Among the mountains of Burmah, there are a wild people called the Karens,
very poor and very ignorant; yet some have attended to the voice of the
missionaries. They are not so proud as the Burmese; for they have no gods
at all, and no books at all: they have not filled their heads with five
hundred and fifty stories about Gaudama; therefore they are more ready to
listen to the history of Jesus.
The Karens live in houses raised from the ground, and so large is the
place underneath, that they keep poultry and pigs there. Every year they
move to a new place, and build new houses, clear a new piece of ground,
by burning the weeds, dig it up, and sow rice. Thus they wander about,
and they number their years by the number of houses they have lived in.
Of all the Eastern nations, they sing and play the most sweetly, and when
they become Christians, they sing hymns, very sweetly indeed.
There is one Christian village among the mountains, called Mata, which
means love; and every morning the people meet together in the Zayat, or
travellers' house, to sing and pray. Before they were Christians, the
Karens were in constant fear of the Nats; (not _insects_, but evil
spirits), and sometimes in order to please their Nats, they were so cruel
as to beat a pig to death. The Christian Karens have left off such
barbarous practices, and have become kind and compassionate. When the
missionaries told them that they ought to love one another, some of them
went secretly the next day to wait upon a poor leper, and upon a woman
covered with sores. Another day, without being asked, they collected some
money and brought it to the missionaries, saying, they wished to set free
a poor Burman who had been imprisoned for Christ's sake. It is cheering
to the missionaries to see them turning from their sins.[11]