162 Dwellings, works of art, laws, Sfc. of the Karens. [No. 3, 



" peace-making water" is prepared and drank, and the imprecation 

 spoken, two elders rise up, spear in hand, and address the people 

 saying, " The cause of action is finished this day. Hereafter act in 

 harmony, associate with each other as brethren. Hereafter if any 

 one brings up a cause of contention, this tree is witness against him. 

 If the elders die, the notches in this tree will remain as evidence 

 against him ; and let this spear spear him. He shall be fined a 

 chatty of silver and a cup of gold." 



Beyond this notch in a tree, no monuments of peace or war are 

 known to exist. 



Weapons of War. — Karen weapons of war are the bow and arrow, 

 spears and javelins, small spears that they throw at an enemy ; swords, 

 matchlocks, and old muskets. For defence they use breastplates 

 and shields, they plant pointed bamboos rising a few inches above the 

 ground around their houses, which, for the lack of a more appropriate 

 name, I called caltrops. 



History. — The first historical notice we have of the Karens is from 

 the pen of Marco Polo in the 13th century. Malte Bran, on the basis 

 of Marco Polo's travels, says : " Thus the^country of Caride is the south- 

 east point of Thibet, and perhaps the country of the nation of the 

 Cariaines ; which is spread over Ava." 



This statement is confirmed by old Bghai poetry, in which we find 

 incidentally mentioned, the town of Bamo, as a place to which they were 

 formerly in the habit of going to purchase axes and bills, or cleavers 

 as they now do at Toungoo. When this poetry was composed, they 

 must have lived five hundred miles north of their present locality. 



The Bghais have also traditions of a people corresponding to the 

 Seres of antiquity, who lived below them, towards the mouths of the 

 rivers*, which goes to show that they formerly occupied a more 

 northern region than they do at present. 



The Sgaus have traditions that they came from a country north of 

 the Shans, and had to cross what they call " the river of running 

 sand," which I have suggested may be the great desert between 

 China and Tibet, which Fa Hian also designates the river of running 

 sand. 



* See Toungoo News Sheet, August, 1864. 



