A classical anthropological monograph written at a time when it was expected that there should be at least one book on each "tribe", and for sometime this was considered the one book on the Karen. It is full of data and, ironically, this book is still the most recent general description of basically all aspects of Karen culture in Burma. Since it was written 75 years ago there are evidently many current questions which the book cannot answer. But it is still a significant ethnographic study which has been widely read and widely quoted.