KARENS, or KARRANS (wild men), so called because, through oppressions and atrocities of the people among whom they dwelt, they have been driven to occupy jungles and almost inaccessible mountains, shunning other races except as drawn for trade to the towns. They are found in Burmah, Siam, and the southern part of China. They are supposed to have anciently migrated from farther north, and their features and language suggest a Caucasian origin. They are found sometimes as nomads, burn ing the underbrush in a forest, building three or four huts in the ashes, staying till the resources of the spot are exhausted, then moving elsewhere. Sometimes they are found as husbandmen, raising rice, vegetables, and fruit, and trading in honey, poultry, pigs, rattan, mats, and tusks of the elephant and rhinoceros. They are harmless and indus trious, and superior in morals to many more civilized races. The common dress is a sleeveless cotton frock, but they are fond of ornaments. Their houses are of bamboo, raised on strong posts, 6 or 7 ft. from the ground. As a race they are without form of religion or regular priesthood, and till recently without a written language; but through a set of poetic legends they have transmitted ftom father to son ideas of an overruling God, of the brotherhood of man, and of future reward and punishment. In these songs, which are singularly pure and elevating, are accounts of the creation, of a deluge, of a time when language became confused in consequence of disbelief in God, of the betrayal of a son and daughter of God by Satan in the form of a dragon, which are remarkably like the teaching: of the Jewish scriptures. In these songs are also prophetic anticipations
of future enlightenment through white strangers, who should come to them by water. When the missionaries sent to Burmah met with these people, and began to tell them of Christ, they were gladly received, and their labors have been attended with success scarcely rivaled in the history of missions. The converts were relentlessly persecuted by the Burmese, but, since...southern Burmah fell into the hands of the English, the Kisrens have been able to build churches and establish schools. There are over 400 churches and abo,:t 20,000 members.
KARfXAL', a remnant of the once extensive possessions of France in India, lies on the Coromandel coast, on the estuary of one of the branches of the Kaveri, within the limits of the British district of Tanjore. It contains only 51 sq.m., with ('73) 92,445 inhabitants, of whom the great majority are natives. Karikal was ceded to the French by the rajah of Tanjore in 1759. Having subsequently fallen into the hands of the Emr.lish, it was restored at the general pacification of 1314, on condition that it should neither contain any fortification nor possess any garrison, unless for purposes of police. This tract is of little commercial importance. Karikal is 150 m. to the s. of Madras.