196 Religion &c. among the Karens. [No. 4, © 






















To these ideas are appended others that appear to have been 
originally derived from the Hindus. They say that Hades has a king, 
or judge, who stands at the door to admit or reject those who apply 
for admission into his kingdom. He decides the future of each. 
Those who have performed meritorious works are sent to the regions of 
happiness above; but those that have done wickedness, such as 
“striking father or mother,” are delivered over to the king of hell 
who is in waiting, and who casts them down into hell; while those 
who have neither performed deeds of merit, nor are guilty of great 
crimes, are allotted a place in Hades. The Sgaus call this personage 
Yu, or Tha-mie-Yu and the Bghais Tha-ma. Both are probably derived 
from the Hindu Ya-ma; and his office and duties are as old as the 
earliest records we have of the Egyptian religion. 
Tue Sprrrr Wortp. 
To a Karen, the world is more thickly peopled with spirits, than it 
is with men, and the occasions on which his faith requires him to make 
sacrifices and offerings to these unseen beings are interminable. 
Every human being has his guardian spirit walking by his side, 
or wandering away in search of dreamy adventures; and if too long 
absent, he must be called back with offerings. 
Then the spirits of the departed dead crowd around him, whom he 
has to appease by varied and unceasing offerings, to preserve his life 
and health. 
Again there are all the conspicuous objects of the material world 
—the lofty mountain, the wide river; the shady tree and the inac- 
cessible pricipice, every one of which, by the awe they inspire, 
demands reverence and respect from human beings, and punishes each 
breach of etiquette with sickness or death. These too must be 
propitiated. 
Thus, though the Karens haye no cumbrous written ritual of ser- 
vices and ceremonies, like the Mahommedans, the Brahmins and the 
Buddhists ; they have yet an oral liturgy of observances, as burden 
some as the services of the ancient Egyptians or the Mosaic ritual. 
Guarpian SprRits. 
The word in Karen that designates the heart is also used for the 
mind and soul. The seat of all moral qualities is in the heart, an 
death is designated as the departure of the heart from the body, 
