230 Religion Sc. among the Karens. [No. 4, 



we become sick, we suffer and die. Now we offer thee food to eat, a 

 great dog. Heal this man, let disease leave him." 



The dog is then killed, and the elder sits down facing the whole 

 family, with a green bamboo raised two or three feet, and stretched 

 horizontally between them, over which he throws the dead dog, taking 

 it by the legs ; and the family catches it and throws it back at him. 

 This ceremony is repeated three times, and then the dog is cooked 

 and eaten. 



Soothsaying. 



Subjected, as a Karen is, to the multifarious dangers proceeding from 

 the wrath of unseen spirits ; he tries, when he has come under the ban 

 of one, and is prostrated by sickness thereby, to ascertain which, it is, 

 that he may propitiate it by suitable offerings. 



To make the discovery, he resorts to prophets or necromancers, per- 

 sons that have eyes to see into the unseen world, and to fowl's bones. 

 Omens too fall within the same category, as giving indications of the 

 future. 



Necromancers. 



There are persons among the Karens who profess to have eyes to 

 see unseen spirits, to tell what they are doing, and even to go to Hades 

 and converse with the spirits of the dead there. When a person is 

 sick, these people, for a fee, will tell what spirit has produced the sick- 

 ness, and the necessary offering to conciliate it. They will sometimes 

 go to Hades and bring back the La that has gone thither, and resusci- 

 tate the dead body. This is proven by the following story : — 



" The elders relate that there was a woman who had two daughters ; 

 and her husband died and left her a widow. 



" After their father's death, their mother treated them very cruelly, 

 beating them continually, so that both died and left her alone. Then 

 she grieved, and wept unceasingly, and refused to be comforted. In 

 her distress, she went to a necromancer, and induced him to visit her 

 children in Hades. He found the La of the youngest, and said to her: 

 ' Thy mother on earth weeps for thee exceedingly. Gro comfort her.' 

 The younger then sang to her elder sister. 



' Return sister, mother requests, 

 She weeps for us in deep distress.' 



