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1864.]

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE KARENS.

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than they resemble the Karens who dwell in the mountains. They are stout, muscular people, with large limbs, larger than the Burmese; while the mountaineers are usually of little muscle and small limbs.

It is a popular idea that mountaineers are stronger and hardier than lowlanders; but however it may be in other climes, it is certain that in Burmah the mountain tribes are weaker people than those who live on the plains. The cause, however, may possibly be other than the locality. In stature, all the Karens are shorter, on an average, than Europeans. In a promiscuous assembly of one hundred men, embracing several tribes, two were five feet seven inches high; eight were five feet six and a half inches; and all the rest were shorter. An intelligent man that I measured, five feet five inches and a half, was confident that he was taller than the average of Karens. I should fix the average at from five feet four inches and a half to five feet five inches. The shortest man I have measured is a Bghai chief, and he was only four feet eight inches high; and the tallest Karen I have seen was not quite six feet.

A company of one hundred Karen women had only two that were five feet one inch high; eight were four feet ten, and the rest shorter. The average cannot be more than four feet nine inches. The shortest woman I have noted was four feet five inches.

In different villages the average would vary considerably from the above. A village of Mopghas on the hills, that can be seen with a glass from the city of Toungoo, is remarkable for its short men, especially the younger ones. I doubt if there be one over five feet high. Though small in stature, the Karens appear tolerably well proportioned.

Where the natural complexion has not been deepened by exposure to the sun, the Karens are nearly as fair as the Chinese; and a Bghai teacher, who has spent two years among the Red Karens, says the Red Karens are fairer than any other Karen tribe.

The yellow tinge of the Chinese is very distinctly seen on many of the Karens, particularly females, and more especially on those that reside in the northern part of Toungoo.

The hair is straight and coarse, usually of a jet black; but many of the Karens in Toungoo have hair of a brownish tinge, which is rarely seen in the south.

The eyes are commonly black; but here again a change is observed as we proceed north, where many hazel eyes are met.

The head is pyramidal, the breadth of the face across the cheek bones wider than across the temples, and the bridge of the nose rises above the face. Occasionally a decided Roman nose is seen, but there is still a depression between the eyes not possessed by the Romans. The face is lozenge-shaped, and the whole countenance, in typical specimens, is Mongolian. There is a great diversity in individuals, and these traits are less developed in the more civilized Sgaus and Pwos than in the wilder Bghais.

It is not easy to describe the characteristic countenances of the different tribes; yet there are characteristic differences which the experienced eye can detect. Apart from the difference of race, locality affects the countenance. Thus the Sgaus of Tavoy and Mergui can usually be distinguished from the Sgaus or Pakus of Toungoo. Educa

24

POETRY.

[FEB.

tion also affects the countenance. The Karens that have been educated in our Mission schools look like quite a different tribe from their wild countrymen on the hills.

The Karens rarely intermarry with other races; but among those who are settled near the Burmese, a Burmese is sometimes found with a Karen wife, and in every instance that has come under my personal observation, the children have had a strong Burmese cast of countenance. Missionary Magazine.

ONE HOUR WITH THEE.

ONE hour with Thee, my God, when daylight breaks
Over a world Thy guardian care hath kept;
When the pleased soul from soothing slumber wakes,
To praise the love that watched me while I slept ;
When with new strength my pulse is beating free,
My first, best, sweetest thoughts I'll give to Thee.

One hour with Thee, when busy day begins

Its never-ceasing round of cumb'ring care;
When I must meet with toil and pain and sins,

And through them all Thy Cross must duly bear;
Oh then, to arm me for the fight, to be
Faithful to death, I'll spend one hour with Thee.

One hour with Thee, when rides the glorious sun
High in mid heaven-when parting nature feels
Lifeless and overpowered, and man has done,
For one short hour, with urging life's swift wheels-
In that deep pause my soul from care shall flee,
To make that hour of rest an hour with Thee.

One hour with Thee, when sadd'ning twilight flings
Her soothing charm o'er lawn and vale and grove,
And there breathes up from all created things

The sweet enthralling sense of Thy dear love;
Then, when its influence descends on me,
Oh then, my God, I'll spend an hour with Thee.

One hour with thee, my God, when softly night
Climbs the high heaven with solemn step and slow,

And Thy sweet stars, unutterably bright,

Are sending forth Thy praise to all below;

Then, when my thoughts from earth to heaven would flee,
Oh then, my God, I'll spend an hour with Thee.

1864.]

( 25 )

THE ABYSSINIANS.

WE present an engraving of some Abyssinians, that singular people, who, in the features of their country, their physical appearance, and the religion they profess, stand out so distinctively from other natives of Africa.

[graphic][merged small]

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THE ABYSSINIANS.

[MARCH, Abyssinia is a country of mountains and valleys, and is subject to every variety of climate. The mountain tops are too bleak and the lowlands too feverish for the European constitution. But on the elevated plateaux there is a perpetual spring, and freshness and health.

The Abyssinians, in features and form, are a handsome people. They are between five and six feet in height. "Erect and slender, they are not devoid of muscular strength, nor of that symmetrical roundness which so much contributes to the beauty of the human frame."

Their complexion, unlike that of other dark races, is very varied. The light and olive-brown certainly predominate; but it is not unusual to meet in a single town or village individuals who exhibit every shade of colour, from the pale Egyptian on the Nile at Cairo to the dark negro in the malarious jungles near the equator.

The costume of the Abyssinian is exceedingly simple. Men of all ranks, from the king to the beggar, wear a shama, or loose dress of white cotton, which, in graceful folds, is thrown over the shoulders, so as to leave the hands and arms free to carry spear and buckler. The softness of the web, and the depth of the red border round the bottom of this convenient garb, indicate the social position of the wearer, and this is so minutely defined, that any one who should presume to ape his betters would, in all probability, obtain a lesson or two on dress from the imperial giraffe-holder. Beneath the shama the aristocrat dons his silken, damask, or velvet kamees; but this is a privilege only granted to a few magnates, and those whom the king delights to honour. Trowsers of the same material as the shama are worn by all, and also the cotton waistcloth, which is so long, that when wound round the waist, it serves the purpose of armour, in warding off blows, or in protecting from the thrust of sword or lance. When engaged in battle the shama is exchanged for the dino, a mere piece of skin, sometimes of the lion or leopard, but more commonly of the sheep. Those made by the saddlers at Gondar are lined with red cotton stuff, or gay chintz; but as the common soldiers cannot generally afford so costly an article, the majority content themselves with a half-dressed sheep's hide, which is fastened by a strip of leather around their necks. The great chiefs, like the Spartans of old, during an engagement, wear scarlet jackets or cloaks, in order that, in a sharp hand-to-hand combat, the enemy may not perceive the wounds he has inflicted, and so cut off his opponent's retreat.

The description of the men may, with little variation, be applied to the women. In their appearance and form, the Abyssinian ladies are certainly not undeserving the fame they have ever enjoyed among their sallow and dark-skinned neighbours. Round and well proportioned, they are particularly favoured with high and broad foreheads, aquiline noses, and eyes which, notwithstanding their unpleasing large size and dark brilliancy, are so tempered by a soft dreamy expression, that they rather enhance than detract from what orientals consider the perfection of beauty. Their teeth are tolerably white and even, but do not come up to those of the negro. The Abyssinians, however, surpass every other

1864.] INCREASING WAR DEMANDS INCREASING PRAYER.

27

African tribe, in the luxuriant growth of their hair. Black as jet, and sometimes even as straight and glossy as that of the European, it is much to be regretted that neither the men nor the women should be satisfied with a gift nature has so liberally bestowed on them, but seek to improve it either by shaving a part of the head, or by the application of an abominable coating of rancid butter.

Particular as the Abyssinians are in the management of the hair, they are somewhat indifferent about the more important matter of dress. Ladies of rank, besides the usual under-garment, and a loose shirt reaching below the knees, and neatly embroidered in front and on the cuffs, envelope themselves, on special occasions, in a fine shama, with a gay silk border, or in a gorgeously coloured cloak of English or German cloth. Women of the lower ranks, however, dispense with all these superfluities. A wide sack kamees, when at home, and the usual winding-sheet over it when going abroad, form their entire outfit.

Ornaments are the rage of rich and poor. Those who possess means carry their love for all kinds of trinkets to such an excess, that they often have more than three pounds weight of silver bells, chains, and little scent-boxes dangling down over their bosom, besides all the other et ceteras, such as rosaries, bangles, and an endless variety of charms against the Bouda, Zar, and every evil to which ladies in Abyssinia, as in other lands, are liable.*

These people are nominally Christians, but of what description their Christianity is, and what is their moral character, we must examine in another Number.

INCREASING WAR DEMANDS INCREASING PRAYER.

IN what a disturbed state the world is at the present moment! What a prevalence of war; wars and rumours of wars; nation rising against nation; and kingdom against kingdom!

The once United States of North America are now disunited-irrevocably so. The protracted and relentless war, the lavish expenditure of human life, have placed barriers between the Northern and Southern States more separating than if the Rocky Mountains, uplifted from their present position, were planted down between them.

Traversing, in our rapid survey, the Pacific, we reach the coast of China. Here, again, is distraction. The Imperialists and the Taepings wage against each other a savage warfare, and the great bulk of the population, which cares nothing either for one or the other, and which longs only for peace that it may pursue its old course of monotonous toiling for the bread that perisheth, is miserably scourged and fleeced, and bleeds at every pore. England would fain prop the old tottering dynasty of the Tartars that she may open out her trade with China, and, with the restoration of peace, obtain more largely of its silks and But the Mandarins of Pekin refuse the proffered aid, and the red tide of war continues its ebb and flow.

teas.

* Stern's "Wanderings among the Falashas."

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