I8G8.] Dwellings, works of art, laws, Sfc. oftlie Karens. . 145 



The forays of the wild Karens appear to civilized people little better 

 than unqualified robbery and murder ; but a Karen looks upon them 

 much as Europeans do suits at law, and the execution of judgments 

 by the sheriff. 



If a Karen is defrauded of his money by dishonest debtors, there 

 are no courts of law to which he can appeal for justice ; so he calls 

 on his friends, to go and seize the debtor, and make him pay the 

 debt with interest, or sell him into slavery. Forays of this kind for 

 debts are called small cause actions, and correspond to what we 

 denominate civil suits. 



If a man is killed, there is no authority to which a Karen can go, 

 to have the homicide brought to justice. Every family is expected to 

 avenge its own wrongs. Perhaps a man has been mortally wounded in 

 an attack, or quarrel, and he calls his son and says to him ; " I have 

 been speared and shot without cause. I am very sick. Should I die, 

 get my value, obtain my price. If you can get the living, take the 

 living ; if you can get the dead take the dead." After this charge, 

 a son deems it his sacred duty to avenge the death of his father, 

 whenever a favourable opportunity occurs. These are called great 

 cause actions, and correspond to criminal suits. 



In all cases, it is not the custom for the man who occupies the 

 position of plaintiff to go to the foray himself. He employs others, 

 and stays at home to compensate those that go ; because in the event 

 of his death, there would be no one to pay them their wages, or avenge 

 their deaths, should they fall in the attack. Thus a Karen always 

 thinks himself right in taking the law into his own hands ; for it is 

 the custom of the country, which has the effect of law. He is never 

 interfered with, unless he is guilty of some act contrary to Karen ideas 

 of propriety, when the elders and the villagers interfere and exercise 

 a check upon him. 



Civil Suit. — When a Karen has been repeatedly to one that owes 

 him money, without obtaining it, and has perhaps been treated un- 

 civilly, he calls out the posse comitatus, so far as his friends constitute 

 the comitatus, and when a favourable opportunity occurs, they go and 

 seize the debtor in his house or field and bring him off ; sometimes 

 taking along one or two of his family or friends. 



When the debtor is set down bound before his creditor, the creditor 



