126 Dwelling*, -k «/ aH > laws > *»• o/ * e ^amlS • [N °' 3 ' 



season, the ashes serving as manure; and when the first showers 

 fall, they plant their paddy. They do not scatter it over the ground 

 as in the enltivation of lowland paddy , bnt one walks over the field m 

 front with a pointed bamboo, with whieh he makes holes in the ground, 

 afoot or move apart, and another follows droppinga few grains into the 

 holes; and there they leave them for the showers to fill m the earth 

 After the harvest has been gathered, the field lies fallow for several 

 years ; while crops are raised in like manner in other localities. 



Each village has its own lands ; and if they are large, in comparison 

 with the inhabitants, they are able to cultivate new fields for six or 

 seven years; but if their lands are small, they are compelled to come 

 back to their former cultivation in three or four years; but after so 

 short a period, the jungle on it is too small to produce any good 

 amount of ashes, and the crops are poor. In this way the Karens 

 move around their scant domains, like the moon in her orbit, so as to 

 present the same phases, after intervals of very few years. 



While each village has its own lands and boundaries, as one, and 

 which they call a country, the lands of each village are divided among 

 many owners, as in other countries. Laud is often bought and sold, 

 and in the instances that have fallen under my own observation, the 

 price paid has been from two to three rupees per acre. Like other 

 communities, there are some too poor to own land, and these a« 

 allowed, by the landowners, to cultivate at a fixed rate of one rape- 

 for every hundred baskets harvested. 



In the north, where wars have been prevalent, the people hav. 

 been necessitated to live close together for mutual protection. The 

 Bghais Mopghas and some other tribes, have usually but one building 

 for a whole village. It is built like a bazar, with a square in the 

 middle There is a walk all around the building, with rooms opening 

 into it on each side. Every married couple has a room and a fire-place 

 of their own for domestic purposes, while the hall is common property, 

 to which women often take their weaving, and men their mats and 



basket-making. _ 



All around the hall is a raised platform, on which the young men 

 of the village sleep, and where strangers are lodged. The building i 

 of bamboo, usually raised some eight or ten feet above the ground, 

 with rows of pig-sties ranged under the rows of rooms, while the 



