JOURNAL 



OF THE 



ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



[I.— PHYSICAL SCIENCE. 



No. IV.— 1865. 



Religion, Mythology, and Astronomy among the Karens. — • 



By Rev. F. Mason, D. D. 



[Continued from page 188, Part IT. No. 3.] 



MYTHOLOGY. 



Future State. 



Karen ideas of a future state are confused, indefinite, and contra- 

 dictory. They seem to be a melee of different systems. That 

 which appears to me indigenous Karen, corresponds to the notions of 

 the American Indians. It represents the future world as a counter- 

 part of this, located under the earth, where the inhabitants are 

 employed precisely as they are here. When the sun sets on earth, it 

 rises in the Karen Hades ; and when it sets in Hades, it rises on this 

 world. The following story is adduced by the Karens as proof of the 

 accuracy of this cosmology. 



" The elders say : There was a man who had a wife that he loved, 

 and she loved him in return. His wife died, which distressed him 

 beyond measure, and he said. ' If there be any one that will raise 

 her up to life again, I will give him whatever he may ask.' 



" A prophet or necromancer was found, who raised his wife from the 

 grave, and restored her alive to her home in the night. She pursued 

 her usual daily avocations throughout the night, but as soon as day- 

 light appeared she died again, and remained dead all day, but revived 

 at eve and went to work as people usually do in the morning. This 

 course she pursued constantly. Hence it is manifest, that people in 

 the next world work just as they do in this." 

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