














200 . Religion &c. among the Karens. [No. 4, 
Then his friends take a fowl and a garment of the invalid’s, and 
they spread a mat down at the top of the steps. The garment they 
place at the top of the steps, and taking a stick with which they stir 
the boiling rice, they strike the steps, saying : 
“ Mr, A. B., thy La has left thee, thy La has gone away. It is 
going to and fro; going to the Shans, going to the Burmese; and 
hence thou art afraid. Thy La has gone away, and thou art startled, 
thou art not strong, thou art not vigorous, thou art depressed, thon 
art heartless, thou hast a sallow countenance, thou hast a cough, 
thou hast difficulty in breathing, thou art weak, thou art weary, thy 
head is bald. 
‘ Now Ia, I call thee, beat for thee. Here is the great hen-bird, 
here the great male fowl. Come, come, come. Come and dwell in 
thy dry place, in thy pleasant location, in thy house, as water tight as 
the bottle gourd, to thy divan, to thy bedstead. Come and eat the 
flesh of the female bird, the flesh of the male fowl.’ 
After the fowl is cooked, the fowl and rice are set out, and the sick 
man is made to take hold of the fowl’s head, when his wrist is tied 
with a thread, and then the above prayer is repeated. The string 
is then cut off, the end unravelled, and the cotton pulled from it 
and scattered on the head of the sick man, with the following 
blessing : 
‘ Mayest thou live till thy head is white, and thy teeth broken, 
like this string !’ 
At the Sgau funerals, the presence of the La is said to be manifested 
thus. One end of a slender erect bamboo is attached to the bone of 
the deceased that has been taken from the funeral pyre. A small 
thread with alternate tufts of cotton and bits of charcoal, with a metal 
ring, or bangle, at the extremity is tied to the other end, which makes 
the bamboo bend down in a curve; and under the bangle, nearly 
touching it, is a brass bason containing a boiled egg. 
The closing ceremony of the bone feast, is calling the La of the 
deceased, which is supposed to be hovering around till the funeral 
rites are completed ; when, should it respond to the call, it is bidden- 
to depart in peace to Hades. : 
When the apparatus has been put in order, the relatives of the dead | 
approach in succession and strike the edge of the brass cup with a bit 
of bamboo ; and when the one that was most beloved touches the cup, 
