1866. ] Social Customs dc. of the Karens. a 
brains; evening after evening it is brains. It must be she goes and 
gets human brains to eat. We cannot get so many brains: and they 
have no father. Where can so many brains come from ?’ 
“ After awhile they concluded they would kill her for being a 
witch, and they made known their intentions to an uncle of hers. He 
said: ‘ Wait till I can go and see her.’ When at leisure, he went to 
see the family. He killed a deer, took the head to the children, and 
showed the brains to the children, asking: ‘Does your mother feed 
you with brains like these?’ They all replied: ‘ No, uncle, mother 
feeds us with brains that are bright red.’ There are no fibres in them 
like these.’ 
“The uncle then repeated his enquiries successively with the heads 
of ahorse, an elephant, a bear, a goat-antelope, a bison, a barking deer, 
a porcupine, a bamboo-rat, a squirrel, a tupai, a rat, a bird, a fowl, a 
snake, a frog, a fish, and every kind of animal known in the country ; 
but the children said to all, ‘Uncle, our mother feeds us with no such 
brains as these.’ 
“ He thought to himself; ‘It is not this, and it isnot that. Surely 
the woman is a witch, for there is no other kind of brains it can be, 
but human brains.’ So he concluded it was best to kill her. 
*“* However he went out hunting one day more, and all day he met 
with nothing; so on his return home he plucked two sheathes of wild 
plantain blossoms, and bringing them into the house, he laid them 
down by the wash stand. One of the children saw the bright red 
sheathes ; ‘My uncle has brought me some brains, I will eat them aly 
myself, I will not give a taste to any one else.’ All the children 
rejoiced greatly, and said ‘ These are the brains on which mother fed 
HIS: 
“When the uncle knew that his niece was not a witch, he 
almost fainted at the thought of having so nearly consented to her 
death.” 
Foon. 
A Karen is a most omnivorous animal. Always excepting the 
feline race, he eats every quadruped from a rat to an elephant; and 
there is scarcely a reptile unacceptable to his palate, from a sand lizard 
to a crocodile, and from a toad to a serpent. Flying ants and crawl- 
ing grubs are in his bill of fare; and there is no bird too tough, no fish 
