132 Notes of the Karen Language. [No. 2. 



The absence, in all their traditions, of any allusion to any thing 

 peculiarly Christian, proves that they never had the New Testament 

 among them ; and that, if derived from a written source, those 

 traditions must have come from the Old Testament alone. The 

 Karens themselves say they were obtained from their ancient books 

 of skin, which are praised as teaching morals, in contrast with the 

 palm-leaf books, that treat of things to make men wonder. A poe- 

 tical fragment before me, that has never been published, says : 



" The palm-leaf book that is written in circles, 



The book of palm-leaf that in circles is written, 



The elders drew out the lines in long coils ; 



They became great winding paths ; 



The letters of the palm-leaf books 



Teach ancient wonders ; 



The pages of the palm-leaf books 



Show wonders of antiquity. 



God sent us the book of skin ; 



It is at the feet of the king of Hades ; 



God sent us the book that has neither father nor mother, 



Enabling every one to instruct himself. 



The book of one-sided letters, the letters ten, 



Is at the feet of the king of Hades ; 



The book of one-sided letters, of letters many, 



All men could not read." 



It has been recently ascertained that there have been Jews in 

 China from time immemorial ; and five years ago the missionaries 

 there obtained from a few Jewish families at Khai fimg-fu several 

 copies of the Pentateuch, the only part of the Bible they seem to 

 possess. The manuscripts are described as " beautifully written 

 without points, or marks for divisions, on white sheep skins, cut 

 square and sewed together, about twenty yards long, and rolled on 

 sticks." Had these Jews, or their proselytes, been thrown among 

 Buddhist nations, lost their Pentateuch, and seen no more books of 

 skin, but only palm-leaf books, what more natural than to sing dirges 

 like the above over its removal to Hades ? 



Many of the Karens are quite tenacious in the belief that they 

 formerly had books of their own. In the September (1855) num- 



