1865.] Religion etc. among the Karens. 177 



myself by a leap ; ' and he called all his children to come and receive 

 his dying commands. They came, and after each had been charged, 

 he leaped into the sea. The Karens ran away into the jungles, but 

 the white foreigners could not run, and they said to the Karens : 

 ' Elder brother, I will go to where father commanded me.' The 

 Karen replied : ' I will not go.' But the white foreigner went to his 

 home, and leaping into the sea, brought up the body of his father. 

 His father said to him, ' I am not dead ; ' and he gave orders to his 

 children to come and receive his commands again, as he was about to 

 go away. But the Karens had run away afar off, so he said to the 

 white foreigners : ' Do not stay here.' And he washed them over 

 with sandal wood, and said : ' If you stay here, the Karens will perse- 

 cute you.' So they followed their father, and he gave them another 

 country. 



" The Red Karens say that anciently, after the transgression, God 

 called all the different races of men together to learn to read, and all 

 went, and every one studied zealously except the Karen, who did not 

 study in earnest like the White Foreigner, the Chinese, and the Bur- 

 mese. He went to and fro, and played, and did not understand books 

 like the others. After a while, God dismissed the people and all 

 returned home, but the Karen was not skilled in books, like the other 

 nations. Still God had given him a book, but when he would study 

 it at home, his wife scolded him, and drove him off to work. He 

 therefore forgot what he had learned, and did not take care of his 

 book. 



" One day, while he was absent, his book fell into the fire, and was 

 burned, and being unable to write, the Karens have had no books from 

 that time to the present. However, they observed the variegated 

 marks left by the letters of their books in the ashes where it was burn- 

 ed, and they made diligent efforts to embroider those forms on their 

 dresses. Hence it is that the Karens are able to embroider different 

 forms on their dresses. Had they not looked, and imitated the letters 

 of the book that was burned, the Karens would not be skilled in any 

 thing." 



The above is from a Bghai assistant that spent two years among the 

 Red Karens. 

 21 



