224 Religion d-c. among the Karens. [No. 4, 



this village and carried away all their stones ; bnt afterwards all the 

 stones came back to their old places. 



" When the teacher arrived, they carried away all their stones into 

 the jungle, and built a chapel, and said ; ' If the stones come back, we 

 will not worship G-od, but if they do not come back, as formerly, we 

 will worship God.' The stones have never returned, so the people 

 worship God to this day. The inhabitants of that village stand in 

 great fear of stones, more than ordinary. 



" We have also heard that the Pakus have stones, like a man's fist, 

 and when they have any hatred against any one, they will strike the 

 impressions of his foot on the ground with one of these stones, and 

 the man dies." 



I have seen many of their stones, but there is nothing remarkable 

 in them, and they possess nothing in common, They are most usually 

 bits of rock crystal, or jasper, or some variety of chalcedony, but 

 never of any value, or in any way curious. Occasionally they are mere 

 lumps of stratified rock, remarkable for nothing but the numerous 

 thin lines of strata displayed on their edges. 



The possession of one of these miraculous stones had much to do 

 in dividing the Red Karens into two tribes, eastern and western, as 

 they are now found. The story has been related to me thus ; " There 

 was a Sgau called Shapau, who possessed an exceedingly good stone. 

 He set himself up as a kind of political teacher, and travelled about 

 from village to village among the Sgaus and Pakus. They said to 

 him, ' We cannot receive thee. If we receive thee, should the king 

 at Ava hear of it, the Burmans will kill us all.' 



" As he could not succeed among his own countrymen, he took his 

 wife and wife's sister, and went away to the Red Karens. They 

 received him and built him a house, and it was not long before he 

 began to work miracles with his stone. The stone was remarkable, 

 it is said, for having the power to change its colour. It could change 

 from black to yellow or white at pleasure. The result was that all 

 the Red Karens believed in him. They believed in him so fully that 

 they were discussing the question of making him king. 



" At this juncture, a son of the king of Ava rebelled against his 

 father, but his father overcame him and he fled to Toungoo. He did 

 not dare to remain long there, however, for fear of his father, so he 



