52 



Notes on the Karens. [No. 11, nkw series. 



VI. — Notes on the Yoon-tha-lin Karens, their History , Manners and 

 Customs. By Captain W. G. Stoll, 2nd Madras European 

 Light Infantry, Assistant Commissioner, Martaban. 



When in 1853, the Kingdom of Pegu was annexed to our Indian 

 Empire by Lord Dalhousie, it followed as a matter of course that 

 we should be brought into contact with peoples and tribes of whose 

 very existence up to that time we were quite ignorant, and although 

 this remark does not apply in its fullest sense to the Karen people, 

 yet beyond a few Missionary records very little was known regard- 

 ing this singular race before the annexation. Before entering on 

 the particular subject of the Karens, it will be necessary to give a 

 brief general sketch of what is called British Pegu. 



It may be said to comprise the country lying between the Ira- 

 waddy and Sittoung rivers as far north as the latitude of the fron- 

 tier station of Meeaday : a range of hills of no great elevation divides 

 the watershed of these rivers ; the rest of the province is generally 

 low ground, covered more or less with dense jungle. 



The races living in Pegu are the Burmese, the Taleings, the Ka- 

 rens and a few Shans. 



The two former reside in towns and villages, situated near the 

 bank of some stream navigable for small boats ; the Karens on the 

 other hand generally avoid the society of other races, and live in 

 small communities situated in deep ravines or in dense forest. 



"When the Sittoung river is crossed, the physical features of the 

 country greatly alter, the plains give way to mountains of consider- 

 able elevation covered with primeval forest, from whose wooded 

 valleys flow perennial streams of water. This mountainous country 

 extends as far as the Salween river, which is our Eastern frontier ; 

 on that side in a northerly direction its limits are not correctly as- 

 certained, but it stretches away far beyond our frontier. It is this 

 region which is ; ' par excellence" the home and dwelling place of 

 the Karens subject to our rule ; and it is also sub-divided into two 

 districts, the one belonging to Toung-oo, the other to Shooay Kying, 

 of this latter and southern sub-division it will be our province to 

 speak. 



