denoting their
relationship with the scattered tribes (distinct from the Miau-tsze)
which inhabited the south and west parts of China, and are still found
as distinct tribes in Kwei-chau and Szch'uen."

But then it is well known that none of the Karen tribes can properly be
called black men, while many of them are quite as fair as the Chinese,
the girls, in some instances, exhibiting white and red in strong
contrast in their faces.

While placing on record the different speculations on the origin of the
word which have come to our notice, we would fain hope to enlist the
interest of those who have given attention to the subject, in view of
obtaining a satisfactory solution of this etymological problem.

KAREN----CHARACTER

"The Karens are a meek, peaceful race, simple and credulous, with many
of the softer virtues and few flagrant vices. Though greatly addicted to
drunkenness, extremely filthy and indolent in their habits, their morals
in other respects are superior to many more civilised races."[33] So
wrote Mrs. Judson many years ago, and the description is sufficiently
accurate now, when speaking of the comparatively civilised _Sgans_ and
_Pwos_ of the sparsely populated Tenasserim coast, the delta of the
Irrawaddy, and the alluvial plains of Pegu; but when we come to the
tribes that have their habitat on the slopes of the great watershed of
the Sittang and Salwen valleys, and the more northern regions, we find
them distinguished for their unrelenting ferocity, and for their
turbulent and undisciplined bearing, differing as widely in their moral
characteristics from their conquerors of the plains, as in their
physical peculiarities.

Tempted by the abundance of available wasteland in British Burma, the
Karen can indulge his natural nomadic tendencies to their full extent,
he therefore "cares as little to be the proprietor of the land on which
he erects his booth, as the bird does to own the tree on which it builds
its nest, or perches to pick the fruit." But in Karennee, where the
population is comparatively great in proportion to the area of the
country, he is forced to pay more attention to agriculture, to abandon
his roving habits, and to be dependent on the protection that larger and
more settled communities afford.

For the most part, however, preferring to live far from the bustle of
cities and towns, from choice ensconcing himself in the dense forests,
or perching on the eyrie-like heights of almost inaccessible mountains,
and perchance hiding in the tall elephant grass on the margins of
streams and rivers, the Karen is occasionally found hovering round the
outskirts of civilised life, ministering to its necessities, but not
caring to join in its pleasures or in its pursuits. Living with the
hitherto dominant race, but not of them, timid and suspicious to a
fault, owing perhaps to long endured oppression under the whole régime,
the mild _Sgans_ and _Pwos_ exhibit a strong contrast to the more
warlike and independent _Bwés_, who boast with some reason of having
ever defied the most strenuous efforts of the Burmese to exercise
control over them.

Differing as the various tribes do in many ways, they have many points
in common, which allow us to speak of them as a homogeneous whole, but
in the very characteristics which admit of this deduction, we find them
contrasting still more strongly with the Burmese.

"The Karen," says Dr. Mason, "is the antipodes of a Burman in every
respect. The manners of the Burman are polished and winning, of a Karen
cruel and repulsive. Flattery is so foreign to his thoughts, that he has
no word for it in his language." The typical Karen is certainly very
matter-of-fact, and so absolutely devoid of humour, as to be unable to
appreciate a joke of any kind. The Burman, on the contrary, has a keen
sense of the ludicrous, and so far does this carry him, that even in a
criminal court it is by no means unusual to find the audience (including
the prisoner at the bar) giving vent to suppressed merriment, when
anything strikes them in a ridiculous light. The Karen rarely exhibits
feelings of surprise, joy, gratitude, or admiration, like the more
demonstrative Burman, nor is he endowed with a feeling for art like the
latter, who decorates his carts, boats, agricultural implements,
articles for domestic use, dwellings, rest-houses for travellers,
monasteries and other religious buildings, &c., with bold, elaborate
carving, unique of its kind.

It must be confessed, however, that the Christian Karen is not so
encouraged by the missionaries as he legitimately might be with a view
to his developing talent of this kind; for in the building of their
chapels, school-houses, dwellings for teachers, and in laying out
gardens, the æsthetical seems to be wholly sacrificed to the
utilitarian, and no attempt made to establish a sense of order, or to
inculcate the love of the beautiful, characteristics in which the Karen
is lamentably deficient.

The difference between the Malay and Papuan, as described by Mr.
Wallace,[34] might, _mutatis mutandis_, be applied to the Karen and the
Burman respectively. He says:----"The Malay is bashful, cold,
undemonstrative, and quiet; the Papuan is bold, impetuous, excitable,
and noisy; the former is grave, and seldom laughs; the latter is joyous
and laughter-loving; the one conceals his emotions, the other displays
them."

"A well-read Burman," remarks Dr. Mason, "has a mind like a schoolman of
the middle ages, a repository of obsolete metaphysics and exploded
science. A Karen knows nothing, but he acquires knowledge as readily as
an Anglo-Saxon, detects a sophism as quickly as a Master of Arts, and
requires the reason of things like one grounded in Euclid."[35]

Judging by the accounts given by the missionaries, the Karens as a race
compare unfavourably with the Burmese, who have not been contaminated by
the ways of seaport or other large towns, in having little or no regard
for truth. "I have never met a Karen," says Dr. Mason, "in the Church or
out of it, that when he had committed a wrong, would not tell a
falsehood to cover it. What a Karen says he will not do to-day, under a
change of circumstances he will do to-morrow, and seem to think it all
right."[36]

With few prejudices, and no deeply-rooted convictions to get rid of, his
whole system of religion consists in propitiating the tutelary deities
presiding over the various objects of nature; the Karen therefore is
naturally more susceptible to the teachings of Christianity than the
Burman, who is trammelled with the dogma of metempsychosis and the
metaphysical conceptions of the faith of Buddha. As Dr. Mason happily
puts it:----"The faith of a Burman is the faith of a man welling up from
the deeps of his mental faculties; but the faith of a Karen is the faith
of a child with no deep roots in the understanding. The Karens are like
the Samaritans, who at the first hearing, 'with one accord, gave heed
unto the things that Phillip spake;' but the Burmans are like the
Bereans, who searched the Scriptures daily whether those things were
so."[37]

The success of missionary enterprise among the Karens has had a
marvellous influence on their character, for they have not only been
weaned from the debasing habits that hitherto characterised the race,
but a healthy sense of their obligations as good and loyal citizens has
been implanted in their minds, fostering an honest pride that stimulates
them to more independent action, and to a sense of the responsibilities
they incur in their endeavours to raise themselves, practical proof of
which they afford in the commendable liberality with which they support
their pastors and village schools, and the alacrity with which they
undertake their fair share of the burden of education, recognizing the
rights of women to intellectual teaching, and in this respect, at least,
creditably contrasting with the Burmese and many more civilised nations.

While it is admitted that, to the casual observer, the uneducated Karen
presents an example of the most stolid, many hopeless stupidity, owing
partly to his nervous and suspicious nature, which often prompts him to
affect ignorance as the easiest way to evade inquiry or avoid
compromising himself; and wild and uncultivated as he naturally is, he
is at the same time highly susceptible of social, moral, and religious
improvement, when his confidence has been won and his sympathies
awakened.

KAREN----PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

To the eye of the practised observer there are many shades of difference
to be detected between typical specimens of the various tribes.

Locality also seems to affect the countenance, as those who come from
the south of Burma can easily be distinguished from individuals of the
same tribe that are settled in the north, apart from any peculiarities
in their dress or dialect.

Education, too, has its share in producing this result, so much so, that
those who have been for some time in the Mission Schools, would be
pronounced quite a different type to their wilder brethren.

It would not be easy, nay impossible, without the aid of photography, to
picture to the eye of the reader the physical characteristics observable
by an ethnological comparison of the different tribes.

As a general rule, it may be conceded that the average height of the
Karens equals that of the Burmese, but falls considerably short of the
European standard.

Dr. Mason measured 100 men and 100 women of a promiscuous assembly,
composed of several tribes, and found two men of 5 ft. 7 in., eight of 5
ft. 6 ½ in., and all the rest shorter. Of the women, two were 5 ft. 1
in., eight about 4 ft. 10 in., and the rest shorter. From these
measurements and long experience, he estimated the height of the men at
5 ft 4 ½ in. To 5 ft. 5 in., and of the women at 4 ft 9 in., which seems
to be near the truth.

The Red Karens are, however, an exception to the rule, in which the male
exceeds the female in stature and dimensions, in that their women
frequently equal, if they do not surpass, the men in height and bulk.

The Red Karens, Gaykhos, and Northern Bwés, are considerably taller than
the hill tribes to the south of them, or the dwellers in the plains, and
would probably average 5 ft. 5 in., or more. Mr. O'Riley assumed the
ordinary height of the Red Karens to be 5 ft. 7 in., but this we think
gives too high a result.

If we exclude these tribes it will be found that the Karens prove an
exception to the rule in colder climates, where the Highlanders are
stronger and hardier than the Lowlanders; whether it be from effect of
locality or other causes, the hill tribes in this respect compare
unfavourably with those that inhabit the plains.

The latter are (comparatively speaking) a short, muscular race, the
males somewhat resembling the agricultural class of Burmans in this
respect, while the females are sturdier, with larger limbs than the
Burmese women. Where with them "the body is found square, low, and thick
set, with the pelvis broad and expanded, these features in the Kayas are
modified to a more upright frame, narrow and sloping shoulders, longer
neck and body, with limbs more in proportion to the vertebral
column."[38] Mr. O'Riley was of opinion that the Red Karens preserved a
distinctive difference in mould of form and feature, and particularly in
their carriage when compared with other tribes. He also observed that
the skull of the _Kaya_ is smaller as a general rule than that of the
Shans or other Karens, and that "in form it is an intermediate between
the two, the anterior part small and less developed than that of the
Karen, and the posterior part so uniform in its outline as to present a
semi-spherical appearance when viewed from the front."

The narrow and sunken small black eyes, set far apart, and more or less
oblique, but far less so than the Chinese, the high cheek bones, giving
to that portion of the face its greatest breadth and a comparative
narrowness to the forehead; the flat face with the bridge of the nose
very little above it; the square lower jaw, and general contour of the
lozenge-shaped countenance, joined to the pyramidal head, with its
straight black hair and the absence of beard, found in representative
types of all the tribes, unmistakably stamps the Mongolian origin of the
Karen.

It is true that occasional, and sometimes remarkable exceptions to the
prevailing type are to be met with, bearing out the description given by
Dr. Macgowan[39] as to their possessing tolerably distinct "Caucasian"
features----long faces and straight noses: still the national
physiognomy is essentially Indo Chinese.

As far as we could judge there is no prevailing disproportion between
different parts of the body, excepting in the case of the lower limbs of
the Red Karen female, wherein by the pressure of beads below the knee,
and the habit of carrying heavy loads on their backs by a sling passing
round the forehead and over the shoulders, the calf of the leg is
developed to a size out of all proportion to the rest of the body, and
as facetiously remarked by Mr. O'Riley would extort, "the envy of the
flower of the London _Jeameses_."

The Karens of the plains are of the same clay colour as the Burmese and
other peoples of the Indo Chinese family. Their women, however, are
often of a much lighter complexion, and some of the girls who have not
been exposed to the sun are very fair.

With the Red Karens the prevailing colour approaches a copper of medium
shade and brightness. The hill tribes generally have a tinge between
these two; while the _Gaykhos_, _Bwés_, and other tribes to the north
are of a dingy white or yellow, resembling Chinese; and not a few are so
fair as to show red and white in strong contrast in their countenances.
Many of the young girls of the plains as well as the hills are very
pleasing in appearance, and in the case of those belonging to the more
northern clans there is, says Mr. O'Riley, "an approach in youth to what
in our philosophy we term good-looking; but with the universal antipathy
to ablution, the features of both sexes become so foul as to hide the
natural expression of a clean cuticle, however fair the proportions may
be beneath."

The Karens as a rule do not marry with other races, and as the instances
where this has occurred with the Burmese are comparatively rare, it is
impossible to form any definite conclusions on such intermarriages. Dr.
Mason has observed that in a few cases which have come to his knowledge
where Burmans have married Karen women, the offspring have invariably a
Burmese cast of countenance.

Marriages between near relations are the rule with some of the tribes,
but it is not known whether this practice is attended with any practical
results as regards the physical or moral character of the issue.


CHAPTER III
LANGUAGE

THE materials available for a full review of the languages that pertain
to the Golden Chersonese are very meagre; all, therefore, that can be
done at present is to examine the prominent characteristics of each,
compare them with the results that have been arrived at by the study of
the dialects best known, and endeavour to ascertain thereby their
ethical affinities. This is confessedly a difficult task, and much must
be left to conjecture, owing to our ignorance of the region comprised in
the great river system on the extreme east of the Himalaya, whose origin
is coincident with the people of mono-syllabic speech, and whom it
influences to its extremities.

Judging by what we know about this territory, it is reasonable to hope
that the most interesting ethnological results may be arrived at by a
philological comparison of the languages, and an inquiry into the
manners, customs, and traditions of numerous tribes, who, owing either
to our apathetic indifference, or to a morbid fear, engendered by
over-coloured impressions of the political difficulties attending the
exploration of that country, are as little known as if they were the
inhabitants of another planet.

From Dr. Hunter we learn that "Bengal, with its dependencies, forms a
vast basin, into which every variety of speech has been flowing since
prehistoric times," and he is even sanguine enough to believe that "the
materials which Turanian scholars, such as Klaproth, A. Remusat, and
Castren had to collect, by laborious research or perilous travel, like
at the very door of the Indian missionary or magistrate," and that the
study of the aboriginal languages of Bengal is destined to effect, for
the "vast ethnical residue," what the study of Sanskrit has done in
bringing "to light the affinities of the long separated Aryan members of
the inflecting class of languages, the common parentage of two-thirds of
civilised mankind."[40]

It may be, as Dr. Hunter says, that all the three classes into which the
languages of the world are divided, meet us upon a common camping-ground
in India, and that the gap that Brousen admitted between Chinese, the
"monument of antideluvian speech," and other formations, has been
bridged over by subsequent philological research, still we must confess
that we would prefer to go to the fountain head of the ethnic affinities
of the Golden Chersonese, which is doubtless in the territory we have
indicated, rather than trust to what has filtered beyond this fluviatile
region to which the isolated monosyllabic tongues are confined. Secluded
as this region is, it has undergone many changes in its population,
owing to incursions of nomadic Tartar hoards and the influx of Chinese.
Its language, which appears to have a Chinese basis, while its general
character is Scythic, has apparently influenced the hill tribes among
the northern margin of the valley of the Ganges, and the eastern borders
of Bengal, as well as the Burmese and numerous wilder septs around them,
all of which have Mongoloid features, but it appears to us that no
satisfactory conclusion can be arrived at till the _terra incognita_ we
have referred to has been explored.[41]

The Karen language is rather a family of languages than a single one. It
has a base of between two and three thousand roots, and these are found,
more or less modified, in the dialect of each tribe, with a few other
roots peculiar to that tribe.

Though the Karen dialects are very numerous, all may be reduced to three
principal ones, the _Pwo_, the _Sgan_, and the _Bghai_ or _Bwé_. The Pwo
is characterised by its numerous final consonants, with liquid and nasal
sounds, while the Sgan and the Bwé have all their words ending in
vowels. The Bwé is also known from the other dialects by its peculiar
mode of designating the four digits above five, for which it has no
proper names, six, for instance, is literally three couple; seven, three
couple plus one; eight, four couple; and nine, four couple plus one.

In this it resembles the first Himalaic tribes of the Ganges, who appear
to have brought with them the Chino-Tibetan system of numerals, in one
of its older forms. The first four numerals of the native population
were adopted by them, and remained current with the Himalaic names,
which were ultimately disused. Five remained Himalaic, while above it
the lower numbers of both systems were repeated.[42]

It differs, too, in its sibilants, thus it cannot pronounce the
aspirated S of the Pwo and the Sgan, but changes it into Sh, a
difference of dialect that prevailed in the spoken Hebrew in the days of
Jeptha, when the Ephraimites were known by their inability to pronounce
Sh. Judges xii, 6.

The arrangement of words in a Karen sentence corresponds with the
English, while the Burmese is more like the Latin, hence the Burmese has
an affix to make the objective case, because it precedes the verb, while
the Karen has none, because the object is placed after the verb, and is
known by its position in the sentence.

The Karen follows the Mon-Anam formation in this last particular, as
well as having "the directive before and the demonstrative, as well as
the qualitative, after the substantive. But the possessor precedes the
object possessed, as in Burmese and Chinese."[43]

The Karen, like all Indo-Chinese languages, is monosyllabic, and, like
them also, each syllable changes its signification by a change of
intonation. Thus, in Burmese, the same root may mean three very
different things, by varying the pronunciation. This peculiarity is
carried to a greater extent in Karen, for each syllable, as is the case
with the Shan and Siamese languages, has five varieties of
pronunciation, with as many changes of signification. For instance, in
the Sgan dialect, _tau_ pronounced in an ordinary even tone signifies
"to limit, to separate;" when struck on a high note, as when calling to
a person in the distance, it means "just, right;" when uttered with a
heavy, falling accent, it is the verb "to strike;" when the utterance is
retracted in the throat, it means the noun "stockade;" and when spoken
as if with a circumflex, as used by teachers of education in English, it
means "to bethink."

In Annamitic, which is said to be a cognate[44] language, we find that,
"_ba_, pronounced with a grave accent, means a lady, an ancestor;
pronounced with a sharp accent, it means the favourite of a prince;
pronounced with the semi-grave accent, it means what has been thrown
away; pronounced with the grave circumflex, it means what has been left
of a fruit after it has been squeezed out; pronounced with no accent, it
means three; pronounced with the ascending or interrogative accent, it
means a box on the ear; thus, ba, bà, bâ, bá, is said to mean, if
properly pronounced, 'Three ladies gave a box on the ear to the
favourite of the prince.'"[45]

In its tonic character, Karen "resembles the Chinese and Mon-Anam
languages. Its glossarial affinities, on the other hand, are very
slight, with the Mon-Anam tongues in general, and very numerous with the
Tibetan Burman. With Mon it has special affinities, evidently
attributable to long contact."[46]

The Chinese language has numerous intonations, and is said to be spoken
in various dialects, some of which, like the _Pwo_, have final
consonants, with nasal tones, and some like the _Sgan_ and _Bwé_, whose
words all end in vowels.

"It is, for instance," says Professor Max Muller,[47] "one of the most
characteristic features of the literary Chinese, the dialect of Nankin,
or the idiom of the Mandarins, that every syllable ends in a vowel
either pure or nasal.," And again, that "it is by no means certain
whether the final consonants which have been pointed out in the vulgar
dialects of Chinese, are to be considered as later additions, or whether
they do not represent a more primitive state of the Chinese language."
Quoting Léon de Rosuy's remarks on the language of Cochin China, he also
records that "all words are monosyllabic, and people distinguish their
significations only by means of different accents in pronouncing them.
The same syllable, for instance _dai_, signifies twenty-three different
things, according to the difference of accent, so that people never
speak without singing;" and goes on to say, "this description, though
somewhat exaggerated, is correct in the main, there being six or eight
musical accents or modulations in this as in other monosyllabic tongues,
by which the different meanings of one and the same monosyllabic root,
are kept distinct. These accents form an element of language which we
have lost, but which was most important during the primitive stages of
human speech."

Eighty-eight common Karen words, selected by Dr. Mason to develop the
affinities of the language, showed that sixteen words are allied to the
_Tai_, that is Shan and Siamese, eleven to Chinese, ten to Burmese,
three to Tibetan, three to Botian, three to Simboo, one to
Indo-European, and one to each of the five North-Western tribes.

With our present knowledge, then, he argues that the affinities of the
Karen language are strongest with Tai and Chinese, and when we know more
of the Chinese languages as spoken in the south of China, he thinks that
Karen will be found to be an off-shoot of Chinese.

Mr. Logan,[48] again, is of opinion, that the Karen dialects belong to
the Yuma family, which "is one of the subdivisions of the Western or
Tibetan branch of the Himalaic alliance, which was preceded in India and
ultra-India by the Eastern Mon Anam. The Himalaic formation is
intermediate in its characters, structural and glossarial, between
Chinese and Scythic; and as the existing languages of Tibet are pure
Himalaic, and are conterminous with Scythic and Chinese, it is inferred
that the cognate southern tongues are derived from the north of the
Himalaya, that is from the ancient Tibetan province."

In the same proper, Mr. Logan remarks that the "ethnic relations of the
Kaya (Red Karens), like those of other unlettered tribes, must be
chiefly sought in the unconscious autography of their language;" and he
goes on to say, that "it is evident that the Kaya is a distinct and
archaic dialect of the Yuma family. With Sgan, Pgho, and Toungthoo, it
may be considered as forming the Karen branch of that family." A branch
in which the "Mon-Anam influence has somewhat modified the proper
Tibeto-Burman structure."

The Red Karen traditions, in reference to their association with the
Chinese at Pagan, and to their being driven thence by the Burmese, as
well as the Sgan legend as to the route by which they came into the
country, have, by Mr. Logan's showing, the support of linguistic
evidence. "Karen," he points out, "even in its Chinese characters, has a
development so independent and peculiar, that it must have long preceded
Burman in the middle and lower valley of the Irrawaddy. Toungthoo, in
its vocabulary and phonology, is merely a dialect of Karen. The Yuma,
Munipuri, and Naga dialects are so closely related to them glossarily as
to show that, before they assumed their Chinoid form, they belonged
mainly to this group, although their northern position gave them a
Brahmaputran element also." An examination of the progress and course of
the emasculated ultra-India dialects must," he adds, "begin with Karen."
The highly monosyllabic, vocalic and tonic character of the Karen, he
also appears to think, was caused by long and intimate connection with
the Chinese, just as other attributes are the result of long contact
with Mon, although he by no means infers that it possesses radical
affinities with either.

The peculiar character of the Karen language would, he says in
conclusion, "be accounted for if they were the tribe that possessed the
valleys of the Shue-ly (Showé-lee) when the Chinese pushed their
boundaries forward to the Irrawaddy," and as the town of Bhamò,
immediately north of this valley, is mentioned in Karen traditions in
connection with the Chinese, it is very probable that such was the case.

The Karen language was first reduced to writing in 1832 by Dr. Wade, who
constructed an alphabet consisting of twenty-five consonants and nine
vowels. The Sgan tribe was first met with, then the Pwo, and the
missionaries, in making a philological comparison of their languages,
noticed that although the roots in both dialects were substantially the
same, there was a considerable difference in the languages themselves,
so much so, as to induce indefatigable men to give their undivided
attention to one or other of these dialects only, and act independently
of each other. Thus, if we mistake not, the Roman alphabet was first
adopted by those who made the Pwo dialect their special province, while
the Burmese alphabet was used by the Sgan students.

Ultimately a modification of the Burmese character was fixed upon in
preference to the former in both dialects, which, in spite of all that
is said to the contrary, could, we venture to think, be easily adapted
to all the requirements of Karen pronunciation, leaving out of the
question the desirability of associating their written character with
that of their present rulers, rather than with the ancient régime.

A grammar of the Sgan language with a vocabulary of the Pwo, intended
for the use of European students, was published by Dr. Mason in 1846.
Another Sgan grammar, whose object was to aid the Karens in acquiring a
correct knowledge of their own vernacular, was printed by Dr. Wade in
1861. Both are esteemed by competent judges as works of great merit, and
highly creditable to their authors.

Dr. Wade, with a view of obtaining as much information about the people
as possible, and at the same time fixing their language within definite
limits and on a sound basis, compiled a kind of Karen Thesaurus, of four
large octavo volumes, consisting of a repository of legends and
traditions of various kinds in poetry and prose, and also of a lexicon
or cyclopædia of words and phrases, and their different shades of
meaning as given by the people.

Dr. Mason was, we believe, one of the chief contributors to this book.
His name is further distinguished by his having been the first to
publish a vernacular newspaper east of the Ganges. The Karen periodical,
started by him at Tavoy in 1842, is we believe still in existence.[49]

Their first book consisted of detached portions of the Gospel. These
were followed up by religious tracts, as well as treatises on geography,
trigonometry, history, arithmetic, &c., in the various dialects. The New
Testament was translated into the Sgan dialect by Dr. Mason, assisted by
other missionaries, in 1843, and the Old Testament was, we believe,
completed by Dr. Mason without aid in 1853.

Regarding this grand work, a very competent judge has remarked that "he
did not know of any other translation of the Bible that approached in
all respects so near perfection as this one."[50]

In conclusion, we may say that there is abundant proof that the Karen
language is sufficiently copious for all present requirements.


CHAPTER IV
EDUCATION

THE words civilisation, education, religion, and many others, are among
those expression which are so often used without any clear, definite, or
precise ideas being attached to them. Civilisation in its popular and
ordinary signification suggests the idea of a community that is
advancing cautiously and methodically, in promoting the best possible
organisation of society in view to the improvement of its social
relations, and the furthering of its material progress. The term also
seems to convey something of a more elevated and dignified character
than the mere perfection of the social relations. In this other aspect
of the word it embraces the intellectual and moral faculties of man; of
his feelings, his tastes, and his ideas. Here we touch on the subject of
education, which is the very soul of civilisation.

The question of education or civilisation is, we admit, one of degree as
well as a matter of opinion, The civilisation of the West differs from
the civilisation of the East.

To the typical _John Bull_, and to the typical Frenchman, all other
nations are beyond the pale of civilisation, taking it in its widest
sense; while to to the "Celestial," all who do not belong to the
"Flowery Land" are "Outer Barbarians." So it is with education.

With every desire to make due allowance for the Karens, it would not
appear that their attainments when first encountered by the
missionaries, was of a sufficiently elevated type to warrant our using
the term civilisation or education even in their most limited popular
sense in respect to it.

The term education then, whether interpreted in its generally accepted
sense, or taken in its widest meaning, seems singularly inappropriate
when applied to the intellectual, physical, or moral condition of the
wilder clans of the Karens. When first encountered they were
characterised by an ignorance the most deplorable, not only as regards
intellectual culture, but also of the most simple arts. In some
instances they evinced a savagery almost unparalleled, and bore a strong
impress of the ethnic struggles of a bygone age, wherein, crushed,
humiliated, and broken up by fiercer and more warlike tribes, they have
incurred the inevitable penalty that such internecine strife inflicts on
the weaker, and have evidently deteriorated as regards their physical,
if not their moral education, compared with the time when, in a strong
and apparently well organized array, they encountered the dread terrors
of the Gobi and marched southwards.

They have traditions of having had the same opportunities as other
peoples for acquiring knowledge, God having given them books when
similar gifts were bestowed on the Burmese and Chinese, but they
foolishly neglected to take advantage of these opportunities, and lost
their books as well as the little knowledge they had derived therefrom.
The same obtuseness inference to other matters seems, by some accounts,
to have prevented them from taking their proper status among the nations
of the earth, and, if truth be told, they seem to have voluntarily
accepted the position, as one ordained by fate, and have never striven
to be emancipated therefrom.

The Karens were first communicated with by means of the Burmese
language, and so hopeful were the indications of the possibility of
doing good among them that two missionaries, Doctors Mason and Wade,
devoted themselves to the acquisition of the language. The names of both
these gentlemen have for many years been prominent on account of the
success of their exertions in raising the Karens, and deservedly hold a
high place in the records of the progress of civilisation and education
among this interesting people.

The Karens, like many nomadic tribes, had no written character till Dr.
Wade reduced their language to writing; but in this respect they do not
compare unfavourably with the most favoured nations, for from Mr.
Crawford we learn "that no mere shepherd or nomadic people seems ever to
have invented the act of writing, and we can readily believe that the
nomadic state of society would afford no leisure or opportunity for such
an invention." ... "But by far the most remarkable instance of a people
who have failed to invent either symbolic or phonetic writing, is
afforded by the races of Europe. No race from the Euxine to the
Atlantic, or from Greece to Scandinavia, has ever invented an
alphabet."[51]

It had never struck the Karens that this language, like that of others
could be represented by signs, and when this was an accomplished fact,
the effect on them was quite electrical.

Tottering old men and aged matrons, as well as youths and maidens, shows
pleasure were hitherto aimless and profitless, if not absolutely
vicious, vied with each other in endeavouring to acquire even a
smattering of learning, so as to be able to spell over the little
Christian tracts which were first printed in their mother tongue.
Actuated by such a spirit, their progress in the art of reading was
marvellous, and the first literary ventures of the missionaries in the
Karen language----devoured with enthusiasm by thousands----were
eminently successful.

The fact of possessing a written language of their own, stimulated,
moreover, in the minds of this simple people an honest pride, that
encouraged them in a measure to shake off the listless apathy that
distinguished them, and to emerge from the "slough of despond" which
appears to have drowned their dormant energies for centuries.

With such a feeling to work upon, the task of the missionaries was
henceforth comparatively easy. Able and zealous assistants were found
among the people, who, without pay or emolument of any kind, or other
prospect of reward, save the satisfaction of doing good to their people,
and the thought that their efforts towards promoting a national
literature, put them more on a footing with civilised nations, entered
on their duties with devotion. The mass of the people readily responded
to their efforts, and encouraged their aspirations. The old folks, 'tis
true, after the first novelty wore off, put away their spelling-book,
and reverted to their chronic state of lethargic indolence; but the
young people were still encouraged to persevere, and a great impetus was
given to secular and religious education.

Whether, then, the Karens "shall or shall not become a civilised
people," is, as remarked by Dr. Mason, "simply a question of whether
they are or are not to have the necessary culture to make any uneducated
people such."

Christian missionaries have nobly done their duty to solve this question
in the affirmative, by establishing village schools all over the
interior of the country; and by making the religious element the
predominating influence therein, encourage a system of education which
appeals so strongly and so effectively to the sympathies of the
Buddhists, and has caused the elementary education which the Burmese can
boast of, to compare favourably with that of the most civilised peoples
in the world.

But while adopting this system so far as it goes, they essay to go far
beyond it, and, taking "excelsior" as their motto, endeavour to develope
the mental faculties of the Karens as much as possible by personally
superintending the more advanced schools to be found at the principal
towns in Burma. The Burmese, on the other hand, seem to have no ambition
to extend their curriculum further than the standard required by their
forefathers for many generations, and are not, perhaps, one whit more
advanced in this respect than they were one hundred years ago.

To the credit of the Karens it must be allowed that they early
recognised the importance of encouraging women to qualify themselves to
undertake their natural sphere as instructors of the young. Against good
report and evil report, the champions of these liberal views have
successfully combated the ancient prejudices of the people against
bringing women forward in any way, and have not only convinced them of
the advisability of sending their girls to school, but have also
succeeded in having them regularly trained as school-teachers.

Many young women thus qualified have accomplished great results by
exercising not only the beneficial influence that good and earnest women
must have, but laying a foundation in the minds of their youthful pupils
for future successful culture.

Not a few too, endowed with great mental capacity and energy, have
successfully vied with men in the higher branches of education; and
though sneered at first, have, by their perseverance and devotion,
disarmed their opponents, who, in many instances, have appreciated their
work as it deserves.

The bright and intelligent appearance of both boys and girls who have
been influenced by education stands out in strong contrast with the
apparently impracticable and stolid stupidity of the same class in their
natural state of wild ignorance, and the high result of intellectual
learning of which they are capable, is evinced by the very creditable
knowledge displayed by the pupils in the various missionary schools, of
astronomy, history, geography, arithmetic, mensuration, and of general
subjects.

The students in the schools at head-quarter stations have succeeded in
obtaining a most creditable standard as compared with those belonging to
other nationalities, with the same advantages as they enjoy, and as the
more important of these institutions have been subsidized by
grantes-in-aid from Government, their sphere of usefulness will, it is
hoped, be much extended, and result in that practical benefit to
education which has been so well earned by the exertions of the people
themselves in furthering the good cause.

The uncivilised Karens are very deficient in works of art; and there are
no monuments or relics of any kind, tending to prove that their
education in this respect was formerly of a more advanced type than it
is at present. Dr. Mason accounts for this from a desire on the part of
the people that their localities should be unknown to the outside world.
The women of most of the tribes weave a coarse and durable cloth, and
embroider their garments very tastefully: but, in regard to some of
those belonging to the more secluded clans, it is said, "they toil not,
neither do they spin."

The people in the Tenasserim provinces make very neat baskets and tents.

The latter are woven in many fanciful patterns, to which they attribute
(says Dr. Mason) a divine origin.

"When God was about to die, as the legend runs, he called all nations to
him to receive his dying legacies; but the Karens being tardy in coming,
they arrived only in time to see his mats burning, and to note the
figures on the ashes which had been woven into them; and they have made
their mats, they say, after these patterns ever since."[52] The Karens
manufacture a few rude musical instruments. The Bwés and Red Karens
forge their own clumsy axes, hoes, and spears, and also make all the
common silver ornaments worn by the women; while some of the tribes on
the borders turn out very fair match-locks.

The Karens display no ingenuity in their works, as Dr. Mason says, have
no particular tastes or bent of any kind; and what is inculcated into
them would seem to be the result of mere drudgery. To this rule an
exception may be made in favour of the decided talent they evince for
music. Mr. Hordern, the Director of Public Instruction, when reporting
on Mr. Carpenter's school at Bassein, remarked that "the capacity of the
Karens for learning English music is remarkably shown here. Led by a
Karen teacher, and reading easily from notes on a black board, they sang
part songs in a way that would certainly astonish many an English church
choir. The girls all play the harmonium."

Although the Karens originate nothing, they appear to be apt imitators,
and to evince a decided capability for instruction to a high degree.
Many who were dubbed _Loo-yine_,[53] or wild men, by the Burmese, a few
years ago, can survey land and plot it afterwards; while others can use
the sextant, measure heights and distances, take the sun's meridian,
altitude and calculate the latitude.

They are fair carpenters, too, but not so good as the Burmese or the
Chinese.

Quoting again from Mr. Hordern's report, we find that in the workshop,
which was furnished with a lathe and other tools, he saw specimens of
the pupils' work which was well turned out; the school desks and forms
being creditable specimens of their handiwork. The Karens show a decided
talent for the duties of a printing office, as evinced by the "Pali
Grammar," "The Burmese Handbook of Medicine," and other works which have
been published in Toungoo, under the auspices of Dr. Mason.

The production of the "Handbook of Medicine" elicited the following
well-deserved criticism from Sir A. Phayre:----

"I had the great pleasure to receive two copies of your 'Burmese
Handbook of Medicine.' I need hardly say how delighted I am to see this,
knowing that if properly used, it is calculated to do a vast deal of
good. It is beautifully printed, and I am really astonished that you
have been able to bring the art to such perfection in Toungoo. This of
itself is evidence of the great advance made by the Karens under your
care."

We had also the pleasure of recording our appreciation of the word, at
the same time, in the following terms:----

"The preface to your 'Burmese Handbook of Medicine,' is A COMPLETE
SUCCESS IN THE ART OF PRINTING, and is highly creditable to your Karen
pupils.

"The printing is quite equal to that of the Journal of the Bengal
Asiatic Society, with which I have compared it, and if your paper were
better than it is, I am not sure whether it would not excel it.

"Success in teaching the Karens any of the useful arts, and thereby
making them more useful members of society, will always be a matter of
congratulation to every one who has their advancement at heart, and I
heartily congratulate you on the results you have been able to show."

While, therefore, it must be admitted that the wilder tribes are stupid
in an ignorance of the most debased type, those that, within the period
of even a single generation, have been emancipated from this thraldom,
afford an instance of what can be done by well-considered and persistent
efforts for promoting and encouraging education.


CHAPTER V
 GOVERNMENT

THE use and necessity of government are such, that it is said there
never was an age or country without some sort of civil authority, but as
men are seldom unanimous in the means of attaining their ends, their
differences in opinion as to what constitutes good government have
produced many forms of it.

Thus we have the monarchical, republican, and despotic governments, with
their different offshoots.

The independent or quasi-independent tribes of Karens afford an instance
of a people who practically set at nought the axiom of political economy
with which we preface this chapter; for what Mr. O'Riley records of the
Red Karens, may be reasonably applied to most of the other tribes. "They
possess neither law nor dominant authority," and the only semblance of
the latter which "exists among them, is that of the chief, or head of
the tribe or community, who is regarded simply as the patriarch, but
whose power for good or evil is nominal."

Their traditions refer to a time when they were an undivided nation with
a king of their own; and some of their present aspirations point to a
monarchical government in course of time, under which they anticipate
great temporal prosperity; these hopes even take the shape of prayer to
the Almighty in the following strain:----

"O Lord, we have had affliction for a long succession of generations;
have compassion, have mercy upon us, O Lord. The Talaing Kings have had
their season, the Birman Kings have had their season, the Siamese Kings
have had their season; and the Foreign Kings have all had their season;
the Karen nation remain. Let our King arrive, O Lord. Thou, O Lord, whom
we adore, to whom we sing praises, let us dwell within the great town,
the high city, the golden palace. Give to us, have compassion upon us, O
Lord .----Let us have Kings, and let the city, the town, the great town,
the Silver city, the new town, the new city, the palace, the royal
residence, arrive to us all, O Lord."[54]

The millennium, that they are sanguine enough to hope for consequent on
the rule of their monarchs, is portrayed in the following stanzas:----

"When the Karen King arrives There will be only one monarch; When the
Karen King comes, There will be neither rice nor poor."

"When the Karen King arrives, The beasts will be happy, When the Karens
have a King, Lions and leopards will lose their savageness."[55]

In spite of these prayers and aspirations, there is no record that the
Karens ever strove, or any evidence that they intend to strive for the
practical fulfilment of their hopes; in fact, they seem reconciled to
the isolation and state of dependence which has been their lot for ages.

It is generally accepted as an universal fact, that whereas a number of
individuals have assembled on the face of the earth, they have adopted
certain rules for their mutual guidance. Now, though we do not say that
these tribes form an exception to the rule which proves that the
association of men is not accidental but an inherent attribute of human
nature; and though we can also make allowances for the diversity of
circumstances which necessitate a revolution of the ideas as to what
constitutes government in more advanced nations, still the state of
affairs among them would seem to belie the facts, borne out by history
and by general experience, that the political and social economy of the
human race must be worked out by combined effort, and not by the
desultory and isolated action of independent individuals.

_Government_----Although the term government may be too comprehensive
when applied to the polity that obtains among the wilder clans, yet they
possess an oral law for the regulation of society almost as cumbrous as
the written law of more civilised peoples.

With no tradition of a Lycurgus, they imagine that their law came down
to them in a state of perfection from the Ancients, and consequently
like that of the Medes and Persians it altereth not.

Of this unwritten or common law, as we would term it, the elders of each
tribe are the recognised interpreters, just as the secretaries of state
of European Powers are the official interpreters of royal warrants.
These elders[56] are expected to teach the young people to do good and
to eschew evil, and it must be said in their favour, that in their
jealous care and reverence for ancient traditions, they honestly and
consistently endeavour to hand down the maxims they have received
intact, although it must be confessed that many of those whom they
strive to teach, having no restraint on their passions, save that of
superstition,[57] and the fear of retaliation, acknowledge no right of
control, and taking the law into their own hands, apply it as it suits
their savage inclination.

According to Karen law, each family is encouraged to avenge its own
wrongs, and provided aggrieved persons, in proceeding to extremities
that involve the loss of life or liberty of their enemies, or otherwise
taking the law into their own hands, conform to the customs as handed
down from the ancients, which have acquired the force of law, they are
held to have acted in conformity with strict procedure. Having
practically no court of law to which they can appeal, the people
constitute themselves "judge, jury, and executive," and as all offences
against the person, however heinous, are commutable by fine, the
compensation demanded by those who consider themselves injured in any
way, is often of the most arbitrary description. The consequence is,
that defaulters have to comply with these extortionate requisitions by
equivalent payment in kind or money, become the bonded slaves of those
who have claims against them, or give occasion to the latter to assume
the functions of sheriffs' officers by the system of forays in
retaliation for wrongs both civil and criminal, which is in accordance
with their unwritten civil and criminal codes combined. This anomalous
state of affairs, although fairly representing the normal conditions of
the social relations that exist among the more savage tribes, is subject
to considerable modification where the people have been directly or
indirectly influenced by civilised nations, or where their chiefs,
either by a combination of fortuitous circumstances, such as possessing
more property than their neighbours, commanding a wider family
connection; inheriting a prestige won by their ancestors, or by sheer
force of character, acquire and exercise an influence, which in the case
of other so-called chiefs, is simply nominal.

"The government of the Karens,"[58] says Dr. Mason, "may be compared to
that of the American Indians at present, or to that of the Scottish
clans in the days of Ro