Tso, which maan?, power, and seems to be a personifica- tion oVreuson, If the tso becomes heedless or weak, or is unfortunately circimistanced, then the kelah can do mischief, but otherwise it is powerless for evil.
There are other spiritual beings, such as Keplwo, a species of vampire, which is the stomach of a wizard, and in the form of the head and entrails of a human be- ing goes out at night to seek food. It destroys human kelahs. Therels are spirits of those who have died by violence, as by tigers or other wild beasts, by famine, or sword, or starvation. These can neither go to the up- per region (Mukhah), nor to that of the Flu, where men are punished, but must remain on earth, causing mortal sickness. Offerings and supplications are made to them. Tahmus or Tah-his are spectres of those Avho have been dreadfully wicked in this life. They appear as appari- tions only, in form of horses, elephants, (togs, crocodiles, serpents, vultures, ducks, or colossal men. /Sek/niJis are spirits of persons left unburied, and of infants or aged persons who have become infirm because the tso has left them. Plup)ho are inhabitants of the infernal re- gion, and are spirits of all who go natinally to their proper place, and renew their earthly em]iloyments, building houses, cutting rice, etc. The location is un- declared, but is above the earth, or below it, or beyond the horizon. It is presided over by king Cootay or Thee- do. At his call the kelahs must go, and men die. Un- der his dominion they serve, as in an intermediate state, a probation, and if good go to heaven, if bad to hell or Lerah, which has two gradations of piniishment, one be- ing more severe than the other. Tuh-nahs or Xaks are the spirits of two sorts of fiends which take the form of any animals they please, and prey upon men. The Lord of men created them as a punishment in conse- quence of a disobedience on the part of men to one of his commands. They have a king who was the great tempter of man in the garden. Mukhahs are the an- cestors of the Karons who inhabit the upper region, and are the creators of the present generation. Sometimes they work imperfectly, and, as a consequence, ill-favored and imperfect persons are found. Tliey preside over births and marriages, mingling together the blood of two persons. Thej- are -worshipped with offerings. The Keleepho create the winds; the Tah Yoornu cause eclips- es ; the Coocla and Liatpihoo preside over the wet and dry seasons.
Priesthood. — There are amongst the Karens a class of people who serve as prophets, and assume conditions of mind and body much like those affected by the '• medi- cine-men" amongst North American Indians. What with writhing of the body, rolling on the ground, foam- ing at the mouth, etc., they are presumed to attain a state of clairvoyance favorable to the prediction of comuig events. The prophecies uttered by these which are re- tained in tradition mostly pertain to the deliverance of the Karens from the oppression of the Burmese. These prophets are of two classes. The wees compose ballads and other poetry, and have great power in caUing back dejjarted kelahs. The other class are known as booL- Iios, and are rather priests than prophets, taking the lead in the religious ceremonies of the people, instructing them in their religious obligations, and are a more re- spectable class, being heads of commmiities, though not hereditary chiefs.
Jlissiniis. — iMissionary work was commenced amongst these tribes about 1828, by Messrs. Boardman and JuH- son, who were succeeded bj' Blessrs. Wade, Blason, and Kiucaid. Twenty-five years after that the Karen apostle Ko-thau-Bu, a native convert, met with wonderfLd suc- cess amongst these people. Associated prominently with this great movement was Rev. Mr. Vinton, who '-in six years planted forty churches, opened forty-two houses of worship and thirty-two school-houses, and saw be- tween eight and nine thousand Karens raised to the lev- el of Christian worshijipers. In 1852 alone he received five hundred Karens into the Church. In 1808 the Bap- tist jMission report showed that they had amongst this
KARE-PATREPAXDAROInT
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people sixty-six native ordained pastors and evangel- ists; three hundred and forty-six native preachers un- ordained; three hunth-ed and sLxty native chiu-ches ; nineteen thousand two liundred and thirty-one church- members, and nearly sixty thousand natives" of all ages known as Christians. A writer in the Madras Obsei-v- er (India) stated that, in Oct, 18G8, a gentleman, not in sympathy with the Baptists, but a great traveller, per- forming "his journeys on foot through Burmah while amongst these Karen districts, said that on one occasion " he found himself for seventeen successive nights, at the end of his days' journeys through the forest, in a na- tive Christian village.
Literature. — Jonriial of the American Oriental Socie- ty, vol. iv; Wayland, Z,j/e of Judson ; Brace, Races of the Old World; Whitney, Lanr/uarje and the Studi/ of Lawjuarje ; Latham, Elements of Comparative Philolocji/ ; Anderson, Foreign Missions (N. Y. 18G9) ; Mullen, 7'en Years of Missionary Work in India ; Mrs. Mason, Ciril- izinij Mountain Men, or Sketches of Mission Work among the Karens (18G2) ; Mrs. Wylie, Gospel in Burmah. For a full history of the mission work amongst the Karens, see Mason, Gospel in Burmah ; Report of A merican Bap- tist Mission Union for 1808. A comparative vocabulary of the Sgau and Pwo dialects of the Karen language, by the liev. Dr. Nathan Brown, Baptist missionarj-, now of New York City, may be found in the Jou7: of the Amer- ican Oriental Societi/, vol. iv. See also the article Bur- mah (II. Missions). (J. T. G.)