- Author:
- O'Connor, V. C. Scott (Vincent Clarence Scott)
- Publication Info:
-
London:
Hutchinson and co,
1904,
pg 21
Text on page 21
^ The Peoples
fervour the new creed brought to them by the missionaries, and there are to-day upwards of a hundred thousand Christian Karen in Burma. The Karen occupy a long strip of country on the east of Burma, and a considerable portion of the Delta of the Irrawaddy. By temperament the Karen differ radically from their Burmese neighbours. They are singularly devoid of humour, they are stolid and cautious, and they lack altogether the light gaiety and fascination of the Burmese. Yet it is not suggested that i n some qualities they do not surpass them. If their origin is still obscure, it is at least certain that they are not the aborigines of the land. All their traditions point the other way. "In my early travels," writes Mason, their picturesque apostle, " the Karen pointed out to me the precise spots where they took refuge in the days of Alompra, and where they
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girls at a karen missionary schoolgirls at a karen missionary school