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THE LOYAL KARENS 
 OF BURMA 
 
THE LOYAL KARENS 
 OF BURMA 
 
 DONALD MACKENZIE SMEATON, M.A. 
 
 BENGAL CIVIL SERVICE 
 
 LONDON 
 KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH & CO., i, PATERNOSTER SQUARE 
 
 1887 
 
(The rights of translation and of reproduction a'e reserved.) 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. Introduction ... ... ... ... i 
 
 II. Their Origin, Language, and Physical Cha- 
 racteristics ... ... ... ... 66 
 
 III. Some of their National Customs ... ... 79 
 
 IV. Their Agriculture : Pee Bee Yaw, the God- 
 
 dess OF THE Harvest ... ... ... 87 
 
 V. Their Folk-lore : one of their Satirical 
 
 Traditions ... ... ... ... 100 
 
 VI. Some of their Fireside Stories ... 117 
 
 VII. So.ME of their National Characteristics ... 140 
 
 VIII. Historical Tradition : Taw-mai-pah, the 
 
 Mythical Ancestor of the Karens ... 173 
 
 IX. Their National Religion and their God- 
 traditions ... ... ... ... 178 
 
 X. The American Mission among the Karens 191 
 
 XI. Christianizing a Heathen Karen Village ... 209 
 
 XII. Policy of the British Government toward 
 
 THE Karens ... ... ... ... 218 
 
 Appendix ... ... ... ... ... 239 
 
 1 
 V 
 
THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Probably few of those who have read the news- 
 paper telegrams and narratives of the rebellion in 
 Lower Burma, are aware that a neglected little 
 nation called Karens, inhabiting the mountains and 
 forests of the province, have been the staunchest 
 and bravest defenders of British rule. But for 
 the loyalty and courage of the Karens, the rebel 
 Burmese and Shans would, in all probability, have 
 overrun Lower Burma. Had the Karens joined 
 in the insurrection, the Queen's Government would, 
 in all probability — for a time, at least — have ceased 
 to exist ; communications with Mandalay would 
 have been cut off, and the invading force would 
 have been hemmed in by an armed people fired to 
 fierce resistance by our reverse in the south. What 
 
 B 
 
2 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 catastrophe might have occurred it is impossible 
 to say. But it is not unreasonable to predict 
 that the disaster would have had its cotztre-coiip 
 on the far-away north-west frontier, and that the 
 re-conquest of Burma might have been rendered 
 impossible by the withdrawal of all available troops 
 to repel aggression elsewhere. Reporters of events 
 in Burm.a have been careful to avoid using the 
 ugly word " rebellion " in describing the disturbed 
 condition of the province, and the term " dacoity " 
 — which means robbery generally accompanied 
 by murder — has been almost invariably used. It 
 should be clearly understood that the spirit which 
 is moving the turbulent Burmese is quite as much 
 a spirit of revolt as a spirit of plundering. Let 
 those who urged the annexation of Upper Burma 
 take this to heart and look out for the future. 
 The spectacle of a revolt in the province which we 
 have ruled for over thirty years is not encouraging 
 to those who have on their hands the task of 
 reducing Upper Burma to submission. The second 
 Burmese war, in 1852-53, was a war of annexation. 
 The third Burmese war, in 1885-86, is a war of 
 annexation and of extinction — extinction, in the 
 people's eyes, both of nationality and of religion. 
 The Mandalay campaign was undertaken with a 
 
INTRODUCTION. 3 
 
 light heart, in the belief that the people of 
 Upper Burma would welcome us with open arms. 
 Events have proved how ill-founded this belief 
 was. While our army was far away north, on the 
 Irrawaddy, a real campaign — and a bloody one — 
 was being prepared for us in the low country. The 
 people do not want us any more than they did 
 thirty years ago. They rose to throw off our yoke, 
 and they are still carrying on a guerilla warfare 
 against us. They winced under the pinching and 
 squeezing of the king's officers, but none the less 
 they loved the king. He was the head of their 
 nation, the fountain of all the honours they cared 
 for, and the defender of the Buddhist faith. It has 
 frequently been said that there is no patriotism, no 
 national sentiment, among the Burmese. Those 
 who know the country best will, I am convinced, 
 hesitate to admit this. The inhabitants of Lower 
 Burma have undoubtedly prospered under our 
 government during the past thirty years. They 
 have had good harvests, growing markets, and 
 brisk trade. All this they readily allow ; but they 
 never bargained for the overthrow of their ancient 
 monarchy. They were proud to know that a 
 Burman king somewhere ruled a Burmese people ; 
 and the allegiance of their hearts was given to the 
 
4 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 king — not to the British Government. Say nay 
 who may, the Burmese people bitterly resent the 
 overthrow of their monarchy. It has also been 
 urged that the war has no religious aspect what- 
 ever. This assertion, like many others, is mislead- 
 ing. The Burman cannot conceive of a religion 
 without a Defender of the Faith — a king who 
 appoints and rules the Buddhist hierarchy. The 
 extinction of the monarchy left the nation, accord- 
 ing to the people's notions, without a religion. We 
 have overthrown the king and destroyed all traces 
 of the kingly rule. Naturally they look upon this 
 as the destruction of their nationality. Whether we 
 have acted wisely history will decide. The step has, 
 however, been taken, and we dare not now go back. 
 We have to govern a turbulent people inhabiting a 
 vast territory of hills and plains, forests, jungle, and 
 swamp, impassable to troops during more than half 
 the year. Vigour, tact, and skill are much wanted 
 in the administration.* But vigour, tact, and skill 
 
 * The pacification of Burma will be no easy task, and, unless 
 gone about in the right way, may be very prolonged and very 
 costly. We have to deal with an insurrection in which the poongyees, 
 or Buddhist priesthood, are taking a prominent part. The poongyees 
 have found willing instruments everywhere. Liquor, opium, and 
 gambling have placed in every Burmese village a large number of 
 men who will not work and are a terror to the community. These 
 men are the daie-devils of the insurrectionary movement. If these 
 
INTRODUCTION. 5 
 
 will be of little avail if we have no source of 
 support in the country itself on which we can rely. 
 
 wild spirits can be restrained, and if the poongyees can, by a 
 judicious concession, be conciliated, two very important factors in 
 the rebellion will be removed. The first of these two ends will, I 
 venture to suggest, be best attained by (i. ) allowing district officers 
 absolute freedom for a whole year in determining who are the 
 persons of " bad livelihood " in the villages of their districts ; and 
 then (ii.) compelling every person found by district officers to be of 
 " bad livelihood " to furnish adequate security from landholders that 
 they will keep the peace. In other words, tie down the turbulent 
 spirits to the land. 
 
 I venture to think that there is not a district officer of experience 
 in Burma who could not, within a few months, make out an 
 accurate census of all the bad characters in his district. He has 
 means at his disposal which a district officer in India has not. 
 Having once got the list, compel security. If they cannot find 
 security, send them to jail. It is cheaper to feed them than to hunt 
 them. Give the landholders of villages clearly to understand that 
 the bonds will be rigorously enforced : that, in the event of for- 
 feiture, their lands will be sold up. JIake this a prior lien on their 
 landed property, and every man will be on the alert lest his bond 
 be forfeited. This plan was tried, in a modified form, with good 
 results at the close of the last Burmese war. It has infinitely better 
 chances of success now, because — 
 
 (a) There are many more landholders now than there were then. 
 
 {A) Land is much more valuable now than it was then. 
 
 (it) Every man's trade or profession and every landholder's fields 
 are known now. 
 
 Probably ninety out of every hundred villages — and certainly 
 every dangerous village — can be thus dealt with. 
 
 The second of the two ends — the conciliation of the Buddhist 
 priesthood — will, I venture to suggest, be best attained by establish- 
 ing a Buddhist Pope at Mandalay. 
 
 In addition to these measures, I would advise permanent embodi- 
 ment of a drilled and armed Karen militia, and distribution of this 
 militia in colonies all over Burma ; each colony to live within 
 
6 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 The Karen people are at heart loyal to us, and 
 they have proved their loyalty by freely shedding 
 their blood in defence of our rule and in the cause 
 of order. In the face of neglect and discourage- 
 ment, they have served us nobly and well. The 
 wave of lawlessness and rebellion which swept 
 over Lower Burma immediately after the Mandalay 
 campaign, and which has not yet subsided, was 
 foreseen and foretold by one of the leading Karen 
 missionaries. He warned the authorities that 
 danger was brewing in our own province, and offered 
 to raise a Karen contingent which would keep the 
 rebels in check. The local authorities, however, 
 appear to have ignored the danger, and refused the 
 offer with something akin to a sneer, with what 
 results we now know. 
 
 Until, in sheer despair, the Karens rose to defend 
 their own hearths and homes, the Burmese rebels 
 and robbers had it all their own way. Troops could 
 not penetrate the dense jungles ; and the Burmese 
 
 stockaded villages, and to have special privileges in the surrounding 
 lands allotted to them. 
 
 Dravir the teeth of the big Shan confederacy by sending embassies, 
 adequately guarded, to the various Tsawbwas. Let these Tsawbwas 
 be summoned to a durbar, wliere some intelligible policy regarding 
 the relation of the Shan States to the British Government shall be 
 enunciated. Let that policy, whatever it be, once it is clearly stated, 
 be enforced. 
 
INTRODUCTION. / 
 
 police were cowardly where they were not disloyal. 
 The Karens are splendid forest trackers and ruth- 
 less pursuers. When they rose vengeance was 
 swift. They tracked the raiders to their hiding- 
 places, attacked and routed them, hunted the 
 fugitives from jungle to jungle, and cleared the 
 frontier. There can be no question that, with the 
 peace of the entire province at stake, it would have 
 been the boldest and the best policy to array the 
 loyal Karens, at the very outset, against the rebel 
 bands. A body of five thousand Karen skirmishers 
 with General Prendergast's invading force would 
 have cut off the retreat of the Burmese troops, and 
 would have checked the irruption of armed bands 
 into Lower Burma. Much of the anarchy which has 
 disgraced our rule would thus have been prevented. 
 The story of the deeds and sufferings of the Karens 
 in defence of the Queen-Empress's Government in 
 Burma is a deeply interesting one, and deserves an 
 honoured place in the records of the empire. 
 
 The following letters from Dr. Vinton, one of 
 their foremost missionary leaders, gives a graphic 
 account of some of the achievements of the Karens. 
 Like Dr. Vinton, I am an ardent admirer of the 
 plucky little nation, and would claim for them the 
 recognition which they so well deserve : 
 
8 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 "Rangoon, Feb. z8th, 1886. 
 
 " What with dacoits and the Viceroy, we are 
 having lively times. While we are greatly pleased 
 with the Viceroy's visit, we are heartily glad viceroys 
 don't grow on every bush, or come once a week, 
 for we are all tired out. Of course we had our 
 Karen arch, etc., etc., when the Viceroy came. I 
 proposed to have a gathering of all the Karen clans 
 so the Viceroy should see them. This met Mr. 
 Bernard's views, and a special durbar for Karens 
 was promised. I sent out printed notices all over 
 Burma, and had the dacoits not increased in their 
 depredations, I should have filled the grounds of 
 Government House. The time of the durbar was 
 changed several times, and that, of course, pre- 
 vented the coming of a great many. At last the 
 clans began to come in. The Burmans were sur- 
 prised to find such crowds of Karens, all in national 
 dress. On the 22nd I had over fifteen hundred 
 camped all over my compound, and nearly all my 
 own fellows. 
 
 " Unfortunately, I had to send back three hundred 
 men to villages threatened by the dacoits. 
 
 "The 23rd we got telegrams from Bassein that 
 their delegations thought they could ' honour the 
 Viceroy best by avenging the death of poor St. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 9 
 
 Barbe.' Maulmain, too, failed me, as they, too, 
 had to meet the dacoits rushing down from their 
 defeat at Papoon. Still, I had twelve hundred in 
 all, with school-children packed solid. 
 
 " I had to laugh when I found they had prepared 
 twenty -five cups of tea for my brigade ! I gave 
 the tea to the school-girls who sang, and after trans- 
 lating the Viceroy's speech, sent them home highly 
 pleased at their gracious reception. The vanguard, 
 with their flags, was filing into the compound here 
 as I left with the rear the eastern gate of Govern- 
 ment House. The reception will do good. The 
 Karens now know the Viceroy recognizes the 
 service they have done in quelling the insurrection, 
 and they will be ready for better service. 
 
 " You will have read in the Gazette of the new 
 insurrection and poor St. Barbe's death. This 
 started in the Ma-oo-bin district. They dacoited 
 the police station at Bo-galay, first killing the 
 sergeant and head constable ; then pushed for 
 Pyin-da-yay, on the seashore, looting the village 
 and killing the myo-oke's clerk. They then went 
 over to Bassein, and are now roaring in full cry up 
 the hills ending in Cape Negrais. St. Barbe was 
 shot dead without a chance for a fight. He foolishly 
 left the sepoys on board the tug, and went with 
 
lO THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 but one policeman and a guide. All three were 
 shot. 
 
 "I don't repeat newspaper news, but come to 
 the discussion of the signs of the times. So far 
 from being done with the dacoits, or rebels, the 
 real harvest is scarcely begun. There are several 
 fresh insurrections just ready to break out, and one 
 false step will put the torch to all Burma. 
 
 " I don't believe myself a coward or an alarmist, 
 but I am warning Karens everywhere that "Cae. fight 
 has not yet begun. Mr. Bernard told me he would 
 arm the Karens in any threatened district if they 
 would volunteer. I can put any number of Karens 
 in the field. 
 
 " Every mission has promised me a levy en masse 
 of all the able-bodied men. They all agree to 
 refuse all pay and to fight from pure loyalty to the 
 Queen. 
 
 " My fellows don't want to join the police — that 
 is social degradation in Burma — but they are 
 ready to fight for nothing till the ploughing begins. 
 They say they want no man worth less than a 
 thousand rupees in immovable property in the 
 fighting line. They want men with somethng to 
 lose and something to fight for. 
 
 "The utter collapse of the police (Burman) is 
 
INTRODUCTION. 1 1 
 
 indescribable. They are afraid for their Hves, and 
 dare not arrest bad characters or answer the openly 
 treasonable talk of the blackguards. 
 
 "Now there is no Upper Burma to retreat to, 
 these fellows are in a tight fix. It seems hard, but 
 the truth is they must simply be shot down and 
 hunted to the death. The strangest of all is the 
 presence of the poongyees* on the battle-field. 
 This is unheard of in history. 
 
 " My Karens universally interpret this as God's 
 sign that Buddhism is to be destroyed for ever. 
 They say the challenge of Theebaw could be 
 answered by the English Government, but the 
 challenge of the fighting poongyees can only be 
 taken up fitly by Karens under their own mis- 
 sionaries. Every village now is full of bows and 
 arrows to keep off" the dacoits between volleys of 
 the fire-arms. It is really curious to see how the 
 dacoits avoid our Karen Christian villages. They 
 have not tried it on us. The fighting my men have 
 had has been at a distance. The dacoits have 
 several times passed among my villages, but with 
 scarcely any damage, while the Karens have turned 
 out and hunted them well. The eastern insurrec- 
 tion has had all the fight taken out of it. My 
 
 * Buddhist priests. 
 
12 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 fellows complain that they have to fight with their 
 legs and not their stalwart right arms. The very 
 day of the reception, eight of my fellows came 
 on forty dacoits, and hunted them many a mile, 
 capturing four. They laughingly complained that 
 they had twice too many men, quoting an old war- 
 song, ' Ten to one is only fair play where the one 
 is a Karen.' 
 
 " Though this is so still, no one can safely go to 
 the outlying fields or orchards except with armed 
 men. 
 
 " So far from being daunted, I never saw the 
 Karen so anxious for ^ fight. 
 
 " This is just welding the Karens into a nation, 
 not an aggregation of clans. The heathen Karens 
 to a man are brigading themselves under the 
 Christians. This whole thing is doing good for the 
 Karen. This will put virility into our Christianity." 
 
 "Rangoon, May 15, 1886. 
 
 " I have been driven to my wits' end to protect 
 rhy villages. I have been dacoit-hunting literally 
 all the time, and paying my own expenses. Dis- 
 couragement and officialism have just worn my 
 patience thin. The only comfort I have is that 
 I have succeeded in protecting my villages. You 
 
INTRODUCTION. ■ 13 
 
 may judge of the encouragement our Karens have 
 received by the fact that three Karens have been 
 arrested for murder, and two actually tried. Their 
 only crime was that they had bravely defended 
 themselves and villages when attacked. The 
 cowardly and disloyal Burmese police have not 
 pulled a trigger, but they do their best to dis- 
 courage the only loyal and brave men in the 
 province. 
 
 " Two separate insurrections burst on us at once. 
 The one at Shway Gyin was purely Shan. It was 
 headed by the Mayankhyoung and Kyouk-kalat 
 poongyees. The Buddhist priests have headed 
 everywhere, and actually fought themselves — a 
 thing unprecedented in history. 
 
 " They cut the locks in the Shway Gyin canal, 
 and attacked Shway Gyin in force. After their 
 defeat they took up a strong position in the hills, 
 and easily defeated Major Robinson's detachment. 
 
 " They were at first far too strong to be attacked 
 by the Karens in their head-quarters. The Karens, 
 therefore, confined themselves to cutting off their 
 foraging-parties. They had, of course, few guns, 
 and the Government would give them none, and so 
 they set to dacoiting the rebels, and arming them- 
 selves with captured guns. At last, the position of 
 
14 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 the dacoits became untenable, and they were forced 
 by hunger and the cutting off of their foragers to 
 move on Papoon. Here they were met by the 
 splendid Karen police of the Salween hill tracts, 
 and the whole Karen population of the district. 
 They were soundly beaten everywhere. Quarter 
 was neither given, received, nor expected, for the 
 Karens were furious, and fought like Malays running 
 amuck. The rebels were evidently trying to get 
 across into Mineloongj^ee. The Karen foresters 
 represented to the chiefs in Siam that the timber 
 revenue must at once cease if the rebels got across, 
 and so the despairing Mayankhyoung poongyee 
 found the river Salween lined with fighting men 
 wherever he tried to cross a party. Then he tried 
 to cross to the northward into Karennee, but was 
 cut up by the Karens on his flanks. Hunger forced 
 foraging-parties, and the foraging-parties were 
 invariably attacked. 
 
 " Several poongyees' heads were brought in, and 
 all of course claimed as that of the five-thousand- 
 rupee Mayankhyoung poongyee. 
 
 " I got news, however, that he had been seen 
 crossing the hills to Toungoo. I, of course, warned 
 our missionaries there, and advised that the 
 poongyee be captured alive, for I knew that unless 
 
INTRODUCTION. 1 5 
 
 we had positive convincing proof the Government 
 would never give the reward to the Karens. 
 
 "The rebels burst like a torrent on our poor 
 Christian villages. The fighting was hard every- 
 where. I can note but one case. The village of 
 Tha-ay-kee was attacked on Sunday, while the 
 people were all assembled at the service in the 
 chapel. 
 
 " The Karens had no arms, but still the dacoits 
 dare not attack them in the chapel, but merely sur- 
 rounded them, while a few looted the village. 
 
 " The moment the dacoits left, the whole village 
 rushed out and picked up the few guns they had 
 hidden in the bushes while they went to church, 
 and pushed off in pursuit, picking up recruits from 
 the neighbouring villages. 
 
 " They fell into an ambush, and their pastor and 
 several of their party were shot dead. Though 
 outnumbered three to one, the Karens rallied, 
 and, infuriated by the death of their pastor, they 
 flew at the dacoits and dispersed them with great 
 slaughter. Finally, the whole rebellion was sur- 
 rounded in the Kaw-me-kho valley, near the foot 
 of the great range east of Toungoo. 
 
 " The Karens had few guns in their hands, but 
 mostly used spears, shields, and bows. The next 
 
l6 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 day was Sunday. After a lot of trouble I got fifty 
 smooth-bores from Mr. Bernard. These were sent 
 up Monday, and Monday night the guns were 
 handed over to the Karens. In thirty-six hours 
 they were on the field, and on Friday the 
 Mayankhyoung poongyee was taken. 
 
 " The fighting was heavy and bloody on the side 
 of the dacoits. Hunger had made them desperate, 
 and so they fought for their lives. The Mayan- 
 khyoung was captured by a woman, who clutched 
 him till the nearest picket could come in. 
 
 " The fight there was specially noticeable, because 
 every Karen clan, except the Pghos, were in arms 
 that day. The Pghos are not found on the 
 Toungoo hills. Even the Brecs, our most physically 
 insignificant tribe, sent a deta"chment from three 
 days' march away, though they lived out of British 
 territory. The tribes that once were constantly 
 fighting each other, now stood side by side. From 
 a loose aggregation of clans we shall weld them 
 into a nation yet. 
 
 " There was the greatest reluctance to admit our 
 claim to the five thousand rupees reward for the 
 Mayankhyoung poongyee. Our proofs were, how- 
 ever, so overwhelming, that reluctantly the five 
 thousand were awarded to the despised Karens. 
 
INTRODUCTION. IJ 
 
 " In no district have the rebels made head among 
 the Karen Christians. The Burman insurrection 
 that killed St. Barbe started right by my villages. 
 I could have stamped the whole thing out with 
 fifty Karens, but I had to watch it all come to a 
 head and burst. All I could do was to pour in 
 guns into my villages in the vicinity, while the 
 dacoits were being tattooed and enrolled. The 
 rebels tried every Christian Karen village in 
 the vicinity, but, finding the Karens armed and 
 alert, marched on. Our fellows dare not attack, 
 for they would have been tried for murder, and so 
 the rebels swept on, and armed themselves with 
 police muskets and ammunition, and poor St. Barbe 
 was sacrificed. 
 
 " When they got among the Bassein Karens, 
 they were promptly hunted out. With the excep- 
 tion of the Shway Gyin insurrection, the rebels 
 seem to be mostly up-country Burmans, who have 
 been down here (in Lower Burma) for several years. 
 Of course, they are joined by all the professional 
 bad characters. 
 
 " The dacoits have succeeded in burning but one 
 small outlying village of mine, but they met with 
 such a fierce attack that that band has not been 
 heard of since. 
 
 C 
 
18 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 " For all that the Karens have done, I un- 
 hesitatingly say that when the danger is over, the 
 Karen will be as soundly hated as ever by the 
 officials. 
 
 " The Karen will not shiko * if he can help it, and 
 will not have anything to do with those who enforce 
 servility. 
 
 " The Hanthawaddy is the only district in which 
 the standard of rebellion has not been raised. 
 There we have the Karens enrolled and many of 
 them drilled, and make things lively at every alarm. 
 
 " There was a horrible mistake in the translation 
 of Mr. Bernard's amnesty proclamation of the 3rd 
 of March. The English version offered a free 
 pardon for all crimes committed ' before the issue 
 of this proclamation ' (March 3rd). 
 
 "The rebels are allowed till the 30th of June to 
 give themselves up. The Burmese version reads 
 'before the above-mentioned date.' The only date 
 mentioned ' above ' is the 30th of June. This gives 
 free licence for every dacoit to do anything but 
 murder Europeans up to the 30th of June, 1886. 
 
 " When I attacked and stormed a dacoit camp, 
 I found a number of these proclamations and 
 letters to the dacoits' friends, begging them to 
 
 * Make obeisance on his knees. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 1 9 
 
 save all the copies of the proclamation, so that each 
 dacoit might have a copy to come in on. 
 
 " Much captured and intercepted correspondence 
 shows me that the dacoits argue that as the pardon 
 is the same on the 3rd of March as on the 30th of 
 June, they had better take advantage of the extra 
 four months allowed them. 
 
 " I first read the proclamation kneeling in a 
 dacoit camp by the side of one of my school- 
 masters, who had been shot dead in the fight, 
 with my fingers dabbled in the blood I had vainly 
 tried to staunch. As I had not seen the English 
 copy, can you wonder if I felt savage enough ? 
 
 " The want of scholarship in Burmese shown 
 above is discreditable. Can it have been disloyalty 
 in the translator ? The mistake has caused much 
 bloodshed, and much more blood will be shed in 
 the coming six weeks before the 30th of June." 
 
 "Rangoon, July 13. 
 
 " God has — to use a Karen expression — hung 
 thousands of lives around my neck, and I have had 
 hard work trying to keep my people alive. 
 
 " Everything has been done to hinder me that the 
 circumlocution office could do, and, even after eight 
 months' hard work and the spilling of lots of loyal 
 
20 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 Karen blood, I am not half armed to-day, and to- 
 morrow the Burmese threaten their third insurrec- 
 tion. Loyalty such as the Karens have shown 
 must be fire-proof to stand what they have borne. 
 Would to God we could have one half-hour of such 
 a man as Sir Arthur Phayre ! 
 
 " The sepoy has been ' weighed in the balances 
 and found wanting ' in dacoit-hunting. The Bur- 
 man professional dacoit is already learning he is 
 fully able to lick the sepoy by harassing him till 
 he is tired, and then pitching into him. 
 
 " I was lately with a Karen levy tied to the tail 
 of the sepoys. Seven miles a day was the best we 
 could get out of the poor creatures. My levies have 
 repeatedly marched fifty miles on a forced march. 
 
 " Whatever service the Karens have done is not 
 one hundredth of what I can get oiit of them. Red 
 tape is choking the life out of us. 
 
 " Meanwhile the Burmese are slaughtering each 
 other on the plea of patriotism, and dare not attack 
 the troops or the Karens. Our levies are the only 
 men who have not shown their backs meekly to 
 the rebels. The mere marching of our ' red heads ' 
 has kept the Hanthawaddy district clear of insur- 
 rection (all our levies wear a blood-red turban\ 
 Your officials show an insane jealousy of the 
 
INTRODUCTION. 2 1 
 
 missionaries, and seem to be ashamed that they 
 have no influence among the Karens." 
 
 " Rangoon, July 24, 1886. 
 
 "The rebeUion is by no means ended. The 
 Burmans must fight, whether they will or not. The 
 most dangerous sign of the times is that the 
 Burman villages have not laid in their usual stocks 
 of paddy for their own use. The disloyal have 
 expected to supply themselves from the loot of the 
 hated Karen villages. The vacillating have from 
 cowardice sold off their stocks, hoping to buy from 
 the Karens. They said they could conceal their 
 money, but their countrymen would burn their 
 paddy if they kept it Thirty years of peace had 
 led them to suppose that if a man had money he 
 could always buy food. 
 
 " From a deficient crop we have exported more 
 than usual, and people are crowing over the deadliest 
 sign of the times. For months to come we must 
 feed Upper Burma from our diminished stocks. 
 I seriously apprehend scarcity will, just before 
 the harvest, force hundreds into crime who would 
 gladly keep quiet I have warned the Government, 
 as I have all along, but with the usual result. My 
 words weigh no more than Cassandra's. 
 
22 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 "Yesterday I was horrified to find an official 
 memorandum preventing the importation of arms, 
 and ordering gun permits to be largely reduced. 
 This order will be seized on by the disloyal Burmese 
 officials, and used to disarm the Karens. 
 
 " I am sending in the sternest protest words can 
 frame against such injustice. The Burmese officials 
 and non-officials alike are all gnashing their teeth 
 at the Karens, attributing (rightly) the defeat of 
 the rebellion solely to those ' meddlesome Karens.' 
 
 " To enable them to disarm the only friends you 
 have in the province is worse than folly ; it is 
 treachery. 
 
 " Were the sight not so piteous from the blood 
 which has stained it, I should have been heartily 
 amused to watch your ' regulation pattern ' official 
 confronted by the stern spectre of actual war — a 
 spectre that ' will not down ' at the exhibition of 
 standard red tape and ' memoranda ' written in full 
 form on regulation office foolscap. 
 
 " The high official has been warned, and he com- 
 fortably turns in his chair, and says, 'Bother those 
 meddlesome missionaries 1 ' and reads over the rose- 
 coloured reports of other officials based on the reports 
 of his disloyal Burmese understrappers, and calmly 
 says, ' How can those impudent fellows know any- 
 
INTRODUCTION. 23 
 
 thing about the country ? ' Suddenly he is waked 
 from as great a stupor as that of Theebaw when, 
 hourly expecting the arrival of the captive British 
 army, he is told that Prendergast has passed the 
 last defences of the capital, and there is not time 
 even for flight. News comes that the peacock flag 
 is raised and the rebels are marching on him, 
 leaving blood in their wake, and this dignified 
 British official calmly writes a memorandum ! He 
 can ask and get a dozen regiments from India at 
 the cost of many lakhs of rupees, but when that 
 bothersome missionary raves at him for guns to 
 arm men who have proved themselves universally 
 loyal, he can't spend a pice ! A dignified non 
 possmmis is all you can get out of him. The 
 Karens could have put five thousand men in the 
 field for three months without a pice of pay, and 
 ended the rebellion in a way that would have 
 knocked the nonsense out of the Burmans for thirty 
 years to come. 
 
 " A telegram to Madras would have sent the 
 arms by next steamer (I wrote to find out), but 
 non possumns was all the result. Now the Bur- 
 mese have been taught the wortlilessness of the 
 sepoy in guerilla fighting. The sepoy has been 
 ' weighed in the balances and found wanting.' He 
 
24 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 can't shoot, and takes three hundred cartridges to 
 kill a man at point-blank range. He can't march, 
 and, worse than all, he can't get through the jungle, 
 and he is soon knocked up by jungle fever. At 
 the cost of moving one of those sepoy regiments 
 from India the whole work would have been 
 finished and much blood saved. 
 
 "These rebellions have been all got up from 
 nuclei sent down from up country. 
 
 " Many a leader — especially the poongyees — have 
 tried to keep their men from robbery and plunder, 
 but they have found that the natural cowardly 
 ferocity of the Burman at the first taste of blood 
 could not be restrained. 
 
 " We are sick at heart at the officialism that 
 paralyzes us all in Burma." 
 
 " Rangoon, July 26. 
 
 " The ' memorandum ' of which I wrote has set 
 the Karens in a blaze all over Burma. I have 
 felt bound to send a protest — a copy of which 
 I enclose. I expect, as usual, a polite slap in 
 the face, giving me to understand (in the most 
 gentlemanly manner) that it is none of my busi- 
 ness. 
 
 " The effect of this paper is simply deadly. One 
 
INTRODUCTION. 2$ 
 
 of my best men wrote me yesterday, 'We must 
 either be killed by the dacoits or join them.' 
 
 " We don't want another sepoy from India. We 
 only ask for a MAN. To quote James Russell 
 Lowell's poem in Yankee dialect, written in the 
 darkest hours of our civil war, 
 
 ' More men ! ! More men is what ze want ! ' 
 
 " Even the wealthy well-to-do Burmese help the 
 rebels, and openly talk disloyalty. Why .' They 
 say it is a war for religion, and patriots must put 
 up with licence in the soldiers fighting for them. 
 Again, not a wealthy family but has lots of sons 
 and nephews and relatives who have been ground 
 through your Government dacoit mills, and who 
 are in the rebellion, binding their relatives to the 
 peacock flag. The same is true of even your 
 officials. 
 
 "The dacoit atrocities are horrible. The un- 
 utterable Turk, with his ' Bulgarian atrocities,' 
 ■svould have no chance in a competition with the 
 Burman dacoit. Dacoity is reported, you dash off 
 at the double quick for a dozen miles, Karen levy 
 trotting along abreast, or even ahead of the police 
 officer and missionary on their ponies ; you come 
 in and find that thousands of rupees have been 
 taken, the women lashed to platforms and then 
 
26 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 violated by the dacoits in turn, and kerosene oil 
 poured over their clothes and set on fire. The men, 
 bruised and slashed, have seen all this, and are 
 wailing like women around the horrible, blackened 
 lumps of charred flesh that were once their wives. 
 You are shown where babies have been beaten to 
 a literal jelly in those rice mortars, before their 
 mothers' eyes. 
 
 " Now, wouldn't you expect that these men 
 would be wild to bring the gang to punishment ? 
 Wouldn't you expect to have to restrain their rage .■" 
 Not a bit. You can't extort a word to help you 
 to hunt the gang down, and hours of questioning 
 give you no hint, though the dacoits have been in 
 full possession of the place for many hours of broad 
 daylight. One old grey-haired Karen leader once 
 turned away disgusted, saying, ' Christ on His cross 
 was not so forgiving.' 
 
 " Has this apathy no meaning for you ? If not, 
 it is in vain for me to interpret it. 
 
 " Burman dacoits have taken the measure of the 
 sepoy, or rather they have been carefully taught it, 
 and they now know our weakness. 
 
 " Your military men cannot be made to see the 
 matter from the Burmese standpoint. 
 
 " What should the dacoit fight the sepoy for. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 2/ 
 
 unless strongly stockaded, or the sepoys worn out 
 by marching ? He has no loot to gain from the 
 sepoy worth the trouble and risk. Dacoits bolt, of 
 course, chuckling at their escape, and grinning at 
 the jaded sepoys. Sepoy officer telegraphs a 
 victory, etc., etc., casualties all on our side. Dacoit, 
 chuckling, still thinks he has whipped. Both parties 
 are satisfied, for each has gained all he wanted. 
 Troops move home, and dacoits re-occupy their 
 old position, and go on with their career of blood. 
 Newspapers call for cavalry. What use is cavalry 
 in Burman elephant-grass or on the hills .'' Every 
 battle merely educates the Burman in old Hyder 
 All's Mysore tactics— ' only to fight when your legs 
 are swelled up to the size of your bodies,' still 
 hearing the British drums every time they beat. 
 
 "Your new Punjabee military police are even a 
 greater failure than the sepoys. 
 
 "You have but one winning card that you can 
 play, and it is the Karen. 
 
 " Everything that officialism can do has been 
 done to disaffect the Karen, and I seriously fear, 
 as do my brother-missionaries, that even our 
 endeavours will prove fruitless, and even when the 
 right man comes here he will have hard work to 
 wrest the card back again. 
 
28 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 " Our only hope is that the cowardice of the 
 Burman, and his ignorance of the way in which 
 Karens are being treated, may lead him to quiet 
 down. If my fears of a fresh outburst next October 
 and November prove true, God alone can help us. 
 
 " My brother-missionaries are calling loudly on 
 me to hold on, and let the stern logic of events 
 knock a few ideas into the heads of our rulers, 
 infatuated as they are. I would do so, but — delay 
 means blood ; we must have some speedy adminis- 
 tration of justice. Your jails are full of innocent 
 men, and there is no one to try them. 
 
 " The Mayankhyoung poongyee, that our Karens 
 sold to the Government for five thousand rupees — 
 the leader of the entire eastern rebellion — has not 
 even yet been tried. The Burmese openly and 
 tauntingly say we dare not. 
 
 " They openly boast that his supernatural powers 
 are such that he is only kept in confinement by an 
 iron rod, three inches in diameter, thrust through 
 the calves of his legs. At the request of my 
 Karens I went down and examined him in the jail, 
 so as to enable them on my authority to deny 
 the statement. 
 
 " Things could have been quieted in six weeks, 
 with ordinary foresight and promptitude. It will 
 
INTRODUCTION. 29 
 
 take six months now for even such as Sir Arthur 
 Phayre, and longer and longer as matters are 
 delayed." 
 
 [Copy of a letter from Dr. Vinton to the Com- 
 missioner on special duty.] 
 
 " Rangoon, July 23, 1886. 
 
 " To the Commissioner on Special Duty. 
 
 "Dear Sir, 
 
 " I have just read your memorandum 
 of the 8th of July, on the proposed increased 
 stringency in working the Arms Act. 
 
 " While highly approving the general tone of the 
 memorandum, and recognizing the necessity which 
 prompted it, allow me to make a few representa- 
 tions. 
 
 " I take it for granted that the interest of the 
 Government is to arm every loyal man who can 
 defend his arms, and to disarm every disloyal man, 
 or every coward who dare not defend the arms 
 entrusted to him. I respectfully submit that the 
 Karens have amply demonstrated both their loyalty 
 and bravery, and should not be disarmed. 
 
 "The practical execution of your memorandum 
 will be necessarily committed to Burmese officials. 
 
30 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 " These Burmese officials are mortified at their 
 own failure to accomplish anything for the suppres- 
 sion of the rebellion, piqued at the trust shown by 
 the Government in the once-despised Karen, and 
 jealous of Karen success. 
 
 "They will inevitably use this memorandum to 
 disarm and harass the loyal Karens. To prove 
 this, I have only to point to the fact that when the 
 rebellion was only threatened, the Burmese officials 
 at once commenced to disarm illegally the Karens, 
 knowing that no one else would pull a trigger 
 against the rebels. The Karens protested, and sent 
 a delegation to Sir Charles Bernard, and received 
 from him a solemn promise that the Christian 
 Karens should not be disarmed. This promise I 
 plead. To call a Karen away from his work at the 
 present ploughing season means to starve him. 
 
 " This memorandum will enable the Burmese 
 officials to harass the Karens till they ' make it all 
 right.' 
 
 " I respectfully submit that the universal loyalty 
 of the Karens, heathen as well as Christian, has 
 earned for them a special exemption by name 
 from the operation of this memorandum. 
 
 " The experience of the past bloody months has 
 shown that the Karen invariably has fought 
 
INTRODUCTION. 31 
 
 desperately for his gun, and parted with it only 
 with his life. The dacoits have been armed from 
 police stations and disloyal Burmese villages, and 
 not from Karen villages. 
 
 " I have done my best to carry out paragraph 3, 
 and issue not less than five guns to a village, but 
 there have been no guns for sale. Many of the 
 Karen villages have less than five guns, through no 
 fault of mine or the villagers, but simply because 
 there were no guns for sale. 
 
 " To check the importation of arms before every 
 Karen village is a fortress bristling with guns held 
 for the Queen by men as loyal and brave as any 
 who fight for her, would be a suicidal policy. 
 
 " To make our Karen districts safe we want at 
 least one thousand guns more. With two thousand 
 we could send men to attack outside the tracts 
 where the Karens are numerous. 
 
 " Speaking frankly, is it worth your while to 
 harass those who have stood by you faithfully even 
 in the darkest hours ? 
 
 " You will need help yet, for it is premature to 
 speak of ' the late rebellion.' I am ready to give 
 substantial reasons for my belief that a dangerous 
 crime-wave will sweep over us just before next 
 harvest. 
 
32 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 " To put the matter in a nutshell, I ask that the 
 district officers be directed to prevent any dis- 
 arming of the Karens. 
 
 " If you fear to hurt the feelings of the Burmese 
 by an express exemption of Karens, a private 
 order would be enough. At least allow me to 
 assure the Karens that Sir Charles Bernard's 
 promise that they shall not be disarmed will be 
 held sacred, for they are seriously alarmed at the 
 threats of the Burmese officials, and are sending 
 their leaders to know what this new danger means. 
 " Yours sincerely, 
 
 "J. B. Vinton." 
 
 " Rangoon, August 2, 1886. 
 
 " Government is beginning to push me about 
 Karen levies for the Thongwa district, and I expect 
 soon to be pushed on the Pegu side ; for the 
 Government and Karens are at loggerheads in 
 Pegu. The Pegu Karens fired the first shot ever 
 fired by the Karens at the rebels. They offered to 
 send a levy about the New Year, when Karen 
 levies had never been thought of, and when, of 
 course, secretariat officials laughed at 'the timid 
 Karen ' offering to fight. 
 
 " Now they have been vexed at the arrest of two 
 
INTRODUCTION. 33 
 
 of their number for shooting dacoits by police too 
 cowardly to imitate Karen courage. 
 
 " Now, of course, they say, 'We had better defend 
 our own villages with our own guns, and let the 
 Government fight the dacoits .with their petted 
 police.' 
 
 " They are having heavy fighting around Ningyan. 
 A private letter from Ningyan, from a British 
 officer, says the dacoits got within thirty yards 
 of the field-pieces, and were beaten off with 
 difficulty. I only hope the reinforcements will 
 arrive in time ; for they are besieged, in fact ; 
 dacoits trying night attacks, hoping to fire the 
 town. 
 
 " The most extraordinary reports are rife of 
 British reverses up country. Mandalay is almost 
 daily recaptured, in rumour, with the most terrible 
 slaughter. The Irrawaddy is burdened with British 
 corpses, according to our disloyal alarmists. 
 
 " The limit of Burmese credulity has never yet 
 been measured, and I despair of ever discovering 
 it, provided the lying is only in the direction of 
 flattering his inordinate vanity. 
 
 "A Government official told me that not thirty 
 miles from Rangoon no one could be found to 
 believe that Theebaw had been captured. In what 
 
 D 
 
34 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 I should call dacoit newspapers, circulated in 
 manuscript all over the country, he is described 
 still, by those who claim to be eye-witnesses, as 
 reigning in greater glory than before, having acquired 
 many new titles of honour for the doughty deeds 
 of war performed in person on those miserable, 
 cowardly Kullahs. 
 
 " News last night tells me that a rebellion in 
 posse, that I've been watching for months, and kept 
 from bursting several times by marching my levies, 
 is coming on us. Last night's news is that they are 
 beginning to assemble, tattoo, and threaten again. 
 
 " I fear we shall have to watch this as we 
 watched the rising that killed St. Barbe, and let 
 it burst, only keeping our villages safe, and letting 
 the Government sup its own folly to the full, as 
 they did with St. Barbe's insurrection, started 
 within a mile of one of our chapels, and which we 
 could have prevented with twenty-five men in an 
 hour. 
 
 "We are still hampered to death to get arms 
 to buy. Just on a technical point the other day 
 I was refused permission to distribute a hundred 
 guns I had got out for the Karens. I am now one 
 thousand guns short of making the Karen tracts 
 safe. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 35 
 
 "I showed a high official yesterday, by evidence 
 which even he accepted as correct, that floods of 
 ammunition and arms were pouring across the 
 Maulmain frontier from Siam for the dacoits. 
 Loyal Karens were the only men to be harassed. 
 Dacoits could get cheap and abundant rifles of the 
 most improved American patterns. The Karen 
 alone must pay three times ordinary prices for 
 guns more dangerous to him than to the dacoits. 
 
 " Even this failed to break the spell which the 
 apotheosis of red tape has cast over all Burma." 
 
 " Rangoon, August 17- 
 
 " The Pegu rebellion of Burmese burst near the 
 mouth of the Sittang. I was away on the 
 Toungoo hills ; but, though there is scarcely a 
 Karen living near where the insurrection began, 
 my people joined Colonels Street and Strover, and 
 fought side by side with the sepoys far away from 
 their homes. At the time the whole native popu- 
 lation was convinced that the British raj was at 
 an end, and that the only hope of safety was in 
 joining the rebellion. The Government was simply 
 at an end. Police posts were meekly handing over 
 their arms, and myo-okes running for their lives. 
 
 " When the Toongyee detachment marched down 
 
36 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 to join Colonel Strover, they were taunted that 
 they were going to add their bodies to the heap 
 of slaughtered sepoys. Not a man quailed, though 
 taunted with stories of the dacoit invulnerability. 
 The Toongyee church had been four times in 
 action before I could be recalled from the Karen- 
 nee frontier. This of course drew down the wrath 
 of the whole Burman population. 
 
 " ' What business was it of these officious Karens 
 to go and meddle ? They were not even threatened 
 by the rebellion. Why should t/tey interfere .' ' 
 
 " The fighting of the Bassein mission was splendid. 
 You will find it noticed in the violent crime report. 
 "In that report I get special credit for keeping 
 the Hanthawaddy quiet — the only district where 
 the peacock flag has not been hoisted. The 
 Hanthawaddy is my practical answer to the ques- 
 tion of the advisability of Karen levies. I am 
 prouder of keeping the insurrection from bursting 
 than of any action we have fought with the dacoits. 
 ' Prevention is better than cure.' Here was the 
 trouble. No one believed the Karen zov\A fight. 
 
 " On the yth of November, before the troops 
 crossed the frontier, the Karens came down from 
 the villages where St. Barbe's insurrection was even 
 then starting. I was not at home, but they thought 
 
INTRODUCTION. 37 
 
 the case was so urgent that they actually forced an 
 entrance at Government House, and begged for arms 
 from the Government, or to be allowed to purchase 
 They went prepared to offer a battalion one thou- 
 sand strong to accompany General Prendergast. 
 Their fears were laughed to scorn. You can scarcely 
 judge how all Rangoon had lost its head at the 
 time. The only fear expressed was that there 
 would not be resistance enough to justify annexa- 
 tion ! 
 
 " When I reached my post from my sick-bed in 
 Amherst, Mr. Bernard thought the Karens cowards 
 to be so easily frightened, but said, 'We'll let 
 them buy their guns just to allay their fears.' 
 
 " I don't believe Mr. Bernard ever would have 
 allowed us arms had he believed one word of my 
 reports. He merely thought to quiet the fears 
 of the Karen cowards. Even after the Karens had 
 been in action several times. Government House 
 wouldn't believe Karens could fight. 
 
 " Before I got back from the Karen-nee frontier, 
 my Karens went to a secretariat official in the last 
 days of December, and offered a levy. The 
 secretariat official was as much astonished as if a 
 rabbit had appeared to him in full uniform and 
 demanded a Henry-Martini rifle and offered to 
 
38 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 fight. Their offer was, of course, politely declined, 
 with a scarcely disguised sneer. 
 
 " The key to all this misconception is plain. No 
 one, neither Burmans, Government officials, nor 
 any one, had gauged the quiet work we have been 
 doing among the Karens. You know no one 
 knows Karens. They won't talk to these servility- 
 loving officials. No one visits their villages and 
 sees for himself what education and Christianity 
 have done. The ' timid Karen ' has become a inan, 
 but nobody knew it. 
 
 " Had that battalion marched due north from 
 Toungoo, with a British force with them on carts, 
 every Burmese soldier could have been disarmed 
 and killed or captured. As it was, the arms which 
 Sladen failed to take away were used against us. 
 The ammunition and rifles were sent down even to 
 Rangoon for sale. I have seen and handled them 
 myself 
 
 " Thank God ! the ' timid Karen ' is now a 
 phrase of the past. ' Nous avons change tout cela ' 
 with a vengeance. 
 
 " In the first days of the rebellion I was talking 
 
 with C , and he laughed at me when I told 
 
 him I would like nothing better than to raise and 
 command a Karen corps. After spending months 
 
INTRODUCTION. 39 
 
 with sepoys and these very levies, and seeing the 
 Karens charge, firing one volley, and throwing 
 down their guns and going to close quarters with 
 
 their huge cleavers, C came and apologized, 
 
 saying he was wrong to sneer at men who could 
 fight like that. No one had gauged the unifying 
 power of Christianity, or guessed that these loose 
 grains of sand (the clans) had been welded into a 
 terrible weapon. Men will fight when they know 
 they are solid, and no traitors among them. 
 
 " A few weeks' desperate fighting changed every- 
 thing. Captain Parrott was the first to act. Long 
 before Karen levies were sanctioned, Captain Parrott 
 and I had every able-bodied Karen enrolled, and 
 seventy of them regularly drilled. The men were 
 whirled all over the district, wherever the dacoits 
 were sticking up their heads ; and if ' prevention is 
 better than cure,' we won more honour than a dozen 
 bloody battles would have brought us. 
 
 " Without encouragement, the Karen fought his 
 way through the sneers of the Government officials, 
 till at the durbar, when the viceroy was here, 
 Mr. Bernard said to me, ' I have never been so 
 much astonished as at the Karens fighting so 
 well.' 
 
 " The reticence of the Karen helped to disguise 
 
40 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 him and foster the delusion of the 'timid Karen.' 
 Look at old Thah Mway, or Myat Koung, two of 
 the men who have most distinguished themselves 
 in action. They are quiet, retiring men, with stolid, 
 mask-like faces that show nothing of what is going 
 on under the quiet exterior. No one would take 
 them for heroes, sittings-^tolidly on my verandah. 
 See those men under fire once, as I have, and you 
 would hardly recognize them. See their eyes blaze 
 then, especially when leading a charge, and you 
 will excuse people for not finding out the work 
 that had been going on behind the stolid exterior 
 of the ' timid Karen.' 
 
 " Well, as I told you, the Karen fought his way 
 into notice, and dispelled all these illusions. Then 
 the jealousy of the Government officials of the 
 mission wanted to get matters into their own 
 hands, and get rid of the missionaries. The only 
 good service the Karens have done has been when 
 they have been let alone. They have served 
 under their pastors and schoolmasters and here- 
 ditary chiefs ; but the moment the first coil of red 
 tape touches a Karen levy, it paralyzes it, and you 
 get no good of it. The Burmans around the 
 district officer at once try and disgust the Karens 
 with military service, and send the men off here 
 
INTRODUCTION. 4I 
 
 and there on the most ridiculous wild-goose chases, 
 where there is not the sign of a dacoit. 
 
 " No commissariat for the Karens, while the 
 Burmans are feasting on the fat of the land. After 
 thus systematically starving the men and marching 
 their heels off for nothing, the men get surly, 
 and are then reported mutinous and disobedient. 
 Karens, marching every day in the rain, can't get 
 the waterproof cloaks so freely served out to the 
 wretched Burmese police, who never leave their com- 
 fortable barracks. All rough service is shouldered 
 off by the police on to those ' Karen dogs,' and so 
 you find the Karens surly, to say the least. 
 
 "Whatever the Karen Jias done — I speak ad- 
 visedly, and as solemnly as if on my oath — is not 
 the hundredth part of what he could do, and would 
 gladly do. 
 
 " At the same time, I am asked to get the men 
 to enlist for Thongwa and Hanthawaddy. Just 
 see how I am treated ! My Sniders, which the 
 Karens have proudly carried all over the Hantha- 
 waddy and the Tharawaddy districts, are taken 
 away, and wretched muzzle-loaders issued instead. 
 The Karens felt prouder of those Sniders than 
 words can tell, and the poor fellows looked like 
 death when they stacked arms for the last time on 
 
42 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 my verandah. They were promised in writing 
 other Sniders of a different pattern ; but when the 
 muzzle-loaders came instead, the poor fellows 
 looked abashed indeed. 
 
 " Again, I had ordered all my villages for ball- 
 practice, lest, when I called them out, they should 
 'shoot like sepoys' — a phrase that has become 
 proverbial in Burma the past few months. This 
 exhausted their ammunition (paid for, like their 
 guns, by themselves). They came down for more, 
 but by some ' new rules ' begotten by the high 
 official already described, they could not buy a 
 kernel of powder for a year. 
 
 " I wrote and explained, and begged that, as I 
 was to blame, / might be punished, but not to 
 practically disarm the Karens by refusing ammu- 
 nition. I offered to stop all ball-practice, though 
 the order, I warned them, would be fatal to 
 efficiency ; but it did no good. I was informed by 
 the same high official that ' the rule must be main- 
 tained.' The powder could only be obtained on 
 'enlistment tickets.' Not one of the hundreds of 
 brave fellows who have served under my orders in 
 the Hanthawaddy has ever seen such a thing. 
 What is the result ? Hundreds of Karens have 
 gone home surly, to say the least. The Karen is 
 
INTRODUCTION. 43 
 
 SO terribly clannish you cannot scratch one of 
 them but the whole clan knows it and resents it. 
 
 " That's the way to get men to serve for nothing, 
 isn't it ? At the same time, I reported to the same 
 high official how the dacoits got their arms, cheap 
 and good — the best American rifles down to French 
 carbines. I sent him our missionary to Zuninay to 
 describe the whole trade from Bangkok to Yahaing 
 and Zuninay, and how the arms and ammunition 
 flowed without restriction across the frontier, and 
 were openly sold all over the Amherst district. I 
 offered, if he would give me permission, that I 
 would go across and buy up the arms and ammu- 
 nition for my Karens. I sent a certificate from 
 the Rev. Mr. Bunker that boxes of five hundred 
 military caps, sold in Rangoon for five rupees, only 
 cost eight annas in Toungoo— smuggled via 
 Molsyai. I pleaded most earnestly against the 
 loyal Karens being the only ones to be refused 
 decent arms and ammunition, while the dacoits 
 were not harassed at all. 
 
 " I might as well have pleaded to a post. In the 
 most polite terms, in language expressing the 
 highest gratitude for the noble service done, I was 
 firmly told that the rules were inflexible. It is just 
 such polite, gentlemanly, estimable men by whom 
 
44 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 empires are lost. Bad men, vicious men, can be 
 fought Such fine fellows for peace times are our 
 greatest danger to-day. 
 
 "While I am calling for enlistments, my best 
 men and my brother missionaries are calling a 
 halt. Can you blame the Karen if he quietly goes 
 off and buys the smuggled ammunition (' to keep 
 it from dacoits,' one said to me this morning), and 
 quietly stockades his villages, and settles down to 
 defence pure and simple, leaving the dacoits to 
 fight it out ? 
 
 " The Karens are beginning to say to me, ' Let 
 us merely drive the dacoits out of Karen tracts, 
 fighting on our own hook, and not put ourselves 
 under the control of the Burmans.' The Burmans 
 now see the mistake they made in pitching into 
 the Karens, and are beginning to plead with our 
 villages to promise not to attack them, and induce 
 the Karen to remain neutral. This is an old 
 dacoit dodge of many decades' standing. I fear 
 it more than any other. In reply, I am urging it 
 on my people that the brutes are not to be trusted ; 
 and that when they have eaten up the Burman 
 villages, they will make a meal of the Karen : 
 ' Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes.' 
 
 " If I could be let alone I'd have every village 
 
INTRODUCTION. 45 
 
 trained at ball-practice at their own expense till 
 I could always turn out whatever men I wanted, 
 and at whatever time, and men who wouldn't 
 ■ shoot like sepoys,' and known to be dead shots. 
 This alone would prevent the dacoits ever facing 
 us. I don't ask for help or money ; I only want to 
 be let alone. Tell me the work to be done, and 
 if I can't get Karens to do it, nobody else need try. 
 
 "At one-half the cost the Karens would gladly 
 do the entire work of scouring Lower Burma, and 
 relieve every sepoy out of the city garrisons for 
 service in Upper Burma. Yesterday morning the 
 first corps of Karen levies crossed the old frontier, 
 marching for Ningyan, where the rebels are in 
 strongest force. I would undertake to march them 
 to Mogoung, far above Bhamo. Under their own 
 officers, and commanded by men they trust, they 
 will go anywhere, and do what -no troops can do. 
 You could put ten thousand such men in the field 
 for little more than the cost of a sepoy regiment ; 
 but they must be led by men. 
 
 " You would be pleased to see the change the 
 war has made in the bearing of the Karen. I've 
 seen him flaunt his national Karen dress, and say 
 proudly, ' Yes, I'm a loyal Karen, and what have 
 you to say to that ? ' to the proud Burman. 
 
46 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 " Near a court-house I saw a Karen chief in full 
 dress. He had brought down some dead dacoits. 
 A dandy Burman, all in silk, with gold watch- 
 chain, tried to crowd him off the road as usual. 
 The Karen pushed him contemptuously out of the 
 way, and sternly said, ' Let tliat teach you to 
 make way for the Karen " thin daing " hereafter.' 
 
 " Yesterday I got word that the siege of Ningyan 
 was raised, and the beleaguering force was stream- 
 ing down into the Toungoo district. Konee, with 
 fifty of a Karen levy, alone was left to oppose 
 them. He had cut up one of their foraging-parties ; 
 but, as the Burmese were in overwhelming force, he 
 was obliged to try the same tactics I noted about 
 the Mayankhyoung — decline action, and cut up 
 foraging-parties till he gets the rebels down to 
 numbers he can fight at close quarters. 
 
 " To-day comes serious news from the Rev. Mr. 
 Bunker, who has fought so well all through. He 
 writes, ' Shans just in declared last night that all 
 the Shan people, even Mobyae (heretofore our 
 staunch ally), joined the Myin-Zainy prince against 
 the English, and that in the recent battles around 
 Ningyan the soldiers in uniform were Shan forces.' 
 There seems to be little doubt about this, for I 
 hear from other sources that such soldiers were 
 
INTRODUCTION. 47 
 
 seen in the battles about Ningyan. If it is true, 
 it is a bad outlook for Government. A Karen 
 just arrived from Ningyan tells me the same story, 
 though he doesn't know that I have the news from 
 other sources. 
 
 " Piteous letters were received from the Mobyae 
 Tsawbwa last December. They came to our 
 mission, and were forwarded, with translations, to 
 the secretariat. He said he should be forced to 
 join a league of the Shan Tsawbwas against us, 
 unless he were supported. Now, it appears, his 
 fears have proved true. Neglected by us, he has 
 been obliged to join our foes. If we have the 
 Shans on top of the Burmans, we shall have ^^job 
 for Sir H. Macpherson next cold weather, I can 
 assure you. Till we can give up harassing our 
 friends and petting our foes, we may as well give 
 up hoping for success. 
 
 " Karens laugh at m.e when I tell them Sir 
 H. Macpherson is going to 'scour Burma' next 
 year. They say the dacoits will hide their arms, 
 send their chiefs into the jungle, and meet the 
 troops, and be good boys till the army passes, and 
 then go ahead again at their normal business of 
 dacoity. In both previous wars the professional 
 dacoits, the Thugs of Burma, retreated to what we 
 
48 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 left them of Upper Burma, and were amply pro- 
 vided for by the Burmese Government. Now there 
 is no retreat, and there will be no peace till the 
 last head is sent in. This sounds queer from a 
 Christian missionary, but it is the truth. You 
 can't attack dacoity organized into a system for 
 centuries by ordinary process of law. You must 
 regard it as a system akin to an exaggerated 
 Thuggee, and act accordingly." 
 
 " Rangoon, August 24. 
 
 " I am in a perfect duel all the time about that 
 fatal memorandum I told you of At the same 
 time that I am praised to the skies, I am simply 
 slapped in the face every day, and harassed till I 
 am ready to hang myself 
 
 " The Karen deputation waited on a ' high 
 official ' here, and protested as vigorously as I had 
 done. It did no good whatever. He was full of 
 fulsome compliments on what the Karens had 
 done, etc., but a magnificent non possumus was all 
 they, I, or other missionaries could get out of 
 him. 
 
 "Meanwhile the work goes on. Karens are 
 ordered all over the country to hand in their arms 
 to Burmese officials. In ever so many villages. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 49 
 
 though they have been months waiting, they have 
 not the requisite number (five) of guns, simply 
 because there are no arms for sale. Guns are 
 therefore confiscated, unless they ' make it all 
 right ' with the Burmese officials. 
 
 " My indictment is — 
 
 " I. We warned the Government on the 7th of 
 November, 1885, by Sayah Too-Thah, at the secre- 
 tariat, of the insurrection that killed poor St Barbe. 
 I was not even in Rangoon at the time. The 
 urgency was so great that the old man actually 
 forced his way into Government House, though 
 I was expected only two days after, and pleaded 
 for Government arms and ammunition. 
 
 " On my return I, after weeks of hard fighting, 
 got permission to arm my people. I did so, and 
 so the insurrection, though starting right among 
 my villages, never did us any damage, but went 
 over to Bassein, and was crushed by the Bassein 
 mission. Warnings of the other insurrections 
 were as contemptuously treated, but our mis- 
 sionaries backed me like men, and we saved our 
 Christian Karens. We point with pride to the fact 
 that every insurrection has been smothered in 
 blood whenever it came into a Christian tract, while 
 the Government has not quelled 07ie. 
 
 E 
 
50 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 " 2. To do this we armed ourselves at far more 
 than treble price. I scarcely dare think of what 
 God will say to these firms that have coined money 
 out of these poor wretched Karens, impoverished 
 by the dacoits, unable to get a Government gun to 
 fight for their Queen with, and in danger of their 
 lives every day from the rebels. 
 
 " To illustrate the case of thousands, I mention 
 one whom I helped yesterday. After three months' 
 hanging round Government offices, begging for a 
 permit which the chief commissioner had peremp- 
 torily ordered, he got his permit. More than a 
 month has the poor wretch been hanging round 
 Rangoon to get a ' permission to purchase.' Yester- 
 day I happened to go into the town magistrate's 
 office, and, of course, a few words of ' vigorous 
 Yankee dialect' (I was too mad to talk English) 
 got me the required papers. 
 
 " The poor fellow cried like a child, and knelt 
 before me (you know how much a Karen viust feel 
 to do this). He had been a prisoner to the dacoits, 
 and a cross was made for his crucifixion. The 
 dacoits took pains to make the cross Christian, and 
 not Burmese pattern, and he only escaped when 
 the moment had arrived for his crucifixion. He 
 had no idea of escaping with his life, but hoped 
 
INTRODUCTION. 51 
 
 to win an easier death than crucifixion. He 
 had three shots fired at him within six feet, and 
 plunged through the entire gang, cutting and 
 hacking at him with their swords. This man had 
 ' served ' in the field under my own eye in the 
 most gallant manner, and yet this was the treat- 
 ment he had received from your British idol of 
 red tape ! 
 
 " 3. Though we have served our Queen with our 
 own arms, purchased at rates that would satisfy a 
 Shylock, we have earned no exemption whatever, 
 and must be treated like the universally disloyal 
 Burmans. When I got the permit from the magis- 
 trate here, I went over to Scott and Co.'s and 
 bought a Brummagem fifteen-shilling gun, and paid 
 fifty rupees for it. I have lately sold the Govern- 
 ment two hundred guns far better for fifteen rupees 
 apiece. 
 
 " 4. Whatever we have done for which we are so 
 extravagantly praised is not one-hundredth part 
 what we can do and will gladly do if we can only 
 be let alone. 
 
 " 5. We can easily garrison all Lower Burma at 
 far less than one-third of the present cost ; that is, 
 with the exception, of course, of the cities. 
 
 "6. We can send detachments with troops to 
 
52 THE LOYAL KARENS OK BURMA. 
 
 Upper Burma if required. Such detachments 
 would not, of course, be as efficient as in Lower 
 Burma, where the men are acquainted with the 
 country. 
 
 NOW. 
 
 "The Karens are surly because the men that 
 have served for months and months without pay, 
 are told that they are not ' Karen levies ' because 
 they have received no ' enlistment tickets.' They 
 have seen their comrades shot down by their sides. 
 Some carry dacoit bullets in their bodies, and 
 others can show ghastly wounds, but they are not 
 ' Karen levies ' till they show their ' enlistment 
 tickets.' Had I waited for these, the Hanthawaddy 
 district would have been in a blaze like all the 
 other districts. 
 
 " I have exhausted my powder practising my 
 villages, lest they ' shoot like sepoys.' I am 
 to-day refused the privilege of buying powder at 
 Karen expense, to make my men ' efficient,' till the 
 requisite amount of red tape has been reeled off. 
 
 " Can you wonder hundreds of Karens have gone 
 home sulky ? You know a Karen never storms ; 
 he goes home sulky, and when you want him — he's 
 like the Irishman's flea. 
 
 " As I wrote you, the country is flooded with 
 
INTRODUCTION. 53 
 
 incendiary papers. I warned all of our men that 
 the rebellion would soon be using the printing- 
 press. Some of the last manuscript papers I inter- 
 cepted told me plainly they were hoping for a 
 printing-press. I have not seen the papers with 
 my own eyes, but a friend has seen three issues 
 printed in Rangoon. This dacoit seed will bear 
 a bloody crop if it is watered by the present im- 
 becility. 
 
 "This is the busiest season of the year, as you 
 well know, when I can scarcely get a sight of my 
 people in ordinary years. Now they are swarming 
 to town to beg for arms — never so anxious as at 
 present I have officially reported that our mission 
 is now a thousand guns short .of making things 
 safe, and two thousand short of being able to give 
 efficient aid, yet nothing is done but to harass the 
 lives out of us, when all we want is to arm ourselves 
 at exorbitant expense even to serve our Queen and 
 country." 
 
 " Rangoon, October i, 1886. 
 
 " I have just reached home from an enlisting 
 tour, undertaken to pick three hundred men from 
 six hundred volunteers. 
 
 "There are too many villages of Karens being 
 
54 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 dacoited in the north of Sittang for me to be able 
 to distinguish one from another. 
 
 "Bunker (the hero of the Mayankhyoung 
 poongyee fights), our man at Toungoo, had come 
 down to consult me, and had to bolt home because 
 the dacoit troops now besieging Ningyan had 
 been making forays for provisions across the old 
 frontier north-east of Toungoo. Several villages 
 had been dacoited, and Bunker rushed home to do 
 his best v/ithout ammunition to defend himself 
 (we regard our flocks as' ourselves). I have not 
 received particulars of the raids, but merely find 
 out that the dacoit troops (I use the words advisedly) 
 now besieging Ningyan are so numerous as to 
 have eaten up all the food procurable in the valley 
 of the Sittang, and that, rather than give up the. 
 siege, they have sent their foraging-parties out 
 among our poor half-armed Karens, defenceless for 
 want of ammunition. I find the following letter 
 from Bunker on my table, dated the 28th of Sep- 
 tember : — 
 
 " ' Dear Vinton, — Ningyan is truly in a state 
 of siege. The agent of the B.B.T.C. has just informed 
 me that his steam-launch ran the blockade both 
 up and down, and that in going up one sepoy was 
 killed and seven wounded seriously. They were 
 
INTRODUCTION. 55 
 
 fired at with jingals and rifles. Steamers will not 
 run till the blockade is broken. One Bhoda rajah 
 is in command of two thousand troops, and seems 
 to be well armed, and has plenty of ammunition.' 
 
 " Bunker adds he has no doubt the police give 
 their ammunition to the dacoits by understanding. 
 He says — 
 
 " ' At a recent raid on dacoits at Ningyan, the 
 military officer was obliged to take a civil officer so 
 called, a Burman myo-oke. 
 
 " ' When he had his troops ready to charge, or 
 about ready, this myo-oke discharged his piece 
 twice, and warned the dacoits, and they all got off 
 scot free. He was arrested, but not shot. 
 
 " ' I have sent up fifty Red Karens, and the 
 B.B.T.C. want twenty more. They seem to be 
 doing very well.' 
 
 "This Bhoda rajah and another Dhamma rajah 
 have full swing in the whole Sittang valley, and 
 the troops are simply powerless. I scarcely dare 
 write what I hear about the state of things between 
 the civil and military departments. No military 
 officer can march on the foe without a civil officer. 
 This is often a puppy of a Burman, both a coward 
 and disloyal to the core. Not a shot can be fired 
 till the civil officer permits it. 
 
56 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 " My sincere belief is that more than half of 
 the Burmese officials will do all they can for the 
 rebellion. Only one myo-oke has openly joined 
 the rebellion, for they can be of so much more 
 service to their friends by sending intelligence and 
 ammunition as at present This Bhoda rajah to 
 whom Mr. Bunker alludes is issuing commissions 
 to hold office in Lower Burma. Five such com- 
 missions have been captured by Karens. We shall 
 have it hot in November. I am stockading my 
 villages, and enrolling them. The worst of all is 
 the want of ammunition. To get a pound of 
 powder, a Karen must get first at his own deputy- 
 commissioner. This costs time and money for 
 bribes, without which no Karen can get anything 
 from a deputy-commissioner, through the ring of 
 Burmese understrappers. Then he must come to 
 Rangoon and get a second order. This has often 
 taken a week, for if the slightest ruffle in the red 
 tape can be detected, delay results. The other day 
 a permit was impounded for about a week, because 
 the deputy-commissioner had used the wrong 
 printed form, and had corrected it with the pen ! 
 
 " The thing is simply intolerable when you even 
 think of the distances the men must march, the 
 days they must wait, and the money they must 
 
INTRODUCTION. 5/ 
 
 spend to get a single pound of powder. They 
 are allowed no more for a whole year. Be pre- 
 pared next to hear of Karen cowardice — giving up 
 their arms as meekly as police. 
 
 " Can you fight for your gun without ammuni- 
 tion .'' I can't. 
 
 " I've warned Government that I have not 
 powder to defend my guns, and yet, while I am 
 personally responsible for their safety, I can't get 
 powder without all this circumlocution. The danger 
 to-day is too great to bring all the able-bodied 
 men to town, after marching a week or two to find 
 a deputy-commissioner, and then to wait as they 
 do in the Rangoon office. 
 
 " Meanwhile, the dacoits can get plenty of the 
 best American rifles dirt cheap — a quarter of 
 Rangoon prices — and all the powder and caps they 
 want, across the Siamese frontier. The authorities 
 think this source has been blocked, but my Zuninay 
 correspondents tell me of large shipments arriving, 
 and being promptly sent off to their destination. 
 No one is to be harassed but loyal Karens. 
 
 •'At a large meeting held on the 29th, the Karen 
 leaders told me that the poongyees were tattooing 
 their men, and assuring them of the safe arrival of 
 plenty of arms and powder. 
 
S8 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 "If we could be as well treated as the dacoits 
 
 we could fight ; but, while disloyal men get their 
 
 arms and ammunition good and cheap, we are 
 
 harassed beyond measure. 
 
 " The oppression of the punitive tax on Karens 
 
 seems to be confined at present to the Tharawaddy 
 
 district. 
 
 " I dare not tell the Karens of the Government 
 
 letter. They are far too indignant as it is. 
 
 " To boil down my huge Karen correspondence, 
 
 the Karens all over Burma that have heard of the 
 action in Tharawaddy all resent it, and many speak 
 of it as base ingratitude, after all they have done 
 and suffered. All express the gravest apprehen- 
 sions of Karen defeat from the sore want of ammu- 
 nition, now scarcer than gold. I shall not blame 
 my people if they supply themselves from the 
 dacoit source of smuggled ammunition. I have 
 fought this source of supply for twenty-five 
 years. I regard the present policy of practically 
 disarming the Karens as far more dangerous than 
 any prince pretender to the throne, and its authors 
 are far more dangerous to the peace of the country 
 than any body of dacoit troops now threatening us. 
 " The minute the troops attack the Bhoda rajah, 
 he will bolt away to the Toungoo hills among 
 
INTRODUCTION. 59 
 
 our Karen Christians, like the Mayankhyoung 
 poongyee. 
 
 " He has no other course open to him, for he has- 
 eaten all clean before him elsewhere. Then we 
 shall be asked to act as we did with the Mayan- 
 khyoung. We caiit do it, for we are not a 
 hundredth part as well prepared for it now as we 
 were then. 
 
 " Bunker has written to the authorities that the 
 Bghais alone are four hundred guns short of being 
 safe, let alone giving efficient help, as they would 
 gladly do. Worse than all, the few guns they have 
 only invite attack, because of the want of ammuni- 
 tion ! Every one of our American missionaries is 
 in the same box. Our Karens say it is an organized 
 attempt to tarnish and snatch away the laurels we 
 earned by last season's brave resistance all over 
 Burma. 
 
 " It is a serious question, gravely raised by old 
 and cool-headed Karens, whether it is not really 
 best to submit to being disarmed in toto, stockading 
 and fighting with our bows alone. Some argue it 
 were better to do even this than to pretend to fight 
 and be forced to give up your guns for want of 
 powder." 
 
6o THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 The following brief but stirring testimony to the 
 fidelity and valour of the Karens, given in an 
 official report by the Inspector-General of Police in 
 Burma, will prove how well-founded is the faith 
 in his people, which Dr. Vinton so often reiterates 
 in his letters, and how natural and how just is his 
 indignation at the treatment which they seem to 
 have received at the hands of the Government : — 
 
 " I would also desire to bring to the favourable 
 consideration of Government the splendid work 
 done by the Rev. Mr. Nichols and his Karens. Mr. 
 Nichols himself, at the expense of great personal 
 discomfort, joined one of the pursuing parties, 
 while his Karens acted as scouts and advance 
 guards to them all. They on more than one 
 occasion attacked the rebels unaided, killing some 
 of them ; but I regret having to record that a 
 small party, in their zeal to overtake the rebels in 
 a country unknown to them, were surprised and 
 slaughtered. Out of fifty-five Government arms, 
 which were made over to the Karens who volun- 
 teered to assist Government, they returned fifty 
 at the end of their campaign, the remaining five 
 being taken from five of them at the expense of 
 their lives." 
 
 These letters from Dr. Vinton need no comment. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 6 1 
 
 They tell a tale which, to say the least of it, 
 does not bode well for the future. Let those who 
 are charged with the government of the country 
 take them to heart. Dr. Vinton's feelings may pos- 
 sibly have been a little embittered by the coldness 
 of the authorities towards his people, and hence, 
 perhaps, the severity of some of 'his remarks. But 
 his facts are clear and plain. It is high time 
 that the British people lent their ear to the plaint 
 of the Karens and redressed the wrong done 
 them by the listlessness and neglect of our own 
 Government. Notwithstanding their noble ser- 
 vices in 1852-53, when the British troops were 
 hard pressed, they were left altogether out in 
 the cold, the good work they did was never 
 acknowledged, nothing was done for them. The 
 missionaries alone stood by them, kept them loyal, 
 and have been fighting their battles ever since. 
 The fears which Dr. Vinton expresses in one 
 of the letters which I have quoted above — that 
 what occurred after the war of 1852-5.3 will occur 
 again now ; that, after profiting by the loyalty, 
 devotion, and bravery of the Karens, the British 
 Government will again forget them — are likely to 
 be realized unless the English people come to 
 their rescue. 
 
62 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 It Struck me that I might render the Karens a 
 humble service by describing their origin, customs, 
 and singular character, and by endeavouring to 
 interest my fellow-countrymen in their behalf. 
 Burma is popularly supposed to be peopled by 
 Burmese only. Few, save British officers who 
 have been brought into contact with them, know 
 much about the sturdy little Karen nation, which 
 lies wedged in between the masses of Burmese 
 peopling the mountains and forests. The striking 
 contrast between their high courage and the 
 cowardice of the Burmese in the recent disturb- 
 ances, their loyalty and devotion to the Queen 
 whom they have been taught to revere, would of 
 themselves have been sufficient reasons for letting 
 their interesting story be widely known. But there 
 is more than this. The Karens are a peculiar 
 people. They cling to their national traditions 
 tenaciously. They remember the long and grievous 
 oppression of their former Burmese rulers. The 
 natural antipathy to the Burmese has been handed 
 down from father to son ; and to this day, despite 
 the solvent tendency of British rule, the Karen 
 holds himself entirely aloof from his Burmese 
 fellow-subjects. 
 
 But it is in the remarkable religious character 
 
INTRODUCTION. 6^ 
 
 and history of the Karens that the deepest interest 
 must centre. Their traditions of the elders, telling 
 of a God who had long ages ago confided His 
 Sacred Word to them ; of their faithlessness in 
 losing hold of this Sacred Word ; their aspirations 
 to recover it ; their enthusiasm when, more than 
 fifty years ago, the gospel was first preached to 
 them by the white man, whose advent had been 
 for generations predicted ; their extraordinary 
 aptitude in discerning and assimilating the doc- 
 trines of Christianity ; the almost miraculous suc- 
 cess of the American Baptist missionaries both in 
 Christianizing and in civilizing them ; the growth 
 of what may be said to be a really indigenous 
 Christianity and a high civilization ; and the 
 almost undisturbed harmony between the heathen 
 and Christian Karens, resulting from community in 
 their religious traditions and the feeling of partner- 
 ship in the Christian revelation, are all subjects of 
 profound interest to the student of social science 
 and religious history. 
 
 During a five years' residence in Burma, from 
 1879 to 1884, I learnt a great deal about the 
 Karens, both from themselves and from their mis- 
 sionaries and pastors. I saw them in their moun- 
 tain homes and in their secluded dwellings on the 
 
64 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 plain. My interest in them was early aroused, and 
 has never ceased. Keen personal sympathy with 
 the race and a desire to awaken interest in their 
 behalf have prompted me to attempt the present 
 narrative. It is not often given to witness such a 
 remarkable development of national character as 
 has taken place among the Karens under the 
 influence of Christianity and good government. 
 Forty — ay, thirty — years ago they were a despised, 
 grovelling, timid people, held in open contempt 
 by the Burmese. At the first sound of the gospel 
 message they sprang to their feet as a sleeping 
 army springs to the bugle-call. The dream of 
 hundreds of years was fulfilled ; the God who had 
 cast them off for their faithlessness had come back 
 to them ; they felt themselves a nation once more. 
 Their progress since then has been by leaps and 
 bounds, all from an impetus within themselves, and 
 with no direct aid of any kind from their rulers ; 
 and they bid fair soon to outstrip their Burmese 
 conquerors in all the arts of peace. 
 
 In writing the story which these chapters contain, 
 I have made no attempt at literary finish. My 
 leisure is scanty, and I have not been able to do 
 more than piece together the fragmentary notes 
 taken at odd times and places during my five 
 
INTRODUCTION. 65 
 
 years' service in Burma. I claim no literary merit, 
 therefore, for the book, and trust that readers will 
 find compensation for defects in style and arrange- 
 ment in the facts of interest which I have en- 
 deavoured to brinsr together. 
 
66 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THEIR ORIGIN, LANGUAGE, AND PHYSICAL 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 A NUMBER of theories have been put forward 
 regarding the birthplace of the Karen nation. 
 Some say they are a Thibetan race ; others assert 
 that they came from the north of China ; a third 
 supposition is that they are the aborigines of 
 Burma ; and a few enthusiasts, fascinated by their 
 remarkable God traditions, have been bold enough 
 to declare that they are one of the lost tribes of 
 Israel. It appears certain that they are not the 
 aboriginal inhabitants of Burma. Their own tra- 
 ditions tell of a " river of running sand " which they 
 had to cross, and of the great tribulations which 
 they endured in crossing it. The Karens regard 
 the " river of running sand " as an immense quick- 
 sand, where the sands roll like the waters of a 
 river. Fa Hian, the Chinese pilgrim, who visited 
 India about the fifth century, describes the great 
 
ORIGIN, LANGUAGE, AND CHARACTERISTICS. 6j 
 
 desert north of Burma, between China and Thibet, 
 as a " river of sand," and in the Chinese map of 
 India this long tract of desert is marked " quick- 
 sands." The prominence given in tradition to the 
 crossing of these sands shows that the movement 
 must have been a difficult and important one for 
 the race. The wilderness of sand was evidently 
 the desert between China and Thibet, which the 
 Chinese pilgrim describes thus : " There are evil 
 spirits in this river of sand, and such scorching 
 winds that whoso encountereth them dies and none 
 escape. Neither birds are seen in the air nor 
 quadrupeds on the ground. On every side as far 
 as the eye can reach, if you seek for the proper 
 place to cross, there is no other mark to distinguish 
 it than the skeletons of those who have perished 
 there." The Karen traditions describe it as a 
 " fearful trackless region, where the sands rolled 
 before the wind like the waves of the sea." Malte 
 Brun, on the authority of Marco Polo, says, " The 
 country of the Caride is the south-east point of 
 Thibet, and perhaps the country of the nation of 
 the Cariaines, which is spread over Ava." 
 
 It seems very probable, then, that the Karens are 
 a people from the borders of Thibet, who crossed 
 the great desert of Gobi into China, and found 
 
6S THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 their way by gradual descents into Burma. They 
 claim a common descent with the Angami Nagas 
 of Assam, and there is much in common between 
 them and the Khyens and Kakhyens of Lower and 
 Upper Burma. It cannot be ascertained what were 
 the causes of their migrations, or when they ap- 
 peared for the first time in Burma. In the " Life 
 of Monsignor Percoto," the first Italian missionary 
 to Burma, we read that Father Nerini found " wild 
 populations styled Cariani (Karens) living sepa- 
 rately from others, and in full liberty." This was 
 about A.D. 1740. But they had been then settled 
 for generations in the country, and were looked 
 upon as savages. It would appear that, after 
 crossing the river of running sand, the Karens did 
 not march at once into Burma, but settled down 
 on the borders of Western China, and from the 
 colony of Jews there, in all probability, learnt the 
 " Traditions of the Elders," the coming back of 
 the White Book, the return of the long-expected 
 Messiah, and the roll of parchment or skin to be 
 brought to them by the white foreigners. Their 
 traditions point to a desperate blood-feud which 
 arose between two branches of their race whilst 
 living in China. The Chghaws * (or male) branch 
 
 * Pronounced Sa;aws. 
 
ORIGIN, LANGUAGE, AND CHARACTERISTICS. 69 
 
 had a great dispute with the Pghos* (or female) 
 branch about a fine which the latter were adjudged 
 to pay for having murdered one of their own chiefs 
 called Pu Tha Get. The Pghos refused to pay the 
 fine, upon which the Chghaws prohibited social in- 
 tercourse and intermarriage between the two 
 branches. This sundering of two branches of the 
 nation was widened and intensified by periodical 
 warring and reprisals, till eventually the Pghos had 
 to leave China altogether, and marched down 
 southward into the plains of Burma. The third 
 branch of the nation, to which the Karen-nees, or 
 Red Karens, belong, is called " Bghai." The Red 
 Karens assert that sixteen or seventeen generations 
 ago they were driven from a region in the kingdom 
 of Ava, and that they were part of a Chinese army. 
 This account of their origin seems not improbable ; 
 for about A.D. 1400, to which their account would 
 take us back, the Chinese invaded Burma, and 
 were twice defeated and driven back. 
 
 It would appear, then, that of the three branches 
 of the Karen nation the Pghos were the first to 
 enter Burma. They had been driven from Western 
 China by the Chghaws, and in their retreat south- 
 wards appear to have followed the course of the 
 
 * Pronounced Pwos. 
 
70 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 Salween river. Leaving a few scattered bands 
 behind them near Toungoo, they turned south- 
 eastwards towards Siam, and then crossed over to 
 Mergui, whence they spread again north and north- 
 west by the coast-line, finally settling down along 
 the deltas of the great rivers. The war-songs of 
 the Chghaws relate that they " drove the Pghos to 
 drink brackish water." Hence it is that we find 
 the Pghos occupying the great sea-board belt from 
 Mergui and Tavoy to Moulmein, and thence, with 
 only a single break near Rangoon, along the delta 
 of the Irrawaddy up to Cape Negrais, on the border 
 of Arakan. Very few Pghos are to be found inland 
 of the great deltaic regions. Their head-quarters 
 are still near Moulmein, at a place called Dongyan, 
 where they established their first stronghold. Here 
 they were attacked again and again by the invading 
 Siamese, and finally taken in captivity to Siam. 
 They, however, worked out their freedom, and the 
 majority, leaving a few scattered colonies in Siam, 
 returned to Dongyan, which is the great Pgho 
 centre to this day. The Chghaws, having driven 
 the Pghos to the sea, occupied the great central 
 range of hills called the Pegu Yoma. They still 
 are almost the sole settlers in these hills, but they 
 have spilt over the plains immediately below, and 
 
ORIGIN, LANGUAGE, AND CHARACTERISTICS. J I 
 
 now occupy the hills and jungles of the Irrawaddy 
 district, large parts of the Shwegyin, Prome, and 
 Henzada districts. They extend from the Arakan 
 Yoma range on the west to the Salween river on 
 the east. They are replaced by the Khyens on 
 the north-west of the Prome district. The Khyens 
 are believed to be an offshoot of the Karen nation, 
 and their social and religious customs are very 
 similar to those of the Karens. Dr. Mason, the 
 great missionary scholar of Burma, regards Khyens 
 and Karens as one and the same. It seems not 
 improbable that they and the Kakhyens also may 
 be the descendants of captives taken during the 
 perpetual inter-tribal wars before the final descent 
 into Burma. It seems, in any case, pretty certain 
 that they have a common origin with the Karens. 
 The territory which the great body of the Khyens 
 inhabit is the mountain track from the east of 
 Assam to Yunnan. But there is a large Khyen 
 colonj^ round the head waters of the Chindwin river 
 in Upper Burma, and traces of a Karen population 
 of considerable size have, it is believed, been found 
 on the same river. Chghaw and Pgho Karens are 
 also found in Siam, in the valleys of the Meinam 
 and the Cambodia — descendants of captives taken 
 by the Siamese during the invasion of Tenasserim. 
 
72 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 The Bghai branch seem to have come into Burma 
 along the Hne of the Toungoo hills somewhat later 
 than the other two branches of the nation, but they 
 never passed beyond these hills. They are the 
 boldest and most warlike of the Karens, and the 
 Karen-nees, or Red Karens, are the blue blood of 
 the tribe. The Red Karens are the only tribe of 
 the nation which succeeded by desperate struggles 
 in resisting Burmese aggression and preserving 
 their independence. They are the typical Bghai 
 Karens, and occupy a compact little mountain 
 territory on the north-east of British Burma, which 
 they hold under chiefs of their own in complete 
 independence, paying an annual small tribute to 
 the British Government for the guarantee against 
 aggression which has been given to them. They 
 are proud of their lineage, which they say they 
 trace from the rising sun. Every Red Karen has a 
 rising sun — the crest of his nobility — tattooed on 
 his back. In challenging to combat he does not 
 slap his left folded arm with his right palm, as the 
 rest of the Karens and the Burmans do, but, coiling 
 his right arm round his left side, strikes the tattoo 
 on his back. This action is supposed by him to 
 rouse the magic power of the symbol. 
 
 The Bghais are thus, as will be seen, more con- 
 
ORIGIN, LANGUAGE, AND CHARACTERISTICS. 73 
 
 centrated than the Pghos and the Chghaws. They 
 occupy the entire northern part of the Toungoo hill 
 tracts, and the chieftains of the independent Karen- 
 nees are regarded as the heads of the tribe. The 
 Bghai of British Burma is an offshoot of the 
 Karen-nee. or Red Karen. The Red Karen calls 
 one large clan of his brethren in British Burma the 
 " trouser- wearing Bghai ; " while the latter speaks of 
 his Red Karen brother as the Eastern Bghai. 
 
 The division of the Karen nation into these three 
 great tribes — the Chghaw, Pgho, and Bghai — is a 
 very ancient one, and although there is perfect 
 cordiality and freedom of intercourse between them, 
 intermarriage is not frequent. This, however, is 
 rather the result of the segregation, under the force 
 of external circumstances, of the three tribes than 
 of any customary law. The division, too, although 
 stoutly maintained, never stands in the way of com- 
 bination for a common object by the entire nation. 
 Indeed, as will afterwards appear, the power and 
 willingness to combine as a nation for a common 
 end is a characteristic which stands out in the 
 Karens most prominently, and is the main ground 
 of hope for the stability of their national existence. 
 
 The Karen language is monosyllabic, and belongs 
 emphatically to the Tonal family of languages. The 
 
74 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 syllables are all open ; there is no final consonant, 
 except a nasal occasionally found in the Bghai and 
 Pgho dialects. There are no closed syllables at 
 all. Compound words are formed by agglutination. 
 The case formation and the declension of nouns, 
 as well as the conjugation of verbs, are all by 
 suffixes and affixes to roots. Words in pairs are 
 a peculiarity. They are not reduplicatives, but 
 agglutinatives used to intensify the meaning of the 
 word, or to form a new idea respecting a group. 
 Every word, as the Karens themselves say, has its 
 " wife," or its synonym in the same relation as the 
 wife stands to the husband in Burma — that of the 
 better and stronger half! The Burmese language 
 has the same tendency, but not so marked as in the 
 Karen. In formal, polite address both the "hus- 
 band " and " wife " words are used. For example, 
 katlie-kachaw means " elephants,'' although kathe by 
 itself means " horses." Again, khai o kwd o means 
 " sword-sticks,'' or (in Burmese) dahs, although k-wd 
 means an ''axe." The agglutinatives together 
 convey a meaning more intense than either of them 
 singly, and the " wife " word contributes the greater 
 strength of the two. Reduplication of words in 
 Karen conveys an adverbial signification. 
 
 The Karen language has no affinity whatever 
 
ORIGIN, LANGUAGE, AND CHARACTERISTICS. 75 
 
 for the Burmese. It belongs to the same family as 
 the Chinese, but it must early have separated from 
 the parent tongue. It has no written character. 
 It was never written till Dr. Wade, the American 
 missionary, reduced it to writing, using the Burmese 
 consonants. 
 
 The Karens thus have no written literature. 
 But they are the possessors of a rich bard literature, 
 which has been transmitted from generation to 
 generation by men whose special business it is to 
 commit to memory the traditions, legends, songs, 
 and homely folk-lore ; commend to the young their 
 duties to elders and parents ; recount the heroic 
 deeds of old and of the race from memory ; and 
 teach students to be their successors as depositaries 
 of the national traditions and folk-lore. 
 
 Supreme importance is attached to the correct 
 transmission — exactly as originally rendered by the 
 elders — of the story of God's dealings with the 
 nation. They believed that God, who had cursed 
 the Karen for losing the written Word, would cer- 
 tainly call upon them some day — near or distant, 
 they knew not — to say how much they remembered 
 of it ; and that the blessing to each would be 
 apportioned according to the care with which its 
 words and truths had been treasured up. Hence 
 
•j6 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 the jealous care and extraordinary accuracy with 
 which the God traditions — the Palladium of the 
 nation — have been handed down from generation 
 to generation. A literal translation of the more 
 important of these traditions is given in the 
 Appendix. Most of them could be recited with 
 propriety in any Christian church in England. 
 
 The Karens are small in stature, but broad and 
 muscular. Those who live in the hills are not so 
 robust in appearance as those of the plains, the 
 weakly forms of the hill-people being due to the 
 greater hardship of their lives and the toughness 
 of the struggle they often have to fight for very 
 existence, even under a British government. The 
 skin is naturally fair, like that of the Chinese ; and 
 the features of those of pure blood are Caucasian 
 in type — a characteristic which has been deemed 
 by some to support their claim to have been one of 
 the lost tribes of Israel. The hair is straight and 
 black. The eyes are black. But in the north 
 sometimes brownish hair and hazel eyes are found. 
 
 The houses of the Karens are of various shapes 
 and sizes. In the plains, generally each family 
 occupies a permanent dwelling. In the hills, an 
 entire village community lives in a long barrack of 
 bamboos and rough-hewn timber. 
 
ORIGIN, LANGUAGE, AND CHARACTERISTICS. // 
 
 The heathen Karen may be said to be almost 
 omnivorous. " Every animal from a rat to an 
 elephant, every reptile from a sand-lizard to a 
 serpent, ants, grubs, every bird, every fish, and 
 the whole vegetable kingdom adorn their tables." 
 But, curiously, they will eat none of the monkey 
 tribe except the white-eyelid monkey. 
 
 The dress of the people varies a good deal. 
 Some of the clans wear tunics, striped and plain ; 
 others, chiefly in the north, wear trousers, often 
 handsomely coloured and embroidered ; a few go 
 about almost naked. The dress of the Red Karens 
 (Karen-nee) is peculiar. The men wear short red 
 trousers with narrow black or white stripes. Below 
 the knee are black bands of twisted thread. A 
 wrapper of white, with a few red or black stripes, 
 is wound round the body. A bright red turban is 
 worn on the head, and an ornamented bag is hung 
 across the shoulder. The female dress is very 
 picturesque. " The head-dress is a large red or 
 black turban wound up to form a small tower on 
 the top of the head. There is no gown, but a 
 cloth like the Roman toga, tied by two corners on 
 the right shoulder, and the left arm is sometimes 
 kept covered, but more often it is drawn out above 
 the garment. A second piece of cloth like the first 
 
78 THE LOYAIi KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 is kept in the hand like a loose shawl, or tied 
 round the waist. One of these garments is usually 
 red, and the other black, though occasionally both 
 are red. For a petticoat, another rectangular piece 
 of cloth is wrapped two or three times round the 
 person, and is kept in its place by a wampum belt 
 some half a dozen inches in diameter. Another 
 enormous band of beads is worn below the knee, 
 and on the ankles large silver bangles. Ear-drops 
 are worn both by men and women." 
 
 The Karens all sing — they have an inborn love 
 of music — and beautiful singers they are. Their 
 music * is nearly all wild and plaintive, like that 
 of the Scottish and Welsh highlanders. Their 
 minstrels are both men and women, and in their 
 bone-feasts each village bard competes with the 
 other — a man being pitted against a woman. The 
 imagery used in many of their odes is rich and 
 pleasing. The flowers, the birds, the great cliffs 
 and crags, the rivers, the stars are all themes of 
 song. It is a rich treat to hear a whole school of 
 two hundred boys and girls singing one of their 
 own hymns in parts. The voices are all sweet and 
 the melody charming. 
 
 * Two specimens of national Karen airs are given in the 
 Appendix. 
 
( 79 ) 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 SOME OF THEIR NATIONAL CUSTOMS. 
 
 Infant betrothals are not uncommon, but they 
 are becoming less frequent than they used to be. 
 As a rule, a young man chooses for himself the girl 
 whom he wishes to marry. He begins by obtaining 
 the permission of the girl's parents to paying his 
 addresses — not, however, to the girl herself, but 
 through the parents. " He then selects a go- 
 between, who first consults a chicken's bones. If 
 they give an unfavourable reply, the matter is 
 allowed to drop ; if, on the other hand, the answer 
 is favourable, the go-between arranges the match, 
 and when this is done a feast is given by the 
 young man's friends to those of the girl. If a girl 
 breaks her engagement, she has to pay the expenses 
 of the feast ; but she is at liberty to receive the 
 addresses of another suitor if her betrothed declares 
 publicly that he desires to forfeit all that has been 
 
So THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 spent, which is the recognized way of breaking off 
 the match." 
 
 The marriage ceremony is simple. " The bride 
 is conducted to the house of the bridegroom's 
 parents in a procession with music, and as she 
 ascends the ladder she is drenched to the skin with 
 water. Before the company leave, two elders, one 
 on behalf of the bride and one on behalf of the 
 bridegroom, take each a cup of spirits ; the first 
 repeats the duties of the husband in case of the 
 wife's death, and the latter replies, acknowledging 
 that such are his duties — one of which is that, 
 should she be carried into captivity or killed in a 
 foray, he must purchase her freedom or obtain the 
 price of her blood. Each elder then gives to the 
 other to drink, and says, ' Be faithful to your cove- 
 nant.' This concludes the ceremony." 
 
 The Red Karens never betroth their children in 
 infancy, and their marriage ceremony is a singular 
 one. " The two young people having made up 
 their minds to marry, and the parents having given 
 their consent, the bridegroom makes a feast in his 
 house, to which the bride and some female com- 
 panions come. During the feast, the bridegroom 
 presents a cup of spirits to the bride, asking, ' Is it 
 agreeable.' This she takes, replying, ' It is agree- 
 
NATIONAL CUSTOMS. 8 1 
 
 able.' She and her companions remain all night, 
 and, returning home next morning, prepare a feast 
 to which the bridegroom and his friends come, and 
 the ceremony of presenting the cup of spirits is 
 again gone through, this time the bride being the 
 questioner. Occasionally the reply, given playfully, 
 is, ' Not agreeable,' when the spirits must be offered 
 and the question asked till a favourable answer is 
 received. The feast in the bride's house completes 
 the whole ceremony." 
 
 Polygamy is not permitted, but is occasionally 
 practised by those of the Karens who are brought 
 much in contact with the Burmese. 
 
 They have an odd way of naming their children. 
 The names given are sometimes those of ancestors, 
 sometimes descriptive of the parents' feelings, such 
 as " Joy," " Hope ; " often those of the seasons in 
 which the children were born, as " Harvest" In 
 many cases the child owes his name to some cir- 
 cumstance that occurred about the time of its birth, 
 as " Father returned ; " or to some peculiarity in its 
 appearance, as " White " or " Black." On other 
 occasions it is named after some bird, beast, 
 mineral, or tree, as "Heron," "Tiger," "Tin," 
 " Cotton." Those who, on growing up, develop 
 some peculiarity, receive a kind of nickname, to 
 
 G 
 
82 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 which " Father " or " Mother " is attached, such as 
 " Father of Swiftness," " Mother of Contrivance." 
 Frequently the parents change their names when a 
 child is born to them. 
 
 Their custom when an infectious disease breaks 
 out in their village is a stern one. In ordinary- 
 illnesses they treat the sick with decent kindness, 
 but they will not afford any assistance to a person 
 — even one of their own kith and kin — attacked by 
 an infectious disease. " An outbreak of cholera or 
 small-pox will temporarily depopulate the villages 
 in large tracts of country, the inhabitants flying 
 from the disease with terror, and living in the 
 forests till they think that they can return to their 
 homes without danger of contagion. The indi- 
 vidual who has, or is supposed to have, imported 
 the disease is held responsible for all the deaths, 
 and must pay the price of the lives lost. If he 
 dies himself, or is unable to pay, the debt remains 
 for his children and descendants to wipe off. 
 Every illness is looked upon as inflicted by the 
 spirits, and though the Karens have some know- 
 ledge of medicine, resort is not had to it till incan- 
 tations have been tried and the spirits have declined 
 to be propitious." 
 
 Warfare has, of course, ceased since the country 
 
NATIONAL CUSTOMS. 83 
 
 came under British rule. But an account of their 
 war-customs of the olden time — and which still 
 prevail in the fierce forays of Karen-nee — will be of 
 some interest. 
 
 War is never declared. A wrong having been 
 committed, the avenging tribesmen never make 
 any declaration of reprisals, nor intimate that war 
 is to be waged. The great object is to take the 
 enemy completely unawares. Nor is war waged 
 ostensibly between one village and another. There 
 is always an individual at the head of every war 
 on whose account the war is made, and who acts 
 as general, but never goes to the fight himself. If 
 the season is deemed favourable, the head of the 
 war kills a hog or a fowl, and, taking a portion of 
 the heart, liver, and entrails, he mixes them up 
 with salt and rolls the mixture up in a leaf This 
 symbolizes tying up " the heads of his enemies. 
 Then, after a prayer to the Lord of heaven and 
 earth, he sends out spies to see how best the 
 enemy's village may be attacked. If the spies 
 report favourably for the attack, the head of the 
 war sends out to collect volunteers for the foray, 
 forty or fifty from each village of the tribe. When 
 all have assembled, a feast is given, at which spirits 
 are freely drunk. But before handing round the 
 
84 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 spirits, the head of the war pours out some slowly 
 on the ground, and prays, " Lord of the seven 
 heavens and the seven earths, Lord of the rivers 
 and streams, of the mountains and hills, we give 
 thee spirits to drink and rice to eat. Help us, 
 we entreat thee. We have tied the heads of our 
 enemies. Help us. Make their minds forgetful ; 
 make them to forget themselves — that they may 
 sleep heavily, that their sleep may be unbroken. 
 Let not a dog bark at us, let not a hog grunt at us. 
 Let them not seize a bow, a sword, or a spear. 
 And may the Lord keep my children and grand- 
 children that are going to attack our enemies, and 
 deliver them from all harm. May they be delivered 
 from the bow, the sword, and the spear." After 
 this a fowl is killed, and its bones reverently con- 
 sulted. If the omens are unfavourable, the tribes- 
 men are dismissed to their homes to wait for a 
 more auspicious day. If they are favourable, the 
 head of the war leaps up exultingly and calls for 
 two volunteers to escalade the first house of the 
 enemy's village. The two volunteers come forward, 
 and he addresses them thus : " You are a hunting 
 dog ; you are a wild boar. If you succeed you are 
 worthy of a buffalo, and you shall have it. If you 
 fail, if you are killed, let not those you leave behind 
 
NATIONAL CUSTOMS. 85 
 
 ask a buffalo of me ; let them ask a fowl. Let 
 them not ask of me a silk garment on account of 
 your death. You say you are bold, you say you 
 are fearless. You go the first, you return the last. 
 If our enemies follow and you run away, and any- 
 thing happens to the people, you are responsible." 
 After this address the tribesmen go off, singing 
 war-songs : 
 
 " We march in order like white ants, 
 We cross a stream and trample it down ; 
 We arrive at the foot of the house, 
 We reach the foot of the ladder : 
 Blood flows like a stream of water, 
 Blood flows down under the house. 
 
 " The mother cries herself to death ; 
 The great hawk flies over the house, 
 Pounces down on the chiefs red cock ; 
 The great hawk swoops around the house. 
 Carries off' its prey at the foot of the house ; 
 The great hawk flies away. 
 Leaving the chief behind weeping." 
 
 When the party reach the house, the first rush is 
 made by the two volunteers, and the rest follow. 
 The house is stormed. All the men are killed, 
 whether armed or unarmed. Such women as are 
 thought likely to be useful or profitable as slaves 
 are taken and bound. All the rest are killed. 
 Infants are always killed, and children are often 
 barbarously massacred. Their hands and feet 
 
86 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 are cut off, and their bodies hacked into small 
 pieces. 
 
 Slavery is common amongst all the tribes, and 
 one of the Bghai clans sell even their relatives. 
 Defaulting debtors, captives in forays, confirmed 
 thieves, widows and widowers who cannot pay the 
 price of the deceased, those who have brought or 
 are supposed to have brought infectious diseases, — 
 are all sold into slavery. Elderly men and women 
 find no purchasers ; they cannot work. Men and 
 women of middle age fetch as much as from two to 
 three hundred rupees. Boys, girls, and children are 
 valued at from three to four hundred rupees. 
 
( 87 ) 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THEIR AGRICULTURE: PEE BEE YAW, THE 
 GODDESS OF THE HARVEST. 
 
 The Karens are tillers of the soil. They do not 
 engage, as the Burmese do, in trade. When com- 
 munities descend into the plains, they take to the 
 ordinary Burmese paddy-growing, in which they 
 very soon outstrip the Burmans. Their villages 
 are always the most prosperous-looking. Those in 
 the hills still follow the primitive and destructive 
 methods of their forefathers. Their system, briefly, 
 is to cut down and burn the trees on a hillside, and 
 then sow their crops on the mixed soil and ashes. 
 Next year they migrate to another hill and repeat 
 the same operation, leaving the first hill to recover 
 its natural vegetation, till after six or seven years 
 they return to it. They thus migrate annually to 
 different hills, and each year finds one hill denuded 
 of its vegetation, cultivated, and then forsaken for 
 another. The proper cycle of rotation is usually 
 
88 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 regarded as seven years. In the seventh year, the 
 people come back to the hill where they had 
 started, and commence their operations over again. 
 In January or February, the cultivator goes out to 
 search for a good site, and, having found one which 
 suits him, he picks up a clod of earth and puts it 
 under his pillow. If his dreams are favourable, he 
 sticks to the site which he has chosen ; if unfavour- 
 able, he must renew his search till he finds a spot 
 the earth of which brings a good omen to him in 
 his .sleep. He then goes out with his family and 
 cuts down the trees on his patch, which is called 
 a toungya. This is done by commencing at the 
 bottom of the hillside, and making slight notches 
 in the biggest trees and leaving the small trees un- 
 touched. Ascending gradually, the notches made 
 in the larger trees increase in length and depth till 
 the top of the hill is reached, where all the larger 
 trees are completely cut down. These, falling on 
 those below, push them downwards, and an impetus 
 is created which increases as it moves steadily 
 down the hill, until with one great crash the whole 
 forest vegetation is prostrated. The fallen trees 
 are left as they lie till April, when the mass is dry 
 enough to burn. A house of bamboos is built in 
 a sequestered spot near the toungya, the dry timber 
 
AGRICULTURE. 89 
 
 is lighted, and soon the whole of the fallen forest 
 is reduced to ashes. The heat of the fire splits 
 up the soil, and the ashes enter the crevices and 
 fertilize the land. In May or June, after the first 
 downpour of rain, rice is sown, holes being dibbled 
 in the ground and the seed dropped in. When the 
 rice has come well up, cotton, capsicum, and maize 
 are sown between the ridges. Near the house are 
 planted sugar-cane, yams, and betel. A little hut 
 is built up in the middle of the toungya, or culti- 
 vated patch, in which a boy or a girl is placed to 
 frighten away the birds and wild hogs, and, after 
 two or three weedings, the crop is reaped in October. 
 The grain is threshed out by beating the ears 
 against a beam of wood, or treading out the grains 
 with their feet ; for they have no cattle like their 
 lowland neighbours. While the crops are still on 
 the ground, the men and the women fish and hunt 
 to supply the family with food, and gather all sorts 
 of forest produce, till harvest-time. When the rice 
 crops have been gathered, the little granary is 
 stored with paddy, and the head of the family, 
 accompanied by his wife, goes down to the plain, 
 and sells his betel, fowls, wild honey, beeswax, 
 and wild cardamoms, and thus obtains money for 
 clothes and taxes. In some parts — notably the 
 
90 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 hills of Shway Gyin — tobacco is extensively grown, 
 and yields a good return in cash. Burmans and 
 ''even Chinamen go up to the Karen settlements 
 and make purchases. 
 
 The friendly divinity of the harvest, called Pee 
 Bee Yaw, is invoked annually when the crops are 
 sown. The story of Pee Bee Yaw, the Karen 
 Ceres, is an amusing and characteristic one : — • 
 
 There once lived a young pair of orphans, 
 brother and sister, whose parents had left them 
 only four annas in silver. In accordance with the 
 ancestral custom of the Karens, they had been 
 driven from the long house or barrack in which the 
 whole clan lives, lest the misfortune of orphanhood 
 should prove contagious. 
 
 They maintained a precarious existence by the 
 most laborious toil, living in a little hut at some 
 distance from the clan to which they belonged. 
 
 A famine arose in the land, and the clansmen were 
 obliged to go to a neighbouring country to replenish 
 their slender stock of grain. 
 
 When Po Khai's (the orphan boy) paddy was 
 exhausted, his sister brought out the cherished 
 piece of silver their parents had left them, and 
 asked him to go and purchase grain with their 
 fellow-clansmen. 
 
AGRICULTURE. gi 
 
 In a despairing mood, he said, "What is the use? 
 Four annas' worth of rice will prolong our miserable 
 lives but a few hours. As starvation is inevitable, 
 let us meet our fate at once." 
 
 His sister pleaded that, unhappy as their lives 
 were, they were still sweet to them. She showed him 
 that as they had entered the world with great pain, 
 trouble, and care to their parents, so they should 
 not leave it till every means to prolong existence 
 had been exhausted. To please his sister, Po Khai 
 went, following the clan at a distance, as he would 
 not be allowed to mix with their party. When the 
 party returned, they saw in the depths of the jungle 
 by the side of the road an old woman, her body 
 up to her neck completely covered with creepers, 
 which had wound themselves firmly around her 
 body. 
 
 As the party approached, the old woman 
 screamed, " Cut me loose, cut me loose." 
 
 The clansmen declined, as the old woman would 
 want to go home with them, and would eat them 
 out of house and home. 
 
 After the whole party had passed, Po Khai came 
 along. 
 
 The old woman redoubled her cries, as there was 
 but one left from whom she could hope for release. 
 
92 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 Po Khai thought to himself, " I must die, and even 
 if the old woman goes home with me it can make 
 but a few hours' difference." 
 
 So he cut away the creepers, and the old lady 
 skipped dancing out on the road, saying, " Hurry 
 up, grandson, for grandmother is perishing with 
 hunger." 
 
 The old woman really was Pee Bee Yaw, which 
 means " Grandmother with the bound waist.'' 
 
 When the sister saw her brother returning, she 
 thought, " My brother must be mad to invite guests 
 to dinner when four annas' worth of rice bought at 
 famine prices are all our store." 
 
 Her brother, seeing her frowns, hastily ran up 
 into the house and begged his sister not to refuse 
 the hospitality universally shown by the Karen. 
 He reminded her how their parents had never sent 
 any one hungry away, and begged his sister to 
 keep up the ancestral custom, even though they 
 were in the very jaws of death. 
 
 The old woman at once skipped into the kitchen, 
 and called the young girl to cook in haste, as she 
 was very hungry. 
 
 With a heavy heart the young girl was just 
 pouring all the rice her brother had brought home 
 into the pot, when the old woman checked her 
 
AGRICULTURE. 93 
 
 sharply. "What a wasteful child! Seven grains 
 of rice are quite enough." 
 
 " Grandmother," replied the girl, " I know how 
 to cook a pot of rice, but I don't know how to cook 
 seven grains of rice alone." 
 
 The old woman spoke up sharply. " Obey 
 orders when your elders command you, and ask no 
 questions." 
 
 Abashed at the sharp tone of the old woman, 
 the girl counted out seven kernels, and the old 
 woman approached the pot with mystic passes, and 
 the pot became full. 
 
 At seven grains to a meal, Po Khai saw that the 
 rice he had purchased was amply sufficient for his 
 wants, and knew that a good power had stepped 
 in to save him. 
 
 When the news of the daily miracle reached the 
 clan, they assembled and claimed Pee Bee Yaw as 
 their guest on the ground of prior discovery. 
 
 Pee Bee Yaw refused to go with them, remind- 
 ing them that they had forfeited their right as 
 the first finders by their refusal to cut her loose 
 from the creepers. Of course this refusal laid the 
 foundation of much hatred towards Po Khai and 
 his sister. 
 
 When it came time to cut the toungya (hill 
 
94 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 garden), Pee Bee Yaw told Po Khai to clear the 
 jungle from seven hills and prepare them for 
 planting. 
 
 " How can I clear seven hills ? " asked Po Khai. 
 
 " Ask no questions when your elders order you," 
 was the old lady's sharp reply. 
 
 Just as he was leaving the house. Pee Bee Yaw 
 gave him a dah, with orders to try it. 
 
 When he reached the chosen spot, Po Khai raised 
 his dah against a huge tree. It fell without even 
 waiting for the blow. " Well, that's the sharpest 
 dah I ever used," blurted out Po Khai, as he 
 watched the crash of the huge tree. 
 
 Of course the seven hills were all cleared off 
 before breakfast. 
 
 Po Khai wondered how this huge field was ever 
 to be planted and reaped and the grain thrashed, 
 but he dared ask no questions, as Pee Bee Yaw 
 always rebuked so harshly. He went on in blind 
 faith in the old woman's power. At the sowing 
 season, Pee Bee Yaw danced over the whole field, 
 and a perfect shower of paddy started from her 
 fingers and toes and from every fold of her clothing, 
 and so the field was well filled with grain. The 
 crop prospered splendidly, and soon the bending 
 ears, over a foot in length and filled to the very 
 
AGRICULTURE. 95 
 
 extremity with golden grain, gave promise of such 
 a bountiful harvest as had never been known 
 before. 
 
 Po Khai wondered how this grain could ever 
 be harvested, but still dared not ask. 
 
 The clansmen, wild with rage at the boundless 
 wealth which they had just missed, and which had 
 gone to Po Khai, now summoned all the clans 
 within a day's march to join them in stealing Po 
 Khai's paddy. Men, women, and even children 
 joined the raid. Some reaped, others carried the 
 bundles. Some threshed and winnowed, while 
 others carried home the paddy. After a most 
 laborious night's work of many hundreds, all of 
 Po Khai's grain was carried off. Fancy the looks 
 of Po Khai when he found nothing but trampled 
 stubble where he had left waving grain ! 
 
 Following the trail of the thieves, he picked up 
 seven sheaves dropped by the way. On reporting 
 to Pee Bee Yaw that these seven bundles were all 
 that was left of their crop, she coolly told him to 
 build seven huge paddy bins. Po Khai did so with 
 the unquestioning obedience which had become a 
 habit with him. When the bins were completed, 
 but not roofed, a sheaf was put in each, and Pee 
 Bee Yaw commenced dancing among the bins 
 
96 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 and singing a call to the grain, wherever it was, to 
 return to its proper owner. At once the paddy 
 came flying through the air and fell in a perfect 
 shower, till not a single grain was left with the 
 thieves. 
 
 A solemn council of all the clans was then held, 
 and their indignation knew no bounds. "We 
 thought to ruin Po Khai, and we have been 
 made nothing but his coolies, and even worse ; 
 nothing is left us even for our wages." So they 
 arranged to steal the paddy again, from the bins 
 this time. 
 
 Po Khai spent the day, by Pee Bee Yaw's 
 orders, in cutting a huge pile of clubs and making 
 a large number of cords. 
 
 When they went home in the evening, Pee Bee 
 Yaw said, " Ropes tie and sticks beat." When the 
 clansmen came to steal the paddy, the ropes bound 
 each to a tree and the clubs began to beat a rat- 
 tat-too on their unlucky backs. To entreat the 
 deaf cords and clubs was, of course, useless. Next 
 morning Po Khai found his tormentors in his 
 power, and half dead with the terrible beating they 
 had received. 
 
 They readily took the oath, considered by hill 
 men to be inviolable, never to molest him more. 
 
AGRICULTURE. ()^: 
 
 Pee Bee Yaw then said she must return to her 
 abode in the skies, to wash down her house there, 
 as the hens had surely filled it with dust. To 
 enable her to do so, she told Po Khai to raise the 
 two beams by which the native plough or harrow 
 is dragged., into a perpendicular position. She 
 then took the form of a cricket, crept up to the 
 yoke, and flew away. 
 
 (The custom of raising the yoke in air and, 
 placing a cricket on the perpendicular poles that 
 support it is still followed by the Karens. It is 
 considered a very good omen if the cricket crawls 
 upwards and takes flight from the top.) 
 
 During Pee Bee Yaw's absence, Po Khai married 
 a young and beautiful wife. His great wealth, 
 obtained from the sale of his crop, made him a 
 great match. Unfortunately, he did not tell his 
 bride the secret of Pee Bee Yaw's help in raising 
 so large a quantity of grain, but took the credit 
 to himself When Pee Bee Yaw returned with 
 the planting season, she took up her abode in 
 the toungya, so as to watch over the growing 
 grain. 
 
 Po Khai's wife was curious to discover the secret 
 of her husband's great success in paddy cultivation, 
 and so went out one day to the field. Po Khai 
 
 H 
 
98 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 was not there. When she saw Pee Bee Yaw she 
 was jealous, supposing her to be her husband's 
 paramour. 
 
 The young bride attacked her rival fiercely with 
 a club, and beat her over the whole field. Pee Bee 
 Yaw, vainly attempting to escape, jumped into a 
 crab's hole, and has never been seen since. 
 
 This amusing little story keeps the people in 
 good humour at their toil, and is recited with great 
 gusto at the harvest-home. 
 
 The Karens to this day use the sort of well-curb 
 of earth thrown out by a crab about the mouth of 
 its hole, as the representative of Pee Bee Yaw. 
 This lump of earth is placed on the threshing-floor 
 at harvest, and offerings are made to it. During 
 the rest of the year it is kept in the paddy-bin with 
 the greatest care, while fowls are sacrificed to it, 
 and a small portion is nibbled off and cast out into 
 the field, just before certain rhymed incantations 
 are made, which are supposed to be necessary to 
 the welfare of the grain. To this day the hill 
 Karen will never cultivate land near his house. 
 Pee Bee Yaw hates women, owing to the beating 
 she received, and no risk must be run of her meeting 
 a woman and deserting her post in anger. 
 
 The hill Karen always stores his paddy far away 
 
AGRICULTURE. 99 
 
 from his house, because it is Pee Bee Yaw's gift, 
 and he dares not let her know that he feeds his 
 women with it. Each day's supply of paddy must 
 be cleaned as soon as brought home. Pee Bee 
 Yaw is supposed not to recognize in the white rice 
 the yellow paddy she gave. 
 
lOO THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THEIR FOLK-LORE : ONE OF THEIR SATIRICAL 
 TRADITIONS. 
 
 Story of SA^v Kay. 
 
 At Mya-yah-doung (about ten miles east of the 
 present station of Wah-net-khyoung, on the Prome 
 road) there once Hved a great Karen chief called 
 the Yellow Chief He had a son named Saw Kay 
 (Mr. Crooked). He was a. cunning, idle, and lazy 
 fellow. The Burmese Government seized on the 
 entire clan, and sent them under guard to cut a 
 huge teak tree into a war-boat and drag it to the 
 river-bank. Saw Kay was the only male not seized. 
 He was spared to carry the rice the women were 
 forced to clean out for the food of the working 
 party. Saw Kay's mother had two large and very 
 fat hogs, which she had petted so long that she 
 could not bear to have them killed. Saw Kay's 
 mouth watered every time he looked at their fat 
 
FOLK-LORE. lOI 
 
 sides, and as his entreaties to be allowed to kill the 
 hogs were in vain, he laid a plan to induce his 
 mother to gratify his appetite for pork. 
 
 He went to his father, and with a profuse gush 
 of tears told him that his mother was dead, sobbed 
 out a pitiful tale of how his mother had been 
 seized by cholera, and had died alone, deserted by 
 all the women of the clan, and how he alone had 
 buried the body and performed the funeral rites. 
 Leaving his father under guard, plunged in the 
 depth of woe at this untimely bereavement, he 
 returned to his home, and told his mother that his 
 father, while at his work, had been killed by the 
 boat rolling over on to him. He described the 
 fearful appearance of the corpse, mangled by 
 the crushing weight that had mutilated it beyond 
 recognition, and, beating on his breast, exclaimed 
 against the brutality of the Burman guard, that 
 would not even permit the removal of the corpse 
 to the ancestral burial-place (a terrible thing to 
 Karens). 
 
 It must be remembered that Saw Kay was the 
 only means of communication between the working 
 party and their home, and that the lies of Saw 
 Kay ran no risk of detection. 
 
 The mother, bathed in tears, said, " Well, he was 
 
I02 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 a good husband to me, and the least I can do will be 
 to make the usual funeral feast to his memory, even 
 if his bones do not lie with those of his fathers." 
 
 So one of the hogs was killed, and Saw Kay 
 gorged himself to repletion. Soon after, he began 
 his plans for a second feast, and went to his father 
 with proposals for a re-marriage. He said, " Father, 
 we shall need some one to cook for us and weave 
 our clothes. Now, I lately saw a woman who 
 looked exactly like mother, talked like her, and 
 acted like her. In fact, if I had not buried mother 
 with my own hands, I should have claimed her as 
 my own mother. Now, you had better marry her. 
 Let me act as the go-between and negociate a 
 marriage." 
 
 The father replied, "If she is like your dead 
 mother, it is all I can ask," and consented to the 
 match. 
 
 Saw Kay then went to his mother, and told her 
 that as soon as the clan returned from their work 
 they would be driven fi'om the long house in which 
 the entire clan lived, in accordance with the 
 ancestral Karen custom, which banished widows 
 and orphans from the house, lest their misfortune 
 prove contagious. He urged her to a second 
 marriage, saying that he had met a man in the 
 
FOLK-LORE. IO3 
 
 forest so strikingly resembling his dead father, that 
 if he had not buried his father with his own hands 
 he should say it was his own father. 
 
 The mother said that if the proposed individual 
 was only half as good as her deceased husband it 
 was enough, and consented to the match. 
 
 In this way Saw Kay was the first one to 
 arrange a marriage between his own parents. 
 
 When the clan returned on the completion of 
 the boat, the second hog was killed for the marriage- 
 feast. 
 
 Saw Kay, of course, presided, trusting to the 
 impossibility of his parents having any private 
 conversation in the crowd of invited guests. Both, 
 of course, were much struck by the very peculiar 
 resemblance to the supposed dead partner, but 
 they had been prepared for this by Saw Kay's 
 previous description. In high feather, Saw Kay 
 performed the marriage ceremony over his parents, 
 and ushered them to the bridal-chamber. 
 
 Judging rightfully that " the ground would be 
 too hot for him to tread on " on the morrow. Saw 
 Kay shouldered a hind-quarter of the hog slain 
 for the feast, and marched to the tai (long moun- 
 tain house) of a neighbouring clan. 
 
 He took care to time his arrival so as to find 
 
I04 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 none of the men at home. When he entered the 
 tai, the women crowded around him, their mouths 
 watering at the sight of the very fat hind-quarter 
 of pork Saw Kay had brought with him. He 
 reported tha:t he had speared a wild hog too heavy 
 to be carried home, and that he was returning for 
 help to bring in the rest of the carcase. 
 
 " If you have a whole carcase, sell us this,'' spoke 
 up an old woman, and asked the price. 
 
 Saw Kay asked one hundred rupees for it. 
 (Karens then buried all their money for fear of the 
 Burmese Government.) The woman, never seeing 
 money, knew nothing of its value. 
 
 " Oh, if my husband was only at home, I'd 
 make him buy me this delicious pork ! " groaned the 
 old woman. 
 
 " Go and ask him," said Saw Kay ; " he is just 
 beyond those bushes across the ravine.'' 
 
 The old woman ran round the head of the 
 ravine, while Saw Kay whipped across unknown to 
 her. On reaching the bushes, she shouted, " Hus- 
 band, husband ! may I buy a quarter of very fat 
 pork for a hundred rupees ? " 
 
 Saw Kay, from the other side of the bushes, 
 called out, personating her husband, " Yes ; and 
 buy it quickly, lest you lose so good a bargain." 
 
FOLK-LORE. I05 
 
 The old woman ran round, while Saw Kay 
 rushed across the ravine, and was found sitting 
 quietly in his place as if he had never stirred. 
 The old woman dug up the money, and Saw Kay 
 hastily left with his ill-gotten gains, rightly Judging 
 that the place would be too hot for him when the 
 men returned from their work. 
 
 He then went down to the " Prince's Road," 
 knowing that seven great Burmese merchants, with 
 five hundred carts laden with up-country silk 
 patsoes were soon to pass the spot. He carved a 
 staff with peculiar figures on it, and buried his 
 hundred rupees a few inches under the ground in 
 little deposits of from two to five rupees each. 
 
 When his quick eye detected the merchants 
 riding in advance of their carts, he pretended to be 
 absorbed in his pursuits, and, flourishing his staff 
 with mystic passes, he would shout, " Hey for five 
 rupees ! " strike the earth, and dig up the money ; 
 " hey for two rupees ! " strike the earth, and dig up 
 the money. The merchants watched his pro- 
 ceedings, saying to themselves, " Fool, not to wish 
 for a lakh of rupees at once." On their approach 
 Saw Kay feigned great fright, and tried to escape. 
 The merchants held him fast, and tried to frighten 
 him into a bargain for the magic staff". He pleaded 
 
lOO THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 hard to be allowed to keep it, and said, " Perhaps 
 the stick may be destined by fate to me alone." 
 
 The merchants threatened, and offered money, 
 until at last he, with apparent reluctance, sold the 
 staff for a thousand rupees. The merchants dared 
 not try their staff till they reached Rangoon, lest 
 the possession of so great a treasure might cause 
 them to be murdered by their own camp-followers. 
 Of course, the magic staff failed them. They were 
 unable to search for Saw Kay till all their cargo 
 of silk patsoes was disposed of, which took all the 
 rains. 
 
 In the forest. Saw Kay met a widow, who had 
 been driven from her clan, and who had a 
 posthumous daughter. Being brought up alone 
 in the forest, the young girl had never seen a man. 
 The tale waxes eloquent in praises of the young 
 woman's beauty, and tells how the magic glance 
 of her melting eye brought a body-guard of the 
 most savage beasts around her ; how, whenever 
 she stepped out into the sunshine, the birds would 
 close their ranks, flying over her so as to form a 
 canopy over her to prevent her beautiful complexion 
 from being tanned by the sun ; how the carols of 
 the birds accompanied her steps while waking ; 
 and how the birds watched. in deathlike stillness 
 
FOLK-LORE. lO/ 
 
 over her siestas. It was a case of love at first 
 sight, and the happy couple entered the nuptial 
 state an:iid the wild enthusiasm of the beasts of the 
 forest enslaved by the marvellous beauty of the 
 lovely bride. The newly married couple spent the 
 rains in the seclusion of the forest. 
 
 With the opening of the dry weather, the mer- 
 chants came up in great wrath to hunt down the 
 dog of a Karen who had dared to cheat royal 
 Burman merchants. 
 
 With hundreds of their camp-followers they beat 
 every strip of jungle and scoured every plain, 
 till at last one morning Saw Kay's little hut 
 was surrounded by men eagerly thirsting for his 
 blood. 
 
 Hastily giving his wife and mother-in-law 
 directions what to do, he sprang out on the verandah 
 and seized a small bow hung there merely to 
 frighten the crows, and commenced a wild dance 
 with the most extravagant gestures to divert the 
 attention of the men closing up around him from 
 the attempt to escape of his wife and her mother. 
 The two women stole away unperceived, as no one 
 knew of Saw Kay's marriage, and they were only 
 on the look-out for the audacious Karen. 
 
 " Slave of a Karen ! " shouted the merchants, as 
 
I08 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 they seized on Saw Kay, " even your blood will 
 not fully avenge the insult you have inflicted on us." 
 
 Saw Kay reminded them of the extreme 
 reluctance with which he had parted with the 
 magic staff, and of the threats by which his consent 
 to the sale had been extorted, and told them the 
 staff was evidently assigned by fate to him, and 
 that they, unworthy on account of their avarice in 
 grasping so much at once, were unable to avail 
 themselves of it. He pleaded to ears deafened by 
 long-nursed rage. He then rose with dignity, and 
 said, " Since nothing but blood will appease your 
 anger, I refuse not to die. I only ask to be 
 allowed before my death to give you all a good 
 meal of fowl-curry that I may die in the odour of 
 sanctity, doing good even to my murderers." 
 
 " Dog of a Karen ! " yelled his foes, " do not 
 think to appease us by so trifling a gift." 
 
 " I hope not to soften your hard hearts ; I only 
 ask to depart this life in a forgiving spirit." 
 
 All the party were very hungry, and finally con- 
 sented. Surrounded by guards holding ropes 
 attached to his waist, and ordered to cut him dovvu 
 at the first attempt to escape. Saw Kay took the 
 little bow and started with the whole party for the 
 jungle, to shoot wild fowl for the curry he had 
 
FOLK-LORE. I09 
 
 promised. When wild fowl were met he refused to 
 shoot, saying there were not enough in the flock to 
 feed so many. He was really only making time 
 for his wife and her mother to follow out his 
 directions. 
 
 At last, a large flock of wild fowl was met with, 
 and he fired towards them ; but the weak bow 
 failed even to reach the fowls as they whirred 
 away. 
 
 Saw Kay shouted after them, " Go home and 
 cook yourselves, go home and cook yourselves," 
 and carefully concealed the bow while his captors 
 were watching the fowls. 
 
 The merchants expressed their disgust at being 
 thus fooled, and were on the point of killing him at 
 once, but Saw Kay begged them to return to the 
 hut and watch the result of his shot. 
 
 They did so, and found, to their surprise, a great 
 pot of rice and a steaming kettle of capital fowl- 
 curry that the two women had cooked in the 
 absence of the party by Saw Kay's orders. While 
 they enjoyed the feast, the merchants said, " The 
 scamp did certainly cheat us about the staff, but 
 this bow is worth having. It would be very handy 
 on our long journeys to have a bow which would 
 not only shoot but cook our game for us." They 
 
no THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 offered Saw Kay his life if he would only give up 
 the bow to them. 
 
 He refused, saying he was too lazy to work, and 
 as his money was lost with the magic staff, and 
 if now he lost his food with the magic bow, life was 
 worthless to him. 
 
 To cut a long story short, they offered more and 
 more, till finally they paid him a thousand rupees 
 for the magic bow. Saw Kay, on his release, pushed 
 with his wife and her mother still farther into the 
 depths of the forest. Of course, the magic bow 
 failed as the magic staff had done. 
 
 With redoubled rage, the Burmese merchants 
 started afresh in search of the daring Karen who 
 had twice outwitted them. After many days' 
 fruitless search, they again surrounded Saw Kay's 
 new hut. 
 
 The wife and mother attempted to escape again 
 as before, but failed. Saw Kay concealed his wife 
 in the house, and kept his mother-in-law with him 
 on the verandah. As soon as his enemies came 
 within hearing, Saw Kay said in a violent tone to 
 his mother-in-law, "You wretched old wife of mine, 
 how can any one live with a withered old crone 
 like you ? Become a virgin, or I will beat you with 
 this rice-pestle till you do so." 
 
FOLK-LORE. 1 1 1 
 
 He seized the old lady by the waist and threw 
 her down violently, and rolled her up in a mat, 
 whispering to her to crawl out of the end of the 
 mat and escape. The old woman this time suc- 
 ceeded, as the attention of every one was taken by 
 the peculiar talk and gestures of their prey. 
 
 Saw Kay struck the roll of matting several very 
 heavy blows with the rice-pestle, shouting, " Become 
 a virgin ; become a virgin ! " He threw the roll 
 of matting across his shoulder and ran into the 
 house. 
 
 His foes rushed into the house to seize him, but 
 at the mere sight of the young and lovely wife all 
 fell prostrate before her. They slowly rose, and 
 with dazzled eyes bound their victim and took him 
 to their masters, telling them they had with their 
 own eyes seen a wrinkled, toothless old woman 
 changed by the blows of the club into this lovely 
 vision of beauty. 
 
 The merchants held a long consultation over the 
 beauteous prize. They said, " We have been 
 terribly cheated twice, it is true, but we see here 
 that there can be no deception in this wonderful 
 club. Our wives we married while young, and we 
 love them too much to divorce them, yet we cannot 
 but confess they are not as handsome as they once 
 
112 THE LOYAL KARENS OK BURMA. 
 
 were. This club, renewing the youth and beauty 
 of our wives, will be our most valuable posses- 
 sion." 
 
 After a long mixture of threats and tempting 
 offers, the merchants bought the club for a thousand 
 rupees, and returned to their camp on the plains, 
 and the same evening all made widowers of them- 
 selves. 
 
 The magic club seemed as much a failure as the 
 magic staff and the magic bow had done. 
 
 The unfortunate wives, when taken out of the 
 rolls of matting, were stone dead, killed by the 
 blows they had received. 
 
 The merchants were, of course, wild with rage 
 at being deceived the third time. Distrusting their 
 own ability to cope with the wily Karen alone, they 
 laid a formal complaint before the governor of the 
 district stationed at Myountaga, and begged that 
 condign punishment might be meted out to the 
 slave of a Karen who had dared repeatedly to 
 cheat royal Burmese merchants. 
 
 A levy of every male between fourteen and 
 sixty years of age was at once ordered, and the 
 entire forest was carefully scoured. 
 
 Hearing of Saw Kay's wonderful cunning, the 
 governor ordered every one of the beaters' ears to 
 
FOLK-LORE. 1 13 
 
 be carefully stopped with wax. Saw Kay was. 
 captured. 
 
 What were his pleas, and how he tried to escape 
 his fate is unknown, as, owing to the governor's 
 precaution, no one could hear a word he said. 
 
 Saw Kay was sentenced to death, and every 
 Karen in the district was brought in to attend the 
 execution, that hereafter no " dog of a Karen " 
 should ever dare to take such liberties, with their 
 masters. 
 
 That each of the seven merchants might have 
 a share in his death. Saw Kay was put into a long 
 cylindrical basket with stones at each end to sink 
 it, and the basket was laid on the brink of a steep 
 bank which overhangs a deep pool in the river. At 
 the word of command each merchant was to give a 
 kick to the basket, and thus roll it into the river. 
 
 A grand breakfast was given by the merchants 
 to all the assembled crowds in honour of the final 
 victory over their cunning foe, which they now felt 
 was secure. During breakfast Saw Kay was left 
 alone in his basket, his guards deeming him securely 
 fastened. They feared lest in the scramble for 
 breakfast they might lose their share. 
 
 While everybody was away, an up-country boat- 
 man, with a cargo of silk patsoes and much jewellry, 
 
 L 
 
114 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 was attracted by the sight of the crowd, and, think- 
 ing it might be a capital chance to sell his wares, 
 he landed just where Saw Kay's basket lay. 
 
 " Hi ! you fellow in the basket," he asked, " what 
 are you doing there ? " 
 
 Saw Kay replied, " The king at Ava is dead, and 
 the astrologers have pronounced that I am the 
 only one who can succeed him. I refused the 
 crown, and as the astrologers have decided that in 
 my lifetime no one else can peaceably ascend the 
 throne, I am now to be drowned." 
 
 " Fool ! " replied the boatman ; " to avoid what 
 any one would risk his life for, you give up your 
 life." 
 
 Saw Kay piously talked of the many temptations 
 of a kingly life, and the many deaths a king must 
 cause, and said he had deliberately weighed tem- 
 poral against eternal riches, and had chosen death 
 rather than the throne. 
 
 "Ah!" said the boatman, "don't I wish I had 
 your chance." 
 
 " What will you give for it ? " said Saw Kay. 
 
 " My boat and its cargo," replied the boatman. 
 
 "Agreed," was Saw Kay's reply. "Hurry and 
 take my place before any one comes to notice our 
 proceedings." 
 
FOLK-LORE. IIS 
 
 The boatman set the Karen at liberty, took his 
 place, and was firmly tied in by Saw Kay, who 
 quietly took his seat in his new boat to watch the 
 execution. 
 
 When breakfast was over, the drums beat to 
 assemble the crowds, the bands began to play, and 
 the dancers to celebrate the victory of the royal 
 Burman over the despised Karen. As the mer- 
 chants advanced to roll their enemy into the river, 
 the poor boatman shouted from the basket with all 
 his might, " I will be king, I will be king." 
 
 " A great king you'll be," was the reply, as the 
 merchants rolled him into the pool. The rest of 
 the day was spent in feasting and dancing to cele- 
 brate the victory over the Karens. Next morning, 
 as the merchants were packing their carts for their 
 return, Saw Kay walked into camp with sublime 
 impudence, with jewellery all over his person, and 
 silk patsoes hanging over his arms and shoulders, 
 the spoils of the up-country boatman. 
 
 Every jaw fell, and stammeringly they asked 
 him how he came there. 
 
 " Didn't I say yesterday that I would be a king ? 
 Now I am one. It happened that the road to 
 heaven leads right into that pool, and you rolled 
 me exactly into the road that leads to the abodes 
 
Il6 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 of the blest. There I saw all your deceased relatives 
 and ancestors, who expressed great wonder that 
 none of you ever visited them. They have sent 
 you these gifts to show you the marvellous riches 
 of that glorious country. I could not bear to 
 return, but your friends begged me so hard to 
 return and show you the way that I could not 
 refuse." 
 
 " How can we go .'' " asked the merchants. 
 
 " Easily," replied Saw Kay. " Make me eight 
 baskets, and I will tie you into seven of them and 
 follow you in the eighth." 
 
 The baskets were made, Saw Kay rolled the 
 merchants into the pool, and returned with all their 
 wealth to Mya-yah-doung. 
 
( "7 ) 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 some of their fireside stories. 
 
 The Hare. 
 
 A TIGER and a hare once made a friendship by 
 drinking together the mingled blood of both (a 
 Karen custom to this day). The tigers then were 
 pure yellow without stripes. They went off to cut 
 thatch for their houses. 
 
 The tiger took his breakfast done up in a parcel. 
 The hare made up a bundle of cow-dung to resemble 
 the tiger's breakfast parcel. Both cut busily away 
 at the thatch till breakfast-time, when the hare 
 went to the tree under which their parcels had 
 been placed, and called the tiger to breakfast 
 
 The tiger said he could not come just then, for 
 he wanted to cut more tliatch before the sun 
 became too hot to work. 
 
 The hare replied, "Don't you know when you 
 are late to breakfast your food changes to cow- 
 dung?" 
 
U8 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 The tiger went on cutting thatch, and the hare 
 ate up all his breakfast. 
 
 When the sun became hot, the tiger came in 
 hungry, and found nothing but cowdung in what 
 he took for his own parcel. " Didn't I tell you 
 so ? " said the hare. 
 
 Soon the hare pretended to have a severe 
 attack of fever, and the tiger offered to carry him 
 home. 
 
 " How can I ever stick on your smooth glossy 
 back ? " said the hare. " You must tie some bundles 
 of thatch on your back to form a saddle for me.'' 
 
 The tiger firmly bound some bundles of dry 
 thatch on his back, and the hare crawled upon 
 them. On their way home the hare began striking 
 his flint and steel together. 
 
 " What noise is that .? " asked the tiger. 
 
 " Only my teeth chattering in the ague," replied 
 the hare. 
 
 Soon the hare blew the sparks into a blaze, and 
 jumped off, laughing at the fearful scorching borne 
 by the unfortunate tiger, who bears the marks of 
 his burns to-day in his stripes. 
 
 The tiger, of course, swore vengeance, and set 
 off in pursuit of the hare. 
 
 The hare, seeing him coming, climbed up into 
 
FIRESIDE STORIES. II9 
 
 a bee-tree, and crawled up to the bees so stealthily 
 as not to be noticed by them. 
 
 The tiger roared out, "Come down and I'll 
 swallow you alive, you faithless friend." 
 
 "There are white, black, grey, and speckled 
 hares ; I'm not the only hare," replied he. " Prove 
 that I am guilty before you eat me." 
 
 The tiger could not do so, and, accepting the 
 denial of the hare, asked him what he was doing 
 there. 
 
 " I am watching my grandfather's fan," was the 
 reply. 
 
 " What's your grandfather's fan good for .? " asked 
 the tiger. 
 
 "Oh, it cools you off without the trouble of 
 fanning yourself Can't you hear the rushing of 
 the wind from it ? " was the reply. 
 
 The tiger' mistook the murmur of the bees for 
 the breeze, and, smarting with his terrible burns, 
 thought that a self-acting punkah would be very 
 handy just then, and so asked to be allowed to 
 watch "his grandfather's fan" for the hare for a 
 few hours (bees build in a semicircular fan-like 
 shape under a bough in Burmah). 
 
 The hare consented, and told the tiger that a 
 gentle pat with his paw would incr ease the current 
 
•I20 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 •of air to any desired extent. The tiger crawled 
 up, and lay at full length on the limb ; but, feeling 
 no cooling breeze, struck the bees with his paw. 
 Of course, he was attacked by the whole swarm, 
 and nearly killed by their stings. With redoubled 
 rage the tiger started again in pursuit. 
 
 The hare awaited his arrival where two trees 
 crossed their trunks and creaked with every gust 
 of wind. 
 
 "Come here, you doubly faithless friend, and I'll 
 swallow you alive," roared the tiger. 
 
 As before, the hare pleaded an alibi, and 
 challenged the tiger to prove his identity with the 
 hare that had wronged him. The tiger, with no 
 proof at hand, accepted the hare's statement, and 
 asked him what he was doing there. 
 
 " Oh, I'm watching over my grandfather's harp," 
 was the reply. " Can't you hear its song ? " 
 
 " What's the good of your grandfather's harp ? " 
 asked the tiger. 
 
 " Oh, it lulls you to sleep in spite of all pain," 
 answered the wily hare. 
 
 The tiger, smarting with his burns and the stings 
 of the bees, longed to forget his pain in sleep, and 
 so asked to be allowed to take the hare's place for 
 a few hours. The hare consented, and told the 
 
FIRESIDE STORIES. 121 
 
 tiger he had only to put his paw between the trees 
 when the wind blew, and the most enchanting airs 
 of music would soon waft him to dreamland. Of 
 course, the tiger's paw was caught between the 
 trees and fearfully crushed. 
 
 Thrice cheated, the tiger again limped off in 
 pursuit. This time he found the hare had fallen 
 into a pit dug to catch game. When called on to 
 surrender himself for death, the hare denied his 
 identity as before, and said— 
 
 " How could I have cheated you so when I have 
 been watching my grandfather's game-pit all the 
 time ? Here I have more game than I can eat." 
 
 The tiger, smarting with burns and stings and 
 crippled in one paw, could no longer run down 
 game, and so asked permission to jump down into 
 the pit, and eat the game that fell in. 
 
 The hare agreed, and, as soon as the tiger was 
 safe in the pit, began tickling his burns with a 
 straw. 
 
 "Stop that, or I'll throw you out of the pit," 
 said the tiger. 
 
 The hare kept on tickling, and at last the tiger 
 threw him out of the pit altogether. The hare then 
 ran to some Shans, who had dug the pit, and told 
 them that so large a tiger had fallen into a pit that 
 
122 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 they would need even all their women to drag it 
 out of the pit. 
 
 " Who'll watch our children ? " said the Shans. 
 
 " I," replied the hare. 
 
 While the villagers were gone, the hare killed all 
 the children by sticking arrows into their eyes, and 
 ran up into the roof of one of the houses. When 
 the Shans returned, they were of course enraged at 
 the death of their children, and pursued the hare, 
 who hid in a shallow hole in the rocks. The Shans 
 tried the hole with a long rattan to see how deep 
 it was, but the wily hare coiled up the rattan as 
 fast as it was thrust in. Rattan after rattan was 
 joined on, till the Shans were discouraged at the 
 idea of trying to dig the hare out of so deep a hole 
 with their knives alone. They all went home for 
 digging-tools, leaving a blear-eyed man to watch. 
 
 While they were away, the hare came near the 
 mouth of the hole and asked the man why he did 
 not cure his sore eyes, and told him he had 
 medicines with him which would cure him instantly. 
 
 The watchman, by the hare's direction, put his 
 eye down to the mouth of the hole, when the hare 
 killed him instantly by thrusting an arrow into his 
 eye. He then cooked part of the blear-eyed man's 
 flesh, and hid behind a rock. The Shans returned, 
 
FIRESIDE STORIES. 1 23 
 
 and, seeing flesh roasting over the fire, thought 
 their watchman had killed the hare, and left their 
 share of the flesh for them. 
 
 After they had feasted heartily, the hare shouted, 
 " Look behind that tree," and then bolted. 
 
 Behind the tree they found the mangled remains 
 of their comrade. 
 
 The hare from his great wisdom soon became 
 the umpire to whose decision all the disputes of 
 the forest were referred. Among many famous 
 decisions of his is that of the case of the tiger and 
 the boar. 
 
 The Tiger and the Boar. 
 
 A tiger and a wild boar were brought up as foster- 
 brethren, and pledged themselves to an eternal 
 friendship. The boar became very fat as he 
 reached maturity, and the tiger's mouth watered 
 every time he looked at his friend's fat sides, and 
 he began to seek an excuse for eating him. 
 
 One morning the tiger went, with much feigned 
 sadness, to the boar, and told him he had been 
 disturbed by bad dreams, and told his friend, " I 
 dreamed that I ate you, and your fat sides tasted 
 deliciously.'' 
 
 " Well, what of that ? " said the boar. 
 
 " The trouble is," replied the tiger, " we tigers 
 
124 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 have an ancestral custom which compels us to 
 make true any dream we have, and so, however 
 reluctant to break our friendship, I must eat you." 
 
 The boar refused to be bound by any tiger's 
 custom, and after great dispute they agreed to refer 
 the matter to the nearest king, and set out for his 
 court When they reached the palace, the tiger 
 told the boar to go right in, and he would follow 
 soon. The boar took his seat in the audience 
 chamber, but the tiger secured a private meeting 
 with the king, and offered him a bribe of a hind 
 quarter of the boar to decide in his favour. 
 
 Crowds assembled to see the strange spectacle 
 of a lawsuit between two wild animals. The sight 
 of the boar's fat sides made the mouths of the king 
 and queen and nobles water till the floor was 
 bedewed with saliva. The bribe, so tempting, of 
 course, caused the case to be prejudged. The tiger 
 pleaded the sanctity of ancestral customs, and with 
 plentiful tears bewailed his sad fate in being com- 
 pelled to eat so valued a friend. 
 
 The boar pleaded the inviolability of the ties 
 which bound them together. The boar pleaded in 
 vain, for his fatness showed so temptingly the bribe 
 the tiger had offered that the case went against 
 him. When the decision was made, the boar 
 
FIRESIDE STORIES. 125 
 
 demanded seven days in which to dispose of his 
 property and make provision for his family, and 
 was released, after taking a solemn oath to return 
 for death on that day week. While sadly visiting 
 his old haunts, the boar met the hare, and was 
 asked why he looked so sorrowful. The boar 
 replied by telling of the sad fate that awaited him. 
 
 " When } In such an insignificant case as this 
 hire me as your lawyer," said the hare. 
 
 The boar, of course, retained the hare as his 
 legal adviser, and on the appointed day the two 
 went to court together. 
 
 The boar claimed the right to bring farther pleas 
 in his case, as he was now represented by proper 
 legal counsel. The hare panted and pretended to 
 be completely out of breath, and said he must have 
 a nap to rest him before he could do full justice in 
 so important a case. A mat was spread for him, 
 and the hare pretended to drop asleep, while the 
 king and queen and nobility looked with watering 
 mouths at the fat sides of the boar. 
 
 At last the hare sprang up, and, clasping his 
 hands in ecstasy, he exclaimed, "What a glorious 
 dream I have had ! I dreamed that I eloped with 
 the qiieen, and how I did enjoy her embraces. We 
 hares have an. ancestral custom that we must make 
 
126 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 good every dream we have, so I must elope with 
 the queen." 
 
 With that he seized the queen's hand, and began 
 dragging her away. 
 
 The king saw he must reverse his previous 
 decision in the case of tiger and boar, or have his 
 favourite queen ravished before his eyes, so he 
 hastily decided against the sanctity of ancestral 
 customs, and freed the boar. 
 
 The Tiger and the Man. 
 
 A poor toungya cultivator left his breakfast 
 every morning in his hut in the toungya, and a 
 tiger came and stole it every day. The man in his 
 anger set a trap of huge logs so arranged as to fall 
 on any animal which touched the bait. The tiger 
 was caught and badly crushed by the logs, but 
 was still alive. When the man came in on hearing 
 the roars, the tiger pleaded hard for his life. He 
 admitted the daily theft, but urged that theft was 
 not a capital crime, and that he had been so 
 severely punished already by the fall of the trap 
 that he ought in justice to be released from the 
 trap. 
 
 The man refused, saying he feared the tiger 
 would eat him if released. The tiger swore most 
 
FIRESIDE STORIES. 12/ 
 
 solemnly never to attempt revenge, and was re- 
 leased. 
 
 As soon as he was out of the trap he seized 
 the man, and was about to devour him. The man 
 pleaded the sanctity of the oath just taken. The 
 tiger told him necessity knew no law, and that, 
 crippled as he was, he could no longer catch game 
 for his daily food, but must eat the man or starve. 
 
 The hare happened to be passing, and the case 
 was referred to him for decision. 
 
 The hare, with a wise look, said, " I can't under- 
 stand this matter clearly. Now, you both act out 
 just what each did." 
 
 The man told where he hid his breakfast every 
 day, and showed how he set the trap. The hare 
 said he could not understand the trap, and made 
 the man set it to show how it was done. The tiger 
 was then ordered to show what he did, and accord- 
 ingly entered the trap, but walked round gingerly, 
 carefully avoiding the spring of the trap. 
 
 " I don't see that anything happened to you 
 that you can justly complain of," said the hare. 
 " How could you have received these terrible 
 bruises .? " 
 
 The tiger edged nearer and nearer, till at last he 
 touched the spring, and the trap fell again. 
 
128 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 " Out dah * and attack him," said the hare, " and 
 never again restore an advantage to an enemy too 
 strong for you." 
 
 The Tiger and the Elephant. 
 
 A tiger and an elephant once made a bet as to 
 which was the largest. The winner was to eat the 
 loser. They agreed to leave the decision to the 
 men of a neighbouring village. Both were to go 
 near the village and roar by turns, and listen to 
 what the villagers said. The elephant roared first. 
 It is well known that the elephant never roars 
 except when in pain, so the villagers said, " What 
 ails that little elephant ? What can be attacking 
 him ? " The tiger then roared, and the villagers 
 said at once, " There ! it's a tiger that is attacking 
 the little elephant. He must be a monster to prey 
 on elephants." 
 
 " There ! do you hear that ?" said the tiger. " You 
 are pronounced a little elephant, while I am called 
 a monster. Now I'll eat you.'' 
 
 The elephant begged for a week's delay, to enable 
 him again to visit his birthplace and his ancient 
 feeding-grounds, and to bid good-bye to his family. 
 The respite was granted, and the elephant swore to 
 be on hand at the appointed day. 
 
 * A long-handled knife or cleaver. 
 
FIRESIDE STORIES. 129 
 
 The elephant, on revisiting the pool from which 
 he was accustomed to drink, wept so profusely over 
 his sad fate that his tears made the stream salt. 
 The hare lived farther down the stream, and when 
 he found his drinking-water brackish he started up 
 stream to see what had defiled the water. 
 
 When he found the elephant, he asked why he 
 looked so thin in flesh, and why he wept so pro- 
 fusely. The elephant told the story of the lost bet, 
 and the hare laughingly replied, "If that is all, hire 
 me as your lawyer, and I'll soon set you free." 
 
 The hare's legal services were retained, and both 
 proceeded together on the appointed day to the 
 place of rendezvous. They went a little early. 
 
 The hare told the elephant to feign deatli, and 
 when he bit him on the ear to raise his head, and 
 when he pulled him by the end of the trunk to 
 move in the direction in which he was pulled. 
 
 As soon as the tiger came near, he saw the hare 
 skipping over the huge, apparently dead carcase, 
 every now and then nibbling the ear of the ekphant, 
 when the huge head of the elephant would rise as 
 if the hare had lifted it. Every now and then the 
 hare would pull at the trunk, and the whole body 
 of the elephant would roll over as if by the efforts 
 of the hare. The tiger thought the hare had killed 
 
 K 
 
I30 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 his elephant, and said to himself, " That's a wonder- 
 fully strong little fellow, to kill my elephant and 
 drag the body about so easily. I don't believe even 
 I am a match for him. I'll try and get my elephant 
 peaceably, but I shall not dare risk a fight with a 
 beast that can kill and drag about a whole elephant 
 like that." On going nearer, the tiger said, " Hallo ! 
 what are you doing with my elephant .' " 
 
 The hare replied in a grumbling tone, as if his 
 mouth was full of food, " One elephant is not 
 enough for my breakfast ; have you come to eke 
 out my meal with your flesh ? " 
 
 The tiger, in great fright, said, " I came to eat, 
 and not to be eaten," and rushed in terror to the 
 dense jungle, roaring with rage at losing his food. 
 
 In the jungle he met a monkey, to whom he 
 recounted the story of his lost elephant. 
 
 The monkey said he would plead the case if his 
 legal services were engaged, and recover the lost 
 elephant. 
 
 The monkey said he could not walk to the place, 
 but the tiger must carry him on his back. (He 
 really only wanted the honour of riding a tiger.) 
 The monkey tried again and again, but the tiger's 
 skin was so smooth and glossy, he fell off at the 
 first forward step. At last, the monkey cut creepers 
 
FIRESIDE STORIES. 131 
 
 and lashed himself firmly to the tiger, and thus 
 rode to where the hare and the elephant had last 
 been seen. 
 
 The hare, seeing the monkey riding the tiger, 
 guessed what had taken place, and so called out, as 
 soon as they were within hearing, "Hallo! monkey, 
 your father borrowed seven tigers of me, and do 
 you think to pay the debt with one ? " 
 
 Hearing this, the tiger said to himself, " I hired 
 this fellow to plead my case, and it seems he has 
 come to pay his debts with my carcase," and in his 
 fright rushed off through the dense jungle. 
 
 The poor monkey was dragged till half dead by 
 the creepers around his waist, and to this day has 
 a very small waist. 
 
 The Hare and the Alligator.' 
 Some crows conceived a spite against an alli- 
 gator, and contrived a plan to kill him and feast 
 on his flesh. They went to the alligator and told 
 him they had found a mountain pool which was 
 perfectly alive with fish, and that they would guide 
 him to it if he would only throw them out an 
 occasional fish. The crows guided the alligator far 
 away from any water, till the poor fellow was nearly 
 worn out with the journey, so long for the alligator's 
 
132 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 short legs. When the aUigator was tired and 
 refused to go further, the crows would tell him the 
 wind murmuring among the pines was the dashing 
 of the waves on the sides of the pool, now near at 
 hand, and so coaxed the alligator farther and 
 farther away from water in hopes he would die 
 from fatigue and thirst. 
 
 At last, when all worn out and nearly dead, the 
 alligator met a cartman, who told him that there 
 was no pool in the neighbourhood. The alligator 
 pleaded hard with the cartman to carry him home, 
 as he was too much exhausted ever to get home 
 alone. 
 
 The cartman pitied him, and lashed him firmly 
 on the cart like a log, and took him home. The 
 jolting and tipping of the cart made the ropes cut 
 into the alligator and really seriously hurt him. 
 
 When they reached the pool, the alligator 
 begged the cartman to drive the oxen part way 
 into the pool, so that he could get off the cart into 
 water deep enough to float him, as he was too 
 much exhausted to walk even a step on dry land. 
 The cartman drove into the pool as far as he dared, 
 and the instant the alligator was released, he seized 
 one of the oxen and was about to devour him. 
 The cartman pleaded for his ox, and protested 
 
FIRESIDE STORIES. 1 33 
 
 against the shocking ingratitude of thus rewarding 
 one who had just saved his Hfe. 
 
 The alligator said he was so badly injured by 
 the cutting of the cords which bound him to the 
 cart that he could no longer catch his accustomed 
 meals of fish, and must either eat the ox or starve. 
 
 While they were debating, the hare came along, 
 and the case was referred to him for decision. 
 The hare examined the cuts made by the ropes, 
 and said, " You really have been seriously wronged 
 by some one, but you have not yet shown that the 
 cartman was the one who injured you. Now, I 
 don't clearly see how this all happened. To enable 
 me to understand the matter, let each show just 
 how he acted." 
 
 The alligator climbed on the cart, and the cart- 
 man tied him down, the alligator all the time 
 crying out, " Tighter yet, tighter yet ; you bound 
 me tighter than that," being anxious to show as 
 strong a case of cruelty as possible. 
 
 When the cartman could strain the cords no 
 tighter, the hare said, " Now take your club and 
 pay him off." 
 
 The cartman beat the alligator till he was almost 
 dead, and till the alligator in his pain burst the 
 cords and escaped more dead than alive. The 
 
134 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 alligator of course vowed vengeance against the 
 wily hare, and laid in wait for him to catch him 
 when he came down to the river to drink. The 
 hare evaded his foe for a long time, but at last was 
 caught. 
 
 " Um-m-m-m," chuckled the alligator, as he held 
 the hare fast in his horny lips. 
 
 " That's a woman's cry," said the hare ; " a man 
 would call out, ' Ha-a-a,' when he had gained a 
 victory." 
 
 The alligator, anxious to vindicate his sex, 
 shouted, " Ha-a-a," and of course opened his lips 
 with the open syllable. The hare jumped out, and 
 pulled out the alligator's tongue as he fled, so that 
 to this day alligators have no tongues. 
 
 The Hare and the Snail. 
 The hare was so much puffed up with pride at 
 his many victories over the beasts of the forest, that 
 he began to tyrannize over the weaker ones. He 
 specially abused the snails, tormenting them so that 
 they could no longer earn enough by their work to 
 pay their taxes to the snail king. They laid a 
 formal complaint before their king, and asked either 
 for deliverance from the hare or a remission of 
 taxes. 
 
FIRESIDE STORIES. 1 35 
 
 When the snail king heard this he flew in a rage, 
 and went at once to the hare and asked him why- 
 he thus injured his subjects. 
 
 " What are you good for that you should chal- 
 lenge my right ? " said the hare. 
 
 " I'm good at running races," said the snail ; and 
 challenged the hare to a trial of speed. 
 
 Choking with laughter, the hare agreed. The 
 snail stipulated that, as he was an aquatic animal, 
 he should run in the creek to the goal, which was 
 to be fixed at the mouth of the creek. This pro- 
 voked a fresh burst of mirth from the hare, who 
 thought that, as the advantage of a straight course 
 on shore was his, he was doubly sure of victory. 
 
 The match was arranged for the next morning. 
 The goal and starting-points were fixed, and the 
 snail went home and stationed one of his subjects 
 at each bend of the river, while one was hid at the 
 goal. The snail king went to the starting-place. 
 The word " go " was given, and the snail king 
 jumped into the river, and the hare trotted off 
 gently, sure of victory. At the first bend of the 
 river he shouted, " Hallo, snail 1 " Far ahead the 
 reply came back, " Here ! " 
 
 " Well, that fellow runs well," thought the hare, 
 and began to strain every nerve and make his best 
 
136 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 time, but at each curve a snail ahead shouted, 
 " Here ! " and when he came to the goal, a snail 
 was quietly nibbling at the flowers placed there to 
 mark it. 
 
 All snails look so much alike that the hare never 
 suspected that the snail that he saw at the goal 
 was not the same that started in the race. The 
 hare was never beaten till he began to oppress the 
 poor. (His cheating of the powerful is not deemed 
 disgraceful by the Karens.) 
 
 The Hare and the King. 
 
 A certain king once was so proud that he 
 became almost unendurable to his subjects. The 
 hare went to rebuke him. 
 
 He came into the court and called out, " Hey, 
 you fellow, who are you, anyway .■" " 
 
 The answer was, " I am the king." 
 
 The hare replied, " Well, I'm only a jungle beast, 
 and don't know what ' king ' means." 
 
 " A king is one who has nothing above him," 
 was the reply. 
 
 " Well, I declare ! Is there nothing above you ? " 
 questioned the hare, with a look of astonishment. 
 
 " Nothing,'' answered the king. 
 
 " Well, I never saw a man with nothing above 
 
FIRESIDE STORIES. 137 
 
 him before, and I want to take a good look at 
 you." 
 
 " Look your fill," the king replied. 
 
 The hare stared at the king for hours, till an 
 urgent call of nature led the king to attempt to 
 leave the court quietly, without attracting notice. 
 The hare called out, " Hey, you king, where are 
 you going to ? " 
 
 The king, abashed, sat down again, and went on 
 with business. 
 
 This was repeated several times, till the king 
 could hold out no longer, and blurted out, " If you 
 must know, I'm going." 
 
 '• Ah ! you're no king," shouted the hare ; " your 
 own bowels are your master. They demand food, 
 and you are powerless to resist ; they send you 
 on private errands, which you are compelled to do." 
 The hare then went on to show him death, sickness, 
 and old age were all above him, and that he must 
 obey them, and that by his own definition only God 
 was king. 
 
 The Hare and the Buffaloes. 
 A black and a white buffalo grazed peacefully 
 together in a large plain. 
 
 The hare went to the black one, and told him 
 
138 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 that the white one had said, " That black bufifalo 
 eats so much I shall be starved." 
 
 He then went to the white one, and reported 
 that the black buffalo had said, " That white buffalo 
 eats so much I shall be starved." 
 
 In this way he soon raised a fight, and while the 
 buffaloes were goring each other, the hare kept 
 skipping from the head of one combatant to the 
 other, and urging them on to fight with greater 
 fury. 
 
 By a misstep he fell between the two just as 
 their heads met, and was crushed to death. Even 
 wisdom and cunning like that of the hare will not 
 save a mischief-maker. 
 
 The hares multiplied rapidly till they filled all 
 Pegu. Such was the dread inspired by the mar- 
 vellous cunning of the progenitor of all the hares, 
 that no animals or men dared to venture to live in 
 Pegu. 
 
 When Taw-mai-pah's * descendants began to find 
 the Toungoo hill tracts too strait for them, a wise 
 man arose among them who proposed to colonize 
 Pegu. 
 
 " Who dares to go there ? " was the reply of all. 
 " Tigers, elephants, alligators, and men have all 
 
 * The mythical ancestor of all the Karen clans. 
 
FIRESIDE STORIES. 1 39 
 
 been beaten by this cunning hare, and what chance 
 have we ? " 
 
 The wise man undertook the task of conquering 
 the hares. He went to Pegu on a pretended visit, 
 and, talking to the hares, said, " It's strange you 
 should all hang together so well. Your progenitor, 
 single-handed, conquered all beasts by his cunning ; 
 are you less wise than he that you unite yourselves 
 so closely? Why don't you live a hare to each 
 bunch of kaing grass, and each trust to his indi- 
 vidual cunning? " 
 
 This roused the pride of the hares, and they 
 followed his counsel. When the hares were 
 separated, men and beasts attacked them, and lived 
 for years on their flesh, till not a hare is left in 
 Pegu to-day, even for a curiosity. Disunion means 
 defeat. 
 
140 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 SOME OF THEIR NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 The oppression of ages has made the Karen 
 reticent and very suspicious up to the point where 
 he yields his confidence. If he thinks he can trust 
 you, he passes at once from the extreme of sus- 
 picion to excessive confidence, and yields himself 
 unconditionally. He knows no half-measure in 
 this. A party of Karens once came to Dr. Vinton 
 in Rangoon from the Cambodia. They had been 
 shown his signature by a travelling teacher. When 
 they came into the doctor's house, they cautiously 
 talked round the bush for a time, and no one could 
 make anything of them. At last, professing a 
 desire to see English writing, they asked Dr. Vin- 
 ton to sign his name, and took it off to the end 
 of the verandah, where they carefully compared it 
 with what seemed to be a piece of dirty crumpled 
 paper. Each line was studiously examined, till 
 they were convinced that the two were identical. 
 
NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 14! 
 
 They then flung down their swords and daggers, 
 rushed to the doctor, and wrung his hands and 
 arms with a true Karen welcome. The Uttle bit of 
 crumpled paper with Dr. Vinton's signature had 
 been jealously guarded by them all the long way 
 from the Cambodia. When they found the man 
 whose name it bore, their suspicions were com- 
 pletely disarmed, and they in an instant felt as 
 much at home with him as if they had known him 
 for years. 
 
 The regular hill Karen will obey but one man, 
 whom he regards as his head. A European Police- 
 Superintendent once told me that one of his Karen 
 guard had refused to obey some trifling order 
 given him by the Inspector-General of Police. The 
 Superintendent said to the Karen, pointing to the 
 Inspector-General, " That's my master." " Obey 
 him, then," answered the Karen, " as I obey you, 
 who are my master." The Karen-nees (Red Karen) 
 will take no transmitted orders. They have been 
 known insolently to refuse to obey their employer's 
 wife (and it must be remembered the wife is by far 
 the better half in Burma), although perfectly sub- 
 missive to the employer himself A case came to 
 my notice of a Karen-nee, who, while working in a 
 fruit-garden, knocked down one of his master's 
 
142 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 cousins who came to take some fruit. The master 
 had at last to go to the garden himself. Of course, 
 this unmanageable sort of fidelity becomes toned 
 down with education ; but it shows how the Karen 
 looks to his head, and him only, for direction and 
 advice. 
 
 Cut adrift from his clan, the Karen is a dangerous 
 fellow. Some wild spirits there are among them 
 who have separated themselves from their own 
 people and taken to a roving, lawless life. The 
 Karen dacoit is far more dangerous than the 
 Burman dacoit, from his perfect knowledge of 
 woodcraft, which enables him to live for months 
 in the jungle without any supplies, and to shift the 
 scene of his crimes as the fancy suits him. Luckily 
 Karen dacoits are very rare. Glance at a party of 
 Karen villagers starting off in pursuit of a gang 
 of raiders. Each man has a long sausage of rice 
 from six to eight feet in length, and some four inches 
 in diameter, round his shoulder, crossed at the left 
 side, and the ends tied together at the waist. His 
 musket is slung to his back, with some salt, red 
 pepper, and dried fish. As he stands before you 
 without any other baggage, he is equipped and 
 ready for a month in the jungle without going near 
 a house or a village. He cooks his food in green 
 
NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS. I43 
 
 bamboos, and will be off scouting for a month with- 
 out giving his enemy a sign of his presence till he 
 closes with him. He shows all the skill of the 
 American Indian in tracking and concealing his 
 own trail. 
 
 Among his clansmen and with his chief he is 
 frank and cheerful. With strangers he is timid, 
 suspicious, and retiring. When he descended from 
 the hills to the plains, he, to use his own words, 
 "lived between the legs of other men." One of 
 their old sayings is, " If any one asks you if you 
 have seen his buffalo, don't inquire the shape of 
 his horns ; just say, ' I haven't seen him,' for that 
 ends the matter at once." This reticence often 
 makes the Karen appear stupid, awkward, and 
 obstinate, which he really is not. He will take 
 refuge in " I don't know " and a blank stare simply 
 to avoid further questioning. 
 
 A Burman is keen to show off his knowledge — 
 sometimes more than his knowledge ; a Karen will 
 rather conceal what he knows, frequently to his 
 own hurt. They have a little story which illus- 
 trates this. Once upon a time there was a King 
 of Ava wedded to a Karen maiden. The young 
 queen's relatives accompanied her to the capital. 
 The king's followers were raised to places of 
 
144 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 honour, but the queen's relatives were left out in 
 the cold. The queen was annoyed at this, and 
 one night lectured her royal spouse on this neglect 
 of her people. The king said, " Your relatives 
 are not fit for posts of honour." The queen, how- 
 ever, pleaded hard for them, and at last the king 
 consented to give them a trial. Accordingly, a 
 Karen was appointed joint-gardener with a Bur- 
 man. A few days afterwards the king, while 
 walking in the royal gardens, sent for the Karen 
 and, in the presence of his courtiers, asked him 
 about the condition of the fruit. The Karen bluntly 
 answered, " They are no bigger than my fingers 
 and toes." 
 
 The king then called the Burman and asked the 
 same question. The Burman replied, " The fruit, 
 alas ! is not yet fit for your Majesty's table." 
 The queen was then called, and the king said to 
 her, " Just imagine your wishing me to appoint 
 your friends to offices of state. Why, they do not 
 know even how to speak properly.'' 
 
 Strange to say, notwithstanding the Karen's 
 suspicious nature, his hospitality is unbounded. 
 He will entertain every stranger that comes, with- 
 out asking a question. He feels himself disgraced 
 if he does not receive all comers, and give them 
 
NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 145 
 
 the very best cheer he has. The wildest Karen 
 will receive a guest with a grace and dignity and 
 entertain him with a lavish hospitality that would 
 become a duke. Hundreds of their old legends 
 inculcate the duty of receiving strangers without 
 regard to pecuniary circumstances either of host 
 or guest. One of the missionaries once wished to 
 pay a visit to an old Karen chief whom he had 
 known for many years. As he was about to start, 
 a score of his schoolboys begged hard to be allowed 
 to accompany him and see the hoary chieftain. It 
 was a serious matter for the missionary to take with 
 him a set of hungry schoolboys, to eat the village 
 out of house and home ; so they took provisions 
 with them. When the boats reached the village, the 
 old chief eyed suspiciously the hampers of rice and 
 vegetables, and was very indignant when he was 
 told they were the provisions of the party. In 
 vain the missionary pleaded that he knew how bad 
 the last year's paddy crop had been, and how ill 
 the villagers could afford to feed his party. The 
 old man was inexorable ; he had been disgraced 
 before his clan and in his own eyes. So the stores 
 of rice and vegetables were given up and left under 
 a guard till the party were about to leave, when a 
 double quantity of fresh food was forced on them as 
 
 L 
 
I4<5 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 a punishment for the offence which had been un- 
 wittingly committed. 
 
 The Karen accepts hospitality as freely and in 
 the same spirit as he gives it. He regards it as his 
 inviolable right to entertain all strangers and to be 
 entertained by them in turn ; and he is indignant 
 enough with the Burman whom he has often feasted 
 when, as occasionally happens, a like generous 
 treatment is refused to him. Sometimes this un- 
 reasoning hospitality brings him into trouble. I 
 have known of a Karen feeding a lot of Burmans 
 of whom he knew nothing, and who had come on 
 a cattle-lifting expedition. The Burmans were 
 seized, and gave up their unlucky host's name. 
 The Karen was sent to jail with the Burmans, 
 although entirely innocent of any knowledge of the 
 crime committed by his guests. He had never 
 questioned them ; they came to his house, and he 
 took them in. When the poor fellow came out 
 of jail, he was not one whit deterred from his 
 customary hospitality. " Why," said he, " should I 
 do wrong and give up my ancestral custom because 
 the Government did me wrong ? " 
 
 A Burman will quarrel and fly into a passion, 
 and when he has cooled off he will be as good a 
 friend as ever again. The Karen will not show his 
 
NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS. I47 
 
 passion, but will hold fire for, perhaps, years. A 
 cursory acquaintance leads one to fancy that the 
 Karens are far more peaceable than the Burmans. 
 It is not so, however. Certainly, they do not 
 quarrel so openly or so often, but their hatreds are 
 far more serious and irreconcilable, although you 
 see less of them. In trying to reconcile two Karens 
 who have been enemies perhaps for years, it is 
 often very difficult to get them even to state their 
 grounds of complaint. In many cases a mere 
 statement of the facts and a brief explanation are 
 sufficient to put an end to the quarrel. The parties 
 are found to be utterly ignorant of each other's 
 grievance : each had sulkily brooded over his 
 fancied wrongs and merely avoided the other. 
 
 A Burman, when angry with you, shows at once 
 by his noisy clamouring what the matter is. He 
 cools down very soon after he has had his say. A 
 Karen who is angry with you .severely lets you 
 alone, and you have serious difficulty often in find- 
 ing out what is wrong. If he is aggrieved by any 
 act of a Government officer, he says nothing openly, 
 but quietly passes on the word that the officer in 
 question is " no friend to Karens." The wrong 
 done, or believed to be done, is never forgotten, 
 and the officer concerned will never be able to get 
 
148 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 any active help from the clansmen. Their singular 
 clannishness leads them to adopt the prejudices of 
 any of their number who has, or fancies he has, a 
 grievance. Rightly or wrongly, they believe that 
 the British Government, although desirous to be 
 just to all, does not care for them. They have a 
 rooted conviction that they are looked down upon ; 
 that their English rulers are fond of the Burmans, 
 but despise the Karens. I fear there is a good 
 deal of ground for this conviction. The Govern- 
 ment has hitherto looked with indifference on the 
 Karens ; has never made any serious effort to con- 
 ciliate them or win their confidence. Everything 
 has been done for the Burmans ; nothing, or nearly 
 nothing, for the Karens. They see this and take 
 note of it. They respect us and are loyal because 
 they know that life, property, and the honour of 
 their women are safe only under our rule. But 
 we have failed to secure the allegiance of their 
 hearts. The Government has neglected them, and 
 they feel the neglect keenly. We have failed to 
 obtain the real headship over them, because we 
 have never touched their hearts. The fealty to 
 chiefs of their own blood they would have trans- 
 ferred to the English ruler, if he had only courted 
 it, striven to understand them, and sympathized 
 
NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 149 
 
 with their aspirations. The consequence of our 
 neglect of them is that they have none to look to 
 but their missionaries. Christian and heathen alike 
 look to them as their protectors ; and fortunate for 
 us it is that the missionaries have always been the 
 noble, unselfish, high-minded, loyal men they are. 
 
 The ordinary Burman is cringing to his superiors 
 and overbearing to his inferiors. The Karen loathes 
 this. His chief — whoever he be — is primus, but 
 inter pares, and it is a bitter thing for him to 
 have to ape Burmese servility in the local courts 
 presided over by Burmese judges. If you allow a 
 Burman to dispense with the shiko, or obeisance, 
 \yhich by ancient custom he is bound to make to 
 his superiors, he despises you. Treat a Karen 
 firmly and kindly, and he behaves like a real 
 gentleman. He is easiest led when you treat him 
 with familiarity, as one under your protection, and 
 claim his respect from your own character and 
 ability to lead him. Important failures of justice 
 have been known to occur in our own courts, owing 
 to the Karen's distrust of us and his rooted aversion 
 to Burmese ways and Burmese authority. He 
 speaks the Burmese language very imperfectly — 
 far more imperfectly than he understands it. He 
 is secretly enraged at having to do obeisance {shiko) 
 
ISO THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 and say " My lord " to a Burman officer and to the 
 Burman subordinate officials and underlings who 
 throng the public offices, and too often form a 
 hedge around our courts impenetrable to a Karen. 
 When questioned, he frequently takes refuge in " I 
 don't know" and a blank stare, hoping to get off 
 to his jungle and to his work. This is, of course, 
 against him, and often leads to miscarriages of 
 justice. I have heard intelligent Karens say that 
 not one-half of the cases of cattle-theft from their 
 villages ever come to light, or are even reported to 
 the police. When I asked the reason of this, they 
 said, " It is no use, and we cannot bear to fawn 
 and cringe to a Burman who, after all, won't help 
 us." They would rather try and run down the 
 thieves themselves than be detained from day to 
 day with " Come to-morrow at ten o'clock " for their 
 cold comfort ! An English official of rank once 
 challenged to the proof the assertion so often fruit- 
 lessly made that Karens could not get access to 
 him. The person to whom the challenge was ad- 
 dressed asked permission to walk round his court, 
 and see if he could not find an instance ready to 
 hand. The official had not been seated in his office 
 ten minutes when a Karen was brought to him who 
 had been dancing attendance for full five weeks to 
 
NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 151 
 
 get a chance of paying in his fishery tax. The 
 poor fellow had followed the English officer in vain 
 from stage to stage, carrying the money in his 
 hand, while notices to pay and summonses were 
 accumulating at his house. The records showed 
 no sign of the petitions which he had sent intimating 
 his readiness to pay his tax, and he appeared as a 
 defaulter when all the time he had been vainly 
 trying to get a chance to square up accounts. 
 
 The attitude of the Karen to the Burman is 
 distinctly hostile. The cruelties and oppression 
 practised by the Burmese for generations cannot 
 be easily effaced from their memory. Karen 
 mothers still the cries of their children by telling 
 them, "A Burman is coming." I have heard a 
 Karen say, " In olden times we were ground down 
 by the Burmese ; now we are free, and enjoy equal 
 rights with them under the British Government. 
 Nevertheless, since all the subordinate officials are 
 Burmese, we are really harassed just as before." 
 
 A Burman is wise in his generation. He never 
 dreams of worrying an educated Karen, for he 
 knows he would catch a Tartar if he did. But the 
 illiterate and simple are often victims of rapacity 
 and wrongdoing.* Our Government goes very little 
 
 * The following is an extract from a report in 1SS2 by an 
 
152 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 below the surface in its management of subject 
 peoples. We seem to fancy that codes of rules and 
 
 assistant-commissioner, on the extortions practised on Karens by 
 Burman money-lenders : — 
 
 " The Burman money-lender seldom or never lends money to the 
 Karen excepting against payment in paddy ; the paddy is thus 
 bought a year or ten months in advance at about one-third of its 
 value, and this paddy is taken as principal and interest on the 
 money lent. The interest thus taken is considerably higher than 
 that taken by Burmans among themselves. They generally lend to 
 Karens at sixty per cent, per annum, to friends at forty-five per 
 cent., and to relatives at thirty per cent., and the entire amount 
 repayable (in the case of friends and relations) cannot be more than 
 double the principal. They only insist on payments in paddy when 
 the borrower has no property whatever to give as security for the 
 money lent. 
 
 " The Karen's signature to the bonds is generally obtained by a 
 threat to sue him in a civil court. These people have a great fear 
 of appearing in the courts ; they think that they have but little 
 chance of justice against money-lenders, who are the most influential 
 people of the district. They also believe — I cannot say with what 
 reason — that the pleaders they engage hardly do justice to their cases, 
 and are often bought over by the other side ; they have also some 
 difficulty in expressing themselves in Burmese, and are seldom 
 examined through interpreters. 
 
 " Probably their chief reason for avoiding the courts is the fear of 
 seeing their land sold in execution of a decree. They use every 
 endeavour to save their land. In some cases I have found them 
 going from year to year to different money-lenders, borrowing every 
 year to repay the old debt with interest, in order to save their land." 
 
 Three cases out of thirty- two officially reported in 1S82 will 
 illustrate the remarks of the assistant-commissioner, and will show 
 why the Karens think that the Burmans are favoured at their expense. 
 
 Case I. — " Nga Hpon, Karen cultivator, states: Ten years ago, I 
 bought a fatso for twenty-five baskets of paddy from Moung Hpay 
 Toh (Burman). Three years ago, Moung Hpay Toh attacked my 
 
NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 153 
 
 regulations cut and dry are all that is necessary. 
 It is rare to find any sympathy — born of a real 
 
 threshing-floor, containing 250 baskets of paddy. This year, the 
 court bailiff and Moung Hpay Toh made me sign a fresh bond for 
 130 baskets of paddy." 
 
 (Moung Hpay Toh, the Butman usurer, was afterwards obliged 
 to tear up the bond for 130 baskets of paddy, in order to stop further 
 investigation. ) 
 
 Case II. — " Nga Shway Loung, Karen cultivator, states: Three 
 years ago, I borrowed forty rupees from Moung Moh, Burman 
 money-lender. I have repaid him 100 baskets of paddy (paddy 
 selling at 100 rupees per loo baskets) and 100 rupees, and he still 
 claims ftom me forty-eight baskets of paddy." 
 
 Case III. — " Mee Lain, Karen cultivator, states: I originally 
 borrowed forty-five rupees from Moung Lin, money-lender, Tanta- 
 bin. He persuaded me to ' make registration ' for this amount for 
 400 rupees ; he then sued me and got a decree against me. My 
 land and fifteen buffaloes were seized. Moung Lan, trader and 
 money-lender, Tantabin, then lent me 410 rupees to pay off the 
 amount of the decree ; for this I was to repay him goo baskets of 
 paddy. He also lent me fifty rupees, for which I was to repay too 
 baskets of paddy, and ninety-eight rupees without interest. I have 
 repaid Moung Lan 660 baskets of paddy ; he still claims from me 
 700 baskets of paddy and ninety-eight rupees. Moung Lan, who is 
 present, states that he will agree to accept 340 baskets of paddy, still 
 due, and ninety-eight rupees in full satisfaction of his debt. Mee 
 Lain agrees to this, and an endorsement to that effect is signed by 
 both parties on the back of Mee Lain's bond." 
 
 Here are further extracts from correspondence in illustration of 
 some of the other ways in which Burmans harass the Karens : — 
 
 Demi-official letter from Secretary to the Chief Commissioner, 
 British Burma, Land Revenue and Agricultural Department, to 
 the Settlement Officer, Bassein, dated July 27, 1883. 
 
 " One of the principal Karen missionaries here has addressed the 
 chief commissioner about the persecution which he declares the 
 Karens are subjected to by blackguardly loafing Burmans, who. 
 
154 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 appreciation of the ideas and wants of communities 
 — influencing our acts as a ruling power. Our 
 
 whenever the Karens take up a new habitation or village, come and 
 settle doivn in their midst and among them, thieving, drinking, 
 opium-eating, etc. The missionary declared that the Karens in 
 parts have no life of it, and have to move about to get rid of these 
 pests. He added that, in consequence, nothing in the shape of 
 permanent schools can be established in Karen villages. 
 
 " iVIr. Crosthwaite has the idea that you spoke to him to much 
 the same effect in Bassein, and I think I have heard you allude to 
 the obstructions of Burman pests in Karen communities. Is it so, 
 and have you any personal knowledge of this state of affairs ? If 
 the facts be as they are reported, the chief commissioner has quite 
 made up his mind to find and apply a remedy. Probably it would 
 take the shape of a grant or lease at a nominal revenue of an area 
 for a village, the grant or lease, of course, carrying the right in the 
 lessees to keep out all intruders. Will you kindly say by return — 
 
 " (a) If you are cognizant of this sort of persecution of the Karens ; 
 
 " (6) If you can mention any specific cases (and, if you can, please 
 state them) ; 
 
 " [c) What remedy you would suggest, and how you woidd work it ; 
 
 " (f/) \Miether in 3'our opinion the migratory tendencies of the 
 Karens are in any way owing to this persecution and intrusion ; 
 
 "(?) ^\'hether the facts apply to the Plain Karens as well as to 
 the Hill Karens?" 
 
 Demi-ofiicial letter from Settlement Officer, Bassein, to the Secretary 
 to the Chief Commissioner, British Burma, Land Revenue and 
 Agricultural Department, dated July 30, 1883. 
 
 "I believe that the account given by the missionaries of what is 
 actually taking place in Karen villages is substantially correct. I 
 called attention to this state of things in my report two years ago 
 <see paragraphs 12 and 13, Settlement Report, 18S0-1SS1), and 
 described it in the very words of your present letter. I have 
 continuallj' heard complaints in the Karen villages of Burmese loafers 
 settling down among them, stealing their property, swindling them 
 out of their lands and crops, and introducing opium and gambling 
 
NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 155 
 
 methods are thoroughly Procrustean. We treat 
 all alike. We do not appear to understand what 
 
 among them. In several cases I have myself written demi-officially 
 to the deputy-commissioner, and asked him to interfere. I remem- 
 ber doing this in the case of the villages of Gonj'indan, in Kanywa 
 circle, and Kyaiklat, in the Paybin circle. The Karens will not, as 
 a rule, come to officials and complain unless they see them in their 
 villages, and in the two cases I have just mentioned, the people 
 would not have gone to the deputy-commissioner unless I had given 
 them a letter. The reason of this is, I believe, that nearly all the 
 officials are Burmans and leagued against the Karens. A petition 
 is presented to the deputy-commissioner ; he sends it back for report 
 to the thugyi, who has appointed his creatures as ywalugyis, and if 
 the ywalugyi of the kwin is a Burman it is very certain that, unless 
 the deputy-commissioner has been himself to the spot, a report will 
 come back stating that the Burmans have lived in the village for a 
 large number of years, and that they should not be ejected. 
 
 " What I have said applies chiefly to the Christian Karen villages, 
 but the state of things is much worse in the case of the heathen 
 Karens. They are more ignorant, and, being more easily led away, 
 the Burman finds in them an easy prey. They are afraid of the 
 officials, so that their complaints are never heard of. In the Aingme 
 and Kyaukkanni circles, I found the Karen villages in a dreadful 
 state. The Burmans had settled down in nearly all their villages ; 
 they had swindled them out of their lands, and in many cases re- 
 duced them to a state of semi-serfdom. The Karens had taken to 
 opium-eating, and in one or two villages I found that women and 
 young children were opium-eaters. The ywalugyis were in many 
 cases Upper Burman gamblers and opium-eaters, who, instead of 
 helping and protecting the villagers, either swindled them themselves 
 or helped others to do this. I called attention to this in my report 
 on the cases of oppression among the Karens, but I believe these 
 ywalugyis are still there. The ywalugyi of Kangyidaungale figured 
 prominently in two or three cases ; the ywalug)'is of Kyonsain and 
 Kwingyi are opium-eaters and gamblers, and were swindling the 
 Karens out of their money and land ; the ywalugyi of Yegal6k had 
 
IS6 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 national prejudices and aspirations are, or why- 
 there should be any such. When other powers 
 
 swindled a Karen out of his land (this case went up for the chief 
 commissioner's orders). These are the names and facts that I 
 remember at the moment, but there are more of them. These men 
 are, as a matter of fact, appointed by the thugyi, and are as a rule 
 his creatures, and it is no wonder that people will not petition when 
 the report has to go through such channels. 
 
 "The rule in this district and most others, I believe, has always 
 been for the ywalugj-i to grant house-sites and permission for building 
 in the villages under him. The thugyi is in some cases supposed to 
 do this himself, but he as a rule leaves it to the ywalugyi. When 
 the ywalugyi is himself a Karen, he does not allow the Burmans to 
 settle down in his village. There is no written rule as to the agency 
 through which house-sites should be granted in villages ; but if it 
 were made a rule that they should be granted through the thugyi 
 or ywalugyi, a written order from the deputy-commissioner that no 
 Burmans should be allowed to settle in a certain village or within a 
 quarter of a mile of it would be sufficient. 
 
 "I think that the Burmans who have already settled down in 
 Karen villages should be compelled to remove their houses when 
 their presence is complained of. I do not know under what law 
 this could be done, but the deputy-commissioner has hitherto done 
 it where the intruders had not held the land for twelve years. The 
 migratory tendency of the Karens is naturally increased by this state 
 of things, and they fly away as soon as the Burmans have taken 
 possession of their lands. 
 
 " I do not think that this state of things would be found among 
 the Hill Karens, as the Burmans do not like living entirely away 
 from their own countrymen ; but I have no information on this 
 subject. 
 
 " Whilst writing on this subject, I may allude to another common 
 complaint among the Karens — the paddy-thefts. The Burman 
 loafers who settle among them are as a rule thieves, and they go at 
 night in the kwin to the different threshing-floors, carry off sheaves, 
 and thresh them in the jungle. There is hardly a kwin in which 
 
T^ATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 1 57 
 
 threaten the independent existence of nationalities, 
 we are eager enough to interfere. But the charity 
 that adorns us in Europe is doffed in Eastern Asia. 
 
 The following extract from an unpublished 
 address to the Viceroy of India by a representative 
 Karen, after the first Burmese war, will show what 
 the condition of the Karens was under Burmese 
 rule : — 
 
 " Through the goodness of God, my nation, sons 
 of the forest and children of poverty, ought to 
 praise thy nation, the white foreigners, exceedingly ; 
 and we ought to obey your orders, for the Karens, 
 the sons of the eastern forest, have neither head 
 nor ear. They are poor, and scattered everywhere ; 
 are divided in every direction ; at the sources of 
 the waters, and in the glens above them. When 
 they fall among the Siamese, the Siamese make 
 
 these petty thefts are not committed every night ; and I have often 
 seen in the jungle sheaves vi'hich had been threshed out by- the 
 thieves the night before. The thieves are very seldom caught, and 
 when they are caught the punishment is so very light that it has no 
 deterrent effect w^hatever. 
 
 " I think that the best remedy for these complaints of the Karens 
 is to give them Karen ywalugyis and thugyis whenever the majority 
 of the population is Karen ; for the subdivisional officers to visit the 
 Karen villages in the interior, and hear themselves the complaints of 
 the people ; and I also think that Government should encourage the 
 study of the Karen language, as officers who understood the language 
 would more easily gain confidence. 
 
 "D. M. S." 
 
IS8 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 them slaves. When they fall among the Burmans, 
 the Burmans make them slaves. So they live on 
 one stream beyond another, and cannot see each 
 other. They have had other things to do rather 
 than visit. The Burmans made them drag boats, 
 cut rattans, collect dammer, seek beeswax, gather 
 cardamoms, strip bark for cordage, clear away 
 cities, pull logs, and weave large mats. Besides 
 this, they demanded of them presents of yams, the 
 bulbo-tubers of arum, ginger, capsicum, flesh, 
 elephants' tusks, rhinoceros' horns, and all the 
 various kinds of vegetables that are eaten by the 
 Burmans. The men being employed thus, the 
 women had to labour at home. Sometimes the men 
 were at home four or five days in two or three 
 months. They were compelled by the Burman 
 rulers to guard forts, to act as guides, to kidnap 
 Siamese, and to go from one place to another, till 
 many dropped down dead in the midst of the 
 jungle. Notwithstanding they did all this, they 
 had their arms twisted behind them, were beaten 
 with stripes, struck with the fist, and pounded with 
 the elbow, days without end. 
 
 " In the midst of these sufferings, they remem- 
 bered the ancient sayings of the elders, and prayed 
 beneath the bushes, though the rains poured upon 
 
NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 159 
 
 them, or the musquitoes, the gnats, the leeches, or 
 the horse-flies bit them. The elders said, 'Children 
 and grandchildren, as to the Karen nation, their 
 God will yet save them.' Hence in their deep 
 affliction, they prayed, ' If God will save us, let Him 
 save speedily. We can endure these sufferings no 
 longer. Alas ! where is God ? ' 
 
 " Sometimes the Burmans would kidnap the 
 Karens in Siam and carry them up to Ava, to the 
 presence of the king ; and thus separated from 
 father or mother, husband or wife, child or grand- 
 child, they yearned for each other, and many 
 sickened and died on the way before reaching the 
 monarch's feet. Sometimes the Siamese kidnapped 
 the Karens in Burma, and subjected them to like 
 treatment. The Karens in Siam knew that those 
 whom the Siamese brought from Burma were 
 their relatives, and their tears flowed when they 
 saw them ; yet they dared not to tell the Siamese, 
 or supplicate for them. So those in Burma, when 
 they saw the Burmans leading away the Karens 
 they had kidnapped in Siam, knew they were their 
 cousins ; yet they dared not speak or entreat for 
 them, for if they said they were their relations, or 
 begged for them, death was the immediate conse- 
 quence. Moreover, the Karens dared not dwell 
 
l6o THE LOVAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 near the cities ; for the Burmans took away all 
 their rice and paddy, and everything they had, and 
 carried off their women by force. Hence they 
 went far off, and dwelt on the streamlets, and in 
 the gorges of the mountains. After all, the rulers 
 sometimes took their paddy ; and, in a state of 
 stai-vation, they would eat at random the roots and 
 leaves of the jungle, and thus great numbers died. 
 Sometimes the rulers assembled them together 
 near the city, where, having nothing to eat, great 
 numbers died of sickness and starvation. Some- 
 times they would have to carry rice for soldiers 
 under march, and being unable to cultivate their 
 fields, great numbers died of hunger from this 
 cause. Then those whom the rulers called, if 
 unable to go, either from sickness in their families 
 or in their own persons, had to give money to the 
 officers that came, and money for the rulers that 
 sent them ; and if they had no money, they were 
 compelled to borrow of the Burmans, and thus 
 became their slaves. 
 
 " Furthermore, the Karens were not permitted to 
 go into the presence of the rulers. They were only 
 allowed to hold a little communication with the 
 Burman that was set over them. At one time, in 
 the days of Diwoon, when the Karens were fast 
 
■ NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS. l6l 
 
 dying off with starvation, and were so employed 
 that thely could not cultivate the land, my uncle, 
 who is a chief, determined to go and ask the 
 governor to give the Karens liberty to cultivate 
 the land and raise provisions to a small extent. 
 So he went unto Diwoon, but he was thrown into 
 prison immediately. His brethren had no rice to 
 bring him, and they could feed him there only with 
 the stems of wild plantain trees, the male blossoms 
 with their spathes, and the young shoots of 
 bamboos. 
 
 " Great ruler, the ancestors of the Karens charged 
 their posterity thus : ' Children and grandchildren, 
 if the thing come by land, weep ; if 'by water, 
 laugh. It will not come in our days, but it will in 
 yours. If it come first by water, you will be able 
 to take breath ; but if first by land, you will not 
 find a spot to dwell in.' Hence, when the Karens 
 were in the midst of their intense sufferings, they 
 longed for those that were to come by water, to 
 come first." 
 
 The village economy is very important among 
 the Karens. The village is, so to speak, the 
 federate unit. Among many of the clans it is 
 simply a big barrack, containing eighty to one 
 hundred families. The roof is nearly flat, shielded 
 
 M 
 
1 62 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 from the rain by split bamboos cut in lengths and 
 laid like tiles. A long hall runs through the entire 
 building, and the separate suites of rooms occupied 
 by the different families open into this hall. Each 
 family has two rooms and an open verandah for 
 drying and cleaning paddy. The village has its 
 circle of hills all round for its cultivation. In 
 times of danger these villages form alliances with 
 the other villages of the clan, and these alliances 
 are cemented by marriages among the young 
 people. The women thus married are mutual 
 hostages for the perfect good faith of the villages 
 to one another. 
 
 The chieftainship of the village is generally 
 hereditary, but does not necessarily run in the line 
 of primogeniture. Personal ability and capacity 
 for leadership often override the claim of the first- 
 born. As danger from without increases, these 
 confederacies extend, and the federated villages 
 are more closely knit together. Some great chief 
 arises who becomes the natural head of the con- 
 federacy, and he is blindly obeyed by all. As 
 danger subsides, the bands are loosed, and mutual 
 jealousies among the chiefs lead to internal quarrels 
 and separation of interests. 
 
 The hill Karens believe that they are the rightful 
 
NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 1 63 
 
 owners of all the land ever cultivated by the 
 members of their village community. Their de- 
 structive toungya cultivation rotates over the hills 
 within the village circuit once in seven years. 
 Between the periods of cultivation of any hillside, 
 they regard the land as lying fallow and just as 
 exclusively their property as the land immediately 
 under cultivation. They say that the inferior 
 quality of the land in the hills necessitates a longer 
 period of fallow than is required in the plains. 
 Each member of the village has an undivided share 
 in the communal land. If the chief were to sell 
 this land, or any part of it, without consulting 
 them and dividing the proceeds fairly, those who 
 had not received their just shares would consider 
 themselves aggrieved and to have acquired the 
 right of reprisal. This right of reprisal is exer- 
 cised in a curious way, and takes its character from 
 the fusion or absorption of the individual in the 
 clan. 
 
 A Karen has, or fancies he has, a claim against a 
 member of another clan. He brings his claims 
 before his chief If his demand is allowed by his 
 own clansmen and rejected by his opponent's, he is 
 not restricted to recovering from the individual 
 debtor, but may recover from any member of the 
 
l64 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 Other clan who may come in his way and be able 
 to pay. A remarkable instance of this occurred 
 not many years ago. A gentleman from Bassein 
 was travelling among the Kakhyens (who are 
 brothers of the Karens, and have many customs in 
 common with them) in the Bhamo hills. He was 
 suddenly seized, and his ponies and other property 
 confiscated, and he was told that the value would 
 be credited on the claim for blood-money due to 
 the clan for the death of a young Kakhyen, who, 
 while in attendance on an English officer a year 
 before, had died of small-pox. He was desired to 
 recover from the offending officer, who was beyond 
 the reach of the Kakhyens. This proceeding was, 
 to a hill Karen, no robbery, but a customary and 
 legitimate method of realizing what was due. A 
 sad example of this same custom came under 
 my own observation. A plot of land of about one 
 hundred and twenty acres, which had been for 
 generations cultivated by a village of hill Karens 
 near Toungoo, was sold by the two chiefs of the 
 village to a planter who had settled near them. 
 There was considerable difficulty in arranging the 
 terms of sale, and some disinclination was evinced 
 by certain members of the village to part with 
 their shares. However, after a lot of hao-elinp- 
 
NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 165 
 
 the terms were agreed on between the two chiefs 
 and the planter. The Government became aware of 
 the ticklish nature of the transaction, and directed 
 the local officers to be very careful, and see that 
 every villager was made fully aware of what was 
 going on. The two chiefs, however, had in the 
 mean time been arranging matters in their own 
 way, and the villagers were dissatisfied with the 
 share of the purchase-money allotted to them. 
 They were aggrieved. The planter himself was at 
 the time beyond their reach ; but the planter's son, 
 a young man fresh from England, was on the spot 
 when the time for reprisal came. He was shot 
 dead in his house ; and it was an open secret that 
 the murder was deliberately resolved on by the 
 villagers, who elected one of their number to do 
 the deed. To the murderers it was of no con- 
 sequence that the young man was not even in 
 Burma when the land was bought. As a member 
 of the family that was occupying their land on 
 what they deemed unjust terms, he was regarded 
 as individually responsible, and the claim was paid 
 in his blood. 
 
 This primitive method of obtaining redress used 
 constantly to give rise to feuds between clans, and 
 among the Red Karens it is a perpetual source of 
 
1 66 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 discord, and the pretext for frequent bloody forays. 
 Danger from without alone prevents a perpetual 
 succession of civil wars. When external war is 
 imminent, a curious method is adopted of settling 
 rapidly, and in a wholesale fashion, all internal 
 feuds, so as to clear away all enmities and permit 
 of united action. In 1868, the Karen-nees (Red 
 Karens) were fighting for very existence with the 
 Burmese invaders. Strong, united action was 
 absolutely necessary to repel the invasion. At the 
 full moon of Tagoo (April), all the clans of Western 
 Karen-nee were summoned to appear at the village 
 of Kyet-po-gyee, the head chief The old man had 
 just died, but his two sons, Koontee and Koonsha, 
 took his place. All the disputes among the clans 
 had to be settled before they could make the great 
 propitiatory sacrifice. In the assembly of the 
 people, the question was solemnly asked, " Who 
 shall confess the sins of the nation ? " Someone 
 was proposed, who at once rose in pretended horror, 
 and utterly refused because he could not bear the 
 burden of blame that would surely be cast on 
 him by those whose sins had been revealed. The 
 man rushed wildly from the assembly. He was 
 hotly pursued by the crowds, brandishing their 
 knives and spears in the most savage manner. The 
 
NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 1 67 
 
 hunt was an exciting one, the fugitive straining 
 every nerve to escape, and his pursuers heading 
 him at every turn. At last, he was captured, firmly 
 bound, and brought into the reassembled parlia- 
 ment. Knives, spears, and daggers were pointed 
 at him by every one. The most violent threats 
 were hurled at him, and he was ordered to confess 
 the sins of the nation. With great seeming re- 
 luctance, he said, " I take you all to witness that it 
 is not of my own free will that I disclose the sins 
 which you have committed. Had I changed myself 
 to a bird, you would have flown through the air 
 after me. If I had transformed myself into a fish, 
 no pool of the Salween would have sheltered me 
 from your hot pursuit. Had I changed myself to 
 a rat, and hidden in the hollow of a bamboo, you 
 would have cut me out. I only confess because 
 every pointed and edged weapon now threatens 
 my life." He then confessed : " People from the 
 Myo-thit village stole ten buffaloes from the Shwe- 
 galay village." This charge was investigated, and, 
 after both sides had been heard, the case was 
 summarily decided, and restitution made on the 
 spot. The confessor was then charged on pain of 
 death to proceed with his disclosures. " Po Thin, 
 of Kemaw village, eloped with Ma-pee, of Mogoung 
 
1 68 THE tOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 village." This case was investigated and decided ; 
 and so on. till the file was cleared. All this had, of 
 course, been carefully arranged beforehand. The 
 flight of the confessor and the display of force were 
 contrived so as to prevent the clans or villages 
 charged with \vrong-doing from getting up a feud 
 with the confessor. After all the cases had been 
 tried, the sacrifices began. Each village brought 
 its buffalo to the improvised altar. All who could 
 reach the animal placed their hands upon it. Those 
 who could not reach it laid their hands on those 
 who could. The assembly was taken to witness 
 that all claims had been satisfied, and that they 
 could now make an atoning sacrifice. A prayer 
 was offered that the guilt of the clans during the 
 past year might be transferred to the buffalo, which 
 was stricken dead by a blow from an axe. The 
 flesh was divided into small portions. Each person 
 ate a part of his share, and took home the other 
 part to bury in his field, in proof that all the year's 
 sins had been duly atoned for, and thereby to 
 induce the earth to yield her increase undeterred 
 by her abhorrence of man's crimes. 
 
 The method of binding individuals, villages, and 
 clans in confederacies is somewhat singular. The 
 contracting parties bind themselves by drinking 
 
NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 1 69 
 
 spirits in which the blood of both has been mixed, 
 and in which a number of weapons have been 
 dipped. The blood of each is supposed to live as 
 an agent or ambassador in the blood of the other, 
 and thus either prevent or witness and avenge 
 treachery. The weapons are likewise invoked to 
 avenge treachery. 
 
 Confederacies and powerful chiefs contract with 
 one another, after going through certain strange 
 ceremonies. Dr. Vinton made a compact in 1868 
 with Koontee, the son of Kyet-po-gyee, chief of 
 Western Karen-nee, which he thus described : — 
 
 " An ox was chosen with the greatest care ; great 
 attention was paid to the points of the animal, that 
 it should be perfect in every part, and that no 
 unlucky arrangement of the hair on any part should 
 make the compact void. 
 
 " When, after looking over several hundred cattle, 
 a lucky one was found, I paid half the price, and 
 the chief the other. 
 
 " We stood each on one side of the ox and 
 crossed our hands on the hump. The high 
 priestess of the race (in this case Koontee's own 
 mother) stood in front of the ox. It was her duty 
 to kill the animal at the proper time, but old age 
 had made her far too weak for the office, so a. 
 
\^0 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 stalwart Red Karen stood with his axe and knife 
 ready to obey her orders. 
 
 " The compact made was recited. I bound 
 myself to report faithfully to the Chief Commis- 
 sioner of British Burma the exact state of the 
 contest with the invading Burmese forces, and, 
 whenever Koontee's messengers came properly 
 accredited, I was to correctly translate their com- 
 munications, and urge to the extent of my ability 
 the claims of Western Karen-nee to protection and 
 friendship. 
 
 "In return, Koontee bound himself to protect our 
 native preachers, and to tolerate schools and the 
 free exercise of the Christian religion. Each was 
 asked whether the pledge was recited aright. The 
 old priestess then, solemnly raising the right hand, 
 said, ' Whichever party fails to the extent of his 
 power to keep this contract, may he die like this 
 ox.' The poor brute was stricken dead at a blow. 
 
 " It was divided longitudinally with a surgeon's 
 care. I was told that if, in splitting the animal, 
 the spinal marrow had been severed completely on 
 either side the ox would have to be rejected and 
 another killed. A right shoulder and left hind- 
 quarter was given to one party, and a left shoulder 
 and right hind-quarter given to the other. 
 
NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 17I 
 
 " Koontee's share was given out in small pieces 
 to his subordinate chiefs, and I was prohibited from 
 selling, giving away, or otherwise disposing of my 
 share. It must all be eaten by my party. Of 
 course I had to salt a part of my share to ensure its 
 being all eaten by my party of twenty-five strong. 
 
 " The horns were carefully marked to correspond, 
 and were to be used in accrediting messengers from 
 one to another. This ceremony was performed by 
 the Deputy-Commissioner of Shway Gyin, on the 
 part of the Government, with Kyet-po-gyee, the 
 Western Karen-nee chief The horn, set in silver, 
 was proudly shown me afterwards. 
 
 " On my way home, the villagers of Moso on 
 the frontier mistook my party for Burmans under 
 the lead of French officers known to be with the 
 Burmese troops, and the son of the chief, then in 
 charge of the post in his father's absence, swooped 
 down on us and demanded our surrender. Know- 
 ing I had my ox-horn handy, I did not demur, and 
 we were marched into the village. I produced the 
 horn, and reminded them that the clan was pledged 
 for my safety. The village knew well they were 
 pledged, and feared lest their apparent faithlessness 
 should be speedily avenged. My pardon was 
 begged, the mistake explained, and even though I 
 
172 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 assured them I bore no ill-will, the young chief 
 would not rest content without escorting and 
 guiding me two days' march to atone for his 
 blunder. 
 
 " Many times the mate to my horn was produced 
 by Koontee's agents, and often my horn was 
 recognized and honoured in Karen-nee when carried 
 by native preachers." 
 
( 173 ) 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 HISTORICAL TRADITION : TAW-MAI-PAH, THE 
 MYTHICAL ANCESTOR OF THE KARENS. 
 
 On the slopes of the Nat-toung of Toungoo lived 
 a very old man, who was afterwards known as 
 Taw-mai-pah (grandfather of the boar's tusk). 
 
 A huge wild boar ravaged the toungyas of the 
 old man's sons and sons-in-law, till the injury done 
 became unbearable. Such, however, was the size, 
 strength, and fferocity of the brute that no one 
 dared to attack him. The old man at last devoted 
 his life for the welfare of his children, knowing well 
 that they would all be starved if the boar's ravages 
 were not checked. After a furious combat the 
 boar was slain, but the old man was too much ex- 
 hausted by his exertions to carry home any of the 
 meat. On his return, he sent his sons and sons-in- 
 law to bring in the carcase, but they could not find 
 it, though the ground, trampled into bloody mire 
 bore testimony to the fight that had taken place. 
 
174 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 They returned empty-handed, and chaffed the old 
 man about his boasting to have killed a boar he 
 had not even mastered. The old man was furious, 
 and told them they were not smart enough to fight 
 the boar, or even to bring in the carcase when he 
 had been killed for them. 
 
 At last, to settle the dispute, they all went to the 
 spot, and found the carcase really missing ; but, on 
 searching around, they found a tusk of the boar, red 
 on one face, white on another, and blue on the 
 third. The boar was a supernatural one, and by 
 his defeat had lost so much of his magic power 
 that his tusk had dropped out, though his life was 
 regained. Taw-mai-pah took the tusk home with 
 him, and made it into a comb. When he first used 
 the comb he became suddenly young again. It 
 was very lucky he was amid his whole assembled 
 family, or they would never have recognized him 
 in the brisk young man who had renewed his youth 
 by the magic power of the boar's tusk. Taw-mai- 
 pah's family multiplied with wonderful rapidity, as, 
 of course, the boar's tusk was constantly used to 
 renew their youth, and to set death and old age at 
 defiance. 
 
 Soon they filled the Toungoo hills, and even 
 established themselves in the city of Toungoo itself 
 
HISTORICAL TRADITION. 17S 
 
 The land not being able to support their increasing 
 numbers, Taw-mai-pah started on a long journey 
 to find a place where the land was rich enough to 
 support his fannily with little or no work. He said 
 he had conquered disease and death, but the evil 
 of hard work still remained to be conquered. The 
 trial to which he subjected the land of each district 
 he visited was thi.s. He dug a number of holes, 
 and tried to see how many holes the earth from 
 one hole would fill. On this side of the Cambodia, 
 he found the earth from one hole would fill four 
 holes of equal size. This he did not consider suffi- 
 cient, and so he crossed the river, and found that 
 the earth from one hole would fill seven similar 
 holes. This satisfied him, and he returned to bring 
 his huge family. They all marched together as 
 far as the river, and there they all complained of 
 hunger. Some one told them that certain shells 
 were good for food. They commenced boiling 
 them with roselle (then a new plant to them). 
 After boiling the shells for many hours, they tried 
 to see whether the shells were soft or not ; but of 
 course the hard outer shells had not softened, and 
 so they concluded the shells were not cooked 
 enough. Others arrived at the same conclusion 
 from noticing the red juice of the roselle. " Of 
 
1/6 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 course," said they, " the shells are not cooked 
 enough, for you can see the blood still flows red 
 from them." Taw-mai-pah began to get impatient, 
 and wanted to march on, but his descendants 
 refused to start till they had had food. Taw-mai- 
 pah said he would go ahead and mark the path by 
 cutting down trees and brushwood. After boiling 
 their shells a long while, the people met some 
 Chinamen, who laughed at them, and showed them 
 how to break an air-hole in the top of the long 
 shell and suck out the contents. 
 
 After dinner, they started after Taw-mai-pah, but, 
 seeing that the wild plantains along the path had 
 sprouted six or eight inches since they were cut, 
 they concluded Taw-mai-pah was too far ahead for 
 them to follow, and so they returned to their old 
 quarters. 
 
 Since losing the magic comb, which Taw-mai-pah 
 took with him, of course old age and disease and 
 death have ruled over the Karens as before. 
 
 Taw-mai-pah, while his clan was multiplying so 
 rapidly, took Chinese wives for some of his de- 
 scendants, and from them the Shans are descended. 
 He took Siamese wives for others, and from them 
 are descended the Toungthoos. Some took Hindoo 
 wives, and from them are descended the black 
 
HISTORICAL TRADITION. I77 
 
 Karens of the Toungoo hill tracts. Taw-mai-pah, 
 still young with his magic comb, will one day 
 assemble all his descendants and feast them with 
 a boar, the rib-bones of which will be seven cubits 
 long, and the fore-foot of which will be seven hands 
 in circumference. Taw-mai-pah's children will not 
 be able to understand each other when they meet, 
 but must learn each other's language. 
 
1/8 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THEIR NATIONAL RELIGION AND THEIR GOD- 
 TRADITtONS. 
 
 The Karens are remarkable for believing in one 
 eternal God, Creator of all things, " who is like the 
 air, and lives in the sky, as does the wind, and like 
 the wind goes everywhere," but who has no place 
 in their paradise, who originally dwelt amongst 
 them, and only left them after fruitless endeavours 
 to draw them to Himself They abhor idolatry, 
 and regard Buddhism with contempt. Their belief 
 in the character and attributes of God is absolutely 
 identical with the teachings of Christianity, and re- 
 quires no modifications to make it a fully developed 
 Christianity save the teachings of Jesus Christ as 
 the Revelation of God and the Saviour of Man. 
 One of their sayings of the elders, handed down 
 from generations, is, " All things in heaven and on 
 earth, O children and grandchildren, God created 
 them. Never forget God ; pray to Him every day 
 
NATIONAL RELIGION. 179 
 
 and every night." On the other hand, the Karen 
 looks upon God as having long since deserted him 
 on account of his sins, and left him to the persecu- 
 tion of demons, which cause sickness, death, and all 
 the ills of life. He insists that the demons are so 
 near and God so far away that he is in no way 
 disloyal to God when he sacrifices to demons. He 
 merely temporizes with them till God's promised 
 return. To the heathen Karen, " the world is filled 
 with invisible spirits. Every living being, be it man 
 or beast or creeping thing, has its La (spirit) ; and 
 every mountain peak, tree, cataract, and river has 
 its lord, and every lord a number of attendants, 
 agents to carry out his will, who are the La of 
 those who have died violent deaths. These lords 
 reside near the physical object which they protect, 
 seated on the mossy crag, under the forest tree, or 
 in the foaming torrent. Their attendants, the ghosts, 
 smoking pipes with gold and silver stems, and 
 armed with swords and spears, lurk in every nook 
 and cranny, and should a luckless Karen ignorantly 
 touch one of these powerful guardians, or step upon 
 their attendant's unseen weapons, they rise in anger 
 and afflict him with sore diseases, and must be 
 propitiated with bloodless sacrifices." 
 
 Nature is thus to him bristling with actual and 
 
l80 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 possible mischiefs and evils of all kinds. Wherever 
 he goes he is in danger. His life is a life of perpetual 
 terror. He never knows when or how he offends 
 one of these malevolent beings till the punishment 
 swoops down on him. But the ghosts and their 
 masters the lords are not the only enemies whom 
 the Karen dreads. In old times, they say, " God 
 made a mixture of the flesh of every animal, and 
 directed them to eat the whole, for if they omitted 
 to eat any portion, the animal whose flesh had not 
 been eaten would hereafter become invisible and 
 eat them. Accidentally they neglected to eat of 
 the flesh of the Na, since which time it preys 
 upon them, causing sickness and death, and is 
 incarnate in tigers, serpents, and other wild animals 
 and reptiles, and must be driven away from their 
 fields and their houses. But perhaps the most 
 formidable danger to which he is exposed is the 
 attacks of seven spirits who are always on the 
 watch to kill him, and who are pledged to destroy 
 him — one by the mouth of a tiger, one by old age, 
 one by sickness, one by drowning, one by the hand 
 of man, one by a fall, and the last by every other 
 means." 
 
 But although thus in perpetual dread of malignant 
 attacks which he can never foresee, he is not left 
 
NATIONAL RELIGION. l8l 
 
 entirely unprotected. His guardian spirit, his 
 benevolent La, " accompanies him, seated on his 
 neck or head ; and as long as he so remains the 
 Karen is safe from all attacks. But this La maybe 
 enticed away by others, or may jump down, or may 
 wander away during the body's sleeps — and then 
 follow sickness and death. If a man pines away, 
 his La is supposed to be wandering, and must be 
 called back with an offering of food." 
 
 The demons are supposed to cause sickness by 
 stealing away the protecting La or spirit from the 
 sick man. The first thing done when any one falls 
 ill is to attempt by some slight offering to propitiate 
 the demon, and induce him to return the stolen La. 
 The first offering is generally made at the crossing 
 of two roads at evening time by some relation of 
 the sick man. When this means fails, the sick 
 one grows worse, and the demon is supposed to 
 have rejected the offering. The great sacrifice 
 must now be offered under the leadership of the 
 eldest female living ancestor of the sick person. 
 This sacrifice can only be performed by an un- 
 broken family. The absence of a single member 
 renders it unavailing. It is this that makes it so 
 hard for a Karen to avow himself an out-and-out 
 Christian, and to take the decisive step of baptism. 
 
1 82 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 Belief in the efficacy of the great propitiatory 
 sacri-fice to the malignant demon still clings to 
 those who are and admit themselves to be " almost 
 Christians," and the rite is jealously guarded. A 
 Karen falls ill. His relatives are summoned — not 
 invited — to the great sacrifice. A Christian relative 
 from conscientious motives refuses. If the sick one 
 dies, the Christian is looked on as his murderer, just 
 as much as if he had plunged a dagger into his 
 heart Across the frontier, a blood-feud would be 
 the result. Hundreds of Karens are found all 
 round the Christian villages who firmly believe 
 themselves to be Christians, attend the Church 
 services regularly, give liberally, live outwardly as 
 Christians, give up liquor and profligacy, and yet 
 are not baptized. They beg earnestly to be 
 baptized, stipulating only to be allowed to be pre- 
 sent at the sacrifices of their relatives, and, for 
 form's sake, to put a single morsel of the oflfering 
 between their lips. They plead that they have no 
 wish to perform the sacrifice themselves, or to have 
 it performed on their behalf; but they urge that 
 they dare not become utter outcasts, and be 
 regarded as the murderers of their kith and kin. 
 They freely admit that they have no faith in such 
 childish ceremonies, but they cannot bear to be cut 
 
NATIONAL RELIGION. 183 
 
 adrift from their families with the curse of blood 
 on their heads. ' In pleading thus for admission 
 into the Christian Church, they have been known 
 to urge as authority for their claim the teaching 
 of the Apostle Paul about " meat offered to idols/' 
 and Naaman "bowing in tlie house of Rimmon." 
 Dr. Vinton told me that, on first assuming charge 
 of the Karen mission on the death of his father, 
 he was astounded to see whole families coming 
 up for baptism. The first thought which naturally 
 occurred to him was that only one or two of the 
 applicants probably had undergone the real change 
 of heart, and that the rest had applied merely in 
 deference to the opinion of the elders. This fear 
 was, however, he said, soon dispelled when he 
 inquired and found out how and when the change 
 of heart had taken place. It was then, he said, 
 seen how great had been the stragglings for years 
 in the families. The husband would point with 
 tears to the scars which his drunken fury had left 
 on his long-enduring wife for refusing to join the 
 family sacrifice. One after another had been 
 touched till all had come together, proclaimed their 
 faith, and sought admission to the Church. 
 
 When any member of a family is seen to be irre- 
 vocably determined to become an out-and-out 
 
184 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 Christian, his heathen relatives often try to induce 
 him to submit to a childish ceremony. They ask 
 him to feign sickness. They then offer sacrifices 
 to the demons on his behalf, as if he were really ill ; 
 then they mourn for him, as if he were really dead, 
 and go through a mock funeral to make the demons 
 believe that he is dead, so that at the next sacrifice 
 his absence may not be regarded as causing a break 
 in the family. 
 
 To illustrate the way in which the heathen 
 Karen harmonizes his demon sacrifices with his 
 loyalty to God, here is a parable which they tell : — 
 A man and his wife once lived in a wild forest. 
 They were obliged daily to leave their children at 
 home while they went to work on their distant 
 toungya, or forest clearing. They owned a large 
 sow and a litter of pigs. One day, during the 
 absence of the parents, a tiger came and killed 
 the sow and ate her up. On the return of the 
 parents, the terrified children crawled from their 
 hiding-place and told of the peril in which they 
 had been. The parents, knowing full well that the 
 tiger would return, made a high platform, so high 
 that the tiger could neither spring nor climb into 
 it, and next day placed the children and the litter 
 of pigs on it. The tiger came, and, disappointed of 
 
NATIONAL RELIGION. iSj 
 
 his prey in the house, soon scented out the children. 
 He sprang upwards at them, but fell short. He 
 tried to climb, but the hard smooth surface of the 
 bamboo defied his claws. He then frightened the 
 children by his terrible roars. So in terror 
 the children threw down the pigs to him, one after 
 another. Their eyes, however, were fixed not on 
 the tiger, but on the path by which they expected 
 to see their father come. Their hands fed the 
 tiger from fear, but their ears were eagerly listening 
 for the twang of their father's bowstring, which 
 would send the arrow quivering into the tiger's 
 heart. And so, say the Karens, although we have 
 to make sacrifices to demons, our hearts are still 
 true to God. We must throw sops to the foul 
 demons who afflict us, but our hearts are ever 
 looking for God. 
 
 The Red Karens keep the month of Tagoo 
 (April) absolutely sacred to the worship of the one 
 God, During that month demon sacrifices are 
 strictly prohibited. 
 
 Perhaps, however, the most convincing proof of 
 the Karen's firm belief in a personal God is to be 
 found in some of their hymns. The following is 
 one of their ancient hymns handed down by their 
 bards from generation to generation. The transla- 
 
1 86 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 tion is true to the original both in words and 
 metre. 
 
 " Father God is very near, 
 
 Lives He now amongst us here ; 
 God is not far off, we know — 
 Dwells He in our midst below. 
 
 *' 'Tis because men are not true 
 That He is not seen to you ; 
 'Tis because men turned to sin 
 Now no longer God is seen. 
 
 '* All upon the earth below 
 
 Is but God's foot-rest, we know ; 
 Heaven in the heights above 
 Is God's seat of truth and love." 
 
 It is interesting to note in these verses a 
 peculiarity common also in Hebrew poetry — 
 parallelisms. The thought of the first couplet is 
 followed by a repetition in the next in a slightly 
 varied form. 
 
 The Karen ideas of a future state after death are 
 somewhat indefinite, and it is difficult to disentangle 
 the childish, extravagant details from the two or 
 three articles of their belief. They believe that 
 rewards and punishments will be meted out in the 
 next world according to the deeds done during life 
 on earth ; and they believe that the future state 
 will be one of activity, similar in many respects to 
 the life led on earth. They further believe that 
 
NATIONAL RELIGION. 187 
 
 the spirits of those who have been righteous and 
 have kept God in their hearts here below, are per- 
 niitted to watch over the destinies of those dear to 
 them whom they left behind. Their conception of 
 the destiny of the human soul is totally different 
 from that of the Burmese. The Karen believes 
 that the soul will be actively employed. The 
 Burmese, who are all Buddhists, believe in nirvana, 
 or complete absorption, absolute extinction of 
 individuality — a deathless, dreamless sleep of the 
 soul swallowed up in the Infinite. The Karen 
 believes in a living, personal God ; the Burman is 
 a blank atheist. 
 
 When, nearly sixty years ago, the attention of 
 the American missionaries was first drawn to the 
 Karens, they found them in possession of a remark- 
 able set of traditions, both in prose and poetry, 
 exactly corresponding with the history of the 
 creation and the fall of man as told in the Bible. 
 Many of the national traditions vary in details 
 locally ; but these God-traditions, as they are 
 called, are found to be absolutely identical every- 
 where, from Mergui to Toungoo, and from Cape 
 Negrais to far east of Zimmay, in Siam. They tell 
 how, after the fall, God gave the Bible to the 
 Karens first, as the elder branch of the race ; that 
 
1 88 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 they neglected it, and that God in anger took it 
 away from them and gave it to their younger 
 brother, the white man, who, however, was placed 
 under obligations to restore the Word to the Karens, 
 and teach them the true religion after their sins 
 had been sufficiently atoned for by long subjugation 
 to other races. 
 
 It has been suggested by some that these tradi- 
 tions may be only the echo of the preaching of 
 Percoto, the great Italian missionary, who visited 
 Burma about the year 1740. But there are two 
 circumstances which completely bar such a sup- 
 position. The Italian missionaries did not pene- 
 trate far into the country of the Karens. They 
 found them savage and inaccessible, and did not 
 attempt to teach them. And, even if they had 
 preached to them the story of the creation and the 
 relation of God to man, there was not time between 
 Percoto's visit and the 'advent of the American 
 missionaries in 1828 for the story to become a 
 national bard tradition. It must be remembered 
 that all the Karen traditions are sung or recited 
 from memory ; none of them are written, for there 
 was no written language. The period which 
 elapsed between Percoto and the American 
 missionaries was not long enough to allow of the 
 
NATIONAL RELIGION. 1 89 
 
 whole story becoming part of the traditions of the 
 clans. It appears most probable that their origin 
 dates from the time when the Karens had not yet 
 entered Burma, and that they were derived from 
 the colony of Nestorian Jews who made their way 
 by land from Armenia to China in the early Middle • 
 Ages, and whose track the Karens must have crossed 
 in their journey southwards. This supposition is 
 strengthened by the remarkable similarity between 
 portions of the moral code of the Karens and the 
 Law as expounded in the Old Testament, by the 
 resemblance of some of their sacrifices to the Jewish 
 rites, and by the belief which is universal among 
 them that they once received a roll of parchment 
 containing the Law from God. During all these 
 hundreds of years, the Karens, holding fast to what 
 had been delivered to them, have been looking 
 steadily for the advent of the missionaries and the 
 fulfilirient of the prophecy of restoration. This 
 expectant attitude has been the cause of several 
 fanatical risings among the Karens, stimulated by 
 false prophets who have from time to time come 
 forward and incited them to rebellion. The last of 
 these risings occurred in 1840, when thousands of 
 Karens marched unarmed on Rangoon, under a 
 leader who had announced himself to be the chosen 
 
igo THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 of God sent to deliver the nation. The fanatics 
 were met by Burmese troops, and slaughtered 
 almost to a man. 
 
 The Karen-nees, or Red Karens, claim superiority 
 over the other tribes from their possession of metal 
 plates, which they declare to be part of the original 
 written Word given to them by God. The\' say 
 that, although they sinned equally with the rest in 
 losing the knowledge of reading and writing, they 
 have shown so much reverence for these plates that 
 God will be far more merciful to them than to the 
 other tribes. They proudly attribute their inde- 
 pendence to the special favour thus shown them. 
 These plates are looked upon as the palladium of 
 the clan, and are guarded with jealous care. Copies 
 of them have been taken and shown to European 
 and Oriental scholars, but, so far as is known, they 
 have not yet been deciphered. 
 
( 191 ) 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE AMERICAN MISSION AMONG THE KARENS. 
 
 " Often, perhaps, had the Christian voyager gazed 
 on the rocky promontories of Burma, crowned with 
 their whitened pagodas that glow amid the eternal 
 verdure of tropical climes, but he little thought 
 that the misty mountain-tops in the distance threw 
 their shadows over the dwellings of a people that, 
 generation after generation, had charged their 
 posterity never to worship idols. Xavier had passed 
 their mountain homes when he went to look on, 
 but not to enter, inhospitable China, and found a 
 surreptitious resting-place and grave upon its barren 
 rocks. Swartz had laboured half a century to 
 destroy the three hundred thousand gods of India 
 without hearing of the nation that had rejected 
 them all from the remotest ages. Carey had made 
 his forty versions without a line for the people that 
 were longing with hope deferred for the word of 
 God. And Judson had lived seven years in Ran- 
 
192 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 goon, preaching the eternal God, before a single 
 Burman would admit His existence ; while the 
 poor unnoticed Karens were continually passing 
 his door, singing by the way — ■ 
 
 " God is eternal, His life is long — 
 God is immortal, His life is long : 
 One cycle He dies not. 
 Two cycles He dies not, 
 Perfect in gieat attributes. 
 Age on age He dies not." 
 
 The Roman Catholics, who preceded the Protes- 
 tants in Burma many years, appear to have entirely 
 overlooked the Karens ; and it was not till after 
 the first Burmese war that these people began to 
 attract attention. Up to 1828, they were, as a 
 separate nation, unknown. They were looked upon 
 as a mixed horde of aboriginal savages. No one 
 had dreamt of their being a united little people, 
 with such a history and such capacities for national 
 life as they have. The incident which first brought 
 them to notice was a striking one. A Karen called 
 Ko Tha Byii, debt-slave to a Burman, had been 
 set free by Dr. Judson, and employed as a water- 
 carrier. Ko Tha Byii found a Christian tract one 
 day as he was working in Dr. Judson's house. It 
 was in the Burmese language, and he read it with 
 difiiculty. At last, however, he mastered it, and 
 
AMERICAN MISSION. I93 
 
 its teachings struck him as singularly like the 
 teachings of the God- traditions of his people. His 
 eyes were opened ; he discovered that at last the 
 long-predicted return of God to his nation through 
 the white man had been fulfilled. Fired with this 
 knowledge, and overcome with joy at the glad 
 tidings which he was now able to bring to his 
 degraded and debased fellow-countrymen, he went 
 forth as an apostle among the people, and laboured 
 for a generation, proclaiming the restoration of the 
 Karen nation and the return of God to them after 
 centuries of expectation. He became the means 
 of opening up to the American missionaries a field 
 of enterprise of which they had never dreamed. 
 The field has been ardently worked ever since.* 
 Its success has been unique in the history of 
 
 * In a minute by the Chief Commissioner of British Burma, dated 
 May I, 1863, I find the following : — "The district of Toungoo was 
 occupied by British troops early in 1S53. ... At that time nearly 
 the whole of the Karen tribes on the mountains east of Toungoo — that 
 is, over an area of more than two thousand square miles — were in a 
 savage state. The Burmese Government never had authority over 
 any of the tribes living more than a day's journey from the city and 
 river. In process of time, from the constant labour of the (American) 
 missionaries, many thousands of the mountain Karens were instructed 
 in Christianity, abandoned their savage mode of life and their cruel 
 wars, and lived as Christian men and women. ... I assert, from 
 long experience among similar tribes, that such results could no: 
 be obtained by the civil administration, unaided by missionary 
 leaching. 
 
194 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 missions, because it has at once satisfied a great 
 national religious need, and in doing so has de- 
 veloped a national civilization. Three processes 
 have ever since been simultaneously in operation — 
 Christianity, education, and civilization. The Karens 
 regard these three as indivisible parts of the message 
 virhich for ages their ancestors had firmly believed 
 God would at some time or other send to them. 
 They cannot see why a lesson in arithmetic should 
 not be given at a Sunday school. They cannot 
 understand a church without a school, or a school 
 without a church, or either of these without 
 material advance in civilization and in the com- 
 forts of life ; better houses, better food, and more 
 money with which to live, enjoy life and do good 
 to their fellows. Each of these ends is looked 
 upon as the necessary accompaniment of the other. 
 In this linking of religion with all that is good, 
 useful, profitable, and happy in daily life lies the 
 secret of the marvellous success of the Karen 
 mission in the past, and the bright hopes for the 
 future. Christianity is looked upon as a great end 
 in itself, but equally as a powerful lever for raising 
 the condition of the people. It is no dying race — 
 no race in its decadence, like the Sandwich 
 islanders, that Christianity has got hold of here ; 
 
AMERICAN MISSION. 1 95 
 
 but a young and vigorous race, springing up with 
 marvellous elasticity from the grinding oppression 
 of centuries. In common with the American mis- 
 sionaries, I sincerely believe in the capacity for 
 development of the Karens, and in the power of 
 Christianity to develop them. There is intense 
 vitality in the race. Under all the crushing tyranny 
 which they have borne, decimated as they have been 
 by constant internal struggles, they have still been 
 increasing in numbers, and peace and protection 
 under British rule have enabled them to multiply 
 rapidly. 
 
 Another secret of the great success of the 
 American mission in the past is this — that the 
 movement has been truly a national one, a genuine 
 uprising of the people themselves. Nine-tenths of 
 the work which has been accomplished has, under 
 the guidance of the missionaries, been done by the 
 Karens themselves. They have brought to the 
 movement their great powers of combination, and, 
 what is of immense importance, they have worked 
 on their own lines, incorporating in the new 
 national structure all that was valuable in the old. 
 They seem to have instinctively perceived that, to 
 secure the benefits which they knew would result 
 from the adoption of Christianity, they must work 
 
196 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 as a nation, retaining such parts of their ancient 
 constitution as would fit in with the new departure. 
 The Christian section has never lost touch with 
 the heathen section. The old hegemony, the un- 
 swerving allegiance to leaders, even the tribal 
 organization with all its important incidents, have 
 been maintained. A Christian Karen is just as 
 much one of his clan as he ever was. He eagerly 
 adopts anything new that will improve his con- 
 dition and the condition of his village or his clan, 
 but it must be introduced just as anything new 
 would have been introduced in the olden time. He 
 adopts a sewing-machine or a new loom with alacrity, 
 because he knows that good will come of it to his 
 people. Hundreds of Burmese come and watch the 
 new looms which are at work in the Karen villages ; 
 but when asked to adopt them, they shake their 
 heads — their ancestors had never used such things. 
 On the other hand, try and make a Christian 
 Karen adopt anything independently of his clan, 
 try and make him feel himself a unit, separate from 
 his village, and you will see his conservatism at 
 once. Ask any one of them, " What do you think 
 of this or that new plan ? " He will ask, " What 
 do the elders say ? " 
 
 The mission is no sickly exotic, planted in an 
 
AMERICAN MISSION. 1 97 
 
 unfriendly soil ; but a plant of the universal 
 Christian religion, so thoroughly acclimatized as to 
 be really indigenous. I have heard the Karens 
 sometimes blamed for their " provoking indepen- 
 dence," for their pertinacity in developing along 
 their own lines. But is not this independence the 
 very best guarantee for the permanency of the 
 results attained ? 
 
 Judging by its past history and its present 
 aspect, it may be predicted that the mission will 
 end in planting among the Karens a distinct, 
 independent branch of the Christian Church, 
 and in establishing with it and through it a 
 national civilization. The Christianity and the 
 civilization will be in reality indigenous — attained 
 by a process of evolution distinctively Karen. 
 Were the views of Christian truth and the religious 
 experiences of the Karens identical with those of 
 other races, it might be feared that they were 
 spurious. There is just enough idiosyncrasy in 
 both to show that the seeds of Christianity and 
 of civilization have been affected by the climate 
 and soil in which they have been planted, and that 
 the products are no mere servile imitation of the 
 foreign article. The mission will grow both by 
 accretions from the heathen and by increase from 
 
ipS THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 within itself. The heathen Karen looks on its 
 complete success as a foregone conclusion. He 
 watches the solid Christian phalanx working and 
 growing as one man, and contrasts it with the 
 disunion of the Buddhists all around. He often 
 says, " I can't give up my liquor or break loose 
 from my family ties, but you will get all tJiese" 
 pointing to his children. 
 
 It may perhaps be asked whether the success of 
 the Karen mission is not due mainly to its material 
 progress. The suspicion naturally arises that in a 
 downtrodden race which feels conscious of powers 
 and aspires to elevate itself, the success won may 
 be spurious, and may be due to other causes than 
 a sincere adoption of the great doctrines of Chris- 
 tianity. I am convinced, from what I know and 
 have seen, that it is not so. I believe that devotion 
 to the Christian faith has supplied the one link that 
 was wanting to complete what may be called the 
 federative capacity of the Karens, and make their 
 national unity strong enough to resist all disinte- 
 grating forces. Nothing that the Government has 
 yet done has succeeded in rousing the people to 
 a sense of their dignity as men or as a nation. 
 The Government has given them nothing around 
 which their national aspirations could rally. Chris- 
 
AMERICAN MISSION. 1 99 
 
 tianity at the hands of the American missionaries 
 has done this. Once a village has embraced 
 Christianity, it feels itself a head and shoulders 
 above its neighbours, and all the energies of the 
 people are at once employed in making their 
 village worthy of the name. No labour, no ex- 
 pense are spared. The Christian village must be 
 clean, healthy, neat ; it must have the best school 
 and the best church they can afford. Nothing 
 will satisfy till all these are accomplished facts. 
 Money-aid from the missionaries is not sought ; 
 the people do it all themselves — plan, contrive, 
 and carry out. They are proud of their new 
 condition, and their zeal knows no bounds. Their 
 children must be well dressed and educated, intelli- 
 gent and industrious in their calling, better tillers 
 of the soil, better hunters, better foresters than 
 their fathers, because they are now animated by a 
 new spirit, fired with a new zeal, and their wits 
 are sharpened by education. Nothing is too good, 
 too costly, with which to honour and adorn their 
 new faith. Their hereditary longings appear to be 
 entirely satisfied. The coming of Christianity has 
 honoured their national traditions. They feel 
 themselves and their ancestors justified before all 
 men. A new life opens out to them — a new career, 
 
200 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 for which their forefathers had sighed in the ages 
 of hardship and oppression and slavery. They are 
 proud to devote their lives to working out the high 
 destiny which they believe God had in the long 
 past prepared for them. They have spent thou- 
 . sands of pounds, earned by hard toil, on their 
 churches and schools. They will not have anything 
 but the best It is not the influence of the mis- 
 sionaries which has done all this. All that the 
 missionaries have done is to strike the latent spark 
 that has kindled them. The Karens are going far 
 beyond the short-sighted policy which would put 
 every educated man into the ministry. To use 
 their own words, " A mission must have a full chest 
 of tools — must have lawyers, doctors, engineers, 
 schoolmasters, and every sort of tradesman." I 
 have asked numbers of them this question : " Will 
 your solid unity continue after you have reached 
 your aim, or will the Karen Christians become 
 merged in the mass of educated men in Burma, 
 and lose the characteristics of their race ? " I have 
 explained to them that, their confederacy having 
 originally sprung from confessed weakness, it is 
 possible that the strength gained by Christianity 
 might, by removing the original cause, destroy the 
 effect In every case I have met with an emphatic 
 
AMERICAN MISSION. 20I 
 
 denial of the possibility of such a result, and the 
 retort that the cohesion is stronger among the 
 educated Karens than among the illiterate, and 
 that with material prosperity the craving for a 
 united Karen nation increases. And so it is. The 
 possibility of a separation of the Christian sections 
 of the people from the heathen was, some few 
 years ago, foreseen by the more enlightened, and a 
 movement was at once set on foot to prevent the 
 commencement of such a process. A National 
 Karen Association was founded — representative of 
 all the clans, Christian and heathen, with the 
 avowed object of keeping the nation together in 
 the march of progress ; of allowing all Karens, with- 
 out distinction of belief, to meet on a common 
 platform. In a future chapter I shall enter more 
 fully into the objects of this association. I mention 
 it here to show that, far from any separatist 
 tendencies showing themselves, the enlightened 
 Christian party — which is the party of progress — 
 is daily evincing a keener desire to preserve the 
 national unity and elevate the entire race. There 
 is in this a ground of high hope. The mass of the 
 Karen Church of the future will be, in my opinion, 
 intelligent, educated cultivators of the soil. From 
 these will spring up, through their schools, their 
 
202 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 professional and business men. These will form 
 the cutting edge of the nation, gaining incisive 
 power from the weight and cohesion of the peasant 
 mass from which it sprang. Not many years can 
 this vigorous young giant be kept in leading- 
 strings. Several of the Karen missions are already 
 financially independent and entirely self-maintain- 
 ing. The time is not far distant when the leader- 
 ship will pass from American hands into those of 
 Karen blood. I do not believe that the Karen 
 Christians will ever become a caste that implies 
 segregation. They will rather develop into a 
 body like the Parsees in India ; but they will be 
 more powerful than the Parsees, because their 
 backbone is an intelligent peasantry. I do not 
 believe that any community can become really 
 powerful if it is separated from the land. The one 
 weak point in the Parsee- — as also in the Jew — is 
 that he never is a tiller of the soil. With all their 
 wonderful shrewdness as traders, the Jews never 
 become a power, because they are divorced from 
 the soil. I have heard it said by an officer of great 
 experience in Burma and a keen observer, " The 
 Burman cannot stand before the Karen. The 
 Karen and the native of India will divide Burma 
 between them." There is some ground for this 
 
AMERICAN MISSION. 203 
 
 prediction. A race which despises manual labour 
 is doomed. The Burman will not toil for his bread 
 if he can get it in any other way. The Karen has 
 a vast capacity for hard work, and sees no shame 
 in toiling with his hands. Strange, indeed, it would 
 be if in the distant future the Karen should become 
 the master and the Burman the servant, and if, as 
 was predicted fifty years ago by an eminent mis- 
 sionary on his death-bed, " The Burmese should 
 receive eternal life at the hands of those who were 
 once their slaves." 
 
 The Christian Karen looks on his missionary as 
 his paramount chief, and his pastor as his local 
 chief Under their leadership, he readily combines 
 to support schools and missions among the heathen. 
 He does not think himself aggrieved when taxed 
 for the support of schools in which he has no 
 children. If it were to be suggested to him that 
 there was any unfairness in his being so taxed, he 
 would say, "Why, that school belongs to my 
 mission." His submission to his chief is not 
 slavish, by any means, but voluntary. He submits 
 because he knows it to be necessary' tliat he should. 
 He claims the right to grumble and growl in 
 council, and to have all his objections patiently 
 heard ; but when his leaders decide he feels bound 
 
204 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 to follow. In return for his obedience, he considers 
 that he has an absolute title to protection. The 
 local church takes the place of the clan-unit, or 
 village. These churches are federally united into 
 associations or missions, which look up to the 
 missionary as their leader. These associations 
 take the place of the confederacies of clans. 
 Affairs are managed under the Christian regime 
 just as they were in the olden time by the council 
 of leaders. Everything is informal. In a public 
 meeting regularly conducted on modern methods 
 the Karen feels cramped ; he loses his freedom 
 of speech. An informal council assembles and 
 debates in a free and easy way ; there is no re- 
 straint either on speech or gesture. Say it is the 
 expense of a school that is under discussion. The 
 proposed budget of expenditure is laid before the 
 meeting and examined item by item. Every one 
 has a voice, but the natural veneration of the Karen 
 for old age, long experience, and proved ability 
 throws the pith of the discussion into the hands of 
 a few of the older grey-heads. Every one jealously 
 reserves his right to grumble and freely express his 
 dissent, but he submits cheerfully if the vote is 
 against him. His clan has spoken through its 
 chiefs, and this ends the matter. In a meeting at 
 
AMERICAN MISSION. 205 
 
 which I was present, the question was, how to raise 
 funds for the support of an important school. The 
 leaders were at their wits'-end. The poor yield of 
 paddy in the previous season and the enhctncement 
 of the Government land-tax had sadly crippled 
 the people. After many proposals had been put 
 forward and rejected, it was suggested that a tax 
 of fifteen rupees for each pupil should be levied. 
 This was a new thing, and it was strenuously 
 opposed by many present ; but, after an animated 
 discussion, the informal vote was taken and the 
 tax levied. All then went over to the chapel, 
 and in formal convention ratified what had been 
 done. Those who had grumbled loudest paid 
 down their money cheerfiilly. The meeting broke 
 up pleasantly, because all saw the necessity for the 
 measure taken, and because their objections had 
 been patiently listened to. Had the meeting of 
 the leaders been held with closed doors, had the 
 growling been choked off and the growlers snubbed, 
 had any restraint been set on free expression of 
 opinion, there would have been a row at once. 
 
 Slowly the idea has been gaining ground, even 
 among the most ignorant and backward of the 
 Karens, that there is some hope for their despised 
 and outcast race. Their desponding cry used to 
 
2o6 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 be, in the language of their old proverbs, " We are 
 the leaf, other races are the thorn : if the leaf 
 falls on the thorn, it is pierced ; if the thorn falls on 
 the leaf, the leaf is pierced all the same." " We are 
 the egg, other races are the rock : the egg fell on 
 the rock, and it was broken ; the rock fell on the 
 egg, and the egg was broken." " If I tread on the 
 ordure of a Burman, he exacts a fine ; if he treads 
 on mine, he exacts a fine." The idea has now 
 permeated even the lowest that Christianity and 
 education combined will enable the Karen to hold 
 his own. Hence the wonderful sacrifices he is 
 making. 
 
 It is worth while to watch some rough, unkempt 
 old Karens, fresh from the jungle, sitting for hours 
 in one of these schools, listening to recitations in 
 geometry or algebra, as if they were the most 
 fascinating tales they had ever heard. I asked one 
 of these old fellows what it was that pleased him in 
 all he heard and saw. He said, " There is a day of 
 jubilee coming for the slave Karen. I can't see the 
 light myself, but I can see those who can.'' The 
 marks scored by the pupils of a village are copied 
 out, taken home, and discussed with as much pride 
 by the other villagers as by the parents. Watch 
 the crowd that sits from three to four hours through 
 
AMERICAN MISSION. 20/ 
 
 a school-examination. They do not pretend to 
 understand one-half of what is said, yet you see 
 unflagging interest in all of them, both those who 
 have children in the school and those who have 
 not. 
 
 An aged Karen, who was sent as a type of his 
 race to the Ethnological section of the Calcutta 
 Exhibition in the end of 1883, was met by the 
 small band of Karen boys who had gone to 
 Calcutta to study for the university. It was 
 pleasant to see the filial regard of the youngsters 
 for their venerable but illiterate clansman. At 
 parting the old man addressed them. He told 
 them how proudly he had watched them pass their 
 various examinations before leaving Burma, and 
 how he had rejoiced in their progress. He told 
 therii that the times, were being turned upside 
 down, and that the educated young men must lead, 
 and their old fathers must follow. He warned 
 them of the temptations to which he had observed 
 they were exposed in Calcutta, and pleaded with 
 them to make good use of the great privileges 
 which they enjoyed. The almost paternal pride of 
 the old man in " his boys," as he called them, 
 although they were no relations of his, was a 
 pleasing and touching spectacle. 
 
208 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 A striking proof of the genuine public spirit which 
 animates the Karens was given not many weeks ago. 
 When the Mayankhyoung poongyee was captured, 
 the Government reward of five thousand rupees was 
 given to the captors — the hill Karens. The ques- 
 tion then arose how to dispose of the money. It 
 was put to the vote, and resolved by the villagers 
 without a dissentient voice that the money should 
 be given to the schools, which, they proudly said, 
 had made men of them. 
 
( 209 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 CHRISTIANIZING A HEATHEN KAREN VILLAGE. 
 
 A HEATHEN village asks for a native preacher. 
 Perhaps some of the children have been to a 
 Christian school ; perhaps the preaching of the 
 missionary has excited some discussion among the 
 young men, who see more of the busy world around 
 them than their fathers did ; or perhaps, as fre- 
 quently happens, some man who has been brooding 
 for years over the God-traditions of the people, 
 begins to wonder whether Christianity may not 
 be the long-expected deliverer of his race. Or it 
 may be that some of the residents have gone on 
 business to a Christian village, and, noticing the 
 sober, industrious lives of the people, and observing 
 how happy and comfortable all of them are, have 
 been puzzled to know how this change has come 
 about, and have inquired. They have been pointed 
 to the Bible, and led to desire to know something 
 
 P 
 
2IO THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 of its teaching. Their request is brought before 
 the Karen Home Mission Society, with a statement 
 of what they will do for the support of any man 
 who may be assigned to them. This is insisted 
 upon as a pledge of good faith. 
 
 A pastor is chosen and sent, but with no promise 
 or certainty of any salary. He knows that he is 
 sure of nothing but bare subsistence. He takes 
 with him a stock of quinine, some carbolic acid for 
 wounds, plenty of aperient pills, vaccine tubes for 
 a crusade against small-pox — the arch-destroyer 
 in these jungle villages — a few other simple 
 medicines, and off he goes. During the day he 
 keeps up a school. Every evening he rings his 
 gong, and gives a short Bible-reading, followed by 
 prayer, and talks with the people in a free, easy 
 way about some of the simpler doctrines of the 
 Christian religion. He attends to the sick, praying 
 over them before administering medicine, urging 
 them no longer to fear the demons as the causes 
 of sickness, but to place themselves directly under 
 the protection of God, who has now returned to 
 them, often alluding to the casting out of demons 
 by Christ while on earth. Much that the preacher 
 has to tell them they already know, almost by 
 heart. From their childhood they have heard of 
 
CHRISTIANIZING A VILLAGE. 211 
 
 the great wonderful God, but they have been taught 
 to think of Him as far distant from them, as angry 
 with them because of their sins. They know He 
 is the Creator of the world and of man. They are 
 proud to acknowledge Him, but their pride is the 
 pride of an outcast of noble lineage whose only 
 solace in poverty and misery is that he had a great 
 and noble ancestor. The assurance given by the 
 pastor that God has now come back to them, and 
 wishes them to meet Him half-way, is a revelation 
 which stirs them to the depths of their hearts. 
 Some marvel and can scarcely believe ; others 
 doubt ; a few at once grasp the truth with ecstasy. 
 All feel that something has happened which their 
 forefathers had said and their minstrels had sung 
 would one day happen ; and all are impressed with 
 the necessity of setting their houses in order, and 
 of making their village worthy of the pastor who 
 has told them such wonderful news. Although 
 only a few of them accept the whole truth at once, 
 all of them connect the coming of the pastor with 
 the prophecies which they have so often heard of 
 the restoration of the Karen race, and believe that 
 something good is coming. All feel that they have 
 risen somewhat in the social scale ; and it is a 
 point of honour to make their children worthy of 
 
212 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 the great future which they feel may be in store 
 for them. 
 
 Not many months pass before the preacher has 
 become the leader of all the business and real life 
 of the place. Being the only educated man in the 
 vicinity, he has to draw up all agreements and 
 manage everybody's business for him. His advice 
 is asked about everything, and as experience shows 
 him to be a safe guide, he is implicitly followed 
 more and more as the sagacity of his counsels is 
 proved. Everything does not go smoothly how- 
 ever. Bouts of drunkenness and rioting occur, and 
 the preacher is sometimes much disheartened. But 
 he patiently shows the rioters the folly of their 
 conduct and the sin and danger of once more 
 embroiling their nation with the God who had 
 condescended to be reconciled to them. One after 
 another surrenders himself to the preacher's in- 
 fluence. The children begin to take home some of 
 the knowledge of Scripture which they have picked 
 up at school. Above all, the music of the hymns 
 goes right to the Karen's heart. His own national 
 music was plaintive and lugubrious — in the minor 
 key, with scarcely a major passage. It voiced the 
 sad, querulous plaint of a race that confessed itself 
 deserted by God. The Christian Karen will 
 
CHRISTIANIZING A VILLAGE. 213 
 
 scarcely ever sing a minor air. Bold stirring march 
 music of marked rhythm — that gives voice to an 
 imprisoned drum-beat in every throb of the singer's 
 heart — alone satisfies him. The words cling to the 
 music, and bring lasting comfort to many a home. 
 
 All this time the spiritual life of the village as 
 a whole has, perhaps, not been visibly touched. 
 Many a man, however, broods over the thoughts 
 of the preacher's last sermon as he follows his 
 plough or fells the giant forest trees. The wife 
 croons over a hymn-book as her spinning-wheel 
 buzzes, and wonders what the "fort" is which she 
 is called upon to "hold," and who it is that is 
 " coming." 
 
 As the months and years go by, and the village 
 grows in numbers and in wealth and comfort, the 
 pastor, old and grey, comes to be perfectly revered. 
 His influence and authority are enormous. He is 
 the living embodiment to the villagers of all that 
 Christianity, education, and civilization have done 
 for them. It is amusing to notice the way in 
 which he sometimes exercises his authority. Often 
 he will not allow a man to sell his paddy himself, 
 for fear he will waste the proceeds. So he sells 
 it for him, devotes part of the proceeds to paying 
 any debts outstanding against him or repairing his 
 
214 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 house, returning him the balance by instalments. 
 The man submits, because he knows it is for his 
 good, and the integrity of the pastor is above sus- 
 picion. Often the pastor picks up reckless, im- 
 provident men over head and ears in debt He 
 brings them home to the village, sets them to 
 work, collects all their wages, pays up their debts 
 by instalments, and keeps them at work, teaching 
 them practical lessons of industry. When a man's 
 debts have thus been paid, he will be trusted little 
 by little until he has shown that he has acquired 
 habits of perseverance and thrift. 
 
 The pastor sometimes keeps a printed book, in 
 which is recorded ever\' financial transaction of the 
 village. He draws out on printed forms all papers 
 about rent of land, hire of buffaloes or oxen, hire of 
 coolies, and the like. He is the general umpire to 
 see fair play. When a man dies he is executor of 
 his estate, and manages for the widow and orphans 
 till the youngsters are old enough to take affairs 
 into their own hands. The pastor thus holds in 
 his hands the tangled threads of all the village 
 business, and is the real centre of its life. 
 
 It is but natural that in proportion as the pastor 
 is loved by his flock he is hated by the Burman 
 money-lender, who has been fleecing the village for 
 
CHRISTIANIZING A VILLAGE. 21$ 
 
 years. The very first thing a preacher sets about 
 when he arrives in a village is to pay off the Bur- 
 man usurer. He does not sit down quietly and let 
 the money-lender play his old tricks. Soon the 
 village is worked out of debt, and ere long it has 
 money to lend instead of borrowing. Instead of 
 hiring themselves out as labourers, you soon see 
 the villagers hiring coolies — often Burmans — to 
 work on the gradually enlarging rice-farms. The 
 Burmese themselves sometimes remark that nowa- 
 days things are turned upside down. You will see 
 thousands of Burmese coolies hired by Karens, but 
 you will never find a Karen coolie in a Burman 
 household. They often quote an old prophecy, 
 which runs thus : " A foreigner may be a ' sir,' a 
 Karen a lord, while the Burman is of no account at 
 all (a-la-gd).'' Soon you find the preacher investing 
 the earnings of his people in land and renting it 
 out to Burmans. He does this to prevent his 
 Karens spending the money and in order to have 
 land ready for the rising generation to cultivate ; 
 for, as he says, " If the people go on multiplying 
 like this, there will be no room for them : we must 
 widen the farms and stock them well." 
 
 The Government official, even if anxious to do 
 his best, has not a tenth part of the power for 
 
2l6 THE LOYAL KARENS AT BURMA. 
 
 good, moral and material, among the Karens which 
 their pastor or schoolmaster has. The pastor 
 decides more suits, settles more disputes, and does 
 more real business than half a dozen myokes, or 
 local judges. I once met a Burman myoke in the 
 house of a Karen pastor. The Burman laughingly- 
 said to the pastor that he would have to arrest him 
 some day for defrauding the revenue. " How so ? " 
 asked the preacher. " I can scarcely sell any 
 stamped paper while you live in my township," 
 was the Burman's reply ; " for you decide many 
 more suits than I do." "I've no lawyers nor stamped 
 papers in my court — that's the reason," replied the 
 Karen pastor, laughing heartily. 
 
 Incidents like these, the simple story of a re- 
 form^ Karen village, teach a lesson of serious 
 import to our Government. We go about the 
 business of civilizing subject -peoples far too 
 mechanically and with but little real knowledge 
 or appreciation of the human natures — the flesh 
 and blood — with which we are dealing. This is 
 why we remain aliens wherever we go. This is 
 why our cut and dry civilization goes only skin- 
 deep. This is why our schemes of self-government 
 find no genuine support among the populations of 
 the East. Our heads are hot and busy, but our 
 
CHRISTIANIZING A VILLAGE. 21/ 
 
 hearts are cold as stone. Our administration lacks 
 the one essential of permanent success — the first, 
 second, and third excellence — sympathy. There 
 have been gifted men — notably the late Sir Arthur 
 Phayre — with a real genius for governing nations 
 in their infancy. Phayre's name is revered by the 
 Karens. He had the remarkable faculty of leading 
 wild, ignorant tribes by the heart ; and he could 
 make them do just what he liked. But the Phayres 
 have been sadly few. 
 
2l8 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 POLICY OF THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT TOWARD 
 THE KARENS. 
 
 The best way of learning how to govern a people 
 is to consult the people themselves. Depend upon 
 it, there is something worth keeping in their time- 
 honoured usages. Much there may be to prune 
 away, but there is sure to be a residue of good 
 which will repay cultivation. The framework of 
 the original constitution may have become over- 
 grown with a good deal that is harmful ; the ancient 
 customs may, from vicissitudes of fortune, from 
 oppression and hard times, have been turned to 
 bad account ; the old order of things may have 
 been a good deal disturbed by contact with other 
 races or by internal quarrels ; but if the original 
 polity can only be disentangled from the noxious 
 accretions which have weakened or hidden it 
 perhaps for ages, it will supply the true principles 
 on which to govern. There is a capacity for self- 
 
POLICY OF BRITISH GOVERNMENT. 219 
 
 government in every people, but it varies with 
 race and climate. The highest excellence in any 
 administration must always consist in the percep- 
 tion of this capacity, and in leading it into those 
 channels for which it is best suited. We have 
 conceded what may be called a limited self- 
 government to the people of India ; but we have 
 made the concession without discernment of the 
 varying capacities of the races and classes to whom 
 it has been granted. We have dealt with all alike, 
 neglecting distinctive national characteristics. We 
 have failed to seize the true spirit of self-govern- 
 ment in the East Both in method and in scope 
 we are wrong. We have, to use a homely illustra- 
 tion, tried to make legs do the work of arms, and 
 arms the work of legs ; and at the same time we 
 have offered a sphere of activity where fingers are 
 best employed. Just as the Burmese make their 
 great gongs of a mixture of all sorts of metals, fine 
 and base, so we manufacture civilization in the East. 
 We melt down all the subject-races into one huge 
 mass, and then cast them ruthlessly in our Western 
 mould. But the parallel ends here ; for the Burmese 
 gong has a true ring in it, whereas the product of our 
 wholesale civilization has not. We have no art in 
 our government. We do not understand the culti- 
 
220 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 vation of human varieties. We would supply, at 
 short notice, administrative machinery, on contract, 
 to every country under the sun, and drive it by a 
 big high-pressure compound engine at Whitehall ; 
 and we would supplant all indigenous processes by 
 patents of our own. The result of our method is 
 this : that the reforms which we endeavour to 
 introduce strike no real root ; the soil and climate 
 are not congenial to the plant. The year 1986 
 will, I fear, find the millions of India not one whit 
 more able to govern themselves than they are now. 
 We have nowhere fostered the growth of real 
 national life. We are endeavouring to create a New 
 English India. The product will not be much to 
 our credit. 
 
 Why should we not try — if only as a political 
 experiment — to give the Karens a chance of grow- 
 ing as a nation in their own vvay.^ Why should 
 we not try and bring their wild growth under culti- 
 vation, grafting on the ancient roots as time and 
 experience improve our perception and increase 
 our skill. We have here a little people^probably 
 under a million in all — who aspire to keep their 
 nationaUty intact. Why should we not allow them, 
 encourage them, to do so ? The result may be of 
 the highest interest in the future, and cannot fail 
 
POLICY OF BRITISH GOVERNMENT. 221 
 
 to be fraught with great benefit to the people them- 
 selves ; it will strengthen British rule, and safeguard 
 it in the times of trouble which may yet be in store 
 for us in Burma. 
 
 What, then, have the Karens to say for them- 
 selves .'' Have we any indications of the future to 
 which they look forward, of the destiny to which 
 they aspire, and of the way in which they would 
 work it out? Here is a literal, unembelHshed 
 description of the programme which they have set 
 out for themselves. I give it as I received it from 
 the lips of one of the most intelligent of them, 
 speaking as a representative of thousands of his 
 clansmen, both Christian and heathen : — 
 
 " The Karens, as highlanders, for self-preservation 
 and defence, have for ages been indoctrinated with 
 the policy of association. Living as they do in 
 their long houses on the hills, forming a family 
 group, having a common hall, to meet and to 
 discuss tribal matters of peace and of war, they 
 have a facility for combination. 
 
 " On their emigrating to the lowlands, and living 
 in separate houses in villages, the current of asso- 
 ciation and combination seems to be interrupted — 
 dormant, but not extinguished, till, among those 
 Christianized, it is again brought into play in the 
 
222 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 formation of associations for the promotion of 
 Christianity, where delegates from churches are 
 appointed to meet and act in union for a common 
 object. 
 
 " This return current combined only the Christian 
 Karens, and though it indirectly benefited the 
 heathens in a measure, yet directly it left the 
 heathen Karens untouched. 
 
 " This segregation of the Christian Karens split 
 the Karen race into two sections, the heathen and 
 the Christian. The former, with no means of 
 educating themselves — the written language being 
 not theirs, the white Book sealed to them — uncared 
 for by the State, as their voice could not be heard, 
 are no better off than in the days of Burmese rule, 
 because of their ignorance. On the other hand, the 
 latter, with his village school, his newspaper the 
 Morning Star, the Association of the Churches, 
 the Home Mission Societies, the Missionary Con- 
 ventions, the High Schools, is prepared to start in 
 life with every advantage. 
 
 " To many of us who have been benefited by 
 Christianity, it appears that this facility of com- 
 bination can be utilized for the heathen Karen in 
 common with the Christian — that there is ground 
 wide enough for us all, without distinction of belief 
 
POLICY OF BRITISH GOVERNMENT. 223 
 
 to meet on a common platform, united by ties 
 broader even than the ties of religion ; to pursue 
 purely secular objects, and thus benefit our younger 
 brothers, and in lifting them up lift ourselves too. 
 The most of us know that for the civilization of a 
 race, the mass must be raised as a solid body. 
 
 " I for one firmly believe that the hope for my 
 race is in our schools. The people must help 
 themselves, and not depend entirely upon the State. 
 With this great factor of civilization at the com- 
 mand of the race, every success could be confidently 
 hoped for for the elevation of the Karens. 
 
 " Hence we deemed that a representative body 
 representing the Karens from all parts of British 
 Burma has now become a necessity. 
 " Such an Association is needed — 
 
 " I. To utilize the clannishness of the race by 
 having a common platform for heathen 
 and Christian Karens, and thereby keep 
 the nation together. 
 " 2. To enable the Karens to help themselves 
 and one another in case of oppression and 
 wrong in purely secular affairs, and thus 
 free our missionaries in a large measure 
 from the charge of "interference" with 
 officers of Government — deferring to the 
 
224 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 guidance and counsel of our missionaries 
 in all points compatible with their labours 
 for us. 
 
 "3. To help young men of ability through 
 scholarships to study in Burma, India, or 
 England for the liberal professions, and 
 to further the schemes of Government in 
 the education of the race. 
 
 " 4. The Karens being largely an agricultural 
 class, the time will come when this com- 
 bination would be useful for the promo- 
 tion of agriculture, inasmuch as the Karen, 
 if he desires to be a " landholder " under 
 Government, must improve the land, now 
 being impoverished from year to year, 
 and nothing added to the richness of the 
 soil. To make the work of an agriculturist 
 remunerative, we think that the day is 
 not distant when manual labour alone will 
 not do, but that a knowledge of manures 
 and soils, rotation of crops, and other 
 kindred subjects, would be indispensably 
 necessary. In case an agricultural school 
 for Karens is needed, this Association, the 
 greater portion of its members being 
 cultivators, would be of great use. 
 
POLICY OF BRITISH GOVERNMENT. 225 
 
 " To the Government the move would be useful — 
 " I. To lead the Karens from their Utopian 
 ideas, dangerous from the gullibility of 
 ignorant Karens, and the liability to be 
 led astray by pretended prophets. 
 " 2. To help the Government in all the schemes 
 for the amelioration of the condition of 
 the race. 
 " 3. To form a telephonic line of communication 
 by which the Government can make itself 
 thoroughly understood by even the most 
 ignorant, and to transmit to Government 
 all grievances or causes of complaint. 
 " To an ordinary Karen, whose religious thought 
 is bounded by fear, and whose simplicity leads him 
 to be easily led astray by seers and prophets, and 
 who imagines that there is in store for him an 
 inheritance in Tau-Mai-Pa's land, 'flowing with 
 milk and honey,' there are two great hopes for him 
 which have by no means died out. 
 
 " I. A religious crusade under a supernatural 
 leader (Minloung) against the worship 
 of demons and foreign religions, to a 
 religion of pure Theism and a National 
 Church. 
 "2. An exodus under a Moses to a land of 
 
 Q 
 
226 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 bliss, there to enjoy the inheritance of 
 Tau-Mai-Pa. 
 " These ideas have worked for ages, and eve;n in 
 the Burmese reigns have cropped up in insurrections 
 under Minloungs, or fanatic leaders. In the tran.si- 
 tion from Burmese to British rule, these in.surrections 
 have been followed recklessly by people who are 
 otherwise loyal to the Government. 
 
 " It is our wish to bring our more intelligent and 
 educated men into constant and direct contact with 
 the mass of heathen Karens. Wisely counselled, 
 this movement will in a simple, practical way 
 enable Government, to reach the mass of the Karens 
 through their leaders, and, in accordance with the 
 Karen ideas of clanship, educate the mass to work 
 for themselves." 
 
 Is not this a spirited manifesto ? The educated 
 and Christian section of the people wish to bind 
 themselves closer than ever to their illiterate and 
 heathen tribesmen, in order to raise the nation as a 
 whole. They love to remain Karens, and they 
 desire to make themselves and their brethren 
 worthy of the name. Their advancement would 
 lose all its charm unless it brought with it advance- 
 ment to the whole nation ; their progress would 
 have no beauty to them unless it were shared by 
 
POLICY OF BRITISH GOVERNMENT. 22/ 
 
 all. The little manifesto is evidence at once of the 
 truest patriotism, and of a high capacity for self- 
 government and self-development. It does not 
 often fall to the lot of an alien government to be 
 favoured with such an opportunity as this affords. 
 Let the British Government for once try the 
 experiment of civilizing and elevating a people 
 without denationalizing them. Recognize once for 
 all the fact that the Karens are a separate nation, 
 distinct from the Burmese in origin, manners, 
 religion, and traditions. Let them feel that their 
 aspirations to keep together and grow as a nation 
 are respected and appreciated, and that we are 
 ready to co-operate with them in their efforts to 
 realize their ideal. Above all, show them sympathy. 
 The question naturally arises — What is the Govern- 
 ment to do more than it is doing at present ? 
 What are the measures which should be taken ? 
 In attempting to answer these questions, I would 
 begin by postulating the three attributes of Karen 
 nationality as we find it, to wit, their language, 
 their ancient customs and organization, and their 
 religion. No people can long survive the extinction 
 of their language. The policy of the British 
 Government has hitherto been rather to discourage 
 and disparage the Karen language, and to compel 
 
228 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 adoption of the Burmese tongue, both spoken and 
 written. The language of the courts is Burmese ; 
 Karen has no official recognition. The local 
 administration refuses to have anything to do 
 with Karen schools, unless the Burmese language 
 is the vehicle of instruction and the medium of 
 examination. The Karen language is tabooed 
 altogether. The following remark was made re- 
 cently by a Karen villager : — " As a Karen I am 
 good enough to fight for the British Government, 
 but I must become a Burman before I can get 
 back from my village school one rupee I have 
 paid the Government in educational taxes.'' Few, if 
 any, of the officers of Government can speak Karen. 
 Communication between the Karens and their rulers 
 is through interpreters, generally the missionaries. 
 The missionaries, headed by the great Judson, have 
 rescued the Karen language from oblivion and 
 given it a certain permanency by reducing it to 
 writing in the Burmese character. The way, there- 
 fore, is open. Let the Karen language be officially 
 recognized as the vehicle of communication between 
 the officers of Government and the people. Endow 
 Karen schools with liberal grants-in-aid, as the 
 late Education Commission have recommended. 
 Liberate them from all obligations to teach the 
 
POLICY OF BRITISH GOVERNMENT. 229 
 
 Burmese language. Require all officers to qualify 
 in Karen. Appoint Karen officials * — qualified 
 also in the Burmese language — in all parts of the 
 province where Karens preponderate. Issue all 
 official communications, instructions, proclamations. 
 Acts, and Rules, in both Burmese and Karea 
 Insist on Karen being taught in all schools, and 
 require every one who may be in any way associated 
 with Karens in any official capacity to learn their 
 language. Give prizes for proficiency In Karen as 
 well as in Burmese. Encourage the missionaries 
 in their study of the language. Let it never be 
 forgotten that there is no road so straight to a 
 man's heart as through his mother-tongue. 
 
 If the language is perpetuated, the national 
 customs will probably take care of themselves. 
 The clan organization, autonomy under repre- 
 sentative leaders, is the national characteristic 
 which stands out most prominently. The Govern- 
 ment can best perpetuate this, and thereby render 
 the most signal service to the cause of self-govern- 
 ment, by following the lead of the American 
 missionaries in their educational policy. In a 
 
 * There are, I believe, 120 myo-okes, or subdivisional officers, in 
 Lower Burma, of whom only six — if indeed so many — are Karens, 
 although the Karens form from one-fifth to one-sixth of the entire 
 population. 
 
230 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 previous chapter I described the way in which 
 the schools are organized and managed by the 
 people with the aid of the missionaries. Leave 
 the schools in the hands of the people as much as 
 possible. Let them, whenever possible, appoint 
 their own teachers. Let the communities for whom 
 schools are provided appoint their own delegates 
 to administer the funds and advise Government 
 on all points connected with the working of the 
 schools and the extension and improvement of the 
 means of education. In all matters connected with 
 education, let these delegates, as representatives of 
 the communities, be invariably consulted. Appoint 
 Karen inspectors, chosen from the elite of the 
 former pupils. Employ the delegates, as com- 
 mittees, in the periodical inspection of the local 
 schools. Allow them the nominations to a certain 
 number of scholarships for the University, reserving 
 the remainder for open competition. Grant special 
 concessions, such as temporary exemptions from 
 land-tax, to cultivators who can read and write 
 their own and the Burmese language, and who 
 have attained a certain proficiency in science. 
 Encourage in every possible way domestic industry. 
 Make music a branch of ordinary school education. 
 Facilitate the extension of education to backward, 
 
POLICY OF BRITISH GOVERNMENT. 23 1 
 
 sparsely populated, and unhealthy regions by 
 offering grants in aid to neighbouring communities 
 who may wish to help their poorer and less fortu- 
 nate brethren. Encourage in every way the 
 education of girls equally with boys. Much depends 
 upon the women of the family. Work as far as 
 possible with the missionaries, to whom the Karens 
 and the Government owe so much. Listen to their 
 counsel, and, where the people desire it, let them be 
 associated with them in the management of the 
 schools. It is in the encouragement and promotion 
 of education on these lines that the Government 
 can perhaps do most to strengthen the national 
 unity of the Karens. 
 
 In their village life, too, a good deal may be 
 done. Delegate to the village elders such municipal 
 and other public functions as may usefully be dis- 
 charged by them, with the consent of the com- 
 munities. Allow the village communities to keep 
 their villages to themselves, and to peremptorily 
 eject the blackguard Burmans who now infest so 
 many of them. Permit of settlement of disputes 
 by constituted courts, consisting of selected elders 
 of the village. In as far as possible, let the elders 
 be responsible for the good conduct of the village, 
 and for the peace of the adjoining tract. Recog- 
 
232 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 nize the power which ancient custom has given 
 them, of defending their village and their lands 
 from dacoits and raiders ; and, I say it advisedly, 
 do not be too squeamish about the way in which 
 they repel the raid and punish the raiders. Recent 
 events have shown the unwisdom of the policy of 
 emasculation which has been lately followed. The 
 Karens have begun to think that they dare not 
 lift a hand in their own defence. They were not, 
 at first, allowed to arm themselves, although they 
 were in constant danger from armed rebels and 
 dacoits. At length, from sheer necessity, the local 
 administration was forced to arm them and send 
 them forth to fight in defence of the Queen's 
 authority. And what followed ? No sooner was 
 the immediate emergency at an end than they 
 were ordered to be disarmed, although their villages 
 were threatened on all sides, and the arms which 
 they carried had been in many cases purchased 
 by themselves, Karens have in one or two cases, 
 I believe, been put on their trial for adopting a 
 rigorous method of self-defence in a region over- 
 run by Burmese rebels. This is not as it should 
 be. The best defence a village has, is, or should 
 be, the villagers themselves, and the burden of 
 proving excessive or culpable reprisals should lie 
 
POLICY OF BRITISH GOVERNMENT. 233 
 
 on those who provoked them. While Lower Burma 
 is in a state of anarchy and rebellion, it is little 
 short of madness to disarm the villagers and terrify 
 them by threats of judicial vengeance if they 
 should dare to hit the rebels and dacoits too hard.* 
 The last attribute of Karen nationality is — their 
 religion. My readers will perhaps wince at the bare 
 mention of the subject. But in the case of the 
 Karens the policy of Government is much simplified. 
 We, as a Christian power, occupy common ground 
 with the Karens in regard to religion. The Christian 
 section have a faith identical with our own. The 
 heathen section are in reality theists in an attitude 
 
 * A very serious case of injustice to Karens has been reported in 
 the newspapers, and the report has received subsequent confirmation 
 in certain details. The story is that, in a certain district which had 
 been much disturbed, a punitive police-tax was levied on villages 
 which had been conspicuously turbulent, or had harboured marauders, 
 or which had failed to warn the authorities of the movements of 
 dacoit gangs in their vicinity. This tax was to defray the cost of 
 extra police stationed in these villages. The tax is said to have 
 been assessed and collected by Burmese tax-collectors. The in- 
 justice complained of is this : that loyal Karens, and even those who 
 had aided the authorities in quelling the disturbances, have been 
 taxed alike with disloyal Burmese. If this be true, it is most 
 discreditable, and may be most mischievous. The following extract 
 from a letter dated September 13 seems to leave little room for 
 doubt on the matter : " I first saw punitive tax-bills imposed on 
 actively loyal Karens on the 2nd of May. . . . The very villages 
 whose contingents I that day enrolled had their punitive tax-receipts 
 stamped in the court that very day." 
 
234 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 of expectancy — expectancy for what ? for a revela- 
 tion from the common God. Christianity has been 
 found to satisfy the expectations of those who 
 have been earnestly looking forward and upward 
 for a fulfilment of the ancient prophecies of their 
 seers. The so-called heathen section see that in 
 Christianity the God of their fathers has revealed 
 Himself; they admit intellectually the truth of 
 Christianity, but they refuse, as yet, to conform to 
 its self-denying ordinances. In openly sanctioning 
 and encouraging the teaching of the Christian 
 religion to Karens, the British Government would 
 be in no sense interfering with the religious freedom 
 of the people. It would, in doing so, be only 
 helping the Karens to a rapid and complete attain- 
 ment of what their ancestors of old believed and 
 they themselves avow to be their rightful possession. 
 Were a plebisciium of the people to be taken on 
 the question — the right of the Karen nation to be 
 taught Christianity as the promised revelation from 
 the God of their fathers — it would, I am certain, be 
 carried almost unanimously. In promoting the 
 spread of Christian doctrine, therefore, among the 
 Karens, the British Government would be guilty 
 of no usurpation of power, but would simply be 
 fulfilling at once the historical destiny and the 
 
POLICY OF BRITISH GOVERNMENT. 235 
 
 universal wish of the people. The position is a 
 curious and unique one. Rarely, if ever, has it 
 been the good fortune of any Christian State to 
 be placed in a position of such legitimate and com- 
 manding influence over the religion of a people. 
 
 The Karens, as I have already shown, look on 
 Christianity and education as inseparable factors 
 in their civilization. A school must always have 
 a church, and a church can never be without a 
 school. State encouragement to their school should 
 be accompanied by State aid to their churches and 
 missions. 
 
 Much, however, remains to be done for the 
 material comfort and well-being of the Karens. 
 Thousands of them live from hand to mouth in 
 feverish jungles and on sterile mountain-tops, 
 struggling, body and soul, for the barest subsist- 
 ence. Their wives and their children toil cease- 
 lessly for their food. The land they cultivate yields 
 grudgingly, and only to hard and incessant labour. 
 Civilization makes but slow progress amongst a 
 people living from hand to mouth, and migrating 
 every year. The children should be rescued from 
 the daily exhausting labour which they now have 
 from sheer necessity to undergo. The only way 
 to accomplish this is to give the people permanent 
 
236 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 paying cultivation. The Government should en- 
 deavour by every possible means to draw the hill 
 Karens down to the plains, and settle them on 
 good rice-growing lands. Those who have already 
 settled in the valleys and on the rivers have learnt 
 lowland cultivation, and now make the most suc- 
 cessful rice-growers on the plains. Grasp the 
 children, freed from killing labour, for the school, 
 and you will very soon find the communities pros- 
 perous and happy, and you will be raising a great 
 permanent bulwark of strength for British rule. 
 
 Only one remark in conclusion. We have many 
 difficulties yet to face in Burma. The annexation 
 of the upper country will not be the unmixed 
 blessing either to ourselves or to the people which 
 many seem to suppose. It is an accomplished fact 
 now, and we dare not recoil from the responsibility 
 which we have imposed on ourselves. That there 
 is trouble in store for us, both from within and 
 from without, seems certain. That from within 
 is the most menacing, and may for years be the 
 most dangerous. Our thirty years' rule in the 
 lower country has been, on the whole, less successful 
 than in any other province of the Indian Empire, 
 from causes which it is unnecessary here to describe. 
 It will be of incalculable advantage for us to have 
 
POLICY OF BRITISH GOVERNMENT. 237 
 
 the loyal Karen people occupying points of vantage 
 all over the country. They are at heart true to 
 the British Government ; the Burmese are not. 
 Let us, then, cement the Karen allegiance. They 
 owe all they have to their missionaries under the 
 protection afforded by British rule. They have a 
 firm belief in the good intentions of our Govern- 
 ment, even although these intentions have as yet 
 borne but scanty fruit. It is the highest and best 
 policy to bind them closely to ourselves, to show 
 by our attitude towards them that we wish them 
 to be a strong and prosperous community, and 
 to give them every facility for developing a national 
 civilization and a national religion. If we succeed 
 we shall not only have achieved a great triumph of 
 administration, but shall also have raised a living 
 wall of defence against aggression from without 
 and turbulence from within. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 TRADITIONS, APPARENTLY DERIVED 
 FROM THE SCRIPTURES. 
 
 God Eternal. 
 
 " God is unchangeable, eternal, 
 He was in the beginning of the world ; 
 God is endless and eternal, 
 He existed in the beginning of the world. 
 God is truly unchangeable and eternal, 
 He existed in ancient time, at the beginning of the 
 
 world. 
 The life of God is endless j 
 
 A succession of worlds does not measure His existence, 
 Two successions of worlds do not measure His exist- 
 ence. 
 God is perfect in every meritorious attribute. 
 And dies not in succession on succession of worlds." 
 
240 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 God Omnipotent. 
 
 " The Omnipotent is God, 
 Him have we not beUeved. 
 This Omnipotent one, 
 We have not beUeved." 
 
 God Omniscient. 
 " God created men anciently, 
 He has a perfect knowledge of all things : 
 God created men at the beginning. 
 He knows all things to the present time.'' 
 
 God Omnipresent. 
 
 " O my children and grandchildren ! the earth is the 
 treading-place of the feet of God, and heaven is the place 
 where He sits. He sees all things, and we are manifest 
 to Him." 
 
 " God is not far off. He is among us. He has only 
 separated Himself from us by a single thickness of white. 
 Children ! it is because men are not upright, that they 
 do not see God." 
 
 Ifis Countenance shines. 
 " The face of God is said to shine continually like the 
 rays of the sun ; and the wicked dare not look straight 
 at Him." 
 
 His Glory enlightens Heaven. 
 " There can be no night in heaven, there can be no 
 darkness ; for the rays of God enlighten it continually 
 like the sun." 
 
APPENDIX. 2-41 
 
 He cannot look on Iniquity. 
 
 " On those that use obscene language, or swear, or 
 commit fornication, or drink, or kill, the righteous One 
 in heaven cannot look. Avoid wickedness, for- the 
 righteous One in heaven cannot look upon it." 
 
 He created Heaven and Earth. 
 
 " God created heaven and earth. The creation of 
 heaven and earth was finished." 
 
 The Sun, Moon, and Stars. 
 
 " He created the sun. He created the moon, H& 
 created the stars. The creation of the sun, the moon, 
 and the stars was finished." 
 
 Man. 
 
 " He created again (creating) man. And of what did 
 he create man ? He created man at first from the earth. 
 The creation of man was finished." 
 
 Woman. 
 
 " He created a woman. How did he create a woman ? 
 He took a rib out of the man and created again 
 (creating) a woman. The creation of a woman was 
 finished." 
 
 Life. 
 
 " He created again (creating) life. How did He 
 create life ? Father God said. In respect to My son and 
 
242 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 daughter, I love them : I will give them My great life. 
 He took a little piece of His life, breathed into the 
 nostrils of the two persons, and they came to life, and 
 were real human beings. The creation of man was 
 finished." 
 
 Food, Quad}-upeis, and Birds. 
 " He created again (creating) food and drink. He 
 created rice. He created water, He created fire, He 
 created cows. He created elephants, He created birds. 
 The creation of animals was finished." 
 
 Kden. 
 
 " Father God said. My son and daughter, your Father 
 will make and give you a garden. In the garden are 
 seven different kinds of trees, bearing seven different 
 kinds of fruit ; among the seven, one tree is not good to 
 eat Eat not of its fruit. If you eat, you will become 
 old, you will die. Eat not. All I have created I give 
 to you. Eat and drink with care. Once in seven days 
 I will visit you. All I have commanded you, observe 
 and do. Forget Me not. Pray to Me every morning 
 and night." 
 
 The Tanptation, and Fall. 
 
 " Afterwards Satan came and said, ' Why are you 
 here?' 'Our Father God put us here,' they rephed. 
 ' What do you eat here ? ' Satan inquired. ' Our Father 
 God created food and drink for us ; food without end.' 
 Satan said, ' Show me your food.?' And they went, with 
 
APPENDIX. 243 
 
 Satan following behind them, to show him. On arriving 
 at the garden, they showed him the fruits, saying, ' This 
 is sweet, this is sour, this is bitter, this is astringent, this 
 is savoury, this is fiery; but this tree, we know not 
 ■whether it is sour or sweet. Our Father God said to us, 
 " Eat not the fruit of this tree. If you eat you will die." 
 We eat not, and do not know whether it be sour or sweet.' 
 ' Not so, O my children,' Satan replied ; ' the heart of 
 your Father God is not with you. This is the richest and 
 sweetest ; it is richer than the others, sweeter than the 
 others, and not merely richer and sweeter, but if you 
 eat it you will possess miraculous powers : you will be 
 able to ascend into heaven, and descend into the earth ; 
 you will be able to fly. The heart of your God is not 
 with you. This desirable thing He has not given you. 
 My heart is not like the heart of your God. He is not 
 honest ; He is envious. I am honest ; I am not envious. 
 I love you and tell you the whole. Your Father God 
 does not love you ; He did not tell you the whole. If 
 you do not believe me, do not eat it. Let each one eat 
 carefully a single fruit, then you will know.' The man 
 replied, ' Our Father God said to us, " Eat not the fruit 
 of this tree," and we eat not' Thus saying, he rose up 
 and went away. But the woman listened to Satan, and, 
 thinking what he said rather proper, remained. Satan 
 deceived her completely ; and she said to him, ' If we 
 eat, shall we indeed be able to fly ? ' ' My son and 
 daughter,' Satan replied, ' I persuade you because I love 
 you.' The woman took one of the fruit and ate. And 
 Satan, laughing, said, ' My daughter, you listen to me 
 
244 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 well ; now go, give the fruit to your husband, and say to 
 him, I have eaten the fruit ; it is exceedingly rich. If 
 he does not eat, deceive him, that he may eat.' The 
 woman, doing as Satan told her, went and coaxed her 
 husband, till she won him over to her own mind ; and 
 he took the fruit from the hand of his wife, and ate. 
 When he had eaten, she went to Satan, and said, ' My 
 husband has eaten the fruit.' On hearing that, he 
 laughed exceedingly, and said, ' Now you have listened 
 to me, very good, my son and daughter.' " 
 
 The Curse. 
 
 " The day after they had eaten, early in the morning, 
 God visited them ; but they did not (as they had been 
 wont to do) follow Him, singing praises. He approached 
 them and said, ' Why have you eaten the fruit of the tree 
 that I commanded you not to eat ? ' They did not dare 
 to reply, and God cursed them. ' Now you have not 
 observed what I commanded you,' he said ; ' the fruit 
 that is not good to eat, I told you not to eat ; but you 
 have not listened, and have eaten. Therefore you shall 
 become old, you shall be sick, and you shall die ! ' " 
 
 Origin of Sacrifices to Dejnons. 
 
 " After this, one of their children became very sick, 
 and the man and his wife said to each other, ' We did 
 not observe God's command, " Of the fruit of the tree eat 
 not," but we ate. Now what shall we do ? God has 
 cast us off; we cannot tell what to do. We. must go 
 and see Satan, and ask him.' They arose and went to 
 
APPENDIX. 245 
 
 him. ' O Satan,' they said, ' God commanded us. Eat 
 not of that fruit. Thou saidst, Eat ; and we hearkened 
 unto thy words, and ate. Now our child is sick, what 
 wilt thou say ? What wilt thou devise ? ' Satan replied, 
 'To your Father God you did not hearken, you hearkened 
 unto me; now that you have hearkened unto me, hearken 
 unto me to the end.' " 
 
 Satan then institutes the principal sacrifices, offerings, 
 and ceremonies that are practised in worshipping demons. 
 First, he orders a hog to be sacrificed ; and when that 
 fails, 3. fowl ; and after that, he prescribes the mode of 
 fortune-telling by fowls' bones, with many other rites and 
 ceremonies, the details of which would not be interesting. 
 
 Creation and Fall, in verse. 
 
 " In ancient times God created the world ; 
 All things were minutely ordered by Him. 
 In ancient times God created the world ; 
 He has power to enlarge, and power to diminish. 
 God created the world formerly ; 
 He can enlarge and diminish it at pleasure. 
 God formed the world formerly ; 
 He appointed food and drink. 
 He appointed the fruit of trial ; — 
 He gave minute orders. 
 Satan deceived two persons ; 
 
 He caused them to eat the fruit of the tree of trial. 
 They obeyed not, they believed not God ; 
 They ate the fruit of the tree of trial, — 
 When they ate the fruit of trial. 
 
246 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 They became subject to sickness, old age, and death. 
 
 Had they obeyed and believed God, 
 
 We should not have been subjected to sickness ; 
 
 Had they obeyed and believed God, 
 
 We should have prospered in our doings. 
 
 Had they obeyed and believed him. 
 
 We should not have been poor.'' 
 
 Temftation and Fall. 
 Although the elders say, "Satan is a being of super- 
 human powers, able to take the form of either male or 
 female," he is usually represented as a woman ; but in 
 the following fragment he appears in the character of a 
 dragon. This tradition is further remarkable for the 
 names of the progenitors of the human race ; and it is 
 worthy of observation, that had it been a modern com- 
 position, Adam would not have been Thah-nai ; nor 
 Eve E-u* but A-zva, as written and printed by both 
 Protestant and Catholic missionaries in Burma : — 
 
 " God commanded man anciently ; 
 Satan appeared, bringing destruction. 
 God commanded man formerly ; 
 Satan appeared, deceiving unto death. 
 The woman E>u and the man Thah-nai 
 Did not meet the eye of the great dragon ; 
 The woman E-u, and the man, two persons ; 
 The dragon looked on them, and they did not meet 
 
 his mind. 
 The great dragon deceived the woman and Thah-nai ; 
 * U, pronounced like the French u. 
 
APPENDIX. ■ 247 
 
 How is it said to have taken place ? 
 
 The great dragon succeeded in deception, deceiving 
 
 unto death ; 
 How is it said to have been done ? 
 The great dragon took a yellow fruit, 
 And gave to eat to the son and daughter of God : 
 The great dragon took a white fruit, 
 And gave to eat to the children of God. 
 They did not observe all the words of God ; 
 They were deceived, deceived unto death : 
 They did not observe all the commands of God ; 
 They were deceived, deceived unto sickness : 
 They transgressed the words of God, 
 And God turned His back on them : 
 Having transgressed the commands of God, 
 God turned away from them." 
 
 Tree of Life, and Tree of Death. 
 
 " O children and grandchildren ! in the beginning, 
 God, to try man, whether he would or would not observe 
 His commands, created the tree of death and the tree of 
 life, saying, concerning the tree of death, ' Eat not of it' 
 He wished to see whether man believed. Not believing, 
 he ate of the fruit of the tree of death, and the tree of 
 life God hid. Because the tree of life has been hidden, 
 men have died since that time." 
 
 " Temptation, temptation, the fruit of temptation, 
 The fruit of temptation fell on the ground ; 
 The fruit of temptation was bad, 
 
248 - THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 It poisoned to death our mother ; 
 
 The fruit of temptation, ' Do thou eat it not.' 
 
 In the beginning it poisoned to death our father and 
 
 mother. 
 The tree of death came by woman, 
 The tree of Hfe by Man!" 
 
 The Curse. 
 " O children and grandchildren ! because in the be- 
 ginning man ate the fruit of the tree of death, poison 
 descends to us and we all die." 
 
 Angels. 
 The Karens believe that there are beings in heaven 
 who have never sinned, and that they are employed in 
 executing God's purposes : — 
 
 "The sons of heaven are powerful, 
 They sit by the seat of God : 
 The sons of heaven are righteous. 
 They dwell together with God ; 
 The sons of heaven are good. 
 They lean against the silver seat of God. 
 The beings whom God employs to execute His pur- 
 poses. 
 Have, to the present time, the reclining-place of God." 
 
 Satan. 
 Satan is known by several names ; among which the 
 most common are Ku-plau, the deceiver, from his de- 
 ceiving the first man and woman, and Yaw-kaw, the 
 
APPENDIX. 249 
 
 neck-trodden, from the belief that man will ultimately 
 tread on his neck, or overcome him. The Karens believe 
 that he was formerly a holy being in heaven, but that he 
 disobeyed God, and was driven from heaven : — 
 
 " Satan in ancient times was righteous, 
 
 But he transgressed the commands of God ; 
 
 Satan in ancient times was holy. 
 
 But he departed from the love of God ; 
 
 And God drove him away. 
 
 He deceived the daughter and son of God, 
 
 And God drove you away ; 
 
 For you deceived the daughter and son of God." 
 " O children and grandchildren ! though we were to 
 kill Satan, he would not die ; but when the time of our 
 salvation comes, God will kill him. Because that time 
 has not yet arrived, he still exists." 
 
 Deluge. 
 
 Though I have never met with any direct traditions of 
 the deluge, indirect allusions are occasionally found in 
 their fabulous stories. For instance, "It thundered, 
 tempests followed ; it rained three days and three nights, 
 and the waters covered all the mountains." Again, 
 "Anciently, when the earth was deluged with water, two 
 brothers, finding themselves in a difficulty, got on a raft. 
 The waters rose and rose, till they reached to heaven ; 
 when seeing a mango-tree hanging down, the younger 
 brother climbed up it and ate ; but the waters suddenly 
 falling, left him in the tree." 
 
2SO THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 Dispersion of Men. 
 " O children and grandchildren ! men had at first one 
 father and mother ; but because they did not love each 
 other, they separated. After their separation they did 
 not know each other, and their language became dif- 
 ferent; and they became enemies to each other and 
 fought." 
 
 " The Karens were the elder brother, 
 They obtained all the words of God ; 
 They did not believe all the word of God, 
 And became enemies to each other : 
 Because they disbelieved God, 
 Their language divided. 
 God gave them commands. 
 But they did not believe Him ; and divisions ensued." 
 
 Resurrection. 
 The astronomical systems of all the nations around 
 the Karens teach that the sun, moon, and stars revolve 
 round a great north mountain, in planes parallel to the 
 surface of the earth ; while the Karens retain the old 
 idea, that the heavenly bodies go round the earth, 
 descending under and rising above. Under the earth 
 they suppose that there is another world, where people 
 go at death. It is enlightened by the same heavenly 
 bodies as the earth; but its days and nights are the 
 reverse of ours, the sun rising there when he sets here. 
 It is regarded as an intermediate state, where all the 
 dead go, and where the inhabitants are employed much 
 
APPENDIX. 251 
 
 as the inhabitants of the earth, corresponding to the 
 Jewish idea of Sheol. 
 
 Connected with this subject, the Karens have an 
 obscure notion of a final resurrection. One of their old 
 prophecies says — 
 
 " O children and grandchildren ! you think the earth 
 large. The earth is not so large as the Entada bean. 
 When the time arrives, people will be more numerous 
 than the leaves of the trees, and those who are now 
 unseen, will then be brought to view. O my children, 
 there will not be a hiding-place for a single thing on 
 earth." 
 
 The Karens explain this by saying that the earth is as 
 large as a bean when compared with the whole of God's 
 works. Concerning the numerous people that are to 
 appear, they confess their ignorance, but think that the 
 inhabitants of Hades (the invisible, or lower world) are 
 intended, whom God will cause to come up on the earth. 
 
 Another statement is, that after the world is burned 
 up,' God will come and raise men to life again; when 
 " the lazy shall become dogs, but the industrious, men." 
 
 TRADITIONAL PRECEPTS. 
 
 APPARENTLY DERIVED FROM THE SCRIPTURES. 
 
 Love to God. 
 " O children and grandchildren ! love God, and never 
 so much as mention His name; for, by speaking His 
 name, He goes farther and farther from us." 
 
252 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 Prayer. 
 " O children and grandcliildren ! pray to God con- 
 stantly by day and by night." 
 
 Repentance and Prayer. 
 " O children and grandchildren ! if we repent of 
 our sins, and cease to do evil, restraining our passions, 
 and pray to God, He will have mercy upon us again. 
 If God does not have mercy on us, there is no other 
 one that can. He who saves us is the only one God." 
 
 Idolatry. 
 " O children and grandchildren ! do not worship idols 
 or priests. If you worship them you obtain no advantage 
 thereby, while you increase your sins exceedingly.'' 
 
 Honour to Parents. 
 
 " O children and grandchildren ! respect and reverence 
 your mother and father ; for, when you were little, they 
 did not suffer so much as a musquito to bite you. To 
 sin against your parents is a heinous crime." 
 
 " If your father or mother instruct or beat you, fear. 
 If you fear not, the tiger will not fear you.'' 
 
 Zove to Others. 
 " O children and grandchildren ! do not be fond of 
 quarrelling and disputings, but love each other. God in 
 heaven looks down upon us ; and if we do not love each 
 other, it is the same as if we did not love God. O 
 children and grandchildren ! quarrel not, but love each 
 other.'' 
 
APPENDIX. 25 3 
 
 Relative Duties. 
 
 " O children and grandchildren ! parent and child, 
 master and slave, husband and wife; let not the child 
 deceive his parent, the slave his master, nor the wife her 
 husband." 
 
 Associates. 
 
 " O children and grandchildren ! do not associate 
 with the wicked. Those that associate with robbers, 
 become robbers ; those that associate with the honest, 
 become honest ; those that associate with the passionate, 
 become passionate." 
 
 Murder. 
 
 " O children and grandchildren ! do not take the life 
 of man. If you kill, you must bear your sin. In the 
 next world you will be killed in return.'' 
 
 Wantonly killing Animals. 
 
 " O children and grandchildren ! we may eat anything 
 on earth without sin, for God created them all for us ; 
 but do not kill or destroy anything wantonly. If we kill 
 or destroy wantonly, we sin." 
 
 Jioddery. 
 " O children and grandchildren ! do not forcibly take 
 the property of another. Observe, my children, that 
 robbers quickly become slaves. Should you even be a 
 slave, good remains ; but there is no calling on God in 
 hell." 
 
254 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 Theft. 
 " O children and grandchildren ! do not steal the 
 goods of another ; for the owner worked for them until 
 he sweat. Thieves will have to repay." 
 
 Adultery and Fornication. 
 
 "O children and grandchildren! do not commit 
 adultery, or fornication, with the child or wife of another ; 
 for the righteous One looks down from above, and these 
 things are exposed to Him. Those that do thus will go 
 to hell." 
 
 " If you meet the wife of another, avoid her, and pass 
 on the lower side of the road." 
 
 Polygamy. 
 
 " O children and grandchildren ! if you have one 
 wife, lust not after another female or male; for God, 
 at the beginning, created only two : one male and one 
 female." 
 
 False Swearing. 
 
 " O children and grandchildren ! that which is not 
 true, swear not to, by the true One. Swear not to that 
 which you do not well know.'' 
 
 Lying and Deception. 
 
 " O children and grandchildren ! do not speak false- 
 hood. What you do not know, do not speak. Liars 
 shall have their tongues cut out." 
 
APPENDIX. 255 
 
 " O children and grandchildren ! do not use deceitful 
 language, but speak the words of truth only. The 
 righteous One in heaven knows everything that is 
 said." 
 
 " O children and grandchildren ! do not talk at random 
 concerning that which you do not know. Random 
 talkers speedily become slaves." 
 
 Swearing. 
 
 "O children and grandchildren ! do not curse, or use 
 imprecations, and do not use obscene language. If you 
 curse, or use imprecations, they will return on yourselves." 
 
 Giving Alms. 
 
 " O children and grandchildren ! give food and drink 
 to the poor; and, by so doing, you will obtain mercy 
 yourselves." 
 
 Doing Good to all Men. 
 
 " O children and grandchildren ! according to your 
 ability, relieve the distresses of all men. If you do 
 good to others, you will not go unrewarded ; for others 
 will make like returns to you." 
 
 Idleness. 
 
 " O children and grandchildren ! while in this state 
 here on earth, be not idle, but labour dihgently, that 
 you may not become slaves ; and when persons visit you, 
 have food and drink to give them." 
 
256 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 Covetoustiess. 
 
 " O children and grandchildren ! do not envy the 
 possessions of others. Though exceedingly abundant, 
 covet them not. Work yourselves, and eat your own 
 things." 
 
 Intemperance. 
 
 " O children and grandchildren ! do not be guilty of 
 excess in eating and drinking. Be not intemperate, but 
 take that which is proper only." 
 
 Oiedieiice to Kings. 
 
 " O children and grandchildren ! obey the orders of 
 kings, for kings, in former times, obeyed the commands 
 of God. If we do not obey them, they will kUl us." 
 
 Earthly-mindedness. 
 
 " O children and grandchildren ! do not covet the 
 good things of this world ! for when you die, you cannot 
 carry away the things that are on earth." 
 
 " O children and grandchildren ! do not desire to be 
 great men, and possess authority. Great men sin ex- 
 ceedingly, and when they die, go to hell." 
 
 Anger. 
 
 " O children and grandchildren ! never get angry. If 
 we are angry with others, it is the same as if we were 
 angry with God. The righteous One looks down from 
 
APPENDIX. 257 
 
 heaven upon us. The person who looks on the great 
 and small, the vile and the wicked, children and youth, 
 Avithout anger, and gives them food and drink, he shall 
 be established unchangeably." 
 
 On Forbearance and Huniiliiy. 
 
 " O children and grandchildren ! though a person 
 persecute you with deceit, anger, and revenge, though 
 he strike you, thump you, beat you, do not return him 
 evil. If you return evil, you derive no advantage thereby. 
 Then with the heart forbear, and speak to him respectful 
 words ; by doing thus, you will not go unrewarded." 
 
 " The man who without anger endures all with humility 
 shall be established unchangeably, for, by doing thus, the 
 advantages of meritorious qualities are his." 
 
 Love to Enemies. 
 
 " O children and grandchildren ! if a person injure 
 you, let him do what he wishes, and bear all the suffer- 
 ings he brings upon you with humility. If an enemy 
 persecute you, love him with the heart. On account of 
 our having sinned against God from the beginning, we 
 ought to suffer." 
 
 How to act when One Cheek is struck. 
 
 " O children and grandchildren ! if a person strike you 
 on the face, he does not strike you on the face ; he only 
 strikes on the floor. Therefore, if a person strike you 
 on one cheek, give him the other to strike.'' 
 
 S 
 
2S8 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 WAen spit on. 
 " O children and grandchildren ! if a person spits in 
 your face, do not spit in his face in return. He only 
 spits in the air." 
 
 The Two Roads. 
 " O children and grandchildren ! the road that leads 
 to heaven is a tract scarcely discernible, but the road 
 that goes to hell is very great." 
 
 NATIONAL TRADITIONS. 
 
 A people beloved of God. 
 "O children and grandchildren! formerly God loved 
 the Karen nation above all others, but they transgressed 
 His commands, and in consequence of their transgres- 
 sions we suffer as at present. Because God cursed us, 
 we are in our present afflicted state, and have no books. 
 But God will again have mercy on us, and again He will 
 love us above others. God will yet save us again ; it is 
 .on account of our listening to the language of Satan, that 
 we thus suffer." 
 
 The Word of God. 
 In one of their old war-songs, the Sgaw Karens boast 
 in possessing. the Word of God: — 
 
 " Though thou sayest the Pghos are insignificant, 
 Thou must pay a fine for killing them. — 
 The Sgaws have the word of Jehovah ; 
 They will pay .no fine for the life of Pgho." 
 
APPENDIX. 25-9 
 
 Departure of God. 
 
 Many of the Karen traditions both in prose and verse 
 allude to the departure of God, but to what event reference 
 is had, it is difficult to say; for all the accounts are 
 evidently fabulous in their details. For instance, " The 
 elders said that God, returning anciently, said to the 
 Klarens, ' Karen, guide Me.' The Karens replied, ' The 
 weeds are very thick, we cannot guide Thee ; ' and God 
 said, ' May you pull up weeds generation after generation.' 
 Coming to the Burmans, He said, ' Burman, guide Me.' 
 The Burmans replied, ' We are hewing out a canoe, we 
 cannot guide Thee ; ' and God said, ' May you hew out 
 canoes generation after generation.' So said one after 
 another in succession till He came to the white foreigners, 
 the youngest brother, to whom He said, ' White foreigner, 
 guide Me.' The white foreigner replied, ' I have no ship, 
 no boat, I cannot guide Thee ; but I wish to guide Thee.' 
 Then God made him take off his hat and put it in the 
 sea, and it became a large golden ship ; in which they 
 conducted God away to the West. When they arrived, 
 God blessed them, saying, ' May you ride in ships and 
 boats : may you cross waters and reach lands : may you 
 dress in fine clothes : may you be handsome : may you 
 have rulers from among yourselves : may you have large 
 towns and great cities.' Then God went up to heaven, 
 and the white foreigners returned. Hence it is that the 
 white foreigners are more skilful than all other nations, 
 and ride in ships to the present time." 
 
 Some poetical pieces represent God as calling upon 
 
26o THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 the sun, moon, and all created beings, to come at His 
 departure ; as in the following fragment : — 
 
 " God about to return commanded, commanded ; 
 God about to depart commanded, commanded ; 
 He commanded the sun to come and weep for Him, 
 He commanded the moon to come and weep for Him, 
 He commanded the birds to come and weep for Him, 
 He commanded the squirrels to come and weep for 
 Him." 
 
 Return of God. 
 
 The return of God is confidently expected ; and the 
 dead trees are represented as blossoming on His 
 arrival : — 
 
 " At the appointed season, God will come ; 
 The dead trees will blossom and flower ; 
 When the appointed season comes, God will arrive : 
 The mouldering trees will blossom and bloom again ; 
 God will come and bring the great Thau-thee ; * 
 We must worship, both great and small. 
 The great Thau-thee God created ; 
 Let us ascend and worship. 
 There is a great mountain in the ford, 
 Can you ascend and worship God ? 
 There is a great mountain in the way, 
 Are you able to ascend and worship God ? 
 You call yourselves the sons of God, 
 
 * A mountain so called, which is to be the seat of future happi- 
 ness, according to some statements. 
 
APPENDIX. 261 
 
 How many evenings have you ascended to worship God ? 
 
 You call yourselves the children of God, 
 
 How often.have you ascended to worship God ? " 
 
 Sometimes He is represented as coming with a 
 trumpet : — 
 
 " God comes down, comes down ; 
 God descends, descends ; 
 He comes blowing a trumpet, 
 He descends sounding a trumpet ; 
 Blowing, He gathers men, like the flowers of the Areca,* 
 Sounding, He gathers people, like the flowers of the 
 Areca." 
 
 Sometimes angels in glory would seem to accompany 
 Him, while the great among the people play on golden 
 harps : — 
 
 " The glittering, the angels of heaven, 
 The dazzling, the angels of heaven : 
 The great trumpet that God comes blowing ! 
 The great one that strikes the golden harp." 
 
 In one fragment God is represented as coming in rags : — 
 " O children and grandchildren ! before God comes, 
 Satan will come deceiving men ; and in order to deceive, 
 he will come dressed in fine clothes and handsome attire ; 
 but follow him not, children and grandchildren ! After 
 Satan will come One with scarcely clothes enough to cover 
 Him. Follow Him. That One is God. When God 
 
 * The flowers grow thick and are very numerous. 
 
262 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 comes, He will take the appearance of the poorest of 
 men, and will dress in rags. Follow Him." 
 
 Sometimes God, it is said, is to save them by His 
 youngest son : — 
 
 " O children and grandchildren ! God will yet save us 
 again. He has saved us twice, and His youngest son 
 will be able to save us again." 
 
 Appearatice of Satan. 
 
 Some statements represent Satan as coming to deceive 
 men before God returns. The elders said, — ■ 
 
 " O children and grandchildren ! before God arrives, 
 Satan will appear, and the unrighteous, and the lascivious, 
 and adulterers, and deceivers, and the contentious will 
 follow him ; and when they have all gone after him, there 
 will be happiness, and God will come.'' 
 
 Darkness io come. 
 A Karen assistant, after reading the account of the 
 plagues in Egypt, related the following : — " The elders 
 said. There will yet be a great darkness ; the darkness 
 will be such that men will not be able to see each other, 
 and they will be compelled to creep and feel. At that 
 time the fagots will become ser|jfnts, and the bamboos 
 snakes ; and people will feel here, and they will lay their 
 hands on a serpent ; and there, and they will lay their 
 hands on a snake." 
 
 King. 
 Many of their compositions represent them as expecting 
 great temporal prosperity under their kings : — 
 
APPENDIX. 263 
 
 " O children and grandchildren ! the Karens will yet 
 dwell in the city with the golden palace. If we do well, 
 the existence of other kings is at an end. The Karen 
 king will yet appear, and, when he arrives, there will be 
 happiness." 
 
 Por this they have been in the habit of praying. The 
 following are specimens of their prayers : — 
 
 " O Lord, we have had affliction for a long succession 
 of generations ; have compassion, have mercy upon us, 
 O Lord. The Taling kings have had their season, the 
 Burman kings have had their season, the Siamese kings 
 have had their season, and the foreign kings, all have had 
 their season ; the Karen nation remains. 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 com- 
 passion upon us, O Lord." 
 
 " O Lord, the God whom we adore, have compassion, 
 have mercy upon us. 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. Have compassion, and grant unto us, 
 O great God." 
 
 Sometimes they represent themselves metaphorically 
 as becoming civilized, while other nations become bar- 
 barous : — 
 
 " The elders said. Children and grandchildren ! the 
 high mountain will be levelled ; and the plain will become 
 a sink. The deer will ascend the mountains, and the 
 wild goat will descend to the plains." 
 
264 THE LOYAL KARENS OF BURMA. 
 
 " The great mountain will become a plain, 
 Children be happy, and play : 
 The great mountain will be levelled, 
 Children be joj^ul and play." 
 
 Some compositions represent the Karen king as the sole 
 monarch of the earth, and that there will be neither rich 
 nor poor in their reign, but that all will be happy. 
 
 " Good persons, the good, 
 Shall go to the silver town, the silver city ; 
 Righteous persons, the righteous, 
 Shall go to the new town, the new city ; 
 Persons that believe their father and mother, 
 Shall enjoy the golden palace. 
 When the Karen king arrives. 
 There will be only one monarch ; 
 When the Karen king comes. 
 There will be neither rich nor poor ; 
 When the Karen king shall arrive. 
 There will be neither rich man nor poor ; 
 When the Karen king shall come, 
 Rich and poor will not exist." 
 
 They believe when the Karen king comes, the beasts 
 will be at peace, and cease to bite and devour one 
 another. 
 
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I, PaUrnoster Sqiiare, 
 
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