20 Social Customs &c. of the Karens. [No. 1, 



sometimes adopt the Burmese custom of taking an additional wife, as 

 they do that of worshipping idols. The Sgau Elders charge their 

 children : 



" children and grandchildren ! If you have one husband or wife, 

 lust not after another, male or female ; for Grod at the beginning 

 created only two, one male and one female." 



Divorce. 



Divorces are not unfrequent, arising often from marriages being 

 made by the parents of the betrothed in infancy, and the children 

 grow up without any love for each other. 



If a man leaves his wife, the rule is that the house and all the pro- 

 perty belongs to her. He is allowed no claim on his money and 

 valuables that may be in the wife's possessions, after he has left her. 

 Nothing is his but what he takes with him. 



If a woman forsakes her husband, it is usual to allow a share of the 

 property, but no more than the husband consents to allow. 



Widows. 



Widows retain their husbands' fireplace, and endeavour to support 

 themselves. When young they usually marry again ; but if old and 

 unable to support themselves, they look for help to their own rela- 

 tions, and often suffer from neglect. The obligation to treat widows 

 kindly is recognised in theory, but often neglected in practice. ' The 

 following story from the Bghai gives a too true picture of this 

 matter. 



" Formerly, there was a woman whose husband died, and left her to 

 get a support as best she could. All her children were small. Their 

 father had forsaken them, and the mother took care of them in any 

 corner or interstice she could find. 



" She had no relations of her own in that country. She had none 

 but her husband's relations, and her husband was dead, and his rela- 

 tions would not help her. She could not therefore get curry to eat, 

 and she fed her children on the sheaths of the blossoms of the wild 

 plantain flowers : these she called to the children " brains," and they 

 knew not, but that was the proper name. 



" When the neighbours heard the children say they lived on brains, 

 they said ; ' The woman is a witch ! Morning after morning it is 



