HUNTING WITH THE KARENS 89 



the other, making a booming yon can hear for a 

 good mile in the jungle. And all this clearing and 

 bnilding is repeated annually, for the Karens are 

 a nomadic people, so constantly changing their 

 abodes that the same piece of ground is not often 

 planted a second time. If during the planting or 

 the ripening of the crop someone should fall ill 

 of smallpox, the afflicted, the house and the rice 

 fields are immediately deserted, because the Karens 

 are deadly afraid of it and fly for their lives on 

 its appearance, setting up sharp sticks on all roads 

 leading to the settlement to intercept the demon 

 of disease. 



Like the Siamese, the Karen women are not good 

 to look upon, and do not improve their appearance 

 any by the style of ornaments they affect. When 

 very young their ears are pierced to admit a small, 

 round stick which is gradually increased in diam- 

 eter, until by the time the little girls have become 

 women their ears easily accommodate a two-inch 

 disc of blackened bamboo. This stretches the ears 

 hideously, as may be imagined; and when the orna- 

 ment is laid aside temporarily!— well— picture the 

 thin strips of pendant ear lobe! As a rule the 

 Karen women wear their hair long, but, like the 

 Siamese, some cut it short, and others again keep 

 it cropped close, except on top of the head, where 

 it is allowed to grow to its natural length, which 



