JOURNAL 



OF THE 



ASIATIC SOCIETY 



Part II— PHYSICAL SCIENCE. 



No. Ill— 1868. 



On Dwellings, Works of Art, Laws, &o. op the Karens ; embracing 



'Query 50 to Query 76 ;— by Rev. F. Mason, D. D. Missionary to 



the Karen people* 



[Receivod 7th January, 1865]. 



The following pages contain the answers to " Queries respecting 

 the human race, addressed to travellers, by a Committee of the 

 British Association for the advancement of science," from query 50 to 

 query 76 inclusive, furnished at the request of Col. Phayre, and with 

 the previous sheets, complete the replies. 



No answer is given to query 73, for obvious reasons. It asks the 

 results of missionary labours on the people, and for a scientific associa- 

 tion, the answer should be furnished by one who is not a Missionary. 



Dwellings. 



50. The character of the houses the Karens inhabit, varies with 

 the character of the cultivation pursued. Among the Red Karens and 

 Toungthus, where the cultivation is permanent, the same ground 

 being cultivated for a succession of years, the houses are comparatively 

 permanent. But most of the Karen tribes change their fields annually, 

 and move every two or three years to be near their cultivation ; and 

 there build temporary houses of bamboos, leaves and ratan. They 

 clear a few acres of land, burn them over near the close of the dry 



# This paper is a continuation of the answers to queries 1 — 50, on the same 

 subject, published in Journal As. Society, Bengal, 1866, vol. xxxv. pt. ii. p. 1 &c> 



18 



