















224 Religion &c. among the Karens. [No. 4, 
this village and carried away all their stones; but afterwards all the 
stones came back to their old places. 
‘“‘ When the teacher arrived, they carried away all their stones into 
the jungle, and built a chapel, and said; ‘Ifthe stones come back, we 
will not worship God, but if they do not come back, as formerly, we | 
will worship God.’ The stones have never returned, so the people 
worship God to this day. The inhabitants of that village stand in 
great fear of stones, more than ordinary. 
“We have also heard that the Pakus have stones, like a man’s fist, 
and when they have any hatred against any one, they will strike the 
impressions of his foot on the ground with one of these stones, and — 
the man dies.” 
I have seen many of their stones, but there is nothing remarkable 
in them, and they possess nothing incommon. They are most usually 
bits of rock crystal, or jasper, or some variety of chalcedony, but 
never of any value, or in any way curious. Occasionally they are mere 
lumps of stratified rock, remarkable for nothing but the numerous 
thin lines of strata displayed on their edges, 
The possession of one of these miraculous stones had much to do 
in dividing the Red Karens into two tribes, eastern and western, as 
they are now found. The story has been related to me thus; “ There 
was a Sgau called Shapau, who possessed an exceedingly good stone. 
He set himself up as a kind of political teacher, and travelled about 
from village to village among the Sgaus and Pakus. They said to 
him, ‘ We cannot receive thee. If we receive thee, should the king 
at Ava hear of it, the Burmans will kill us all.’ 
“ As he could not succeed among his own countrymen, he took his 
wife and wife’s sister, and went away to the Red Karens. They 
received him and built him a house, and it was not long before he 
began to work miracles with his stone. The stone was remarkable, 
it is said, for having the power to change its colour. It could chang} 
from black to yellow or white at pleasure. The result was that all 
the Red Karens believed in him. They believed in him so fully tha 
they were discussing the question of making him king. { 
“ At this juncture, a son of the king of Ava rebelled against hi 
father, but his father overcame him and he fled to Toungoo. He did 
not dare to remain long there, however, for fear of his father, so he 
