THE KARENS AND THEIR TRADITIONS.
The Karens are a meek, peaceful race, simple and credulous,
with many of the softer virtues and few flagrant vices. Though
greatly addicted to drunkenness, extremely filthy and indolent
in their habits, their morals, in other respects, are superior
to many more civilized races. Their traditions, like those of
several tribes of American Indians, are a curious medley of
myth and absurdity; but they have some tolerably definite ideas
of a Great Being, who governs the universe; and many of their
traditionary precepts bears a striking resemblance to those of
the Gospel.--MRS. EMILY C. JUDSON.
Although the Karens, as we now know them, are divided into two main
clans and numerous smaller divisions, having different tribal customs
and speaking different dialects, yet their religious customs are marked
by the same distinctive features in all the tribes.
The Karens are not now, and never have been, so far as can be
ascertained, idol worshipers. They look with cool contempt upon the
religious forms of the idolaters by whom they are surrounded. The few
Karens who have so far forgotten their ancient customs as to give a
formal adherence to Buddhist ceremonies, are looked upon as renegades
by their fellow-countrymen.
This feature marks them as entirely foreign in origin to the country in
which they are now found. This is confirmed by their own traditions,
which declare that they came from the north-west, following the
mountain ranges until they found themselves in Burmah, where their home
now is.
These same traditions also declare unmistakably that they once
worshiped the true God, whom they call in their own language
_Yuah_ or _K’tsah Yuah_, the latter term meaning “the Lord
Yuah.” Karens, however, will seldom repeat this name; the heathen
declining positively, and many of the less informed Christians showing
a strange reluctance to repeating it. The reason they give is that the
word Yuah, in common speech, means _to flow down or away_, and the
Karens say that to use this name carelessly will cause the favor of God
to flow away from them.
Although the Karens, however, show this strange reverence for the name
of God, a reverence which reminds us of the similar feeling among
the Jews for the sacred name Jah or Yah which the Karen so closely
resembles, yet they do not worship this Lord Yuah, as a rule. Indeed in
most cases the only sign of worship given to him is the exclamation,
“Ba Pa K’tsah!” used when one is startled or suddenly alarmed. This
phrase means literally “worship Father God,” or, colloquially, “we
worship God.” Further than this a Karen scarcely ever offers any form
of worship to this Being whom they acknowledge to be in very truth the
one living supreme God.
The reason for this failure to worship Yuah is accounted for by the
following strange tradition, which we give as it is commonly repeated
around the camp-fires, or in the huts of the Karens, as they while away
the cool, quiet nights which succeed the burning days of Burmah:
“We once, oh! children and grandchildren, had the Law of Yuah, and
worshiped him as the only living and true God. This law was a written
book, and was made of skin, the skin of an animal. Yuah gave us his
law because we were his favored children. Yuah had seven sons, and his
oldest son, the first-born of his creation, was our ancestor, the first
of our nation and the first of men.
“Yuah told us to be very careful of his law, and for a time our
ancestors read his book and kept his commandments, for they feared that
if they did not, Pa K’tsah (Father God, for that is the real name of
Yuah) would flow (Yuah) away from them.
“By and by, however, our ancestors became careless. They had many
gardens to make, and they grew forgetful of the book of the law, and
one day they left it upon a low tree, and the fowls flew up to roost in
the evening, and threw the book down to the ground; and then a dog came
and carried it away, and gnawed it. Pa K’tsah was so displeased that
he took away his law from us and gave it to our younger brother, the
white man. Then Yuah left us. He said: ‘Oh, my children, you are now
in the power of the evil spirits, who hate men. You can only appease
their anger by sacrifices. I am going far away; but do not despair. One
day your younger brother, the white man, will come to you in ships from
the west, and will bring you back again the long-lost law of Yuah. Then
you will be happy, for the evil ones will leave you, and I will return.
Till then you must wait and watch. You shall be afflicted with sickness
when the evil ones eat your spirits. You shall be slaves to your
brethren; but one day all will be right, when your younger brother, the
white stranger, brings you again my law.”
Then, say the Karens, began our troubles and sorrows. Since then the
Karens have regarded themselves as living in a world of evil spirits,
and their religious ceremonies are simply propitiatory sacrifices and
prayers to these evil beings, intended to conciliate and flatter them.
[Illustration: CHRISTIAN KAREN GIRLS.]
When sickness afflicts a Karen, it is supposed to be the result of an
attack upon him by one of these evil beings. The Karens say that a man
has seven spirits; that when we sleep all these spirits leave us and
wander about the earth; what they see in their wanderings, we will see
in our dreams. Now, the evil spirits, according to the belief of the
Karens, are on the watch to catch the spirits of men and devour them.
If one is caught, the man falls sick; if another, he grows worse; if
all, he dies. The evil spirits may be appeased by a sacrificial feast,
and may release the captive soul. So a feast is proclaimed, and all the
family of the sick man--sometimes all his immediate relations--gather
together and partake of it with great ceremony, offering portions of
the food to the spirits, by exposing them outside the house or village,
where they are quickly seized by birds. These feasts are accompanied
by intercessory prayer to the evil spirits to release the captive soul
from their toils.
The streams, the forest, even particular trees, are supposed to be the
haunts of these evil ones. So a Karen, when fishing, mutters a prayer
to the tutelary spirit, or if he fells a tree, first mutters a prayer
or makes a propitiatory offering.
In sowing and reaping the grain, or planting fruit-trees, and gathering
fruit, similar ceremonies are observed.
After death solemn funeral services are held. The soul is supposed to
be immortal and to exist in Hades. From this Hades we are separated
by a stream, impassable, save as the soul is carried over upon the
wings of a bird, to which they give various names. The soul is
supposed to linger near the grave or place of sepulture until a solemn
commemorative service is held, a month, or more commonly, a year, after
the decease of the body. At this time a feast is proclaimed. All the
villagers and relatives are gathered together. A bone of the deceased
is then taken from the grave, usually the back-bone, and shrined in a
carved wooden shrine, which is surmounted by the figure of the sacred
bird. Dirges, exceedingly poetic and beautiful, are sung to minor
strains. A procession of young men and maidens moves round the shrine,
bewailing the deceased and speaking of the hopes of his safe entrance
into a beautiful land, or, as the northern tribes call it, the “silver
city.” The feast lasts for a number of days, usually seven, but if the
family of the deceased is rich, it is sometimes prolonged to a month.
The bone is then buried with great ceremony, and the soul is supposed
to enter its state of rest; yet not a state of perfect happiness, for
say the Karens, “No one can obtain blessedness until Yuah returns and
brings with him happiness for this life and for that which is to come.”
Mrs. Vinton, a missionary to Burmah, wrote: “The Karens in general
listen with great interest when we tell them of God, and frequently
exclaim, ‘That is what our forefathers told us! That is right! That is
good!’ I have endeavored to discover how their forefathers came by a
knowledge of God; but they always answer, ‘Our ancestors knew Him from
the beginning, but when they sinned against Him He hid Himself from
them; and their descendants after them knew not how to worship Him;
and, as He did not protect them from evil spirits, they were obliged to
offer sacrifices to them to appease their wrath.’
“They tell us of many attempts ‘to return to the worship of the God who
made the earth, and the heavens, and all things.’
“These efforts have sometimes been continued for months, and even
years; but the poor Karens have invariably fallen a sacrifice to the
brutal persecutions of the Burmans.
“One village of nearly a thousand inhabitants worshiped God in this
way for some time, unknown to the Burmans; but when the latter learned
the fact they sent an armed force to destroy the village. Some of the
Karens inquired of their leader if they should fight. ‘No,’ replied the
chief, ‘it is inconsistent with the worship of our God to fight. We
will cast ourselves upon His protection.’ They then opened their gates,
brought forth their weapons of defense, and laid them at the feet of
their enemies. Thus defenseless, they were immediately slain by their
cruel oppressors, the Burmans.”