1865.] Religion &c. among the Karens. 231 
“ The elder sister responded : 
‘ Return not to her, sister dear, 
"Twas mother beat and sent us here.’ 
“The elder sister positively refused to return to the earth, but the La 
of the younger one came back with the necromancer, and on her arrival 
at home, the body came to life again.” 
Fowu’s Bonss. 
In the beginning, say the elders, God gave to the Chinese a book of 
paper, to the Burmese a book of palm leaf, and to the Karens a book 
of skin. The Chinese and the Burmese studied their books, and 
taught them to their children; but the Karens were indolent, did not 
value their book and laid it on the end of their house, where it was 
thrown down on the ground, and a hog came and tore it up. After 
the hog had gone, a fowl came and picked up all the fragments, 
It soon became apparent even to the Karens that the Chinese and 
Burmese greatly excelled them in knowledge through their acquaintance 
with books ; and they then regretted the loss of their own book. 
They concluded, however, that the fowl which had eaten up the book 
must possess all the knowledge that the book contained. They 
resolved therefore to consult its thigh bones, and note the marks and 
indentations made by the tendons on them as letters, and pray to it to 
reveal its knowledge. 










There is no superstition so commonly practised among the Karens as 
this. No measure of importance is undertaken, till a favourable response 
has been obtained from the fowl’s bones. 
The thigh bones of a chicken are taken out, and after prayer, and 
making a condition that the bones may exactly correspond, or they 
may differ in some particular; that the indentations for the ten- 
dons, may be alike or unlike, that the bones may be even or un- 
even; the two bones are held up abreast of each other, between the 
thumb and finger and carefully examined. It requires a practised eye 
to read the result accurately, and there are many nice distinctions, 
known only to the elders, who do not always agree in their readings. 
From my house in Karenee, I looked down into the court-yard of 
the Saubwa, where he was in consultation with some of his chiefs over 
the chicken bones. They were passed round from hand to hand, each 
