Show FOREIGN correspondence hind niND j traditions dress manners and customs vf tle the people appearance of the country movements of elders 4 c CALCUT CALCUTTA TAp nov ath 1654 1851 president J M grant dear brothen brother seven segen months ive now elapsed since my last communication to our ich ach beloved brother AV and president willard richards nic ric hards eased ald and aid as I 1 learn team that you have succeeded him in tee I 1 shall continue my ray correspondence with you and ice more enter the regions of description relative to liters in the east I 1 desired to inform you of the pro ress of affairs with us some months ago but hut the unset ted state of our prospects was such that I 1 could not do with any certainty I 1 have now just arrived from bur bar aahl nah where I 1 have been for the last two months bot zot aeling ing able to learn satisfactorily the situation or of matters there I 1 rather hurri hurriedly edli came to the conclusion to BO go and arid see sea 20 for myself I 1 will say that I 1 am wells well weil and have been so since I 1 left here though much exposed by sea and land the ostensible reasons IT for my going to burmah were partially for the purpose ot of ascertaining the true situation of the tha people pl called kerrens 1 ail arl account ot of which was forwarded to you by br luddington besides many others coming from the same source viz the missionary baptists have induced me to enquire into their situation and character and besides my soul Is sick ot of trying the people of nin him boitin and I 1 felt as though I 1 could ransack the I 1 further herb belleve ost cst corner of the earth to find a people tl that would believe our testimony and obey the gospel but cat when I 1 found tha the people called kerrens they were in many respects like all other laboring under the accumulated traditions of several thousand years which are so strongly interwoven with their very existence that it seems a thing almost impossible to make any inroads upon themy them or raise their narrow minds to the idea that there Is a god besides theirs who Is in possession of knowledge and power they suppose that we know 0 w nothing of the god whom we serve only by fabulous legends similar to their own the burmas I 1 must say as a people are far in advance of the Ben Den galles they dont manifest that crouching crawling servile spirit which the possess besides resides they are much fairer in complexion than the large majority of Hin nin doob doos and in their features they are another mould altogether there Is a slight resemblance to be traced troed in their out linesa alnes between them and the malays balays battiey but tiey more strongly resemble the inhabitants of slam cochin chinat ohina and the celestial empire these three are more or less scattered all through the burman barman empire and can only be told from them by their dress and sometimes by the mode of worship but not always for I 1 have seen them and the burmas both worshiping at the same t ime time and a place from the great similarity in their language and ad many of their trad traditions I 1 strongly incline to the opinion that they have sprung from the same samo tartar origin in statue the tha burmahl are not more than five feet eight or nine inches the tallest of themy them and have very peculiar habits prevailing amongst them one of which Is ls they will not take animal life or kill anything for their own use nae ai at all they do howe however very verp catch and eat fish this Is the only animal food which they make use of except the animal should die when they would have no scruples in eating it it matters not what the disease might have bem be n this as a matter of course makes the most part ot of their diet vegetable in which may be Include ded the leaves of trees and jungle fruit the latter I 1 am told Is very wery abundant during its season they also make a free use of narcotics such ruch as opium tobacco and betel nut they are the most inveterate smoker ersI sl have ever seen children before they are weaned from the tha breast often commence the use of the cigar the burmahl cultivate the earth but to a limited extent their principal production Is rice but I 1 am told in the upper parts of the country about avay ava that some wheat is raised of an inferior quai quality itys but it cannot be to any any great extent they live in poor miserable hovel 43 made of bamboo bamboos and thatched with grass they are set upon posts a few feet above the ground and are often set over a stinking pond of water where all the filth fifth from the house can drop through the floor which Is left open for that purpose purposes and the foul foal effluvia which arises from the stinking cesspools ces spools Is almost beyond endurance endurance to a half halt nose their wearing apparel and everything which the they usey uses Is purely domestic and there is no such thin thing as caste among them you can find flud a loom in lil almost every house and the cloth which they manufacture much resembles french Gingha ginghams msp or scotch plaid and I 1 Is very strong and serviceable there are also large quantities of silk manufactured vat b ut I 1 did not see any of them at work it Is generally of a coarse quality but very serviceable vi and strong for common apparel the men wear single piece of cloth around the loans and a moth loth around the head they wear their hair long longs and never shave they pluck out their eye brows this Is their everyday every day appearance the women are very singular in their costume their dress consists of a single piece of cloth which Is nearly square and a little more than reaches round them with the open part in front they draw the upper tipper edge tightly around cherng them and the lower edge Is hanging a little below the knees after it la Is sufficiently tight the outside comer is tucked under this as a natural consequence leaves the garment nearly all open before and every time the wind blows their whole person Is exposed they do not seem t tn mind anything about it and can not be prevailed upon to change their mode of dress the women are much superior to the men meny and as a general thing are much fairer in complexion and of a fine carriage and very tind hind civil and courteous there Is none of that shy sneaking affected timidity that characterizes the women of bengal they do all of the work in the house and out of doors as we call ity its it but it Is all out of doors to them for they have no doors to their houses they also do all if the buying and selling the men are a very lazy idle st wt the burin bunin burmahl as believe in and practice a plurality of g extensively and I 1 must say says that there Is the least immorality ind and and habits practiced practice amongst tient tieni t e lal LAI lot tot of any people that I 1 have ever seen except the saints I 1 Adul adultery terZ 13 3 punished by the death of the man to be executed by the husband or friend of the woman and they without any exceptions exception far ecel any nation in the east easty for morality and virtue and such a thing as a pubic prostitute Is not known amongst them they are only to be found upon the track of her Maje army with the march of civilizations civilization and the enlightened etiquette of the anglo saxon racey races race follows crime in all its horrid forms licentiousness and treachery are la in the front rant and the condition of the natives in la this respect re with mith the advance of british rule tradition says concerning the dress of the domeny women that about years yeats ago the nation were BO so sunken in vice and wick wickedness edne that they were about to become extinct in consequence of a national evil which prevailed to an alarming degree which was the crime of sodomy the then reigning kin king and queen queens enforced upon the females of the nation by decree the kind of dress which I 1 have already described the queen herself setting the pattern first then enjoined upon all others with the hope of reclaiming the men by the exposure of their persons which it appears has had a salutary effect the kerrens are somewhat different from the burmahl in personal appearance pe arance they are more of a stalwart hard fisted race and have ion lon long iong been oppressed by the burmahl many of them are much br 1 lighter ahter complexioned than the women in tri particular they also aiso dress dif dlf different ferent they have not such uncomely fashions as the bun Bon nabs mahs their language I 1 Is also different and I 1 think them a very good people farj tor for but their tradition traditions sp urke uke all the rests rest are the taft predominant and ruling features of the people from whai what I 1 heard beard I 1 felt very anxious to establish the thi gospel gopel amongst them my mind was full of hope and buoyant with anticipations that the lord had bad a people amongst them sucte were my feelings of them themy flotd froin the best information tha that I 1 could coald get t f at rangoon I 1 saw a few etho belonged to the missionary station in that place but this was not zot ot satisfactory actor I 1 wished to see them in their native villages where they thel were untaught and uncontaminated by the pernicious influences of missi missionary conary which ihas has money for tor its end and beginning and Is incompetent to correct its own errors much less to enlighten the bol boi blighted eted of the so called heathen most of the kerrins speak the the burmese language brother savage also speaks that language well we accordingly be began bean an to malje malie maa MIA preparations for tor a trip amongst them I 1 first tried to some conveyance by land but I 1 soon learned consequence of the incessant rains which prevail here al months jn the year that the road was not passable for anything except an amphibious animal I 1 am told that the country Is ailed filled with deep hul aul lacks ravines and broad tracts ct of low land which were most likely to be covered with water at this season we then came cams to the conclusion to hire him a boat boats which which we did for four engro shillings p per day after providing ourselves with the needful for ine ife the tie trip we set ot off the first day found us far beyond reach of any except nati natives vesi vesp who looked like the inhabitants of neptune Neptun ep that had just emerged from the watery element elements a strange sight to american cyerl i a q whole village ing ang upon posts from eight to ten feet seep above the surface of the water watery with a countless number num berV berg ot hogs dows dogs do gsand and fowls living upon the same platform platform plat piat fora foro forn f it brought 11 t my mind in full force the old adage thai that one hail halt ot the world does not know how the other halt half lives the anly means of conveyance from frob one how to another Is by boats which every family as in pos possession of the entire face of the country as far as the eye can reach re achIs is submerged in water watery ran ranging Iii from two to five feet in there Is a kind of water weed and a coarse cane grass which grows up from the earth and floats upon the surface of the water waters and nd forms a kind of a floating surface some six or eight inches thick and upon this grows a shori sheri kind of makes its general appearance that of I 1 a continuous plain all through this floating surface are ane arshan channels from six to ten tea beet in width where they travel with the boats boat and are arc to IS toie natives what a public high road Is to us and afford thoroughfares thorough fares to and from the various market places this district of country Is chiefly settled by the Kerren kerrens tp who have come down from the hills tor for the purpose of raisin raising rice to which this country Is ls particularly ticul arly adapted there are from fifteen to thirty houses in a villa village ge and the villages occupy every few miles there are often two and three la milles families in a house they are a very hospitable and kind people peoples but have no literary attainments 1 As to their religious views I 1 did not find themas represented by the missionaries they do not worship the 1 great spirit spirits as it has been stated very many pi 9 f them are buddhists and those thosa not do not worship anything br savage told them who we were arid the nature of our message hut but hex hey they could not zot understand under it at all ad they have no correct idea of god and the thi whole affair was a new train ot of thought and such a burst agnew ideas upon their contracted minds that they had bad not the slightest conception of what we verel about they arb ari governed by tradition and 14 instinct all one generation knows of another Is by tradition and it Is more firmly riveted upon the minds of this people than of those in any other country we visited them from village to villages for some bome days and chwe saw in the first we saw 0 f the last they were all alike we lve visited in one village villages some who had been converter to christian ity by the Amerl ameri american cah baptists we xe asked them if they believed in gody gods god and in his son jesus christ and in the hoi hol ho llo 1 l ly IS ghost Chos tto to which they answered yes the fruits of their profession were nit rift to be seen I 1 could coald not discern any change in them intra than in those that madi madl no profession and I 1 could dilt vilt see that their condition was in the slightest manner bettered Iti it 12 true they acknowledged that they believed in god but that Is all there was of it it Is far worse averse than it ft is with indians ask them it if they believe in gods god and they wilt will say desp yes every time and have some very good traditions lest I 1 should be tedious in rny my detail details I 1 wui wai say in a word that to me there spears appears no chance for the old stock ever being brought tda knowledge of ot the to commence with the young ones la is the only hopkind hop cind eind that Is like beginning with the aw raw material OT or acting upon the native element which perhaps may be brought into subjection in another generation provided they arg arl ar emi enil grated which they are averse tt I 1 do not nit can be done effectually in this country at least not until the reign of righteousness Is fully entered in then perhaps will be their day of grace I 1 found in rangoon a small branch of the church in a flourishing condition under the guidance of elders ciders willis and mccune which now numbers about 1 22 2 1 stopped a short tima time with them during which time I 1 delivered two courses of lectures nightly there were tour four added to ahe i church during my stay br levi savage jr will remain at this place places and labor with the P nur Bur mahs and it if possible obtain a footing amongst them he has already spent about one year amongst them but be has noi not not been able to make any converts yet I 1 frankly confess that I 1 have no faith in their obeying the gospel until a different spirit prevails from the one which they are in pw possession session of at present br willis wills embarked for tor the valley valleys via and on the ath of sept lie ile arrived safely at Singa on the ath of oct and found bro leddington who had returned from slam some three weeks previous andaas and was then lecturing in Singa but expected to leave in a day or two for malacca Mal MaU lacca iacca acca there being no opportunity port unity of shipping for america foursome for some months to come br willis wills concluded to ship for england which he did about the of oct on the gazelle gazelles capt leslie lesile bound for liverpool la in calcutta matters remain much as they were six months ago age br woolley has baa been here for sodie some months past br fotheringham Is near custack Cut tack and br melk Is at custack Cut tack he says there Is some hopes of adding a few la in that place the prospects for our |