1S65.] Religion &c. among the Karens. 233 



He nest addresses the fowl, and says : " Arouse, arouse, Thie- 

 keu's fowl. Mo-lchie's fowl, we give thee food, we afford thee sustenance. 

 • Thou drinkest in a knowledge of the future, thou eatest superhuman 

 power. In the morning, thou seest the hawk, in the evening thou 

 seest man. The seven heavens, thou ascendest to the top ; the seven 

 earths, thou descendest to the bottom. * Thou arrivest at Khu-the ; 

 thou goest unto Tha-ma [*'. e. Yu-ma, the judge of the dead]. Thou 

 goest through the crevices of rocks, thou goest through the crevices of 

 precipices. At the opening and shutting of the western gates of rock, 

 thou goest in between ; thou goest below the earth where the sun travels. 

 I employ thee, I exhort thee. I make thee a messenger, I make thee 

 an angel. Grood, thou revealest ; evil, thou revealest. Arouse thee 

 fowl, arouse ; reveal what is in thee. Now I exhort thee, I entreat 

 thee, if this man is to live to an old age, if his head is not to be bent 

 down, if he is not to come down crash, like a falling tree, let the 

 right hand bone come uneven, let the bones be short and long. Thou 

 art skilled in the words of the elders, thou knowest the language of 

 old men. The good, thou fully knowest ; with the evil thou art 

 perfectly accmainted. Fowl, I exhort thee, I entreat thee ; reveal 

 whatever is in thee. And now, if this man's head is to bend clown, if 

 he is to come down crash, like a falling tree,, if he is to be unable to 

 rest himself from incessant trouble ; if unable to overcome obstacles 

 which shall meet him on every hand ; if unable to rise up or lie down, 

 if his life is not to be prolonged, if he cannot live, then, fowl, come up 

 unpropitious, come up with the tendon short on the right side, come 

 wrong end foremost. If he be able to obtain sufficient to support life, 

 if he be not overcome by feuds, fowl, come up even. Thie-keu's fowl, 

 Mo-kkie's fowl, I pull out thy feathers, I pull at thy skin, I dip thy 

 head, I dip thy feet. Arouse fowl, reveal what is in thee." 



Every one in succession is then besmeared on his forehead with the 

 blood of a separate fowl ; and then every one marks his own fowl by 

 tying a string to it that he may recognise it after being cooked. 

 Some tie a string on the neck, others on the leg, others on the wing, 

 and others elsewhere. They next scorch off the feathers, and boil 

 them. 



The hog is taken if the gall bladder be deemed a good one, otherwise 

 it is rejected. When the rice and meat is cooked, they bring the rice, 



