1866.] Social Customs of the Karens. 13 



A verse from an old song intended to teach the duty of children 

 taking due care of their aged mothers, says : 



" A mother can bear ten children, 

 A child cannot bear ten mothers : 

 A mother bears ten children 

 And her strength is exhausted." 



Twins are very uncommon ; much more so than among European 

 nations ; and I never heard of more than two at a birth. 



A large family is deemed a great blessing. When seated around the 

 fire at night, they sometimes sing : 



" People's Kyee-zees many, I covet not, 

 People's money much, I covet not, 

 I covet young paddy ten cubits high, 

 Good children and good grandchildren." 



The proportion of sexes among adults is remarkably equal, for it is 

 very rare to find either man or woman over twenty-five years of age 

 that is not married or has been married. The proportion in infancy 

 cannot be very diverse. 



Children are reared with difficulty. Large numbers die in infancy 

 from want of care, and from ignorance of the proper way to manage 

 the diseases of children. 



Nothing remarkable in their senses has been observed, excepting 

 that their eyes are uncommonly good in seeing objects at a distance ; 

 but which may be the result of habit. When I have shown them the 

 villages on the distant hills through my glass, and asked if they did 

 not see them plainly; the reply has often been : " Yes, but I can see 

 them about as well without the glass." 



The women bear children to quite as late an age as Europeans. 

 Women, that I should judge to be between forty and forty-five, may 

 be often seen with children at the breast. 



Three years is the period for which a child is deemed entitled to 

 his mother's milk ; but they are oftened suckled longer. It is not 

 uncommon to see a woman suckling her babe at one breast, and its 

 elder brother or sister at the other. 



