1868] Dwelling*! works of art, hues, $c. of the Karens, 159 



The great hawk sweeps around the house, 



Carries off its prey at the foot of the steps ; 



Seizes the chief's white cock. 



The great hawk flies away, 



Leaving the chief behind weeping. 

 When the expedition readies the house to be attacked, a party rushes 

 into the house killing all the men they meet, while the rest surround 

 the house from below. These intercept all that endeavour to escape, 

 and receive in charge women and children that they wish to bring 

 away alive, and bind them. If the inmates resist, the house is fired, 

 and the people who leap out to escape the flames are killed or taken 

 prisoners. They kill without regard to age or sex. Infants are 

 always killed ; as they say they would die if carried away. Children 

 are often massacred with the utmost barbarity. Their hands and te it 

 are cut off, and their bodies hacked into small pieces. Adults are 

 often emboweled, split in two, their ears cut off and put in their 

 mouths ; and it is not uncommon to bring away the jaws of their 

 victims as trophies, as the North American Indians bring away scalps. 

 Sometimes, after the house has been burnt up, they sow the seeds of 

 vegetables on the ashes, to indicate the utter destruction they have 

 wrought. 



On the return of the expedition with their captives, when they 

 come within hearing of the village from which they were sent, they 

 blow loud their war trumpets, and the villagers know by the peculiar 

 call, that they are returning victors. On their arrival, they place all 

 the captives in the hands of the head of the war, who feasts his troops 

 and then dismisses them to their several homes. 



The head of the war keeps the captives a considerable time, when, 

 if none of their friends come to redeem them, he sells them off to 

 other districts for oxen or buffaloes if practicable, that he may have an 

 ox or a buffalo to give to each village that came to his aid. 

 Treatment of Prisoners. 

 Captives are often ill-treated, beaten, wounded, and occasionally 

 killed. When they are brought in bound and fettered to the head of 

 the war, he sometimes addresses one thus : " I did not begin this war. 

 You killed my father, you killed my mother ; you have cut off my head, 

 made my tongue to protrude. You have made the blood to flow to the 



