Women's Garments ဟ္ုမူးဆ္ုကံင္ဆ္ုသိုဝ္

Women's Garments{(1) A "hko peu" or head-dress of a Sgaw Karen. (2) A
smock ("hse") and a skirt ("ni"), Sgaw Karen, from the Pegu Hills, Toungoo
District, The smock is embroidered with colored yarns and "Job's Tears." The
middle of the skirt shows the python pattern. (3) A Sgaw Karen smock and skirt
from Shwegyin District. This smock is trimmed with red braid, except the lower
part which is fancily woven ("u").}
The women of all these tribes wear the simplest kind of a skirt; it is a
straight slip which, instead of being gathered about the waist, is drawn tight
across the back, folded across the front, and the fulness tucked in at the waist
line, thus allowing the action of the knees. The garment remains in place
remarkably well, although no belt is used. When the women bathe--those on the
plains doing so with much more regularity than their sisters in the hills--they
bring the top of the skirt up under the armpits and fasten it over the breasts
in the same manner as about the waist.
The jackets or smocks of the women present a variety of designs. The most
common is the plain black or dark blue "hse" with little or no ornament on it.
Sometimes it is decorated with small rosettes or stars of colored yarns or,
among the Pwo, with fern-like figures. The prettiest decorations are made with
the hard white seeds of various shapes of the plant called Job's Tears
(Coix). The variety mostly used are those resembling barberries, called
"bwe" in Sgaw Karen and found all over the hills. These are sewed on the
finished garment in parallel rows, in rows forming V-shaped figures, or in the
forms of stars or rosettes and edging the arm, and neck holes. Red yarns or
pieces of red cloth are also sewed on to add to the ornamentation. In Shwegyin
we often see a "hse" that is woven with elaborate designs of red and green on a
black ground, red tape being sewed in vertical lines on the body of the garment
and in horizontal lines over the shoulders. The head-dress of the women is
called "hko peu ki" and among the Sgaw women consists of a piece of cloth about
two yards long and a foot wide. The middle part is plain white. At either end
there is a fancy woven ("u") portion about twenty inches long, red in color and
cross at intervals of two inches by transverse lines. In the middle of these
colored ends is a white zigzag line representing a serpent. The other lines are
in pairs, those equidistant from the zigzag above and below being alike and
having their special designations. These names are, however, in archaic form,
and their meaning is not well known. There are long white fringes on the ends of
the head-dress and shorter colored ones at the ends of the cross lines. When
worn, it is twisted about the head in such a way as to form a peak over the
forehead with the colored fringes hanging down about the eyes and the long white
fringes down the back. In a few villages in the Pegu Hills the women wear
circlets ("hko hhlaw") of bamboo or silver, around which they coil their hair.
The metal circlets are made of beaten silver a scant inch in width and long
enough to go once and a half around the head, being held by a fancy clasp at the
back, which keeps the band in place. Such silver circlets are valued at about
ten rupees or more, according to the work on them.
The Karen make blankets of the same cloth that they use for their garments.
They use two strips of white edged with red selvedges, each piece being four
yards long. These are sewed together lengthwise, and then one outer edge is
sewed up to provide a half-open sleeping-bag. The fringes of the open end are
drawn up over the head.

Women's Head-dress
On the whole, the Karen are very careful about exposing their persons. The
women have always worn the closed skirts and not the open "tamein," which was
formerly in vogue among the Burmese. They seldom go without their jackets,
though in the hills older women now and then leave them off. Little children run
about more or less naked. Boys often find their garments a bother and thrust
them aside, but men usually are very careful about keeping their loins covered.
When working, the men, who wear the "hse" or smock, pull the right arm inside
the armhole and extend it again through the wide neckhole, so that the right arm
and shoulder are entirely free for chopping or doing any other work at hand.
They sometimes lower the whole garment to the waistline, where they knot it up
in Burman fashion and thus leave the upper part of the body free. The Brecs are
the poorest tribe of Karen and wear the scantiest clothing consisting of short
trousers. Often these are much the worse for wear. These people have rough small
blankets, which they throw around themselves in cold weather. But more often
they appear without them. The Karen on the palins bathe daily, doing so in their
skirts ("longyi"), as do the Burmese. After the bath they slip the fresh garment
over the wet one, which they allow to fall off as they fasten the other in
place.