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 LIBRARY OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 
 
 PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
 Purchased by the Hamill Missionary Fund. 
 
 BV 3270 .H37 1920 
 Harris, Edward Norman 
 A star in the East 
 
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A STAR 
 IN THE EAST 
 
 An Account of American Baptist 
 Missions to the Karens of Burma 
 
 REV. EDWARD NORMAN HARRIS 
 
 Missionary of The American Baptist Foreign Mission Society 
 to The Shwegyin and Paku Karen Missions. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 "The people that walked in darkness have seen a great 
 lightr—U^. 9:2. 
 
 Nxw YoBK Chicago 
 
 Fleming H. Revell Company 
 
 LOKDOK AND EDINBURGH 
 
Copyright, 1920, by 
 FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 
 
 Printed in the United States of America 
 
 New York: 158 Fifth Avenue 
 Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave. 
 London: 21 Paternoster Square 
 Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street 
 
DEDICATION 
 
 To the memory of his father^ Rev, Norman 
 \Harris, who founded the Shwegyin Karen MiS' 
 sion and built up there a rich spiritual heritage by 
 which the son has for twenty-five years gratefully 
 profited, this book is affectionately dedicated by 
 the author. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 AMONG the most successful missions in the 
 world today are those to the Karens of 
 Burma, but unfortunately hitherto little 
 material has been available concerning them ex- 
 cept in scattered reports and occasional pamphlets, 
 most of them long since out of print. The writer 
 feels that the Christian world needs to have its 
 attention called again, as it was at the beginning 
 of the work, to the great things which God has 
 done, and is still doing, for this truly remarkable 
 people. Tucked away in an obscure corner of the 
 earth, they were not only kept through many gen- 
 erations measureably true to the inner light (Jno. 
 1:9), but were also prepared in a most marvel- 
 lous manner for the reception of the gospel when- 
 ever it should be brought to them. As inscriptions 
 on rocks and on brick tablets were in the provi- 
 dence of God hidden away for thousands of years 
 to be unearthed in these recent days as evidence 
 of the reliability of the Scriptures, so, it would 
 seem these people were hidden away from the 
 observation of men to be brought forth, within 
 comparatively recent times as a blessed confirma- 
 tion of the faith of those who believe in God's 
 
6 PREFACE 
 
 exceeding graciousness towards men of all times 
 and of all races who do not wilfully blind them- 
 selves to his truth. 
 
 Not only so, but the continued workings of the 
 Spirit in the hearts of these people at the present 
 time and the achievements of grace manifested in 
 the development of strong Christian character and 
 quickened intelligence and even in the unlooked 
 for physical rehabilitation of the Karen race as a 
 whole, afford a fresh demonstration in an unex- 
 pected quarter of the universal scope and range 
 of the gospel's power. To the devout student of 
 the dealings of God with the children of men, there 
 is here subject matter which must ever be of ab- 
 sorbing interest. 
 
 Toungoo, Burma. E. N. H. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 I. The Karens and Their Tradi- 
 tions 15 
 
 Burma, when Dr. Judson went there, an obscure, but richly 
 endowed country, cursed by its kings. — Cruelty and oppression 
 universal. — The Karens and their persecutions. — Dr. Judson 
 learns of their existence. — Karen tradition of the creation 
 and fall. — Other sayings. — Advantage given to missionary in 
 preaching to Karens by reason of their knowledge of God. — 
 Character of the Karen people, their morality, honesty and high 
 idealism. — Their traditon about their progenitors as being 
 mighty because of righteousness. — Paul's teaching in Rom. 
 1:18-23. 
 
 II. Various Theories of the Origin 
 AND Racial Connections of 
 the Karens . . . . 28 
 
 Their own account of the river of sand and of their early 
 migrations. — The story of the snails as showing possible racial 
 connection of the Karens with the Muhsoes, Kwes, Kaws and 
 other mountain tribes running up into Western China. — The 
 Karen tradition regarding their book. — Possible connection of 
 Karens with Nestorian Christians. — Objections.— Theory of 
 their Hebrew origin, supported by similarity of their word for 
 God to Yahweh, use of Semitic sounds, customs resembling 
 passover. — Possible infiltration of Jewish blood in early times 
 indicated by features of a few.— Karens as a race Mongolian in 
 physiognomy and language. — No clear reference to flood, and 
 antediluvian theory of Karen origin. 
 
 III. The Religion of the Karen 
 
 People 34 
 
 The Karens know of God, but they do not worship him.— 
 They follow Satan instead.— This explained by reference to 
 tradition of the first sickness. — Preaching to the heathen. — 
 Other explanations and ideas. — A jumble of superstitions. — 
 Benignity of God made an excuse for hot worshipping him. — 
 Numberless fears.— Yet spirits regarded as being really very 
 
 7 
 
8 CONTENTS 
 
 stupid. — The wasps' nest over the door. — Dreams. — Other re- 
 ligious conceptions sometimes crude, never vile. — The story of 
 the dragon. — The story of Taw Meh Pah. — Messianic hope. — 
 Inference, better follow Satan than have debased conception 
 of God. 
 
 IV. Special Preparation for the 
 
 Reception of the Gospel . 47 
 
 Although Karens forsook God, he did not forsake them. — 
 Raised up prophets among them, as among Israelites of old. — 
 Their promise of deliverance and defiance of their enemies. — 
 Their prophecy of the coming of the white brother with the 
 long-lost book and description of his appearance. — Resulting 
 cordiality of the Karen towards his white brother. — Stories 
 current regarding him : Father God's funeral : The Karen 
 traveler and the white brother going to worship God. — Loyalty 
 of Karens to British government. — Warning against reception 
 of the wrong book, e. g., Buddhist Scriptures. 
 
 V. Early Karen Apostles . . '54 
 
 Koh Thah Byu. — His early career as a bandit. — His servi- 
 tude. — Instruction by Dr. Judson. — Baptism. — Early labors. — 
 The venerated prayer book. — Evangelistic efforts in Rangoon 
 and Pegu Districts. — Final labors in Arakan. — Summary of his 
 achievements. — His manner of preaching.— -Saw Tah Ree. — 
 His search for the truth. — His satisfaction in finding it. — Saw 
 Doo Moo. — Loss of wife and children. — Grief-stricken wan- 
 derings. — The Balm in Gilead. — Return to Maulmein and 
 preparation in school there. — His subsequent labors. — Saw 
 Quah Lah. 
 
 VI. Growth and Development of 
 
 THE Work .... 63 
 
 Early efforts to reach the Karens through the medium of the 
 Burmese language. — Reasons favoring the continuation of this 
 policy. — Examples in Toungoo. — Mr. Wade's tour to Tah Kreh 
 and the demand to produce the Karen book, or go back and 
 fetch it. — Reducing the Karen language to writing. — Reasons 
 for adapting the Burmese instead of the Roman alphabet. — 
 Translation of the bible. — The hymn book. — Education. — The 
 second Burmese war. — Persecutions. — Extension of the work 
 to Rangoon, Bassein, Henzada, Shwegyin and Toungoo. 
 
 VII. Hindrances 71 
 
 Ignorances of the first disciples. — They knew two things only.. 
 that their book had been brought back, and that they need not 
 
CONTENTS 9 
 
 fear evil spirits as Jesus is stronger than the evil spirits.— Re- 
 sult : they were open to false teachings with consequent def ec- 
 ions. — A saving warning. — Hampering customs and practices 
 of the heahen. — Malicious stories: The Karen disciple's sup- 
 posed death-bed confession. — Essential antagonism of human 
 heart to demands of the gospel. — Heathen opinion regarding 
 drinking, card-playing, theater-going and dancing. — Perplexity 
 regarding the many faiths : the two roads. — Rise of false lead- 
 ers among heathen. — Koh Sah Yay. — But all these hindrances 
 turn out rather for strengthening of God's chosen people. 
 
 yill. Present Attainments in Per- 
 sonal Religion ... 84 
 
 a period of reaction follows early ingatherings. — Gains have 
 to be consolidated, a slow process. — But how great the change 
 may be seen in contrast between new convert and trained dis- 
 ciple today. — New convert ignorant of Christ and his work. — 
 Apparently changed only in determination to worship God. — 
 Slow in casting off former superstitions. — Explanation: Al- 
 though they know little of Christ, yet what actually draws 
 them is Christ in God. — Heathen seldom led to profess Chris- 
 tianity by selfish considerations. — Gospel self-guarding, like ark 
 of covenant. — The man with the apparition vs. the aged couple 
 who became discouraged but could not give up their faith. — 
 Earnest, tender desire of Christians for conversion of heathen, 
 the Burmese included. — The preacher's account of the sick 
 man. — Karens seldom refer to experiences. — But develop a 
 spirit of resignation truly remarkable. — Too Loo Koo's father. 
 — God's gracious dealings with even most ignorant and be- 
 nighted ; the young man blinded by a bear. — The fellowship of 
 saints. — Devotion of Karen pastors and their familiarity with 
 the word. 
 
 IX. Present Attainments in 
 Church Organization, Disci- 
 pline AND Effectiveness . 98 
 
 Churches independent from the beginning, and from very 
 early date self-supporting. — ^The missionary's function simply 
 advisory, — The number of churches and communicants. — The 
 pastors. — Church discipline not lacking in effectiveness. — 
 Associations of churches with their own presiding officers, 
 secretaries and treasurers. — What is meant by self-supporting 
 churches. — Pastors often self-supporting, or may even prac- 
 tically support the church.— Schools.— The Theological Semi- 
 nary,— Liberality of Karen Christians.— Instances given.— Same 
 
10 CONTENTS 
 
 laws of church life which apply in America true also of Karen 
 churches, e. g., reactionary effect of missions. — The jointed 
 fishpole. — The church that gave for missions and then cleared 
 off its own debt. — Anti-mission Baptist vs. mission Baptists. — 
 Putting rice into other people's mouths to increase one's own 
 strength. — Missions and the Shwegyin churches. — Shooting the 
 elephant. — Sending the pastor who was needed at home to the 
 distant field. 
 
 X. Present Attainments in Tem- 
 poral Betterment . . . 115 
 
 Too much should not be expected. — Process of civilization 
 slower than that of evangelization. — Economy the real basis of 
 western civilization, e. g., chairs, cuffs and collars, typewriters, 
 telephones, stenographers. — Travel and cost of labor in civil- 
 ized vs. uncivilized lands. — Barbarism always wasteful, like 
 uncultivated land. — Area required to support a tiger. — Yet 
 most people think civilization consists in having many things 
 rather than in knowing how to use wisely what one has. — 
 Merchants accomplishing much in direction of increasing wants 
 of people, thus making them more industrious. — Change within 
 the memory of the writer. — Adoption of western civilization 
 out of hand undesirable, not being suited to conditions of 
 people. — What those conditions are. — Story of Naw Thoo and 
 Naw Wah. — Difficulty of making improvements in houses, 
 food, clothing, etc. — The chewing of the betel nut. — Its effect. 
 — Extracting a tooth for a Siamese prince. — Strength of the 
 habit. — Its explanation. — Christianity implanting the seeds of a 
 genuine culture. — Converted Karen desires first of all to get 
 an education, then to improve physical surroundings. — Estab- 
 lished villages instead of shifting abodes. — Christian villages 
 cleaner than heathen villages. — Christians discarding use of 
 betel nut. — Christians attaining to positions of distinction and 
 honor. — Love of music. 
 
 XL The Conservation of the 
 
 Karen Race as a By-Product 133 
 
 Fears that Karens were losing ground. — Census figures show- 
 ing the contrary. — The part ascribed by the Superintendent of 
 the census to the acceptance of Christianity. — Case stronger 
 than he puts it. — Racial conditions in Burma. — Is Mr. Webb 
 correct? — Yes, and no. — Just what is meant, not increase, but 
 differentiation. — Is this differentiation desirable? — A vigorous 
 race has the presumption in its favor, especially a race of the 
 high ideals of the Karens. — What have the missionaries done 
 to bring about the results ?— Gathered and trained a Christian 
 
CONTENTS 11 
 
 community. — Nothing further possible.— Heathen population 
 not accessible to social service, e. g., medicine. — Even if ac- 
 cessible, missionaries could not have done much, because meth- 
 ods of west not suited. — The American reaper. — Oriental no 
 more conservative than occidental. — American plows. — Mis- 
 sionaries might now do real service by patient experimentation. 
 — Problems. — What the government is doing. — Special qualifi- 
 cation of missionaries for task. — Even if missionaries could 
 have done more, benefit to heathen community doubtful. — 
 Christian converts ready for helpful suggestions and really 
 benefited. — Christians rising to positions of dinstinction and 
 honor, not so the heathen. — Nevertheless the entire race being 
 blessed. 
 
 XII. Is There Still Need for Mis- 
 sionaries? 149 
 
 Crossing the Salween. — A picture of conditions still exist- 
 ing on the field. — The stress of life owing to physical sur- 
 roundings. — Cholera, small pox, measles, malaria; mad dogs, 
 venomous serpents ; the python, the tiger ; lesser pests. — These 
 usually presented from point of view of missionary, but have 
 even more significance from point of view of native Christians. 
 — Economic conditions. — The Karen saying being fulfilled. — 
 Burma a land of plenty. — Famines, due to rats, infrequent and 
 of limited range. — The country being invaded from all sides 
 and rapidly filled up. — The situation becoming more and more 
 difficult for a people situated like the Karens. — Religious con- 
 ditions. — Mild as yet, but getting constantly more strenuous. — 
 The preacher who was not Jesus Christ or the white book or a 
 diver. — The preacher's story of the lion and the rabbit. — Con- 
 ditions heading up for a mighty struggle later on. — Buddhism 
 becoming self-conscious. — Tom Paineism. — Deacons and danc- 
 ing. — The missionary's place and part with reference to phy- 
 sical, to economic and to religious conditions. — Cheering the 
 paralytic. — Is it worth while? 
 
 XIII. Karen Characteristics . .175 
 
 The missionary must have confidence of his people, and to 
 win their confidence must know them. — Physical characteristics 
 of the Karens. — Their costumes. — Their occupations. — Reason 
 enough why the crow should steal. — Courtship and family life. 
 — Ideas of the underworld. — Teaching the spirit of the dead 
 to climb a tree. — Directions reversed. — The Karen Atlas, and 
 how to stop earthquakes. — Karens vs. Burmans in intellectual 
 attainments. — Karens not philosophically inclined. — Evidenced 
 by simplicity of language. — Does not prove mental incapacity. 
 —Case of the Australian aborigines.— Simplicity of language a 
 
12 CONTENTS 
 
 help to clarity of thought.— The use of Karen as a mental dis- 
 cipline. — No lack of intelligent responsiveness. — Karens tem- 
 peramentally not easy to understand. — Due to long oppression. 
 —A "going to be easy" race.— An illustration of general human 
 contrariness. — Humbling the pupils with humility. — The gran- 
 ite element in Karen character. 
 
 XIV. A Neglected Opportunity . 193 
 
 The economic situation again. — Relation of Christianity to 
 labor. — Need of industrial training in schools. — Value of sci- 
 entific agriculture for Karens. — Tardy recognition of its im- 
 portance even in western lands. — Difficulty of attainment by 
 Karens unaided. — Government endeavors. — The missionary in- 
 termediary. — Problems of lowland farming, — Soil deteriora- 
 tion. — Rotation of crops. — Fertilizers. — Insufficiency of cattle. 
 — Fodder and ensilage. — Cattle breeding. — Seed selection. — 
 Grafting. — Agricultural implements. — Need of local experi- 
 mentation. — Problems of upland farming. — Wastage of pres- 
 ent system. — Proposed remedies. — Removal. — Terracing. — Sub- 
 stitution of other crops. — Possible improvement in conditions. 
 — Christian community already prepared. — The shrub eradi- 
 cator. — Need of initiative from without. — The requirements of 
 the situation. — Employment of an agricultural expert. — Voca- 
 tional training in the schools. — Experiment stations. — School 
 of agriculture. — Probable benefits. — Challenge. 
 
 XV. A Call to Arms . . .210 
 
 The impending religious conflict. — America the land of light 
 and leading. — Necessity for increased emphasis on essential 
 Christian doctrines. — Relation to the missionary cause. — Ne- 
 cessity for deeper consecration and self-sacrifice. — Not as- 
 ceticism but devotion to a great cause. — Influence of mission- 
 ary self-sacrifice on character of converts. — The writer's fath- 
 er's experience. — Is separation of families right? — Expectation 
 of Jesus. — Lord Roberts. — Children catching the spirit of their 
 parents. — Necessity for truer appreciation of stupendousness 
 and worthwhileness of task of missions. — "The best belongs 
 to the worst." — "Why throw away your talents?" — Missions 
 and humanitarianism. — The lesson of the book. 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Frontispiece 
 A Karen Christian Young Man and His 
 
 Sister, Tharawaddy, Burma 
 Two Karen Girls in National Costume 
 
 Opposite Page 
 Mountain Karens in the Old Single Piece 
 
 Karen Garment 32 
 
 Hill Karen Women 32 
 
 Karens of Mountain Village ... 90 
 School Boys Drilling, Toungoo, Burma . 100 
 Four Little Karens, Toungoo, Burma . 100 
 
 Picking Mangoes. Karen Theological Sem- 
 inary IN THE Distance .... 104 
 Idol House, Tharawaddy, Burma . . 120 
 
 Karen Houses 120 
 
 A Karen Man Pounding Rice in the Moun- 
 tains 176 
 
 Karen Woman Weaving on the Karen 
 
 Loom ....... 176 
 
 Karens Reaping Paddy . w . . . 182 
 
 13? 
 
I 
 
 THE KARENS AND THEIR TRADITIONS 
 
 WHEN Dr. Judson, the great missionary, 
 first went to Burma in 1813, that country 
 was little known. Its entire area at the 
 present time is only equal to that of the New Eng- 
 land States together with New York, Pennsylvania, 
 New Jersey and Maryland, certainly not a great 
 extent of territory as compared with the vast do- 
 minions of India and China which border it, the 
 one on the northwest and the other on the north. 
 But in Dr. Judson's day all that could have any 
 possible interest to the average citizen of the west- 
 ern world was a narrow strip of country extend- 
 ing along the coast where a few European mer- 
 chants had established themselves and were eking 
 out a rather precarious existence. 
 
 Then, as now, Burma was richly endowed with 
 natural resources, but her people little understood 
 the value of their splendid heritage. To use the 
 figure of speech which they still frequently employ 
 in referring to themselves, they were like a frog 
 sitting at the foot of a stalk of sugar-cane and 
 knowing nothing of its worth until a water buffalo 
 
 15 
 
16 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 or carabao comes along and eats up the luscious 
 growth. Rice grew profusely on the rich alluvial 
 plains. The magnificent forests waved with trees 
 supplying timber of great variety and value. Some 
 of the most remarkable oil fields In the world were 
 to be found there, and they were seemingly worked 
 in a crude way long before the value of the oil was 
 fully understood In America or In Europe. Burma 
 was the home of the pigeon-blood ruby, one of the 
 rarest and most precious of gems. Elephants with 
 their splendid tusks of ivory roamed the jungles, 
 and the peacock with Its gorgeous plumage fre- 
 quented the upland glens. But the country was 
 cursed by Its kings. Ignorant, deceitful, vain, 
 superstitious, blood-thirsty, they lived surrounded 
 by sycophants, knew nothing but flattery, and, as 
 might be expected, practiced the utmost cruelties 
 even upon their own people. When a new king 
 ascended the throne, it was customary for him to 
 put all of his relatives to death, lest any of them 
 should contest his place. One king who failed to 
 build himself a new capital in accordance with the 
 custom of the realm, sought to make amends by 
 having sixty persons burled alive under the walls 
 of his palace. It is said of a certain other king 
 that when a subject of his had visited England 
 and returned, the king asked him what he had 
 seen in that strange land, and in particular how 
 it compared with his own kingdom of Burma. Was 
 England so fair and rich a country? "No, your 
 
THE KARENS, THEIR TRADITIONS 17 
 
 Majesty," came the reply, *'how could it be, for 
 there the lordly teak does not grow." And the 
 king knew no better than to accept the estimate 
 as true. 
 
 Needless to say, the cruelty and vindictiveness 
 which surrounded the throne spread through all 
 the lower ranks of government officialdom and 
 indeed permeated the life of the entire people. 
 Aside from the monks of the Buddhist order — for 
 Burma was, and still is, one of the chief strong- 
 holds of Buddhism, — the life or property of no 
 one was safe. If any of the common people were 
 suspected of acquiring more wealth than was 
 needed for bare sustenance, some charge would 
 be trumped up against them, and their property be 
 confiscated. Cruelty and oppression were every- 
 where known. Justice and mercy were not so much 
 as dreamed of. And if this was the attitude of 
 the Burmese even towards those of their own race, 
 one may rightly infer that it would be still more 
 relentless towards those of other races living under 
 their dominion. 
 
 Among the most persecuted of these subject 
 peoples were the Karens (accent on the last syl- 
 lable). Naturally a timid and retiring race, they 
 were perhaps all the more heartily hated and des- 
 pised by the Burmans on that account. The writer 
 has heard it related by some who remember those 
 early days, that the Karens were subjected to such 
 terrible and heartless oppression that they were 
 
18 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 obliged to live for the most part in the farthest 
 recesses of the tropical jungles or in the fastnesses 
 of the mountains. Even there they lived in such 
 constant terror that oftentimes they dared not 
 build their wretched little huts, but dwelt in caves 
 or under overhanging rocks, and would not leave 
 their abodes and return to them by the same route 
 lest a path should be formed and their whereabouts 
 should be discovered. They subsisted by culti- 
 vating the soil, which in the mountain regions is 
 so poor that two crops of rice cannot be grown 
 successively on the same piece of land and fresh 
 forests must be cut down every year, entailing a 
 vast amount of labor. Long distances were always 
 placed by the Karens between their homes and 
 their poor little fields, and fortunately the season 
 for cultivating the latter fell chiefly during the 
 rains when the swollen mountain torrents gave 
 practical immunity from the intrusions of their 
 enemies. But oftentimes for six months on a 
 stretch they had no rice and were obliged to sub- 
 sist on such roots and herbs as they could find grow- 
 ing wild in the jungles. Their chief protection was 
 their abject poverty. Relying on this the men 
 sometimes visited the cities and towns of the Bur- 
 mans, but the women never ventured near them, 
 knowing that to do so would be to subject them- 
 selves to certain Insult and abuse. The Karens are 
 naturally lighter of skin than the Burmans, and 
 it is said that most of the latter who are of fairer 
 
THE KARENS, THEIR TRADITIONS 19 
 
 complexion than their fellows are descendants of 
 Karen women who had been captured in some raid 
 and held as slaves. 
 
 Dr. Judson seems to have been in Burma about 
 fourteen years before he so much as learned of the 
 existence of the Karen people. He then saw a 
 group of Karens come into the city of Rangoon 
 and made inquiries concerning them. He was told 
 that they were an exceedingly uncouth, awkward, 
 backward race, but when he asked concerning their 
 rehgion, he was informed that they did not wor- 
 ship idols. On further investigation it developed 
 that they had a wonderful body of traditions and 
 sayings which kept alive among them the knowl- 
 edge of the true God, creator of the heavens and 
 of the earth. 
 
 Following is a translation of the prose form of 
 
 The Karen Tradition of the Creation 
 AND Fall 
 
 "God created heaven and earth." 
 
 **Having created heaven and earth. He created 
 the sun, He created the moon, He created the 
 stars." 
 
 "Having created the sun, the moon and the 
 stars, He created man. And of what did He 
 create man? He created man from the earth." 
 
 "Having created man, He created woman. 
 How did He create woman? He took a rib out 
 of the man, and created a woman." 
 
20 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 "Having created woman, He created life. How 
 did He create life? Father God said, *I love my 
 son and daughter; I will give them my great life.* 
 He took a Httle portion of His own life, breathed 
 into the nostrils of the two persons, and they came 
 to life, and were real human beings." 
 
 "Having created man. He created food and 
 drink. He created rice. He created water. He 
 created fire. He created cows, He created ele- 
 phants. He created birds." 
 
 "Having created animals Father God said, *My 
 son and daughter, your father will make and ^ve 
 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. Do not eat of its fruit. If you eat it, you will 
 become old, you will die. Eat it not. All else that I 
 have created I give to you. Eat and drink to the 
 full. Once in seven days I will visit you. All that 
 I have commanded you observe and do. Forget 
 me not. Pray to me every morning and night' " 
 
 "Afterwards Satan came and said, 'Why are you 
 here?' 'Our Father God put us here,* they said. 
 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 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 sav- 
 
THE KARENS, THEIR TRADITIONS 21 
 
 ory, this is fiery; but here is a tree, — we know not 
 whether it be sour or sweet. Our Father God said 
 to us, "Do not eat the fruit of this tree; if you eat 
 it, you will die." We do not eat it, and so do not 
 know whether it be sour or sweet.* 'Not so, my 
 children,' Satan replied. 'The heart of your Father 
 God is not with you. This is the richest and sweet- 
 est. 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 deified. 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. However if you do not believe 
 me, do not eat it. But if each one will taste 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 will not eat it.' Thus saying, he 
 rose up and went away." 
 
 "But the woman listened to Satan, and being 
 rather pleased with what he said, remained. After 
 Satan had continued coaxing her for a long time, 
 she wavered and asked him, 'If we eat, shall we 
 indeed be able to fly?' 'My daughter,' Satan re- 
 plied, *I seek to persuade you because I love you.' 
 
22 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 The woman took one of the fruits and ate. And 
 Satan smilingly said, 'My daughter listens to me 
 very well. Now go, give the fruit to your husband, 
 and say to him, "I have eaten the fruit. It is ex- 
 ceedingly rich." If he does not eat, deceive him, 
 that he may eat. Otherwise, you see, if you die, 
 you will die alone, or, if you become deified, you 
 will be deified alone.* 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 hus- 
 band has eaten the fruit.' On hearing that he 
 laughed exceedingly and said, 'Now you have lis- 
 tened to me very well indeed, my son and 
 daughter'." 
 
 "On the morning of the day after they had 
 eaten, God visited them. But they did not follow 
 Him singing praises, as they had been wont to do. 
 He reproached them and said, 'Why have you 
 eaten the fruit of the tree 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 be- 
 come old, you shall get sick, and you shall die.' " 
 
 The Karens reveled in rhyming couplets which 
 were handed down from their forefathers by the 
 hundred and by the thousand. Many of these 
 
THE KARENS, THEIR TRADITIONS 23 
 
 couplets are so ancient that their meaning Is now 
 obscure, but those whose meaning Is still clear set 
 forth conceptions of God quite In accord with 
 the tradition given above. The three following 
 stanzas each with a question and response are after 
 a translation made by Mrs. H. M. N. Armstrong: 
 
 The earth at first a speck of froth; 
 Who created? Who remade it? 
 The earth at first a star of foam; 
 Who created? Who remade it? 
 The earth at first a speck of froth; 
 God created, He remade it. 
 The earth at first a star of foam; 
 God Himself formed, He re-formed it. 
 
 Heaven vast the Eternal placed, 
 Earth beneath the Eternal placed; 
 Heaven and earth He cleft apart. 
 Placed whom when He would depart? 
 The Eternal ordered Heaven vast. 
 Fixed the earth's foundation fast; 
 Heaven and earth asunder cleft, 
 Man and woman there were left. 
 
 Like a top the round earth spinning. 
 How lived folk on the beginning? 
 Like thread on reel it circles round, 
 What have the first folk on it found? 
 Round the earth spins like a top, 
 Turned as reel without a stop; 
 Here the first folk lived at leisure, 
 Here the first folk lived for pleasure. 
 
 Another stanza runs as follows the thought being 
 that God can open out or fold up the universe like 
 
24 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 a telescope, a unique and really sublime conception: 
 
 The whole round earth God came to form. 
 He can make broad, He can make narrow ; 
 The whole round earth God came to mend, 
 With ease He can make broad or narrow. 
 
 Instead of thinking of the earth as being God's 
 footstool, the Karen regards it as His couch, hence 
 the following rather naive lines in which the 
 thought is of one asleep in the frail native bamboo 
 house when those about must tread softly lest they 
 awaken him : — 
 
 Earth is the sleeping place of God, 
 
 Hence noiseless thou, with heel-prints light, 
 
 Thy way must take ; 
 Earth is His widely spreading couch, — 
 Soft-footed steal thou through the night. 
 
 Lest He awake. 
 
 Another saying is, "The poor in spirit and the 
 steadfast in heart are God's delight." Finally, 
 where is there to be found in any literature or in 
 any folklore a finer saying than this, which is taken 
 from the maxims of the ancient Karen elder,— 
 "Children and grandchildren, it is because men are 
 not righteous that they do not see God." 
 
 None of these couplets or sayings is traceable to 
 modern Christian influences. They have all been 
 collected with great care from the lips of the hea- 
 then themselves. Some of the ideas presented 
 here, such as that of the earth being at first of the 
 
THE KARENS, THEIR TRADITIONS 25 
 
 nature of froth or foam, and that of the earth 
 revolving like a top, are certainly surprising, but 
 their authenticity and genuineness as being of pure- 
 ly Karen origin are beyond question. 
 
 It will be seen at once what an advantage is given 
 to the missionary in preaching to the Karen people. 
 He might go to any other of the races of eastern 
 Asia, and he would have much difficulty in finding 
 words in their language which would adequately 
 convey to them the idea of God and even greater 
 difficulty in arousing in them a sense of the divine 
 holiness. But let him go to even the most back- 
 ward Karens and use their word K'sah Y'wah, and 
 at once they would understand the very same God 
 whom he worships, the God who is the creator of 
 the heavens and of the earth, the God who is om- 
 nipotent, omniscient and omnipresent, the holy and 
 righteous God. 
 
 The Karens as a people were, in general, mild 
 and peaceable, truthful and honest, affectionte and 
 industrious. Their chief failing was, and is to this 
 day, drunkenness. Among the heathen every fam- 
 ily, or at least every village or little cluster of 
 houses has its still, by means of which a strong 
 spirit is produced from rice, the chief product of 
 the country, and its use is almost universal. But, 
 aside from that, the Karens were far and away the 
 most moral and the most virtuous people of the 
 east. In their primitive condition before they came 
 much into contact with other races, while the prac- 
 
26 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 tice of polygamywaspermitted, It was very unusual, 
 and fornication and adultery were of the rarest 
 occurrence among them and were severely pun- 
 ished. Harlotry was so utterly unknown that they 
 had no word for it. Every one built his granary 
 out in the rice field, perhaps miles away from his 
 home, and yet no one ever thought of stealing 
 the grain. If any one found a tree with a swarm 
 of bees in it the honey from which was not yet 
 ready to collect, all he needed to do to establish his 
 claim upon it and secure it against being taken by 
 some one else, was to twist up a wisp of grass and 
 put it in some chink at the foot of the tree. This 
 interesting custom is witnessed to this day in the 
 fact that the Karen word for sign means "the *our 
 grass' thing or idea,'* the grass having been a sign 
 of ownership. But perhaps an even stronger evi- 
 dence of the moral idealism of the Karen people 
 is to be found in their conception of their ancestors, 
 or rather of the contrast between themselves and 
 their ancestors. A rumor current among them 
 runs about as follows: — "Children and grandchild- 
 ren, we are not the real Karen race. The real 
 Karen stock lives far to the north over many ranges 
 of mountains. They are mighty by reason of right- 
 eousness. We are but the offscourings of our peo- 
 ple and were cast out because we were not worthy 
 to remain among them." Many races claim that 
 their progenitors were mighty because of physical 
 prowess. Is there another which claims that its 
 
THE KARENS, THEIR TRADITIONS 27 
 
 progenitors were mighty because of righteousness, 
 and so humbly reveres them? 
 
 The history of the human family is far from 
 flattering. There is the Light, even the true light 
 that lighteneth every man that cometh into the 
 world, but men will not receive it. Well may we 
 believe that Paul was right when, in the first chap- 
 ter of Romans, he wrote that all men know God, 
 but the heathen have held down or suppressed 
 that knowledge In unrighteousness. They blind 
 their eyes against it, and turn to their various sys- 
 tems of so-called religion which obscure to them 
 the truth. They prefer darkness to light. But 
 here was a most remarkable and unusual phenome- 
 non. In the midst of races which for hundreds and 
 thousands of years had, like the Burmese, pro- 
 fessed the atheistic tenets of Buddhism, or, like the 
 Chinese, had been given over to the senseless wor- 
 ship of their ancestors, or like the natives of India, 
 while professing to have many gods, knew nothing 
 of divine holiness, was a simple minded people 
 which still held to the primitive revelation which 
 we may suppose to have been given to the entire 
 human race, maintained their virtue through many 
 generations and kept measureably clear the con- 
 ception and knowledge of the truth. 
 
II 
 
 VARIOUS THEORIES OF THE ORIGIN 
 
 AND RACIAL CONNECTIONS OF 
 
 THE KARENS 
 
 WHENCE the Karens came or how they 
 got their traditions — unless, as has been 
 suggested, It may have been by prim- 
 itive revelatlon^ — It Is impossible to say with 
 any degree of certainty. It may be inferred 
 from their own accounts that they left the 
 early cradle of the human race many centuries or 
 millenniums ago, and, following along the north- 
 ern slopes of the Himalaya Mountains, or crossing 
 the plains of Thibet, reached their present habitat 
 by way of Western China. These traditions are 
 very vague, but they tell of passing over rivers of 
 sand, which may refer to the desert of Gobi. Cer- 
 tain it Is that at the present time, or more especially 
 at the time when they were first brought to the 
 knowledge of the missionaries — since then, under 
 the protection afforded by the British government 
 many of them have come down to the more con- 
 genial life upon the plains — they occupied for the 
 most part the lower ranges In Burma and Siam of 
 
 28 
 
ORIGIN OF THE KARENS 29 
 
 those spurs and off-shoots of the Himalayas which 
 find their ultimate termini in the partly submerged 
 mountain-islands of the Malayan Archipelago. 
 There is a curious story to the effect that on the 
 early migrations from the northern country there 
 were ninety-nine families or tribes in all, but that 
 they stopped to make their dinner of snails which 
 they found in great abundance. They knew noth- 
 ing, however, of sucking them out of their shells, 
 and so cooked them as they were, adding a few 
 sprigs of an herb which gave out a blood-red juice. 
 Thirty-three families, including the Karens, boiled 
 their snails for a while, and, finding that they were 
 not soft, and supposing that the red juice was the 
 blood of the snails still uncooked, left them as they 
 were and pushed on, while the sixty-six other fam- 
 ilies, waiting to cook their snails soft, were left be- 
 hind to this day. These were the Muhsoes, Kwes, 
 Kaws and other closely allied races which extend 
 far up into the mountainous regions of western 
 China between whom and the Karens there seems 
 little doubt that there is a certain affinity. A 
 comparative study of their languages such as has 
 been carried out in the case of the races of western 
 Europe, might perhaps unravel to some extent the 
 history of these interesting peoples, but nothing of 
 the kind has yet been adequately attempted. 
 
 Although the Karens had no literature when the 
 missionaries came to them — not so much as an al- 
 phabet — ^they nevertheless had a saying among 
 
30 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 themselves that they had once had a book which 
 taught them the way of life, but that through their 
 carelessness they lost it. How the book was lost 
 did not clearly appear. Some said, they left it 
 under the eaves of the house, and the fowls 
 scratching about, dislodged it so that it fell to the 
 ground, and there the pigs, rooting around, tore it 
 to pieces or covered it up. Others said that the 
 book was placed on the stump of a tree where, be- 
 ing of leather, it became softened by the action of 
 the water during the rainy season, and the hungry 
 dogs found it and ate it up. But granting an ele- 
 ment of truth in the essential parts of this narra- 
 tive, no one can say at the present time what the 
 Karen book was, or even whether it was the source 
 of their traditions. 
 
 It is of course possible that the Karens derived 
 their ideas from the Nestorian Christians at the 
 same time that the gospel was carried by them into 
 China. But a serious objection to this theory is 
 that they have no knowledge of Christ — ^which 
 would hardly seem possible if they had come into 
 contact with that source of information. A fa- 
 vorite view entertained by many of the early mis- 
 sionaries was that the Karens belonged to the lost 
 tribes of Israel. This opinion seems not to be so 
 commonly held at the present day, and yet there 
 IS much to favor it. The Karen name for God, 
 l^Vah, is very like Yahweh which scholars sup- 
 pose to have been the ancient Hebrew pronun- 
 
ORIGIN OF THE KARENS 31 
 
 elation of the sacred name Jehovah. The 
 Karen language has several sounds which were 
 common to the Semitic languages, but do not ap- 
 pear to be in use except in a limited degree among 
 the other races of eastern Asia. The Karens know 
 nothing of circumcision, but they have certain cus- 
 toms which remind one of some of the Mosaic in- 
 stitutions, notably the passover. When any one is 
 taken ill, all the members of the family will come 
 together In the house — and they often travel long 
 distances in order that the family circle may be 
 complete^ — and eat a pig. No bone of the pig must 
 be broken, and no one must go down out of the 
 house until the ceremony is over. Of course this 
 custom differs from that of the passover in that the 
 pig was an abomination to the Jew. But the use 
 of the pig instead of the lamb might be accounted 
 for from the fact that, the Karens having no sheep, 
 the pig would be the most convenient substitute. 
 Some of the early missionaries even thought they 
 could discern a Jewish cast in the Karen physiog- 
 nomy. The present writer has himself seen a few 
 Karens who had the aquiline nose characteristic of 
 the Israelitish race. Several of these are members 
 of a family in his own field which is descended from 
 an old priestly line. If further observation and 
 inquiry should elicit other instances of the kind, the 
 fact might indicate that, whatever may have been 
 the origin of the Karen race as a whole, it received 
 in very early times an infiltration of Jewish people 
 
32 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 who became its instructors and religious leaders. 
 More than this cannot at the present time be said. 
 In general, however, the Karens are purely Mon- 
 golian in their features and characteristics. They 
 are shorter in stature and darker in color than the 
 Chinese, but not so dark as either the Burmese or 
 the Siamese. Like all these races, they have broad 
 cheek-bones and wide-flat nostrils, but not the al- 
 mond eyes of the Chinese. Their language, of 
 which there are several dialects, is monosyllabic, 
 and is characterized by the peculiar intonations 
 with which all students of the languages of south- 
 eastern Asia are familiar. Thus the word *'meh" 
 pronounced in a high, sustained key means "tooth'* ; 
 pronounced with a heavy, falling accent it means 
 *'tair'; terminated abruptly on a middle pitch it 
 means *'eye''; a short, quick accent on a rather high 
 key gives it the significance of *'sand"; a gentle 
 circumflex accent makes it mean a "mole'* or some 
 such disfigurement of the person; and, most difii- 
 cult of all for the foreigner to acquire, a somewhat 
 prolonged accent with a peculiar resonant quality 
 of tone gives the meaning '^bridal gift." 
 
 A very singular circumstance in connection with 
 the Karen traditions is that they seem to contain no 
 distinct and clear references to the flood, accounts 
 of which are so common among most primitive 
 races. On account of this peculiarity of Karen tra- 
 dition the theory has sometimes been broached that 
 the Karens may have forsaken the cradle of the 
 
^^^ 
 
 HHH^^rT^H^^^^H^H! 
 
 
 
 H^^^^H^B ^x W^ml' 'mm, m 
 
 H ' J\ "v^^IHh 
 
 ^^m^^^mm^^ 
 
 HhH 
 
 
 BBB 
 
 MOUNTAIN KARENS IN THE OLD SINGLE PIECE KAREN GARMENT 
 
 
 W?'M 
 
 BJ 
 
 ^jllll 
 
 B'M 
 
 
 H*4W. 
 
 ^] 
 
 
 
 :4# 
 
 
 r^^ 
 
 fW 
 
 ^>5^ : 
 
 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 HILL KAREN WOMEN 
 
ORIGIN OF THE KARENS 33 
 
 human race even before the flood. This position 
 would perhaps be tenable if, as some affirm, the 
 Scriptures do not assert the absolute universality 
 of the flood but only that it was co-extensive with 
 the then known world. 
 
 But, whatever view may be entertained of the 
 origin of the Karen traditions of the creation and 
 fall, they certainly seem to have been derived 
 originally from the same source as the account 
 given in the Scripture, if not from the Scripture 
 itself, and they are no doubt of great antiquity. 
 Their preservation in so great purity by mere word 
 of mouth is certainly remarkable, but not incred- 
 ible, especially since the fact has a well-known par- 
 allel in the Homeric poems which were in like man- 
 ner passed on verbally from generation to genera- 
 tion. Moreover the natural isolation of a hill 
 people would keep such transmissions free from 
 extraneous ideas to which contact with other races 
 might render them liable. 
 
Ill 
 
 THE RELIGION OF THE KAREN PEOPLE 
 
 HAVING these wonderful traditions of the 
 creation and fall and these sublime concep- 
 tions of God, it might be thought that the 
 Karens would need nothing more; they would of 
 course worship God, and there would be no occa- 
 sion for sending them missionaries. But, although 
 the Karens knew of God, they did not worship 
 him. In times of persecution, to be sure, their 
 priests would gather them together and offer pray- 
 ers on their behalf, one of which is still preserved 
 in the following form : — 
 
 *'Our Father in heaven, we are greatly op- 
 pressed; we get down from our houses when the 
 hens get down from their roost; we return home 
 when the hens go to roost again. If we get four 
 annas, it is taken away; if we get two annas, it is 
 taken away. Our graves are dug seven cubits deep, 
 and they scrape in the sand above us ; there is none 
 to lift our heads, there is none to carry our feet. 
 Come to us, O Lord, come to us.'* 
 
 To read these words now is affecting. They 
 show how near the Karens came to a true concep- 
 
 34 
 
RELIGION OF THE KAREN PEOPLE 35 
 
 tion of the God of grace and how easily they might 
 have worshipped him. But these prayers were 
 only occasional. In general the people did not 
 profess to pray to God or worship him in any way. 
 On the other hand, it comes with something of a 
 shock to hear them acknowledge that their religion, 
 such as it is, consists in serving Satan, the one who 
 deceived them in the beginning, and carrying out 
 his instructions. 
 
 Various accounts are given as to how this 
 strange apostacy arose. One is to the effect that 
 after the fall one of the children of the first pair 
 was taken ill, and the parents said to themselves, 
 "What shall we do? God has forsaken us. We 
 must betake ourselves to Satan again.'^ So they 
 went to Satan, and asked him what they should do. 
 *'Well," said he, "you must get a pig." So they 
 got a pig, and Satan taught them certain ceremo- 
 nies that they must go through with. And they 
 went through with these ceremonies, and surely 
 enough the child recovered. But a few days after, 
 another child was taken ill, and so they went to 
 Satan again, and asked him what they should do. 
 "Well," said he, "did you get a pig and go through 
 with the ceremonies I taught you?" "Oh, yes," 
 they said, "we have done all that, and still our 
 child is not getting any better, but is rather grow- 
 ing worse." "Well, then," said Satan, "you must 
 catch a fowl." So they caught a fowl, and Satan 
 taught them how to divine the omens from the 
 
86 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 bones of the fowl. Just what the process is, the 
 writer has not learned, but it seems from the ac- 
 counts given him to be something like breaking the 
 "wishbone,** as is sometimes done among the chil- 
 dren of white people. They did just as Satan told 
 them to do, but instead of getting better their 
 child continued to grow worse and finally died. So 
 they went to Satan again, and said, *'Here, what 
 do you mean? Our child was taken ill, and we 
 got a pig, and went through with the ceremonies 
 you taught us, and when that did not suffice, we got 
 a fowl, and did just as you told us to do; but in- 
 stead of getting any better our child continued to 
 grow worse. In fact it died." ''Oh, well,'* said 
 Satan, ''whenever any one of you is taken ill, you 
 must get a pig and go through with the ceremonies 
 I taught you, and if that does not suffice, you must 
 get a fowl, and do just as I told you to do, and — ** 
 here Satan used a play upon words which made it 
 possible to understand his meaning in either one 
 of two ways ; that if the omens proved favorable, 
 the person would live, and if unfavorable, the per- 
 son would die, or, what was an absolutely true, but 
 also aH utterly heartless thing to say, that "If he is 
 to live, he will live and if he is to die, he will die.** 
 And that is all the comfort and consolation that 
 those poor people have had from that day to this, 
 for whenever any one of them is taken ill, they 
 get pigs and fowls and do just as Satan taught them 
 to do, and surely enough it happens just as Satan 
 
RELIGION OF THE KAREN PEOPLE 37 
 
 said — he must be given credit for telling the truth 
 for once in his life — if the person is to live, he 
 lives, and if he is to die, he dies. 
 
 The writer sometimes avails himself of this 
 account in preaching to the heathen. He meets an 
 old man on the jungle path — for over much of the 
 territory which he traverses there is nothing which 
 one could dignify by the title of "roads" — and 
 says to him, "Uncle," a title of respect which it 
 is customary to use in addressing a senior, "did you 
 know that the Karen tradition is grievously at 
 error in one point?" "Why, no," he says, "I had 
 not thought of it." Then the missionary goes on 
 to say that where the Karen tradition narrates the 
 creation of the heavens and the earth, how God 
 created the heavens and the earth, and the sun and 
 the moon and the stars, how he created the grasses 
 of the field and the trees of the forest, and how he 
 created man and woman, and placed them in the 
 garden, and gave them the command that they 
 might eat of the fruit of all the trees of the garden 
 save one, but should not eat of that lest they die, 
 and how they disregarded the command, that is all 
 true, but where the Karen tradition goes on to 
 say that God forsook the Karen people, there it is 
 in error, and very grievously in error. For, if a 
 child says, "I left my mother," that is one thing, 
 but if it says, "My mother left me," that is an en- 
 tirely different thing. For, if it says, "I left my 
 mother," it is placing blame on no one but itself, 
 
38 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 but, if it says, **My mother left me," it seems to 
 be blaming the mother, for the mother ought to 
 care for the child. "And now," says the mission- 
 ary, "if you Xarens would say, 'We have for- 
 saken God,' that would be one thing, but when you 
 say that God has forsaken you, that is an entirely 
 different thing. For, if you would say that you 
 had forsaken God, you would be taking the blame 
 upon yourselves where it belongs, but when you 
 say that God has forsaken you, you seem to be lay- 
 ing the blame of your separation upon God, and 
 it is a very grievous sin to lay upon God the faults 
 that are our own." And the missionary does not 
 remember ever to have preached in this way but 
 that his listener, if not sincerely convinced in his 
 heart, was at least silenced — he had nothing more 
 to say. 
 
 Another way which the Karehs have of account- 
 ing for their customs is by reference to the manner 
 in which their book was lost. They say that, as 
 the fowls and the pigs scratched down the book 
 and covered it over, the wisdom of the book must 
 have gone into them, and that is the reason for 
 examining such animals for omens. 
 
 For the rest, the religious beliefs of the Karens 
 are a jumble of superstitions without system or 
 consistency. In fact their ideas are so vague and 
 unrelated that they are frequently twitted by the 
 Burmans with having no religion at all. What- 
 ever they have is pure animism or so-called spirit- 
 
RELIGION OF THE KAREN PEOPLE 39 
 
 worship, which means not so much veneration of 
 the spirits as endeavor to placate them or In some 
 .way escape their evil Influence. For, strange to 
 say, the Karens make their very conception of the 
 benignity of God an excuse for not worshipping 
 him. They say, ''God Is good any way. There Is 
 no need to be afraid of him. But there are any 
 number of evil spirits about, and there Is no telling 
 how much harm they may do." The consequence 
 Is that, having no wholesome fear of God, they are 
 given over to countless other fears. They live in 
 constant suspense lest they may inadvertently run 
 counter to some malicious, unseen power. A free 
 translation of a favorite Christian Karen hymn 
 runs as follows: — 
 
 The heathen have much cause for fear, 
 
 Nor is their dread in vain, 
 But children of the heavenly king 
 
 With joy from fears refrain. 
 
 And nothing can more fittingly describe the differ- 
 ence between the two classes of people. A heathen 
 Karen will never start out on a journey if he hears 
 the call of the barking deer or sees a snake cross 
 his path. In times of scarcity he may go many 
 miles to get a basket of rice, and If, on his return, 
 bearing the heavy load on his back, he hears or sees 
 some unfavorable omen, although he may be but a 
 few steps from the house, he will pour out the rice 
 on the ground and not touch it again. Under every 
 
40 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 bush or tree there is a spirit which may take offense. 
 There are spirits of the earth, spirits of the air, 
 spirits of the mountains, spirits of the plains, spirits 
 of the forests, spirits of the fields, spirits of the 
 rocks, spirits of the springs, spirits throughout the 
 haunted creation, all bent on mischief to the un- 
 wary Karen who may cross their path. 
 
 Yet, by a strange inconsistency which seems to be 
 characteristic of the human race as a whole, al- 
 though the Karens greatly dread these evil spirits 
 and think of them as being possessed of super- 
 natural powers, they nevertheless regard them as 
 being very simple minded and easily imposed upon, 
 just as some people think God may be easily 
 bought off or hoodwinked. Sometimes they will 
 make an offering of a small pig, but say that it is 
 a great boar — and they think the spirit will be- 
 lieve them. On entering the house of a heathen 
 Karen one may often see a deserted wasps' nest 
 hanging over the door. On inquiry he will learn 
 that it is placed there for the purpose of keeping 
 the evil spirits away. They will come at nightfall 
 intending to enter the house and do some mischief, 
 but their attention is attracted by the nest, and they 
 begin to wonder how many cells there are in it. 
 But it seems that they are very poor at counting. 
 So they will begin — "One, two, three, four, six — * 
 oh, I have made a mistake and must begin over 
 again. One, three, four — oh, I have made a mis- 
 take and must begin over again. One, two, three, 
 
RELIGION OF THE KAREN PEOPLE 41 
 
 four, five, nine — oh, I have made a mistake and 
 must begin over again.'* And so they go on and 
 on, making mistakes and having to begin over and 
 over again, until morning dawns and they have to 
 betake themselves to their proper abode. 
 
 Aside from these superstitions are many ideas, 
 observances and rites having no special connection 
 with them. Dreams are ascribed to the wandering 
 of the spirit or good genius in sleep. Consequently 
 a person must never be awakened from sleep sud- 
 denly, lest his spirit may not have time to get back 
 into the body, and he may be taken ill. Sometimes 
 petitions are offered to the spirit beseeching it to 
 return to Its home. A mother will go to a fork of 
 the path near the house with some tidbit which her 
 sick child was accustomed to relish in health and 
 call plaintively to the spirit : — 
 
 O Spirit, wherever thou hast wandered, 
 O Elfin, wherever thou hast strayed, 
 Return to thy home, 
 Come back to the place of thine abode. 
 
 Necklaces are worn not so much for ornament as 
 to give the wandering spirit something to take hold 
 of when it returns to the body. 
 
 In keeping with all these practices and cere- 
 monies are to be found some religious and racial 
 conceptions less exalted than those suggested by 
 the noble tradition of the creation and fall and the 
 sayings quoted in connection with it. One story is 
 
42 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 that after Father God had created men upon the 
 earth, he observed that they did not multiply and 
 increase as they should. Upon careful inspection 
 he found that a great dragon encircled the entire 
 horizon, and as men multiplied it would open its 
 mouth from time to time and swallow a large part 
 of them. So Father God forged a great spear 
 the head of which weighed seven viss or about 
 twenty-five pounds, and hurled it at the dragon. 
 But the dragon merely said: 
 
 "What kind of an insect is that biting me?" 
 Then Father God forged another spear so vast 
 that when he lifted it, the sun in the heaven was 
 obscured for seven days and seven nights. With 
 this he slew the dragon, and from that time on 
 men multiplied on the earth. 
 
 Further illustrations of these crude conceptions 
 of God will be given in a later chapter, but in this 
 connection may be mentioned, in contrast with the 
 tradition of the Karen progenitors as being mighty 
 by reason of righteousness, the story of Taw Meh 
 Pah which is very popular among the Karens and 
 has been handed down in various forms. This Taw 
 Meh Pah (the name means Sire of the Boar's 
 Tush) , is said to have been the original ancestor of 
 the Karens, corresponding to Abraham for the 
 Jews. One story Is to the effect that when he was 
 an old man, his wife died and he went to live with 
 his sons and sons-in-law. He found that a wild 
 boar used to come and destroy their crops. Then 
 
RELIGION OF THE KAREN PEOPLE 43 
 
 he said to himself, **I haven't much longer to live 
 any way, and a day or two more or less does not 
 amount to much. I will have a go at the boar.'* 
 So he took his spear and went out in search of the 
 marauder. After a time he succeeded in finding 
 its lair and a tremendous struggle ensued. Taw 
 Meh Pah on his part would make a thrust at the 
 boar with his spear, and the boar would make a 
 dash at him. At length the old man was able to de- 
 feat the boar, but he was so thoroughly exhausted 
 by the struggle that he could not take the carcase 
 home and told his sons to go out and fetch it. They 
 went out and looked around, but found nothing, 
 and returning scolded the old man, saying, ''Here, 
 old man, you have lied to us. There is no boar 
 there, and we have had all our trouble for noth- 
 ing." But Taw Meh Pah replied indignandy, 
 "You worthless fellows, when the boar was alive, 
 you dared not even look at it, and now that I have 
 killed it, can't you so much as find the carcase? 
 I will show you where it is." So they went out 
 together to find it. The reason the sons had not 
 been able to find it was that it was so large they 
 had mistaken it for a mountain. Finally with 
 their best efforts they were able to carry home one 
 of the boar's tushes only. Others say that the boar 
 was a magical being, and Taw Meh Pah could not 
 kill it, but he so far overcame It that one of its 
 tushes dropped out, and this they found and took 
 home. Taw Meh Pah sat in the house and made 
 
44 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 a comb out of the tush. On combing his hair with 
 it, he found to his astonishment that he had become 
 a young man again. Being a young man, he found 
 himself another wife, lived with her until she grew 
 old and died, combed his hair again and became a 
 young man, found another wife and lived with her 
 until she grew old and died, then combed his hair 
 again and so on. How long he kept up the pro- 
 cess no one knows, but it is said that whenever a 
 wife died, he pulled out one of her teeth to remem- 
 ber her by, and when last heard from, he had three 
 bushel basketfuls of the teeth. 
 
 This form of the story has probably had many 
 embellishments. Another form which seems to be 
 more ancient, is to the effect that Taw Meh Pah's 
 wife was still living when he killed the boar, and 
 that not only she but all his descendants used the 
 comb and so were no longer subject to sickness and 
 death. As a result of this they multiplied very 
 rapidly, until the land where they were living could 
 no longer support them. Then Taw Meh Pah 
 started out in search of a better country, where 
 the soil should be so rich that, instead of the earth 
 which is dug out of a hole not filling the hole when 
 it is put back in, as is the case in the present abode 
 of the Karen people, it should fill the hole seven 
 times. In his wanderings he came to a great river 
 of flowing sand. On this side of the river the 
 earth would fill its hole four times, but when he 
 reached the other side of the river, he found that 
 
RELIGION OF THE KAREN PEOPLE 45 
 
 the earth would fill its hole the requisite number 
 of times, seven. Then he returned to take his 
 people to that favored land, but when they had 
 gone a ways, they complained that they were so 
 hungry and tired they must stop a while to eat and 
 rest. So they waited to cook a dinner of snails, as 
 has been mentioned in a previous chapter of this 
 book, and Taw Meh Pah, wearied with waiting, 
 went on ahead, promising to blaze a path for them. 
 He cut down stalks of the plantain or banana tree 
 to mark the way. This grows up very quickly, and 
 so when the people, who were not then familiar 
 with it, came on later, they thought Taw Meh Pah 
 must have gone so far ahead that they could never 
 catch up with him, and they became discouraged 
 and stayed where they are now. 
 
 The story thus far is only curious. It seems 
 like a possible reminiscence of the early migrations 
 of the Karen race. Its crudeness is evident. But 
 the account goes onto say that Taw Meh Pah is 
 still watching over his people from that land of 
 seven-fold richness, and when they have sufficiently 
 expiated their sin of disobedience, he will come for 
 them again, and take them to that better abode 
 where they will live in happiness, free from sick- 
 ness, old age and death. 
 
 Here is an element in the story which is of in- 
 terest in the present connection as showing, even 
 among their cruder conceptions, a strong moral 
 consciousness on the part of the Karen people and 
 
46 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 also a dim Messianic hope. Some Christian Karens 
 who have made a study of ancient Karen traditions 
 with a view to discovering in them anything which 
 might indicate an early Scriptual origin, go so far 
 as to see in Taw Meh Pah a likeness to the Lion 
 of the Tribe of Judah, for to the Karens the wild 
 boar Instead of the lion would be the king of 
 beasts, there being no fiercer denizen of the forests. 
 But, whatever one may think of this interpretation, 
 this much is clear, that there is nothing debasing 
 either in this story or in the various accounts of 
 God which are given. In fact vileness and im- 
 morality seem never to have gotten a strong hold 
 upon the thoughts and ideals of the Karen people, 
 and It has to be said that, notwithstanding their 
 open and professed obedience to Satan, their prac- 
 tices are not as degrading as might be expected. 
 They do not compare in vileness, for instance, with 
 those of the Hindus. The inference is not far 
 to seek, that it is better, from the standpoint of 
 morals and rehgion, to follow Satan out and out 
 than to hold a debased conception of God. Even 
 though Satan be obeyed, a sense of the presence 
 and power of a holy God may still remain in the 
 background of the consciousness, but if the thought 
 of God himself be perverted, there is nothing left 
 to restrain the soul. 
 
IV 
 
 SPECIAL PREPARATION FOR THE RE- 
 CEPTION OF THE GOSPEL 
 
 ALTHOUGH the Karen people forsook 
 their God and betook themselves to the 
 service of Satan, it is satisfying to note that 
 he did not forsake them, but followed them with 
 his mercy, even as he de-alt with the Israelites of 
 old. For, as he sent prophets from time to time 
 to the latter to recall them to himself, so he raised 
 up among the Karens those who, it would seem, 
 were truly inspired of him. For it should be borne 
 in mind that even in the Old Testament days there 
 were thoseTTikenVfekbizedek and Jethro, who, 
 although they did not belong to the chosen race of 
 Abraham and his descendants, were nevertheless 
 truly God's spokesmen before the world. And so 
 it seems not unreasonable to suppose that these 
 Karen prophets were prophets indeed. In no other 
 way is it easy to account for their marvellous and 
 uplifting messages to their people. 
 
 And as these prophets rose from time to time, 
 they sought to encourage their people in the midst 
 of their oppressions and afflictions, and they said, 
 
 47 
 
48 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 "Children and grandchildren, God will yet save 
 the Karen nation. He will bring deliverance ta 
 the Karen people." Sometimes, as in ecstacy, re- 
 minding one of the Hebrew prophets of old, they 
 hurled defiance against their ancient foes, exclaim- 
 ing of Ava, the chief city of the Burmans : — - 
 
 The city of Ava says she is great, — 
 She is not equal to the heel of God's foot; 
 
 The city of Ava says she is exceedingly great, — 
 She is not equal to the sole of God's foot. 
 
 Some went on to say how deliverance was to come. 
 *'Our younger brother, the white foreigner, will 
 come to us from beyond the setting sun, and will 
 bring back to us our lost book to teach us the way 
 of life. Formerly it was of leather. Now it will 
 be of gold and silver." And some of them went 
 on to describe the appearance of the white for- 
 eigner, seeming to see him in vision, and they said, 
 "Our younger brother,- the white foreigner, when 
 he comes to us, will be clothed in garments of shin- 
 ing black and shining white." When it is remem- 
 bered that the Karens seldom wear black in their 
 garments and, although they do wear white, it 
 could never by any stretch of the imagination be 
 thought of as a "shining" white, but is always a 
 very dingy, not to say a dirty, white, the signifi- 
 cance of the language becomes evident. Some went 
 on to say further that this younger brother would 
 come wearing a hat like a snaiFs shell. And to 
 
THE RECEPTION OF THE GOSPEL 49 
 
 this day the Karen will occasionally call the atten- 
 tion of the missionary to the hats which are worn 
 by white people in that country, made of pith and 
 cork, exceedingly light and affording an excellent 
 protection against the sun, but with their inverted- 
 chopping-bowl appearance bearing indeed a cer- 
 tain resemblance to a snail's shell. 
 
 Incredible as it may seem to some, the prophe- 
 cies which have been cited appear to have been 
 universally known among the Karens and to have 
 long antedated the coming of the missionary. The 
 writer has been assured of this by members of his 
 own mission who have told him that their own 
 ancestors were priests and uttered these prophecies 
 from time to time with solemn ceremony. Certain 
 it is that among all Karens, heathen as well as 
 Christian^jhere is a most kindly attitude towards 
 the white man, aTtowards a younger brother. This 
 can perhaps not be better illustrated than by nar- 
 rating one or two stories which are current among 
 them. 
 
 One, which is evidently intended to account for 
 the superiority of other races over the Karens, re- 
 lates that once on a time Father God was taken 
 with a mortal illness and sent for his three sons, the 
 Karen Brother, the Burmese brother, and the white 
 brother. The white brother dropped his work and 
 went at once, and Father God was able to impart 
 to him all his wisdom, so that to this day the white 
 brother is able to build ships and do other wonder- 
 
50 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 ful things like unto God himself. The Burmese 
 brother delayed for a time, and Father God was 
 able to impart to him less wisdom. The Karen 
 brother was busy in the field and did not get to 
 Father God's bedside until after Father God had 
 died, in fact not until after the body had been 
 burned according to the custom of funerals in that 
 country. There remained only a fragment of the 
 bamboo matting in which Father God had been 
 wrapped, and so to this day the poor Karen has 
 no skill except to weave bamboo mats. But the 
 Karen is not without hope, for the account goes on 
 to say that the younger brother will come some 
 day and impart his wisdom to the Karen brother. 
 
 Another story is that one day a Karen took his 
 basket on his back and wandered away into a far 
 country. After many days, he met a white brother 
 and asked him where he was going. 
 
 "I am going to worship Father God," said the 
 white brother. 
 
 "I would like to go, too,'' said the Karen. 
 
 **Very well, come along," said the white brother, 
 and the two went on together. While they jour- 
 neyed, the white brother told the Karen that they 
 might not find Father God awake. 
 
 "He sleeps seven years, and is awake seven 
 years," said the white brother, "and I really do 
 not know whether it is day or night with him 
 now." After a time, they came to a great wall of 
 rock, and the white brother lifting his staff smote 
 
THE RECEPTION OF THE GOSPEL 51 
 
 it, and a portal opened in the rock through which 
 the two went together. Arrived at Father God's 
 abode they found that, surely enough. Father God 
 was asleep. But the white brother, not to be de- 
 terred, seized an enormous rattan of the kind which 
 is used for rafting logs on the rivers, and ran it 
 vigorously up and down in Father God's nostrils 
 for the purpose of waking him up. Finding his 
 efforts in vain, he mounted his horse and galloped 
 up and down in Father God's nostrils until Father 
 God sneezed and woke up. Then Father God 
 turned to the white brother, and inquired why he 
 had wakened him so rudely. 
 
 *'Why," said the white brother, "the Karen 
 brother has come and I thought you would like to 
 see him." 
 
 *^Ohrts-tlmt-so ?" said Father God, "where is 
 he?" Then the Karen came forward and Father 
 God held a long conversation with him, asking all 
 about his family and surroundings and living con- 
 ditions. Finally Father God asked: 
 
 "What is that you have on your back?'* 
 
 "My basket," the Karen replied. 
 
 "Let me see it," said Father God, and Father 
 God took the basket and filled it with a vast amount 
 of treasure, enough to enrich an entire nation. 
 
 "Now," said Father God, putting on the lid 
 tightly, "you must not take off this lid until you 
 get home," and so saying dismissed the Karen 
 brother with his blessing. On the way home the 
 
52 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 Karen brother was met by the Burman brother 
 and asked what he had in his basket. 
 
 "I do not know," said the Karen brother, *'for 
 Father God filled the basket and told me I must 
 not open it until I got home." 
 
 "But I want to see," said the Burman brother. 
 
 "I will not let you," replied the Karen brother. 
 
 "But I will," said the Burman brother, there- 
 upon seizing the basket by force and removing the 
 lid. He took out the contents of the basket, but 
 was not able to put them back again, and so the 
 Karen brother was obliged to return to his home 
 as poor as when he left. But the Karens say that 
 Father God has promised to give them another 
 basket, and some are still looking for it. 
 
 The Karens have always been loyal to the white 
 man's government, and when during the third Bur- 
 mese war in 1886 to 1888, the British forces were 
 engaged in Upper or Northern Burma and some 
 disaffected persons attempted to start insurrec- 
 tions in Lower Burma and carried on a species of 
 guerilla warfare, it was the Karens, mostly Chris- 
 ten Karens, who pursued them in little bands and 
 enabled the British government to keep the situa- 
 tion under control. And when at last the Bur- 
 mese kingdom was brought to an end by the annex- 
 ation of its territories by the British and the Bur- 
 mese king was interned in one of the cities of 
 India as a prisoner of state, none rejoiced more 
 than did they. 
 
THE RECEPTION OF THE GOSPEL 53 
 
 It may be of interest to add that, while the 
 Karens were prepared, as indicated above, in a 
 most remarkable degree to receive the bible at the 
 hands of their younger brother, the white for- 
 eigner, they were at the same time prevented from 
 accepting any other book. The Burmese had an 
 extensive literature, but these prophecies contained 
 a special warning not to receive the Bedegat or 
 sacred book of the Buddhists, scratched with a 
 pointed stylus on palm leaf. 
 
 "Not these the letters given before, 
 Those God will yet again restore, 
 These letters we must not receive, 
 The golden book alone believe." 
 
 And~whenrat-kstjhe missionary came with the 
 book, some of the Karens were interested to note 
 the gilt edges of some of the bibles and the leaves 
 white like silver, while more and more they under- 
 stood that the description given by their prophets 
 applied to the preciousness of the teachings con- 
 tained, as of silver and of gold. 
 
 So it came about that when the missionary found 
 these people, they were fairly standing on the tip- 
 toe of expectation looking eagerly for his coming. 
 
EARLY KAREN APOSTLES 
 
 ONE can understand how In the circumstances 
 the early triumphs of the gospel among the 
 Karen people were very marked indeed, 
 especially when it is added that, besides what he 
 had already done for them, God inspired some of 
 the earliest disciples among them with truly apos- 
 tolic fervor. The very first convert, Koh Thah 
 Byu (last syllable pronounced Bew to rhyme with 
 Jew), was such a man. At the outset, he was a 
 most unpromising person. Little is known of his 
 early life. He was born about the year 1778 at 
 a village called Ootwan some four days' journey 
 or eighty miles north of Bassein. He resided with 
 his parents until he was about fifteen years of age, 
 then wandered forth to become a highway robbe r 
 ajid bandit. It is supposed from his own confes- 
 slqnthat he was' responsible, either as principal or 
 accessory, for the death of no fewer than thirty 
 persons. 
 
 "^oon after the first Burmese war, 1 822-1824, 
 in which the Tenasserim province was ceded to the 
 British, he visited Rangoon. There he contracted 
 a trifling debt, some $5 or $6 in the currency of 
 
 54 
 
EARLY KAREN APOSTLES 55 
 
 the day, and, not being able to pay it, was seized 
 by his creditor, in accordance with Burmese law, 
 and was made his slave. Shortly after, Maung 
 Shway Bay, one of Dr. Judson's Burmese converts, 
 found the Karen man, paid his debt, thus releasing 
 him from slavery, and brought him to Dr. Judson. 
 The missionary at once began instructing him in 
 the principles of the Christian religion, but he was 
 able to communicate with him through the medium 
 of the Burmese language only which the poor 
 Karen understood indifferently. In any case the 
 latter seems at that time, to have been a rather 
 stupid fellow — at least he is so characterized in 
 Dr. Judson's journal. Very likely he was stupid 
 enough , but ^eing a Karen, it is not improbable 
 that he appearedrta^e rather more stupid than he 
 really was, for it is characteristic of the race for 
 a Karen not to appear at his full value. Moreover 
 he had a most terrible temper — **diabolical" is the 
 word by which Dr. Judson who was a very mild 
 man and did not use stronger language than was 
 necessary, described it. So it seemed a long time 
 before the gospel made any impression on the man, 
 but at length it got a grip upon him and performed 
 such a miracle of grace as is sometimes witnessed 
 in more favored lands, when the gospel gets a grip 
 on a man and changes him through and through. 
 It changed Koh Thah Byu through and through, 
 took out of him his heart of stone and gave him 
 a heart of flesh; removed from him his terrible 
 
56 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 temper so that he became as meek as a child, and 
 endowed him with a deep insight into the things 
 of God. 
 
 For a time the little Burman church that had 
 been gathered was slow to admit this member of a 
 despised race into its fellowship, but at length, 
 seeing proofs of a change of heart which could not 
 be gainsaid, it consented, and appointed a day for 
 the baptism. But before the time arrived Koh 
 Thah Byu decided to accompany Rev. George 
 Dana Boardman to Tavoy. At that place he was 
 accordingly baptized, May i6, 1828, the first con- 
 vert from among his people. 
 
 ^oh Thah Byu soon displayed great zeal in 
 preaching the gospel to his own race, and his work 
 was attended with remarkable success. And as 
 Paul sought to preach the gospel from Jerusalem 
 round about unto Illyricum where the blessed 
 Name had not so much as been mentioned, so this 
 man beginning at Tavoy and Mergui on the south 
 went preaching the word through Maulmein and 
 Rangoon and Pegu and Bassein until he found his 
 grave on the extreme Arakanese coast. In all these 
 fields he was the pioneer. At first he confined his 
 labors to the immediate neighborhood of Tavoy, 
 visiting Karen villages only one or two days' jour- 
 ney away. Then he made a tour across the moun- 
 tains on the east to Tshiekku, where he found a 
 company of Karens ignorantly venerating a book 
 which some devout Englishman had given to one 
 
EARLY KAREN APOSTLES 57 
 
 of their number, and which afterward proved to be 
 a copy of the Book of Common Prayer, published 
 at Oxford. At his suggestion, this book, which 
 the people, of course, could not read, but never- 
 theless kept carefully wrapped in many coverings, 
 was brought to Tavoy to Mr. Boardman, and on 
 its real character being explained to them, they at 
 once ceased to worship it, and accepted the gospel. 
 Koh Thah Byu afterwards visited their village 
 several times and taught school there one or two 
 rainy seasons. 
 
 But ever as he labored this devoted follower of 
 the Lord found his heart enlarged within him. He 
 was constantly devising plans for the extension of 
 the work. Once he^ made an important tour to 
 Mergui. Later he undertook a journey to Siam 
 that he might preach the gospel to the Karens 
 there, but he was turned back by the Siamese of- 
 ficials on the border and not permitted to proceed. 
 During the brief but remarkable missionary career 
 of the consecrated Mr. Boardman he accompanied 
 the latter on his tours, and it is evidence of the 
 esteem in which he was already held that, after the 
 pathetic, yet glorious death of that godly man as he 
 was being borne home in a litter after witnessing 
 the baptism of thirty-four Karens, Koh Thah Byu 
 had resting on him for a time the entire care of the 
 church and the instruction of inquirers. Scarcely 
 was he freed from this obligation, however, when 
 he went to Maulmein, and began with equal vigor 
 
58 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 the work of the ministry there. In the spring of 
 1833, he extended his labors to Rangoon and the 
 Pegu district, achieving there, perhaps, his grand- 
 est successes. He visited many villages, and won 
 many converts to Christ. Nor was this work pros- 
 ecuted without meeting opposition. Rangoon was 
 still under the dominion of the Burmans. The 
 latter determined to use their power for the sup- 
 pression of the new religion. The Karens were 
 forbidden to learn to read, and at a somewhat later 
 period some actually suffered martyrdom for the 
 cause of Christ. But Koh Thah Byu was fearless 
 in his labors, and notwithstanding persecution, hun- 
 dreds of Karens boldly took their stand for Christ. 
 But Koh Thah Byu was already beginning to 
 feel the effects of old age. His arduous and un- 
 remitting labors, the privations and hardships he 
 endured, the long fatiguing journeys he made, al- 
 ways on foot and often through pouring rains and 
 swollen streams, brought upon him serious rheu- 
 matic trouble. When he heard that Mr. Abbott 
 was to go to Arakan, a British territory on the 
 west, in the hope of reaching the Karens of Bas- 
 seln from that point, he was ready to accompany 
 him, and actually took up labor there with renewed 
 zeal, but his disease was so far advanced that he 
 could accomplish but little. On the 9th of Sep- 
 tember, 1840, he went to his reward. The rec- 
 ords show that at that time there were about 1,270 
 xnembers of the churches^ most of whom, it is 
 
EAULY KAREN APOSTLES 59 
 
 Said, had been converted under his preaching. 
 
 Koh Thah Byu was a man of very great power, 
 and, as has been said, of deep insight into the things 
 of God. Not that he ever became a broadly 
 learned man, after the modern acceptation of the 
 term, but when one thinks of much of the learning 
 of these days and of the philosophy falsely so 
 called, one is reminded of the saying of the great 
 American sage, Josh Billings, "It Is better not to 
 know so much than to know so many things that 
 aint so.-'* Koh Thah Byu never knew a great many 
 things that are not so, but he knew a few verities 
 with ^aUrthenntensk^LXLL his nature, and his preach- 
 ing has been described as being like the boring of 
 an augur, round and round and round on a few 
 points until he had drilled them into the minds 
 and hearts of his hearers. He probably could not 
 have made a successful pastor, for his work was 
 distinctly evangelistic. This he did remarkably 
 well, and to this day Is known as The Karen 
 Apostle. 
 
 Not only in the person of Koh Thah Byu, but 
 in the persons of others as well, God raised up 
 at the very beginning in several of the missions to 
 the Karens, men of like apostolic fervor. Such 
 were Saw Tah Ree and Saw Do Shweg- 
 
 yln. Rev._Nojroiaa-Ha.rris began the work there 
 in the year 1853,. reaching the town of Shwegyin 
 one Saturday afternoon. The next morning he 
 gathered the few disciples who had come with him 
 
60 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 under an old forsaken shed and preached to them 
 the gospel, taking for his text those wonderful 
 words, "Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh 
 away the sin of the world." While he was 
 preaching, a Karen man passing by and attracted 
 by the strange sight, stopped to listen. He had 
 been familiar from childhood up with the traditions 
 of his people and with their expectation of the 
 coming of the younger brother who should bring to 
 them the word of life. But he had wearied of 
 watching for the coming of the brother, and finding 
 nothing in the practices of his people to satisfy the 
 longings of his heart, had turned to Buddhism. He 
 was among the earliest to go to the pagoda to 
 worship in the morning, always taking with him 
 his offering, and he was among the most attentive 
 listeners to the teachings of the pongyees or monks. 
 Yet he found ho satisfaction in it all. But when 
 he heard the white man speaking in his own tongue 
 and saw him reading from a book, he believed at 
 once, recognized in the white man the younger 
 brother, and in the book the long-lost book of his 
 people, and accepted the teachings he heard as 
 very manna to his soul. Stealing away unobserved 
 he took his family and friends, and in a few days 
 returned bringing them with him, and seven weeks 
 fr om th at first Lord's D ay, the first church of 
 Shwegym was.oj-^anized with eight members who 
 had that day been baptized. Saw Tah Ree himself 
 became an evangelist of power among his people. 
 
EARLY KAREN APOSTLES 61 
 
 Saw Doo Moo also was prepared by God In a 
 remarkable manner for the preaching of the gospel 
 among his people. Living some distance to the 
 north of Shwegyin, he rose one morning with his 
 wife and children In their accustomed health, but 
 at sundown that day the wife and all the children 
 except a nursing infant were dead, having been 
 stricken down by that dreadful scourge, the chol- 
 era. Distracted with grief, he left the little one 
 in the care of a friendly Burmese woman, and then 
 wandered forth not caring whither he went. For 
 orientals are not without feeling, as Is too often 
 supposedTThe^THoliof indeed show their emotions 
 on the surface as much as do the people of the 
 west. A congregation will sit and look at the 
 preacher with about as much expression on their 
 faces — ^to use their own description — as on so 
 many toadstools; but when the preacher hears 
 them refer to his sermon a year or, perhaps, five or 
 ten years after, he feels that it has somehow gotten 
 a hold upon them. Yes, the oriental has as deep 
 feelings as have others, and so Saw Doo Moo left 
 the nursing infant and wandered forth in the grief 
 and anguish of his heart not caring whither he 
 went; rose early in the morning and went on all 
 day long, stopping wherever night overtook him, 
 rose again early the next day, and wandered on, 
 week after week, until at last he was found by 
 some Christian Karens down near Mergui, hun- 
 dreds of miles away from his home. He told 
 
62 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 them the story of his grief, and they on their part 
 told him of the balm in Gilead. He believed. 
 His wounded heart was healed. He returned as 
 far as Maulmein, entered the little school which 
 the missionaries had prepared for the training of 
 evangehsts, learned to read, studied the Scriptures, 
 and when Mr. Harris went to Shwegyin to found 
 the mission there, or soon after, he was ready to 
 go with him, and largely through the preaching of 
 these two men, Saw Tah Ree and Saw Doo Moo, 
 during the first year of Mr. Harris's ministry on 
 that field, there were no fewer than five hundred 
 and seventy-seven converts. 
 
 Saw Quah Lah was an evangelist who In the be- 
 ginning of the Toungoo mission met with even 
 greater success. It is said that through his efforts 
 nearly two thousand converts were gathered into 
 the churches. He did a great work, and for a 
 time was highly respected. Later he fell into sin, 
 and had to be excluded from the fellowship of the 
 church. He made full and humble confession and 
 gave evidence of the deepest penitence. He was 
 restored to the fellowship of the church, but was 
 not permitted to partake again in the work of the 
 ministry. The whole affair was a cause of great 
 grief to the disciples but It had a partially compen- 
 sating advantage, for It taught the new converts 
 that the moral demands of the Christian religion 
 were high and not to be lightly tampered with. 
 
VI 
 
 GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE 
 WORK 
 
 IT IS difficult to transport oneself in imagina- 
 tion to the early beginnings of the work among 
 ihe^Karen^eople, and to conceive of the im- 
 mense enthusiasnTwhiHTpre vailed on the part of 
 both the missionaries and the converts. At first 
 the missionaries attempted to reach the Karens 
 through the medium of the Burmese language, and 
 they have been subjected to considerable criticism 
 because they did not continue to do so. Some of 
 the Karens, especially of the men, already under- 
 stood Burmese, and it has been thought by many 
 that, if the missionaries had disregarded the Karen 
 language, which was the dialect of a comparatively 
 insignificant people, this would have tended greatly 
 to the unification and strengthening of the entire 
 work in Burma. Aside from the fact that any 
 people is most effectively approached through its 
 own tongue, it would probably have been quite 
 practicable to continue the work among the Karens 
 through the Burmese language. Even to this day, 
 in the missions to the Brecks and Bwehs and other 
 
 63 
 
64 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 small Karen tribes of the Toungoo field, no at- 
 tempt is being made to translate the Scriptures into 
 the different dialects of the people. Religious work 
 among them is carried on through the medium of 
 the Sgaw dialect of the Karen language, which is 
 practically a foreign language to many of them. 
 Sgaw is taught in the schools, but among the 
 churches it is customary for the pastors to read the 
 Scriptures in Sgaw and then preach and pray in 
 the language of their people. Similarly, it would 
 probably have been quite possible for the mission- 
 aries to teach Burmese in their schools, content 
 themselves with the excellent translation which Dr. 
 Judson had made of the bible into that tongue, and 
 let the native pastors put into the vernacular from 
 time to time whatever was necessary for the edifi- 
 cation of the more ignorant of their people. 
 
 This, apparently, is precisely what the mission- 
 aries started out to do; but special circumstances 
 arose which seemed to make it imperative for them 
 to pursue a different course. As has been said, 
 Koh Thah Byu was baptized May 1 6, 1828. It 
 was not until June, 1831, that Rev. Jonathan 
 Wade, who had been in the country since 1823, 
 went from Maulmein on a preaching tour to the 
 Karen village of Tah Kreh. He was accompanied 
 by an interpreter and had evidently made no at- 
 tempt, up to that time, to acquire the Karen lan- 
 guage. At the sight of the white stranger the 
 villagers, who supposed that he was a government 
 
DEVELOPMENT OF THE WORK 65 
 
 official of some sort, all took to their heels and 
 fled to the surrounding jungle. After he and the 
 interpreter had waited patiently for quite a long 
 time, an old man appeared, and the interpreter 
 called to him, saying that they were not govern- 
 ment officials but preachers who had come to tell 
 them of the new religion. After considerable per- 
 suasion he succeeded in allaying the old man's fears 
 and getting him to call the other villagers back to 
 their homes. Then all the people gathered around 
 and listened-to the message which Mr. Wade had 
 to bring. But all unexpectedly an old man from 
 the company spoke up and asked Mr. Wade for 
 the book. At first Mr. Wade did not understand 
 what the man meant, and asked him what book he 
 wanted. 
 
 **The Karen book," said the man. 
 
 *'But the Karens have never had a book," said 
 Mr. Wade, "and how can I give you one ? 
 
 *'Not so, O Teacher," replied the Karen man, 
 proceeding to tell the story of the lost book as it 
 has already been rehearsed in these pages. *'We 
 Karens once had a book of leather, but we lost it, 
 and jhe elders tell us that when the white man 
 comes he will bring us our lost book, and then we 
 shall prosper. Now the white man has come, but 
 where is our book? If you bring us our book, we 
 will welcome you. If not, you must go back and 
 fetch it." This insistent demand on the part of 
 the Karen people in accordance with their tradi- 
 
66 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 tions seemed to make It necessary that the mission- 
 aries, if they would do a really effective work 
 among them, should give them the bible in their 
 own vernacular. This it was which decided them 
 to reduce the Karen language to writing. Mr. 
 Wade is said to have accomplished this feat before 
 he himself had learned to speak it. Those who 
 are familiar with its ear-teasing consonants and 
 complicated system of vowel tones wonder how he 
 did it. It stands today as a monument to his 
 genius. He adapted the Burmese alphabet to the 
 expression of Karen sounds, and produced a sys- 
 tem of writing which is purely phonetic. Some 
 have wondered that he did not adapt the Roman 
 alphabet instead, but this is easily explained. Some 
 Karen sounds defy expression with Roman letters, 
 to begin with, and a Karen who had already learned 
 to read Burmese could readily pass from that to 
 Karen, while on the other hand, if he learned first 
 to read his own language, he could easily pick up 
 the Burmese; and to the average Karen, Burmese 
 must, for many generations, be of much more value 
 than English. 
 
 The language vehicle having been determined 
 upon, the next thing in order was to produce a 
 literature. Among the first books to be translated 
 was, of course, the bible. This great task was 
 undertaken by Dr. Mason, and an excellent ver- 
 sion from the original tongues was produced. An 
 anthology worthy to grace any language was pre- 
 
DEVELOPMENT OF THE WORK 67 
 
 pared, over two hundred hymns, remarkably true 
 to the idiom of the language and to the genius of 
 the Karen people, issuing from the pen of the first 
 Mrs. Vinton alone. A Karen who seems to have 
 had an extraordinarily comprehensive knowledge 
 of his own language, people andcustoms, was found, 
 and, although the Karen is thought of as having a 
 rather meager vocabulary, yet with his assistance 
 and at his dictation, a compendium of Karen terms 
 and idea&jg? ^ comp iled in five thick volumes, called 
 The Karen Thesaurus, which has not been sur- 
 passed to this day and deserves to rank almost as 
 an encyclopedia. Spelling books were prepared, 
 and arithmetics, geographies, astronomies and 
 other books in great number. Schools were almost 
 from the beginning a necessity, demanded by the 
 people themselves, for as soon as a Karen adopts 
 the Christian religion, he wants two things, first, 
 to acquire knowledge, second, to improve his phys- 
 ical surroundings. Children and adults sat on the 
 same forms and studied out of the same book un- 
 ashamed. To this day, they seem almost to think 
 that to be able to read is part of being a Christian, 
 for seldom does a Karen turn to the Christian re- 
 ligion but in some way he manages to acquire at 
 least a knowledge of the alphabet. Schools for 
 primary instruction were early started at Maul- 
 mein and Tavoy, to be followed later by schools 
 of higher grade as the need arose. Very soon the 
 necessity for the special training of evangelists and 
 
68 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 pastors being felt, in 1845 R^v. J. G. BInney, D. 
 D., opened at Maulmein the Theological Seminary 
 which was subsequently removed to Rangoon, and 
 is now located at Insein, doing an important work. 
 
 From the account of Koh Thah Byu, it will be 
 seen that for many years missionary operations 
 among the Karens were of necessity largely con- 
 fined to the provinces which were under British 
 rule. Much was secretly accomplished in the 
 neighborhood of Rangoon, to be sure, and in the 
 year i S^-Oj^ReYiu E. L. Abbott opened a very suc- 
 cessful mission at Sandoway for the purpose of 
 reaching the Karen refugees who fled from the 
 Bassein district to escape Burmese oppression; but 
 little else could be accomplished. In 1852, how- 
 ever, a war broke out between the Burmans and 
 the British, as a result of which a large portion of 
 the former Burmese kingdom, including practically 
 all the territory inhabited by Karens, was ceded to 
 the British. 
 
 Very soon after the opening of hostilities, the 
 city of Rangoon was taken, and at once Rev. J. H. 
 Vinton — the illustrious head of an illustrious fam- 
 ily of which no fewer than nine members have seen 
 service on the foreign field — hastened to the city 
 that he might minister to the needs of the destitute 
 and suffering Karens. He found that every Karen 
 village within fifty miles had been destroyed, and 
 that fivt thousand Karen refugees were living In 
 carts and under trees within seven miles of the 
 
DEVELOPMENT OF THE WORK 69 
 
 city. Their standing crops were burned, and their 
 stores of rice were either seized or destroyed. The 
 Burmans, supposing the Karens to be secret friends 
 of the British invaders, had tortured and killed 
 men, women and children with ingenious brutality 
 and unspeakable cruelty. Two native preachers 
 had been crucified besides having sharp pointed 
 stakes driven down their throats. Some of the 
 victims^mdJbeeiL slowly cut to pieces joint by joint, 
 or limb by limb, through successive days, while 
 others had been fastened to crosses and then set 
 adrift upon rafts that their death agonies might be 
 aggravated by the sight of cooling water. It was 
 discovered that many of the Karen disciples had 
 been driven at the point of the spear into the front 
 ranks of the Burmese army to fight the British. 
 After they had fallen, pierced by the bullets of 
 those whom in their hearts they were welcoming, 
 portions of the Scriptures were found concealed 
 on their persons. 
 
 With the close of the war came greatly enlarged 
 opportunities for work among the Karens, oppor- 
 tunities of which the missionaries were the better 
 able to avail themselves because of the many years 
 of waiting and preparation. Pentecostal blessings 
 attended Mr. Vinton's efforts at Rangoon. The 
 mission at Sandoway, already prosperous, was re- 
 moved to Bassein and there received an impetus 
 which placed it easily in the lead of the missions 
 to the Karens. The stations at Henzada, Toun- 
 
70 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 goo and Shwegyin were all opened In the year 1 853. 
 The first mentioned was inaugurated by Rev. B. 
 C. Thomas, a man of indomitable energy whose 
 overflowing spirits are still remembered with affec- 
 tion by the Karens. The mission at Toungoo was 
 opened by Dr. Mason, ably assisted by Saw Quah 
 Lah, the native evangelist already mentioned, under 
 whose ministry twenty-eight churches were organ- 
 ized. In the Shwegyin mission, the story of the 
 founding of which by Rev. Norman Harris has 
 already been told in part, the first year saw the 
 organization of six churches. 
 
 In all these fields not only were churches organ- 
 ized and gathered into associations, but from the 
 beginning all the activities proper to a well-regu- 
 lated Christian community were adopted. Karen 
 pastors were chosen and placed in charge of the 
 churches. Schools were started, the station school 
 under the direct oversight of the missionary and 
 village schools as fast as teachers could be supplied. 
 Missions, both home and foreign, were instituted 
 and evangelists sent out to various parts. At the 
 very first meeting of the Shwegyin association, for 
 instance, four men were appointed to evangelize 
 the far-off regions of Northern Siam. Through- 
 out the whole Karen community, converts were 
 gathered by hundreds and thousands, and for a 
 time it seemed that the entire people would be 
 Christianized, fulfilling the prophecy that a na- 
 tion shall be born in a day. 
 
HINDRANCES 
 
 THE work was not to be without hindrances. 
 The^^eafty^promlse was not to be fully 
 realized. Not only did the large Ingath- 
 erings cease, but, for a time, many went back. It 
 Is probably an almost universal experience that, 
 when converts are made In large numbers, there 
 follows a period of reaction. Such Is the case 
 even In Europe and America, as witness the Welsh 
 revival under Evan Roberts. Those early Karen 
 disciples were very Ignorant. It Is said that they 
 knew two things only, first, that their book had 
 been brought back to them, and second, that they 
 had no need to fear the evil spirits, for Jesus was 
 stronger than the evil spirits. That was enough 
 for salvation, and many no doubt died triumphant 
 in that simple faith, but it was not enough for the 
 highest efficiency in the Christian life. This very 
 ignorance of the early disciples rendered them 
 liable to be easily led astray, and In the pioneer 
 years of the Karen missions there were defections 
 which could hardly have taken place after the 
 converts had become more intelligently established 
 
 71 
 
72 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 in Christian truth. Fortunately there were sayings 
 of the elders handed down from ancient times 
 which served in some measure to hold the people 
 to their new-found hope. One ran as follows:- — 
 
 ^'Children and grandchildren, in the latter days 
 many different faiths will arise. Be not led about 
 hither and thither by them. When you find one 
 that does away with the whisky still, that is good 
 enough. Stick to it." The consequence is that 
 any form of religion which does not discounten- 
 ance drinking, even though it may profess to be 
 Christian, is likely to have little hold upon them. 
 
 Moreover some heathen customs have always 
 made it very difficult for a Karen to leave his 
 family and become a Christian. For instance in 
 connection with the ceremony already mentioned of 
 eating a pig when some one has been taken ill, if 
 the family circle should be broken by the refusal 
 of one member of the family to be present, and 
 the sick person should die, the blame for it would 
 be laid on the recalcitrant member. Not that the 
 Christian need care for that, but as a Christian, 
 he must have consideration for the consciences of 
 others and not impose his convictions upon them. 
 On this account it has sometimes happened that 
 a person who fully intended to become a Christian, 
 will first wait to perform certain heathen cere- 
 monies by means of which it is supposed that he 
 can forever sever himself from all the obligations 
 of his former faith. Too often the delay has 
 
HINDRANCES 73 
 
 proved fatal. The person himself has died, or, 
 overpersuaded by others, he has lost his interest 
 in the new religion and has gone back forever to 
 the old. 
 
 Very early evil-minded persons began to circu- 
 late malicious stories about the white foreigner 
 and hisjreligion^ The writer remembers one such 
 story which became current in his childhood re- 
 garding his father, and was doubtless believed by 
 many of the naturally credulous among the heathen 
 Karens. It ran about as follows : — 
 
 "An old Karen lay at the point of death. Call- 
 ing his children about him, he spoke to them as 
 follows : 'My dear children, I have something to 
 tell you. When Teacher Harris came here, I was 
 one of his first and most zealous followers. I had 
 perfect confidence in him and did everything he 
 said without doubt or question. But when he had 
 made about a dozen converts, he invited us to take 
 a ride with him in his boat. He took us down the 
 river and out to sea. There a great and wonder- 
 ful ship awaited us with sails which were like 
 wings and carried it faster than any ship we had 
 ever seen before, faster even than the fastest 
 clouds. The room which he occupied was luxuri- 
 ously furnished and decorated with gold and silver. 
 After sailing for many, many days, the ship 
 stopped in its course near an island. Bye and 
 bye, it began to be rumored that here on this island 
 lived the Daw T'kah, a great monster which de- 
 
74 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 lights to devour human flesh. And surely enough, 
 the Daw T'kah himself soon came on board to 
 bargain for us, and when he had poured out a 
 roomful of gold for the teacher, he scooped the 
 disciples off the deck into his bag with one hand as 
 you would gather grains from a winnowing tray, 
 and returned to his home. Fortunately for me, 
 when I saw what was about to happen, I slipped 
 out of sight and dropped into the hold of the ship. 
 There I was able to secrete myself until I knew we 
 were well on our way home. Then I became very 
 hungry and was forced to leave my hiding place. 
 I threw myself at the teacher's feet, and begged 
 him to spare my life. At first he was very angry, 
 and threatened to kill me with the most horrible 
 cruelties, but after much entreaty on my part he 
 finally consented to spare me on one condition. 
 I was to keep all that I had seen a profound secret 
 as long as I lived, and in the meantime was to 
 use all my influence in getting more converts for 
 him. I have kept my promise faithfully, for I 
 knew that if I did not, the teacher would devise 
 the most excruciating tortures for me. But now I 
 am about to die, and I can keep the terrible secret 
 no longer. Listen to what I say. Beware, beware 
 of these Christian teachers !' " 
 
 So when Kahchur, a Karen boy, was taken to 
 America to be educated, many of his heathen 
 neighbors professed to believe during his long ab- 
 sence that the missionary had fed him to the Daw 
 
HINDRANCES 75 
 
 T'kah, and declared their intention if ever Kahchur 
 returned, to become Christians and worship his 
 God. When, however, Kahchur indeed returned, 
 went among them and urged them to keep their 
 pledge, they refused to believe that he was the 
 real Kahchur, saying that he was a clever substi- 
 tute. — — . 
 
 But a far more serious obstacle to the acceptance 
 of the gospel by the Karens than any of these has 
 ever been their essential antagonism to Christianity 
 because of the high morality which it demands, 
 this in spite of their own comparatively high moral 
 standards. The human heart is the same the 
 world over, and the real hindrances to the spread 
 of the gospel are singularly alike among all races 
 of men. In general, the acceptance of Christianity 
 is not so much a matter of the head as of the 
 heart. Especially among so simple-minded a race 
 as the Karens, it is not particularly difficult to 
 convince people of the truth of the Christian re- 
 ligion. There is that in the gospel which compels 
 conviction so that with very little preaching they 
 admit its truth and confess its claims. But the 
 missionary may say to the heathen Karen today : 
 
 "You admit the truth of this religion; you ac- 
 knowledge that you ought to become a Christian. 
 Then why do you not?" what will the answer be? 
 Perhaps one would naturally expect him to say : 
 
 "I do not know enough about your religion." 
 But such is not the case. He will say: 
 
76 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 "If I become a Christian, I will have to give 
 up drinking, and card-playing, and theatre-going, 
 and dancing. And I do not want to.'' For — 
 whatever may be the case in more enlightened 
 countries and among a more civilized people — 
 even among the heathen Karens these practices are 
 not considered consistent with a Christian pro- 
 fession, although it might not be easy to prove that 
 they are more debasing than are the corresponding 
 practices among the people of the west. They have 
 their intoxicating liquors, vile smelling to be sure, 
 but palatable to their lips. They have their 
 theatres certainly cruder and more childish, but 
 possibly no more immoral than some theatrical 
 performances tolerated In American cities. Of 
 dancing there are various kinds. The Karen is 
 little more than a slow walk. The Burmese is a 
 kind of posturing which looks as senseless to the 
 westerner as perhaps the westerner's does to the 
 oriental, while to the oriental his own mode of 
 dancing probably appears to be the more modest, 
 as men and women do not dance together. All 
 these things are recognized by the heathen them- 
 selves as being entirely proper for heathen, but 
 Improper and unsuftable for Christians; and here 
 is one of the chief obstacles to their acceptance of 
 Christianity. 
 
 The Incoming of different faiths has been a 
 source of perplexity to some. A Karen once said 
 to the writer: 
 
HINDRANCES 77 
 
 "What are we to believe? Our fathers taught 
 us one thing; they told us that there is a God who 
 made the heavens and the earth, but they did not 
 worship him. The Burmese Buddhists tell us 
 that there is no God, or at least, that we can know 
 nothing about him. The Hindus believe something 
 else. And even when you white people come to us, 
 you do not agree among yourselves, but have your 
 different churches, such as the Roman Catholic and 
 the Protestant. How can we tell which religion 
 we ought to accept?" 
 
 "Oh," said the missionary in reply, "I grant 
 you there are many faiths but there are only two 
 roads. If you are going along one road, you can- 
 not go along another at the same time. If you 
 wish to follow the other road, you have to leave 
 the first one. Now, tell me, if you follow the old 
 Karen road may you drink?" 
 
 "Oh, yes," said the man, "that is part of the 
 ceremony." 
 
 "If you become a Buddhist, may you still 
 drink?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "And do you worship idols and venerate the 
 monks?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "And if you become a Hindu or a Roman Cath- 
 olic, is it the same?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Do you not see, then, that that is all the same 
 
78 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 road? But if you become a true Christian, can 
 you still drink ?'* 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Can you still worship idols or venerate the 
 monks?" 
 , "No." 
 
 "This, you see, is a different road, and it is 
 perfectly easy for any one to discriminate between 
 the two. You know whether it is right to drink 
 and make a beast of yourself or not. You know 
 perfectly well whether it is right to set up a stone 
 and worship it instead of the God who created all 
 things. You know whether or not it is right to 
 venerate the monks who say it is wrong to take 
 animal life and yet eat meat." The man had 
 nothing more to say. 
 
 Another hindrance to the progress of the gospel 
 among the Karens which has not been generally 
 recognized but has doubtless been very real has 
 been the rise among them, from time to time, of 
 false prophets and leaders. The very fact that 
 Karens are naturally religious has rendered them 
 the more susceptible to suggestions of this kind. 
 In the olden days there was little opportunity for 
 this sort of thing, but as the Karens came into 
 contact with the other faiths of Buddhism on the 
 one hand and Christianity on the other, some im- 
 bibed a little of both and introduced what they 
 proclaimed as new cults. These had enough of 
 truth blended with their superstition to appeal 
 
HINDRANCES 79 
 
 strongly to the Karen people, and some of them 
 gained considerable heathen foUowings. 
 
 The latest and most prominent of these leaders 
 was KohjSaiL-Xa-y, a man who, for a time, gained 
 an influence among his people which was truly re- 
 markable.^Born near Papun in the eastern part 
 of the Shwegyin field, it is said that at one time 
 he attended the mission school at Shwegyin, but if 
 that is the case, his schooling must have been very 
 brief indeed, for he never learned to read. Ar- 
 rived at young manhood he married, but in a short 
 time his wife and little one died. In the sorrow of 
 his bereavement he betook himself to the solitude 
 of the jungle to live the life of a hermit. He was 
 discovered in this condition half dead from star- 
 vation. Owing to the influence of Buddhism, the 
 people of the country generally have great respect 
 for the ascetic, and so some began to pay reverence 
 to Koh Sah Yay. Later he made his headquarters 
 on the summit of a mountain rising to the east of 
 Shwegyin at a distance of about twenty-five miles. 
 Here he had a sort of temple built for himself. 
 It was situated on an enormous pyramidal boulder 
 at the very crown of the peak. The posts of the 
 building had to be lashed down to the sides of the 
 rock with great bamboo withes. During the dry 
 season, which in Burma lasts for six months, every 
 drop of water used for drinking or for bathing 
 and culinary purposes had to be brought in bamboo 
 joints from far down the mountain side on the 
 
80 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 backs of men and women. Of course to take 
 anything else there was an equally arduous task. 
 Frail bamboo bridges were built across yawning 
 chasms, and ladders made of bamboo and rattan 
 were placed on the face of precipitous rocks to 
 make the spot accessible. Yet here his followers 
 flocked in ever increasing numbers until the ever- 
 watchful government became suspicious of the 
 movement and feared that a rebellion might be 
 started. Koh Sah Yay was therefore advised 
 to come down to the plains. Accordingly he 
 applied for a large tract of untilled land, and, mov- 
 ing there, gathered his followers about him and 
 urged them to bring the land under cultivation. In 
 this way he built up quite a good sized village. 
 
 About this time Koh Sah Yay professed conver- 
 sion to Christianity and was baptized together with 
 nearly two hundred of his followers. It frequently 
 happens that when leading men among the heathen 
 become Christians, their influence over their hea- 
 then neighbors ceases, but this was not the case 
 with Koh Sah Yay. He visited Rangoon, Bassein, 
 Henzada and Tharrawaddy and his following in- 
 creased apace. Great crowds of people flocked to 
 him, and through his influence hundreds and even 
 thousands professed Christianity and were received 
 into the membership of the churches. For a time 
 the movement seemed to give promise of being a 
 great power for good. Koh Sah Yay himself de- 
 clared that it was his humble mission to bring the 
 
HINDRANCES 81 
 
 people together and give the preachers who had 
 been educated and had enjoyed privileges such as 
 had been denied him, an opportunity to deliver 
 the gospel message. Meanwhile he collected vast 
 sums of money^irom the people, and erected great 
 buildings at various centers. What these build- 
 ings were really intended for was somewhat prob- 
 lematical. They were much larger than could ever 
 be required for legitimate Christian work. Koh 
 Sah Yay himself represented that they were simply 
 for the accommodation of the people when they 
 assembled for worship, but some declared that they 
 were to be courts and palaces for Koh Sah Yay 
 when he should be appointed and established by 
 God as the Karen Messiah. For while, as has 
 been said, the Karens are universally loyal to the 
 British government, there have been, from time to 
 time, some among the heathen who thought that 
 God by unseen, spiritual, or rather, supernatural 
 power would one day set up the Karen people 
 above their neighbors. At the best, the erection of 
 so great buildings to no sufficient purpose seemed 
 more in accordance with the Buddhist than with 
 the Christian ideal. For the Buddhist puts up a 
 pagoda or a rest house or digs a well purely as an 
 act of merit regardless of its probable usefulness, 
 but the words of Jesus, "Gather up the fragments 
 that nothing be lost," have often enough been 
 dwelt upon to show his repugnance to waste, though 
 few realize that here is to be found one of the 
 
82 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 really great distinguishing features of his religion. 
 
 After some years, Koh Sah Yay took to himself 
 a wife, and his influence waned, for Buddhistic 
 ideals, including reverence for celibacy, have more 
 or less permeated the minds of all the non-Christian 
 populations of the country. A child was born to 
 him under a banyan tree, held sacred by the Budd- 
 hists because Gautama attained to Buddhaship 
 under such a tree. He hoped that in the birth of 
 this child he would be rehabilitated in the venera- 
 tion of the people, but the expected son and suc- 
 cessor proved to be a daughter, and from that 
 time Koh Sah Yay's power steadily declined. It 
 was not long before his dead body was found in a 
 well. How he came to his death is not known, 
 but it is thought by some that becoming despondent 
 because of his diminishing popularity and op- 
 pressed by the enormous debts which he had con- 
 tracted in his various enterprises, he committed 
 suicide. Many of his followers expected him to 
 rise again after forty days, and notwithstanding 
 their disappointment in this respect, some have 
 endeavored to continue the cult, but with steadily 
 diminishing success. 
 
 The whole movement was certainly a strange 
 one, and it is perhaps still too early to estimate it 
 at its true value. Koh Sah Yay's career resembles 
 in some regards that of Alexander Dowie. Unlike 
 the latter, he never professed to heal diseases, 
 lived in a very unpretentious manner, dressed in 
 
HINDRANCES 83 
 
 simple clothing — usually white cotton cloth — and 
 ate plain food. But in some way he acquired such 
 an influence over his people that many of them 
 sold all their property and mortgaged their houses 
 and lands, impoverishing themselves, in order that 
 they might give the money to him. How he ac- 
 quired this influence it is difficult to explain fully, 
 just as in the case of the founder of Zion City. 
 But it seems probable that while Koh Sah Yay 
 himself may have been a sincere Christian, his 
 mind was perhaps a little deranged, the movement 
 got beyond his control, and he did not perceive its 
 true drift. The movement itself seems to have 
 been built up on superstition, and having this as 
 a basis could not stand. Certain it is that by far 
 the great majority of those who professed con- 
 version to Christianity under its influence have 
 now gone back to heathenism. It seems likely that 
 this and similar movements among the heathen 
 that preceded it, have been a real detriment to the 
 cause of the gospel. 
 
 These are a few of the hindrances to the prog- 
 ress of Christianity among the Karens. It should 
 be said, however, that they have proved in some 
 ways to be helps. They have served to toughen 
 the fiber of the sincere disciples and produce a 
 royal race, hardy, keen of vision, quick to discrim- 
 inate between the true and the false, and ready 
 for every good word and work. 
 
VIII 
 
 PRESENT ATTAINMENTS IN PERSONAL 
 RELIGION. 
 
 SOME of the hindrances to the progress of 
 the work have been mentioned. Instead of 
 continuous and rapid growth such as seemed 
 likely at the first, there was in nearly or quite all 
 of the Karen fields or missions a set-^back. These 
 early gains had to be consolidated. The chaff had 
 to be separated from the wheat; the sincere 
 and the Insincere converts had to be differen- 
 tiated and the latter weeded out. This was 
 a long and tedious process. For twenty or 
 thirty years In most of the missions little or no 
 progress was recorded; the love of many grew 
 cold. The heart of the missionary was often 
 pained as he saw those who at one time showed 
 much promise, give up their faith and go back 
 into the blackness of darkness. At length, how- 
 ever, a change came. The days of ignorance gave 
 way before experiential knowledge of the truth 
 and the disciples became established in the faith. 
 From that time on there has been steady growth. 
 
 How great the progress has been may perhaps 
 be judged in no better way than by comparing the 
 
 84 
 
PERSONAL RELIGION 85 
 
 convert of the present day with the experienced 
 disciple. In general it may be said that the con- 
 verts from heathenism know little about Christ. 
 This is perhaps not quite what one would expect. 
 The missionary is supposed to preach primarily 
 *'the unsearchable riches of Christ'*; and some in- 
 deed do so. They preach Christ to the rawest 
 heathen, who may never have heard of the Chris- 
 tian religion before. The writer has no criticism 
 of such; they may be quite right in doing so. He 
 merely tells what he has himself observed when 
 he says that few converts from heathenism seem 
 to know or to be capable of comprehending any- 
 thing of the work of Christ. They know only of 
 worshipping God. They have done with following 
 Satan. They realize the folly of that, and desire to 
 turn to Father God and serve him. This is about 
 all the real experience they have, and even this 
 may be vague and dim. The explanation of the 
 whole phenomenon is probably that, while the con- 
 vert from heathenism is too ignorant clearly to 
 differentiate Christ from God, yet it is Christ in 
 God, that is, the Christian conception of God as 
 he hears it from Christian preachers, that attracts 
 him. 
 
 A heathen Karen will sometimes make up his 
 mind to worship God. To all intents and pur- 
 poses, he is already a converted man. But he will 
 say nothing to any one about his intention lest the 
 evil spirits may get wind of it and be offended. 
 
86 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 There is a process, however, by which even the 
 heathen may put an end to their connection with 
 the evil spirits. The writer does not know what 
 it is, but infers from accounts that it involves a 
 course of feasting. He has heard of heathen who 
 tired of performing their religious ceremonies, 
 and so went through this process and still remained 
 heathen, steadfastly refusing to worship God. In 
 like manner, the convert will sometimes wait to 
 go through this process, which may take a year. 
 When it is complete, he will acknowledge his in- 
 tention and ask to be baptized; but it is evident 
 that he has not fully escaped from the power of his 
 old superstitions, and, as has been said, he knows 
 little about Christ. He thinks only of turning to 
 God. Nor has he any deep sense of sin. It is 
 only after Karens have been converted from heath- 
 enism for a good while that they develop that, and 
 as that deepens, their understanding and apprecia- 
 tion of the work of Christ also increases. 
 
 It may be of interest to note here that the 
 heathen are seldom led to embrace Christianity by 
 considerations of temporal benefit. As has already 
 been pointed out, the early Karen disciples believed 
 that they need no longer fear the evil spirits, be- 
 cause Jesus was stronger than the evil spirits. To 
 this day this opinion prevails even among the 
 heathen. In view of the constant fears with which 
 the latter are surrounded one might think that this 
 would be a strong inducement to them to become 
 
PERSONAL RELIGION 87 
 
 Christians. But such is rarely the case. The 
 spiritual element in Christianity stands out so 
 prominently that few can adopt it and hold to it 
 permanently, who have not experienced a real 
 change of heart. It is self-guarding, like the ark 
 of the covenant. The story is told of a heathen 
 who was haunted by an evil spirit. He never saw 
 it himself, but sometimes when he was in the house 
 sitting by the hearth, or at night when he was 
 abroad, it would suddenly appear to others, plainly 
 visible at his side. This gave him an uncanny 
 reputation, so that people avoided him and did 
 not welcome him to their homes. At length, know- 
 ing the reputed power of the foreign religion, he 
 determined to escape from the malignant influence 
 which had possession of him by becoming a Chris- 
 tian. He accordingly sought out an ordained 
 evangelist and applied for baptism. He managed 
 to pass such catechetical examination as was re- 
 quired, and was baptized. From that moment the 
 apparition disappeared, and for two years the man 
 lived in peace and enjoyed the confidence and com- 
 panionship of his fellows. But at the end of that 
 time the restraints of the new religion became irk- 
 some. He longed for the leeks and the onions and 
 the garlick of Egypt; his soul craved the old indul- 
 gences, and he went back to his heathen practices. 
 Then the apparition appeared at his side again, 
 and continued to do so from time to time until his 
 death, for he never returned to the better faith. 
 
88 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 Of course the writer cannot vouch for the truth 
 of the story, although it is told in all seriousness 
 and is circulated among Christians and heathen 
 alike. But that part of it which relates to the 
 man's return to heathenism notwithstanding the 
 great incentive to remain a nominal Christian is at 
 least true to human nature. 
 
 Over against this story, as showing how sincere 
 hearts may be drawn back to a dominating faith 
 even in most adverse circumstances, may be set 
 the incident which the writer has heard of an old 
 man and his wife who lived for many years in a 
 Christian village and professed to be Christians 
 and had indeed lived upright, consistent lives. 
 But bye and bye, their children were taken from 
 them one by one by death. Then Satan came and 
 tempted them, just as he tempts God's children in 
 other lands when he gets them at a disadvantage. 
 And they said : 
 
 "Here we have been professing Christians for 
 all these years, and this is all we have gotten for it 
 — our children have been taken from us one by 
 one unto the last. We can stand it no longer!" 
 And so they took their few possessions, perhaps 
 not more than would go into a little bag such as 
 the Karens carry suspended from the shoulder, 
 probably, at most, not more than would go into a 
 basket of the kind they carry upon their backs, 
 and betook themselves to a heathen village, intend- 
 ing to spend there the remainder of their days. 
 
PERSONAL RELIGION 89 
 
 For among these people Christians and heathen 
 do not live together in the same village. If a heath- 
 en wants to become a Christian, he leaves his heath- 
 en village and goes to live in a Christian village, 
 and contrariwise, if a Christian wearies of his re- 
 ligion and wishes to go back into heathenism, he 
 leaves the Christian village, and goes and lives in 
 a heathen village. Or, if Christians and heathen 
 live in the same village, as may sometimes be 
 necessary, the Christians live in a part by them- 
 selves and the heathen In another part by them- 
 selves. So this man and his wife went to live in a 
 heathen village. But when they got there, the 
 heathen said to them: 
 
 ''Sing us some of the songs of Zion," and they 
 said it, not tauntingly as the Babylonians of old 
 said it to the Israelites, but because they really 
 wished to listen. And as well as they could, for 
 their voices were cracked and had never been very 
 good, the aged couple recalled some of the hymns 
 which they had learned back there in the Chris- 
 tian village, and they sang them. Ever as they 
 sang the heathen said: 
 
 "How good that is!" When they had finished 
 singing, the heathen asked them about the teach- 
 ings which they had learned back there in the Chris- 
 tian village. And, as well as they could, for they 
 had never been trained to express themselves very 
 much, they recalled the blessed gospel story, and 
 a§ they told it, the heathen said : 
 
90 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 "How good that is ! How very good that is !'* 
 Then the old man and his wife turned each to the 
 other and said: 
 
 **If the very heathen think so much of our re- 
 ligion, it is not time for us to turn our backs upon 
 it." So they gathered together again their few 
 possessions, returned to the Christian village, and 
 spent there the remainder of their days in the fear 
 and service of God. 
 
 The attitude of the Christians towards the 
 heathen and their intense yearning over them are 
 so tender and patient as to be pathetic. The 
 writer remembers to have heard a Karen pastor 
 tell of an evangelistic trip which he, in company 
 with some missionary ladies and teachers and pupils 
 from a school, had made over a week-end among 
 nearby heathen villages. It was easy to see that 
 the tour had been far from pleasant. The visitors 
 had been received with a good deal of coldness, 
 and sharp, stinging remarks had been made by the 
 heathen at the expense of those who had come to 
 preach to them. But the pastor, in narrating the 
 experience, made light of that. He said : 
 
 "When a man is ill, you bring him his usual 
 food, and he has no appetite for it. Then you get 
 him some special delicacy which you think he will 
 surely like, but he turns away from it in disgust. 
 You try one thing after another, but your efforts 
 are only met with scorn. Yet you do not get angry 
 with him, for you know it is because he is so very 
 
KARENS OF MOUNTAIN VILLAGE 
 
PERSONAL RELIGION 91 
 
 ill that he has no desire for food. And so. al- 
 though the heathen did not receive us kindly, we 
 were not angry, for it only shows how very ill 
 they are." The Karen Christians are eager for 
 the conversion of the Burmese, those who used 
 formerly to be their persecutors. Their efforts on 
 their behalf are unceasing. Would that they were 
 more successful ! As it is, not a few Burmese are 
 members of Karen churches. These are for the 
 most part Burmese who have lived in the vicinity 
 of Karen Christians, and, although Burmese gen- 
 erally despise Karens, have seen their exemplary 
 Christian lives, and have been led to become 
 Christians themselves. 
 
 The real inner experience of any people is a 
 difficult matter to trace, especially if it be that of a 
 race who, like the Karens, have never been accus- 
 tomed to express themselves along those lines. 
 General confessions of sin one will hear frequently, 
 to be sure. Before every observance of the Lord's 
 Supper it is customary among all the churches to 
 have a preparatory service in which the members 
 are expected to confess to one another their spirit- 
 ual condition, settle any differences, and put them- 
 selves as far as may be into a fitting frame for the 
 observance of the sacred ordinance. At these 
 meetings one will hear so much of acknowledgment 
 of failure and sin, so little expression of helpful 
 experiences, that one wearies of listening to it. To 
 get into the deeper heart life of the Karen disciples 
 
92 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 one must be content to wait and watch and listen. 
 When he has once fully gained their confidence, 
 perhaps by some campfire in the jungles, the con- 
 versation will turn undirected to the subject of the 
 inner life, and then it will come out. 
 
 There was a dear old man. The writer had just 
 been to his village, the farthest Christian village 
 in his field, nearly a whole day*s journey over a 
 long, high mountain beyond the village just pre- 
 ceding, to which he had been. He was starting 
 back over this same high mountain when this dear 
 old man seized the heaviest thing he had. For in 
 touring in that country there are no hotels where 
 one can put up or anything of the kind and the 
 missionary is obliged to take with him everything 
 he is likely to require, beds, bedding, cooking uten- 
 sils, tents and so forth. The missionary had no 
 elephants or other beasts of burden with him at 
 the time, so that everything had to be carried by 
 hand. He and the old Karen man had reached 
 their destination, and had seated themselves and 
 were resting a while, when the missionary asked 
 the old man what his name was. It was not par- 
 ticularly strange that he should not know it, for 
 Karens never think of introducing one another by 
 name. However, the old man said reproachfully: 
 
 "Why, doesn't the Teacher know my name? 
 They used to call me Too Loo Koo's father, but 
 now they call me Miss Fragrance's father." For 
 it is a singular custom which the people of those 
 
PERSONAL RELIGION 93 
 
 parts have of calling a person after the name of 
 his oldest living child. So, when the old man said, 
 "They used to call me Too Loo Koo's father, but 
 now they call me Miss Fragrance's father," the 
 missionary knew what it meant — there had been a 
 death in his httle family. 
 
 Then the old man went on to tell about Too 
 Loo Koo, his first-born, a son, and how his fatherly 
 affections had twined ever more and more closely 
 about the little one. And when he got to be ten or 
 twelve years of age, his father sent him down to 
 the station school at Shwegyln. 
 
 "For," said he, "I always wanted to preach, 
 but I was never able because I was too Ignorant, but 
 I wanted this son of mine to be educated so that 
 when he grew up he might go and preach in my 
 stead." So the little fellow was growing pretty 
 well Into young manhood — in his father's story — 
 perhaps sixteen or eighteen years of age, when 
 the missionary saw tears in the old man's eyes and 
 his chin began to quiver, as he said : 
 
 "But Teacher, the Lord took him, the Lord 
 took him." In a moment, however, the chin ceased 
 to quiver, and there came over the dear old man's 
 face such a look of heavenly resignation as only 
 the saints of God can know, as he added : 
 
 "But it is all right, Teacher. It is all right. 
 There is no rebellion in my heart, for it was the 
 Lord that did it." 
 
 It is blessed to note how graciously God some- 
 
94 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 times deals with even the most ignorant and be- 
 nighted. The missionary was asked to go to the 
 hospital to see a young man who had just been 
 brought in. He found a most pitiful spectacle, a 
 youth of from sixteen to eighteen years of age 
 whose eyes had been scratched out by a bear. 
 He had been out in the jungle with some com- 
 panions of his when the bear appeared. The rest 
 were fortunate enough to make their escape, but 
 this poor fellow climbed up into a tree, the branch 
 to which he clung broke, letting him fall to the 
 ground, and the bear, after the custom of its kind, 
 made a dash for his face, scratched at it with its 
 long claws, and then ran off. The other men, 
 realizing the terrible plight of their comrade, has- 
 tily put him into a small native boat and brought 
 him down the twenty miles or so to the city. The 
 sight of both eyes was completely destroyed. The 
 young man said he wished he could die. The mis- 
 sionary, seeing his condition, did not wonder that 
 he felt so. He did what he could for the youth, 
 and went away. Soon after, he was obliged to take 
 his furlough home, and saw and heard nothing 
 more about the young man for two years or more. 
 Then he learned that, although his physical vision 
 had been destroyed, his spiritual eyes had been 
 opened, for he had become a most faithful and 
 devoted Christian. Before he lost his sight, he had 
 had few advantages, for he was a heathen and had 
 known only a heathen home. He had never learned 
 
PERSONAL RELIGION 95 
 
 to read, and knew nothing of the bible story or of 
 Christian singing. Now, in his blindness, he had 
 turned to God, he consorted with God's people, 
 and he sought to walk in the ways of righteousness. 
 Ever when the gong sounded for services, he 
 would grope his way to the chapel, take his seat 
 near the preacher, and listen attentively to the 
 instruction that was given. When the people sang, 
 he would join as well as he could in the singing; 
 and when the time came for prayer, he would raise 
 his voice and offer his petition, at first with broken 
 utterance, but with more and more of freedom as 
 he acquired practice. So, little by little, his knowl- 
 edge and understanding grew, and his testimony 
 was so spontaneous, so cheerful and so full of grati- 
 tude that it was a source of strength and encour- 
 agement to the little church with which he wor- 
 shipped and into the membership of which he 
 was baptized. 
 
 But, after a time, there was a change. The 
 travelling evangelist who visited the place occa- 
 sionally found that the young man was not in his 
 accustomed place, and made inquiries regarding 
 him. No one seemed to know quite what the 
 trouble was, and so the evangelist went to see the 
 young man in person, and asked him why he was 
 no longer frequenting the place of prayer as for- 
 merly, and why his voice was not raised in petition 
 as it had been before. 
 
 "Teacher," said the young man, "1 would like 
 
96 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 to go to the house of God as aforetime, and join 
 in the singing and the prayers. My heart Is not 
 changed, or my desire for these things diminished. 
 But, whenever I bow my head to pray, Satan comes 
 with a host of his friends and he threatens to kill 
 me, and I dare not pray." The evangelist was a 
 wise man, and, as he reflected, he thought It likely 
 that the young brother was suffering from hallu- 
 cinations occasioned by his blindness, that being 
 unable to see his thoughts had turned In upon him- 
 self until his mind had become partly unbalanced, 
 but after a moment's deliberation he turned to the 
 young man and said to him: 
 
 "Brother, let me make to you a suggestion. 
 When you want to pray again, bow your head, and 
 call on Jesus to help you, and tell Satan you are 
 going to pray any way, even If he kills you." The 
 evangelist went away and was gone for several 
 weeks. When he returned, he found that the 
 young man had resumed his former place with the 
 people of God and was joining in prayer and praise 
 as heartily as before. When he could, he asked 
 him of the matter, and the young man replied: 
 
 "Teacher, I did just as you said I should. I 
 bowed my head, and I called upon the name of 
 Jesus, and I defied Satan and all his hosts, and 
 he took flight, and I have seen nothing of him from 
 that day to this." 
 
 Surely, If the fellowship of the saints means any- 
 thing, it is entirely possible for the Christian of 
 
PERSONAL RELIGION 97 
 
 America to have fellowship with the Karen Chris- 
 tians of Burma at the present day, for they have 
 like precious hope in the gospel, the same con- 
 solations of the Spirit, and the same source of 
 power. The writer would never feel the necessity 
 of returning to the homeland for the sake of en- 
 joying Christian fellowship, for he can find it in 
 Burma among the Karen disciples in just as rich 
 and abundant and satisfying measure as he can 
 find it anywhere. Many of the pastors of churches 
 are truly men of God, and the missionary soon 
 learns to take counsel with them and to value their 
 helpful advice. Most of them are better versed 
 In the contents of Scripture than the average Amer- 
 ican pastor, and to the preaching of some of them 
 any one might listen with interest and profit. 
 
IX 
 
 PRESENT ATTAINMENTS IN CHURCH 
 
 ORGANIZATION, DISCIPLINE AND 
 
 EFFECTIVENESS. 
 
 FROM the beginning, the Karen churches 
 have been independent and from a very- 
 early period the great majority of them have 
 been self-supporting. The missionary is some- 
 times described as being a bishop, but, while, if he 
 has the confidence of his people, he may have more 
 real power than mere ecclesiastical authority can 
 possibly confer, yet this power is always due to 
 his personality rather than to his position. He has 
 absolutely no authority to impose his will upon 
 even the feeblest and most insignificant of God*s 
 children. At the present time there are connected 
 with all the Karen missions about nine hundred 
 churches with approximately fifty-five thousand 
 communicants. The missions are twelve in number. 
 By a mission is meant a circle of churches under 
 the supervision of a single missionary. Usually 
 these churches lie within a distinct region of terri- 
 tory with fairly well defined boundaries, called the 
 
 98 
 
CHURCH ORGANIZATION 99 
 
 field of the particular missionary, but there is some 
 overlapping of fields. Of the churches, about seven 
 hundred have pastors, all of whom are Karens. 
 Most of the pastors have had from one to four 
 years of training in the Karen Theological Semi- 
 nary in Insein. About two hundred of them have 
 been ordained and are competent to administer the 
 ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper. 
 These pastors often consult the missionary, and 
 here is really the missionary's opportunity. If he 
 is wise, he can impress his opinions upon his people, 
 and it is highly important that he should do his best 
 to hold them up to high standards. The besetting 
 sins of the Karen people at the present time are 
 drunkenness and immorality. The lapse from the 
 high state of morality which existed among them 
 at the first is due to their contact with other races 
 which had no such ideals. On this account disci- 
 pline has to be more strictly administered in this 
 regard than would otherwise be necessary. But 
 when the missionary has given his opinion, his 
 power ends ; he can do no more. It remains for the 
 native church to put his suggestions into force or 
 not, as they think fit. This may seem, at first 
 thought, an unsafe course to pursue but the idea is 
 that the churches have the Holy Spirit as well as 
 the missionary, and it is even better than the church 
 should make a mistake than that the missionary 
 should force his will upon it. And it should be 
 said to the honor of the churches that, in general, 
 
100 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 their administration of affairs is most creditable. 
 Whenever a member has done anything unworthy 
 of his Christian profession, whatever his standing 
 or social position may be, as soon as it comes to 
 the knowledge of the church, he is subjected to dis- 
 ciphne. If the offense is of a minor character, he is 
 reproved or perhaps suspended for a time from 
 membership, and exhorted to repent and mend his 
 ways. If it is some outbreaking sin, he is at once 
 excluded from fellowship. All this is done in a 
 spirit of Christian love; and if the offender repents 
 of his sin, and makes confession, and shows the 
 fruits of repentance in his life, he is restored to 
 the fellowship of the church, and, as lovingly as 
 before, the offense for which he was disciplined is 
 often scarcely mentioned to him again. All this 
 is done, as has been said, by the local church with- 
 out any reference whatever to the missionary, and 
 most missionaries are glad to have it so. 
 
 But even if the missionary were disposed to 
 interfere in the internal affairs of the churches, 
 he is precluded from doing so by the fact that the 
 churches in most of the missions are not only en- 
 tirely independent and self-supporting, but they 
 support all their schools and other enterprises be- 
 sides. In fact the churches of each mission are 
 organized into an association, or, it may be, into 
 two associations of churches which meet once a 
 year, through their representatives, for a com- 
 parison of their work and for mutual help and 
 
SCHOOL BOYS DRILLING, TOUNGOO, BURMA 
 
 '■•■^■^ 
 
 
 
 ji'^BK^'' '• 'tB^'j * ^^i *'^K 
 
 FOUR LITTLE KARENS, TOUNGOO, BURMA 
 
CHURCH ORGANIZATION 101 
 
 comfort, and the statistical tables which these asso- 
 ciations publish are quite formidable. They show 
 contributions on the part of the churches for the 
 support of their pastors, for the support of the 
 station or town school, for the support of the vil- 
 lage schools, for ministerial education, for home 
 missions, for foreign missions, and in fact for all 
 the varied functions which are required for orderly 
 church organization and activity. These associa- 
 tional gatherings have their own chairman chosen 
 by the people themselves, their secretaries, their 
 committees, their treasurers, the last named usually 
 handling all the funds of the association, under its 
 direction. The chairman presides with dignity, 
 and often with efficiency. All questions pertaining 
 to the general work of the churches are decided 
 by vote of the assembly. More liberty in talking 
 back and forth is usually allowed than would be 
 permissible under strict parliamentary rules, but 
 the people generally discuss matters until they know 
 what they want and vote accordingly. The secre- 
 taries keep a record of the meetings, collect letters 
 and reports from the churches, and tabulate them. 
 The committees manage and direct all the general 
 work of the churches. They appoint the evangel- 
 ists who engage in home mission work, designate 
 them, supervise them, and regulate their salaries. 
 A committee or board is also usually appointed to 
 have charge of the town school. This committee 
 may appoint or discharge teachers, gather the funds 
 
102 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 for the running expenses of the school, decide on 
 questions of discipline, and determine general ques- 
 tions of policy. 
 
 It has been said that the churches are self-sup- 
 porting. By this is not meant that they support 
 their pastors in every case as churches in America 
 do, but simply that they are not dependent upon 
 mission funds from America. So far from the 
 church supporting the pastor, it often happens that 
 the pastor supports himself or may even support 
 the church. This custom has come down from 
 the early beginning of the work. At that time, the 
 leading man in each church was appointed its pas- 
 tor. Most of the men who were thus chosen had 
 their own means of support, and needed no help 
 from their churches. Furthermore, many of them 
 were men of foresight and initiative, and when they 
 saw the advantages of being under British govern- 
 ment, they took up land or started enterprises 
 which were later of value to their people. Such 
 being the precedent established, the successors of 
 those early pioneer pastors have had, for the most 
 part, to find their own means of support. This has 
 not been as great a hardship, however, as might at 
 first appear, for few of them are men of sufficient 
 training to be capable of spending all their time 
 in the preparation of sermons and the other work 
 of the church. When, however, a pastor or any 
 other Christian worker has that capacity, he is 
 usually given a fair living; and in general, with 
 
CHURCH ORGANIZATION 103 
 
 changed conditions an Increasing number of 
 churches are supporting their pastors in full. 
 
 The schools are the especial care of the 
 churches. Government does not provide a public 
 school system such as is found in America, any 
 more than it is provided in England. The English 
 Idea is that any one should have only such an edu- 
 cation as he can pay for. But the desire of the 
 Karen churches In general is that every one who 
 wants an education shall have It. Two main sys- 
 tems of schools are recognized by the government, 
 the vernacular, under native inspectors, in which 
 all subjects are taught in the vernacular only, and 
 the Anglo-Vernacular, under European inspectors, 
 in which English Is taught in addition to other reg- 
 lar subjects. There are vernacular schools in nearly 
 every village that can possibly support one, and 
 there are central or main Anglo- Vernacular 
 schools, usually at the station, in charge of the 
 missionary. The latter are maintained not simply 
 because the people have a craving to learn the Eng- 
 lish language, but because the grade of work done 
 in such schools under government supervision is of 
 a higher order than in the vernacular schools. In 
 all the village schools, numbering about seven hun- 
 dred with an enrollment of over eighteen thousand, 
 the tuition is absolutely free, and in most of the 
 station schools it was free until a few years ago, 
 when the government required a small tuition fee 
 to be levied. Even now, it is as small as possible. 
 
104 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 and in most schools free board is supplied by the 
 contributions of the churches, so that it is really 
 cheaper for a youth to attend school than not. 
 Most of the sixteen station schools, with their near- 
 ly two thousand five hundred pupils, are middle or 
 secondary schools, but there are two high schools 
 with approximately two hundred pupils. From 
 all of these schools pupils are constantly passing to 
 the various departments of the college at Rangoon, 
 or, for religious instruction, to the Theological 
 Seminary at Insein or the Karen Woman's Bible 
 Training School at Ahlone. The proportion of 
 girls to boys receiving instruction in the primary 
 schools is about four to five, in the secondary 
 schools about one to two, and in the high schools, 
 about one to six. 
 
 The Theological Seminary is worthy of special 
 mention. It has a corps of two American and four 
 native teachers, a four years' course, and for many 
 years it has had an enrollment of about one hun- 
 dred and twenty to one hundred and twenty-five 
 students. Many of the students return to serve 
 the churches of their own fields, but some go to 
 distant parts as missionaries of the gospel to other 
 tribes. A Greek department is being developed for 
 the benefit of men of exceptional attainments. 
 Needless to say, the influence of this school has ex- 
 tended for and wide. The financial support of the 
 institution is borne jointly by the churches and the 
 Society in America. 
 
CHURCH ORGANIZATION 105 
 
 As has already been stated, all of these various 
 enterprises, with the partial exception just men- 
 tioned, are carried on by the churches absolutely 
 at their own expense. In a few of the missions, 
 small grants from the Society at home are still be- 
 ing received for the support of the station school, 
 but even these are almost negligible and are rapidly 
 being dropped altogether. The contributions of 
 the churches for all objects during the last year for 
 which statistics are available amountedto$ 107, 122. 
 For purposes of comparison with the giving of 
 churches in America it should be borne in mind that 
 the usual daily wage for unskilled labor in Burma 
 is about half of a Rupee or one-sixth of a dollar. 
 Every dollar contributed, therefore, corresponds to 
 six days^ wages which in America would amount to 
 from $12 to $15. 
 
 Many instances might be related of the liberality 
 of the Karen Christians. Recently in Bassein, a 
 school dormitory was to be erected. About Rs. 
 20,000, nearly $7,000, had to be raised among the 
 Christian Karens to meet the expense, the remain- 
 der being met by the government. It was a time 
 of scarcity, for the war made it difficult for the 
 Karen farmers to dispose of their rice. But one 
 man, who had no ready money, borrowed Rs. 
 1,500 or $500, saying that he frequently had to 
 borrow money for his own work, and why should 
 he not borrow money to provide for the Lord's 
 work? The Shwegyin association was once invited 
 
106 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 by one of Its smallest churches to hold Its next an- 
 nual meeting with them. Knowing what a great 
 task It is to entertain the meetings where the at- 
 tendance usually ranges from eight hundred to 
 twelve hundred people and may rise to two thou- 
 sand, the committees of the association called the 
 representatives of the little church, and asked them 
 If they understood what they were doing. 
 
 *'We Karens usually know what we are about," 
 was the quiet response. Then it developed that 
 not the whole church, but one man had invited the 
 association. He was a man of some means, and 
 when he was approached he said: 
 
 "When I was a heathen, I used to give feasts 
 for my heathen neighbors, and now why should I 
 not give a feast to my Christian brethren? What 
 If it costs the price of an elephant? I will supply 
 the money, furnish the eatables, and provide the 
 entertainment In full. Give me this pleasure be- 
 fore I die.'' When they heard his remarks, the 
 committee could remonstrate no further and ap- 
 pointed the next meeting at the old man's village. 
 Such illustrations of the devotedness of the Karen 
 disciples to their Lord and his work might be given 
 without number. 
 
 It Is of Interest to note that the very same laws 
 which experience has proved to be regnant In the 
 lives of the churches in America operate among 
 the Karen churches of Burma. Especially Is this 
 true with reference to the value to the churches of 
 
CHURCH ORGANIZATION 107 
 
 home and foreign mission work; and again and 
 again It has been demonstrated that the latter, as 
 well as the former, is indispensable to the best 
 prosperity of God's spiritual heritage. For the 
 foreign mission enterprise has in it the elements of 
 extension; it is like a jointed fishpole. Christians 
 in America send out their missionaries to foreign 
 lands but that is not the end; it is merely one sec- 
 tion of the rod. When churches are formed there, 
 they in turn send missionaries to still other regions, 
 and so on. Thus it has been from the beginning, 
 and thus it will be forevermore until the Lord 
 himself returns. 
 
 A veteran pastor in America used to tell how, 
 at one time, when his church was heavily burdened 
 with debt, he preached a sermon on foreign mis- 
 sions, and so fervently urged his people to give to 
 that cause that his deacons came to him after the 
 sermon and remonstrated with him, saying: 
 
 "Don't you know, pastor, that we cannot afford 
 to have our people give largely for foreign mis- 
 sions, because we have this heavy debt on us, and 
 we must use all our powers to raise that?" The 
 pastor said nothing, but a few Sundays later he 
 preached from the text, "If I forget thee, O Jeru- 
 salem, let my right hand forget her cunning. Let 
 my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I 
 remember thee not; if I prefer not Jerusalem above 
 my chief joy." And as he presented the needs of 
 the home church, his words were accompanied with 
 
108 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 such power that his people gave as they had never 
 given before, and when afterwards, the sum of 
 their giving was counted up, It was found that, be- 
 hold, the heavy debt which had so long burdened 
 them had vanished away. The pastor always at- 
 tributed the success of that endeavor to the pre- 
 vious preaching of the foreign mission sermon and 
 the opening of his people's hearts to the world- 
 wide work. 
 
 The writer once had his attention forcibly called 
 by a minister of another denomination to the his- 
 tory of the Baptists in America, as showing In 
 a rather remarkable manner the healthy reaction- 
 ary effect of the foreign mission enterprise not only 
 upon an individual church, but also upon an entire 
 denomination. At the beginning of the nineteenth 
 century, the Baptists of the United States num- 
 bered about seventy thousand, a poor, scattered, 
 feeble folk, with little of common Interest or co- 
 hesion. Shortly after that, they divided about 
 equally on the subject of missions, half of them 
 becoming mission Baptists and the other half anti- 
 mission Baptists. It w^as at the time when Dr. 
 Adonlram Judson sent back his thrilling appeals 
 from Burma for help. The mission Baptists heard 
 the call and responded. The anti-mission Baptists, 
 on the other hand, said: 
 
 "Why should we send missionaries to foreign 
 lands, we have not enough pastors to meet our own 
 needs. No ; if God wants to convert the heathen, 
 
CHURCH ORGANIZATION 109 
 
 he can do It without any of our aid." What has 
 been the result? The writer sometimes recounts 
 this history to his own people In the Shwegyin mis- 
 sion and he is accustomed to say to them : 
 
 *'You expect your strength to be Increased, not 
 when you take rice and put It Into other people's 
 mouths' but when you put It Into your own mouth. 
 And so one might naturally think that the antl- 
 mlsslon Baptists would have Increased In strength, 
 and the mission Baptists have diminished. But 
 that Is not the law of the spiritual kingdom which 
 is, *GIve and gain.' " So the mission Baptists of 
 America, instead of diminishing, have increased, 
 not two-fold or three-fold, but ten-fold, a hundred- 
 fold, nearly two hundred-fold, until the scattered 
 thirty-five thousand have become a mighty host, al- 
 most seven million strong; and from being the tail 
 they have become well-nigh the head, standing 
 among the first in their educational endowments, 
 in the effectiveness of their denominational enter- 
 prises, and in their equipment for every good work. 
 The anti-mission Baptists, on the contrary, In ad- 
 dition to being a **by-word and a hissing," have 
 steadily diminished until now they are scarcely to 
 be found at all. Some may adopt the practice, 
 but few will admit the doctrine. 
 
 So as the Karen churches of Burma have 
 given they have gained, as they have scattered they 
 have found increase, and as they have sent their 
 missionaries afar to minister to the destitute their 
 
110 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 own resources have developed. The Karens of the 
 Bassein mission have their representatives in dis- 
 tant parts of northern Burma, and the Rangoon 
 Karens have theirs in far-off Siam, and these have 
 always been the very life of the churches. 
 
 The writer may, perhaps, be pardoned for re- 
 ferring specifically, by way of illustration, to the 
 history of his own station at Shwegyin. Not long 
 after he went out to the field in 1893, he heard one 
 of the oldest and most experienced of his brethren 
 speak of the importance to the native churches of 
 carrying on the work of the gospel outside of their 
 own boundaries. This reminded him of the story 
 of the movement in America which has been out- 
 lined above, and he resolved that as soon as pos- 
 sible he would bring to the attention of his own 
 people some field which they might adopt. After 
 consultation, the Salween District, with its head- 
 quarters at Papun, a territory adjacent to the 
 Shwegyin field, to be sure, but entirely outside the 
 circle of the churches, was chosen. They took up 
 the enterprise with great eagerness, and from that 
 time on, the activities of the churches fairly leaped 
 forward. The zeal for the outside work seemed to 
 impart itself to their home work, so that at the 
 same time that they took up the former, they 
 opened two important out-stations, Nyaunglebin 
 and Kyaukkyi, on their own field, points which 
 seemed to be necessary to be occupied for the best 
 prosecution of the general work. In 1893, the 
 
CHURCH ORGANIZATION 111 
 
 contributions of the churches for all objects had 
 amounted to about ^ve thousand Rupees; they 
 rose gradually until, in 1898, they reached seven 
 thousand five hundred Rupees. That was the 
 year in which this home and foreign mission exten- 
 sion movement was inaugurated. The next year, 
 they rose to over ten thousand Rupees, the year 
 after that to over fourteen thousand Rupees, and 
 the year following to over twenty thousand Rupees, 
 nearly a three-fold increase in three years' time. 
 The next year, they fell off to something over six- 
 teen thousand Rupees, but they have not been less 
 than twenty-five thousand Rupees any year since. 
 Meanwhile, the annual additions to the churches 
 by baptism rose from about one hundred to one 
 hundred and seventy-five or two hundred; and, 
 apparently because of the new spirit which came 
 upon the people, the number of young men who 
 consecrated themselves to the work of the gospel 
 ministry and went to the theological seminary at 
 Insein, for the purpose of preparing themselves for 
 that work, rose from three or four in 1893 to be- 
 tween fifteen and twenty from 1906 on. At the 
 same time, schools were built up at the out-stations 
 which, in addition to the school at Shwegyin, with 
 its enrollment of from one hundred to one hundred 
 and twenty-five, had enrollments running up to two 
 hundred, or even to two hundred and fifty. Many 
 of the pupils were from heathen villages and thus 
 the schools became evangelizing agencies reaching 
 
112 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 out into the outlying regions In a way which, so 
 far as one can judge, would not otherwise have 
 been possible. 
 
 In fact one Is reminded of the story which Is 
 told of a certain sportsman. Up In the hills of the 
 Shwegyin District, there was a "rogue" elephant 
 for the destruction of which the government had 
 offered a reward of money In addition to the tusks. 
 This sportsman went up with his elephant rifle to 
 hunt the animal. He found It. He fired one shot, 
 and the great beast fell, apparently dead; but to 
 make sure the sportsman fired again. The ele- 
 phant moved slightly. The sportsman fired a 
 third time. The elephant moved a little more. 
 He fired again and again, each shot seeming to 
 have a revivifying effect until at the sixth shot the 
 elephant got up and ran away. The Karens tell 
 the story with great gusto; how many "rescenslons'* 
 it has gone through, It Is Impossible to say. But 
 It Is certain that the more hot shot of foreign mis- 
 sions is poured into the churches of God, anywhere 
 and in whatever conditions, the livelier they be- 
 come. Best of all, the effort to carry the gospel to 
 those who have it not, together with the self-sacri- 
 fice which this always Involves, is, of itself, a re- 
 ligious experience of inestimable value to the people 
 of God. 
 
 In this connection may be mentioned an incident 
 which, to the missionary, was very affecting. The 
 evangelist at Papun had died suddenly, and the 
 
CHURCH ORGANIZATION 113 
 
 Karen churches, assembled In annual session, were 
 facing the question of who should take his place. 
 The missionary felt that his successor ought to be 
 some man of ability and character who could be 
 trusted to take hold of the work and carry it for- 
 ward with zeal and discretion; but he could think 
 of no one available for the important post. Much 
 to his surprise, the leaders among the Karens said 
 it must be the ordained pastor of one of the best 
 churches, a man of whom the missionary had never 
 once dared to think. He seemed indispensable to 
 his own church ; he was one of the most beloved of 
 the native pastors, and the missionary had no 
 thought that it would be considered possible to dis- 
 pense with his services on the home field. When, 
 however, his name was suggested by the Karens 
 themselves, of course the missionary could raise 
 no objection. It was not without a struggle that 
 the appointment was made, for as soon as his name 
 was mentioned, members of his church who were 
 present rose and objected, some of them angrily. 
 
 "Why should you choose our pastor?'* they 
 said. "The members of our church are for the 
 most part widows and orphans. Our pastor is like 
 a father to us. We cannot spare him. Choose 
 some one else. There are many others." After 
 they had talked a while, the missionary rose and 
 said: 
 
 "I do not wonder that the members of the 
 brother's church feel this way, for we all love 
 
114 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 him, and it Is indeed as they say — many of the 
 members of their church are widows and orphans. 
 But now before we talk any more about this mat- 
 ter, let us go to God with it." Earnest prayer was 
 offered, and after the prayer it was heart-moving 
 to see these same men who had so angrily demurred 
 a few minutes before, rise and say, that if this was 
 of the Lord, they dared not oppose it. A commit- 
 tee was appointed to visit the church, and give it 
 what comfort and consolation and what strength- 
 ening of purpose in the Lord it was able, and the 
 much loved pastor was sent forth to do good and 
 acceptable work. 
 
PRESENT ATTAINMENTS IN TEM- 
 PORAL BETTERMENT 
 
 TOO much should not be expected of the 
 Karen disciples in the direction of temporal 
 betterment. The process is slower than that 
 of evangehzation and almost painfully tedious. 
 Economy is the basis of true civilization, but it 
 takes a long while for many people to perceive the 
 fact. It is evident, however, in all departments 
 of life. Occidentals use chairs because, if they 
 sat on the floor their clothing, which cannot be 
 readily washed, would soon get soiled, and ruined. 
 If they wore sandals instead of shoes, and could 
 keep their floors scrupulously clean, or if they wore 
 cheap, washable goods as do the East Indians, the 
 case would be different. Men wear collars and 
 cuffs to keep their coats from being damaged. 
 The linen can be laundried, but the material of 
 which coats are made cannot be. No new invention 
 is practicable until it can be made economical. 
 Americans are generally considered extravagant 
 and wasteful. Undoubtedly some are so; and 
 with the vast undeveloped resources of the coun- 
 try, there is not on the part of most of them that 
 carefulness in the use of materials which will 
 doubtless become a necessity as the country grows 
 
 115 
 
116 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 more thickly populated and produce relatively 
 scarcer. But that Americans have the economic 
 sense, is evidenced by the fact that they use more 
 telephones and typewriters and employ more sten- 
 ographers than any other people on the face of the 
 earth. These are economizers of time, and time Is 
 economically valuable. ' The New England house- 
 keeper who, in these days when matches are so 
 cheap, still rolls firelighters Is not practicing real 
 economy, unless owing to special circumstances, 
 her time is of no account. Even when rolled, it 
 Is cheaper for most people to use matches. In 
 Chicago, on a dve cent fare, one may travel forty 
 miles and cover the distance In a couple of hours. 
 In the native Burmese cart as many days would be 
 required to cover the same distance and the ex- 
 pense would be thirty times as great. Labor In 
 the East is commonly supposed to be cheap. Aside 
 from a few minor employments, it Is cheap only 
 in wage; In measure of achievement In the large, 
 it Is expensive, for there, time-saving devices are 
 wanting. Of course in all civilization the element 
 of taste comes in, adding beauty and attractive- 
 ness to what would otherwise be bald and ugly, 
 but the basis is still economy. 
 
 Barbarism Is always wasteful. Uncultivated 
 land will not support as much life as cultivated 
 land. Two acres of pasture are considered suf- 
 ficient for the keep of a cow; the amount of tilled 
 land required for the same purpose Is much less. 
 
TEMPORAL BETTERMENT 117 
 
 From the accounts of some travelers, one might 
 suppose that in India and Burma a tiger lurks 
 under nearly every bush, but calculation shows it 
 is a physical impossibility that there should be more 
 than about one to a square mile of jungle land, and 
 probably the proportion is much less than that. 
 Supposing a tiger to need for its sustenance one 
 deer a week^ — which seems not excessive consid- 
 ering that it will seldom eat the entire carcase — 
 it appears that, even if jungle land were as pro- 
 ductive as pasture land, a tiger which carefully 
 conserved its resources and allowed the hinds to 
 breed and keep up the stock would need a range 
 of at least one hundred and four acres. But jungle 
 land is not more than from a fifth to a tenth as 
 productive as pasture land, and it is probable that 
 in most parts of Burma and India a tiger must 
 have a range of from Rvq to ten square miles. If 
 it frequents the fringes of human cultivation where 
 it can get an occasional cow or calf, it may not 
 require quite so large a range, but its hold upon 
 such preserves would be very precarious, for, even 
 without shot guns and rifles, the natives have ways 
 of disposing of maurauders of that kind. With 
 a large bamboo laid in a horizontal position and 
 bent to its utmost tension by the strength of several 
 men, they will set a trap, sprung by a fine thread 
 or fiber of tree bark, which will drive a spear 
 straight through a tiger. 
 
 But the Karen does not perceive the meanmg 
 
118 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 of all this. He observes that civilized people have 
 a great many things, and he naturally infers that 
 civilization consists in having many things instead 
 of consisting, as it really does in knowing how to 
 use the things one has. So far as introducing 
 the mere externals of western civilization is con- 
 cerned, merchants and traders are doing a part 
 quite as important as that of the missionary. As 
 a result the people are becoming more industrious 
 than formerly. The desire to possess this and 
 that — ^the fabrics imported from England, sew- 
 ing machines, and, recently, music boxes and vic- 
 trolas — all this, combined with the fact that under 
 British rule the country has been rapidly brought 
 under cultivation and so withdrawn from general 
 use, has wrought a great change. The writer well 
 remembers, when he was a lad of eight or nine, 
 going with his father to see Burmese sawyers about 
 getting out timber. At that time there were no 
 steam sawmills, and every piece of timber for the 
 house had to be sawed out by hand. Sawpits were 
 dug, the logs rolled into position, and one man 
 above and one below would work the saw up and 
 down. The pay was good for the time, but then 
 the wants of the people were few, and conditions 
 of life easy. It was possible to go out almost any- 
 where, take up a piece of land, cultivate it and raise 
 a crop of rice; consequently it was most difficult 
 to get the workmen to do anything. Now-a-days 
 the situation is much different. Sawmills have for 
 
TEMPORAL BETTERMENT 119 
 
 the most part taken the place of the old sawpit, 
 but when, occasionally, one must still resort to the 
 latter, there is no difficulty in getting the men to 
 do the work and to do it in good time. The people 
 of today are much more industrious than were the 
 people of fifty years ago both because the condi- 
 tions of life are more difficult and because the 
 standard of living is higher. This is probably 
 true throughout the Orient, and the slur upon the 
 oriental that he is lazy is becoming less and less 
 applicable. 
 
 The mere getting of things, however, the lust 
 for possessing modern conveniences and equip- 
 ments, the adoption of western civilization out of 
 hand, by the native of Burma or India, is far from 
 desirable, inasmuch as it is not adapted to their 
 surroundings. The conditions of living among 
 the people there have grown up in large part as 
 a result of their environment, and in order to have 
 a right understanding of the problem of civilizing 
 them one must be well-versed in these conditions. 
 Perhaps the manner of life of the Karens cannot 
 be better illustrated than by the story which is 
 sometimes told of Naw Thoo and Naw Wah. 
 Naw Wah, which means Miss White, was a little 
 Christian girl who had lived for several years 
 with a missionary lady; Naw Thoo, meaning 
 Miss Black, was a heathen child who had always 
 lived out in the jungle. One day the latter came 
 to the city and met Naw Wah. Naw Wah asked 
 
120 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 her If she would like to see the missionary's house, 
 and she said she would. She had never been in 
 such a house before. It was not a very grand 
 house, for it was more like a barn than anything 
 else one sees In America, as no lathing and plaster- 
 ing were used — there was only the single thickness 
 of boarding on the outside, and all the timbers of 
 the house showed out In the room. Houses there 
 must be made very open, and the walls thin so as 
 to cool off rapidly at night. But, unlike American 
 barns, the house was built up on posts, like stilts, 
 from eight to ten or twelve feet above the ground. 
 This is the general practice in Burma, partly be- 
 cause of the dampness of the ground during the 
 rainy season, and partly because it is a custom 
 handed down from the time when the country was 
 much more sparsely settled than now and tigers 
 might come prowling about. In spite of this pre- 
 caution, snakes still get into the houses as well as 
 centipedes, scorpions, lizards and other minor 
 pests. Naw Thoo's house in which she lived when 
 at home was built entirely of bamboo. The countryj 
 produces a great variety of bamboos of different 
 sizes. The builder digs a hole in the ground, and 
 sets up in it a large bamboo, perhaps five or six 
 inches in diameter, for the post of the house. Then 
 he takes a kind of knife — his only tool — with a 
 heavy blade about a foot and a half In length, and 
 cuts a hole In each side of the bamboo. This 
 makes a mortise in which may be placed a smaller 
 
IDOL HOUSE, THARAWADDY, BURMA 
 
 KAREN HOUSES 
 
TEMPORAL BETTERMENT 121 
 
 bamboo that answers for a joist. Strips of the 
 same material about an inch wide, lashed down to 
 the joists half an inch apart by means of a kind 
 of rope made from the bark of a tree, provide the 
 floor. By taking a large bamboo, splitting down 
 one side, opening it out and knocking out the knots, 
 a kind of boarding is made for the sides of the 
 building. Again bamboos of the same size are 
 split in two, and, after the knots are cut out, are 
 used for the roof, alternate pieces having the 
 outer curve up and the intermediate pieces having 
 the curve down. 
 
 Naw Thoo saw the lady's house made of timber, 
 and wondered at it. She was shown into the sitting 
 room, and was puzzled to know what the chairs 
 were for. Nah Wah actually had to sit down in 
 one to show her, for when she was at home she 
 always sat on the floor. She had never seen a 
 table before, since in her house a table would 
 have been of no use. What could a person sitting 
 on the floor do with a table? She was shown the 
 dining room, with the table linen, the dishes, the 
 knives and forks and spoons arranged on the din- 
 ing table. She had never seen anything of the 
 kind before. At home she sat on the floor to eat. 
 A large tray of wood, painted red, would be set 
 down, cooked rice would be placed in the sides of 
 the tray around, and in the center would be put 
 a bowl of dressing to go with the rice. This con- 
 sisted of rotten fish, that is, fish deliberated rotted 
 
122 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 for the purpose. The members of the family would 
 sit down on the floor about the tray, one of them 
 would dip out some of the dressing and put it on 
 the rice in front of him, return the spoon to its 
 place In the bowl, mix the fish and rice with his 
 fingers, make the whole into a ball, and put it into 
 his mouth. 
 
 Then Naw Thoo was shown the lady's sleeping 
 room with the bed, the mattress, the coverings and 
 the pillow. All these were quite new to her, for 
 when she was at home she slept on the floor, and 
 if she wanted a pillow, she would take a stick of 
 wood or a large bamboo and rest her neck upon 
 it, letting her head hang over on the other side. 
 Suddenly, as she was looking about, Naw Thoo 
 gave a terrible shriek, and rushed out of the 
 house as if she had been shot out of a gun. Nah 
 Wah did not know what to make of it, but after 
 a time managed to catch up with her and ask her 
 what was the matter. 
 
 **Why," said Naw Thoo, "the lady keeps the 
 devil in her house." 
 
 "Oh, no, she doesn't," replied Naw Wah, "I 
 have lived there a long time and I know she 
 doesn't." 
 
 "But I have seen him with my own eyes," said 
 Naw Thoo. Finally, with much persuasion, Naw 
 Wah managed to get Naw Thoo to go back to the 
 house and show her where she had seen the devil. 
 She stole up the steps, through the sitting room 
 
TEMPORAL BETTERMENT 123 
 
 to the door of the bedroom, and pointed, saying: 
 "There, th — th — there is where the lady keeps 
 the devil." She indicated the mirror hanging on 
 the wall. She had seen herself In It and thought 
 it surely must be the devil. This Is not much to 
 be wondered at, for she seldom washed her face, 
 still more seldom combed her hair, and she prob- 
 ably never washed her clothes, for the heathen 
 Karens have a saying that, if you wash your 
 clothes, a tiger will eat you. They do not want 
 the tigers to eat them, so they do not wash their 
 clothes from the time they are made until they 
 fairly rot off their backs. Naw Thoo had been 
 with Naw Wah who kept herself so nice and sleek 
 and clean, and she had forgotten about herself, so 
 that when she saw herself In the mirror, she 
 thought it must surely be the devil. 
 
 The writer has frequently told this story to 
 Sunday School children In America, because it 
 gives, in brief compass, an idea of the manner of 
 life of the Karen people. He usually closes by 
 asking what they come to Sunday School for, and 
 says: "We come to study the bible, and learn 
 about God and about Jesus. That is all very 
 good, but there is one thing more we need to learn^ 
 without which all the rest is of no use. We need 
 to learn about ourselves, for the bible Is a mirror 
 in which we may see ourselves as God sees us, and 
 if we see ourselves as God sees us, we shall feel not 
 unlike Naw Thoo — as if we had seen the evil one 
 
124 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 himself. But when Naw Thoo learned that she 
 had really seen herself, and not the devil at all, 
 she wanted to wash up so that she might be like 
 Nah Wah. And if we look into our own hearts 
 and see ourselves as God sees us, we shall want 
 to be washed in the precious blood of Jesus which 
 cleanses from all sin." 
 
 The writer has related the story here as he has 
 often told it to Sunday School children in America, 
 and of course it contains some elements which are 
 not important to the subject in hand; but from 
 this description it may perhaps seem that it ought 
 to be the easiest thing in the world to improve the 
 conditions of these people, yet it is in reality no 
 light matter. On the plains, where the places of 
 abode are fairly accessible to modern workmen, 
 houses of timber are gradually being introduced, 
 but over a large part of the country bamboos fur- 
 nish the only material which is available for the 
 construction of houses. Indeed, Karens find bam- 
 boos useful in such a variety of ways that they 
 wonder how white people get on without them. 
 Bamboos grow everywhere. They are light and 
 exceedingly strong. Properly shored up with bam- 
 boo struts, a bamboo house up in the mountains 
 will stand the wildest kind of storm. It lasts only 
 two or three years, but from the hygienic stand- 
 point this is an advantage, since it gives the people 
 a new house to live in. 
 
 Any one would say at once that the eating of 
 
TEMPORAL BETTERMENT 125 
 
 rotten fish ought to be done away with; but even 
 that is not so simple a matter. Fish constitute 
 one of the chief products of the country. Burma 
 has two seasons only, a rainy and a dry. For six 
 months there is no rain, and the ground becomes 
 parched and dry. Then for six months there is 
 rain, and the rivers rise and flood their banks and 
 extend like great lakes on every side. The rainfall 
 varies from eighty or ninety inches to a hundred 
 and twenty inches in the vicinity of Rangoon, 
 and from two hundred to two hundred and fifty 
 inches in Maulmein, and there is an even 
 higher rainfall in other places. When the 
 writer is at Nyaunglebin, one of his stations, 
 during the dry season, he is six miles from 
 any running water, but during the rainy sea- 
 son, he can fish out of his window. For during 
 the rainy season the fish go up the streams and 
 cover all the land. This is probably the breeding 
 season for many varieties of fish; but there comes 
 a time when instinct tells them they must return 
 to the lower waters, and they begin to make their 
 way down stream. Then men put weirs across 
 the streams and catch them in great quantities. 
 Those which are detained in little lakes and shal- 
 lows, here and there, are caught by means of nets. 
 Thus at this season fish are very abundant. They 
 are dressed a little, and placed on platforms in the 
 sun where they are allowed to swell up to about 
 twice their original size. Then they are taken 
 
126 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 and put down in large earthen vats In layers, with 
 salt between the layers, making a sort of pickle, 
 and are allowed to remain for from three to six 
 months. At the end of that time, bones and fins 
 have become so dissolved that they are one Indis- 
 tinguishable mass; of course the odor Is reeking. 
 But In this condition the fish will keep for a con- 
 siderable period. It win spoil In time, although 
 how It becomes more spoiled than It already is, 
 according to western Ideas, It is hard to Imagine. 
 Undoubtedly some chemical change takes place 
 which renders it unfit for food. To western people, 
 the very thought of eating this preparation Is nau- 
 seatii^; but the Karens learn to eat It with relish, 
 and when anything is said about It, ask if white 
 people do not eat rank-smelling cheese. It is dif- 
 ficult to see how In that tropical climate this great 
 supply of fish could be made available for the 
 mass of the people the year around, unless it were 
 prepared in some such way. 
 
 Of course in the matter of cleanliness, better- 
 ment Is comparatively easy. Certainly clothes need 
 not be left unwashed until they rot off the back; 
 and yet when one considers the conditions in which 
 the people live, and must live, It is not difficult to 
 make allowance for a considerable degree of un- 
 cleanllness. During the dry season upon the plains, 
 the ground is baked hard, and when it Is beaten 
 up by the heavy cartwheels, it becomes a fine dust 
 which fills the air and sifts into the houses every- 
 
TEMPORAL BETTERMENT 127 
 
 where, for the heat of the climate makes it im- 
 possible to close the houses. They must have 
 ample openings for ventilation. During the rainy 
 season, on the other hand, whenever the people 
 step out of doors, they may have to go in mud 
 up to the ankle, and between the mud of the rainy 
 season and the dust of the dry, it is difficult to 
 keep nicely clean. Moreover, in the bamboo houses, 
 at all seasons of the year, there is a small insect, 
 much like the weavil, which gradually eats up the 
 fibre of the bamboo and scatters a fine dust through 
 all the house. 
 
 The chewing of betel nut is another matter in 
 which it is difficult to bring about a rapid change, 
 although it is one of the most disgusting of habits. 
 The betel nut itself is the fruit of a kind of palm, 
 of surpassing beauty. The fruit grows in clusters at 
 the top. The nut has an astringent or puckery 
 taste, and it Is said will tan leather; nevertheless, 
 if used alone, it would probably be innocent 
 enough. With it is combined the leaf of a vine 
 which the people cultivate. This leaf is about as 
 large as that of the beach and of similar shape, 
 but is thicker and has a slightly spicy taste. The 
 user of the betel nut takes one of these leaves on 
 the palm of his hand, smears moist lime over it, 
 on the lime places the betel nut which he has previ- 
 ously sliced up into small pieces, rolls the whole 
 up into a quid and chews it. The lime seems to be 
 required to make it palatable. The flow of saliva 
 
128 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 is profuse, and the custom Is even more filthy than 
 the chewing of tobacco. The expectoration is red 
 in color, and care is required to prevent Its over- 
 flowing from the mouth and discoloring the chin. 
 The teeth soon turn black, and ultimately drop out. 
 The writer once made a long tour into Northern 
 Siam to visit some Karen churches which were 
 gathered there many years ago. On the way he 
 passed through Chlengmai, one of the principal 
 stations of the American Presbyterian Mission, 
 and formed the acquaintance of a medical mission- 
 ary there. The doctor had been asked by a Siam- 
 ese prince to come and extract a tooth for him, 
 and was so kind as to Invite the writer to go along. 
 The two went together to the palace and were 
 ushered into the prince's presence. The prince 
 pointed out to the doctor the obstreperous tooth 
 which he wished to have drawn, and asked him If it 
 would hurt any. The doctor examined the tooth 
 and said he thought not. The prince, however, 
 was not satisfied, and, as there was a prince of 
 lower rank present, asked the doctor to extract a 
 tooth for that man first, with the understanding 
 that if it did not hurt him, he himself would sub- 
 mit to the operation. The doctor examined the 
 second prince's mouth until he found a tooth which 
 was about in the same condition as that of the 
 first prince, and drew it. The second prince's 
 face was still placid, showing no evidence of pain. 
 The first prince asked if it hurt any, and he said: 
 
TEMPORAL BETTERMENT 129 
 
 "No, it did not." 
 
 "Well, then," said the first prince, "I am ready 
 to have my tooth drawn." The doctor said after- 
 wards that the tooth was barely hanging by the 
 skin, that the lime with the betel nut which the 
 prince was accustomed to chew had undoubtedly 
 dissolved away the bony process which holds the 
 tooth in place, so there was nothing to which it 
 could cling. 
 
 Users of betel nut often suffer greatly from 
 various forms of dyspepsia, some of them being 
 most painful and distressing. But the habit is 
 almost universal and its hold is very strong, so that 
 it is difficult for those who once become addicted to 
 it to give it up. Old men who have lost their 
 teeth have little brass mortars with sharp-edged 
 pestles with which they manage to crunch up the 
 mass, then put it in their mouths and mumble it 
 with their gums. Some say that unless they have 
 their betel nut, their food does not taste good, and 
 probably it becomes in time almost indispensable, 
 as some people claim that they cannot get on with- 
 out their tobacco. There seems little doubt that 
 the prevalence of the habit is due in part to the 
 insipidity and sameness of most of the native food. 
 
 The living conditions of the common people in 
 Burma are not, then, so easy to be improved as 
 one* might think. The problem is a difficult one, 
 and a long time must intervene before a really 
 worth-while indigenous civilization can be devel- 
 
130 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 oped. But even though the outward forms of civ- 
 ilization may be wanting, Christianity undoubtedly 
 implants in the hearts of its followers the seeds 
 of a genuine culture which will ultimately find ways 
 of expression. As has already been pointed out, 
 when a Karen is converted, he wants first of all 
 to get an education, and then he wants to improve 
 his physical surroundings. Reference has been 
 made to the zeal and devotion of many of the early 
 pastors and their sagacity in seizing the opportu- 
 nities which opened out before them upon the 
 British occupation of the country. Some of these 
 men took up extensive tracts of land, rallied their 
 people about them, and had them bring the land 
 under cultivation, thus establishing many flourish- 
 ing settlements in place of the shifting abodes to 
 which the Karens had formerly been accustomed. 
 Some of them dug extensive systems of irrigating 
 ditches, for the cultivation of special crops on land 
 which was unsuitable for other purposes, and thus 
 laid the basis for later prosperity, enriching not 
 only themselves but also their people. One still 
 marvels at what was accomplished by many of 
 these men. Karens have told the writer that when 
 his father first went among them, few owned so 
 much as a buffalo, and when they needed a cart, 
 the householders in a whole village would have 
 to club together to buy one. Now herds of buf- 
 faloes are seen grazing about their villages, there 
 is a cart under every house, and a few of the 
 
TEMPORAL BETTERMENT 131 
 
 people have Incomes which would enable even a 
 white man to live in comfort — all very largely the 
 result of native foresight and initiative. 
 
 In some parts Karens live in a kind of commu- 
 nity house, but when they become Christians, they 
 want, for the sake of privacy, to live in separate 
 houses. Christian villages are cleaner than heathen 
 villages; on this account they often escape epi- 
 demics of cholera and other diseases to which their 
 heathen neighbors are subject. More and more 
 the disciples are coming to feel that the chewing 
 of betel nut is not befitting to them as Christians, 
 and are not only discarding its use but ceasing its 
 cultivation, although some of them have their liv- 
 ing by it, and, hke the raising of tobacco in Amer- 
 ica, it brings them a larger return than would any- 
 thing else. Improved styles of clothing are being 
 adopted, dwelling houses made more attractive; 
 and a greater variety in food, as well as a more 
 wholesome diet, is being sought. 
 
 Meanwhile progress has been made in other 
 directions. Karens have risen to positions of dis- 
 tinction and honor; some are forest officers, in- 
 spectors of schools, commanders of military police 
 and judges of courts. A few have become bar- 
 risters, some doctors, while many are teachers. A 
 Karen has recently been appointed a member of the 
 Lieutenant Governor's council, the highest honor 
 within the power of the local government to confer 
 on a native of the country. Some of them read 
 
132 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 Shakespeare understandingly. One has translated 
 The Merchant of Venice into the Karen language. 
 Many are fine singers. At the world^s Y. P. S. C. E. 
 Convention in Agra, the Karen choir commanded 
 universal praise. In fact the Christian Karens in 
 general have developed a remarkable gift of song. 
 The native music is by no means so pretentious as 
 is that of the Burmans. The latter with their 
 trills and runs, might almost rival the operatic 
 singer of the west, but their voices are utterly lack- 
 ing in musical quality. The tone is a shriek or a 
 yell, formed in an entirely different manner from 
 our singing tone. The native singing of the Karens, 
 on the other hand, ordinarily covers a range of only 
 a few notes but, while the quality is not very good, 
 at least it is not raucous. A few native airs are 
 still sung by the Christians, suitable hymns having 
 been composed to go with them. They are weird 
 and of pleasing melody. For the rest, the Chris- 
 tian Karens, unlike the Indian Christians who have 
 largely retained their own airs, have adopted west- 
 ern tunes. In the average congregation, even in 
 far-off jungle villages, every one will be singing; 
 and the Karen Christian may not have a bible, but 
 he is almost sure to have a hymn book. This won- 
 drous gift of song goes far to compensate for other 
 deficiencies, especially when it is remembered that 
 among these people is to be found an ever increas- 
 ing number of those who are fine and companion- 
 able in every way, fitted to grace any circle. 
 
KI 
 
 THE CONSERVATION OF THE KAREN 
 RACE AS A BY-PRODUCT 
 
 PROBABLY most missionaries to the Karens 
 have supposed that they were a decadent 
 race, or at least that they were losing their 
 language and their distinguishing racial character- 
 istics. It was feared that they were rapidly be- 
 coming Burmanized. Many of them speak the 
 Burmese language as fluently as their own, and 
 there are some who use nothing else, having quite 
 forgotten their mother tongue. This tendency has 
 seemed so strong that many have expected the Ka- 
 ren language to disappear entirely in the course of 
 a few generations, if not within a few decades. But 
 on consulting the last government census report of 
 Burma the writer was greatly surprised to learn 
 that these fears are groundless. The figures given 
 In the census prove that, so far from being a deca- 
 dent race, the Karens are showing signs of marked 
 virility. Not so very long since, they stood fourth 
 among the races of Burma in numerical impor- 
 tance, not only the Burmese, but also the Takings 
 and Shans taking precedence over them. Now, on 
 the other hand, they stand second, the Takings 
 
 133 
 
134 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 and Shans having been outdistanced. During the 
 ten year period covered by the census, while the 
 population of the province as a whole Increased 
 from 10,490,624 to 12,115,217, or fifteen per 
 cent, and the Burmese population from 7,437,363 
 to 8,317,842 or about twelve per cent, the number 
 of persons actually speaking the different dialects 
 of the Karen language rose from 881,290 to 
 1,067,363, an advance of over twenty-one per cent 
 Part of this increase has been due to the Inclusion 
 of dialects or tribes which were not formerly com- 
 prised in the census area. But a reference to the 
 statistics of the Sgaw and Pwo Karen tribes alone, 
 which were not affected by changes in the census, 
 indicates that they show practically the same rate 
 of increase, the number of those actually speaking 
 these dialects having risen during the period named 
 from 704,835 to 850,756. 
 
 But of peculiar interest is the comment of the 
 Superintendent of the Census, Mr. C. Morgan 
 Webb. Referring to the Karens as a whole, he 
 says: 
 
 "In the midst of communities who have readily 
 amalgamated with whatever tribes and races hap- 
 pened to be in their immediate vicinity, the Karens 
 alone have remained isolated and self-contained. 
 The ready reception they have given to the teach- 
 ings of Christianity has tended to strengthen their 
 individuality as a racial group, and to widen the 
 differences existing between them and the remain- 
 
A BY-PRODUCT 135 
 
 \, 
 
 ing Indigenous races of the province. While the 
 Takings, at one time supreme over the whole del- 
 taic portion of Burma, are being absorbed by the 
 Burmese, there is no suggestion that any such 
 absorption, or even that any amalgamation between 
 the Burmese and the Karen races is within the 
 range of possibility." 
 
 Here, then, is presented the phenomenon of a 
 race which a hundred years ago, under the heel of 
 oppression, was probably no more than holding its 
 own, if indeed it was not in danger of actual ex- 
 tinction, now steadily advancing in numbers until 
 It has outdistanced all the other races of Burma 
 except the Burmese themselves. And this increase 
 is ascribed by so impartial an observer as the sup- 
 erintendent of the census to the Influence of Chris- 
 tianity. The case is even stronger than Mr. Webb 
 puts It. For In another place, writing of the 
 Sgaws and Pwos, the two leading Karen tribes, he 
 says: 
 
 "There Is a tendency for the Pwo dialect to 
 give place to the Sgaw, but the figures recorded 
 do not enable the strength of this tendency to be 
 measured." One might perhaps infer from this 
 language that the Sgaw Is supplanting the Pwo in 
 the sense that those formerly speaking Pwo are 
 now speaking Sgaw. But such Is not the fact. 
 Those who are familiar with the situation know 
 full well that the Pwos are not becoming Sgaws; 
 they are rather being Burmanlzed, and so lost to 
 
136 A STAR m THE EAST 
 
 the Karen race altogether. The tendency for the 
 Pwos to give place to the Sgaws must therefore 
 mean an absolute increase on the part of the Sgaws 
 over and above the rate of increase of the Karens 
 as a whole. This is the more significant because it 
 is among the Sgaws that Christian missions have 
 been chiefly successful. 
 
 For a full appreciation of these statements the 
 racial conditions existing in Burma need to be 
 borne in mind. Burma is situated near the head 
 of those spurs and lesser ranges which, beginning 
 in the eastern part of the Himalayas, extend fan- 
 like, in a south-easterly direction, to the borders 
 of the continent of Asia at Singapore and other 
 points, and crop up beyond in the partly submerged 
 mountain-islands of the Andamans and the East 
 Indian Archipelago. Three of these ranges, the 
 Eastern, Middle and Western Yomas, pass through 
 Burma itself. In the northern part of the coun- 
 try, other ranges cross and intersect in such a way 
 as to divide the face of the land into numerous 
 little valleys. There have been several invasions 
 of Burma by immigrants from China on the north, 
 but these have not been, like the early migrations 
 of barbarian hordes into Europe, when the on- 
 coming hosts surged in like a great flood. The 
 mountain barriers have prevented that. Rather 
 these invasions have been like a mere spill, the 
 dashing of spray, a trickle over the passes of the 
 mountains, at numerous periods and at various in- 
 
A BY-PRODUCT 137 
 
 tervals. Many of these waters lodged in little val- 
 leys here and there, and formed so many separate 
 communities, sometimes only half a dozen small 
 villages constituting a tribe with its own peculiar 
 dialect. It is only those tribes which in some way 
 push on, or are thrust on, to the more open coun- 
 try to the south that can ever become numerically 
 important. No fewer than sixty-five indigenous 
 languages and dialects are named in the govern- 
 ment census, and the list is by no means exhaustive. 
 In olden times, these races and tribes were com- 
 paratively stable, but recently, with a strong gov- 
 ernment over the whole country, improved com- 
 munications and increased trade, nearly all of them 
 are in a state of flux. The tendency is for the 
 smaller tribes to be swallowed up in the larger. 
 The census indicates that of the sixty-five languages 
 and dialects listed, no fewer than seventeen showed 
 a decrease in number, three of these actually be- 
 coming extinct. Of the rest, fifteen have increased 
 chiefly because they have only recently been 
 brought into the area covered by the census opera- 
 tions, and eight are so small as to be negligible. 
 A few on the outskirts of the country are being 
 strengthened by immigration from China. There 
 are also the natives of India who come by sea and 
 are for the most part mere transients, earning a 
 small competency and returning to their own coun- 
 try. The Karens alone, although living alongside 
 of the Burmans in the deltaic portions of the coun- 
 
138 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 try, where it would seem that they ought most cer- 
 tainly to become amalgamated with the latter, are 
 successfully resisting that tendency and maintaining 
 their independent, separate, racial existence. 
 
 Is Mr. Webb correct in ascribing this rather re- 
 markable phenomenon to the ready reception which 
 the Karens have given to the teachings of Chris- 
 tianity, and, if so, in what way has it been brought 
 about? To the former question it may be an- 
 swered, yes, and no. It should be observed that 
 Mr. Webb does not have in mind the increase of 
 the Karens in numbers. That is undoubtedly due 
 to the protection accorded to them by the British 
 government. Formerly, under the Burmese king, 
 as has been noted, they were subjected to all man- 
 ner of abuse and oppression. But with the advent 
 of the British all this was changed at once. Since 
 then, the Karens have been protected in their pur- 
 suits, have enjoyed perfect liberty to go and come 
 at their pleasure without fear of others, and have 
 experienced such prosperity and ease as they had 
 never known before. To these benign influences 
 the growth of the Karen race in numbers is un- 
 doubtedly due. But the Takings and the Shans 
 and the many other races of Burma have had pre- 
 cisely the same protection as the Karens ; they have 
 been under the same laws, and enjoyed the same 
 immunities. There is no reason to suppose that 
 they, as compared with the latter, are lacking in 
 physical stamina. Why, then, do they all tend to 
 
A BY-PRODUCT 139 
 
 amalgamate, to flow together, while the Karens 
 alone are maintaining their racial independence? 
 It is this which Mr. Webb ascribes to the influence 
 of the missionaries, and he is undoubtedly right, 
 if, with this influence, be included all that made it 
 possible. 
 
 Just here the question may very naturally be 
 asked whether this persistent differentiation of the 
 Karen race is desirable. Would it not be better 
 for them to amalgamate with the Burmans and lose 
 their identity? Why maintain separate language 
 and customs? To answer such questions as these 
 is aside from the purpose of the writer here, never- 
 theless, it may be pointed out that any race which 
 has the virility to assert itself and maintain its in- 
 tegrity in the face of disintegrating influences such 
 as surround the Karens, may be supposed, in the 
 very nature of the case, to be a worth-while race. 
 The presumption is strongly in their favor at the 
 outset. As to the Karens in particular, if some- 
 thing aside from brute force is of value in the 
 world, if virtue, idealism and integrity are real 
 assets and not mere liabilities, it would seem that 
 the conservation of the Karen race, with its lan- 
 guage and customs, is not a mistake, but is some- 
 thing to be desired; for with its language and cus- 
 toms would undoubtedly go its comparatively high 
 moral standards and everything else that makes it 
 unique among the peoples of the East. 
 
 What, then, have the missionaries done to bring 
 
140 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 about this result? And what forces have coop- 
 erated with them to make it possible ? It should be 
 conceded to start with that, however great the zeal 
 and faithfulness of the missionaries, their efforts 
 would, so far as one can judge, have met with com- 
 paratively meager success had it not been for the 
 remarkable preparedness on the part of the Karens 
 themselves for the reception of Christianity. Be- 
 yond this, the work of the missionaries has been 
 largely confined to the gathering and training of a 
 Christian community. Little outside of that has 
 been possible. The heathen population, measure- 
 ably accessible though they have been to the gospel, 
 have not been open to what is known as social serv- 
 ice, for instance. Whatever influence has been 
 exercised upon the race as a whole, along these 
 lines, has been achieved through the medium of 
 the Christian community and on the side of the 
 religious approach alone. It is commonly said 
 that Peter Parker opened China at the point of 
 the lancet, but, whatever may have been true of 
 other races, the lancet does not open the way for 
 the acceptance of Christianity among the Karens 
 today, and never has. The process is, in fact, quite 
 the reverse — the Christian religion sometimes 
 opens the way for the lancet, the preacher has in- 
 troduced the doctor, and only after the doctor has 
 been recognized as a man of God have his medi- 
 cines been accepted. 
 
 A Karen vaccinator, holding a government li- 
 
A BY-PRODUCT 141 
 
 cense, went to a heathen Karen village to vaccinate 
 the people against an epidemic of small-pox which 
 was raging In the vicinity. But the villagers re- 
 fused to receive him until a preacher had vouched 
 for him, because, they said, they were afraid he 
 would innoculate them with the real disease, in 
 the manner of some Burmese practitioners. After 
 the preacher had assured them of the man's entire 
 trustworthiness, they consented to be vaccinated. 
 Not a few government doctors of genuine zeal and 
 devotion to their tasks mourn that they have so 
 little access to the Karen people — and yet no such 
 obstacle stands in the way as that of caste in India. 
 The reason they are not able to reach the people 
 more effectively is that they lack the religious ap- 
 proach. 
 
 Even if the heathen had been open to the social 
 approach, it is not certain that the missionaries 
 could have done much for them. When they be- 
 gan their work among the Karens, they were as 
 enthusiastic as could be desired for giving them the 
 benefits of western civilization as well as of western 
 religion. Occidentals, especially perhaps those of 
 Anglo-Saxon extraction, are so obsessed with the 
 absolute superiority of their civilization, that they 
 are likely to think the peoples of the East ought 
 to accept it as a matter of course. Such is the 
 benignity of their attitude towards these less fa- 
 vored peoples that, if they do not adopt at once 
 5vhat is offered, there is a disposition to force it 
 
142 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 upon them wiUy-nlUy, and any resistance on their 
 part is prone to be ascribed to their intense con- 
 servatism, the reflection never orjce arising that the 
 trouble may lie exclusively in the unsuitability of 
 western methods to oriental conditions and sur- 
 roundings. 
 
 The writer was once talking with a prominent 
 government official when he told of an experience 
 he had had while holding a subordinate office. He 
 got out an American reaping machine and an- 
 nounced that on such a day he would reap the field 
 of a certain village headman. At the appointed 
 time, people came from miles around to witness 
 the unusual event. The machine was turned into 
 the field, and men, women and children gazed in 
 open-eyed astonishment as it reaped in a few hours 
 what it would have taken them days to harvest with 
 their little hand sickles. When that field was 
 reaped, the young officer turned to another head- 
 man and proposed to reap his field. 
 
 "Oh, no,'* said the man, ''I do not want you to 
 reap my field." This incident was related as an 
 evidence of hopeless conservatism on the part of 
 the second headman, and by inference of the people 
 of Burma in general ; but in reality it proves noth- 
 ing of the kind. It only showed the inadaptability 
 of western methods to eastern conditions. There 
 rice fields are divided up by means of little earthen 
 ridges a foot or two in height into plots averaging 
 not more than half an acre in extent. The writer 
 
A BY-PRODUCT 143 
 
 is not quite sure of the reason of this, but his un- 
 derstanding is that, if the plots were made larger, 
 the wind would set up currents in them which would 
 interfere with the best growth of the plants. By 
 harvest time, the water has, of course, disappeared, 
 but turn an American reaper into one of these little 
 plots, and more grain would be trodden down than 
 reaped. The old-fashioned cradle might be useful, 
 if made small enough; the natives are so slight of 
 stature that they could hardly swing full-sized 
 cradles. But really there, where labor is so cheap, 
 it is difficult to find methods of agriculture which 
 are an improvement on their own, and the Amer- 
 ican reaper is as little suited for their needs as the 
 leg of an elephant to the body of a cat. 
 
 The oriental is really no more conservative than 
 the occidental. The marvellous changes which 
 have been voluntarily adopted in China and Japan 
 in recent years, really, though perhaps not con- 
 fessedly, as a result of Christian missions, is con- 
 vincing evidence. But the westerner, when trying 
 to instruct the inhabitant of the East, is quite as 
 likely to make himself ridiculous as helpful. The 
 missionaries tried introducing American plows. 
 The Karens are agriculturists and it seemed that 
 it ought to be easy enough to find a plow that 
 would be an improvement on the native implement, 
 which is simply a forked stick with an iron shoe 
 on the end of it. But various plows were tried and 
 speedily discarded; not one of them proved to be 
 
144 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 really practical. American plows are too heavy 
 for the small native cattle to draw, and in any case 
 a draft of only three or four inches is required, as 
 the rice sprouts cannot stand up well in deeply 
 plowed soil. 
 
 Now the time has probably come when the 
 missionary, if set free from other work and given 
 financial backing, which would enable him to do 
 it, might accomplish something along the line of 
 agricultural experimentation which would be really 
 constructive. After three-quarters of a century of 
 intimate contact with the people, he has learned 
 humihty and realizes that he would have to begin 
 from the standpoint of eastern conditions, not of 
 western. Problems in plenty present themselves. 
 Many of the Karens, who were originally a hill 
 tribe, came down to the plains when the country 
 was first opened up by the British, and took up 
 land which has since become valuable. With re- 
 peated cultivation of the same crop, however, these 
 lands are losing their fertility, while the hills, which 
 are capable of supporting a vast population and are 
 still the natural habitat of the Karens — a region 
 where their sturdy physiques have their best de- 
 velopment — remain for the most part uncultivated. 
 The whole great task would not be an easy one. 
 Probably not less than five years of sympathetic 
 study on the spot by a trained expert would be 
 required before even a beginning could be made. 
 The government is already trying to do something; 
 
A BY-PRODUCT 145 
 
 it has a Director of Agriculture, with two or three 
 assistants who have been trained in English or Can- 
 adian schools. But government cannot get into 
 intimate touch with the Karens — missionaries are 
 specialists at that, and recognized as such. There 
 is good reason to believe, however, that in time 
 the problems mentioned would be solved. This 
 might mean much for the betterment and pros- 
 perity of the entire Karen race. But, to tell the 
 truth, up to the present, the missionaries have been 
 able to do little along these lines even for the Chris- 
 tian community, let alone the great body of 
 heathens. 
 
 Nor is it by any means sure that, even if the 
 missionaries had all along been in a position to 
 render aid to the heathen community, and they had 
 been open to approach, they would have profited 
 by it. Not that which is from without, but that 
 which is from within, defiles the man ; and equally 
 true is it that, not that which is imposed from with- 
 out, but that which is implanted within, benefits 
 the man. There is not the slightest doubt that the 
 Christian converts would seize with avidity any 
 suggestions which they found really practicable. 
 They have the new spirit which would prompt 
 them to it. Many of them are constantly on the 
 lookout for anything which may prove a benefit to 
 their people. But as to the heathen, the case is 
 different. The writer and his father before him 
 have both been asked many times by heathen to 
 
146 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 do them some favor. No one was ever refused. 
 At various times substantial benefits have been se- 
 cured, grants of land, reduced taxation, exemption 
 from onerous impressment, and so forth. The 
 missionaries have always been glad to help, but, 
 so far as is known, none of the recipients of their 
 kindnesses has ever been really profited. Not only 
 have they not been more forward to accept the 
 Christian religion, but theyhave gotten no real good 
 from what was done for them. They simply had 
 more money to spend for drink, or more leisure 
 for carousing, or something of the sort. It was 
 not in them to turn the favors received to good 
 account, but only to evil. 
 
 The temporal progress mentioned in a previous 
 chapter has been confined almost exclusively to the 
 Christian community. So far as the writer knows, 
 not one heathen Karen has ever risen to even a 
 moderate degree of distinction. Some have ac- 
 quired wealth in one way or another, but not one 
 has attained to even a subordinate position of 
 honor or trust in the service of the government or 
 anywhere else. The government has been thor- 
 oughly cordial and would gladly recognize ability 
 wherever found. Other positions are also open. 
 But the heathen Karen simply does not possess the 
 power. He is intellectually as good as dead. 
 
 What then is the present situation ? The num- 
 ber of Karen Christians, as recorded in the census, 
 is 130,271 less than twelve per cent, of the entire 
 
A BY-PRODUCT 147 
 
 Karen population. Of course this Includes not 
 simply actual members of churches, but the entire 
 Christian constituency, men, women and children, 
 those who are Christians by conviction and life, and 
 those, not very numerous to be sure, who are reg- 
 istered as Christians because they do not care to 
 subscribe themselves as belonging to any other 
 faith. This small community has made remark- 
 able progress along all lines. The same would un- 
 doubtedly have been true of the entire Karen na- 
 tion had it all been christianized, as at one time 
 seemed probable. It develops that, although this 
 did not take place, the entire race has nevertheless 
 been remarkably conserved. If again the question 
 be raised, *'How has this result been brought 
 about?" the answer is confessedly difficult. The 
 missionaries seem to have had, and in the nature 
 of the case could have had, little to do with it. 
 Their efforts were of necessity confined to the gath- 
 ering and building up of the Christian community. 
 Whatever else was accomplished was brought 
 about purely and simply by Indirection, and its 
 process is obscure. Was It that the Karens, even 
 though they did not become Christians, could not 
 forget their early traditions? Was it that In the 
 Christian appeal they felt the pull of their old time 
 faith ? Even though they may not have heeded it, 
 have they heard the Inner call to return to their 
 God, and has this been a bond to hold them as a 
 race from dissolution? In other words, has the 
 
148 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 power of God manifested Itself directly upon the 
 hearts of these people, rallying them about the 
 ancient Ideals which, though crude, were neverthe- 
 less In the main true to him? 
 
 Doubtless among all peoples wherever a spirit- 
 ual evangel has been preached. It has brought tem- 
 poral blessing, the * 'healing of the nations." In 
 some instances this may have arisen as the result 
 of direct effort, the answer of Christian sympathy 
 to human need, but in the case of the Karens, it 
 has been achieved, so far as can be judged, on the 
 ground of the religious appeal alone. The call of 
 God, whether heeded or unheeded, has been as life 
 from the dead. It has awakened an entire race 
 with the thrill of consciousness. Even though still 
 partially enswathed in the cerements of death, it 
 has heard the word of power and Is coming forth 
 to take Its rightful place In the world arena. What 
 position it may ultimately occupy, no one can tell. 
 Probably It will never be numerically so important 
 as the dominant races of India or of China, per- 
 haps not even so Important as the Burmese. But 
 its moral significance is likely to outweigh by far 
 its greatness In numbers. Meanwhile it Is an 
 earnest of the blessed work which God Intends to 
 carry on among all races through the gospel of 
 his Son. 
 
XII 
 
 IS THERE STILL NEED FOR 
 MISSIONARIES? 
 
 THE writer stood one day on the banks of 
 the Salween River which, for a distance of 
 about seventy-five miles, forms the bound- 
 ary between Burma on the west and Siam on the 
 east. At the point where he stood, the river is 
 only a few hundred yards wide, although it broad- 
 ens out some miles below into a majestic stream. 
 The channel, which is a rocky gorge, is very deep, 
 how deep he has no means of knowing. Local 
 tradition has it that it is so deep that, if there were 
 no water in it, the traveller on foot would require 
 a whole day to thread his way down one side and 
 up the other. This is doubtless an exaggeration, 
 but beyond question the depth is really very great. 
 The current is terrific, reminding one of the Niag- 
 ara in the gorge below the falls. It is perhaps like 
 what Niagara would be if its channel were deeper, 
 for in the Salween there is no furious dashing of 
 waves on the surface as in the other river, but a 
 writhing and seething and twisting and turning 
 quite as suggestive of power. The missionary had 
 with him seven ponies, for he was on a tour into 
 
 149 
 
150 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 Northern Slam. A whole month would be re- 
 quired for the journey each way. Usually he had 
 but five ponies, two for riding and three for pack- 
 ing, but on this occasion another missionary was 
 going with him, and so he had two more. The 
 problem was to get the ponies across the river. By 
 the bank was a native boat, a dug-out of rather 
 unusual size, hewn out of a single log. It was 
 thirty-five or forty feet in length and about three 
 feet and a half wide. The seven ponies were led 
 into the stream alongside the boat. They were 
 native ponies, the tallest only about twelve hands 
 high, so small that when the missionary stood be- 
 side it with elbow at his side and his forearm 
 stretched out horizontally, his hand rested on the 
 top of the animal's shoulder, and when he rode, 
 his feet came within a few inches of the ground. 
 Yet it was sturdy and willing, and would carry his 
 hundred and ninety pounds up and down the 
 roughest roads, paths which no self-respecting 
 American horse would travel alone, to say nothing 
 of carrying a weight on its back. 
 
 When the ponies had all been led into the water 
 on the side of the boat downstream, the mission- 
 ary took his place in about the center of the boat 
 lengthwise, holding his two largest ponies by their 
 bridles; ahead of him were men with two more of 
 his ponies, and back of him were men with the 
 other three. Then a strange thing happened. The 
 boatman, a large stockily built man who had a 
 
THE NEED FOR MISSIONARIES 151 
 
 reputation all over Burma for his skill, stood on 
 the stem as firmly as a tree growing on a rock, 
 grasped the end of a large, long paddle in his 
 right hand, — the paddle must have been from eight 
 to ten feet in length, with a blade about fifteen 
 inches wide — wrapped his right foot around it 
 down near the blade; and struck off from shore, 
 rowing and steering that great boat, with its drag- 
 ging freight, alone, with a single motion of the 
 paddle. No sooner did the ponies find their feet 
 off the ground than they became frantic. They 
 were so swept with the current hither and thither 
 that they knew not what to make of it. Some- 
 times they struck off away from the boat, some- 
 times in towards the boat as if they would climb 
 in, sometimes forward, sometimes backward, until 
 the craft became quite unmanageable. Meanwhile 
 the ponies with the boat and its occupants were 
 being borne down the river. For half a mile or 
 more they were carried until they reached an enor- 
 mous eddy which flung its whirling currents al- 
 most from bank to bank. The missionary thought 
 that they would all surely be swept back to shore 
 again, but by that time the ponies had become so 
 utterly fatigued with their efforts, that they could 
 struggle no longer. The biggest one, the favorite 
 riding pony, lay over on its side with its stomach 
 In the air quite ready to give up the ghost. Its 
 master had to hold its head above water by main 
 force, else it would have been drowned, then and 
 
152 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 there. When the ponies ceased struggling, how- 
 ever, the boat became manageable again, the boat- 
 man turned the prow toward the further shore, 
 pushed forward with his mighty paddle, and soon 
 the ponies felt their feet on solid ground again, 
 clambered up the bank, and in a short time were 
 ready for the continuation of the journey. 
 
 The incident is mentioned here not because of 
 its exciting nature, although the adventure was suf- 
 ficiently thrilling at the time, — for the other mis- 
 sionary who watched from the shore thought that 
 they would all be drowned, — ^but because it gives 
 a picture of conditions as they exist even today 
 on the mission field of Burma. There were the 
 ponies struggling frantically in the water, their 
 friend in the boat trying to encourage them as well 
 as he could with his famlhar voice, and the boat- 
 man at the stern, ready, active, resourceful. There 
 are the native Christians in the stress of conditions 
 which are at best truly disheartening, there is the 
 missionary doing what he can to encourage and di- 
 rect them, and ever at the helm, guiding all, is 
 the Master. 
 
 No one can conceive the stress and turmoil of 
 the conditions with which the native Christians 
 have constantly to contend. To live from child- 
 hood up in a land in which cholera Is endemic and 
 one can never tell when it may spring up is, of itself, 
 sufficiently terrifying. A horrible disease It is, shud- 
 deringly rapid in its action ; for in that country one 
 
THE NEED FOR MISSIONARIES 153 
 
 may get up in the morning feeling perfectly well, 
 and be in his grave at night. Take a sponge full of 
 water and squeeze it until there is not a drop 
 left — that is cholera. It turns all the fluids of 
 the system into water and drains them off, so that 
 soon the eyes become sunken, the fingers and toes 
 shriveled up because there is nothing to fill out the 
 skin, the wrist pulseless because there is so little 
 blood to pulsate, — perhaps a slight pulse under the 
 armpit, — ^that is all. 
 
 The writer has seen only a few cases of this 
 dread disease. The first was that of a pupil in 
 the station school, about fourteen years of age. 
 He was taken ill one morning, but the missionary 
 did not learn of it until noon. By that time he 
 looked more like a corpse than a living person. 
 The missionary had him segregated from the other 
 pupils, and with the aid of the teachers and older 
 school boys took care of him. Soon he noticed that 
 they were grasping the patient's legs with all their 
 might. He asked why they did so, and was told 
 that he was having cramps, and, if they did not 
 hold the muscles in place, those from the back 
 would whip around to the front. Such excruciat- 
 ing pains as the little fellow suffered it is impossi- 
 ble to describe. He survived until the next morn- 
 ing. While preparations were being made for 
 burying him, which was done at once, another 
 child was noticed to be acting strangely, and was 
 asked what ailed him. He said that he did not 
 
154 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 feel well, and at two o* clock that day he was dead. 
 When a case breaks out among the Karens, it 
 is customary for them to leave a goblet of water 
 by the side of the patient, who always suffers from 
 a racking thirst, and make for the jungle, taking 
 with them a few handfuls of rice or whatever else 
 is conveniently to hand. Or, if it is a Christian 
 village, a person will be left to care for the sick 
 one, but that usually means that, when the villag- 
 ers return, three or four days later, there are two 
 bodies to bury instead of one. For quickly and 
 mysteriously as the disease appears, it subsides as 
 quickly if it finds no human victims. Among the 
 Burmese, on the other hand, with their fatalistic 
 ideas, it is customary for the people to remain in 
 their homes, and great numbers may be swept off 
 in a few days. Until recent years the reports of 
 the British army posts, where the best of phy- 
 sicians are employed, showed only two or three 
 per cent of recoveries from cholera. Now, im- 
 proved methods of treatment, — among them being 
 the introduction into the system of normal salt so- 
 lution to take the place of the blood which has 
 been drained off, — may have raised the percent- 
 age somewhat, but of course the natives know 
 nothing of these methods. To live from childhood 
 up in such a country, constantly surrounded by a 
 menace of this kind, is like having a continuous 
 nightmare. 
 
 There are other diseases. The dreaded small- 
 
THE NEED FOR MISSIONARIES 155 
 
 pox frequently breaks out. People in that coun- 
 try do not use the precautions familiar with us to 
 prevent the spread of the malady. Some of the 
 more enlightened are beginning to resort to vac- 
 cination, but the approved native way Is to inocu- 
 late with the real disease. Measles is almost as 
 much dreaded as small pox, as it frequently as- 
 sumes a virulent form. In travelling through the 
 jungles it is not uncommon at the approach to a 
 Karen village to see hung overhead across the 
 pathway a rope from which are suspended fetters 
 of elephants, neck-gongs of the domestic buffalo, 
 yoke-bows of oxen, clubs and cudgels, as a warn- 
 ing to bring no infectious disease into the village 
 on pain of punishment and fines. 
 
 But the worst scourge of all, perhaps, although 
 not so spectacular as some, is the malaria. This 
 is almost universal. It Is subtle in its action, but 
 its effects are often very serious. Young people 
 sixteen to eighteen years of age, who ought to be 
 in the enjoyment of exuberant youth, will fre- 
 quently come to the missionary and say, 
 
 **0h. Teacher, I wish I could die ; I am so mis- 
 erable." And as he looks upon their sallow faces, 
 their sunken, almost expressionless eyes, their soft, 
 flabby muscles, he does not wonder at it. Some- 
 times babies have malaria so badly that before 
 they are six months old their spleens become en- 
 larged, and it is quite common to meet a man 
 whose spleen fills half the abdominal cavity. Most 
 
156 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 people in America do not know where the spleen 
 is but every Karen knows. 
 
 Mad dogs are another source of terror. Six 
 were killed on the writer^s compound in one sea- 
 son — for there are mad dog seasons in Burma, as 
 there are strawberry seasons in America, and they 
 come at about the same time. The Burmese will 
 never kill a mad dog since they think it is a sin 
 to take animal life. The consequence is that the 
 pests roam at large biting people and other dogs, 
 and spreading the virus of their dreadful disease. 
 There is a Pasteur institute in Rangoon to which 
 one may go for treatment, but few of the natives 
 know of it or understand its value. For the most 
 part they content themselves with their own rem- 
 edies. The native doctors profess to have meth- 
 ods of treatment which first develop in the patient 
 all the symptoms of hydrophobia and then cure 
 him of them. They are, of course, of more than 
 doubtful value, but enough people who have been 
 bitten by mad dogs recover anyway to lend plausi- 
 bility to the claim. 
 
 Venomous serpents abound. There is the cobra 
 or hooded serpent, whose bite is almost invariably 
 fatal. The members of this family of reptiles vary 
 in size from a small yellow variety less than a foot 
 long with a bronze colored head of metallic luster 
 to the hamadryad twelve feet long. This last is 
 as fleet as a horse, and will chase a man. An in- 
 stance is recorded of a Burman who was being pur- 
 
THE NEED FOR MISSIONARIES 157 
 
 sued by one of these monsters. He came to a 
 stream of water, and in jumping across it his red 
 turban fell off. The serpent's attention was at- 
 tracted by that, it attacked it viciously, and the 
 man escaped. The Russell's viper is worse than 
 the cobra. It is a short, thick reptile, only about a 
 foot and a half long, but as large around as the 
 wrist of a man. It likes to lie in the dust of the 
 roadway. Step over it, and nothing happens; but 
 the slightest touch, and its stroke is as quick as 
 lightning and more deadly than that of the cobra. 
 A beautiful young Karen woman, belonging to one 
 of the choicest families in the Shwegyin mission, 
 went down out of her house one night, barefooted 
 according to the custom of her people, and returned 
 saying that she had stepped on a thorn. Soon seri- 
 ous symptoms developed, and in a few hours she 
 was dead. It is supposed that she had stepped on 
 the fang of a dead viper which had been killed 
 there some months before. The body of the snake 
 had decayed away, but the poison sack remained 
 and that was still able to inject the poison into the 
 wound made by the fang. A kind of water snake 
 is described whose bite is said to be even more 
 venomous than that of the viper. Some one will 
 go to the spring to draw water, be bitten by this 
 serpent, and not be able to get back to the house, 
 but drop dead almost instantly. 
 
 The python is another denizen of the forest 
 which is greatly to be feared. It is not venomous 
 
158 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 like the serpents just mentioned, although the Ka- 
 rens have a tradition to the effect that in the be- 
 ginning it was the only creature whose bite was 
 venomous, and its poison was so powerful that, if 
 it bit even the footprint of a man, the man would 
 shortly die. But it had seen no evidence of its 
 power; so it inquired of the birds if they knew 
 anything about it. The paddy bird and the owl 
 and the great horned toucan said they knew noth- 
 ing, but the crow said that it had seen a man whose 
 track the python had bitten, and it had followed 
 him, but it judged that, so far from having an 
 injurious effect on the man, it must have produced 
 a very joyous result, for it had seen a great con- 
 course of people who were engaged in dancing and 
 singing. The fact was that the man had died, and 
 what the crow witnessed was a Karen funeral, but 
 it mistook it for a festal occasion. When the 
 python heard the crow's report, it climbed up into 
 a tree and in sheer disgust spewed out all its venom 
 on the ground. Then the cobras and the vipers 
 and the tigers and the toads came and Hcked it up. 
 The stinging spine fish had only time to dip its 
 spines in. The consequence is that all these crea- 
 tures are venomous to this day, but the python is 
 free from venom. It is, nevertheless, a much 
 dreaded foe of man. It may hang suspended from 
 the branch of a tree, seize the unwary traveller, 
 wrap itself around him, and squeeze him to death 
 before assistance can come. Tigers, leopards, 
 
THE NEED FOR MISSIONARIES 159 
 
 bears and other wild animals also roam the jungle 
 to the terror of the native peoples. 
 
 From some of the worst of these dangers the 
 missionary is comparatively safe. During a chol- 
 era epidemic he is careful to drink boiled water 
 only, and eat no uncooked vegetables, or fruit which 
 has not been disinfected. He never sleeps without 
 having a mosquito netting over him, so is meas- 
 ureably free from malaria. If he is bitten by a 
 mad dog, he goes to a Pasteur institute for treat- 
 ment. Some of the natives know of these pre- 
 ventives, but few realize their importance, and to 
 change the habits of an entire race is not easy. 
 
 Of course none of these things is new to the stu- 
 dent of missions. Every one who is at all familiar 
 with conditions in the tropics must know of them. 
 They are mentioned here because, while usually 
 considered from the side of the missionary, or per- 
 haps merely mentioned as matters of curious in- 
 terest, they have a real and vital relation — in fact 
 their most intimate relation — to the people native 
 of the country. The missionary returns to the 
 homeland occasionally, and is recuperated, but the 
 Karen has no such opportunity, and the conditions 
 of life are very hard. 
 
 The physical conditions which have been de- 
 scribed can be readily understood by any one who 
 gives them the least attention. They are, however, 
 but the prototype of other conditions which are 
 more difficult to visualize and make real to those 
 
160 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 who have not witnessed them, but which are, never- 
 theless, even more serious. Among these are the 
 economic conditions. The Karens have a saying 
 handed down from the elders : 
 
 "Children and grandchildren, in the last days, 
 the earth will become so narrow as to leave no 
 room to so much as sit down in it." And this say- 
 ing seems now indeed to be coming true, so far as 
 Burma is concerned. A hundred years ago, the 
 Karen had no need to concern himself seriously 
 as to where to gain his livelihood. He lived in 
 constant fear of his oppressors, to be sure, but 
 economic conditions did not trouble him. His 
 wants were simple and easily met. Land there was 
 in abundance which he might cultivate at his pleas- 
 ure, and thus secure his living. But, few countries 
 in the world are more lavishly endowed by nature 
 than is Burma ; it is by far the richest of the prov- 
 inces of India. A famine is almost unknown. 
 Once in forty or fifty years, to be sure, in the hill 
 tracts, all the bamboos of a certain variety go to 
 seed at once. The rats feed on the seed and prop- 
 agate enormously. When they have eaten up all 
 the seed of the bamboo, they descend on the fields 
 of rice and strip them of absolutely every kernel of 
 grain. When this source of provender is exhausted, 
 they sometimes migrate in great hordes to other 
 parts to carry on their work of destruction there. 
 The writer has been credibly informed of such a 
 migration of rats which took place forty or fifty 
 
THE NEED FOR MISSIONARIES 161 
 
 years ago near Shwegyin when the rodents came 
 down from the mountains on the east in vast mul- 
 titudes, those in front driven by those behind, until 
 they crossed the river on the other side, where 
 they fought with one another for places on the 
 little ridges of earth between the rice plots and 
 myriads of them were drowned. But at the worst, 
 the devastation wrought in this way is of rare oc- 
 currence and is confined to a comparatively narrow 
 and sparsely settled range of country. 
 
 Aside from these sporadic and relatively insig- 
 nificant times of scarcity, the land brings forth 
 abundantly, for there is never a failure of the rains; 
 and it was not to be expected that so rich a coun- 
 try would be overlooked by the impoverished and 
 often famine-stricken people of the adjacent coun- 
 tries of India and China. These are, therefore, 
 flocking into Burma in great numbers. Compara- 
 tively few of them are becoming permanent resi- 
 dents; They are there to suck out the richness of 
 the country and return home to live in, what for 
 them is, princely comfort. But they are drawing 
 steadily upon the resources of Burma and making 
 life in that land more and more difficult. The Bur- 
 mans themselves are also awakening to the value of 
 their inheritance and are bringing the soil under 
 cultivation in a manner which was not thought of 
 in the time of their kings. The consequence is that 
 the desirable lands are nearly all taken up, and 
 the struggle for existence is becoming more and 
 
162 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 more difficult. It is said that one method of tor- 
 ture sometimes practiced by the American Indians 
 was to wrap up their victims in a fresh hide and 
 place him out in the sun. As the hide dried up 
 under the influence of the sun's rays, it tightened 
 upon the man enclosed and slowly pressed out his 
 life. If one can conceive of the feelings of that 
 man, one can understand, in a measure, what is 
 happening to the Karens of Burma. They cannot 
 migrate to other lands. Their peaceful habits and 
 manner of life amid the solitudes of their hills has 
 disqualified them for that. But their own country 
 is being invaded by foreign hordes, they are being 
 pressed on every side, and fields which a generation 
 ago were almost valueless are now beyond their 
 reach. 
 
 Thus far the Karen has held his own fairly well. 
 How he does it is a mystery to even the most ex- 
 perienced missionary. In many ways the Karen 
 seems inefficient, easy-going and wasteful; yet 
 among the Burmans he has the reputation of being 
 able to secure land and amass wealth as the Bur- 
 mans themselves cannot do. Certain it is that 
 wherever there is a Karen village, there are almost 
 sure to be on the fringes Burmese parasites who 
 have no visible means of support, but really make 
 their living off the Karens. Nevertheless the eco- 
 nomic problem which faces Karen Christians is a 
 very serious one. To them it is entirely new. 
 There is nothing in the previous experience of their 
 
THE NEED FOR MISSIONARIES 163 
 
 race to fit them for it. And surely enough it seems 
 that their own graphic prophecy will come true, 
 the land will become narrower and smaller, until 
 there is no room in it to sit down on — as if men 
 were crowded so close together that they could not 
 recline or even sit, but had to stand. 
 
 But that which most concerns the Christian stu- 
 dent of missions is the religious situation, and of 
 this it is to be said that, notwithstanding the splen- 
 did work which has already been accomplished in 
 the spreading of the gospel in Burma, this is per- 
 haps the most serious condition of all, and it bids 
 fair to become more and more exacting. Too often 
 it has been represented that the heathen is hunger- 
 ing for the gospel. Would that it were true ! The 
 natural mind is enmity against God, and already 
 the antagonism between heathenism and Chris- 
 tianity is very marked. It is truly heart-moving 
 to note with what tactfulness the preacher of the 
 word must conduct himself in order that he may 
 gain access to the heathen. A young Christian 
 worker was sent to a district where there were no 
 disciples and the people had been brought so much 
 under the influence of Buddhism that they hated 
 the Christian religion almost more than the Budd- 
 hists themselves. He went alone. He entered a 
 heathen Karen village and was soon asked his 
 business. 
 
 "Are you Jesus Christ?" they inquired — mean- 
 ing a Christian. 
 
164 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 "No," he said, "I am not Jesus Christ.'* 
 
 "Are you a white book?" meaning a believer in 
 the bible. 
 
 "No," said he, "I am not a white book." 
 
 "Are you a diver?" that is, a Baptist. 
 
 "No, I am not a diver," came the reply. 
 
 "Well, then," they said, "we will let you come 
 into our village, but we will have nothing to do 
 with these preachers." Then the young man asked 
 them to let him teach their children. 
 
 "What, can you teach?" they asked, for they 
 were greatly surprised to find a Karen who could 
 teach. "And what can you teach?" 
 
 "Oh, Karen, and Burmese, and English." 
 
 "Do you mean to say you understand English? 
 We never knew that a Karen could speak English," 
 and finding a scrap of an English newspaper some- 
 where which had been used for wrapping paper, 
 they brought it to him to test him. When they 
 learned that he could not only read English, but 
 also could converse a little in Hindustani, their 
 admiration was unbounded. He assured them, 
 however, that where he came from, there were 
 Karens who knew much more than he. 
 
 "Now," he said, "let me start a school and 
 teach your children." Most of the children were 
 being taught in a Buddhist monastery, after the 
 manner of the country, but a few of the stupidest 
 were brought together and he was permitted to try 
 his hand on them — they were so dull that he prob- 
 
THE NEED FOR MISSIONARIES 165 
 
 ably could not damage their comprehensions any 
 way ! What was the amazement of all to find that 
 these pupils made more progress in their studies 
 under him in a month than they had made before 
 in a whole year in the monastery. This was not 
 particularly strange, for in the monasteries chil- 
 dren are taught by the most disapproved methods 
 of modern pedagogy. They are made to yell out 
 their lessons at the top of their voices — this is to 
 assure the teacher they are studying. The boy that 
 shouts the loudest in considered the best scholar — 
 for no girls are allowed. If any boy fails in his 
 lesson or makes a mistake in writing, he is given a 
 sharp rap on the knuckles. The result is that 
 people taught under this method cannot read unless 
 they read aloud, and even then they often do not 
 understand what they are reading. Many a voice 
 is made husky and ruined for life, while the ordi- 
 nary conversation of the people is loud enough to 
 fill a large auditorium. Two men walking side 
 by side on the public highway, conversing, can often 
 be heard a block away. 
 
 The young man taught his little school faith- 
 fully, and soon the attendance rose from fifteen 
 at the beginning of the rainy season to eighty-five 
 at the close, about four months later. When he 
 had won the confidence of the people, he said to 
 them: 
 
 "When I first came, you asked me if I was 
 Jesus Christ. I am not Jesus Christ, but a disciple 
 
166 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 of his. You asked me if I was the white book. 
 I am not the white book, but I believe in the white 
 book, the bible. You asked me if I was a diver. 
 I am not a diver, but a dipper." Then he was 
 permitted to preach to them, and now a goodly 
 number have been converted through his efforts. 
 
 A native evangelist who was preaching to a 
 little group of people was once suddenly accosted 
 by a group of Buddhist rowdies. 
 
 **Here you are at last!" said their leader. "We 
 have been looking for you all day — to preadi to 
 us." 
 
 "That IS very strange," replied the preacher, 
 quietly, "for I too have been looking for you; and 
 now what shall I preach about?" 
 
 "Oh, anything," replied his would-be audience, 
 somewhat abashed by his calm demeanor. He 
 preached to them an hour or two until they began 
 to feel that their joke was growing tame, so they 
 interrupted. 
 
 "Come, now, that is all right, but what we want 
 to know is, which is the greater, our Buddha or 
 your Christ." The preached hesitated a moment 
 as if pondering deeply, then answered with a 
 smile : 
 
 "I think I shall have to be like the rabbit." 
 
 "Like the rabbit?" they asked in surprise. 
 "What do you mean?" 
 
 "Why, have you never heard the story of the 
 rabbit?" said the evangelist incredulously. "Then 
 
THE NEED FOR MISSIONARIES 167 
 
 I shall have to tell it to you." And he related the 
 following : 
 
 Once upon a time, the lion, king of bests, sum- 
 moned his subjects to smell of his breath. Now 
 the lion had been feasting on carrion that day, so 
 the deer, who came first, took a whiff and said: 
 
 "Your Majesty, your breath is very offensive. 
 In fact, it is vile.'' 
 
 'What! do you talk that way to your king? 
 Do you insult me ?" thundered the lion, as with one 
 stroke of his great paw he knocked the deer to the 
 ground. Next he called to him the fox who care- 
 fully sniffed the royal breath and said : 
 
 ''Oh, your Majesty, your breath is very sweet. 
 It is as fragrant as the jasmine flower." 
 
 "What! You know my breath is never fra- 
 grant! Will you lie to your king?" roared the 
 chief, and knocked him down as he had the deer. 
 Next to be called was the rabbit whose heart 
 went pit-a-pat. The lion said to him gruffly: 
 
 "How small you are! You would make just 
 about one mouthful for such as I." This speech 
 made the poor little rabbit's heart beat faster than 
 ever, but he replied simply: 
 
 "This is as big as we grow." Then the great 
 beast leaned down his shaggy head and opened his 
 fearful jaws until the trembling little creature 
 thought he would surely be swallowed alive. 
 
 ^ "Smell my breath," the lion roared. The rab- 
 bit raised his little nose, and gravely sniffed once 
 
168 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 • — twice — then turned away. Again he lifted his 
 nose, "sniff, sniff." The king awaited his decision, 
 but again the rabbit turned away. Thus he did a 
 third time and a fourth until the king, becoming 
 impatient, cried: 
 
 *'There, now, you have smelled times enough. 
 What does it smell like ?" 
 
 *Tour Majesty," murmured the rabbit, *'I live 
 in the deep jungle ; I go out in the early morning to 
 graze in the meadows; the dew falls on my head, 
 and I have such a terrible cold that your breath 
 does not smell of anything." 
 
 Of course the lion could do nothing to the rab- 
 bit, and when the rowdies saw the point of the 
 story, they realized that they could get no advan- 
 tage of the preacher, and good-naturedly with- 
 drew. 
 
 One could perhaps wish that the preacher had 
 been more bold and had declared fearlessly the 
 superiority of Christ to Buddha, but he under- 
 stood the temper of the people with whom he was 
 dealing, and he probably did the wiser thing. He 
 disarmed his antagonists, and at the same time 
 won their respect for his sagacity, and if, at a later 
 time, he had an opportunity to meet any of them 
 singly, he would find them at least cordial to him 
 and perhaps open to his instructions. 
 
 These incidents illustrate present conditions only. 
 They show that already the Christian evangelist 
 must use wisdom and discretion in dealing with the 
 
THE NEED FOR MISSIONARIES 169 
 
 heathen. These are probably more difficult to 
 reach, in some respects, now than they were fifty 
 years ago, and conditions are heading up for a still 
 mightier struggle later on. Burma is the strong- 
 hold of Buddhism, which is, without doubt, the 
 best equipped system of heathen philosophy and 
 religion in existence. This faith is becoming more 
 and more conscious of itself, and is planning for a 
 settled conflict with Christianity. The Young 
 Men's Buddhist Association is being organized in 
 competition with the Young Men's Christian Asso- 
 ciation ; Buddhist Sunday Schools are being held in 
 imitation of Christian Sunday Schools. So far as 
 possible, wherever there is a mission day school a 
 Buddhist day school is being started alongside of 
 it. And, not content to let the native Buddhist 
 fight it out by himself, men of so-called Christian 
 lands are doing their best to embitter the conflict. 
 The writings of Tom Paine and other western 
 atheists and agnostics are being published and cir- 
 culated broadcast. Not infrequently the mission- 
 ary is approached by some disciple who has become 
 perplexed by such propaganda. Some people are 
 troubled because they think that crass Tom Paine- 
 ism is being revamped and taught under a new 
 guise in some of the theological schools of Amer- 
 ica, but, even if that were true, when one knows of 
 the conscienceless way In which those long ex- 
 ploded criticisms of the bible are being used to 
 hinder the cause of truth in heathen lands, one 
 
170 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 feels like the old-time minister who, when asked if 
 he believed in deacons' dancing, said, yes, he 
 wished the deacons would do all the dancing. What 
 if a few scholars in America are disposed to put 
 a new dress on ancient forms of agnosticism and 
 call it by some more euphonious name! Would 
 that they had it all, for it would do less harm there, 
 where people of inteUigence are able to estimate it 
 at its true value than on the mission field, where 
 the Christian converts already have problems 
 enough of their own, and, however true and loyal 
 they may be, nevertheless lack the heritage of 
 Christian tradition and doctrine and life which 
 gives firmness and stability to their brethren of 
 the West. 
 
 Is the part of the missionary clear? The out- 
 look, although gloomy, is by no means hopeless. 
 As to the physical surroundings of the people, with 
 advancement in understanding and enlightenment 
 these will gradually improve. Of course the dis- 
 eases which prevail cannot be at once suppressed; 
 they must be met with intelligence and courage. 
 The government is doing what it can for the relief 
 of the people. It has its hospitals with doctors in 
 charge who dispense medicines freely to all that 
 come, and these hospitals are placed in nearly every 
 important center. But they cannot reach all the 
 people, and there is needed some one to act as 
 intermediary and bring the hospitals and the people 
 together. For Karens have their ideas of medi- 
 
THE NEED FOR MISSIONARIES 171 
 
 cine as have westerners and they are not to be 
 lightly convinced of the superiority of other meth- 
 ods to their own. They talk impressively of the 
 ninety-eight kinds of wind in the system, as occi- 
 dental doctors, not so very many years ago, used 
 to discourse learnedly of the humors of the body. 
 To be sure, they do not always succeed in curing 
 the ailments of mankind, but there are others who 
 also fail. On the other hand, they sometimes seem 
 to achieve results where scientifically trained phy- 
 sicians have been baffled. The writer has been 
 credibly informed of instances in which cases of 
 tetanus that had been given up as hopeless by for- 
 eign doctors, have been cured. As to western no- 
 tions, what could be more absurd, from the Karen 
 standpoint, than to suppose that there is any con- 
 nection between malaria and mosquitoes, or that 
 the germ of cholera may be lurking in water which 
 appears to be perfectly pure and sweet, or that the 
 remedy for hydrophobia is to be found in some- 
 thing taken from a rabbit ? Some are beginning to 
 appreciate the value of western methods, but it is 
 not to be wondered at that not all do so. The mis- 
 sionary, as he travels about among his people, even 
 though he may have had no medical training, car- 
 ries with him simple remedies for the healing of 
 the sick, and the fact that he has a sense of racial 
 differences and prejudices and knows how to make 
 allowances for them, enables him to accomplish 
 oftentimes what those who are ignorant of such 
 
172 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 things or less patient than he, cannot do. More- 
 over, he can be depended upon to persevere in his 
 work of instilling broader ideas and more just 
 conceptions. 
 
 The economic problem is difficult, but it is not 
 to be despaired of. No doubt it demands prompt 
 attention, for other indigenous races have suc- 
 cumbed to far less strenuous conditions than are 
 confronting the Karens. Some missionaries afe 
 already giving earnest consideration to it. It de- 
 serves careful and thorough-going study. The solu- 
 tion probably lies not in pampering the people in 
 any way, or in trying to make their conditions any 
 easier — which would be a perfectly futile thing to 
 attempt — ^but in teaching them how to meet the 
 conditions and overcome them by their own skill 
 and industry. To this end are required men of 
 special training who shall make a thorough study 
 of the situation on the ground and give that initial 
 impetus which the people cannot themselves get 
 without assistance. In a later chapter, the possi- 
 bilities along this line will be mentioned more at 
 length; suffice it here to point out the importance 
 of the subject. 
 
 Of the religious conditions now confronting the 
 Karens, and of the great spiritual conflict which 
 awaits the entire Christian world, it is enough to 
 say that no one who believes in the promises of 
 God can doubt what the outcome will be. Truth 
 will prevail. The gospel of grace will triumph. 
 
THE NEED FOR MISSIONARIES 173 
 
 One who is worthy of all blessing will be crowned 
 King of Kings and Lord of Lords. But if not only 
 the subtlest minds of the East, but also some of the 
 best trained minds of the West are to be arrayed 
 on the side of error and falsehood, shall the native 
 Christians be left to fight out the battle alone? 
 Let it be remembered that some of the most regret- 
 table mistakes of the past in mission policy have 
 been made in leaving new converts from heathen- 
 ism too soon to themselves. The Karen Chris- 
 tians of Burma may, in many respects, challenge 
 comparison with the people of God anywhere, but, 
 as has been said before, they have not back of them 
 that long tradition of Christian life and service and 
 doctrine which have made their western brethren 
 strong. 
 
 But what if the missionary cannot help, he may 
 at least be able to cheer. It was a lonely little 
 village in the jungle. The visitor was asked to go 
 and see a man who was a paralytic.^ He found him 
 a pitiful object, almost helpless, lying by the hearth 
 ' — which was merely a slightly raised place on the 
 floor of the wretched hut where a sufficient quan- 
 tity of ashes had been placed so that a fire might 
 be built on them without setting the house in a 
 blaze, and as he lay there the filth of the hearth 
 had blown upon him and covered him. He could 
 not bathe himself or do anything for his comfort. 
 A niece was there to care for him. She did what 
 she could, but she was young and found him a 
 
174 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 burden to her, poor thing. The missionary ol 
 course could do nothing to cure the disease. He 
 simply spoke a few words of cheer — there seemed, 
 oh, so little that he could say — offered a prayer, 
 and went away. The next year he came to the 
 place again and learned that the man was still liv- 
 ing. When he called to see him, he said to the 
 missionary: 
 
 "Teacher, since you were here last year I have 
 often been so miserable that I wanted to put an 
 end to my own life, but I have thought of what 
 you said, and that has strengthened me." 
 
 Was it worth while ? Is it ever worth while to 
 cheer the people of God when one cannot help 
 them? 
 
 The ponies in the midst of the maddening cur- 
 rent, the steersman at the stern, the man in the 
 boat — this is the picture. The maddening current 
 of conditions surrounding the disciples has been 
 described, however inadequately. Thank God, 
 there is a boat there, and at the stern, strong, 
 ready, resourceful, stands the Master. Is the mis- 
 sionary needed? Let him who is thoughtful con- 
 sider. 
 
XIII 
 KAREN CHARACTERISTICS 
 
 THE man In the boat cheering and encourag- 
 ing his struggling ponies who know his voice 
 is the picture which has been drawn, in a 
 previous chapter, of the missionary in his relations 
 to the native Christians under his care. The great 
 task of the missionary is to help, encourage and 
 strengthen God's people in every way he can. In 
 order to do so he must win their confidence, and 
 in order to win their confidence he must know 
 them intimately and have a sympathetic under- 
 standing of their lives, their thoughts and their 
 inmost desires. 
 
 What are some of the dominant characteristics 
 of the Karen people? Their physical appearance 
 has already been briefly described. They are short 
 of stature, supple and active. A man six feet tall 
 towers among them almost like a giant. In fea- 
 tures, they have the broad, flat face, with the wide 
 nostrils of the Mongolian; their skin is light brown 
 in color, not unlike that of the Chinese, but they 
 have not the latter's almond eyes. The hair is 
 straight and black. Men as well as women for- 
 merly wore their hair long, and did it up in a ball- 
 shaped knot on top of the head, but now they are 
 
 i2Sj 
 
176 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 more and more adopting the customs of white 
 people and cutting it short. In general, the Karens 
 have good powers of endurance, especially those 
 who live in the hills. 
 
 Many Karens of the present day are coming to 
 wear the costume of the Burmese, with its flowing 
 skirts and short, loose coats, but the typical Karen 
 costume is exceedingly simple. For the men, it 
 consists of a sleeveless jacket made out of two 
 straight pieces of cloth. This cloth is woven in a 
 small hand loom, and is only twelve to fifteen in- 
 ches wide. The two strips are sewn together at 
 the sides in such a way as to have much the appear- 
 ance of a bag, but with openings, where the bottom 
 of the bag would be, for the head and arms. This 
 "bag" Is slipped on with the mouth down, and 
 reaches to a little below the knees. It is the sole 
 garment of the men except for a narrow, straight 
 piece of cloth sometimes worn as a turban. The 
 material is white cotton, often with red stripes or 
 bands across the bottom of the jacket. In the olden 
 days, the number and breadth of these stripes used 
 to Indicate the tribe or family of the wearer, much 
 as the Scotch clans have their special plaids. In 
 regard to the costume of the women, customs ilffer 
 according to locality. In some parts women wear 
 a long, white jacket of the same pattern as the 
 men, but reaching down to the feet, until they are 
 married. This was, perhaps, the universal custom 
 in the early days. After marriage they wear a 
 
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KAREN CHARACTERISTICS 177 
 
 shorter jacket and a skirt. The former is usually 
 of dark blue cotton spun, woven and dyed by the 
 owner herself. These jackets are frequently orna- 
 mented very tastefully with simple patterns, em- 
 broidered in red thread and with white seeds, of a 
 variety found in the jungle, about an inch long and 
 as large around as a coarse darning-needle. These 
 seeds, are very hard and have the appearance al- 
 most of ivory. The skirt consists of two straight 
 pieces of native cloth, sewn together lengthwise 
 and then at the ends, making the skirt the same 
 width at the top and bottom. To fasten it no 
 pins, buttons, hooks and eyes or puckering strings 
 are used; the skirt is simply folded over from one 
 side to the other in front and the outer fold tucked 
 in. The cloth for the skirt has stripes of various 
 widths and colors running the length of the goods 
 so in the finished garment the stripes run horizon- 
 tally around the person. A turban of narrow, 
 white cloth, decorated with a design in red, is 
 thrown gracefully around the head. The dress of 
 the men is so plain as to be almost ugly, but that 
 of the women is often very attractive and pleasing. 
 By occupation the Karens, with the exception of 
 those who, owing to their educational advantages, 
 have taken up such professions as teaching, law, 
 and medicine, are nearly all farmers. The oriental 
 is generally supposed to be lazy, but those who 
 know the manner of life of the Karens would not 
 be likely to give them such a title. There are two 
 
178 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 kinds of farming In Burma, lowland and upland. 
 Rice is the staple product of the soil In Lower 
 Burma, where the Karens live, and lowland farm- 
 ing is the cultivation of rice on the plains, while 
 upland farming is the cultivation of rice in the 
 hills. The former is arduous enough. Soon after 
 the rains begin, about the first of June, when the 
 ground is well soaked up one of the small plots 
 into which the field is divided is plowed and care- 
 fully harrowed with a rude native harrow until 
 all the grasses and weeds have been removed. 
 Then, with the water standing about six Inches 
 deep, the seed is sown broadcast, very thickly in 
 this little plot, which is really a nursery bed. While 
 this is growing up, others are being prepared in a 
 similar way. When the rice In the nursery plot is 
 a foot and a half high, it is pulled up by the roots 
 and gathered Into bundles. Then it is trans- 
 planted, blade by blade, about a foot apart over 
 the other plots. As the rice grows up It stools out, 
 sometimes as high as sixty shoots coming out of a 
 single head, and these fill up the Intervening spaces. 
 When the grain is ripe, it is reaped by means of a 
 hand sickle, gathered into bundles or sheaves and 
 threshed by being trodden out under the feet of 
 oxen or buffaloes. 
 
 But arduous as is the work of lowland cultiva- 
 tion, upland farming is still more difficult. Per- 
 haps it cannot be better described than by telling 
 a Karen folk-tale of the crow. It is said that in the 
 
KAREN CHARACTERISTICS 179 
 
 beginning the crow was asked how it would make 
 its living, would it do upland farming? The crow 
 was wary, and turning its head first on one side and 
 then on the other reflectively, it asked: 
 
 "How do you make your living by upland farm- 
 ing?" 
 
 'Tirst of all," it was told, "you must cut down 
 a fresh tract of forest." It should be borne in 
 mind that the Karen living in the hills has to do 
 this for every crop of rice that he raises. He may 
 require from thirty to fifty acres, according to the 
 size of his family and the quality of the soil. He 
 lets the timber lie for about a month until it is 
 dried out by the heat of the sun, and then burns 
 it over, and the ashes seem to fertilize the soil 
 enough so that he can raise a single crop. After 
 that, he must let the land lie fallow for from five 
 to fifteen or even twenty years, to grow forest again 
 before he can cultivate another crop. When the 
 crow was told that he must cut down a tract of 
 forest he asked: 
 
 "Do you eat then?" 
 
 "No," he was informed, "you have to let it lie 
 for about a month to dry out." 
 
 "Well, do you eat then?" he inquired again. 
 
 "Oh, no, you have to burn it over." 
 
 "Well, do you eat then?" said the crow. 
 
 "No, you have to grub out the roots and gather 
 the pieces which have not been burned the first 
 time, and have a second burning." 
 
180 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 "Well, do you eat then?'' 
 
 *'0h, no, you have to take a small stick and 
 dibble the ground for the seed, making holes 
 at suitable distances apart and dropping in the 
 grain." 
 
 *'Well, do you eat then?" 
 
 *'No, you have to let the seed sprout up and 
 grow." 
 
 **Well, do you eat then?" 
 
 **0h, no, while the rice is growing, you have to 
 take a knife and cut out the weeds. You do this 
 two or three times in the course of a season." 
 
 "Well, do you eat then?" 
 
 "Oh, no, you have to make a fence around the 
 entire field." And the fences which the Karens 
 make around their fields are really quite remark- 
 able. They are constructed of bamboo or of 
 brush, anything they find conveniently at hand in 
 the jungle, but they have to be so closely woven as 
 to be impenetrable to deer or wild boar, or else 
 the crops would be destroyed. 
 
 "Well," inquired the crow again, "do you eat 
 then?" 
 
 "No, indeed, for when the grain begins to fill 
 out, you have to drive the birds away." To do 
 this a bamboo clapper is used, that is a bamboo, 
 perhaps five or six inches in diameter, which has 
 been split down most of its length. One part is 
 firmly fixed to a bit of framework and to the other 
 is attached a string which is carried off to a small 
 
KAREN CHARACTERISTICS 181 
 
 hut or watch-tower in a distant part of the field. 
 When the birds come, as they often do in large 
 flocks, especially parrots, the watcher pulls the 
 string and then releases it, thus sounding the clap- 
 per, to frighten the birds away. 
 
 "Well, do you eat then?" again came the crow's 
 question. 
 
 "Oh, no, when the grain is ripe, you have to 
 take a sickle and reap it." 
 
 "Well, do you eat then?" 
 
 "No, after you have reaped the grain, you have 
 to gather it into bundles and thresh it." The grain 
 is threshed by taking the small sheaves in the hand 
 and beating them on the rim of a large basket, 
 perhaps eight or ten feet in diameter, made of 
 coarse bamboo splints. The rim is of rattan as 
 big as a man's wrist, and the whisp of grain is 
 beaten against this until the heads fall off into the 
 basket. 
 
 "Well, do you eat then?" persisted the crow. 
 
 "Oh, no, after you have threshed out the grain, 
 you have to winnow it." For this purpose, the 
 grain, mixed with coarse chaff, which has fallen 
 into the basket, is taken out and thrown up into 
 the air and the wind blows the chaff away. 
 
 "Well, do you eat then?" This again from the 
 crow. 
 
 "No, you have to build a granary." The 
 people do not live on their farms ; they are obliged 
 to live in villages for the sake of mutual protection 
 
182 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 and their fields may be miles away from their 
 homes. They do not store the rice in their villages, 
 but build small granaries for It out in the fields. 
 
 ''But do you eat then?" 
 
 ''Oh, no, you have to carry the grain to the 
 village, from time to time as you require it. In a 
 basket on your back." 
 
 "But do you eat then?" 
 
 "Oh, no, you have to pound It out to separate 
 the husk from the kernel." This is done by hand, 
 by means of a wooden pestle and mortar. 
 
 "Well, do you eat then?" 
 
 "No, you have to separate the kernels from the 
 husks." This Is done by a curious process of sift- 
 ing the pounded grain in a shallow tray. With a 
 peculiar motion of the hand and wrist, the husks 
 and lighter parts are made to fly off the tray, leav- 
 ing only the edible portions. 
 
 "But do you eat then?" 
 
 "No, you have to wash it and cook it." In this 
 manner the whole process was described from be- 
 ginning to end, and the crow said in disgust: 
 
 "No, I will not make my living by upland farm- 
 ing. I will steal instead!" So from that day to 
 this, the crow has been making his living by steal- 
 ing, but he has never forgotten his repeated ques- 
 tion, "Do you eat then? Do you eat then?" — > 
 which in Karen is, "Aw-ah, aw-ah," a better imita- 
 tion of the call of the crow than Is, "Caw, caw." 
 
 The life of the hill Karen is indeed exceedingly 
 
KAREN CHARACTERISTICS 183 
 
 arduous. He must begin his operations In the 
 field in February, and continue them almost con- 
 stantly until October. From November to Jan- 
 uary he must be collecting, preparing and putting 
 in place bamboos for the building or repair of his 
 house. During any spare intervals he must be 
 gathering roots and herbs to eke out his meager 
 provisions. 
 
 In the olden times, marriages among the Karens 
 were always arranged by the elders or by friends 
 of the interested parties. It would have been con- 
 sidered very Improper for a young man to say he 
 would like to marry a certain young woman, or for 
 a young woman to express a preference for any 
 particular young man. It is still by no means un- 
 usual, even among Christians, for marriages to 
 be arranged by mutual friends, and the parties not 
 to meet until their wedding day. To the occi- 
 dental all this seems, of course, quite an absurd 
 way of proceeding, yet the results among orientals 
 probably prove to be happy as often as in western 
 lands where the young people decide everything 
 for themselves. With the Karens, courtship 
 comes after marriage. The writer has been told 
 of instances in which, when the wedding ceremony 
 had been performed, the woman would have noth- 
 ing to do with her husband. But the latter did not 
 take it 111. He simply went away and stayed 
 awhile, then came back, hung around a little, help- 
 ing in any way he could, went away, returned after 
 
184 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 a time and so on, until at length — it might not be 
 before a year had passed — he won the affection of 
 the woman he had married and they lived happily 
 together as husband and wife. Many a Karen 
 who has been married in this way has developed 
 such a devoted attachment for his wife that if she 
 died he would not marry again. In fact, although 
 no hard and fast custom required it, this was the 
 usual practice among Karens in the olden time. 
 
 Karen ideas of death and the under world are 
 very vague. The writer once went to a heathen 
 Karen funeral and, among other things, saw a shal- 
 low bamboo tray turned upside down. On the bot- 
 tom of the tray was crudely drawn In charcoal a 
 representation of a tree with its branches. Some 
 one would take a pebble, put it on the extreme end 
 of a branch of the tree, repeat some kind of a 
 lingo, and as he did so, move the pebble down to 
 the trunk and then to the foot of the tree. This 
 was teaching the spirit of the dead to climb a tree. 
 For, according to the Karen idea, in the spirit 
 world, all the points of the compass and all direc- 
 tions are reversed. Any one can readily under- 
 stand how that might be. Conceive of the earth 
 as a flat disk; living people are on the upper side of 
 the disk with their feet towards it; the spirits 
 of the dead are on the under side, with their feet 
 up towards the disk. It follows that what is east 
 to those above is west to those below, west is east, 
 north IS south and south Is north, up is down and 
 
KAREN CHARACTERISTICS 185 
 
 down Is up. With some it Is customary, as soon as a 
 person dies, to tie one end of a string to the finger 
 of the deceased and the other end to the tail of a 
 dog, with the idea that the dog will act as guide 
 through the shadows of the under world, and one 
 of the bitterest epithets which the heathen some- 
 times address to the Christian preacher is that of 
 Pilot Dog. Many other fantastic conceptions are 
 held which need not be mentioned here. 
 
 The Karen account of earthquakes is that a giant 
 monster, corresponding somewhat to the Greek 
 Atlas, has been condemned to support the earth un- 
 til all the Inhabitants have died off. Now and 
 then a worm wriggles out upon his shoulder, and 
 he concludes that the people on earth have all 
 died, that the worms have consumed their bodies, 
 and, finding nothing else to eat, have gone in search 
 of further forage. He therefore concludes that 
 his task is at an end, and proceeds to let down the 
 earth. This produces the earthquake. Conse- 
 quently, whenever the heathen feel an earthquake, 
 they always call out: 
 
 *'We are here still! We are here still!" and 
 then he rights It up again. The fact that their 
 method of putting a stop to earthquakes has been 
 successful every time thus far demonstrates to 
 their minds the truth of their theory. 
 
 Intellectually, the Karens are really brighter 
 than they are likely at first to appear. Owing to a 
 certain shyness on their part one needs to be pretty 
 
186 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 well acquainted with them to know of what they 
 are capable. Those who do not understand their 
 language and see them side by side with the Bur- 
 mese, usually think they are stupid. This is par- 
 ticularly the case when the Burman has the initial 
 advantage of using his own language; moreover, 
 he is free from the shyness which oppresses the 
 Karen — the result probably of his hundreds of 
 years of political subjection — so he expresses him- 
 self more readily. The Burman is usually able to 
 show off for what he is worth, perhaps for a little 
 more. The Karen, on the other hand, one may 
 have to know a long while before he really knows 
 him at all. Those who see the Burman and the 
 Karen side by side, day after day and year after 
 year, do not feel that the latter is the inferior of 
 the two. The writer has been told by instructors 
 in schools for higher education, where there are 
 various nationalities in residence, that Karen stu- 
 dents do better in their studies on the whole than 
 Burmese students. 
 
 Probably no one would claim for the Karen that 
 he has a philosophical mind. He has no liking 
 for delving into the mystery of things which no 
 one can know anything about. He has originated 
 no speculative scheme like the "chain of contingent 
 existences'* of the Buddhists. He has no vocabu- 
 lary for expressing such ideas. His language is 
 wanting in abstract terms, and many ideas which 
 are perfectly familiar to the occidental almost defy 
 
KAREN CHARACTERISTICS 187 
 
 expression until they have been put into a concrete 
 form. But the lack of such terms does not prove 
 that these people are incapable of deep and sus- 
 tained thought. Not many years ago it was sup- 
 posed that some of the aboriginal tribes of Aus- 
 tralia were entirely lacking in mathematical ability. 
 They had no way of counting in their language 
 above four or ^ve; but that was solely because in 
 their simple manner of life they had no need to 
 count above that number. Now, members of those 
 same tribes are employed by sheep-raisers to count 
 their sheep. The sheep are made to go through a 
 narrow passage, and these men will count by the 
 hundreds and thousands without ever making an 
 error. The world in which the Karen has lived 
 has not called out his powers of thought but that 
 by no means proves that his analytical faculties are 
 wanting. Nor is simplicity of language altogether 
 a disadvantage. The clearest waters are often the 
 deepest. Simplicity of language is often a help 
 to clarity of thought. In fact to be compelled to 
 speak or write in a language like the Karen is an 
 excellent discipline for the mind. The preacher, 
 for instance, must know with absolute clearness 
 what he has to say, but if he has thought his sub- 
 ject through and has a fair command of the lan- 
 guage, he will usually be able to express himself. 
 Generally speaking, anything which is worth say- 
 ing in any language can be said in the Karen. Of 
 course the method of expression must be suited to 
 
188 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 the people, but that is merely a matter of rhetoric, 
 of the choice of suitable illustrations, figures of 
 speech and so forth; the real essence of the thought 
 may remain unchanged. The writer has preached 
 a sermon with equal acceptance, so far as he could 
 judge, in Karen one Sunday to an audience com- 
 posed of pupils and teachers in a middle school, 
 and in English the next Sunday to an audience com- 
 posed largely of missionaries. If any one thinks 
 that because the Karens are a simple minded people 
 he can dish out almost anything to them, he is 
 likely to be disappointed. The best that he can 
 give, however wide may have been the range of his 
 previous preparation, he Is likely to find is none 
 too good. On the other hand, if he has something 
 worth while to offer, he will feel no lack of re- 
 sponsiveness and appreciation. 
 
 But it is of temperamental characteristics that 
 the missionary needs perhaps to know the most if 
 he would be a helpful guide. And it has to be 
 confessed that the Karens are not easy to under- 
 stand. This is probably due to the long years of 
 oppression through which they have passed and 
 which have necessarily meant for them repression. 
 On first acquaintance they seem — and it is prob- 
 ably their own feeling about themselves — to be a 
 meek, docile, submissive, almost obsequious people. 
 In fact their own name for themselves comes near 
 to meaning "easy." The writer has frequently 
 heard Karen preachers dwell on this as represent- 
 
KAREN CHARACTERISTICS 189 
 
 ing one trait In the Karen character. But men 
 are usually the opposite of what they profess to 
 be, or really think they are. No miser regards 
 himself as penurious. On the other hand the 
 true philanthropist never prides himself on his 
 philanthropy, but may the rather often upbraid 
 himself for his want of charity. The proud con- 
 siders himself humble, and the really humble is 
 fearful of his pride. The honest man need never 
 say anything about his honesty; it is only rogues 
 who have occasion to do that. Those who boast 
 themselves of their liberalism are often the most 
 bigoted, and those who make no pretentions to 
 broad-mindedness may be really the least narrow 
 in their views. And so a person who speaks of 
 himself as being ''easy," is generally about the last 
 person in the world whom one may expect to find 
 subservient. It almost seems as if the Karens them- 
 selves had felt this, and so they do not actually 
 call themselves "easy," but "just going to be easy," 
 and the significant fact Is that they never arrive at 
 that goal. On the contrary, they are quite likely 
 to prove high spirited. Independent, determined. 
 
 The writer once had an experience on which he 
 has often reflected with Interest. Hucksters and 
 venders of sweet-meats were giving much trouble 
 by coming Into the school compound and selling to 
 the pupils food which was unfit to eat. For a 
 time they were driven out whenever they could be 
 discovered, but, that method proving unavailing, 
 
190 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 the rule was laid down that no pupil should buy. 
 Not long after that, about fifteen of the pupils, 
 including some of the best boys in school, were 
 caught in the very act of buying from a vender. 
 They were duly brought up for discipline. It was 
 decided that they must confess before the entire 
 school body and promise not to repeat the offense. 
 But when the time came and their names were 
 called out, to the surprise of the missionary they 
 rose one by one, and so far from making confes- 
 sion or showing regret in any way, they defended 
 their action and intimated that they were quite dis- 
 posed to do the same thing again. One only showed 
 any willingness to comply with the requirements 
 which had been laid down. The missionary lis- 
 tened quietly until all had spoken, and then said: 
 "I am perplexed at this. You know that you 
 have broken the rules of the school, which were 
 meant for your own good, and the requirements 
 which have been laid upon you are none too rigid. 
 I know, too, that many of you are Christians, and 
 want to do what is pleasing to your Saviour. And 
 yet all of you save one have shown a defiant spirit. 
 I do not understand it. Now, first of all, I want 
 to know that my own skirts are clear, and if the 
 difficulty rests in any way with me, I want you to 
 say so. If I have done wrong, I am ready to con- 
 fess it and make it right.*' Then some of the 
 pupils, said that they did feel aggrieved at some 
 rather sharp remarks which they had heard the 
 
KAREN CHARACTERISTICS 191 
 
 missionary make. The missionary expressed re- 
 gret, and finally the pupils agreed that from that 
 time on they would abide by the rules of the school. 
 The missionary did not learn the full effect of his 
 action until about a year after, when the headmas- 
 ter of the school told him that the pupils felt so 
 ashamed of themselves to think that the missionary 
 had been willing to confess his fault and apologize 
 for it while they had attempted to justify them- 
 selves and had shown a defiant spirit, that they 
 did not know what to do. In any case from that 
 time on the school experienced no further difficulty 
 from the venders; they might come, but no one 
 would buy. 
 
 At the same time that this incident occurred, a 
 fellow missionary was visiting In the home of the 
 writer. The former had had special training in 
 pedagogy and had had much experience in the man- 
 agement of Burmese schools. On hearing what 
 had happened he said: 
 
 "Well, perhaps you are right, but I would not 
 do that way in dealing with Burmese pupils." In 
 the same country, living side by side, are the two 
 races, the Karens and the Burmans. The Karen 
 seems to those who do not know him to be sub- 
 servient, the Burman high-spirited. In fact, the 
 contrary appears to be the case. Certain it Is that 
 the Karen may be led, but never, never driven. 
 
 Other temperamental characteristics of the 
 Karens might be dwelt upon. They are honest, 
 
192 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 truthful, generous, affectionate, appreciative, kind- 
 ly, sympathetic, well-intentioned. The writer has 
 dwelt on this other characteristic more fully, per- 
 haps because he admires the granite. There are 
 two uses of the word "tact." As frequently em- 
 ployed It refers to such conduct as is calculated, by 
 shrewd manipulation, to get another person to do 
 what he would not otherwise do. This Is despic- 
 able. But true and honorable tact Involves the 
 rare faculty of getting the point of view of the 
 other man and considering any question which 
 arises from that position. Any one who would 
 deal with people of another race, as the missionary 
 has to do, must learn to sink any personal likes and 
 dislikes, to suffer often the defeat of his plans, and 
 to abide In patience, not desiring to lord It over 
 God's heritage, but content if In love and meek- 
 ness, he Is permitted to be a co-worker with them 
 In the service of the kingdom. Such an one in 
 association with the Karens will find his respect for 
 them growing continually, and, if he Is a man of 
 real worth In himself, he will prefer that they 
 should have a mind of their own, that they should 
 think out their own problems and make their own 
 decisions, even if not always wise, rather than 
 that they should simply listen to what he may say. 
 
XIV 
 A NEGLECTED OPPORTUNITY 
 
 REFERENCE has been made in a previous 
 chapter to the stress of the physical, the 
 economic and the religious conditions in 
 which the Karen Christians of Burma are situated. 
 The physical will doubtless be met in time with the 
 advance of civilization. Even tigers and snakes 
 must retire before the encroachments on their wild 
 domains of human progress and culture. Of the 
 seriousness of the religious conflict and of the 
 obligation resting upon American Christians to 
 help in meeting it, something further will be said 
 in another connection. 
 
 The economic stress is present and urgent. In 
 a large majority of cases, the Karen youth return 
 from school to the farm. They come back with a 
 broader outlook and keener minds, but, beyond 
 that, with practically no training which will help 
 them In meeting these new and difficult conditions. 
 The school system among these people grew up at 
 the demand, already noted, of the Karens for 
 knowledge. With certain necessary changes and 
 omissions, it followed the traditional lines of edu- 
 
 193 
 
194 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 cation in western lands. Even in those countries 
 vocational training was almost unheard of until 
 within perhaps a decade. Naturally, therefore, 
 both government and missionaries emphasized in 
 their curriculum those subjects which for them 
 meant education. Many, however, are now com- 
 ing to feel that in devoting so large a proportion of 
 time to literary studies alone, they are not only 
 losing an opportunity to help the Karen of today 
 meet the rigors of his life, but are also giving a 
 one-sided view of western civilization and the 
 Christian religion. For, nothwithstanding the 
 aspersions which are often cast against the church, 
 because of the supposed estrangement between it 
 and the laboring man, it may be said that one of 
 the most distinguishing and marked characteristics 
 of Christianity as against heathenism, and even of 
 evangelical as against formalistic Christianity, is 
 that it honors labor of the hands. 
 
 Most of the first disciples were laboring men. 
 Jesus himself was brought up at the carpenter^s 
 bench. Paul labored with his hands unceasingly 
 even in the midst of most strenuous spiritual en- 
 deavors. A hundred years ago. In England, no 
 gentleman was supposed to work, and the revival 
 of evangelical religion, which began under the 
 Wesleys, is probably largely responsible for the 
 fact that today It Is rather to the discredit of any 
 one to be Idle. Englishmen like to point out that 
 the king himself is a busy man. In America the 
 
A NEGLECTED OPPORTUNITY 195 
 
 economic situation, together with the comparative 
 poverty of the early settlers, have combined from 
 the first, to make men honor labor of the hands. 
 But wherever there has been any serious departure 
 from this norm. It has In general been due either 
 to a direct and distinct ebb In the religious life of 
 the community or to Its Invasion by unevangellzed 
 hordes from without, who have brought with them 
 and subtly disseminated an atmosphere which, by 
 its false emphasis on class distinctions Is foreign 
 to the essence of the Christian religion, and really 
 antagonistic to true self-respect and hlghminded- 
 ness. Whatever may be said to the contrary, it is 
 certainly of the very soul and spirit of a genuine 
 Christianity to honor all honest labor; and in 
 spite of its detractors, Christianity is the only 
 really democratic religion In the world. It Is there- 
 fore with no little apprehension that the missionary 
 notes a growing tendency on the part of the 
 brighter pupils among the Karens to covet some 
 position in which they can earn their living without 
 manual labor, instead of using their faculties in 
 plans for the improvement of their family acres. 
 For improvement in agriculture is one of the bene- 
 fits of civilization which the Karen people need 
 most of all, In view of the present stress, and are 
 least able to get by their own unaided efforts. 
 
 It is only within comparatively recent years that 
 adequate attention has been given to this branch 
 of human knowledge even in America. It was for- 
 
196 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 merly supposed that almost any one could be a 
 farmer. Now, on the other hand, it is coming to 
 be understood that the farmer, more than almost 
 any one else, in order to be really successful and 
 accomplish the best results along the line of his 
 business, needs to have excellent initial ability and 
 fine preparation. But it was long before people 
 fully appreciated this fact. For many years few 
 of the brightest young men went to colleges of 
 agriculture, and even for state schools, the appro- 
 priations of legislatures were often niggardly. 
 Now departments and schools of agriculture can 
 successfully demand almost anything they require 
 for their advancement, and in normal times the at- 
 tendance at schools of this kind comprises many of 
 the brightest and best. Few more attractive op- 
 portunities are offered to the best equipped young 
 men of the rising generation than along the line of 
 scientific farming. And yet this condition of affairs 
 was not brought about without a struggle. Not 
 until, in one of the American schools, it was found 
 that improvements in dairy products alone had 
 more than compensated the state for all it had 
 spent on its agricultural schools during a period of 
 many years, did people begin to realize the possi- 
 bilities of which this department of human knowl- 
 edge was capable. Even today scientific farming 
 is too little practiced, and long years will yet be 
 required before the possibilities for development 
 before the American farmer are exhausted. 
 
A NEGLECTED OPPORTUNITY 197 
 
 In Burma, among an enlightened people, It Is 
 still less to be expected that an intelligent interest 
 will be taken in agricultural experimentation and 
 Investigation which would stimulate the people to 
 devote to it, of themselves, the time, energy, pains- 
 taking care and considerable financial expenditure 
 which would enable them to improve their In- 
 herited and long estabhshed methods. Many of 
 the Christian Karens are eager to improve their 
 conditions, but they have seen nothing better, and 
 they do not know how to make more effective what 
 they have. If, therefore, they are to make any 
 considerable advancement along agricultural lines 
 In the near future. It would seem that this must 
 be brought to them from without. The govern- 
 ment is sincerely trying to do what It can. It has 
 its Department of Agriculture, with a Director and 
 two or three deputies, educated In English or 
 Canadian institutions, and a corps of native assist- 
 ants. It is starting seed farms and experiment 
 stations, and Is endeavoring, to the best of Its 
 ability, to discover and promulgate better methods. 
 But, however much the government may accom- 
 plish along these lines, comparatively little bene- 
 fit Is likely to result to the people at large, especially 
 to the Karens, In their far-off villages, without the 
 intervention of the missionary. The latter are in 
 touch with the people, and have their confidence; 
 they are able to reach them and lead them as gov- 
 ernment officials could never da. As has been said 
 
198 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 elsewhere, they are specialists In that line. This 
 fact the government fully realizes, and It Is largely 
 for this reason that, to such a considerable extent, 
 general education is left in the hands of the mis- 
 sionaries. 
 
 To any one who considers the agricultural sit- 
 uation in Burma, even though he may know very 
 little indeed about agriculture, problems present 
 themselves In plenty. With reference to lowland 
 farming, that Is, farming on the plains, the soil is 
 at present suffering constant deterioration, owing 
 no doubt to the fact that there is no rotation of 
 crops. Just what should be done to remedy this 
 condition, it is difficult to say, as climatic condi- 
 tions are ill suited to the cultivation of anything 
 but rice. Commercial fertilizers might be used to 
 some extent, but they are so expensive that their 
 value would have to be very thoroughly proved, 
 else they would not be employed extensively. The 
 use of green fertilizers has been suggested, but so 
 far as the writer knows, has never been given a fair 
 trial. The proposal is to cultivate the soy bean, 
 or a kind of split pea called dhal, the roots of 
 which gather and deposit nitrogen, and to plow un- 
 der the stalks. This might be practicable, pro- 
 vided seasonable and other conditions permitted. 
 
 It would probably be best at the outset, how- 
 ever, to endeavor to enrich the soil by adopting 
 improved local methods with which the people are 
 already somewhat familiar. The mind naturally 
 
A NEGLECTED OPPORTUNITY 199 
 
 turns to the use of manures ; but, to begin with, the 
 number of cattle in the country is inadequate for 
 the purpose. This is chiefly because the Burmese 
 are Buddhists and believe that to take animal life 
 is one of the worst sins, hence are not naturally 
 meat eaters. Furthermore, their cattle being of a 
 very poor variety for dairy purposes, they have 
 never become much accustomed to the use of dairy 
 products. Now, however, the religious prejudice 
 is being gradually overcome, so that the people 
 are more and more learning to relish a meat diet. 
 Some even like butter; but cheese, certainly, is still 
 a mystery to the average inhabitant. 
 
 But even if the demand for products of this 
 kind should cause the supply of cattle to increase 
 greatly — as would be necessary for the adequate 
 fertilization of the land — there would, under pres- 
 ent conditions, be difficulty in securing grazing 
 facihties for them. Government has set apart 
 so-called grazing grounds where cattle may go, 
 but this was done years ago and the grounds are 
 now quite insufficient. In any case, the land in 
 these is, for the most part, so low as to be un- 
 suited for any stock except the carabao or water 
 buffalo. Some means would therefore need to be 
 devised by which cattle could be furnished with a 
 sufficient supply of fodder. Perhaps the use of 
 ensilage would be worth trying, although this 
 again involves difficulties. A cheap form of silo 
 would have to be devised. Special crops with 
 
200 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 which to fill the silos would need to be grown; 
 what these should be Is uncertain. The writer has 
 seen an American government report which Indi- 
 cates that rice stalks have sometimes been success- 
 fully used for ensilage. In almost every neigh- 
 borhood In Burma, there are tracts of land which 
 are too low for the cultivation of the ordinary 
 kinds of rice. There Is, however, a variety which 
 grows In deep water. It Is sown while the water 
 Is still shallow, and as the water rises, the grain 
 grows with it and keeps pretty well up to the sur- 
 face. Men go out In boats to reap It. It may be 
 that this rice could be cultivated to be used ex- 
 clusively for ensilage. Near the close of the 
 rains and during the early part of the dry season, 
 Indian Maize might be grown successfully In some 
 places. Granted that there was an adequate sup- 
 ply of cattle, and that sufficient fodder could be 
 provided for them, there would still remain the 
 problem of the care and use of the manure and of 
 the Instruction of the people in the value of its 
 conservation. 
 
 Many of the native cattle are fine looking an- 
 imals. They are used chiefly for drawing carts. 
 The native never thinks of fattening cattle for the 
 market. If he allows one to be killed for beef, it 
 is an ox which has become too old and feeble to 
 draw a cart another inch or a cow which can never 
 give another drop of milk. The cattle are allowed 
 to run promiscuously and little is known about 
 
A NEGLECTED OPPORTUNITY 201 
 
 stock breeding, although it is probable that the 
 native cattle are capable of great improvement. 
 The consequence is that little profit is derived 
 from them as compared with what might be the 
 case. 
 
 Although rice is a staple product of the country, 
 the problem of improving the quality and quantity 
 of its production is one worthy of consideration. 
 Upwards of sixty different varieties of rice are 
 found in Burma, but they have become so inter- 
 mixed that it is almost impossible to find pure 
 seed. Pure seed should be produced and distrib- 
 uted to the people, and then they should be taught 
 how to select the special variety suited to their 
 needs, with the methods and importance of keep- 
 ing it pure. 
 
 Twenty or thirty years ago oranges of good 
 quality were grown in great abundance in Burma. 
 Now they are scarce. A kind of blight seems to 
 have struck nearly all the groves. The writer has 
 communicated with the government micologist of 
 India, but he seems not to know definitely what 
 the disease is, nor is he aware of any cure for it. 
 The natives of Burma are entirely ignorant of the 
 science of tree-grafting. Many Karens would not 
 believe such a thing possible if they did not see it 
 mentioned in the bible. Of course they can know 
 nothing about its advantages, although no doubt 
 some of the fruits of the country could be greatly 
 improved by this method. The natives of India 
 
202 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 have already produced graft mangoes of excellent 
 quality. The orange, the lime, the durian, the 
 jack fruit, the guava, the custard apple and other 
 varieties also might profitably undergo a similar 
 process. 
 
 Agricultural Implements is another subject de- 
 serving of attention. Those in use are exceedingly 
 crude. At the same time, it is not altogether easy 
 for one who is not an expert to devise anything 
 better. As has been said, American plows make 
 too deep a furrow, even if adequate means of draw- 
 ing them could be discovered; American reapers 
 crush down more grain than they reap in the small 
 native plot. American threshing machines might 
 possibly be used to advantage and run at a profit; 
 but some one would have to take one out there first 
 and demonstrate its usefulness before the natives 
 could be expected to invest in anything of the kind. 
 In general, western machinery could not be intro- 
 duced bodily, but would have to be greatly modi- 
 fied to suit local needs. These and many other 
 problems are presented in the midst of conditions 
 which are so utterly different from those prevailing 
 in America or, indeed, anywhere else in the world, 
 that they would need to be carefully studied on the 
 spot. 
 
 But, as has already been intimated, it is in upland 
 or hill cultivation that the most serious problems 
 present themselves, and it is here also that the 
 greatest benefits might be expected to accrue to the 
 
A NEGLECTED OPPORTUNITY 203 
 
 Karen people. Upland farming, as any one can 
 see by the description given, is enormously waste- 
 ful. To think of cutting down from five to fifteen 
 or twenty years' growth of timber for a single crop 
 of rice is well nigh appalling. The government 
 has tried again and again, to find some means for 
 making it unnecessary, but is still baffled. It has 
 gone so far as to contemplate the entire removal 
 of the hill tribes bodily to the plains, compensating 
 them by supplying them with lands and even with 
 sustenance there. But such radical measures are 
 highly objectionable and will probably never be 
 adopted. It may be that the hills could be suc- 
 cessfully terraced in Burma as in Japan, although 
 this is very doubtful on account of the rains which 
 are so heavy that they would probably wash away 
 in a short time almost any terraces which could be 
 built. Simpler methods, if such could be found, 
 would be preferable. Perhaps the difficulty in rais- 
 ing more than one crop of rice is due to some de- 
 ficiency in the soil, unfitting it for rice cultivation 
 in particular, for wild vegetation grows there in 
 great profusion. To supply this deficiency by tak- 
 ing commercial fertilizers up into the hills, where 
 there are no roads and everything has to be car- 
 ried on the backs of pack animals or of men, is 
 out of the question. Fertilization by means of ma- 
 nures, even if it would supply the deficiency, which 
 is doubtful, would be almost equally difficult for 
 a variety of reasons, one of which Is that, on ac- 
 
204 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 count of the prevalence of wild beasts, it is difficult 
 to raise cattle extensively in the hills. It may be 
 that, instead of rice, other crops, such as nuts or 
 some kinds of fruit, could be grown in the hills and 
 exchanged for the rice of the plains. A kind of 
 nut, called the dog nut, which is much relished by 
 the Burmese in their cooking, grows freely and 
 abundantly in the hills and brings a good price on 
 the plains. If a beginning could be made in this 
 way so that the cultivation of the hills would be 
 more remunerative, roads could be improved, and, 
 with better roads, facilities would be increased and 
 other methods might be adopted. Crops which are 
 not profitable now might prove to be profitable. 
 There are also little gardens up in the valleys 
 among the hills which might perhaps be improved 
 or turned to better account. It is these gardens 
 which really hold many of the hill Karens to their 
 present abodes. They depend on irrigation. 
 The soil in them is excellent, and they are kept in 
 a high state of cultivation. At present they are 
 used for the raising of betel nut for local con- 
 sumption. They might perhaps be turned to the 
 cultivation of much more valuable crops. In any 
 case, it seems unquestionable that the hill districts 
 could be made to support a vastly larger popula- 
 tion than now, and they are the natural habitat of 
 the Karens. 
 
 Much of the preliminary work which wouldneed 
 to be done in order to make any project for the 
 
A NEGLECTED OPPORTUNITY 205 
 
 improvement of agricultural conditions worth 
 while, has already been accomplished. For the 
 co-operation of the human element is after all one 
 of the most vital factors In the success of any such 
 undertaking. There Is a large Christian commun- 
 ity, consisting chiefly of farmers, which through 
 many years of training has developed habits of in- 
 dependence and initiative. Among these people 
 are not a few men of Intelligence and progressive- 
 ness who are eager to adopt any suggestions for 
 the betterment of their condition and the condition 
 of their race. The writer was once showing some 
 Christian Karens connected with his mission the 
 use of a preparation called a * 'shrub eradlcator,'* 
 which had been given him by an officer of the gov- 
 ernment engineering department. The prepara- 
 tion, which is much like yellow clay In appearance, 
 is first dissolved in water, and then the water is 
 sprinkled on any weeds or other shrubbery which 
 It Is desired to destroy. In two or three days, the 
 leaves turn yellow, and the shrub dies. One of the 
 Karens asked for a handful of the preparation. 
 As he lived some distance away, the missionary 
 saw nothing more of the man for several months. 
 Then he appeared again and asked for some more 
 of the eradlcator. The missionary asked him what 
 he had done with the former supply, and he said 
 he had used it to destroy an annoying parasite 
 which is frequently to be seen growing on trees In 
 Burma. This parasite finds lodgment in some way 
 
206 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 on a branch of a tree. It grows to be a shrub of 
 considerable size, and sends rootlets up and down 
 the branch which adhere to it very closely. One 
 may tear off the shrub, but if a piece of the root 
 so much as an inch in length is allowed to remain 
 on the tree, it will grow again and thrive as be- 
 fore. The Karen man said he had torn off the 
 shrub, dissolved some of the preparation, damp- 
 ened a cloth with the solution and wrapped the 
 cloth about the branch where the rootlets were. 
 After a few days he found that the rootlets were 
 dead and easily stripped off so that not a vestige 
 remained. Then, in order that the tree Itself 
 might suffer no damage from the effect of the 
 solution, he has plastered that part of the branch 
 with mud, and found that the tree remained in a 
 perfectly healthy condition. This showed no little 
 degree of ingenuity on the part of the inexperi- 
 enced Karen. Probably an arboricultural expert 
 could have done no better. 
 
 The needs are great, the possibilities well nlghl 
 boundless. What can be done to meet the situa" 
 tion? It is quite probable that, in normal times, 
 the government would give substantial aid if a 
 mission were in a position to do something really 
 worth while towards the development of the native 
 people in scientific agriculture. There are, more- 
 over, some things which the government would 
 need to do if they were done at all; the construc- 
 tion of roads, the terracing of the hills, — if such 
 
A NEGLECTED OPPORTUNITY 207 
 
 a plan were deemed feasible, — and the opening of 
 fresh tracts for cultivation. In general the gov- 
 ernment is generously disposed towards projects 
 for the betterment of the conditions of the people, 
 but it is probable that in these present times, at 
 least a substantial start would have to be made by 
 private initiative before Government could be ap- 
 proached with any likeHhood of success. It would 
 be worse than useless to attempt much beyond 
 school gardens on an ordinary missionary appro- 
 priation, even if to that were added possible gifts 
 from the native churches. And yet the expense in- 
 volved need not necessarily be very great. In 
 China vast plans are on foot for medical advance- 
 ment involving the expenditure of millions of 
 money. An assured annual income of $2,000 or 
 $3,000 would make it possible for one man, a 
 trained missionary agricultural specialist, to devote 
 his entire time to this phase of the work and sup- 
 ply him with a small appropriation for expenses, 
 and thus enable him to enter an open door of op- 
 portunity. Naturally, he could do little theoretical 
 work until he knew something of the language and 
 the people, but, while he was engaged in becoming 
 familiar with these, he could well begin work on 
 vocational training in the schools. The supervision 
 of school gardens in various centers would help to 
 create a morale for scientific agriculture among the 
 older, brighter pupils, — the class that now covets 
 clerical posts and the like. In time, this practical 
 
208 A STAR II? THE EAST 
 
 garden work could be supplemented by a simple 
 course on the subject In the school curriculum. 
 
 The next step in the work might well be the 
 establishment of two experiment stations, one for 
 the study of the problems of lowland and the other 
 [for those of upland farming. There are districts 
 where the two types are in progress in close enough 
 proximity for one man to have general oversight 
 of both. Pupils from the schools who had shown 
 special aptitude for this science might be induced 
 to specialize and train themselves for further work 
 of the kind. Undoubtedly the missionary would 
 be able to get experienced Christian farmers to at- 
 tempt the practical solution of individual prob- 
 lems either at the station or on their own lands 
 under his direction. The holding of institutes open 
 to the people at large where instruction might be 
 be given in farming, with demonstrations, as is 
 done in some parts of America, might prove a good 
 means of disseminating the results gained from 
 the experimentation and so making it of more gen- 
 eral value. Such institutes, if properly conducted, 
 would doubtless be very popular and might accom- 
 plish much. As the whole scheme developed, the 
 establishment of a special school or college of 
 agriculture might prove to be a desirable step. 
 This could be done gradually as native teachers 
 were trained to give instruction. With the growth 
 of the work might ultimately come the opening up 
 of new lands for cultivation and perhaps the im- 
 
A NEGLECTED OPPORTUNITY 209 
 
 provement of communications, together with any- 
 thing else which would tend to the betterment of 
 the conditions among the farming community. The 
 youth growing up would see farming and its prob- 
 lems put on a par with other occupations as worthy 
 of study, and they would be likely to feel more in- 
 terest in it as a life work and attack the problems 
 more intelligently. The total result would be to in- 
 crease greatly the prosperity of the Karen people, 
 advance them in civilization as perhaps could be 
 done in no other way, and give them «.^'truer con- 
 ception of the many-sided completeness and ade- 
 quacy of the Christian religion. And the expense, 
 if the plan were carried out gradually in a modest 
 way need not be very great. 
 
 Millions are being generously given today for 
 literary colleges, and tens of millions for medical 
 schools in the Orient. Where are the thousands 
 to come from which will help not only to advance 
 an entire race along the lines of improved scien- 
 tific agriculture, but also to make progress in all 
 true culture and excellence ? 
 
XV 
 A CALL TO ARMS 
 
 REFERENCE has been made to the stress 
 of the religious conditions which are con- 
 fronting the Karen Christians of Burma 
 and to the great conflict of religions which awaits 
 the people of God everywhere. As there has 
 sprung upon the world in recent years such a gen- 
 eral and catastrophic contest of arms as has never 
 before been known, so there is about to break 
 forth, has already broken forth, a spiritual con- 
 flict in comparison with which any previous clash 
 of weapons will seem like a child's quarrel, a battle 
 of spiritual forces in which many of the shrewdest 
 minds of the West will unite with the subtlest 
 minds of the East to overwhelm and put to utter 
 rout the forces of Him who hung upon the tree of 
 Calvary. The outcome of the struggle Is certain, 
 as sure as the promises of God, as firm as the 
 eternal hills of truth and righteousness. But the 
 people of God everywhere need to gird themselves 
 afresh for the fight. Especially is it important that 
 the Christians of America should set themselves in 
 array, for It is to that favored land that the na- 
 
 210 
 
A CALL TO ARMS 211 
 
 tions of the earth must now look for light and 
 leading, and the missionary feels keenly that his 
 own efficiency and the strength of the work as a 
 whole must depend in large degree on the spiritual 
 resources which are behind him in the home land. 
 
 To nothing is the missionary more deeply sen- 
 sitive than to the thought and Hfe of God's people 
 throughout the world. He studies the religious 
 periodicals, he pores over the issues of the press, 
 he notes trends and tendencies, wondering ever 
 how they will affect the great, the world-wide is- 
 sues before him. Especially is he sensitive to the 
 varying tides of thought which have their move- 
 ments now this way, now that, for he knows that 
 sooner or later, beliefs will have their sure effect 
 upon the life, and interpretations of doctrine will 
 enter into and stimulate or enervate the sinews of 
 spiritual strength. 
 
 First of all, then, there is needed on the part 
 of God's people a deep "digging In" with regard to 
 his word. As, in modern warfare, the soldiers 
 at the front are wont to *'dlg in," to lay deep 
 trenches in the earth, so in the revealed word, and 
 especially in the great truths of redemption and 
 grace, the Christian world must dig in. There is 
 needed a revival of doctrine. By this is not meant 
 a re-formulation of creeds or an emphasis on dog- 
 ma, but a deep appreciation on the part of God's 
 people of the great fundamental truths of the gos- 
 pel, the distinguishing doctrines of the Christian 
 
212 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 religion. Let it be understood to start out with 
 that these are not principles which commend them- 
 selves to the natural man. As it was written of old, 
 to the Jew they are a stumbling block and to the 
 Greek foolishness. Yet it is to these very doc- 
 trines — not the things in which the Christian re- 
 ligion is like other religions, but the things which 
 differentiate it from all other faiths — that atten- 
 tion needs to be especially given, and upon these 
 that stress must be laid. The atonement, through 
 the work upon the cross of Jesus Christ, the divine 
 Son of God; salvation by grace through faith; the 
 power of the living and ascended Lord in the 
 hearts of his people by the Spirit — these are things 
 that Buddhism and Confucianism and Hindooism 
 and Mohammedanism know nothing of. They 
 are distinctly hostile to every other faith, unthink- 
 able and incomprehensible to the unregeneratie 
 man. Yet it is on these doctrines, on these great 
 fundamental verities of Christian life and expe- 
 rience, that the Christian religion is based. By 
 these the hope of God^s people everywhere must 
 stand or fall. No doubt much has already been 
 said and written on these mighty themes, but they 
 need still to be dwelt upon, to be studied into, 
 to be investigated, for they are inexhaustible. There 
 is need enough that this should be done not only 
 for the enrichment of the religious life of God's 
 people at home, but also for the girding up of their 
 strength, for even in America mighty conflicts are 
 
A CALL TO ARMS 213 
 
 impending against insidious foes. But for the 
 strengthening of the forces abroad on the firing 
 line, it is indispensable. 
 
 But, if this deeper study of the word and medita- 
 tion on its teachings are needed, still more is re- 
 quired a deeper consecration on the part of the 
 people of God for the carrying forward of the 
 work of world-wide evangelization. 
 
 The true missionary ideal Is at the farthest pos- 
 sible remove from the spirit of asceticism. Suf- 
 fering in itself has no merit or advantage on the 
 mission field or anywhere else. Whatever may 
 have been true In the past, it is now recognized as 
 the duty of the missionary to maintain himself in 
 as fair a degree of comfort and well-being as is 
 consistent with his means and his environment. But 
 the spirit of genuine self-sacrifice, that spirit which 
 enables its possessor to endure all things that are 
 needful to the accomplishment of the great end, 
 and yet is utterly unconscious of itself, not even 
 aware that any sacrifice is involved, that is of the 
 essence of Christian living the world over and it is 
 indispensable to the missionary's most effective 
 work. For the missionary must not simply make 
 converts, gather them into churches and instil into 
 their hearts the principles of the gospel, but he 
 must also seek to bring about the deepening of 
 their spiritual life. All of these objects save the 
 last may be accomplished by preaching and instruc- 
 tion, but this can seemingly be brought about b)5 
 
214 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 means of example only. And it Is often the case 
 that the native Christian — It Is a solemn, soul- 
 subduing thing to say — Is disciplined, chastened, 
 refined, In the person of the missionary. 
 
 The writer may perhaps be pardoned for re- 
 ferring here to the experience of his father. The 
 work of the latter at Shwegyin began, as so much 
 of the work on the foreign field Is done, amid both 
 smiles and tears, both sunshine and shadow. Of 
 the former mention has already been made In the 
 conversion of Saw Tah Ree and the formation of 
 the first church of Shwegyin seven weeks and a day 
 after Mr. Harris's arrival at that station. But 
 cloud and gloom soon came upon this little band, 
 for, shortly after those converts had been baptized 
 and the little company of disciples had observed 
 the Lord's Supper together for the first time, the 
 missionary's wife, who had contracted a disease 
 common to the country, but had somewhat recov- 
 ered, suffered a relapse. It soon became evident 
 that she had not much longer to live. It Is said 
 that In her youth she was very much afraid of 
 death, so much so that, when her own mother died 
 in a farm house on the Berkshire hills of Massa- 
 chusetts, she dared not go Into the room where the 
 body lay, but peered In through the window. But 
 now, when the time of her own departure was at 
 hand, knowing how hard It would be for her hus- 
 band to perform the last sad rites — for there was 
 no other white woman within hundreds of miles of 
 
\ A CALL TO ARMS 215 
 
 the place — she pointed out the dress she wished to 
 wear, helped to put it on, saw to the combing of 
 her hair, did all she could to prepare herself for 
 burial, and when everything was complete so far 
 as she could make it, she turned to her husband 
 and said: 
 
 *'It Is not often that a mother has to array her- 
 self for her own funeral, but I have done it with 
 as much composure as if I were going out to make 
 a call." After preparing the crude coffin with his 
 own hands, placing the body in it and burying it 
 with the aid of the few disciples who were about, 
 the sorrowing husband and father had to take the 
 four little children to Moulmein and put them in 
 the care of a missionary lady returning to America. 
 As he stood on the deck and bade them good-bye, 
 one little fellow put his arms around his father's 
 neck, and said: 
 
 '*I cannot let you go, papa. I cannot let you 
 go." And the father put his head tenderly over 
 the little one and said: 
 
 "Can't we do this for Jesus ?" 
 
 Can it be doubted that when the missionary went 
 back to his field the memory of the triumphant 
 death of that saintly woman and the presence 
 among them of one whom they greatly loved en- 
 during, for their sakes, separation from all he held 
 dear, and moving among them without complaint, 
 with only kindly smiles and cheerful words for 
 them and theirs — can it be doubted that it meant 
 
216 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 much to the spiritual life of those new converts? 
 To this day the Karen disciples of the Shwegyin 
 mission, by the common consent of those who know 
 them, shed forth a peculiar aroma of Christian 
 resignation and submissive trust. In all probability 
 this has been due in no small degree to the influence 
 of their first missionary. 
 
 It may not be out of place to digress just here 
 for the purpose of touching briefly on the subject 
 of that supreme sacrifice of missionary life, the 
 separation of families. Is it right? Even though 
 the missionary himself may be wlUing to endure 
 all the privations and hardships which may be in- 
 volved in his work, is he justified in making his 
 children suffer with him? Do not his obligations 
 as a father require that he should give them the 
 personal care and training which only a father can 
 bestow? It is a difficult problem. No missionary 
 ever undertakes to tell another what he should do. 
 But it is evident that Jesus considered it quite 
 within the range of possibility that his disciples 
 would have to do that very thing, for he pro- 
 nounces blessing upon those who leave father and 
 mother and wife and children for his sake and the 
 gospel's, and we may be sure he thought all around 
 the subject. In other occupations men leave their 
 children not only without incurring criticism, but 
 even sometimes receiving high praise. If Lord 
 Roberts was glad to give up his children and lay 
 them away in foreign graves in order that he might 
 
\ A CALL TO ARMS 217 
 
 serve his queen, may not the missionary do much 
 the same thing for the service of the Great King? 
 There Is this also to be said, that In not a few in- 
 stances the children of missionaries have them- 
 selves caught the spirit of self-sacrifice from their 
 parents and have been willing to take up and en- 
 dure gladly the heart grief, not because they loved 
 their parents less than other children love their par- 
 ents — the ties are often more than usually close in 
 the families of missionaries — butbecause they loved 
 the great cause more than they loved their own com- 
 fort. *'Then, who will tell those poor people about 
 Jesus?" was the first question of one such mission- 
 ary daughter when she was Informed of the death 
 of her father which had just taken place on his 
 field of labor. No thought of her own great loss ! 
 When God in his mercy takes the children of mis- 
 sionaries in a special manner under his brooding 
 care and instils in them such a spirit, may not that 
 be compensation enough even to those children 
 themselves for all that they have suffered? Is not 
 the spirit of self-sacrifice Itself a rich possession, 
 and may it not even have a restraining, a directing, 
 a purifying, an Inspiring influence over the one 
 who has it, though that person be but a little child, 
 more than equaling all the oversight and care that 
 father or mother can give ? 
 
 Will, then, the people of God in America unite 
 with the missionary, as never before, in that spirit 
 of real self-sacrifice which is demanded not of the 
 
218 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 missionary alone, but of every true follower of 
 Christ? There is nothing which the servant of 
 God more deeply craves. It is needful for the 
 effective conduct of the work of world evangeliza- 
 tion that the entire life and thought of Christ's 
 people everywhere should be bound up in the 
 mighty grip of one common devotion. 
 
 Finally, there is needed on the part of God's 
 people in the home land a truer appreciation of the 
 stupendousness and at the same time of the worth- 
 whileness of the missionary enterprise. If the 
 hosts of Satan from the West as well as from the 
 East are to unite in this great conflict, if the 
 brightest minds to be found anywhere are to be 
 engaged in battle against the Lord and against 
 his Anointed, then surely the very best possible 
 equipment is needed for the carrying on of this 
 warfare on the part of the people of Christ, the 
 best training, the keenest intelligence, the com- 
 pletest endowment. "The best belongs to the 
 worst," is an aphorism to which a noted divine 
 gave expression, but he was content to remain in 
 his aristocratic pulpit and minister to his people 
 the sparkling scintillations of his brilliant mind. 
 That which many admit as a theory must become 
 an inner conviction on the part of God's people 
 and a spring of effective action. "Why should 
 you go to Asia to throw away your talents on the 
 heathen? You are needed in this country," is a 
 species of foolish flattery which might be passed 
 
A CALL TO ARMS 219 
 
 over in silence were it not too often the expression 
 of sober opinion on the part of leading lights 
 among the churches of America. Whatever ad- 
 vantages of education and culture the missionary 
 may have had, and however assiduously he may 
 have applied himself to getting to the full their 
 benefits, he will feel that he needs the expenditure 
 of every available power, latent or acquired, in the 
 prosecution of his work. 
 
 Even from the point of view of him who thinks 
 only in terms of weights and measures, and num- 
 bers and values, and muscle and brawn the mission- 
 ary enterprise is worth while. Many people in 
 western lands are engaged in works of mercy, in 
 prison reform, in the suppression of child labor, in 
 alleviating the condition of workers in sweat shops, 
 in securing sanitary surroundings in the slums of 
 cities. All honor to such, to every one who labors 
 for the advancement of humanity in any direction. 
 But where is there on the face of the earth an en- 
 terprise in which a handful of people havewrought, 
 as among the Karens, the conservation of an entire 
 race, and that, not as the main thing sought, but 
 merely as a by-product? From any and every 
 point of view the work of Christian missions may 
 challenge comparison with any other work for 
 the advancement of good among men. 
 
 Let Christian people everywhere, then, arise. 
 As God has brought peace and prosperity to the 
 Karens of Burma and outpoured his blessing upon 
 
220 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 them as a race, even though some refused to accept 
 his word, so will God yet outpour his grace and 
 his blessing, his peace and his glory upon all the 
 world, and every tongue shall confess and every 
 knee shall bow. The missionary enterprise worth 
 while? When the glint in the dewdrop turns 
 black, when the sheen of the rainbow ceases, when 
 the sun and the moon and the stars are darkened 
 in the sky, when gloom is better than brightness, 
 when death is preferable to life, when it is better 
 to doubt and fear, cringe and shrink, whine and 
 moan, weep and shudder, than to leap and shout 
 and sing, when melancholy is to be preferred to 
 gladness, when it is the height of wisdom to seek 
 despair, then, the missionary enterprise may prove 
 a failure! 
 
 Is the lesson of the book clear? Has the writer 
 succeeded in bringing out forcibly his dominant 
 thought? There shines a star in the East. It is a 
 morning star. While still the other heavens are 
 dark, with only a faint glimmer of light here and 
 there, it gleams. Not that its luster is always 
 clear and pure. Rather, like twinkling stars, it 
 now flashes out, then darkens, now flashes out, 
 then darkens. At first there was that wonderful 
 light which shone out in the Karen tradition, that 
 conception of God as holy, righteous, transcendent, 
 infinite, eternal, ineffable. Then there was the 
 dimming of that light by grosser thoughts, ob- 
 scurer notions of the Infinite One, and the strange, 
 
A CALL TO ARMS 221 
 
 fearful delusion by Satan. But again there flashed 
 forth the messages of the prophets, speaking of 
 hope and cheer, of repentance and remission, of 
 forgiveness and pardon, with the renewal of bless- 
 ing and favor. Once more there came the dark- 
 ening, the waning faith of hope long deferred, the 
 doubts and fears of a race ground down under the 
 heel of oppression. Later came the glad moment 
 when hopes that had been dimmed suddenly 
 gleamed forth again. The book, the book, the 
 long lost book had come! It was here. The 
 younger brother, with white skin and loving eyes, 
 was here ! He spoke of life and joy. He brought 
 with him wonderful things. He was indeed the 
 son to whom Father God had imparted all wis- 
 dom, his wisdom would soon be theirs; they would 
 be a nation again, and place their feet upon the 
 necks of their enemies. There were shouts of joy, 
 heralds of gladness to bid welcome to the white 
 brother and to summon all the people to the feast. 
 Then there was disappointment. Not In physical 
 luxury and temporal splendor was the new king- 
 dom to arise; it was to be a spiritual empire, a 
 reign of meekness, of sobriety, of truth. What I 
 Had they not suffered enough? Had they not 
 long enough occupied the seats of the humble? 
 Was this to be all? Hark back then to the past. 
 Serve Satan again. Cast off the new fetters and 
 return to the old. And so again a period of gloom, 
 a darkening of the shadows, the dimming of hope 
 
222 A STAR IN THE EAST 
 
 and faith and enthusiasm and zeal. But gradually 
 once more there has been the quiet, steady gleam- 
 ing forth of a brighter, truer faith, a hope that 
 shall never be dimmed, the deep, sweet conscious- 
 ness of God, the submissive trust, the inner spiritual 
 perception, the confidence of things unseen yet real. 
 Not that even this faith is perfect, this light com- 
 plete. Only this is to be said of it' — it gleams on 
 and on with increasing luster and beauty until per- 
 chance — ^who knows? — it may be a guiding star 
 for many. 
 
 But this is not all. It cannot be. No, this star 
 that shines so brightly ushers in the dawn that shall 
 yet illumine the whole East. As this star is now 
 gleaming, a single speck of light against a be- 
 nighted sky, so soon, yes, very soon — sooner per- 
 haps than even the most hopeful prophets of today 
 dare think — not single stars here and there, but the 
 whole sky will be lighted up, the entire East will 
 glow with radiance and splendor. And then — and 
 then — who knows? — that may be the appointed 
 time when the Sun of Righteousness will arise and 
 illumine the whole world with his radiance, when 
 with a shout of victory, the Lord himself shall re- 
 turn, and the fulfilment of all things spoken at the 
 mouth of the holy prophets may be accomplished. 
 God speed the day ! 
 
 This all too fragmentary account of Christian 
 missions to the Karens of Burma has been given, 
 not for its own sake alone, but in order that it 
 
A CALL TO ARMS 228 
 
 might cheer the people of God and spur them on 
 in the confident expectation that, great as have been 
 the achievements of God's grace among this people 
 so great and even greater will doubtless be the 
 triumphs of his power and love, over all the na- 
 tions that are now shrouded in darkness, not only 
 in Asia, but in Africa, in South America, in the 
 Isles of the sea, and wherever sin, pain, wretched- 
 ness and need are found. The Prince of Peace 
 shall yet reign. What though the nations rage! 
 There is a God who will surely make the wrath 
 of man to praise him. And there will come a day 
 when men shall beat their spears into pruning 
 hooks, and wars shall cease and strifes will be o'er, 
 and love will abound and righteousness will flour- 
 ish, and Him whose right it is to reign shall all 
 nations serve. 
 

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