1865.] Religion &c. among the Karens. 205 
“Tt is related that formerly two men travelling were overtaken by 
night in a mountain gorge, where they built up a little booth in 
which to sleep. After dark, the wood-pecker screamed, and the men 
heard the ghosts saying to each other : ‘ The dog barks.’ 
“Thinking it was other men speaking, the travellers hallooed in 
reply, when the ghosts said: ‘ The monkeys are leaping, let us shoot,’ 
and immediately the snap of a bow was heard. Instantly one of the 
men was seized with a severe fit of shivering ; and he went home in 
the morning and died.” 
Hence the wood-pecker is a bird of omen, and when a Karen hears 
it scream, he cries out: “ Wood-pecker, shun me afar off. Shun my 
house, shun my road, shun my way, shun my field, shun my garden, 
shun the roof of my house, shun my place, shun my stream, shun my 
brook, shun the place where I draw water. Shun me, keep afar off, 
go thine own way, thine own road.” 
Spratts of ANCESTORS. 
The Karens suppose that their parents who have performed merito- 
rious acts go to a place of happiness above, which seems to correspond 
to the Deva heavens of the Buddhists. The existence of God the 
original Creator of all things is quite ignored, and he appears to have 
no place in it. It has its rulers and its subjects; and one of the names 
applied to them is the Burmese designation of Indra, the king of the 
Deva heavens. 
These beings are supposed to preside over births and marriages, and 
to exercise a general watch care over their children on earth; and the 
Karens make offerings to them, as their deified ancestors. 
There are different classes of worshippers or sects, as they may be 
denominated, who make different kinds of offerings. One set of wor- 
‘ shippers offers only rice and vegetables ; another offers fowls, another 
hogs, and another oxen or buffaloes. Those who sacrifice animals, 
“sometimes offer all three as different rites, but those who offer rice 
and vegetables never offer sacrifices. 
These different rites are hereditary in different families of the same 
or of different tribes. Those whose ancestors offered bloodless offerings, 
offer bloodless offerings; and those whose progenitors sacrificed ani- 
mals, sacrifice animals. 

