984 Dr. Heifer's Third Report [Dec. 



Many of them are huntsmen by profession, living for months in the 

 wildest forests, where they shoot elephants for the ivory ; they are 

 also the trappers, tamers, and managers of elephants in general, to 

 them in their own country the most important of domesticated animals; 

 while in the Tenasserim provinces, under Burmese rule, elephant 

 scarcely ever known tamed. The greatest part of the Siamese in the pro- 

 vinces approach more to the Malay than Chinese type in their features, 

 which are generally very coarse, and their women very ugly, though both 

 are generally well built, and taller than the Burmese. The huntsmen, 

 particularly, are very nimble, sprightly, dexterous, and courageous; 

 while the peaceful cottagers of the two settlements of Boukpeen and 

 Lennya, which existed before the British occupation, are on the contrary 

 dull. We cannot be allowed to judge of the Siamese as they appear 

 in Tenasserim, for they were before they arrived the poorest class of de- 

 pressed slaves, whom necessity only drove to seek a peaceable asylum. 

 The more wealthy and favoured Siamese in the great delta or valley of 

 Menam, and those towards the gulf of Cambogia, are said to be intellec- 

 tually much advanced, and the great number of Chinese living among 

 them, will have communicated to them more civilized manners, and 

 improved modes of cultivation. 



4. The Kareans — their origin. — The Kareans are the inhabitants 

 of the longest standing in the provinces, who have survived the shocks 

 of succeeding revolutions. Their origin cannot be traced. Some sup- 

 pose them to be the aborigines of the country, some affirm they are the 

 wreck of a great nation, fallen into dependence and slavery, expatria- 

 ted and spreading afterwards over a wide extent of Indo-China, for 

 they are found from the 11th to the 23rd degree of north latitude. The 

 American missionaries, who are much interested about this people, are 

 of opinion that they originally came from Thibet; the opinion seems 

 however to rest only upon the congruity of names and some manners. 



Their station. — Wherever they exist, they hold an inferior station 

 in the country, excepting the so-called red Kareans to the north of 

 Maulmain, who have resisted the Burmese influence, — they are 

 mountaineers, subsisting upon prey and plunder. 



The Kareans of the Tenasserim provinces, forming separate 

 colonies, inhabit such parts as are unoccupied by any other in- 

 habitants, which are'the inland portions of the country ; they there 

 choose their abodes either on the banks of rivers or in secluded 

 valleys. These communities do not generally consist of more than 

 from three to twelve houses or families. As they have the cus- 

 tom of intermarriage, they are nearly related to each other. Soli- 



