150 Dwelling worU of art, laws, Ife. of the Karens. [No. 3, 



Kbdrt Latitude 21°. I have followed up the line myself into 

 Karenee • and have met with Taru Karens from the region near 

 Nyo g *- ^port says they are found mueh farther north 

 olthey have not yet heeu verified. On the west they extend 

 to the Lean hills in Longitude 92°, and on the east^ to the 

 Bemivities of the mountains on the right side of the Menam m ahou 

 Longitude 100°. Thus they are known to he scattered over nun, 

 decrees of Latitude, and eight degrees of Long.tude. In ta Ro- 

 per at least, the wild tribes on the east side of the Menam are not 

 Karens; for the late Dr. Jones of Bangkok furnished me with a 

 small vocabulary of the language they spoke, and I found it wholly 

 diverse from the Karen. The name of the people which he gave 

 me was KM, and Yule has Ka-huas on his map, near the Cambodia 

 river, who are probably the same people. 



69 Population.-The Karen population of British Burmah, ac- 

 cording to Col. Phayre's last report is 363,756. The Red Karens are 

 estimated at 210,000, which makes upwards of half a million, lor 

 Burmah Proper, Siam, and the Shan States we have no data what- 

 ever on which to estimate their numbers, but we may hazard a 

 conjecture that they amount to nearly half a million more ; and thus 

 we have a million of Karens south of China. It is not probable 

 that there are more ; for Dr. Williams ascertained, while in Bamo, 

 that the Ka-khyens in that neighbourhood are identical with the 

 Singhpos ; and I have seen Paloungs, from the cast of Tagoung 

 who assure me there are uo Karens in their neighbourhood. The 

 tribes in the Irrawaddy valley, north of Tagoung, appear to be 

 allied to the Tibetan nations ; while the Karen relationship is 

 more with the Chinese. Their languages prove this. 



70 The Karen population is certainly not on the increase. In 

 1831 when I went to Tavoy, the Government census made the Karen 

 population of the province about five thousand ; and in 1862, the 

 Deputy Commissioner, Captain Stevenson, reported it at a little less 

 than five thousand. In the interval of thirty-one years, several 

 villagers have immigrated into the district from Siam, and one or 

 two from Yeh, but I am not aware that one has left the province 

 in that time. The most then that can be said for the Karen 

 population of Tavoy is, that it is about stationary. 



