they neglected it, and that God in anger took it away from them and gave it to their younger brother, the white man, who, however, was placed under obligations to restore the Word to the Karens, and teach them the true religion after their sins had been sufficiently atoned for by long subjugation to other races.

It has been suggested by some that these traditions may be only the echo of the preaching of Percoto, the great Italian missionary, who visited Burma about the year 1740. But there are two circumstances which completely bar such a supposition. The Italian missionaries did not penetrate far into the country of the Karens. They found them savage and inaccessible, and did not attempt to teach them. And, even if they had preached to them the story of the creation and the relation of God to man, there was not time between Percoto's visit and the advent of the American missionaries in 1828 for the story to become a national bard tradition. It must be remembered that all the Karen traditions are sung or recited from memory; none of them are written, for there was no written language. The period which elapsed between Percoto and the American missionaries was not long enough to allow of the

whole story becoming part of the traditions of the clans. It appears most probable that their origin dates from the time when the Karens had not yet entered Burma, and that they were derived from the colony of Nestorian Jews who made their way by land from Armenia to China in the early Middle Ages, and whose track the Karens must have crossed in their journey southwards. This supposition is strengthened by the remarkable similarity between portions of the moral code of the Karens and the Law as expounded in the Old Testament, by the resemblance of some of their sacrifices to the Jewish rites, and by the belief which is universal among them that they once received a roll of parchment containing the Law from God. During all these hundreds of years, the Karens, holding fast to what had been delivered to them, have been looking steadily for the advent of the missionaries and the fulfilment of the prophecy of restoration. This expectant attitude has been the cause of several fanatical risings among the Karens, stimulated by false prophets who have from time to time come forward and incited them to rebellion. The last of these risings occurred in 1840, when thousands of Karens marched unarmed on Rangoon, under a leader who had announced himself to be the chosen

of God sent to deliver the nation.

The fanatics

were met by Burmese troops, and slaughtered almost to a man.

The Karen-nees, or Red Karens, claim superiority over the other tribes from their possession of metal plates, which they declare to be part of the original written Word given to them by God. They say that, although they sinned equally with the rest in losing the knowledge of reading and writing, they have shown so much reverence for these plates that God will be far more merciful to them than to the other tribes. They proudly attribute their independence to the special favour thus shown them. These plates are looked upon as the palladium of the clan, and are guarded with jealous care. Copies of them have been taken and shown to European and Oriental scholars, but, so far as is known, they have not yet been deciphered.

CHAPTER X.

THE AMERICAN MISSION AMONG THE KARENS.

"OFTEN, perhaps, had the Christian voyager gazed on the rocky promontories of Burma, crowned with their whitened pagodas that glow amid the eternal verdure of tropical climes, but he little thought that the misty mountain-tops in the distance threw their shadows over the dwellings of a people that, generation after generation, had charged their posterity never to worship idols. Xavier had passed their mountain homes when he went to look on, but not to enter, inhospitable China, and found a surreptitious resting-place and grave upon its barren rocks. Swartz had laboured half a century to destroy the three hundred thousand gods of India without hearing of the nation that had rejected them all from the remotest ages. Carey had made his forty versions without a line for the people that were longing with hope deferred for the word of God. And Judson had lived seven years in Ran

goon, preaching the eternal God, before a single Burman would admit His existence; while the poor unnoticed Karens were continually passing his door, singing by the way—

"God is eternal, His life is long

God is immortal, His life is long :
One cycle He dies not,

Two cycles He dies not,
Perfect in great attributes,
Age on age He dies not."

The Roman Catholics, who preceded the Protestants in Burma many years, appear to have entirely overlooked the Karens; and it was not till after the first Burmese war that these people began to attract attention. Up to 1828, they were, as a separate nation, unknown. They were looked upon as a mixed horde of aboriginal savages. No one had dreamt of their being a united little people, with such a history and such capacities for national life as they have. The incident which first brought them to notice was a striking one. A Karen called Ko Tha Byú, debt-slave to a Burman, had been set free by Dr. Judson, and employed as a watercarrier. Ko Tha Byú found a Christian tract one day as he was working in Dr. Judson's house. It was in the Burmese language, and he read it with difficulty. At last, however, he mastered it, and