JOURNAL 
OF THE 
=PrATIG SOCIETY. 
——<e-— 
Part IL—PHYSICAL SCIENCE. 
eee 
No. 1V.—1865. 

Religion, Mythology, and Astronomy among the Karens.— 
By Rev. F. Mason, D. D. 
[Continued from page 188, Part II. No. 3.] 
MYTHOLOGY. 
Fourure Srate. 
Karen ideas of a future state are confused, indefinite, and contra- 
dictory. They seem to be a melee of different systems. That 
which appears to me indigenous Karen, corresponds to the notions of 
the American Indians. It represents the future world as a counter- 
part of this, located under the earth, where the inhabitants are 
“employed precisely as they are here. When the sun sets on earth, it 
‘rises in the Karen Hades; and when it sets in Hades, it rises on this 










‘world. The following story is.adduced by the Karens as proof of the 
accuracy of this cosmology. ‘ 
“The elders say: There was a man who had a wife that he loved; 
‘and she loved him in return. His wife died, which distressed him 
beyond measure, and he said. ‘If there be any one that will raise 
her up to life again, I will give him whatever he may ask.’ 
“A prophet or necromancer was found, who raised his wife from the 
grave, and restored her alive to her home in the night. She pursued 
her usual daily avocations throughout the night, but as soon as day- 
light appeared she died again, and remained dead all day, but revived 
at eve and went to work as people usually do inthe morning. This 
course she pursued constantly. Hence it is manifest, that people in 
the next world work just as they do in this.” 
26 

