Four years in Upper Burma

by W. R. Winston

BURMESE CHILDREN.

The following account of this interesting people, whose manners, language and worship are quite distinct from those of the Burmans, is from the pen of Mrs. Emily C. Judson, the wife of Dr. Judson, the first missionary of the American Baptist Mission.

“They are a rude, wandering race, drawing their principal support from the streams that flow through their valleys, and from the natural products of their native mountains. They migrate in small parties, and, when they have found a favourable spot, fire the underbrush, and erect a cluster of three or four huts on the ashes. In the intervals of procuring food, the men have frequent occasion to hew out a canoe or weave a basket; and the women manufacture a kind of cotton cloth, which furnishes materials for the clothing of the family. Here they remain until they have exhausted the resources of the surrounding forest, when they seek out another spot, and repeat the same process.

“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, and extremely filthy and indolent in their habits, their morals in other respects are superior to many more civilised races. Their traditions, like those of several tribes of American Indians, are a curious medley of truth and absurdity; but they have some tolerably definite ideas of a Great Being who governs the universe, and many of their traditionary precepts bear a striking resemblance to those of the Gospel.[1] They have various petty superstitions, but, with the exception of a small division, they have never adopted Buddhism, the oppressive treatment which they have received at the hands of their Burmese rulers probably contributing to increase their aversion to idolatry.

“Soon after the arrival of the first Burmese missionary in Rangoon, his attention was attracted by small parties of strange, wild-looking men, clad in unshapely garments, who from time to time straggled past his residence. He was told they were Karens; that they were more numerous than any similar tribe in the vicinity, and as untamable as the wild cow of the mountains. He was further told that they shrank from association with other men, seldom entering a town except on compulsion; and that therefore any attempt to bring them within the sphere of his influence would prove unsuccessful. His earnest inquiries, however, awakened an interest in the minds of the Burmese converts; and one of them finding, during the war, a poor Karen bond-servant in Rangoon, paid his debt, and thus became, according to the custom of the country, his temporary master. When peace was restored, he was brought to the missionaries on the Tenasserim coast, and instructed in the principles of the Christian religion. He eventually became the subject of regenerating grace, and proved a faithful and efficient evangelist. Through this man, Ko-Thah-Byu by name, access was gained to others of his countrymen, and they listened with ready interest. They were naturally docile; they had no long-cherished prejudices and time-honoured customs to fetter them; and their traditions taught them to look for the arrival of white-faced foreigners from the west, who would make them acquainted with the true God. The missionaries in their first communications with the Karens were obliged to employ a Burmese interpreter; and notwithstanding the disadvantages under which they laboured, the truth spread with great rapidity. Soon, however, Messrs. Wade and Mason devoted themselves to the acquisition of the language, and the former conferred an inestimable blessing on the race, by reducing it to writing. This gave a fresh impetus to the spread of Christianity. The wild men and women in their mountain homes found a new employment, and they entered upon it with enthusiastic avidity. They had never before supposed their language capable of being represented by signs, like other languages; and they felt themselves, from being a tribe of crushed, down-trodden slaves, suddenly elevated into a nation, with every facility for possessing a national literature. This had a tendency to check their roving propensities; and under the protection of the British Government they began to cultivate a few simple arts, though the most civilised among them still refuse to congregate in towns, and it is unusual to find a village that numbers more than five or six houses. Their first reading books consisted of detached portions of the Gospel, and the Holy Spirit gave to the truth thus communicated regenerating power. Churches sprang up, dotting the wilderness like so many lighted tapers; and far back among the rocky fastnesses of the mountains, where foreign foot has never trod, the light is already kindled, and will continue to increase in brilliancy, till one of the darkest corners shall be completely illuminated.”

Since these words were written many years have passed away, and the process of the making and upraising of the Karens has steadily proceeded. In all the principal centres where they are found dwelling the Mission has flourishing churches and schools; and they have been found at all times of unrest and insurrection, when violent crime has been rife, amongst the most loyal subjects of the British power in Burma; and of late years, especially since the annexation of Upper Burma has been accompanied and succeeded by a period of disorder, the British Government has learnt how surely it can confide in the loyalty of the Christian Karens, and what good service they can render in time of need.

The following particulars, taken from the Encyclopædia of Missions recently published, give interesting information concerning the Karen Mission in one of its chief centres.