1865.] Belie/ion &c. among the Karens. 231 



" The elder sister responded : 



' Return not to her, sister dear, 

 'Twas mother beat and sent us here.' 

 " The elder sister positively refused to return to the earth, hut the La 

 of the younger one came hack with the necromancer, and on her arrival 

 at home, the body came to life again." 



Fowl's Bones. 



In the beginning, say the elders, Grod gave to the Chinese a book of 

 paper, to the Burmese a book of palm leaf, and to the Karens a book 

 of skin. The Chinese and the Burmese studied their books, and 

 taught them to their children ; but the Karens were indolent, did not 

 value their book and laid it on the end of their house, where it was 

 thrown down on the ground, and a hog came and tore it up. After 

 the hog had gone, a fowl came and picked up all the fragments. 



It soon became apparent even to the Karens that the Chinese and 

 Burmese greatly excelled them in knowledge through their acquaintance 

 with books ; and they then regretted the loss of their own book. 



They concluded, however, that the fowl which had eaten up the book 

 must possess all the knowledge that the book contained. They 

 resolved therefore to consult its thigh bones, and note the marks and 

 indentations made by the tendons on them as letters, and pray to it to 

 reveal its knowledge. 



There is no superstition so commonly practised among the Karens as 

 this. No measure of importance is undertaken, till a favourable response 

 has been obtained from the fowl's bones. 



The thigh bones of a chicken are taken out, and after prayer, and 

 making a condition that the bones may exactly correspond, or they 

 may differ in some particular ; that the indentations for the ten- 

 dons, may be alike or unlike, that the bones may be even or un- 

 even ; the two bones are held up abreast of each other, between the 

 thumb and finger and carefully examined. It requires a practised eye 

 to read the result accurately, and there are many nice distinctions 

 known only to the elders, who do not always agree in their readino-s. 



From my house in Karenee, I looked down into the court-yard of 

 the Saubwa, where he was in consultation with some of his chiefs over 

 the chicken bones. They were passed round from hand to hand each 



