240 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap. 



These differences are not very great, and their 

 significance is diminished by the following con- 

 siderations. The Kayans may have acquired their 

 aversion to killing the dog through contact with 

 Malays. They bury the dead in the ground in the 

 case of poor persons or those dead of epidemic 

 disease. And they have a tradition that they 

 formerly practised the weaving of cloth. They may 

 also have acquired the art of making and using the 

 solid wooden blow-pipe from Malays ; and this 

 would account for their having given up the use 

 of the bow and arrow as a serious weapon. On 

 the other hand, the inferior houses of the Karens, 

 the lack of restrictions among them upon animal 

 foods, their earth burial — all these may well be due 

 to decay of custom among an oppressed people ; 

 and the fact that they^seem to make but little use 

 of boats may well be due to their having been driven 

 away from the main rivers and pushed into the hills. 

 We have little doubt that many more points of 

 resemblance would be discoverable, if we had any 

 full account of the Karens as they were before their 

 culture was largely affected by contact with Burmese 

 and Shans and by the influence of the missionaries 

 who have taught so successfully among them for 

 more than sixty years. 



Among the elements of Kayan culture which 

 are lacking or but feebly represented among the 

 Karens, some are reported among the tribes most 

 nearly allied to the Karens, and others among other 

 peoples of the same area. 



Thus the peculiar Kayan custom of tatuing the 

 thighs of women has a close parallel in the tatuing 

 of the thighs of men among all Burmese and Shans ; 

 and the Kayans may well have adopted the practice 

 from them. Among the Shans there obtains the 

 custom of placing the coffin on upright timbers at 

 some height above the ground (9). Among the 



