“By and by, however, our ancestors became careless. They had many gardens to make, and they grew forgetful of the book of the law, and one day they left it upon a low tree, and the fowls flew up to roost in the evening, and threw the book down to the ground; and then a dog came and carried it away, and gnawed it. Pa K’tsah was so displeased that he took away his law from us and gave it to our younger brother, the white man. Then Yuah left us. He said: ‘Oh, my children, you are now in the power of the evil spirits, who hate men. You can only appease their anger by sacrifices. I am going far away; but do not despair. One day your younger brother, the white man, will come to you in ships from the west, and will bring you back again the long-lost law of Yuah. Then you will be happy, for the evil ones will leave you, and I will return. Till then you must wait and watch. You shall be afflicted with sickness when the evil ones eat your spirits. You shall be slaves to your brethren; but one day all will be right, when your younger brother, the white stranger, brings you again my law.” Then, say the Karens, began our troubles and sorrows. Since then the Karens have regarded themselves as living in a world of evil spirits, and their religious ceremonies are simply propitiatory sacrifices and prayers to these evil beings, intended to conciliate and flatter them. [Illustration: CHRISTIAN KAREN GIRLS.] When sickness afflicts a Karen, it is supposed to be the result of an attack upon him by one of these evil beings. The Karens say that a man has seven spirits; that when we sleep all these spirits leave us and wander about the earth; what they see in their wanderings, we will see in our dreams. Now, the evil spirits, according to the belief of the Karens, are on the watch to catch the spirits of men and devour them. If one is caught, the man falls sick; if another, he grows worse; if all, he dies. The evil spirits may be appeased by a sacrificial feast, and may release the captive soul. So a feast is proclaimed, and all the family of the sick man--sometimes all his immediate relations--gather together and partake of it with great ceremony, offering portions of the food to the spirits, by exposing them outside the house or village, where they are quickly seized by birds. These feasts are accompanied by intercessory prayer to the evil spirits to release the captive soul from their toils. The streams, the forest, even particular trees, are supposed to be the haunts of these evil ones. So a Karen, when fishing, mutters a prayer to the tutelary spirit, or if he fells a tree, first mutters a prayer or makes a propitiatory offering. In sowing and reaping the grain, or planting fruit-trees, and gathering fruit, similar ceremonies are observed.