May 1861.] 



Notes on the Karens. 



63 



writer of this article endeavoured to get a fever-stricken patient to 

 try our medicines, but with no success : the sick man has partaken 

 of the " Nat-Sa," and by it he lives or dies. 



The Karen women at the period of child-birth adopt the custom 

 of the surrounding nations, and that is, the extraordinary one of 

 seven days roasting near a large fire after child-birth. We leave it 

 to the Physiologists of Europe to give an explanation of this mar- 

 vellous system. 



We have now in succession given a short account of the various 

 manners and customs of the Sg tu Karens, and we shall now en- 

 deavour to say a few words on their national character and on the 

 missionary movement amongst them. 



Amongst their virtues we class fir«t the chastity of their wo- 

 men, secondly, their love of home and family, thirdly, their in- 

 dustry, but here the catalogue ends. On the other list stand 

 prominently drunkenness, filth and deep deceit ; and this latter 

 vice in our opinion more than counterbalances their other good 

 qualities. With this deceit they have much plausibility and appa- 

 rent frankness. They come in open day looking innocent enough, 

 but at the same time with a lie in their right hand. They require 

 much to be done for them, they will rarely- make one real sacrifice 

 in return. A Karen will work cheerfully with you as long as it is 

 in his way of thinking ; but cross his path in the slightest degree 

 and a mote intractable man does not exist. He will rarely show 

 overt opposition. Suilenness and passive resistance are his w ea- 

 pons— seldom, if ever, is he a principal, invariably an accessory 

 As a race they are destitute of animal courage; they are afraid of 

 things visible and invisible, of a real bodily foe and an imaginary 

 spiritual one. Amongst other crude ideas once started for the 

 benefit of our Burmese Provinces, was that of raising one or more 

 Battalions of Karens ; a more delusive project never was enter- 

 tained. No amount of pay would tempt a Karen to become a sol- 

 dier, to absent himself from his native village, or to rush headlong 

 into danger. We cannot help raising a smile on hearing this plan 

 every now and then adverted, when we know it as an undeniable 

 fact that a dozen armed Karennees or Shans would march from 

 one end of the Yoon-tha-lin to the other, unmolested and unoppos- 



