of whom numbers frequent the bazaars of the ruby
mines. The Palaung run to sixty thousand souls. The
men wear the Shan dress, the women a picturesque
costume of their own, which comprises a'hood, coat,
and skirt, with leggings of cloth. Upon the English
mind, the Palaung does not leave an altogether favourable
impression. He is described as peaceful and industrious,
but at heart a coward, and in his money
transactions a Hebrew of pronounced proclivities ; in
business ability and wit superior to his Kachin neighbour,
but in the sterner qualities his inferior. The
Palaung, in fact, are a little and an oppressed people,
who must have been swallowed up in the Kachin
advance had we not come to shelter them under the
cloak of Imperial rule.
THE KAREN.
The Kareni far more numerous and more powerful
than the Palaung, are also a people who owe their
regeneration to British protection. Borne down by
the dominant Burmese, they must have been gradually
annihilated, or at best reduced to the least hospitable
portions of the country. The Pax Britannica has given
them political freedom, and Christianity, which they
have adopted en masse, has given them self-respect
and an impetus towards civilisation. In the modern
history of Christianity, there is no more interesting
episode than the conversion of the Karen. Prepared
by prophecies current among them,' and by curious
traditions of a biblical flavour, they embraced with
20
fervour the new creed brought to them by the missionaries,’
and there are to-day upwards of a hundred
thousand Christian Karen in Burma. The Karen
occupy a long strip of country on the east of Burma,
and a considerable portion of the Delta of the Irrawaddy.
By temperament
the Karen differ
radically f rom
their Burmese
n e i g h b o u r s .
They are singularly
devoid of
humour , they
are stolid and
cautious, a n d
they lack altogether
the light
gaiety and fascination
of the
Burmese. Yet
it is not suggested
that i n
s ome qualities
they do not surpass
G IR LS A T A K A R EN MISSIONARY SCHOOL
them. If their origin is still obscure, it is at least
certain that they are not the aborigines of the land.
Alltheir traditions point the other way. “ In my eqrly
travels,” writes .Mason, their picturesque apostle, “ the
Karen pointed out to me the precise spots where they
took refuge in the days of Alompra, and where they
2J