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Dwelling works of art, laws, $c. of the Karens. [No. 3, 



handle of the cleaver, to the sheath of the spear; you *"-*£ 

 the how string, you have broken the spear. You have made my father 

 come to corruption, my mother to rottenness. You have exasperated 

 me you have made my anger to rise. I have not attacked you without 

 reason; there was a righteous cause. You have dried up the waters, 

 you have made the land barren, the grain unproductive, the barns 

 empty You have angered the God of heaven, you have provoked 

 the Lord of the earth. You have stopped the rains, and made the 

 dry season irregular. You must now redeem yourselves, you must 

 pay money, yon must give kyee-zees. If you do not furnish your price 

 you must become shaves and die slaves.'' 



When captives are sold, it is always difficult to obtain buyers for 

 elderly people at any price ; but men and women from thirty to forty 

 rears of age will sell for one hundred rupees each ; and young men 

 Ld young women for three hundred. Girls and boys between twelve 

 and fifteen years of age are considered the most valuable and are 

 purchased at rates as high as four hundred rupees each. Children of 

 three or four years of age fetch thirty or forty rupees a piece. Prices, 

 however, are variable. When I was in Karenee, two Shan women 

 were brought in by some Shans, and sold for fourteen rupees each 



Redeeming Captives. -When part of a village attacked escapes they 

 usually endeavour to redeem the prisoners that have been taken before 

 they are sold away to strangers. For this purpose, an elder belonging 

 to a neutral village is hired to go and buy off the captives. 



When the messenger comes to the head of the war, and explains 

 his object; if acceptable, he takes a hog, and cuts off Us snout, 

 and with the blood that flows from it, he besmears the legs of the 

 messenger, which is the sign that he makes him his friend and he 

 says he will receive him as an ambassador of peace, and he shall make 

 peace between the belligerent parties, and they will become brethren 



again. 



After being well entertained that day, lie is dismissed the next 

 morning with the legs and head of the hog that had been killed ; and 

 the sight of these, when he returns, is regarded as legal proof that his 

 mission has been accepted in good faith; and that definite arrange- 

 ments may be made for the redemption of each captive, if they do 

 not quarrel about the price, which they sometimes do. When every 



