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Show ytfRENSyfiURMA . . Tu-r?i Bra Girls of the Burma Highlands. I (Prepared by h National Oeoirraphla Sooltr. Waablnsloa, D. C.) ALTHOUGH the majority of the Burmese have a well-developed civilization, there are hill tribes In Burma whose members are strikingly primitive. Most of them are classed as Red or White Karens. In the old days the Red Karen never went out without dha (sword) and pun, and In addition had a small sheaf of spears or rather Javelins. INow, the guns remain at home, only to be used when there Is a death In the village. They are fired then to care away the disembodied spirit All the dead are looked upon as evil-minded evil-minded or, at all events, malevolent characters, best driven away. The Karen spears have vanished so completely that the hunter after . curios has difficulty In getting them. They are of a very distinctive character, charac-ter, sharpened on one side only, like s knife-blade, with a male bamboo shaft that bad a spike st the butt, so that the owner could stick It tn the ground when he was hoeing his fields or cutting cut-ting his crops, and be ready for any stranger. But the Red Karen remains a heavy drinker. Early prospectors for teak forests used to any that a genuine Karen-nl never went abroad without taking s bamboo on his back, from which a tube led to his mouth. Apparently Ap-parently they could carry their liquor then. Inside and out In addition to their liking for spirits from the still, the Red Karens are devotees de-votees of the spirits of the air, the flood and the fell. Latterly a few have become nominal Buddhists, and some have even founded monasteries and built pngodns, but none of them give np their belief In nats, to use the Burmese word for spirits. Ornaments of Brass. The Karen's Idea of ornamentation seems to Western eyes to make for anything but comfort They wear great colls of brass wire and brass rods on their arms and legs. The length of these colls seems only limited lim-ited hy the space available or the ability abil-ity of the household to pay for tbe rod, for hrflna ta verv pynenslvA. available nook of the valley Is terraced ter-raced for Irrigation, which Is carried out with great skill and eye for contour. con-tour. They grow a good deal of cotton cot-ton and make their clothes of It The average height of their country Is between be-tween 8.000 and 4,000 feet, with peaks rising to 6,000. Their roads are well aligned, fairly broad, and much used, and are considered very good by those who have traveled over bill-roads, though a bicycle would have to be carried car-ried for three miles In every four. Pack bullocks sre kept nnd caravans go down to Toungoo on the railway. On the whole, they may be said to be the best of the hill races In this neighborhood, neigh-borhood, and they have great game drives with trained dogs. Borne authorities have doubts as to whether they are Karens and want to place them In the Mon-hkmer group. Their language, however, has many similarities with Taungthn. Some distance to the north of the Padaung country wltb the small Red Karen State of Nawngpalnl Intervening Interven-ing Is the Bre tract Their country Is of a different character char-acter from that of the Padaungg. It Is a much more emphatic Jumble of hills, very high and steep, with exceedingly exceed-ingly narrow valleys In between. The dress of the Bre men Is more distinctive than that of the Padaungs. They wear a pair of very short trousers, trou-sers, striped red and white, and tied at the wnlst with a bit of string. A blanket of coarse cotton serves for s cont, and their long black hair is tied Into s knot, Just over the right temple, and the rest, apparently never romhed, hangs over the shoulders end face. On their legs they wear cotton circlets cir-clets below the knee, with brass rings to keep the colls apart. Many of them also wear necklets or torques of brass. The dress of the women varies for the three groups, but the differences are not great. The chief garment Is a gaberdine called thlndalng by the Burmese, Bur-mese, perhaps more like a poncho, since It Is slipped over the head, and has either rudimentary sleeves or none at all. They also wear a short klrtle which reaches within a hand's breadth The total weight carried by the average aver-age woman Is SO or 00 pounds, and here and there some manage as much as 70 or even 80. Burdened wltb this weight, they hoe the flelns, carry water for domestic use, and go long distances to village markets to sell liquor. They brew a great deal of very fiery stuff and sell It to most of their neighbors, carrying It In flagons made of woven strips of bamboo lacquered over with wood-oil, and dispensed In goblets of the same manufnctuie. The cups are of most generous size. They hold about half a pint, and those not trained to It usually usu-ally become noisy after one. The brass-collar fashion does not seem to affect the women's health. There are plenty of active old crones among them and families of eight or ten are quite common. The only noticeable no-ticeable effect is that the women speak as If some one had them tight around the neck. ' They wear colored scarfs twisted Into the hnlr, jumper coats which slip over the head, have a fashionable fash-ionable V-shaped front and back, and very short sleeves, with occasionally little cmbrohlery. The skirt are like kilts, stopping above the knee and striped red and blue. The necklaces are of the usual kind, with cornelians and other stones, coins and beads. The men are not nearly so picturesque. pic-turesque. Near main trade routes they wear the baggy trousers and short coats of the Sbans. The remote villagers wear shorts and cane leg-rings. leg-rings. An attempt at decoration is seen In the anklets made of shirt buttons but-tons and kaleik seeds (the white seeds of a herbaceous plant), and every man carries a powder-and-shot case strapped to his belt. These are of wiekerwork, neatly embroidered with brass bosses and raised scrollwork, and they glitter with wood-oil varnish. ' One Clan of Good Farmers. The Kekawngdu clan occupies a tract eovgrlng, perhaps, 100 square miles. They are zealous agriculturists. Every of the knee, but some dispense with this. It Is red and blue tn stripes. Decorations of the Bre People. The women In the northern section of the Bre tract have brass tubing colled round the leg from the ankle to the knee, and from above the knee to half way up the thigh. The southern south-ern Bre women have to content themselves them-selves with cotton colls Instead of brass. Both wear large brass hooks or torques round the neck, and enormous enor-mous ear-plugs are fixed through the lobes of the ears. They have no head-dress, and their hair, which Is unkempt as that of the men. Is tied In a knot at the back of the head. They marry very early the girls at about thirteen, the youths at fifteen wears of age. It Is an easy matter to determine whether or not a man has a wife. The unmarried wear pebble necklaces whlcfi have been hnnded down from father to son for generations. Some of them are valued at 50 rupees, which Is wealth for these hills. Besides these, large brass rings encircle en-circle the man's neck, hang from the ears, and are Inserted In the cotton garters on his legs. The northern Bre bachelor adds to these ornaments a twisted bamboo band round the head, studded with mother-of-pearl shirt-buttons shirt-buttons or small red and green beads, as a sort of setting to the shards of large green beetles. All this finery goes to the wife when he gets one, and as a husband he Is reduced to a pair of trousers, a blanket, blan-ket, and some unornnmented black rings around his legs, A rudely carved wooden comb sometimes remains fixed In his top knot as an ornament, not for use. Both Boxes stain their teeth black, nslng for the purpose the leaves of a tree which the Bre call Thupo, mixed with lline-juiee. The rest of the Karen tribesmen of these hills form much smaller groups, but they all have their distinctive patois, due, no doubt, to the detestably detest-ably rugged character of the country. |