4"
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 '

 
 v\
 
 WILD RACES 
 
 OF 
 
 SOUTH-EASTERN INDIA.
 
 LONDON : 
 
 GILBERT AND KIVINGTON, PRINTERS, 
 ST. JOHN'S SQUARE.
 
 WILD RACES 
 
 SOUTH-EASTERN INDIA. 
 
 BY CAPT. T. H. LEWIN, 
 
 ffleptitn Conttntastontt of f^ill STracta. 
 
 " I think that all details become interesting when they^relate to, and serve to 
 depict, the characteristics of people of whom we have known little until now, 
 and with whom it is desirable to cultivate more intimate terms." Letter from 
 Lieutenant Samuel Turner, Ambassador to Thibet, addressed to Mr. John 
 Macpherson, Governor-General of Bengal, 2nd March, 1784. 
 
 llonrjon : 
 H. ALLEN & CO., 
 
 13, WATERLOO PLACE. 
 
 1870.
 
 T3S 
 
 by f)rnm**ion 
 
 MRS. GEO. GROTE. 
 
 1363511
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 THE HILL TRACTS. 
 
 PAOB 
 
 The Country Its Boundaries Rivers Scenery 
 Soil Climate Roads Produce Forests Cul- 
 tivation Fauna . . ... 7 
 
 The Rise and Progress of British Power in the 
 Hill Tracts Old Records Portuguese Influence 
 Character of the Revenue System Relations 
 of the Hill Chiefs to the British Authorities 
 Present System of Administration Its Nature 
 and Weaknesses . . . . . .46 
 
 PART II. 
 
 THE HILL TRIBES (SONS OF THE RIVER). 
 
 Introduction The Hill Tribes Classification 
 Our Relations with Burmah affected by them 
 Customs common to all Hill Tribes Slavery, 
 &c. . . 72
 
 Vlll CONTENTS. 
 
 The Khyoungtha (Tributaries) Their Clans Re- 
 ligion Festivals Dress Social Habits Songs 
 Proverbs Marriages Funeral Ceremonies 
 Legends Drama ...... 93 
 
 The Chukmas (Tributaries) Their Origin 
 Chronological List of Chiefs Language Clans 
 Festivals Religion Love-making Marriages 
 Funerals Criminal Punishments Songs 
 Music . 157 
 
 PART III. 
 
 THE HILL TRIBES (SONS OP THE RIVER) 
 
 Continued. 
 
 The Tipperah and Mrung Tribes (Tributaries) ; 
 with their Modes of Life and Habits . . .190 
 
 The Kumi, Mru, Khyeng, Bungjogee, and Pankho 
 Tribes (Tributaries), and their Customs . . 220 
 
 The Kookies or Lhoosai and the Shendoos (Inde- 
 pendent Tribes) Their Customs now and a 
 Century ago 246 
 
 Conclusion . 341
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XTOVELTY is as attractive now as ever it 
 was, even in the days when the Athenians 
 went about hearing or telling of some new 
 thing. I think, therefore, that no apology 
 is needed in introducing to English readers 
 races of people of whom but little is known, 
 and whose habits and customs have never 
 before been described. 
 
 The mighty empire of Hindostan is now 
 bound up by a hundred ties of interest with 
 the present and future of England. Many 
 are the hearths by which is kept sacred the 
 empty place of some dear member of the 
 family circle, who is absent in those torrid 
 
 B
 
 2 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 climes ; and books relating any thing new of 
 this far-off but no longer strange land of the 
 East, are studied by all classes of English 
 people with sentiments of growing attention 
 and admiration for the great but unfinished 
 work we are carrying on there. 
 
 These pages were written day by day 
 among the people of whom they treat, during 
 a three years' sojourn among them. Some- 
 times under the shelter of a straw-thatched 
 bungalow on a remote hill top, with the 
 pathless jungle undulating in vast sweeps of 
 hill and dale beneath the gaze ; at other times 
 in boats, poling along the hill streams, or by 
 the firesides of the people in their bamboo- 
 houses, perched securely in some hillside 
 nook. The work was commenced at first 
 with no fixed plan as to a detailed account 
 of these races of men ; indeed, as one of their 
 many proverbs says, "Unlaid eggs cannot
 
 INTRODUCTION. 3 
 
 be counted ;" but I simply noted down as I 
 heard them any tales, traditions, or striking 
 customs that fell under my observation in the 
 course of my wanderings among them. Little 
 by little, however, my interest was awakened 
 and my affections drawn to them : I found 
 them a people worthy of esteem, worthy of 
 note. It is unfortunately too often the cus- 
 tom among English people, as a body, to con- 
 temn and despise all races speaking an alien 
 tongue ; among the commonalty at the pre- 
 sent time even, the French are regarded as 
 an outlandish and ignorant people ; while as 
 for people like these hill races, whose skin is 
 dark and breech bare, out and alack ! they are 
 savages and barbarians forsooth, very little 
 better, indeed, than the apes among whom 
 they reside. I have, nevertheless, found 
 among all wild and so-called barbarous races, 
 that when one grows acquainted with their 
 
 B 2
 
 4 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 language, and they, becoming habituated to 
 you, allow a knowledge of their social life and 
 habits, they are very much the same as other 
 people ; there is not much difference, indeed, 
 between human nature all the world over, 
 they love and hate, eat and drink, live and die, 
 in much the same, and often in a far more 
 natural and sensible manner than we of the 
 civilized races, who hold ourselves so loftily 
 aloof in our fancied intellectual and moral 
 superiority. It would seem almost a solecism 
 to announce this fact as if it were some novel 
 discovery ; but any one who has lived in the 
 East and seen our Englishmen, whether 
 Government officials, merchants, or planters, 
 will, with some rare exceptions, find that 
 they know, and care to know, nothing of the 
 people they are thrown among they are with 
 them but not of them hardly troubling 
 themselves, indeed, to become acquainted with
 
 INTEODUCTION. 5 
 
 the language of the people among whom they 
 live, and never admitting them, or seeking 
 themselves any admission into social intimacy 
 or friendship. Broad and umbrageous as is 
 the tree of our Eastern Government at pre- 
 sent, this is the canker that will eventually 
 eat it through at the root, until it fall with 
 a crash, in ruin. 
 
 This very book is a proof of my assertion. 
 We have been living at the door of these hill 
 races, and in close contact with them for 
 more than eighty years, and yet no English- 
 men (Government officials or otherwise) that 
 I ever met, knew any thing of them in any 
 way, save that perhaps they were dully con- 
 scious of the proximity of certain hill tribes, 
 who, as was stated in an official document 
 quoted in the body of this work, " go un- 
 clothed, and know not the use of fire-arms." 
 
 It is, then, into the private life of these
 
 6 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 simple and primitive races that I venture 
 to introduce my readers ; to make them, if 
 so it may be, partakers of wild hospitality, 
 and intimate with the domestic society of 
 men and women children of Nature.
 
 WILD KACES OF SOUTH-EASTEKN 
 INDIA, 
 
 PART I. 
 
 THE HILL TRACTS. 
 
 T) IS ING from the rice swamps and level land 
 of the Chittagong District, of which it 
 forms the eastern boundary, there stretches 
 out a vast extent of hilly and mountainous 
 country, inhabited by various hill races. Of 
 this country and of these people I purpose 
 here to give some account, but more especi- 
 ally I shall notice such part of it as, lying 
 between Lat. 21 25' and 23 45' north, and
 
 THE HILL TEACTS. 
 
 Long. 91 45' and 92 50' east, is subject to 
 British rule, and distinguished by the name 
 of the Chittagong Hill Tracts. 
 
 The country in question lies on the south- 
 eastern shores of the Bay of Bengal, and is 
 bounded on the west by the maritime District 
 of Chittagong ; on the south and east, as far 
 as the Blue Mountain, by the Province of 
 Arracan ; on the north, by the Fenny River, 
 which divides the Hill Tracts from Hill Tip- 
 perah, a semi-independent State ; while to the 
 north and north-east the boundary is unde- 
 fined, and may be said to be conterminous 
 with the extent to which the influence of the 
 British Government is acknowledged amongst 
 the hill tribes in that direction. 
 
 The extent of the district, however, may 
 be roughly summarized as the country watered 
 by the Rivers Fenny, Kurnafoolee, Sungoo, 
 and Matamooree, with their tributaries from 
 the water-sheds to the entry of these rivers 
 into the Chittagong District. 
 
 The River Fenny and the western major 
 tributaries of the Kurnafoolee have their
 
 EIVEES. 9 
 
 sources in the range of tills from which, on 
 the other side, rises the Dallesur and Gotoor 
 streams, which again are affluent of the Kiver 
 Barak in Cachar. 
 
 The Kurnafoolee ', or, to call it by its hill 
 name, the Kynsa Khyoung, has its rise in a 
 lofty range of hills to the north-east ; from 
 this same range springs the Sonai and Tipai 
 streams, tributaries of the Barak in Cachar, 
 and the Koladan or Koladyne River, which 
 last debouches into the Indian Ocean at Akyab 
 in Arracan. 
 
 The Sungoo 2 , or Rigray Khyoung, and the 
 Matamooree, or Moree Khyoung, take their 
 rise in the range of hills which divides Arra- 
 can from the Chittagong Hill Tracts on the 
 south-east. Of these two rivers, the Kurna- 
 foolee is the principal. It is navigable at all 
 seasons of the year, for boats of considerable 
 
 1 Kurnah, an ear (Sanscrit) ; foolee, or phoolie, from 
 phool, flower. The Mahommedan Wuzeer duriDg the 
 Moghul rule |s said to have dropped his earring into 
 the river ; hence the name. 
 
 3 Sungoo, from sunkh, a shell.
 
 10 THE HILL TEACTS. 
 
 size, as far as 20 miles beyond Kassalong, 
 one of our frontier guard-posts ; but here 
 all further progress is stopped by the Bur- 
 khul rapids, which offer an insurmountable 
 obstacle to further progress. Above Burkhul 
 the river narrows considerably, as it enters 
 the higher ranges of hills : its course has 
 not been followed farther than the Dema- 
 gree falls, some three days' journey above 
 Burkhul. Boats, however, can proceed three 
 days' journey northwards up the Kassa- 
 long and Chingree streams, both of which 
 are tributaries of the Kurnafoolee. The 
 scenery along the course of the Kurnafoo- 
 lee and its tributaries is for the most part 
 dull and uninteresting, the river flowing be- 
 tween high banks of earth, covered either 
 with tall elephant grass or dense jungle, 
 which effectually prevent any view being ob- 
 tained of the surrounding country. At one 
 place only on the Kurnafoolee, shortly after 
 reaching the small Police Station of Eanga- 
 muttee, the character of the scenery changes 
 from its usual dull monotony of reaches of
 
 SCENERY. 11 
 
 still water and walls of dark green verdure 
 to a scene of marvellous beauty, resembling 
 somewhat the view on the Rhine, near the 
 Lurleiberg. Dark cliffs of a brown vitreous 
 rock, patched and mottled with lichens and 
 mosses of various colours, tower up on either 
 hand ; while occasionally, on the right or left, 
 shoots back a dark gorge of impenetrable 
 jungle. At this place the river runs with 
 great rapidity through a rocky defile, and at 
 some seasons of the year it is difficult for 
 boats to make head against the strength of 
 the current. 
 
 The character of the scenery on the Fenny 
 River is much the same as that of the Kurna- 
 foolee. Here and there on the banks of the 
 stream, or perched on the ridge of some adja- 
 cent hill, may be seen the houses of the hill 
 men ; and they and their families, the women 
 in quaint distinctive dress, grouped them- 
 selves on the bank, to observe our boats 
 going up. The sources of the Fenny River 
 have not been visited or surveyed. 
 
 The rivers in the southern part of the
 
 12 THE HILL TRACTS. 
 
 district differ considerably from those of the 
 north. The country is more rocky, and the 
 adjacent hill ranges narrower and of greater 
 height. The River Sungoo is known by three 
 names. In the upper portion of its course it 
 is called Bigray Khyoung by the hill men; 
 about midway, before entering the plains, it 
 is known as the Sabuk Khyoung ; while in the 
 plains, the Bengallees have given it the name 
 of the Sungoo. It is a clear stream, running 
 for the most part of its hill course over sand 
 and among rocks ; it abounds in small rapids, 
 and in its higher parts is navigable only to 
 the smallest boats. Ordinary- sized boats of 
 burden can, in the dry season, go no further 
 than a place called Bundrabun. 
 
 The Matamoree, or Moree Khyoung, is a 
 shallow and not very important stream, run- 
 ning parallel for a great part of its course 
 with the Sungoo, although the rivers debouch 
 by different mouths into the sea. Although 
 the course of the river itself is monotonous, 
 yet up some of its affluents, particularly as 
 they near their sources in the hills, the scene
 
 SCENERY. 13 
 
 becomes one of unmixed beauty. I remem- 
 ber once going up the Twine Khyoung, a 
 tributary of this river. The stream ran 
 briskly in a narrow pebbly bed, between 
 banks that rose nearly perpendicularly, and 
 so high that the sun only came down to us 
 by glints, here and there. Enormous tree 
 ferns hung over our heads, some 50 feet up, 
 while the straight stems of the " G-urjun" 
 tree shot up without a branch, like white 
 pillars in a temple ; plantains, with their 
 broad drooping fronds of transparent emerald, 
 broke at intervals the dark-green wall of 
 jungle that towered up in the background, 
 and from some gnarled old forest giant here 
 and there the long curving creepers threw 
 across the stream a bridge of nature's own 
 making. Sometimes we came upon a recess 
 in the bank of verdure which rose on either 
 hand; and there the tinkling of a cascade 
 would be heard behind the veil, its entry 
 into the stream being marked by a great gray 
 heap of rounded rocks and boulders, toppled 
 and tossed about in a way that showed with
 
 14 THE HILL TRACTS. 
 
 what a sweep the water came down in the 
 rains. Scarlet dragonflies and butterflies of 
 purple, gold, and azure, flitted like jewels 
 across our path ; while silvery fish, streaked 
 with dark-blue bands, flew up the stream be- 
 fore us, like flashes of light, as we poled along. 
 
 The western limit of China, the Province 
 of -Yunan, is shown in the map as about 
 97 98' degrees of Longitude east, in the 
 Parallel of 24. Our eastern frontier, then, is 
 not more than 300 miles from the western 
 boundary of China. The tribes in that direc- 
 tion are known to have intercourse with the 
 Province of Meckley, subject to the King of 
 Burmah, and it seems not improbable that at 
 some future time a practicable route might 
 be discovered between the sea-port of Chitta- 
 gong and the eastern portion of the Empire 
 of China. 
 
 This idea was contemplated as early as 
 1761, when Mr. Harry Verelst, the Chief of 
 Chittagong, wrote to the President of the 
 Council, Fort William, that " we have reason 
 to believe that a passage may be found
 
 SCENERY. 15 
 
 through the mountains of Tconke 3 into 
 Thibet and the northern parts of Cochin 
 China. Although this may be a work of 
 time, yet, when effected, it may redound 
 greatly to the State of Europe." 
 
 The area of the Chittagong Hill Tracts 
 is estimated to be 6796 miles. The most 
 noticeable feature of the country is that it is 
 divided into four river valleys, marked out 
 more or less distinctly by well-defined chains 
 of hills running parallel from the south in a 
 north-westerly direction. The Sungoo and 
 Matamoree Rivers, until they enter the plains, 
 run parallel to the hill ranges, forming two of 
 the river valleys alluded to. The Kurna- 
 foolee and Fenny Rivers, however, run trans- 
 versely across the line of the hills. The river 
 valleys here are formed by large tributary 
 streams entering the Kurnafoolee at right 
 angles to its course. 
 
 3 No such place as Tconke is known to us now; 
 but as Mr. Verelst was reporting on the prospects and 
 resources of the Chittagong District, it seems not un- 
 likely that he referred to the hills which abut thereon.
 
 16 THE HILL TRACTS SOIL. 
 
 The soil of the district is composed for the 
 most part of a rich loam, but in many parts 
 the hills are found to consist of a schistose 
 clay, much resembling sand-stone in appear- 
 ance, which falls to pieces very easily on force 
 being applied. In the alluvial valleys and 
 watercourses large pieces of dicoly-tedonous 
 wood are frequently found lying in a hori- 
 zontal position : they are usually more or less 
 petrified. 
 
 The climate of the Hill Tracts is distin- 
 guished by two characteristics ; its coolness, 
 and its unhealthiness as regards foreigners. 
 There are no hot winds in the hills, and the 
 hottest part of the year is tempered by cool 
 sea-breezes. It is the custom of the people 
 to remain in their villages until the cultiva- 
 tion season commences in May, and then the 
 whole country-side moves up, every man to 
 his patch of cultivation, on some lofty hill. 
 It is to this custom, I consider, that their 
 comparative immunity from sickness may be 
 traced, for hill men, on abandoning their 
 usual mode of life, and taking to other occu-
 
 CLIMATE. 17 
 
 pations not involving the periodical move to 
 the hill tops, are nearly as much subject to 
 fever as the people of the plains. 
 
 During the months of November, Decem- 
 ber, January, and February, dense fogs settle 
 over the hills during the night, seldom clear- 
 ing away until the middle of the following 
 day. Those fogs, however, do not seem to 
 have an unhealthy effect, as the four months 
 in which they prevail are the healthiest 
 throughout the year. During the month of 
 February some rain generally falls, but the 
 rainy season does not set in until the end of 
 May or beginning of June, when it continues, 
 almost without intermission, until the end of 
 September. The quantity of rain that falls 
 is very large, the average yearly fall being 
 about 120 inches. During the rainy season, 
 it is well-nigh impossible to move about 
 the country on account of the rising of 
 the hill streams. Before the setting in of 
 the rains, the hill people lay in a stock 
 of provisions, as at that season of the 
 year the bazaars are abandoned by the men 
 
 c
 
 18 THE HILL TRACTS. 
 
 of the plains, and trade almost entirely 
 ceases. 
 
 It is at this season of the year that the 
 large floats of timber come down with the 
 rising of the waters from the hills. 
 
 The most unhealthy month of the year is 
 September, the close of the rains. Fever of a 
 bad type is then very prevalent. In the months 
 of April and May the epidemics of small-pox 
 and cholera make their appearance, ceasing at 
 the commencement of the rains. The preva- 
 lent wind during the rains and hot season is 
 from the south-west. An easterly wind, if of" 
 long continuance, is said to be unhealthy. In 
 the cold season the wind generally comes 
 from the north. At the commencement and 
 breaking up of the rains, violent storms of 
 thunder and lightning occur. 
 
 Where the hills rise to any considerable 
 height, they become rocky and precipitous, the 
 lower ranges being composed generally of sand 
 or a rich loam. The dark-brown rocks, of 
 which the higher ranges are composed, are un- 
 doubtedly of igneous origin ; indeed subter-
 
 CLIMATE. 19 
 
 ranean volcanic force must at some remote 
 period have caused the strange bellowy up- 
 heaval of the face of the country, which gives 
 it its present distinctive character. On the 
 2nd of April, 1762, Chittagong was violently 
 shaken by an earthquake, the earth opening 
 in many places, and throwing up water and 
 mud of a sulphureous smell. At a place 
 called Bardavun a large river was dried up ; 
 and at Bakur Chunak, near the sea, a tract 
 of ground sank down, and 200 people, with 
 all their cattle, were lost. Unfathomable 
 chasms are described as remaining open in 
 many places after the shocks; and villages, 
 some of which subsided several cubits, were 
 overflown with water, among others, Deep- 
 goung, which was submerged to the depth of 
 7 cubits. Two volcanoes are said to have 
 opened in the Seeta Ciinda Hills. The shock 
 was also felt at Calcutta 4 . There are at pre- 
 sent in the Seetakoond Range, in the Chitta- 
 gong District, several hot springs, from one 
 
 4 Lyall's Geology, vol. ii. ch. xvi. p. 250 ; Dodsley's 
 Ann. Regist. 173 ; Phil. Trans, vol. liiL 
 
 c 2
 
 20 THE HILL TRACTS. 
 
 of which an inflammable gas rises in such 
 quantity, that it is kept constantly burning 
 over the spring. I have heard also of hot 
 springs existing in the Loongshem Range in 
 this District, but I have not visited them. 
 Salt licks are found at many places in the 
 hills ; the best known are those at Bhang-a- 
 mora, in the north, and Mawdang Tlang, in 
 the eastern part of the district. 
 
 Lignite is found at two or three places in 
 the hills, but no coal has as yet been dis- 
 covered. An inferior species of lime-stone 
 is found in two places ; on being burnt, how- 
 ever, it has not given a return sufficient to 
 render its manufacture profitable. 
 
 In many parts of the district are found 
 large and richly alluvial plains, covered for 
 the most part with forest trees. These plains, 
 if cleared of timber, would be found admirably 
 adapted for plough cultivation. Far in the 
 jungles on the banks of the Myannee, an 
 affluent of the Kassalong River, are found 
 tanks, j.i-uit- trees, and the remains of masonry 
 buildings, evidence that, at some by-gone
 
 CLIMATE. 21 
 
 period, the land here was cultivated and in- 
 habited by men of the plains. Tradition 
 attributes these ruins to a former Rajah of 
 Hill Tipperah, who, it is said, was driven 
 from that part of the country by hordes of 
 hill men coming from the south. At one 
 place only in the hills, at Rangamuttee, on 
 the Kurnafoolee River, has the usual method 
 of cultivation by the plough been introduced ; 
 and there are there about 120 families of 
 Bengallees who till the land. The settlement, 
 although established some six years ago, does 
 not appear to have increased either in num- 
 bers or in the area of land brought under 
 cultivation. Along the whole border of the 
 district adjacent to Chittagong the narrow 
 glens and small patches of low land have 
 been cultivated by the Bengallees ; but the 
 men of the plains have an invincible objection 
 to enter the hills. They are, I believe, prin- 
 cipally deterred from settling there by the in- 
 salubrity of the climate, which seems to be 
 deadly to their race, although innocuous to the 
 hill men.
 
 22 THE HILL TEA GTS ROADS. 
 
 There are at present no roads in the dis- 
 trict ; the nature of the country, indeed, with 
 its transverse ranges of hills, offers very great 
 engineering obstacles to the construction of 
 roads or the employment of wheel-carriage. 
 Paths there are, of course, in every direction ; 
 but, with the exceptions to be mentioned 
 hereafter, only such paths as the people of 
 the country can make use of. The favourite 
 path throughout the district is the sandy bed 
 of a stream, as it offers coolness for the feet 
 and shade from the umbrageous canopy of 
 jungle overhead. In crossing a hill range, 
 however, this sort of path necessarily be- 
 comes of a precipitous, not to say break-neck, 
 description. 
 
 During the last few years a line of paths 
 lias been cut through the jungle, connecting 
 the Government frontier guard-posts and the 
 three principal stations in the Hill Tracts : 
 these paths, however, are cut chiefly with a 
 view t'o military defensive operations, and 
 are not much used as yet by the country 
 people. There are four bazaars or markets in
 
 BAZAAES. 23 
 
 the hills, to which the hill people resort to 
 barter their produce for such articles of daily 
 consumption as salt, spices, dried fish, and the 
 like, which are only procurable from the plains. 
 These bazaars are situated at Kassalong, 
 Rangamuttee, and Chandragoona, on the Kur- 
 nafoolee, and at Bundrabun, on the River 
 Sungoo. The bazaar at Chandragoona derives 
 a fictitious importance from that place being 
 at present the head-quarters of the district ; 
 but should the central station be at any time 
 removed, the bazaar would collapse, the posi- 
 tion occupied not being a true mercantile 
 centre, and the bazaar, moreover, being 
 brought into a competition which it is un- 
 able to sustain with the adjacent market 
 of Rangonea, which is an old-established 
 place of barter, much resorted to by the 
 hill population 5 . 
 
 The population of the hills also resort to 
 such of the markets of the plains as may be 
 
 5 The question of the transfer of the district head- 
 quarters from Chandragoona to Rangamuttee is at pre- 
 sent under the consideration of the Bengal Government.
 
 24 THE HILL TRACTS. 
 
 within a day's journey from their homes, 
 along the border of the Ohittagong District. 
 
 The hill men bring down for sale cotton 
 and timber, either in the rough or hewn into 
 boats ; and if much pressed for money, they 
 collect for sale the oil-bearing seeds of a tree 
 in the jungle (chal mongree), or cut and float 
 down a raft of bamboos. They also occa- 
 sionally bring in for sale ivory and wax in 
 small quantities. The principal articles dis- 
 posed of to the hill people in the bazaars are 
 salt, tobacco (in small quantities), piece goods, 
 metal goods, trinkets, dried fish, pigs, and 
 cattle. About 50,000 cubic feet of timber 
 per annum, it is calculated, is brought down 
 yearly to the plains from the Hill Tract 
 forests ; and 55,854 maunds of cotton are 
 estimated to be yearly exported by the hill 
 people, this in addition to the not incon- 
 siderable quantity reserved by them for home 
 consumption. The Hill Tracts, indeed, seem 
 peculiarly well fitted, both in soil and climate, 
 for the production of cotton. The quantity 
 produced, however, depends almost entirely
 
 PKODUCE FOEESTS. 25 
 
 upon the amount of rain-fall. Too heavy a fall 
 of rain spoils the cotton crop ; there is espe- 
 cial danger of this at the commencement 
 of the rains, when the plants are young. 
 Measures have been taken to introduce im- 
 proved varieties of the cotton plant among 
 the hill tribes. The Flora of the Hill Tracts 
 is of the Malayan type ; the forests being 
 principally of brilliant, glossy evergreen 
 trees. 
 
 Throughout the whole district are found 
 large tracts of valuable forest trees. Teak is 
 not indigenous, but thrives if planted; it 
 grows, however, plentifully in the forests on 
 the other side of the hill range separating 
 this district from Arracan. A large trade 
 in rail way- sleepers has lately sprung up from 
 the port of Chittagong ; the Port Conservator 
 estimates that upwards of 30,000 sleepers 
 have been exported during the last two years. 
 
 As yet no organized inquiry into the vege- 
 table products of this part of the country has 
 ever been instituted, and but little, conse- 
 quently, is known on the subject. The tea
 
 26 THE HILL TEACTS. 
 
 plant is believed to be indigenous in the 
 district, but it has not hitherto been found 
 in abundance. The fir-tree and the caout- 
 chouc tree are found in the lofty hills in the 
 east of the district ; but the hitherto unsatis- 
 factory relations existing between us and the 
 more remote hill tribes have prevented any 
 use being made of these otherwise valuable 
 forest products. 
 
 In the wilder parts of the district the forest 
 trees are festooned with numerous ligneous 
 creepers (phytocrene) hanging in a labyrinth 
 of coils from every tree ; some are as thick as 
 a man's arm. On cutting one of these, water is 
 obtained ; and as they grow on the loftiest hill 
 where water is often not obtainable, this pro- 
 perty of theirs is most useful. The most 
 curious thing is, that should the coil be cut 
 in one place only, so as to leave two pendent 
 ends, no water issues. It is necessary to cut 
 a piece clean out of the creeper with two 
 quick, consecutive strokes, before water is 
 obtained. If with an unskilled hand three 
 or four hacks are made before severing it,
 
 PRODUCE. 27 
 
 the only result is a dry stick. Two speedy 
 cuts, however, and from the piece of creeper 
 trickles out about half a tumbler full of clear, 
 cool water. The hill men explain this by 
 saying that when the stem is cut the water 
 tries to run away upwards. 
 
 There is also a tree in the jungles called 
 " chowr " by the Bengallees, and " samul " in 
 the Tipperah tongue. The young shoots of 
 this tree are delicious eating, being white and 
 tender, with a filbert flavour. Between the 
 outer husk and the trunk of this tree is a 
 soft layer of substance that makes an exdel- 
 lent tinder. 
 
 In shady spots is also found another edible 
 plant, something like asparagus; the Ben- 
 gallees call it " tara." It is cultivated as a 
 vegetable by the Bengallees, but the wild 
 variety growing in the virgin soil of undis- 
 turbed forests is far superior. The young 
 shoots of the cane and bamboo, just as the 
 young plant emerges from the earth, are very 
 good eating. On the hills, also, the wild yam 
 is found plentifully, so that no man able to
 
 28 THE HILL TRACTS. 
 
 search for food in the jungles could starve in 
 these hills. 
 
 The hill people have many plants and sim- 
 ples which they use medicinally. They make 
 two or three dyes from the roots and leaves 
 of plants. They also use a certain creeper 
 in catching fish ; this plant, when steeped in 
 a stream, and the water confined by a dam, 
 has the property of intoxicating and stupefy- 
 ing the fish, which come floating, belly up- 
 wards, to the surface of the water, and are 
 then easily caught. 
 
 There are eleven varieties of the bamboo 
 found throughout the hills, and canes grow 
 in profusion. The cane is the hill man's 
 rope; with it he weaves baskets, binds his 
 house together, and throws bridges over the 
 otherwise impassable hill torrents. 
 
 The bamboo is literally his staff of life. 
 He builds his house of the bamboo ; he fer- 
 tilizes his fields with its ashes ; of its stem 
 he makes vessels in which to carry water; 
 with two bits of bamboo he can produce fire; 
 its young and succulent shoots provide a
 
 THE BAMBOO. 29 
 
 dainty dinner dish ; and he weaves his sleep- 
 ing mat of fine slips thereof. The instruments 
 with which his women weave their cotton are 
 of bamboo. He makes drinking-cups of it, 
 and his head at night rests on a bamboo pil- 
 low ; his forts are built of it ; he catches fish, 
 makes baskets and stools, and thatches his 
 house with the help of the bamboo. He 
 smokes from a pipe of bamboo; and from 
 bamboo ashes he obtains potash. Finally, 
 his funeral pile is lighted with bamboo. The 
 hill man would die without the bamboo, and 
 the thing he finds hardest of credence is 
 that in other countries the bamboo does not 
 grow, and that men live in ignorance of it. 
 Throughout the whole of India, indeed, the 
 bamboo occupies a forward place in the 
 domestic economy of the inhabitants. It re- 
 mained only that it should be deified; and 
 this, it seems, has been done. In Dr. Bal- 
 four's account of the migratory tribes of 
 Central India (J. A. S., No. 61 of 1844), he 
 tells of a tribe called the Bhatos, a tribe who 
 follow the profession of athletaa, and perform
 
 30 THE HILL TRACTS. 
 
 most of their feats with the aid of a bam- 
 boo. 
 
 " Their patron goddess is Korewa, an in- 
 carnation of Mahadeva. Her shrine is situ- 
 ated at the village of Thekoor, near Kittoor, 
 around which dense forests of bamboos grow. 
 One they select, and the attendants of the 
 temple consecrate it. It is now called c gun- 
 nichari,' or chief, and receives their worship 
 annually. To it, as to a human chief, all 
 respect is shown; and in cases of marriage, 
 of disputes requiring arbitration, or the 
 occurrence of knotty points demanding con- 
 sultation, the ' gunnichari ' is erected in the 
 midst of the counsellors or arbiters, and all 
 prostrate themselves to it before commencing 
 the discussion of the subject before them." 
 This is certainly the best kind of chief I ever 
 heard of. 
 
 In like manner, one of the clans in the 
 Hill Tracts (the Biang Tipperahs) offer wor- 
 ship to the bamboo. They do not, however, 
 go the length of the Bhatos, in considering it 
 as a chief, for it is to them merely an irnper-
 
 CULTIVATION. 31 
 
 sonation or representative of the deity of the 
 forest. 
 
 The mode of cultivation pursued in the 
 hills is common to all the tribes; indeed, 
 wherever hill tribes are found throughout 
 India, this special mode of cultivating the 
 earth seems to prevail. It is known as 
 "toung-ya" in Burmah and Arracan, as 
 " dhai-ya " in the Central Provinces, while 
 here the method is usually called "joom," 
 and the hill men pursuing it " joomahs." The 
 modus operandi is as follows : In the month 
 of April, a convenient piece of forest land is 
 fixed upon, generally on a hill- side, the luxu- 
 riant under-growth of shrubs and creepers 
 has to be cleared away, and the smaller trees 
 felled : the trees of larger growth are usually 
 denuded of their lower branches, and left 
 standing. If possible, however, the joomah 
 fixes upon a slope thickly covered with a 
 bamboo jungle of the species called "dolloo;" 
 this, compared with a dense tree jungle, is 
 easy to cut, and its ashes, after burning, are 
 of greater fertilizing power.. Although the
 
 32 THE HILL TRACTS. 
 
 clearing of a patch of dense jungle is no 
 doubt very severe labour, yet the surround- 
 ings of the labourer render his work pleasur- 
 able in comparison with the toilsome and 
 dirty task of the cultivators of the plains. 
 On the one hand, the hill man works in the 
 shade of the jungle that he is cutting; he 
 is on a lofty eminence, where every breeze 
 reaches and refreshes him; his spirits are 
 enlivened and his labour lightened by the 
 beautiful prospect stretching out before him : 
 while the rich and varied scenery of the 
 forest stirs his mind above a monotone. He 
 is surrounded by his comrades ; the scent of 
 the wild thyme and the buzzing of the forest 
 bee are about him; the young men and 
 maidens sing to their work, and the laugh 
 and joke goes round as they sit down to their 
 mid-day meal under the shade of some great 
 mossy forest tree. 
 
 On the other hand, consider the moiling 
 toil of the cultivator of the plains. He maun- 
 ders along with pokes and anathemas at the 
 tail of a pair of buffaloes, working mid-leg in
 
 CULTIVATION. 33 
 
 mud ; around him stretches an uninterrupted 
 vista of muddy rice land ; there is not a bough 
 or a leaf to give him shelter from the blazing 
 noon-day sun. His women are shut up in 
 some cabin, jealously surrounded by jungle ; 
 and if he is able to afford a meagre meal 
 during the day, he will munch it solus, sitting 
 beside his muddy plough ; add to this, that 
 by his comparatively pleasurable toil, the hill 
 man can gain two rupees for one which the 
 wretched ryot of the plains can painfully earn, 
 and it is not to be wondered at that the hill 
 people have a passion for their mode of life, 
 and regard with absolute contempt any pro- 
 posal to settle down to the tame and mono- 
 tonous cultivation of the dwellers in the low- 
 lands. 
 
 The joom land once cleared, the fallen 
 jungle is left to dry in the sun, and in the 
 month of May it is fired ; this completes the 
 clearing. The firing of the jooms is some- 
 times a source of danger, as at that season of 
 the year the whole of the surrounding jungle 
 is as dry as tinder, and easily catches fire. 
 
 D
 
 34 THE HILL TKACTS^ 
 
 In this way sometimes whole villages are 
 destroyed, and people have lost their lives. 
 I have myself seen a whole mountain-side on 
 fire for four days and four nights, having been 
 ignited by joom-firing. It was a magnificent 
 sight, but such a fire must cause incalculable 
 injury to the forest : young trees especially 
 would be utterly destroyed. Generally, how- 
 ever, by choosing a calm day, and keeping 
 down the fire at the edges of the joom, by 
 beating with boughs, the hill people manage 
 to keep the firing within certain prescribed 
 limits. A general conflagration, such as I 
 have mentioned, is of quite exceptional oc- 
 currence. 
 
 If the felled jungle has been thoroughly 
 dried, and no rain has fallen since the joom 
 was cut, this firing will reduce all, save the 
 larger forest trees, to ashes, and burn the soil 
 to the depth of an inch or two. The charred 
 trees and logs previously cut down remain 
 lying about the ground ; these have to be 
 dragged off the joom, and piled up all round ; 
 and with the addition of some brush-wood
 
 CULTIVATION. . 35 
 
 form a species of fence to keep out wild 
 animals. 
 
 Work is now at a stand-still, till the gather- 
 ing of the heavy clouds and the grumbling 
 of thunder denote the approach of the rains. 
 These signs at once bring a village into a 
 state of activity ; men and women, boys and 
 girls, each bind on the left hip a small basket 
 filled with the mixed seeds of cotton, rice, 
 melons, pumpkins, yams, and a little Indian 
 corn ; each takes a " dao 6 " in hand, and in a 
 
 6 The "dao " is the hill knife, used universally through- 
 out the country. It is a blade about eighteen inches 
 long, narrow at the haft, and square and broad at the 
 tip ; pointless, and sharpened on one side only. The 
 blade is set in a handle of wood ; a bamboo root is con- 
 sidered the best. The fighting "dao" is differently 
 shaped ; this is a long pointless sword, set in a wooden 
 or ebony handle ; it is very heavy, and a blow of almost 
 incredible power can be given by one of these weapons. 
 With both the fighting and the ordinary dao one can 
 make but two cuts ; one from the right shoulder down- 
 wards to the left, one from the left foot upwards to the 
 right. The reason of this is, that in sharpening the 
 blade, one side only gives the edge, slanting to the other 
 straight face of the blade. Any attempt to cut in a way 
 contrary to those mentioned causes the dao to turn in 
 
 D 2
 
 36 THE HILL TRACTS. 
 
 short time every hill-side will echo to the 
 " hoiya," or hill call, (a cry like the Swiss 
 jodel,) as party answers party from the paths 
 winding up each hill side to their respective 
 patches of cultivation. Arrived at the joom, 
 the family will form a line, and steadily 
 work their way across the field. A dig with 
 the blunt square end of the dao makes a nar- 
 row hole about three inches deep ; into this is 
 put a small handful of the mixed seeds, and 
 the sowing is completed. If shortly after- 
 wards the rain falls they are fortunate, and 
 
 the hand on the striker, and I have seen some bad 
 wounds inflicted in this manner. The weapon is iden- 
 tical with the " parang latok " of the Malays. The 
 ordinary hill dao is generally stuck naked into the waist- 
 band on the right hip, but the fighting dao is provided 
 with a scabbard, and worn at the waist. The dao to a 
 hill man is a possession of great price. It is literally 
 the bread winner ; with this he cuts his joom and builds 
 his houses ; without its aid the most ordinary operations 
 of hill life could not be performed. It is with the dao 
 that he fashions the women's weaving tools ; with the 
 dao he fines off his boat ; with the dao he notches a stair 
 in the steep hill-side leading to his joom ; and to the dao 
 he frequently owes his life, in defending himself from 
 the attacks of wild animals.
 
 CULTIVATION. 37 
 
 have judged the time well ; or (unparalleled 
 luck) if they get wet through with the rain as 
 they are sowing, great will be the jollification 
 on the return home, this being an omen that 
 a bumper season may be expected. 
 
 The village now is abandoned by every one, 
 and the men set to work to build a house, 
 each in his own joom, for the crop must be 
 carefully watched to preserve it from the wild 
 pig and deer, which would otherwise play 
 havoc among the young shoots of the rice. 
 The jooms of the whole village are generally 
 situated in propinquity ; a solitary joom is 
 very rare. During the rains mutual help and 
 assistance in weeding the crop is given ; each 
 one takes his turn to help in his neighbour's 
 joom ; no hoeing is done ; the crop has merely 
 to be kept clear from weeds by hand labour, 
 and an ample return is obtained. If the rain 
 be excessive, however, the cotton crop is 
 liable to be spoilt, as the young plants die 
 from too much water. 
 
 The first thing to ripen is Indian corn ; 
 this is about the end of July. Next como tho
 
 38 THE HILL TRACTS. 
 
 melons, of which there are two or three sorts 
 grown in the jooms ; afterwards vegetables 
 of all sorts become fit for gathering; and 
 finally, in September, the rice and other grain 
 ripens. At this time the monkeys and jungle 
 fowl are the chief enemies of the crop. In 
 the month of October the cotton crop is 
 gathered last of all, and this concludes the 
 harvest. The rice having been cut, is beaten 
 from the ear in the joom : it is afterwards 
 rolled up in rough straw-covered bales and 
 carried to the granary in the village. 
 
 The country suffers sometimes severely 
 from the visitations of rats. They arrive in 
 swarms, and sweep every thing before them : 
 they eat up the standing corn and empty the 
 granaries of the hill people nothing stops 
 them. They are said to come from the south, 
 and, strange to say, disappear as suddenly as 
 they make their appearance. The hill folk 
 gravely assured me that during the last visi- 
 tation, which occurred in 1864, the rats were 
 transformed into jungle fowl ; in proof of this, 
 they point out a peculiar draggling feather in
 
 CULTIVATION. 39 
 
 the tails of the jungle fowl, which they assert 
 to be a rat's tail. 
 
 Besides grain and cotton, the hill tribes 
 grow tobacco. This is planted principally in 
 small valleys on the banks of the hill streams. 
 
 The best tobacco is grown in the country 
 near the Matamoree River. 
 
 Throughout the whole of the Hill Tracts I 
 know no single instance of a hill man culti- 
 vating with the plough : indeed, it is rare to 
 find a man earning his livelihood in any other 
 way save by joom culture. Near the villages 
 of some of the chiefs a few acres of plough- 
 cultivated land may sometimes be seen ; this, 
 however, is invariably tended by Bengallee 
 servants engaged for the purpose. The forest 
 conservancy restrictions lately introduced will, 
 however, it is thought, induce many of the 
 hill population to settle down as plough culti- 
 vators. 
 
 In the country adjacent to the Fenny, where, 
 in consequence of constant jooming, jungle 
 had wholly disappeared, and grass taken its 
 place, the attempt was once before made with
 
 40 THE HILL TEACTS. 
 
 every prospect of success : owing to their fear 
 of the independent tribes, the people of that 
 part of the country were unable to move to 
 fresh joom land further eastward, and their 
 own country was thoroughly exhausted from 
 over-cultivation; but they steadfastly held 
 aloof from the plough, preferring to earn a 
 precarious subsistence by the cutting and 
 selling of bamboos and the hewing out of 
 boats. Some few of them, who had or could 
 borrow a small amount of capital, took up the 
 profession of itinerant traders ; while others 
 earned or added to their means of livelihood 
 by rearing and herding cattle, for which the 
 country afforded ample pasturage. 
 
 The independent tribes have now, however, 
 become quiet, and the people of the Fenny 
 have since then steadily moved to the east- 
 ward, and occupied fresh joom land. 
 
 The villages of the hill people are formed 
 chiefly by communities composed of persons 
 connected either by blood or marriage. The 
 site of the village is changed as often as the 
 spots fit for cultivation in the vicinity are
 
 VILLAGES. 41 
 
 exhausted. Land once joomed cannot be re- 
 cultivated for a period of eight to ten years, 
 as in less than that time a sufficient growth of 
 jungle does not spring up to give the neces- 
 sary coating of fertilizing ashes, without which 
 the joom crops would yield but a poor return. 
 They do not seem to be acquainted with the 
 method of terrace cultivation pursued in the 
 Himalayas ; indeed the slope of the hills in 
 most parts is so steep, that it is doubtful 
 whether this mode of cultivation would be 
 practicable. 
 
 I have sometimes met a hill community as 
 they were changing their residence : long files 
 of men, women, and children, every soul of 
 the village, in fact, proceed to their new place 
 of abode, each one with a long circular basket 
 slung at their backs and supported by a broad 
 strip of soft bark passing over the forehead : 
 each family accompanied by a numerous tribe 
 of the very curly-tailed black hill dog. In 
 some of the baskets are their household goods ; 
 in others, a child and a young pig sleep con- 
 tentedly together. In the old village they
 
 42 THE HILL TRACTS. 
 
 have left behind, perhaps, half their property, 
 and this without fear, as there are no thieves 
 in the hills. One of these deserted villages 
 presents a curious spectacle ; there are all the 
 evidences of occupation and recent life, but 
 every living creature has disappeared. Gran- 
 aries may be seen half full of grain : large 
 wooden mortars for pounding the grain, the 
 weaving implements of the women, and some 
 half-finished clothes, all left behind for them 
 to take away at their leisure. They have gone 
 probably a long distance (two days' journey) 
 to the new site of the village ; and on arriving 
 there, every family has to build its own house. 
 Each tribe in the hills has a different way 
 of building ; and of this I shall speak further, 
 when referring to the distinctive peculiarities 
 of each tribe. Our own tributary hill tribes 
 all build their houses of bamboo, raised from 
 the ground about ten feet, on bamboo sup- 
 ports, with numerous smaller bamboo props 
 supporting the floor, the roof, and the walls, 
 in every conceivable direction. The floor and 
 walls are made of bamboo split and flattened
 
 VILLAGES. 43 
 
 out; the numerous crevices give free access 
 to every breeze, and render a hill house one 
 of the coolest and most pleasant of habita- 
 tions. The roof is also of bamboo cross- 
 pieces, thatched with palmyra, or " attop " 
 leaves, called by the Bengallees " krook pata." 
 This forms an impervious and lasting roof, 
 which need only be renewed once in three 
 years, whereas the ordinary grass-thatched 
 roof has to be repaired every year. A hill 
 house perched in an exposed position on the 
 ridge or spur of a lofty eminence looks the 
 frailest structure in the world; its strength, 
 however, is surprising, and in spite of the 
 fearful tempests that sometimes sweep over 
 the hills, I never heard of a house having 
 fallen or being injured by the wind. 
 
 The domesticated animals of the hill peo- 
 ple are the " guyal," the cow, buffalo, goat, 
 dog, cat, pig, and the common fowl. 
 
 The four last-named animals are common 
 to the whole district. Long-haired varieties 
 of the cat, dog, and goat, are found among 
 the independent tribes. The guyal, also, are
 
 44 THE HILL TRACTS. 
 
 rarely found with any tribe save those that 
 are independent of our authority. The cow 
 and buffalo are principally found among the 
 people inhabiting the Fenny River country, 
 as that part of the district offers the greatest 
 advantages for pasturage. 
 
 One of the most marked peculiarities of 
 the Hill Tract forests is their silence. There 
 would seem to be but few wild animals in the 
 hills, numerically speaking. I have travelled 
 for miles in the wildest part of the district 
 without seeing fur or feather : almost every 
 species of wild animal, however, is found in 
 the hills; and to be a good and successful 
 hunter is a great merit in the eyes of the 
 tribes. 
 
 The gibbon monkey (hooluq) is found 
 throughout the hills, and towards the south 
 on the coast the fisher monkey (simia syno- 
 molgus) is met with. The lemur is also not 
 unfrequently met with. There are also the 
 small common monkey, which, in large flocks, 
 does dire mischief to the standing crops of 
 the hill men, and a long- tailed white-whiskered
 
 ANIMALS. 45 
 
 variety, the lungoor. The flying fox (ptero- 
 pus edulis), the horse-shoe bat, and the small 
 house-bat or flitter mouse, are all found in 
 the hills ; also the musk-rat, the badger, the 
 Malay black bear, and several species of wild 
 cats. Tigers are not uncommon, but they do 
 not do much harm. The wild dog is said to 
 be met with, but I have not seen it. The 
 mongoose, the large dark-brown squirrel, the 
 red squirrel, the yellow-bellied variety, the 
 field rat, the bamboo rat, and the porcupine 
 (histrix leucorus), are all more or less fre- 
 quently met with. The elephant and the 
 Assam rhinoceros are common. The former 
 roam in large herds of 100 to 150 all over the 
 district. The double-horned Sumatran species 
 of rhinoceros was formerly thought not to be 
 a native of this part of the country, but a 
 specimen has recently been captured alive, 
 and brought to Chittagong by Captain Hood, 
 of the Elephant Khedda Department. It 
 was smooth- skinned and unmistakably two- 
 horned. A small, black species of hog is 
 found throughout the district, as also the
 
 46 THE HILL TRACTS. 
 
 barking deer, the muntjak, and samber ; guyal 
 and wild buffalo are not uncommon. Of 
 birds we have the following varieties : the 
 beemra (edolius remifer), shrikes, the bulbul, 
 warblers, the water-wagtail, hoopoe koel, the 
 carrion crow (this bird is found largely along 
 the western frontier, but ceases entirely on 
 going far east), minah, hornbill (buceros 
 cavatus), small green parrots, a large blue 
 king-fisher with a red neck, a small variety of 
 the same species, the night-jar, the anvil bird, 
 the peacock, Argus pheasant, the matoora or 
 Arracan pheasant, the button quail, jungle 
 fowl, green pigeon, the large wood-pigeon, 
 ring-dove, kites, fish-eagles, and a few wild 
 duck and snipe. I have seen one partridge, 
 but they are very rarely found in the district. 
 The boa-constrictor is common, and is found 
 of enormous size. Several kinds of poisonous 
 snakes are also met with. 
 
 The hills and sea-board of Chittagong, 
 until the rise and consolidation of British 
 authority, were the border-land upon which 
 several races struggled for supremacy. Arra-
 
 EARLY SETTLERS. 47 
 
 canese, Moguls, and Portuguese all preceded 
 us as masters of the country; and all have 
 left behind them traces of their former supre- 
 macy. Bernier's travels and the Seer-ul- 
 Mutakher-ein give some curious glimpses of 
 the state of affairs in this part of the world 
 previous to the advent of the English. 
 
 One extract from Bernier, in particular, 
 from its style and vividness of detail, I think 
 worthy of excerpt here, thus : 
 
 " I shall now bring before the notice of my readers 
 Aurungzebe's uncle, Shaista Khan, who, as I have 
 already said, contributed in an essential degree, by his 
 eloquence and intrigues, to the exaltation of his nephew. 
 He was appointed, as we have seen, Governor of Agra a 
 short time before the battle of Kedgwa, when Aurung- 
 zebe quitted the capital to meet Sultan Suja. He was 
 afterwards nominated Governor of the Deccan and Com- 
 mander-in-Chief of the forces in that province, and, upon 
 Emir-Jemla's decease, was transferred to the Govern- 
 ment of Bengal, appointed General of the army in that 
 kingdom, and elevated to the rank of Mir-ul-omrah, 
 which had become vacant by the death of Jemla. 
 
 " It is due to Shaista's reputation to relate the im- 
 portant enterprise in which he was engaged soon after 
 his arrival in Bengal, an enterprise rendered the more 
 interesting by the fact that it was never undertaken by 
 his great predecessor, for reasons which remain unknown.
 
 48 THE HILL TKACTS. 
 
 The narrative will elucidate the past and present state 
 of the kingdoms of Bengal and Arracan, which have 
 hitherto been left in much obscurity, and will throw 
 light on other circumstances which are deserving of 
 attention. 
 
 " To comprehend the nature of the expedition medi- 
 tated by Shaista, and form a correct idea of the occur- 
 rences in the Gulf of Bengal, it should be mentioned that 
 the kingdom of Arracan, or Mugh, has contained during 
 many years several Portuguese settlers, a great number 
 of Christian slaves, or half-caste Portuguese, and other 
 Europeans collected from various parts of the world. 
 That kingdom was the place of retreat for fugitives from 
 Goa, Ceylon, Cochin, Malacca, and other settlements in 
 India, held formerly by the Portuguese, and no persons 
 were better received than those who had deserted their 
 monasteries, married two or three wives, or committed 
 other great crimes. These people were Christians only 
 in name ; the lives led by them in Arracan were most 
 detestable ; massacring and poisoning one another with- 
 out compunction or remorse, and sometimes assassinating 
 even their priests, who, to confess the truth, were too 
 often no better than their murderers. 
 
 " The King of Arracan, who lived in perpetual dread 
 of the Moguls, kept these foreigners as a species of 
 advanced guard for the protection of his frontier, per- 
 mitting them to occupy a sea-port, called Chittagong, 
 and making them grants of land. As they were unawed 
 and unrestrained by the Government, it was not surprising 
 that these runagates pursued no other trade than that of 
 rapine and piracy. They scoured the neighbouring seas
 
 TEEATMENT OP SLAVES. 49 
 
 in light gallies called galliasses, entered the numerous 
 arms and canals of the Ganges, ravaged the islands of 
 Lower Bengal, and often penetrating forty or fifty leagues 
 up the country, surprised and carried away the entire 
 population of villages on market days and at times, 
 when the inhabitants were assembled for the celebration 
 of a marriage or some other festival. The marauders 
 made slaves of their unhappy captives, and burnt what- 
 ever could not be removed. It is owing to these re- 
 peated depredations that we see so many fine islands in 
 the mouth of the Ganges, formerly thickly peopled, now 
 entirely deserted by human beings, and become the 
 desolate receptacles of tigers and wild beasts. 
 
 " Their treatment of the slaves thus obtained was 
 most cruel ; and they had the audacity to offer for sale, 
 in the places which they had but recently ravaged, the 
 aged people whom they could turn to no better account. 
 It was usual to see young persons, who had saved them- 
 selves by timely flight, endeavouring to-day to redeem 
 the parent who had been made captive yesterday. Those 
 who were not disabled by age the pirates either kept in 
 their service, training them up to the love of robbery 
 and practice of assassination, or sold to the Portuguese 
 of Goa, Ceylon, St. Thomas, and other places. Even 
 the Portuguese of Hooghly, in Bengal, purchased with- 
 out scruple these wretched captives, and the horrid 
 traffic was transacted in the vicinity of the island of 
 Galles, near Cape Das Palrnas. The pirates, by a 
 mutual understanding, waited for the arrival of the Por- 
 tuguese, who bought whole cargoes at a cheap rate ; 
 and it is lamentable to reflect that other Europeans, since 
 
 E
 
 50 THE HILL TEACTS. 
 
 the decline of the Portuguese power, have pursued the 
 same flagitious commerce with the pirates of Chittagong, 
 who boast that they convert more Hindoos to Christianity 
 in a twelvemonth than all the Missionaries in India do in 
 ten years, a strange mode thus of propagating our holy 
 religion by the constant violation of its most sacred pre- 
 cepts, and by the open contempt and defiance of its most 
 awful sanctions. 
 
 " The Portuguese established themselves at Hooghly 
 under the auspices of Jehan Guire, the grandfather of 
 Aurungzebe. 
 
 " That prince was free from all prejudice against 
 Christians, and hoped to reap great benefit from their 
 commerce. The new settlers also engaged to keep the 
 Gulf of Bengal clear of pirates. Shah Jehan, a more 
 rigid Mussulman than his father, visited the Portuguese 
 at Hooghly with a terrible punishment. They provoked 
 his displeasure by the encouragement afforded to the 
 depredators of Arracan, and by their refusal to release 
 the numerous slaves in their service, who had all of them 
 been subject to the Moguls. He first exacted, by threats 
 and persuasions, large sums of money from the Portu- 
 guese, and when they refused to comply with his ulti- 
 mate demands, he besieged and took possession of the 
 toAvn, and commanded that the whole population should 
 be transferred as slaves to Agra. 
 
 " The misery of these people is unparalleled in the his- 
 tory of modern times ; it nearly resembled the grievous 
 captivity of Babylon, for even the children, priests, 
 and monks, shared the universal doom. The handsome 
 women, as well married as single, became inmates of
 
 THE PORTUGUESE. 51 
 
 the seraglio ; those of a more advanced age or of inferior 
 beauty were distributed among the Omrahs ; little chil- 
 dren underwent the rite of circumcision, and were made 
 pages ; and the men of adult age, allured for the most 
 part by fair promises, or terrified by the daily threat of 
 throwing them under the elephant's feet, renounced the 
 Christian faith ; some of the monks remained faithful to 
 their creed, and were conveyed to Goa, and other Portu- 
 guese settlements by the kind exertions of the Jesuits 
 and Missionaries at Agra, who, notwithstanding the 
 calamity, continued their dwelling, and were enabled to 
 accomplish their benevolent purpose by the powerful aid 
 of money, and the warm intercession of their friends. 
 
 " Before the catastrophe at Hooghly, the Missionaries 
 had not escaped the resentment of Shah Jehan. He 
 ordered the large and handsome church at Agra, which, 
 together with one at Lahore, had been erected during 
 the reign of Jehan Guire, to be demolished. A high 
 steeple stood upon this church, with a bell, whose sound 
 was heard in every part of the city. Some time before 
 the capture of Hooghly, the pirates made a formal offer 
 to the Viceroy of Goa to deliver the whole kingdom of 
 Arracan into his hand. Bastian Consalvez was then 
 Chief of the pirates, and so celebrated and powerful was 
 he, that he married the King of Arracan's daughter. It 
 is said that the Viceroy was too arrogant and envious to 
 listen to this proposal, and felt unwilling that the King 
 of Portugal should be indebted to a man of low origin 
 for so important an acquisition. There was nothing, 
 however, in the proposal to excite surprise, being con- 
 sonant with the general conduct of the Portuguese in 
 
 E 2
 
 52 TflE HILL TRACTS. 
 
 Japan, Pegu, Ethiopia, and other places. The decay of 
 their power in India is fairly ascribable to their mis- 
 deeds, and may be considered, as they candidly allow, a 
 proof of the Divine displeasure. Formerly their name 
 was a tower of strength; and all the Indian princes 
 courted their friendship, and the Portuguese were dis- 
 tinguished for courage, generosity, zeal, religion, immen- 
 sity of wealth, and the splendour of their exploits ; but 
 they were not then, like the Portuguese of the present 
 day, addicted to every vice and to every low and grovel- 
 ling enjoyment. 
 
 " The parties, about the time of which I am speaking, 
 made themselves masters of the island of Sandiva, an 
 advantageous port commanding part of the mouth of the 
 Ganges. On this spot the notorious Fra Joan, an Augus- 
 tine monk, reigned as a petty sovereign during many 
 years, having contrived, by what means is unknown, to 
 rid himself of the Governor of the islands. 
 
 " These also are the identical freebooters who, as we 
 have seen, repaired in their galliasses to Dacca for the 
 purpose of conveying Sultan Suja to Arracan. They 
 found means of opening some of his chests, and robbing 
 him of many precious stones, which were offered secretly 
 for sale at Arracan, and disposed of for a mere trifle. 
 The diamonds all got into the hands of the Dutch and 
 other Europeans, who easily persuaded the ignorant 
 thieves that the stones were soft, and consequently of no 
 real and intrinsic value. 
 
 " I have said enough to give an idea of the trouble, 
 vexation, and expense to which the Mogul was for many 
 years exposed by the unjust and violent proceedings of
 
 SHAISTA KHAN. 53 
 
 the pirates established in Arracan. He had always been 
 under the necessity of guarding the inlets of the king- 
 dom of Bengal, or keeping large bodies of troops and a 
 fleet of galliasses on the alert. All these precautions, 
 however, did not prevent the ravaging of his territories; 
 the pirates were become so bold and skilful, that with 
 four or five galliasses they would attack and generally 
 capture or destroy fourteen or fifteen of the Mogul's 
 galleys. 
 
 " The deliverance of Bengal from the cruel and inces- 
 eant devastations of these barbarians was the immediate 
 object of the expedition contemplated by Shaista Khan 
 upon his appointment to the goal of that kingdom. But 
 he had an ulterior design, that of attacking the King of 
 Arracan, punishing him for his cruelty to Sultan Suja 
 and family. Aurungzebe was determined to avenge the 
 murder of those illustrious personages, and, by a single 
 example, to teach his neighbours that the princes of his 
 blood, in all situations and under all circumstances, must 
 be treated with humanity and reverence. 
 
 " The Governor of Bengal accomplished his first plan 
 with consummate address. It was scarcely practicable 
 to march an army into the kingdom of Arracan, owing 
 to the great number of rivers and canals that intersect 
 the frontier; and the naval superiority of the pirates 
 rendered it still more difficult to transport an invading 
 force by sea. It therefore occurred to Shaista to apply 
 to the Dutch for their co-operation ; and, with this view, 
 he sent an envoy to Batavia, with power to negotiate, on 
 certain conditions, with the General-Commandant of that 
 colony, for the joint occupation of the kingdom of
 
 54 THE HILL TEACTS. 
 
 Arracan, in the same manner as Shah Abas treated 
 formerly with the English in regard to Ormus. 
 
 " The Governor of Batavia was easily persuaded to 
 enter into a scheme that offered an opportunity of still 
 further depressing the Portuguese influence in India, 
 and from the success of which the Dutch Company 
 would derive important advantages. He despatched two 
 ships of war to Bengal for the purpose of facilitating the 
 conveyance of the Mogul's troops to Chittagong ; but 
 Shaista, in the meantime, had collected a large number 
 of galliasses and other vessels of considerable tonnage, 
 and threatened to overwhelm the pirates in irremediable 
 ruin if they did not immediately submit to the Mogul's 
 authority. ' Aurungzebe is fixed in the resolution,' said 
 he to them, ' of chastising the King of Arracan, and a 
 Dutch fleet, too powerful to be resisted, is near at hand. 
 If you are wise, your personal safety and the care of 
 your families will now engross all your attention, you 
 will quit the service of the King of Arracan and enter 
 into that of Aurungzebe. In Bengal you shall have as 
 much land allotted as you may deem necessary, and your 
 pay shall be double that which you at present receive.' 
 
 " The pirates about this period had assassinated one of 
 the King of Arracan's principal officers, and it is not 
 known whether they were more struck with terror by 
 the punishment awaiting them for that crime, or moved 
 by the promises and threats contained in Shaista's com- 
 munication. Certain it is, however, that these unworthy 
 Portuguese were one day seized with so strange a panic 
 as to embark in forty or fifty galliasses, and sail over to 
 Bengal; and they adopted this measure with so much
 
 SHAISTA KHAN. 55 
 
 precipitation that they had scarcely time to take their 
 families and valuable effects on board. 
 
 " Shaista received these extraordinary visitors with 
 open arms ; gave them large sums of money ; provided 
 the women and children with excellent accommodation 
 in the town of Dacca ; and after he had thus gained 
 their confidence, the pirates evinced an eagerness to act 
 in concert with the Mogul's troops, and shared in the 
 attack and capture of Sandiva, which island had fallen 
 into the hands of the King of Arracan. Meanwhile, the 
 two Dutch ships-of-war made their appearance, and 
 Shaista having thanked the Commanders for their kind 
 intentions, informed them that he had now no need of 
 their services. I saw the vessels in Bengal, and was in 
 company with the officers, who considered the Indian's 
 thanks a poor compensation for the violation of his 
 engagements. In regard to the Portuguese, Shaista 
 treats them, not perhaps as he promised, but certainly 
 as they deserve. He has drawn them from Chittagong ; 
 they and their families are in his power ; an occasion for 
 their service no longer exists ; he considers it, therefore, 
 quite unnecessary to fulfil a single promise. He suffers 
 month after month to elapse without giving them any 
 pay, declaring that they are traitors, in whom it is folly 
 to confide wretches who have basely betrayed the 
 prince whose bounty they had experienced. 
 
 " In this manner Shaista Khan extinguished in Chitta- 
 gong the power of those Portuguese who had depopulated 
 and ruined the whole of Lower Bengal. Time will show 
 whether his enterprise against the King of Arracan will 
 be crowned with similar success."
 
 00 THE HILL TRACTS. 
 
 The earliest record of our dealings with the 
 hill tribes is a letter from the Chief 'of Chitta- 
 gong to the Governor-General, the Honourable 
 Warren Hastings, Esq., dated 10th April, 
 1777, in which he reports that " a moun- 
 taineer, named Ramoo Cawn, who pays the 
 Company a small revenue on their cotton 
 farm, has, since my being here, either through 
 ill usage from the revenue farmer, or from a 
 disposition to revolt, for some mouths past, 
 committed great violence on the Company's 
 landholders, by exacting various taxes and 
 imposing several claims on them with no 
 grounds of authority or legal demand." The 
 letter goes on to state that the writer " was 
 flattered with hopes of securing the person of 
 this said Ramoo Cawn ; " but this scheme 
 proved abortive, as the man fled from his 
 usual place of residence. 
 
 " He has now assembled men in yet larger 
 bodies," and has called to his aid " large 
 bodies of Kookie men, who live far in the 
 interior parts of the hills, who have not the 
 use of fire-arms, and whose bodies go un-
 
 EISE OF BRITISH POWEK. Of 
 
 clothed." This contumacy on the part of 
 Ramoo Cawn was subsequently met by stop- 
 ping all supplies, and not allowing the hill 
 people to have access to our bazaars ; and 
 these measures appear to have been success- 
 ful, as we hear no more of this person. Tra- 
 dition in the hills tells us of such a rising of 
 the Chukma tribe ; and with reference to this 
 Ramoo Cawn, or Khan, 1 am the more dis- 
 posed to ascribe the disturbance in question 
 to the Chukma tribe, as they alone, of all the 
 hill people, employ a quasi Mohammedan no- 
 menclature. The Kookie men, however, re- 
 ferred to, do not appear to have quieted down 
 so quickly, for in November, 1777, we find 
 the Chief of Chittagong addressing Captain 
 Edward Ellesker, commanding the 22nd Bat- 
 talion of Sepoys, and ordering some men to 
 be sent " for the protection of the inhabitants 
 against some Kookies," and " to assist in 
 making a kheddah." 
 
 From the above letters and other sources, 
 I gather that we at that time collected revenue 
 from the hills in the shape of a tax on cotton
 
 58 THE HILL TRACTS. 
 
 brought down from the hills, which tax was 
 farmed out to some second party. It is also 
 curious to note that as early as 1777 the 
 Government had established kheddahs, and 
 drew their supply of elephants partly from 
 this district. 
 
 The records having reference to our rela- 
 tions with the hill tribes, obtainable in the 
 Government offices at Chittagong, are but 
 scanty and intermittent. The attention of 
 the executive seems to have been principally 
 directed to the administration of the Dis- 
 trict of Chittagong Proper, and it was only 
 when some lawless outrage or default of 
 tribute payment forced them into notice that 
 mention is made of our frontier tribes. There 
 are, therefore, large gaps in the thread of 
 narrative of by-gone years, when we can only 
 conclude that the tribes were quiet, and the 
 authorities content to let them remain so. 
 
 On the 6th May, 1784, Government wrote 
 to Mr. Irwin, the Chief of Chittagong, de- 
 siring to have his opinion fully, whether, by 
 lenient measures, the inhabitants of the hills
 
 RISE OP BRITISH POWEE. 59 
 
 might not be induced to become peaceable 
 subjects and cultivators of the low lands. No 
 practical result, however, ensued, and the 
 tribes do not crop up again until the 21st 
 April, 1829, when Mr. Halhed, Commissioner, 
 writes that he finds that the hill tribes are not 
 subjects, but merely tributaries. " I do not 
 recognize any right on our part to interfere 
 with their internal arrangements. We have 
 no authority in the hills ; the payment of the 
 tribute which is trivial in amount in each 
 instance is guaranteed by a third party, resi- 
 dent in our own territory, and who is alone 
 responsible. He derives his own profit from 
 the arrangement under stipulations which 
 have no place in his agreement with us. He 
 is merely an agent, or mooktear, or medium 
 of communication between his constituents 
 and the authorities. He is not the ruler of 
 the clan he represents, and possesses no con- 
 trol over the members of it," &c. 
 
 Up to 1829, therefore, we seem to have 
 exercised no direct influence or rule over the 
 hill tribes. The near neighbourhood, how-
 
 60 THE HILL TRACTS. 
 
 ever, of a powerful and stable Government 
 naturally brought the chiefs by degrees under 
 our influence, and by the end of the 18th 
 century every leading chief paid to the Chit- 
 tagong Collector a certain tribute or yearly 
 gift made to purchase the privilege of free 
 trade between the inhabitants of the hiils and 
 the men of the plains. These sums were at 
 first fluctuating in amount, but gradually were 
 brought to specified and fixed limits, eventu- 
 ally taking the shape, not of tribute, but of 
 revenue paid to the State. 
 
 Until the year 1860 it appears we did not 
 interfere directly with the internal economy 
 of the hills. In that year, however, the in- 
 dependent tribes, known by the generic name 
 of Kookies, committed some murderous out- 
 rages on British subjects in the adjacent Dis- 
 trict of Tipperah. These raids were of so 
 organized a description, and on such a large 
 scale, as to cause well-founded anxiety to 
 Government ; and in July, 1860, a Superin- 
 tendent of Hill Tribes was appointed to the 
 charge of the hills, which were henceforth
 
 RISE OF BRITISH POWER. 61 
 
 known by the name of the Hill Tracts of 
 Chittagong. The committal of the raids was 
 clearly brought home to the tribes residing in 
 the north-eastern part of the Hill Tracts, and, 
 accordingly, on the 27th January, 1861, an 
 expedition, under the command of Major 
 Raban, entered the hills, and inflicted punish- 
 ment on the tribe principally concerned. 
 
 The primary object of the appointment of a 
 Hill Superintendent was the supervision of 
 the independent tribes ; and for the next few 
 years attention was principally directed to 
 the preservation of the peace of the frontier. 
 In 1867 the official designation of the officer 
 in charge of the district was changed from 
 Superintendent of Hill Tribes to Deputy Com- 
 missioner of Hill Tracts, and he was vested 
 with full control of all matters pertaining both 
 to revenue and justice throughout the Hill 
 Tracts. At the same time the district was 
 apportioned into subdivisions, and subordi- 
 nate officers placed in charge thereof. 
 
 A force of 375 men, fully armed, equipped, 
 and officered, has been allotted by Govern-
 
 62 THE HILL TRACTS. 
 
 ment for the defence of the frontier. The 
 men are principally natives of the hills, and 
 are as yet untried in active service. 
 
 The general instructions of Government for 
 the guidance of the Hill Tract authorities 
 (Government of Bengal, Letter No. 3300, 
 dated 20th June, 1860) are comprehensive, 
 and so indicative of the wise and beneficent 
 course of policy which has been pursued 
 towards the hill people, that I venture to give 
 here an abstract thereof, as follows : 
 
 1st. To allow no middle-men between the 
 hill man and the "hakim," all mooktears or 
 attorneys being prohibited from employment 
 in matters between hill man and hill man. 
 
 2nd. Simplification of procedure and free- 
 dom from expense were attained by directing 
 that equity, guided by the spirit of the law, 
 should be observed, no stamps required, and 
 no costs further than actual and necessary 
 expenses. Justice in fact to be administered 
 in the simplest and most expeditious manner 
 possible. 
 
 3rd. The customs and prejudices of the
 
 GOVERNMENT INSTRUCTIONS. 63 
 
 people to be observed and respected. We 
 are to interfere as little as possible between 
 the chiefs and their tribes. 
 
 4th. The Deputy Commissioner was vested 
 with the full powers of a magistrate, his 
 orders being appealable to the Commissioner 
 of the Division, who also has the final decision 
 of all heinous cases. 
 
 Such were the principles of administration 
 as at first set on foot, but subsequently, by 
 degrees, and until within the last two years, 
 there was a perceptible tendency to revert to 
 the Regulation Procedure ; attorneys had im- 
 perceptibly crept into practice, and an appeal 
 to Calcutta in even minor cases was not un- 
 common, and this last is the case even now. 
 Every effort, however, is used to check and 
 discourage litigation ; and, whenever prac- 
 ticable, cases are referred to the arbitration 
 of village juries, the parties pleading in per- 
 son before these rough tribunals. From their 
 award there is seldom any appeal or dissatis- 
 faction. 
 
 The introduction, indeed, of mooktears
 
 64 THE HILL TRACTS. 
 
 among a people simple and unused to law, 
 is at all times highly inexpedient. Their 
 employment tends to crowd the Courts with 
 petty, vexatious, and disgraceful suits. No- 
 thing- is so productive of evil passions as 
 facilities for their gratification. The mook- 
 tears tamper with the simplicity and ignorance 
 of the people, and draw them into litigations, 
 in which the sole persons benefited are the 
 mooktears themselves. They thrive by quib- 
 bles, quirks, and chicanery, and, like vermin, 
 swarm where there is most corruption. They 
 are to the law what quack doctors are to 
 physic, exciting the malady for the purpose 
 of profiting by the cure, and retarding the 
 case in order to pocket the fees ; as also in 
 medicine, when a man has once dabbled in 
 patent medicines and infallible specifics, he is 
 always poisoning himself and others by quack 
 drugs, so in the law an ignorant person who 
 has once been tricked into a lawsuit by one 
 of these crafty empirics, is ever afterwards in 
 a chronic state of dispute and embroilment. 
 During the last two years the employment of
 
 MOOKTEAES MAHAJUNS. 65 
 
 mooktears has been discouraged in cases 
 between hill men, and in hill matters which 
 require special and local knowledge of cus- 
 toms and the like ; but in appeals before the 
 Commissioner, mooktears are allowed to ap- 
 pear, as the hill men are often ignorant of the 
 language spoken in the plains of Chittagong 
 where the Commissioner's Court is held. 
 
 In these hills, also, as in Sonthalia, the 
 crafty Bengallee mahajuns of the plains have 
 wrested the law from its original intent, and 
 turned it into an engine wherewith to reduce 
 the people to a condition of slavery. In an 
 ill-fated hour the hill man borrows a few rupees 
 from some mahajun; he wants the money, 
 either because his crops have failed, or his 
 son is to be married, or for some other rea- 
 son. He can neither read nor write ; conse- 
 quently the bond in which the transaction 
 is recorded usually binds him to pay some 
 enormous amount of interest, of which he is 
 totally ignorant. Time goes on, the money 
 becomes due, and is generally paid. In the 
 latter case the mahajun says, " Go, my son, 
 
 F
 
 66 THE HILL TRACTS. 
 
 I destroy the bond, the debt is cancelled ; " 
 here he will tear up some paper before the hill 
 man, but most certainly not the bond. The 
 debtor goes away satisfied to his home, leav- 
 ing the mahajun chuckling in his sleeve at 
 his successful villany. After a short interval 
 the mahajun repairs to the Civil Court, and, 
 with an injured aspect, lays a suit for the 
 recovery of the original debt, interest, and 
 costs of suit, according to his bond. For- 
 merly, when the summons to the hill man to 
 appear in the suit was issued through a Ben- 
 gallee peon, the mahajun would simply bribe 
 the summons-bearer, who would report the 
 summons as duly served, without going near the 
 pseudo debtor's house. Should the mahajun 
 not be successful in this, he will lie in wait at 
 the river-side, and when his man comes down 
 on the day fixed for the hearing of the case, 
 he will seize upon him, " Ai ! bapre ! great is 
 my misfortune, you have been summoned, my 
 friend, quite by mistake; I have no case 
 against you ; you know, we made all square 
 between us when last we met. I am afflicted
 
 MAHAJUNS. 67 
 
 for your trouble, but come with me, you must 
 eat and drink at my expense as . some small 
 return for all this needless bother." So off 
 goes the befooled hill man, and never appears 
 in his case, when, according to law, a decree 
 in default is given against him. In another 
 case, supposing the hill man to have paid 
 part of his debt, and to owe the remainder, 
 the mahajun will then meet him outside the 
 Court, make a compromise with him, and 
 agree to withdraw the case. The man goes 
 away, while the mahajun, on his part, does 
 not withdraw the case, but takes a decree in 
 full, ex parte, in default of the debtor's at- 
 tendance. These are not imaginary cases, 
 but have come actually under my own obser- 
 vation. Numberless are the tricks to which 
 the crafty Bengallee resorts, and gradually 
 he accumulates over his victim's head an 
 amount of legally authorized debt, which the 
 wretched creature can never hope to pay off. 
 He then becomes the bond-slave of the ma- 
 hajun; for him he toils, for his profit he 
 clears a joom, raises cotton, or hews out a 
 F 2
 
 68 THE HILL TKACTS. 
 
 boat, and even death does not release him, 
 for the load descends upon the shoulders of 
 his son. 
 
 Latterly so many cases came before the 
 Courts, of a nature such that a permanent state 
 of ill feeling between the hill population and 
 the mahajuns was to be apprehended, that it 
 was found necessary to limit both the amount 
 of interest on a debt recoverable by law, and 
 the time during which a decree might be 
 allowed to remain unexecuted. Twelve per 
 cent, per annum is now granted by the Courts, 
 and on a decree being obtained, the creditor is 
 compelled to enforce it at once. 
 
 The appointment of an officer for the ex- 
 clusive supervision of this district has greatly 
 ameliorated the condition of the hill people 
 in this as in other respects, and the special 
 Registration Rules which have been lately in- 
 troduced have now almost entirely put a stop 
 to the nefarious practices above referred to. 
 
 It would be a mistake, in my opinion, to 
 introduce into this district the Regulations, 
 Legal Codes, and Procedure, as followed in
 
 LEGAL CODES. 69 
 
 other parts of India. Such a measure could 
 not fail to be most unpopular and distasteful 
 to the people at large 7 . 
 
 Man, in his earliest conditions, in a state 
 of quasi barbarism, is tutored by the elements, 
 and imbibes certain habits and dispositions 
 from the air he breathes and the food he takes. 
 
 The hill men like neither the plains nor 
 their inhabitants. Law is, or ought to be, the 
 expression of the popular voice ; the measure 
 prescribed and agreed to by the people in 
 general, from time to time, for the safeguard 
 and protection of their lives, liberties, and 
 property : law is the concretion or aggregate 
 of hundreds of years of trial and experiment. 
 We should not, I think, do well to put aside 
 custom and rules 8 which have existed among 
 
 r The Locrians admitted only two new laws in two 
 hundred years, because he who proposed to establish or 
 change one came with a halter round his neck, and was 
 strangled if his proposition was rejected. 
 
 8 The haste or prejudice which has refused to the 
 rudimentary ideas of justice, on which all Codes are 
 based, all but the most superficial examination, must 
 bear the blame of the unsatisfactory condition in which
 
 70 THE HILL TRACTS. 
 
 the hill people from time immemorial, and 
 supply their place by Codes utterly dissonant 
 to their whole mode of life and thinking. 
 This would not be law, but the tyranny of a 
 strong minority over a simple and ignorant 
 majority. Such a tyranny was that which in 
 ancient times among the Hindoos prescribed 
 mutilation as the penalty for spitting on the 
 robe of a Brahmin 9 . See in Bengal, a wealthy 
 Zemindar is put in jail for bribery, or here in 
 these hills a Chief is punished for keeping 
 slaves or levying what we call an illegal cess 
 on his people : when that Chief or that Zemin- 
 dar leaves jail, his people will flock round him 
 to do him honour as an injured person. I do 
 not attempt to defend slavery or to infer that 
 
 we at present find the science of jurisprudence. Maine's 
 Ancient Law, p. 3. 
 
 9 " If a Soodar (man of low caste) sits upon the carpet 
 of a Brahmin, in that case the Magistrate, having thrust 
 a hot iron into his buttock and branded him, shall 
 banish him the kingdom, or else he shall cut off his 
 buttock. If a Soodar, out of pride, shall spit his phlegm 
 on a Brahmin's body, the Magistrate shall cut off his 
 lip." Extracts from the Law of the Gentoos, compiled by 
 Mr. Halhed in 1775.
 
 THE REVENUE. 71 
 
 bribery should not be put a stop to ; I only 
 say that there is no law the infraction of 
 which carries with it no social penalty. 
 
 The revenue of the Hill Tracts consists 
 chiefly of the tribute which is paid to Govern- 
 ment by the chiefs of the tribes. A consi- 
 derable sum of money is also obtained yearly 
 from the tolls levied on behalf of Government 
 on all spontaneous forest produce brought 
 down by water or river routes to the plains. 
 The fear of the inroads and attacks of the 
 independent tribes on the frontier has hitherto 
 prevented the large level tracts existing all 
 over the district from being occupied and 
 cultivated by Bengallee settlers, but a move- 
 ment is now commencing, and during the last 
 year or two, much land along the Chittagong 
 border of the district has been leased to men 
 of the plains, and there is but little doubt 
 that under more favourable conditions of 
 tranquillity the greater portion of the district 
 will be brought under cultivation, and that 
 the main source of revenue, as in other parts 
 of India, will arise from the land-tax.
 
 PART II. 
 
 THE HILL TBIBES. 
 
 The usages which a particular community is found to have 
 adopted in its infancy and in its primitive seats are 
 generally those which are on the whole best suited to 
 promote its physical and moral well-being. MAINE'S 
 ANCIENT LAW, page 19. 
 
 THE tribes that inhabit the Hill Tracts of 
 Chittagong may be named and classified 
 as follows : 
 
 1 . The Khyoungtha, or Children of the River, 
 who are of pure Arracanese origin, speaking 
 the ancient Arracan dialect, and conforming 
 in every way to Buddhist customs. Under this 
 head may also be named the Chuckma tribe, 
 for reasons which I shall state hereafter. 
 
 2. The Toungtha, or Children of the Hills, 
 who are of mixed origin, if indeed they are 
 not the aboriginal inhabitants of the country. 
 They speak numerous and diversified dialects, 
 and are more purely savages than the 
 Khyoungtha. Under this head are included
 
 THE HILL TEIBES CLASSIFICATION. 73 
 
 the Tipperah and the Lhoosai, or Kookie 
 tribes, with their offshoots. 
 
 The word Khyoungtha and Toungtha are 
 both Arracanese : " Khyoung," a river ; 
 " toung," a hill; and " tha," or " tsa," a son. 
 They are used as generic terms, to denote the 
 hill tribes, by only such of our tribes as speak 
 the Arracan dialect. The other tribes have 
 each their own way of specifying themselves 
 and their neighbours, which will be alluded 
 to when speaking of each tribe in particular ; 
 but none of them appear to have any general 
 term for all hill dwellers. 
 
 The Bengallees distinguish hill men into 
 two classes. The friendly tribes living close 
 along the Chittagong District border they 
 call Joomahs ; and all other hill men, more 
 especially if unable to speak the vernacular 
 of Bengal, are distinguished as Kookies. 
 
 A greater portion of the hill tribes at pre- 
 sent living in the Chittagong Hills undoubt- 
 edly came about two generations ago from 
 Arracan. This is asserted both by their 
 own traditions and by records in the Chitta-
 
 74 THE HILL TEIBES. 
 
 gong Collectorate. It was in some measure 
 due to the exodus of our hill tribes from 
 Arracan that the Burmese War of 1824 took 
 place, which ended in the annexation to 
 British territory of the fertile Province of 
 Arracan. As this is a point interesting, not 
 only from its local bearing on the hill tribes, 
 but also in a larger and more important his- 
 torical sense, I shall trace here the way in 
 which the dissensions between the English 
 authorities and the Burmese, which eventually 
 culminated in war, hinged in a great measure 
 upon refugees from the hill tribes, who, fleeing 
 from Arracan into our territory, were pursued 
 and demanded at our hands by the Burmese. 
 Among the earliest records that we have 
 of our dealings with the Burmese are two 
 letters, written, one by the King of Burmah, 
 the other by the Rajah of Arracan, to the 
 Chief of Chittagong, and received about the 
 24th June, 1787, couched as follows : 
 
 " From the Rajah of Arracan to the Chief of Chitta- 
 gong. Our territories are composed of five hundred 
 and sixty countries, and we have ever been on terms 
 of friendship, and the inhabitants of other countries
 
 EAELIEST EECOEDS. 75 
 
 willingly and freely trade with the countries belonging to 
 each of us. A person named Keoty, having absconded 
 from our country, took refuge in yours. I did not, how- 
 ever, pursue him with a force, but sent a letter of friend- 
 ship on the subject, desiring that Keoty might be given 
 up to me. You, considering your own power and the 
 extent of your possessions, refused to send him to me. 
 I, also, am possessed of an extensive country ; and 
 Keoty, in consequence of his disobedient conduct and 
 the strength and influence of my King's good fortune, 
 was destroyed. 
 
 " Domcan Chukma, and Kiecopa Lies, Marring and 
 other inhabitants of Arracan, have now absconded and 
 taken refuge near the mountains within your border, 
 and exercise depredations on the people belonging to both 
 countries ; and they, moreover, murdered an English- 
 man at the mouth of the Naf, and stole away every thing 
 he had with him. Hearing of this, I am come to your 
 boundaries with an army, in order to seize them, be- 
 cause they have deserted their own country, and dis- 
 obedient to my King, exercise the profession of robbers. 
 It is not proper that you should give asylum to them or 
 the other Mughs who have absconded from Arracan, and 
 you will do right to drive them from your country, that 
 our friendship may remain perfect, and that the road of 
 travellers and merchants may be secured. If you do not 
 drive them from your country and give them up, I shall 
 be under the necessity of seeking them out with an 
 army, in whatever part of your territories they may be. 
 I send this letter by Mahomed Wassene. Upon the 
 receipt of it, either drive the Mughs from your country,
 
 76 THE HILL TEIBES. 
 
 or, if you mean to give them an asylum, return me 
 an answer immediately." 
 
 This letter is explicit enough. The fugi- 
 tives referred to are evidently men of the 
 Chuckma and Mriing hill tribes, who to this 
 day preserve the recollection of their ances- 
 tor's flight from Arracan. The persons in 
 question were probably the Chiefs of the clans, 
 and the driving of them from British terri- 
 tory would have been equivalent to the 
 expulsion of the whole clan. 
 
 The other letter from the King of Burmah 
 is evidently a covering epistle, from beneath 
 the shelter of which his representative of 
 Arracan should fire his sharp little pop-gun 
 of defiance. His Majesty of the Golden Foot 
 and the White Elephant writes in a broad 
 umbrageous manner, that even to the present 
 day carries with it a sense of comfort to the 
 reader. The missive is most curious and 
 characteristic. I shall therefore give it in 
 extenso. It marches in broad epic periods, 
 with a roll as of deep-toned gongs and a bar- 
 baric clash of cymbals.
 
 EARLIEST RECORDS. 77 
 
 " Letter from Turboomah, Principal of the Burmese, 
 forwarded by his orders through the head person in charge 
 of the Arracan country. 
 
 " I am lord of a whole people and of one hundred and 
 one countries, and my titles are Rajah Chatterdaiy 
 (sitting under a canopy) and Rajah Suruj Bunshee 
 (descendant of the sun, and sitting under a splendid 
 canopy of gold). I hold in subjection to my authority 
 many Rajahs. Gold, silver, and jewels, are the produce 
 of my country ; and in my hand is the instrument of 
 war, that, as the lightning of heaven, humbles and sub- 
 dues my adversaries. My troops require neither injunc- 
 tions nor commands, and my elephants and horses are 
 without number. In my service are ten Pundits, learned 
 in the Shaster, and one hundred and four priests, whose 
 wisdom is not to be equalled, agreeably to whose learn- 
 ing and intelligence I execute and distribute justice 
 among my people, so that my mandates, like the light- 
 ning, suffer no resistance or control. My subjects are 
 endowed with virtue and the principles of justice, and 
 refrain from all immoral practices ; and I am as the sun, 
 blessed with the light of wisdom to discover the secret 
 designs of men. 
 
 " Whoever is worthy of being called a Rajah is 
 merciful and just towards his people. Thieves, robbers, 
 and disturbers of the peace, have at length received the 
 punishment due to their crimes, and now the word of my 
 mouth is dreaded as the lightning from heaven. 
 
 " I am as a great sea among two thousand rivers and 
 many nullahs ; and I am as the Mountain Shuncroo,
 
 78 THE HILL TRIBES. 
 
 surrounded by forty thousand hills, and like unto these 
 is my authority extending itself over one hundred and 
 one Rajahs. Further, ten thousand Rajahs pay daily 
 attendance at my durbar, and my country excels every 
 country in the world. My palace, as the heavens, studded 
 with gold and precious stones, is revered more than any 
 other place in the universe. My occupations resemble 
 the business of the chief angels, and I have written unto 
 all the provinces of Arracan with orders to forward this 
 letter in safety to Chittagong, formerly subject to the 
 Mogul Rajah, by whom the country was cultivated and 
 populated, and who erected twenty-four hundred palaces 
 of public worship, and made four and twenty tanks (here 
 follows a long list of the names of palaces and forts said 
 to have been erected by the above Rajah), and by Um- 
 bung Dumah 1 , Rajah of Omerpoor. Previous to his 
 accession to the Rajagyee, the country was subject to 
 other Rajahs, whose title was Chatterdary (sitting under 
 a canopy), who erected places of worship and appointed 
 priests to administer the rites of religion to people of 
 every denomination (observe the tolerance of the Buddhist); 
 but at that period the country was ill governed, previous 
 to the accession of Rajah Serytumah Chuckah to the 
 government of the countries of Ruttenpoor, Doogwady, 
 Arracan, Doorgaputty, Ramputty, Chaydoge, Mahodyne, 
 Manang, in whose time the country was governed with 
 
 1 This probably refers to the Rajah of Hill Tipperah, 
 known by the title of Durm, or Joob Rajah. The 
 ancient residence of the Rajah of Hill Tipperah was at 
 a place called Odehpoor.
 
 EARLIEST KECOEDS. 79 
 
 justice and ability, and his wisdom was a shining light, 
 and the people were happy under his administration. 
 He was also favoured with the friendship of the reli- 
 gious men of the age, one of whom, hy name Buddha, 
 resorted to his place of residence, and was solicited by 
 the Rajah to appoint some one for the purpose of 
 instructing him in religious rites ; and Thaw-hmarey 
 was accordingly appointed agreeably to the Rajah's 
 requisition. 
 
 " At this time it rained from heaven gold, and silver, 
 and precious stones, which were buried underground in 
 charge of the above priest, whose house also was of gold 
 and silver workmanship, to which the people resort and 
 worship the deities ; and the Rajah kept a large esta- 
 blishment of servants and of slaves at the temple for the 
 service of travellers and passengers, and his time was 
 engaged in the studying of the five books. He always 
 refrained from immoral practices and deeds interdicted 
 by his religion, and his priests abstained from the flesh 
 of geese, pigeons, goats, hogs, and of fowls ; and wicked- 
 ness and theft, adultery, falsehood, and drinking were 
 unknown in that age. 
 
 " I likewise preserve a line of conduct and religion 
 similar to the above ; but previous to my conquest of 
 Arracan, the people were as snakes wounding men a 
 prey to enmity and disorder ; and in Magadha, Mayen- 
 wong, Darawody, Chagadag Rahmawady there were 
 eaters of the flesh of man, and wickedness prevailed 
 amongst them, so that no man relied upon his neigh- 
 bours. At this time, one Buddha Dutta, otherwise 
 Seeryboat Thakoor, came down in the country of Arra-
 
 80 THE HILL TRIBES. 
 
 can, and instructed the people and the beasts of the field 
 in the principles of religion and rectitude ; and, agreeably 
 to his word, the country was governed for a period of 
 five thousand years, so that peace and good-will sub- 
 sisted among them. 
 
 "Agreeably hereto is the tenour of my conduct and 
 government of my people; and as there is an oil, the 
 produce of a certain spot of the earth, of exquisite 
 flavour, so is my dignity and power above that of all 
 other Rajahs ; and Jafboo, the High Priest, having con- 
 sulted with others of that class, represented to me, on 
 the 15th of the month Praso 1148, saying, do you 
 enforce the laws and customs of Serryboat Thakoor, 
 which I accordingly did, and, moreover, erected places 
 of divine worship, and have conformed myself strictly 
 to the laws and customs of Sery-Tumah Cuckah, govern- 
 ing my people with lenity and justice. 
 
 " As the country of Arracan lies contiguous to Chitta- 
 gong, if a treaty of commerce were established between 
 me and the English, perfect unity and alliance would 
 ensue from such engagements. I therefore have sub- 
 mitted it to you that the merchants of your country 
 should resort hither for the purpose of purchasing pearls, 
 ivory, wax, and that in return my people should be per- 
 mitted to resort to Chittagong for the purpose of trafficking 
 in such commodities as the country may afford ; but as 
 the Mughs residing at Chittagong have deviated from 
 the principles of religion and morality, they ought to be 
 corrected for their errors and irregularities according to 
 the written laws, insomuch as those invested with power 
 will suffer eternal punishment in case of any deviation
 
 OUR RELATIONS WITH BURMAH. 81 
 
 from their religion and laws, but whoever conforms his 
 conduct to the strict rules of piety and religion will 
 hereafter be translated to heaven. I have accordingly 
 sent four elephants' teeth, under the charge of thirty 
 persons, who will return with your answer to the above 
 proposals and offers of alliance." 
 
 These letters were received during the 
 administration of Lord Cornwallis. They 
 were followed up almost immediately by the 
 entrance into our territory of a force of 
 armed Burmese under the Sirdar of Arracan. 
 The Chief of Chittagong, in the same month 
 of June, writes to the Governor-General in 
 Council, reporting this incursion, and stating 
 that he has declined to respond to the over- 
 tures of alliance until this armed force was 
 withdrawn. At the same time he states that 
 in his opinion the refugees should be driven 
 out of British territory. He adds, also, that 
 these fugitives were persons of some conse- 
 quence in Arracan, and reports, further, that 
 a Chukma Sirdar, who had fled from Arracan, 
 had been arrested and confined by him. He 
 concludes by stating his opinion that this 
 Sirdar and his tribe have no intention of
 
 82 THE HILL TRIBES. 
 
 cultivating the low lands in a peaceable man- 
 ner, but have taken up their abode in the 
 hills and jungles, for the convenience of plun- 
 dering. Ten years before this, in the year 
 1777, it appears from a letter dated 31st May, 
 from the Chief of Chittagong to the Honour- 
 able Warren Hastings, Governor- General, 
 that some thousands of hill men had come 
 from Arracan into the Chittagong limits, 
 having been offered encouragement to settle 
 by one Mr. Bateman, who was the chief 
 governing officer there at that time. These 
 migrations were evidently for a long time a 
 rankling sore to the Burmese authorities ; 
 and Macfarlane's History of British India, 
 page 355, records that in 1795 a Burmese 
 'army of 5000 men again pursued some rebel- 
 lious Chiefs, or, as they called them, robbers, 
 right into the English District of Chittagong. 
 These Chiefs, who had taken refuge in our 
 territories, were eventually given up to the 
 Burmese, and " two out of the three were 
 put to death with atrocious tortures." 
 
 In 1809 Macfarlane records that disputes
 
 OUR RELATIONS WITH BURMAH. 88 
 
 continued to occur in the frontiers of Chitta- 
 gong and Tipperah, but the organized forays 
 into our territory hardly assumed any defi- 
 nite form until 1823 ("Wilson's Narrative of 
 the Burmese War, page 25), when a rupture 
 ensued, which led to the war of 1824. The 
 primary cause, therefore, of all these disturb- 
 ances, rendering the Burmese apt to provoke 
 and take offence, was undoubtedly the emi- 
 gration to our hills of tribes hitherto subject 
 to their authority. 
 
 The origin of the tribes is a doubtful point. 
 Pemberton ascribes to them a Malay descent. 
 Colonel Sir A. Phayre considers two of the 
 principal tribes of Arracan, who are also 
 found in these hills, to be of Myamma or 
 Burmese extraction. Among the tribes them- 
 selves no record exists, save that of oral tra- 
 dition, as to their origin. The Khyoungtha 
 alone are possessed of a written language ; 
 they have among them several copies of the 
 Raja-wong; or History of the Kings of Arra- 
 can, but I have been able to discover no re- 
 cords whatever as to their sojourn and doings 
 G 2
 
 84 THE HILL TRIBES. 
 
 in the hills. The Toungtha, on the other 
 hand, possess no written character, and the 
 languages spoken by them are simple to a 
 degree, expressing merely the wants and 
 sensations of uncivilized life. The informa- 
 tion obtainable as to their origin and past 
 history is therefore naturally meagre and un- 
 reliable. 
 
 The general physique of the hill tribes is 
 strongly Mongolian. They are, as a rule, 
 short in stature, about 5 feet 6 inches in 
 height. Their faces are broad ; the nose flat, 
 with no perceptible bridge ; the eyes narrow, 
 and set obliquely in the head, high cheek 
 bones, and no beard or moustache. They 
 have an honest, bright look, with a frank and 
 merry smile; and their look does not belie 
 them, but is a faithful index of their mental 
 characteristics . 
 
 The complexion of the Khyoungtha tribes 
 is a clear yellow or wheaten colour, much 
 resembling the skin colour of the Chinese. 
 The Toungtha however are dark and swarthy 
 in complexion.
 
 HABITS AND CUSTOMS. 85 
 
 Before noticing in detail the peculiarities 
 and distinctive signs of each separate tribe, 
 I shall describe certain habits and customs 
 which are common to all of them : The first 
 and perhaps the most marked distinction is 
 their mode of cultivation, which has already 
 been described by me ; next in importance is 
 the relation of master and servant, or, as we 
 should call it, slavery, throughout the hills 2 . 
 
 * The custom of slavery formerly existed also in the 
 Chittagong District. On this point, the Chief of Chit- 
 tagong writes to the Honourable Warren Hastings, Pre- 
 sident in Council, dated September 1st, 1774, as follows : 
 " I have been duly honoured with your letter of the 
 4th June and 12th July. Through a multiplicity of 
 business, it has escaped me to acknowledge the receipt 
 of them sooner. However, your order respecting the 
 purchasing of slaves was immediately published, and I 
 have now the pleasure to enclose you a particular account, 
 in English and Persian, of the customs that have hitherto 
 prevailed in this province with respect to the right that 
 masters have over their slaves. The translation enclosed 
 is as follows : ' The custom with respect to slaves in 
 this country is this, any one who is without a father, 
 mother, or any other relation, and who is not connected 
 with any zemindar or other in the revenue or cultivation 
 of the country, who is destitute of the necessaries of life, 
 and should propose selling himself, on the receipt of the
 
 86 THE HILL TRIBES. 
 
 Servants, as we understand the term, that is, 
 persons doing menial service for a certain 
 wage, there are none; but the universal 
 custom prevailed in the hills, until within the 
 last five years, of having debtor-slaves. Per- 
 
 money for which he agrees, becomes a slave ; arid should 
 his owners ever fall destitute, and be in want of the 
 necessaries of life, they may sell" him, her, or them to 
 whomsoever they please, and the purchaser is from that 
 time considered as the master of the slaves. The chil- 
 dren, grandchildren, and so on to many generations, 
 become the slaves of their parents' masters, and they 
 must do whatever is ordered, whether to cultivate, build, 
 or any sort of drudgery. Their wives must also attend 
 on the wife of their master. When they marry, it must 
 be to a slave, and that of their master's choosing, who 
 defrays the expense of the wedding ; and they can on 
 no account marry without their master's consent. The 
 Province of Islamabad is a small and poor one ; there 
 are many people of good families, but poor, whose chief 
 dependence and support is by their slaves, who do every 
 sort of menial service, which a hired servant will not do, 
 through fear of demeaning himself and disgracing his 
 family. The above custom has prevailed time out of 
 mind, and discontinuation of it would cause many unfore- 
 seen distresses, innumerable complaints on the part of 
 the masters, and at the same time would not be satisfac- 
 tory to the slaves, who, owing to usage, have no desire 
 to live otherwise.' "
 
 SLAVERY. 87 
 
 sons borrowed money from their Chief or some 
 other well-to-do individual, and gave one of 
 their children or a female relative to serve as 
 a menial servant until the debt should be paid 
 or cancelled. This service took the place of 
 interest on the money lent, no interest being 
 payable; but the creditor was bound to re- 
 lease the slave on the repayment or tender of 
 the original sum borrowed. The condition of 
 these so-called slaves was very little different 
 indeed from that of free people. They were 
 treated as members of the creditor's family, 
 and were never exposed to harsh usage. 
 They could not be sold or transferred to 
 another owner. Their position in all cases 
 was far preferable to the galling bondage 
 in which hill men were subsequently often 
 legally held by the Bengallee mahajuns, as 
 already described in Part I. Since we have 
 taken in hand the direct management of the 
 hills, this system has been put down with 
 the strong hand; upwards of three hundred 
 debtor slaves have been released 3 ; some at 
 * Colonel Sir A. Phayre, in Asiatic Society's Journal,
 
 88 THE HILL TRIBES. 
 
 the request of their relatives, who wished to 
 get off paying their creditors, others simply 
 because they were supposed to be slaves ; 
 many of these latter returned afterwards 
 to their debtors to fulfil their engagements. 
 The Chiefs and principal men, however, being 
 immediately under the eye of authority, were 
 unable to retain in their houses a single 
 menial, and the ordinary daily work of their 
 houses suddenly fell upon their wives and 
 daughters. As a consequence of this measure, 
 confidence between debtor and creditor was 
 
 No. 117, page 701, says that slaves among the hill tribes 
 have been emancipated in the adjacent District of Arra- 
 can ; and adds in a note, " The chiefs complain of this 
 as a very great hardship. In a Khyong tribe I once 
 met a young chief who had lost one of his fingers. It 
 appeared that his slaves had one fine morning absconded, 
 and he was obliged to set to work himself in clearing 
 his forest land. By his clumsiness, he soon cut off a 
 finger ; and now he held up his mutilated hand to me in 
 dumb appeal for the restitution of his slaves. This 
 young man was all but naked, and a blush was visible in 
 his clear olive cheek, when the Rakhoingthas with me 
 threw a cloth over him, and he heard, for the first time 
 in his life, that he was committing a breach of decency 
 in appearing unclothed,"
 
 DEBTOR AND CEEDITOE. 89 
 
 shaken. The hill men no longer sought 
 assistance from their Chiefs, or sought it 
 uselessly. They could neither read nor write 
 Bengallee, which was the language of our 
 Courts ; and even the ability to speak this 
 alien language was uncommon among them. 
 How then draw up the bond by which only 
 a debt could be legalized ? How become 
 acquainted with or comply with the Pro- 
 cedure of Act VIII. of 1859, according to 
 which all suits for debt must be laid ? 
 
 The consequences of our action being such, 
 the old system under which hill people bor- 
 rowed from each other in times of need having 
 been rudely overturned, and in its place a law, 
 unexplained and incomprehensible, being sub- 
 stituted, they fell easy victims to the maha- 
 juns, who expounded the law very much to 
 their own advantage. The fault of our mea- 
 sures lay in their suddenness ; there was no 
 intermediate stage, although previously in 
 the abolition of slavery in our West Indian 
 Colonies, the measure was there introduced 
 with great caution and by progressive stages.
 
 90 THE HILL TRIBES. 
 
 The slavery in these hills, if, indeed, it can 
 be called slavery, was of the mildest descrip- 
 tion, and was the deliberately adopted custom 
 of the majority of the people, not a bondage 
 imposed by force. We are, I think, too apt to 
 connect the idea of slavery with the whip, 
 chains, and cruelty ; but it should be remem- 
 bered that in the lower ranks of progress 
 slavery does good work; without it, indeed, 
 civilization would have been well nigh impos- 
 sible. Slaves exempt man from the otherwise 
 all-powerful necessity of working for his life, 
 from earning bread by the sweat of his brow, 
 and their possession gives leisure for thought 
 and culture. It is not so many centuries ago 
 since even in our own England a modified 
 description of slavery existed; and in the 
 early growth of a people there always has 
 been, and must be, slavery, if they are to rise 
 in the scale of races. Among the hill tribes 
 labour cannot be hired ; the people work each 
 one for himself. In 1865, in this district, a 
 road had to be cut ; but although fabulous 
 wages were offered, the hill population steadily
 
 LABOUE CONTRACTS. 91 
 
 refused to work, and labourers had to be im- 
 ported at a great expense from the Chittagong 
 District. 
 
 It would, I think, have been wise had we 
 recognized and modified this hill institution, 
 not as slavery, but as a labour contract, 
 which could be formally entered into and 
 registered. So much money lent to be repaid 
 by a certain period of voluntary labour, or so 
 much cash; but above all, measures should 
 have been taken to make the language of 
 the Courts identical with the vernacular of 
 the people. 
 
 There is another, a detestable and actual 
 slavery in these hills, which formerly existed 
 among our own tributary tribes, but is now 
 only carried on by the independent tribes 
 beyond our jurisdiction. This is the captivity 
 to the bow and spear : men and women taken 
 prisoners by force in war, and sold like cattle 
 from master to master. The origin of this 
 custom, if not indeed the origin of the chronic 
 state of warfare in which all hill people seem 
 to live, was the want of women.
 
 92 THE HILL TRIBES. 
 
 Among all hill people the woman is the 
 hardest worker, the chief toiler 4 ; and natu- 
 rally enough their constant and incessant 
 labour in all weathers kills the women of 
 a tribe, or renders them more liable to the 
 insidious attacks of disease. Hence, among 
 some tribes, as the Todas of the Neilgherries 
 for instance, we find the strange custom of 
 polyandry prevailing; but among the tribes 
 here a simpler course was adopted the law 
 of the strongest : 
 
 " The good old rule, the simple plan, 
 That he shall take who has the power, 
 And he shall keep who can." 
 
 Those who had few women went with arms 
 in their hands, and took what they wanted 
 from a weaker community. Another custom, 
 which too often served as a cloak for the 
 obtaining of slaves, was that of demanding 
 " goung hpo," a usage answering to the 
 
 4 Among the Khyoungtha only, the women are placed 
 on an equal footing with the men of the tribe in respect 
 to work. The Shendoo tribe are also said to grant great 
 privileges to their women ; but our information as to 
 this tribe is not very reliable.
 
 THE KHTOUNGTHA. 93' 
 
 " wehrgeld," or composition for the homicide 
 of a relative, which occupies so large a place 
 in the ancient jurisprudence of the Germans. 
 This is the cause or pretext of almost every 
 raid that is committed. It is the enforcement 
 of demands, either of claims made by a strong 
 village on a weak one for " ata" (black mail), 
 or the price of the head (Arracanese " goung," 
 a head, and " hpo," price) of some diseased 
 member of the stronger community. It is 
 the practice among them, on the death of 
 any member of the village, to saddle it upon 
 some village which he may lately have visited, 
 and to demand a certain price for his life. 
 
 THE KHYOUNGTHA. 
 
 The Khyoungtha are subdivided into clans, 
 mostly taking their names from the different 
 streams on which they live. 
 
 They all dwell in village communities having 
 a Roaja, or village head, through whom they 
 pay revenue. The villages to the south of 
 the Kurnafoolee River are subject to a Chief, 
 called the Bohmong (from the Arracanese
 
 94 THE KHYOUNGTHA. 
 
 " boh," a head, and " mong," leader), whose 
 residence is at Bundrabun, on the Sungoo 
 River, while those to the north of the Kurna- 
 foolee acknowledge the supremacy of the Mong 
 Rajah 5 . The tribute paid to these Chiefs is from 
 four to eight rupees yearly for each family. 
 Unmarried men, priests, widows, widowers, 
 and men who do not cultivate but live by the 
 chase of wild beasts, are exempted from pay- 
 ing tribute. In addition to the money pay- 
 ment, each adult is liable to work for three 
 days in each year, without pay, at the Chief's 
 bidding. An offering of the first fruits of 
 rice and cotton of every man's field is also 
 made to the Chief. The position of Roaja, 
 or village head, is more an honourable than a 
 profitable one : he is chosen by the villagers, 
 and appointed by the Chief, to whom he must 
 present a "nuzzer" on his nomination being 
 ratified. The office, generally speaking, de- 
 scends from father to son. The Roaja decides 
 all petty cases and disputes that may occur 
 
 4 The Chukma tribe and their Chief will be noticed 
 subsequently.
 
 THEIR CLANS. 95 
 
 in the village, and for so doing he receives 
 certain fees from both parties, according to 
 custom and the importance of the case. In 
 some instances he receives from the Chief a 
 percentage on the yearly revenue collections. 
 
 Colonel Sir A. Phayre, in his account of 
 Arracan (Journal Asiatic Society of Bengal, 
 No. 117 of 1841) says that the Khyoungtha 
 and Eakhoingtha, or Arracanese, are of the 
 same race. Like the Burmans, their national 
 name is Myamma, or, as it is pronounced in 
 these hills, Murma. Rakhoingtha signifies 
 an inhabitant of the Rakhoing country, while 
 Khyoungtha means those who inhabit the 
 banks of mountain streams, and support 
 themselves by hill cultivation. 
 
 To the Bengallees of the plains the Khy- 
 oungtha is known by the name of Hill Mugh, 
 but this is entirely a misnomer. Colonel Sir 
 A. Phayre rightly states that this name ex- 
 clusively belongs to a class of people residing 
 in the Chittagong District, called Rajbunsees, 
 or Mughs, who are the offspring of Bengallee 
 women by Burmans when the latter possessed
 
 96 TEE KHYOTJNGTHA. 
 
 Chittagong. They are well known in Cal- 
 cutta as Mugh cooks, and are doubtless 
 worthy people in their way, but are far re- 
 moved in regard to manliness, uprightness, 
 and all that we think noble, from the 
 Khyoungtha of the hills. The Khyoungtha, 
 like the Burmese, are Buddhists, and believe 
 in the doctrine of metempsychosis, or the 
 transmigration of souls. Each successive life 
 is as it were a furnace by which the soul is 
 refined, and so rises, step by step, to perfec- 
 tion, until eventually the state of " Nieban " 
 is attained. I have heard stories of men who, 
 in dying, thought they were sure of attaining 
 this culminating point of perfection, and who 
 are said to have expired with a very similar 
 phrase in their mouths to that recorded of 
 one of the Cassars on his deathbed "Ut 
 puto Deus fio." This state of existence has 
 in general been represented to mean merely 
 annihilation, but this is not the case ; such at 
 least is not the idea that Buddhists attach to 
 it. Crawford in his "Ava," Vol. II., Appendix, 
 No. II., page 140, says that this misconcep-
 
 EELIGION. 97 
 
 tion has thrown an unmerited share of 
 obloquy on the worship of Buddha. Dr. 
 Buchanan remarks that the term has been 
 incorrectly translated (As. Researches, Vol. 
 VI., p. 189) ; and Coleridge denned it cor- 
 rectly in his Essay on the Philosophy of 
 Indian Sectaries (R. A. S. Trans., Vol. I., 
 p. 566). "We say that God is Heaven, and 
 the Buddhists also believe that in " Nieban " 
 they are incorporated with God, absorbed in, 
 and partaking of, the perfection and ecstatic 
 calm surrounding and emanating from the 
 great central power of the universe. 
 
 Before their conversion to Buddhism, they 
 probably performed the same simple natural 
 religious rites which we see to this day 
 among the wilder hill tribes, that is, offerings 
 of rice, fruit and flowers, to the spirits of 
 hill and river. This custom, indeed, although 
 very unorthodox, is followed by most of the 
 Khyoungtha at the present time. There is 
 no such thing as caste among them ; all are 
 equal. It is in the power of any one who 
 feels a vocation for it, to devote himself to 
 
 H
 
 98 THE KHYOUNGTHA. 
 
 the service of God, and become a " Raheyn." 
 He 'will then leave father, mother, wife, and 
 children ; and, dependent for clothes and 
 daily bread upon his fellow-countrymen, he 
 will pass his time in prayer, the education of 
 the young, and the ministration of such cere- 
 monies as funerals, fasts, &c., in which his 
 fellow-men require the sanction and assistance 
 of a minister of religion. Neither is it " once 
 a priest, always a priest;" for should he find 
 out that he has mistaken his vocation, he can 
 leave it, and again become a member of the 
 laity, living, loving, and marrying as they do. 
 The ceremonies of Buddhistic worship are 
 simple and few : the presence of a priest 
 is not indispensably necessary; prayers are 
 made and offerings of flowers, food, &c., are 
 placed before the shrine of their great apostle 
 Gaudama by the people themselves. In many 
 villages, indeed, there is no priest; and as 
 the priesthood are a peripatetic fraternity, 
 this does not much matter. The priest in 
 fact is not so much a minister of religion, 
 as a recipient of alms, a holy man who has
 
 RELIGION. 99 
 
 given up this world and its pleasures, and 
 devoted himself to God. Hence it is, I think, 
 that the priesthood in Burmah have never 
 been the grasping and ambitious body that 
 they have been at one time or another in all 
 other countries in the world ; hence, also, 
 that in the struggle between Buddhism and 
 Brahmanism, the former, the pure and self- 
 denying faith speedily fell before the popu- 
 larity-seeking religion of the Hindoo priest. 
 Buddhism is a levelling faith ; in matters 
 relating to man and his soul it admits of no 
 distinctions ; there is no royal road to Para- 
 dise ; the only superiority of man over man is 
 gained by virtue and good deeds. No one 
 can go among a people professing the Bud- 
 dhist faith without seeing their superiority in 
 manliness, truth, self-denial, and all the 
 sterner, nobler class of moral excellences. 
 These characteristics have naturally operated 
 strongly in raising the social status of the 
 weaker sex; and among our hill Buddhists, 
 women are respected, and occupy an honour- 
 able position. They enjoy great freedom of 
 H 2
 
 100 THE KHYOUNGTHA. 
 
 action, and are unmistakably a power among 
 the people. They, as well as the other sex, 
 can work out their own salvation and attain 
 " Nieban." In many parts of the hills may 
 be seen aged women, who in the close of 
 their life have devoted themselves to God's 
 service; they occupy separate houses, how- 
 ever, and do not live in the " khiongs," or 
 temples. 
 
 In each village is seen the " khiong," or 
 house of religion. It is a bamboo structure 
 raised some six feet from the ground, gene- 
 rally built under the shade of some trees, 
 with a clear space in front, where the young 
 men disport themselves in the evening. In- 
 side, on a small raised platform of bamboo, 
 stands an image of Gaudama, the last Boodh, 
 made either of wood gilt over, or of alabaster. 
 The image is generally in a sitting posture, 
 with the pagoda-shaped head-dress indicative 
 of supreme power. Before it are placed offer- 
 ings of flowers and rice, which are brought 
 fresh every morning by the girls of the village, 
 who, at the same time, bring, in covered trays,
 
 RELIGION. 101 
 
 the daily food of any priest or wayfarer who 
 may be resting there. Around the walls of the 
 " Khiong" are hung the black boards on which 
 the village youngsters learn to read and write. 
 By the side of the image of Boodh generally 
 hangs a small staiid of bells, and morning and 
 evening the villagers in twos and threes will 
 ascend the small log of wood, cut into steps, 
 by which the "khiong" is approached, re- 
 move their turbans, and on hands and knees 
 reverently salute the semblance of their re- 
 vered teacher, first ringing the bells to let 
 him know that they are there. Each one 
 prays for himself, save that now and again a 
 father may be seen leading his young son by 
 the hand and teaching him how to pray. 
 The "khiong" is the great resort of all the 
 bachelors of the village ; it is there that all 
 the talk and gossip goes on. At evening 
 time, when the sun westers, and it grows 
 cool, they assemble at the " khiong ;" the 
 lads and lasses play at "konyon" on the 
 clear space below, while the elders sit above 
 and peacefully chat, smoking their cigars.
 
 102 THE KHYOUNGTHA. 
 
 The game of "konyon" is played universally 
 by all the hill tribes ; it is very popular, and 
 causes considerable excitement and emulation 
 among the players. The " konyon," from 
 whence the game derives its name, is the 
 seed of a creeper, in colour and smooth- 
 ness like our English horse-chestnut; it is 
 about an inch and a half in diameter, and 
 half an inch thick, in shape circular and 
 flattish, with a small level spot at the base 
 of the seed on which it is placed edgewise 
 for the players to pitch at. Each player has 
 his own " konyon ;" the great art is to nick 
 your opponent and knock his seed over. The 
 " konyon" is propelled by the middle finger 
 of the right hand, which serves as a sort of 
 spring pulled back by the left. The side 
 gaining most nicks wins. 
 
 Every year at the "khiong," just before 
 the commencement of the jooming season, 
 the ceremony of " shiang pruhpo " occurs. 
 This is a religious rite, approaching closely 
 in significance to our " confirmation." The 
 young boys of the village, on attaining the
 
 .... EELIGION. 103 
 
 age of eight or nine years, are clothed in 
 the yellow garments of the priesthood, have 
 their heads shaved, and at the " khiong" go 
 through a ceremony which seems to be on 
 their part a kind of assumption of religious 
 duties. They sit all in a circle before the 
 priest ; before each one is an offering accord- 
 ing to the means of his parents, of rice or 
 cloth, and before each burns a little lamp, 
 which is kept trimmed and bright during the 
 ceremony by the sponsor, or nearest male 
 relative of each, who sits behind ; each of 
 the acolytes reverently joins his hands, bows 
 his head, and makes the responses after the 
 presiding priest. After the ceremony they 
 remain in the "khiong" dressing and living 
 as priests for seven days, during which time 
 they must eat simply, and indulge in no 
 sports or vain pastimes. Women do not 
 participate in this rite, but it is common for 
 a man to perform it two or three times 
 during his life. Is any one dear to him sick, 
 or has he escaped from any danger, he per- 
 forms the " shiang" as a kind of acknow-
 
 L04 THE KHYOUNGTHA. 
 
 ledgment of God's mercy, or a supplication 
 for forbearance. In the Hill Tracts, besides 
 the small "khiongs" (temporary structures 
 built of bamboo), which are found in every 
 village, there are two temples sacred to 
 Buddha, to which the hill people resort in 
 large numbers at the time of their festival 
 in May. One temple is situated at Bundra- 
 bun, the residence of the Bohmong, and the 
 other in the Chittagong District, Thannah 
 Raojan, close to the border of the Hill 
 Tracts. This latter temple is known by 
 the name of Mahamunnee. This would ap- 
 pear to be a name brought from Arracan, 
 for Colonel Phayre, in his account of Arracan 
 (B. Asiatic Society's Journal, No. 1451, 
 18844), says that " King Tsanda-thoo-vee-ya 
 built the Mahamunnee temple in Arracan in 
 honour of a visit of the Boodh Gaudama. I 
 have frequently been present at these reli- 
 gious gatherings, and the scene is a strange 
 one. An account of a visit paid by me last 
 year to a religious festival at the Mahamunnee 
 temple may not perhaps be out of place here.
 
 EELIGION. 105 
 
 On arriving at the spot, the first thing that 
 attracted my attention was the temple. It 
 was square in shape, standing in the centre 
 of a small bricked court, the outer wall of 
 which, however, was not more than five feet 
 high, so that one could look over it. I ascer- 
 tained that there was no objection to my 
 entering the temple, and then proceeded to 
 view the interior. The centre was occupied 
 by an enormous sitting figure of Gaudama, 
 the last Boodh, of about 50 feet in height, 
 painted and gilt. This was the inner shrine, 
 and round it ran a square vaulted corridor, 
 on all four sides, about 12 feet broad and 
 perhaps 150 feet square. On entering this 
 outer corridor, which, being but scantily 
 furnished with windows, was in comparative 
 darkness, I saw before me a shaven-headed 
 yellow-robed priest, sitting on the ground, 
 surrounded by a crouching circle of devotees. 
 The bowed heads of the postulants were 
 shaven, and through their hands, from man 
 to man, ran a white thread, the two ends of 
 which were held by the priest, who, with an
 
 106 THE KHYOUNGTHA. 
 
 unmoved aspect, undisturbed by my entrance, 
 was monotonously reciting a prayer or invo- 
 cation, which was repeated in a broken jumble 
 by the persons before and around him. At 
 his feet was a small heap of money, doubtless 
 the offerings of the neophytes; and before 
 each man was a vessel of water containing 
 fresh green leaves. The devotees were males 
 of all ages : some boys of eight to ten, some 
 adults, and one old man. I found that this 
 ceremony was a dedication of themselves to 
 the service of Graudama, involving a course 
 of fasting and abstinence from all secular 
 amusements and thoughts for a short period, 
 generally of nine days, answering, I fancy, 
 to the French ' neuvaine.' After they had 
 been duly consecrated, they assumed the 
 yellow garments of the priesthood, to be 
 doffed, however, at the expiration of their 
 period of retirement. The ceremony is, I 
 believe, by no means a penitential one; but 
 it is supposed that an occasional exercise of 
 self-discipline is pleasing to the deity, and 
 likely to bring good fortune, especially when,
 
 RELIGIOUS GATHERING. 107 
 
 as at present, it is performed at the com- 
 mencement of the year. The place of the 
 gathering lay just at the junction of the 
 plains and hills; and from botfy directions, 
 as the day drew on, and the shadows began to 
 lengthen, characteristic groups began to make 
 their appearance. From the plains came the 
 well-known greasy bunniah in his chronic 
 condition of perspiration ; the plausible cloth- 
 merchant (what native can adjust a turban 
 like him ?) ; the black and sinewy coppersmith ; 
 and the general storekeeper : this latter being 
 generally a Mussulman of middle age and 
 debauched appearance. These all began to 
 establish themselves in temporary bamboo 
 sheds or shanties, which formed lines con- 
 verging on the shrine as a centre. Much 
 more pleasant (to my eyes at least) were the 
 different bands of hill people, who might 
 be seen coming in, party after party, from 
 the direction where in the distance rose the 
 wooded hills, blue against the horizon. Their 
 parties were always village communities, num- 
 bering from eight to ten up to thirty indivi-
 
 108 THE KHYOUNGTHA. 
 
 duals. First would be seen the drummer, 
 who advanced with the proud consciousness 
 of leadership to a spirited accompaniment on 
 the tom-tom. Next came the village head 
 man, or Roaja, dressed in clean, white, home- 
 spun garments, with his scarlet-bordered 
 cloth wound round his shoulders, toga fashion. 
 After him would come his wife, middle-aged, 
 but still of a comely presence. She would 
 generally have a flower in her hair, and carry 
 in one hand an earthen-bowled pipe with 
 silver stem. Following her, one by one, 
 would troop in the maidens, dressed very 
 becomingly, with a white turban loosely 
 bound round their heads, their faces (very 
 pretty ones in some cases) exposed, bearing 
 a merry, frank expression, while from their 
 luxuriant black hair would peep a flower, a 
 lemon-coloured orchid, or some bright jungle 
 creeper-blossom. They wore a dark-blue 
 skirt of home-spun cloth with a scarlet 
 border. Round their bosoms was wound a 
 soft, white cloth, barred with chocolate- 
 coloured stripes ; and in case the girls were
 
 DKESS AND HABITS. 109 
 
 of wealthy family, they would have a silver 
 chain round their necks, or wear perhaps a 
 skirt of purple silk instead of the dark-blue 
 home-spun. Sometimes a young lady would 
 be seen saucily puffing a roll of tobacco, 
 cigar fashion, while she turned to talk, over 
 her shoulder, to some tall, strapping young 
 villager, her betrothed perhaps, who would 
 walk quietly in the rear, carrying on his back, 
 slung over his forehead, in hill fashion, the 
 long basket, or * tooroong,' containing the 
 supplies of his party. There were generally 
 more women than men in the parties, and 
 some of them had even brought with them 
 their little ones to share in the good luck 
 which was to accrue to the pilgrims. Night 
 closed in, and still party after party thronged 
 to the place in close succession. As each 
 village company arrived they denied before 
 the temple, not entering however, but each 
 one making a salute with both hands joined 
 as they passed, and then proceeding to take 
 up their quarters under the trees around. 
 There they lit fires; the women began to
 
 110 THE KHYOUNGTHA. 
 
 cook; and the social pipe was passed from 
 hand to hand. As I went to sleep that night, 
 the gathering hum of many voices and of 
 laughter was borne to my ears on the night- 
 wind, mingled with the melody of the hill 
 ' basuli,' or clarionet, and interspersed with 
 the wild hill cry, which is like a quadrupli- 
 cated Australian ' Cooey.' The sound of 
 the basuli strangely reminded me of the Swiss 
 Eanz des Vaches. 
 
 " The next morning the festa was in full 
 swing. The temple was surrounded by a 
 fringe of saffron-robed, shaven-headed priests, 
 or ' Shiang Phras,' as they are called, sitting 
 in dull-eyed abstraction, each one under the 
 shade of his own enormous red umbrella. 
 Some of them were telling their beads ; others, 
 spectacles on nose, were gravely mumbling 
 forth sacred readings from bundles of strange 
 Pali-covered palm leaves; here and there I 
 noticed a repetition of the swearing-in cere- 
 mony of the night before. The temple itself 
 was crammed with devotees, male and female, 
 all hill people, every one, not a Bengallee
 
 .' FESTIVALS. Ill 
 
 among them. Their devotion, which was 
 energetic, consisted apparently in walking 
 round and round the outer corridor sur- 
 rounding the image, in pairs of man and 
 maid, or occasionally in male fours. When- 
 ever these male fours were organized squalls 
 were imminent, for the blithe young bache- 
 lors, each with a flower behind his left ear, a 
 basuli in his hand, and a roll of tobacco in 
 his mouth, would jauntily parade round the 
 sacred building, stretching forth a lawless 
 arm towards any female they might pass, 
 now disarranging the turban of some buxom 
 matron, again snatching a kiss from some 
 little maiden shrinking under the wing of her 
 father or brother; and naturally these little 
 familiarities would occasionally produce a row. 
 Immediately, however, any such disagree- 
 ment seemed impending, both parties would 
 be seized and promptly bundled out of the tem- 
 ple, while the women would be surrounded, 
 and carried round and round the corridor, 
 in the midst of a knot of laughing, teasing 
 lads. The majority of the people at the fair
 
 112 THE KHYOUNGTHA. 
 
 were young; hardly a single old man or 
 woman, indeed, could be seen. 
 
 " Outside, in the bazaar, the throng was 
 equally close. Here were shops whose whole 
 stock-in-trade consisted of long strings of 
 small, yellow candles and heaps of crackers ; 
 there was a vendor, who dealt, to all appear- 
 ance, exclusively in red threads, strings of 
 coloured beads, and cheap fiddles. The sweet- 
 meat shops came out in magnificent style, and 
 here one would often see some well-looking 
 lad treating his sweetheart to cakes, or loiter- 
 ing, hand in hand with her, to the next stall, 
 where in rich and dazzling profusion were dis- 
 played bright-yellow silk handkerchiefs, with 
 a flaring red pattern, and fine, white muslins, 
 such as could not be made at home in the 
 villages. One enterprising speculator had 
 brought hither a peep-show, evidently the 
 first thing of the sort that had ever been seen 
 in the country, if one might judge by the 
 crowds of men and women round it, all eager 
 to see, at one pice per peep, the marvels of 
 Delhi, Calcutta, &c., contained within the
 
 FESTIVALS. 113 
 
 magic-box. The shops of the coppersmiths 
 glistened with all sorts of shining and quaintly 
 shaped vessels, while above all the din and 
 clamour was heard the never-ceasing, wailing 
 melody of the hill basuli. This music has a 
 strange and characteristic effect on the hill 
 people. I have seen women weep at the 
 sound, and no hill man would dream of enter- 
 ing upon a courtship without the aid of his 
 basuli. At night the scene was rendered, if 
 possible, more picturesque by the lighting up 
 of innumerable small candles, of which every 
 one carried one, and some enthusiastic wor- 
 shippers as many as four. Crackers also 
 added to the life of the scene, and to fasten 
 one to a woman's dress seemed to be thought 
 as great fun here as it would have been at an 
 English fair. 
 
 " Round and round went the stream of pil- 
 grims in the outer corridor, singing as they 
 went in strophe and anti-strophe of male and 
 female voices. Not for a single hour, day or 
 night, was there, as far as I could ascertain, 
 any intermission to this constant circling ; as 
 
 i
 
 114 THE KHYOUNGTHA. 
 
 some became tired, their places were supplied 
 by others, and this lasted for three days. On 
 the day on which the fair terminated, some 
 six or eight long bamboos, with pendant 
 white flags of coarse cotton cloth, ornamented 
 with a fringe of split bamboo, were erected 
 with great ceremony in front of the temple. 
 I saw one village community also of about 
 thirty souls, who, before leaving, underwent 
 a blessing from one of the priests. The cere- 
 mony was in this wise : A small hole was 
 dug in the ground, and in it some silver and 
 copper coins were placed, and water poured 
 over them; over this was erected a small 
 tripod of split bamboo, which was crowned 
 with fresh, green leaves, and round this again 
 was wound the mystic white thread, which, 
 extending thence, passed through the hands 
 of all the circle, who received it kneeling, 
 passing finally into the hands of the Shiang 
 Phra. In the centre knelt the village head- 
 man and his wife, both elderly and honest- 
 looking. Mumble-mumble went the venerable 
 priest, dragging his beads slowly through his
 
 DRESS. 115 
 
 fingers, and ' make haste, father,' cried a 
 pretty, coquettish-looking little wench in the 
 circle, ' the rice is getting cold ; ' for which 
 piece of ill-timed levity she was soundly rated 
 by the house-mother at the conclusion of the 
 ceremony. An hour after that the whole grove 
 was empty, and all the gay crowd of honest, 
 simple people had disappeared as quickly as 
 they had come ; nothing was to be seen but a 
 stray shopkeeper here and there, packing his 
 goods, or reckoning his profits." 
 
 The dress of the Khyoungtha is simple. 
 The men wear a " dhoyak," or cloth of soft, 
 home-spun cotton, round the middle, reach- 
 ing from the hips to below the knee. In 
 persons of rank the " dhoyak" is longer, 
 reaching almost to the ground, and is gene- 
 rally made of silk or fine muslin ; to this is 
 added a " ranjee," or short jacket with 
 sleeves, tying or buttoning at the throat. 
 All males wear the " goungboung," or tur- 
 ban, which, however, is wound round the 
 head in the manner different to that of the 
 natives of Hindoostan. As a rule, no shoes 
 i 2
 
 116 THE KHYOUNGTHA. 
 
 are worn. The women generally do not wear 
 a turban, but on feast or festival days they 
 bind a bright-coloured kerchief loosely round 
 the hair. Around the bosom is wound a cloth 
 about a span wide, the arms and neck being 
 exposed. They wear also a " tabween" (called 
 " tamuin" in Burmese), or petticoat of cotton 
 or silk. It has no tie or fastening, but is 
 brought round the waist with the edges 
 twisted in and kept on by the swell of the 
 hips. It is open in front, and single, so that 
 in walking the right leg and part of the thigh 
 are exposed. The men often tattoo their arms 
 and legs with blue figures of dragons and 
 other arabesques; it is usual also to tattoo 
 the name of God on the shoulder. This cus- 
 tom of tattooing originated, they say, in 
 ancient times among the people of Sandoway 
 in Arracan, as well as the somewhat free 
 dress of the women. A certain queen noticed 
 with regret that the men of the nation were 
 losing their love for the society of the women, 
 and were resorting to vile and abominable 
 practices, from which the worst possible
 
 DRESS. 117 
 
 results might be expected. She therefore 
 prevailed upon her husband to promulgate 
 a rigorous order, prescribing the form of 
 petticoat to be worn by all women in future, 
 and directing that the males should be 
 tattooed in order that, by thus disfiguring 
 the males, and adding piquancy to the beauty 
 of the women, the former might once more 
 return to the feet of their wives. 
 
 This custom, however, as regards women's 
 dress, is probably of very ancient origin, for 
 it is recorded in Plutarch's Lives, in his com- 
 parison between Numa and Lycurgus, with 
 reference to the Spartan women, that " the 
 skirts of the habit which the virgins wore 
 were not sewed to the bottom, but opened 
 at the side, as they walked, and discovered 
 the thigh." 
 
 Men and women both among the Khyoung- 
 tha are passionately fond of flowers ; it is the 
 offering of women to the gods, of men to their 
 mistresses. The young maidens wear con- 
 stantly in their hair the graceful white or 
 orange-coloured blossom of the numerous
 
 118 THE KHYOUNGTHA. 
 
 orchids with which the forest abounds ; and 
 a young man will rise long before dawn and 
 climb the loftiest hills and trees to win his 
 sweetheart's smile, by bringing her a flower 
 that others do not possess. The males gene- 
 rally stick a bunch of flowers or sweet- 
 smelling herbs into the turban, or through 
 the lobe of the ear, which is generally pierced 
 with a large hole, which serves also as a 
 receptacle for a spare cheroot. 
 
 Of ornaments, both sexes alike wear pen- 
 dant earrings and bracelets of silver or gold. 
 The women wear in addition large truncated 
 hollow cones of silver stuck through the lobe 
 of the ear ; these are used as flower-holders. 
 Beads of coral for the neck are also much 
 prized as a female ornament. 
 
 Their mode of kissing is strange : instead 
 of pressing lip to lip, they apply the mouth 
 and nose to the cheek, and give a strong 
 inhalation. In their language they do not 
 say, " Give me a kiss ;" but they say, " Smell 
 
 me." 
 
 In the village communities, even as the
 
 CUSTOMS. 119 
 
 adults have a recognized village head, so 
 also is there a head boy appointed to control 
 the boys of the village. This custom seems 
 to prevail among all hill people. Mr. Hunter, 
 in his "Annals of Rural Bengal" (page 217), 
 records that a similar arrangement prevails 
 among the Sonthals. This head of the 
 juvenile community is called the " goung." 
 I shall give here, as illustration of their 
 village customs, a recital which I heard told 
 at the .camp fire one night in the jungles, 
 by one of our policemen of the Palaingtsa 
 clan. He said, " I was formerly goung over 
 the unmarried lads of Hmraphroo village ; 
 this was when I was about seventeen years 
 old. At night, all who were unmarried, and 
 weaned from their mothers, used to sleep 
 in the ' khiong.' One night Ougjyn, and 
 Reyphaw, and Chaindra, came to me and 
 got leave to go and sleep with their sweet- 
 hearts. The girls were named Aduhbyn, 
 Hlapyn, and Aduhsheay. I remember their 
 names quite well ; they are married now, and 
 two of them have children. Our lads went
 
 120 THE KHYOUNGTHA. 
 
 by stealth, of course : if the parents had 
 known it there would have been a row. Next 
 day a little girl told me that Pynhla, another 
 of our lads, who had not got leave to sleep out, 
 had passed the night with her sister. This was 
 quite contrary to rule, and it was therefore 
 determined to punish him. Next day we all 
 went to the Koaja's joom to help to build his 
 house, and in the evening, when we returned, 
 we made a big fire on the bank of the stream 
 that runs through the village ; and I sent and 
 called Pynhla, but he was afraid, and would 
 not come; he stayed in his father's house, 
 and said he had fever. I knew this was only 
 an excuse ; so I sent three lads to bring him 
 forcibly, and they went and brought him, 
 although his mother abused them much ; but 
 the father and mother could not hurt them, 
 as they were acting by the 'goung's* order. 
 When he came, I called upon him to say why 
 he had slept away from the 'khiong' with- 
 out leave. At first he denied all about it, 
 and then I brought forward the little girl, 
 and he asked her, ' How did you know it was
 
 CUSTOMS. 121 
 
 I? it was dark;' and she said, 'The moon 
 shone on your face in the early morning when 
 you opened the door to go away.' When he 
 heard this he saw there was no escape, and 
 he fell at my feet and asked forgiveness ; but 
 I fined him three rupees on the spot for the 
 sake of discipline." In Colonel Dalton's 
 paper on the Coles of Chota Nagpore, he 
 speaks of their being in each village of the 
 Oraoon tribe a bachelors' hall where all the 
 young unmarried men sleep at night. He 
 mentions also that the elder lads are placed 
 in authority over the younger. In front of 
 the bachelors' hall a cleared space is kept for 
 games and dancing. It is curious to observe 
 how similar are the customs prevailing among 
 the tribes here. 
 
 According to European ideas, the standard 
 of morality among the Khyoungtha is low. 
 It is not thought a crying sin for a maiden to 
 yield to the solicitations of her lover before 
 marriage ; indeed, a girl generally has two or 
 three sweethearts before settling down to a 
 wedded life. The intercourse between the
 
 122 THE KHYOUNGTHA. 
 
 sexes before marriage is almost entirely un- 
 restricted, although the Khyoungtha in this 
 respect are rather stricter than the other and 
 wilder tribes. After marriage, however, chas- 
 tity is the rule, and one seldom hears of such 
 a thing as an unfaithful wife ; and this is not 
 improbable, as marriages in the hills are 
 unions of inclination, and not of interest. 
 Some girls there are who marry their first 
 love, but the proverbial inconstancy of man 
 extends even to these hills, and the lover but 
 too often only gathers the flower in order to 
 throw it away. Girls marry at the age of 
 about sixteen, and a young man generally be- 
 gins to think of taking a wife before he reaches 
 the age of nineteen years. The women some- 
 times do not think it beneath them to make 
 advances in a modest way. One of our police 
 constables came to me one day to ask for leave 
 of absence for a week. I asked him why. He 
 said, " A young maiden of such a village has 
 sent me flowers and birnee rice twice as a 
 token, and if I wait any longer, they will say 
 I am no man."
 
 CUSTOMS SONGS. 123 
 
 Pawn and betel are universally eaten by the 
 Khyoungtha, and they are not unfrequently 
 used as a means wherewith to make amatory 
 propositions. Thus a leaf of pawn with betel 
 and sweet spices inside, accompanied by a 
 certain flower, means, " I love you." If much 
 spice is put inside the leaf, and one corner 
 turned in a peculiar way, it signifies, " Come." 
 The leaf being touched with turmeric means, 
 " I cannot come." A small piece of charcoal 
 inside the leaf is, " Go, I have done with 
 you." Love-songs have they in plenty, called 
 " kapya." The great place for singing this 
 kind of song is when working in the jooms at 
 the time of harvest. At this time the lads 
 and lasses work in a crowd together. Then 
 some youth will take up the word thus : 
 
 The hills stretch in long ranges marshaued by God. 
 
 The kramoo flower and dymbyn, 
 
 Oh, maidens, do not sow. 
 
 The hills stretch in long ranges, God driven ; 
 
 The cockscomb (kramoo) and the dyn flowers 
 
 Even should you sow, 
 
 Maidens, do not wear them ; 
 
 The kramo and dym flowers, if worn, 
 
 As they fade, a maiden's heart withers away.
 
 124 THE KHYOTJNGTHA. 
 
 As he finishes, the whole party break into 
 the "hoia," or hill call; and far away down 
 the mountain, or from another ridge, the call 
 will be repeated and taken up by hill man 
 after hill man, till it dies away in the distance. 
 Then there will be a little silence among the 
 girls, and they will say, " Do you answer him, 
 Pynchynda ?" " No, I cannot sing : I am 
 hoarse to-day, I have not got my voice, and 
 he is in voice like a koel-bird;" and jest 
 and counter-jest will be bandied among them, 
 until some young girl lifts up her voice and 
 replies : 
 
 A dweller in the mountain is the bumble bee ; 
 He lives in a dead bamboo, 
 On the hill side. 
 
 Then a young man will sing again thus : 
 From afar off I see the waters of the Kynsa, 
 White in the valley. 
 What good have I from gazing on it, 
 Some other will bathe therein. 
 
 [All give the " hoia."] 
 From afar off gazing, I see a maiden ; 
 White and fair is she. 
 What good have I from looking on her, 
 Some more fortunate one will obtain her love. 
 
 [Grand " hoia."]
 
 MARRIAGE CEREMONY. 125 
 
 Or this : 
 
 A flock of birds ; 
 
 One bird only, on a high tree sitting 
 
 All alone. 
 
 Of men, a crowd : 
 
 One man only, without a companion, 
 
 Has no happiness. 
 
 There are hundreds of these songs. The 
 above, which are almost literal translations, 
 will serve as examples. 
 
 The marriage ceremony of the Khyoungtha 
 is distinctive and uncommon. On a young 
 man attaining a marriageable age, that is, 
 about seventeen or eighteen, his parents look 
 about for some young girl who would be a 
 good wife to him, unless, as is more often the 
 case, he has fixed upon a partner for himself. 
 Having determined upon a suitable match, a 
 male relative of the family is sent off to the 
 girl's parents to arrange matters. On arriving 
 at their village, he proceeds to the house ; and 
 before going up the house-ladder, he gives the 
 usual salutation, with both hands joined and 
 raised to the forehead. " Ogatsa" he says, 
 " a boat has come to your landing-place ; will
 
 126 THE KHYOUNGTHA. 
 
 you bind it or loose it?" A favourable re- 
 sponse is given, and he then goes up into the 
 house. On seating himself, he asks, " Are the 
 supports of the house firm ?" If the answer 
 is, " They are firm," it is favourable, and 
 matters may then be more fully entered into. 
 The affair is taken into consideration, and he 
 returns to his own village to report good pro- 
 gress to the bridegroom's parents, and to re- 
 quest them to fix a day for taking the omens. 
 On the appointed day the parents meet, the 
 young people being supposed to know nothing 
 of all this. A fowl is killed by the fathers, its 
 tongue taken out, and, according to certain 
 marks thereon, the matter is pronounced good 
 or bad. The bridegroom's parents sleep for 
 the night at the house of the intended bride, 
 and all parties look anxiously for dreams by 
 which to foretell the happiness or the reverse 
 of the union. On going away, should every 
 thing be propitious, their intended daughter 
 kneels at their feet for a blessing, and they 
 present her with a new petticoat and a silver 
 ring. Learned persons are then called in,
 
 MARRIAGE CEREMONY. 127 
 
 who, by consulting the stars, and casting the 
 nativity of the parties, determine a favourable 
 day and hour when the ceremony shall be 
 undertaken. Meantime the parents on both 
 sides prepare pigs and spirits, rice and spices, 
 unlimited, for the marriage feast. They also 
 send round to all their kith and kin a fowl 
 and a letter giving notice of the intended 
 marriage; in some places a pice or copper 
 coin is substituted for the fowl. On the 
 auspicious day, and at the hour appointed, 
 the bridegroom and all his relatives set out 
 for the bride's house, dressed in the gayest 
 colours, both men and women, with drums 
 beating before them. On arriving at the 
 entrance of the village, the female relatives 
 of the bride bar the approach with a bamboo. 
 Across this barrier the bridegroom has to 
 drink a loving cup of fraternity, generally 
 spirits. Should the females on the bride's 
 side muster strong, the road will probably be 
 barred five or six times before the entry into 
 the village is fairly made. The bridegroom, 
 however, does not drink all that is given him ;
 
 128 THE KHYOUNGTHA. 
 
 but after taking the liquor in his mouth, he is 
 allowed to eject it again upon the ground. 
 
 In the village, on some open turfy spot, a 
 number of bamboo booths have been erected, 
 adorned with flowers and green boughs, and 
 filled with materials for feasting. Here also 
 sit an opposition party of drummers, and 
 mighty is the row as the bridegroom's party 
 defiles on to this spot. A separate and spe- 
 cially beautified booth has been erected for 
 the young lover and his parents, and here 
 they sit in state and receive visits from all 
 the village. The bride in like manner, sur- 
 rounded by her near relatives, sits in her 
 father's house. The boys of the village, irre- 
 pressible as is the wont of that species, make 
 raids upon both parties, for the purpose of 
 chaffing and getting alternate feasts of come- 
 stibles. They also organize an amateur band 
 of music, and serenade the bride towards 
 evening with fiddles and flutes. Of course, 
 all the girls of the village are congregated at 
 the bride's father's house, and, as license and 
 riot are the order of the day, the fun here
 
 MAEEIAGE CEEEMONY. 129 
 
 grows fast and furious. Towards nightfall 
 the bridegroom ascends to his bride's house 
 arnid a tempest of cheers and a hailstorm of 
 drums. After this- outburst a temporary lull 
 ensues, to permit of the ceremony being per- 
 formed. The bride is brought forth from an 
 inner chamber in the arms of the women. 
 On the floor of the house are placed water in 
 jars, rice, and mango leaves. Round these a 
 new- spun cotton-thread is wound and carried 
 again round the two contracting parties as 
 they stand opposite to each other. The 
 " poongyee," or priest, now comes forward ; 
 he recites some prayers in a language that 
 is not understood even by himself (probably 
 Pali), and then taking cooked rice, a handful 
 in each hand, he crosses and re-crosses his 
 arms, giving seven alternate mouthfuls to the 
 bride and bridegroom; after this he takes 
 their hands and crooks the little finger of the 
 bridegroom's right hand into the little finger 
 of the bride's left. The ceremony is then 
 concluded by more unintelligible mutterings. 
 The bridegroom now takes the bride by the 
 
 K
 
 130 THE KHYOUNGTHA. 
 
 hand, and together they make the circuit of 
 the room, saluting lowly the elder relatives of 
 both families. They then sit down, the bride 
 to the left of her husband, and their clothes 
 are tied together. The wedding guests then 
 come forward and place at their feet, each 
 according to his or her means, some presents 
 of clothes or household furniture. 
 
 After this, a saturnalia ensues, of dancing, 
 drinking, fighting, and love-making. The 
 bride and bridegroom are expected to sit up 
 all night. I should add that the happy man 
 does not consummate his marriage until he 
 and his wife (sleeping apart) have for seven 
 days eaten together seven times a day. After 
 marriage a younger brother is allowed to 
 touch the hand, to speak and laugh with his 
 elder brother's wife ; but it is thought im- 
 proper for an elder even to look at the wife of 
 his younger brother. This is a custom more 
 or less among all hill tribes ; it is found carried 
 to even a preposterous extent among the 
 Sonthals. In Man's account of Sonthalia 
 (p. 100), in describing a Sonthal wedding, he
 
 FUNERAL CEREMONY. 131 
 
 says, " I remarked with surprise the alarming 
 familiarities displayed by the youthful brother 
 of the bridegroom to the bride, and was told 
 that it was the custom for the younger 
 brother, if unmarried, to take the face of his 
 elder brother's bride (as Lady Duff Gordon 
 would say)." 
 
 From marriage to death is no very long 
 stride. The moment we begin to live, we 
 begin to die. Marriage is generally the half- 
 way house between the womb of our mother 
 and the bosom of Terra Mater. 
 
 When a person has died, his relatives 
 assemble. Some one of them sits down and 
 commences to beat the funeral roll on the 
 drum ; the women weep and cry ; and the men 
 busy themselves, some in performing the last 
 offices to the corpse, of washing, dressing, 
 &c., while others go off to the woods and 
 bring wood for the funeral pile, and bamboos, 
 with which to construct the bier. About 
 twenty-four hours generally elapse from the 
 time of death to that of cremation. In bear- 
 ing the corpse from the house to the burning 
 K 2
 
 132 THE KHYOUNGTHA. 
 
 ground, if the deceased were a man of wealth 
 or influence, the body may be borne on a. 
 wheeled car; all women also have this pri- 
 vilege ; the plebs, however, are simply carried 
 to the funeral pile on the shoulders of their re- 
 latives. The procession is after this fashion : 
 First come the priests, if there are any in the 
 vicinity to attend ; they march gravely at the 
 head of the party, bearing on their shoulders 
 their curved palm-leaf fans, clad in their ordi- 
 nary saffron-coloured robes, and attended by 
 their disciples. Next come relatives of the 
 deceased, two and two, bearing food, clothes, 
 &c., which have been offered as alms to the 
 priests on behalf of the departed. Next is 
 borne the bier carried on bamboos by six men 
 and accompanied by as many drums as can be 
 procured. Behind the coffin come the male 
 relatives ; and lastly, the procession is closed 
 by the women of the village, clad in their best. 
 The funeral pile is composed of four layers of 
 wood for a woman, three for a man. The 
 body is placed on the pile ; the leading priest 
 takes an end of the dead man's turban, and,
 
 FUNERAL CEEEMONY. 133 
 
 holding it, repeats some passages of the law, 
 four of the deceased's male relatives standing 
 meanwhile at the four corners of the pile, and 
 sprinkling a few drops of water thereon. The 
 nearest blood relative, male or female, of the 
 dead man then fires the pile. When the fire 
 is extinguished, the ashes are scrupulously 
 collected together and buried over the spot : a 
 small conical mound of earth is heaped up, 
 and a very long bamboo pole, with an equally 
 lengthy flag, is erected over the grave. On 
 returning from the place, all parties bathe 
 themselves. If it is the master of the house 
 who has died, the ladder leading up to the 
 house is thrown down, and they must effect 
 an entrance by cutting a hole in the back wall 
 and so creeping up. The relatives eat and 
 drink, and each contributes according to his 
 means to defray the expenses incurred. After 
 seven days the priests re-assemble at the 
 house to read prayers for the dead. 
 
 The Khyoungtha have one fault, that 
 although cleanly in their other habits, they 
 allow their hair to become very filthy. Both
 
 134 THE KHYOUNGTHA. 
 
 sexes allow their hair to grow long, and 
 seldom wash it ; the consequences may there- 
 fore be better imagined than described. The 
 women wear their hair, which is long, black, 
 and rather coarse, twisted into a coil at the 
 back of the head, and fastened by a silver 
 bodkin, attached to which is a chain of the 
 same metal, which is wound twice round the 
 knot of hair at the back. The use of false 
 hair among both men and women is uni- 
 versal ; it is plaited in at the back to make 
 the knot look bigger. The sale of false hair 
 is carried on at every market attended by hill 
 people throughout the district. The men for 
 the most part tie their hair in a knot at the 
 back. In this they differ from both the 
 Rakoingtha and the Burmese, who wear the 
 hair in a more manly way, coiled and knotted 
 on the top of the head over the temple. With 
 regard to this custom, the Bohmong Chief 
 related to me the following tradition : 
 
 " In former times, when the Moghuls were 
 Rajahs in Chittagong, and Arracan was an 
 independent monarchy, my ancestors lived
 
 LEGENDS. 135 
 
 on the Koladan River in Arracan. Now, the 
 King of Burmah was very jealous of the King 
 of Arracan, and wished to take his kingdom 
 from him. So he called all his wise men 
 together, and took counsel, saying, ' Who will 
 go to the King of Arracan, and by magic arts 
 bring him low ? Whoever will do this, I will 
 advance him to great honour, and make him 
 equal to myself.' On this, one wise man 
 stepped forth and said, * I will do this thing.' 
 So this wise man left all his family in Burmah, 
 but took with him a woman of low character 
 to represent his wife, so that the King of Ar- 
 racan might have faith in him ; and he came 
 to Arracan, and represented to the King that 
 he- was a fugitive from before the King of 
 Burmah, that he was well acquainted with 
 magical arts, but that because he would not 
 transform the houses of the capital into pure 
 gold, therefore the King of Burmah sought 
 his life. He could have turned all the houses 
 into gold if he had been so minded, said the 
 narrator. So the King of Arracan took him 
 into favour, and assigned him a house and
 
 136 THE KHYOUNGTHA. 
 
 provision from the royal table ; and daily he 
 grew and increased in the King's favour. So 
 when the King listened much to his words, 
 he began to flatter him, saying that, ' If you 
 will listen to me I can make your empire 
 increase indefinitely, and you will be able 
 to subdue both the Burmans and Moghuls, 
 and all foreign countries.' ' How will you 
 enable me to do this ?' said the King. The 
 wise man replied, * Your city is built without 
 magic; I must first see to that, for unless 
 you inhabit a prosperous and a safe abode 
 you cannot expect to succeed in great enter- 
 prizes.' So the King gave orders that he 
 should do what he would, and that no one 
 should interfere with him ; and the wise man 
 levelled all the walls of the royal city and laid 
 it open to attack ; and he buried at the four 
 corners a charrn by which the inhabitants 
 became faint-hearted. Next, he told the 
 King, * You must not bind your hair in a 
 knot on the forehead, as your forefathers 
 have done, but must tie it in a coil behind, as 
 the women do you and all your people.' So
 
 LEGENDS. 137 
 
 the King obeyed him, and ordered that all his 
 subjects should do the like. This wise man 
 also caused the shape of the spoon used in 
 Arracan to be altered, and filed down the 
 King's teeth. When he had reduced the 
 whole country to a condition of woman's 
 weakness, he pretended to be ill, and shutting 
 himself up in his house, gave orders that he 
 should not be disturbed while he was per- 
 forming the last charm necessary to render 
 the King invincible; and he put unhusked 
 rice in a pot, over his extinguished fire, 
 and sprinkled it with water till it began 
 to sprout, and so at night he fled away. 
 After some time the King became uneasy 
 at his adviser's long seclusion, and he began 
 to search, saying, ' Where is my guide and 
 my teacher ?' Then the guards searched the 
 house of the wise man and found it empty, 
 and the grain sprouting in the pot ; so they 
 went and told the King that the wise man 
 must have been carried away many days 
 ago, and that it was an evil demon in his 
 shape that had latterly been seen, for that
 
 138 THE KHYOTJNGTHA. 
 
 the rice in his pot had sprouted, and had 
 evidently been there many months. 
 
 " Then came the King of Burmah with an 
 army and took Arracan, and our King was 
 killed, and my grandfather took the tribe 
 and fled away into the Chittagong Hills ; but 
 to this day the charm of the wise man pre- 
 vails, and we are not so brave as formerly, 
 and wear our hair in a knot at the back of 
 the head." 
 
 They are full of legends and stories, this 
 people ; their proverbs, also, are as the sands 
 of the sea. Here are a few of them : 
 
 (Aipaw peerey tummungl Food refused when 
 
 go ma tcha. offered. 
 
 ' 1 Konye eyn tak paw, [Search in seven houses^ 
 hrarey ma ra. and you will not find. 
 
 This answers to our 
 
 " He that will not when he may, 
 
 When he will he shall have nay." 
 fKhwee goung mha khee~| Like a dog with a dirty 
 " | san yan. j head. 
 
 ITchapo ma tai-kuey 1 The person not knowing 
 seerey. I how to eat will die. 
 
 Toing po ma tai-kuey [The person not knowing 
 hruie rarey. how to sit will get up.
 
 PKOVERBS. 139 
 
 The bamboo is bound bv 
 Wa la, wa kuomrey, 
 
 4. J Tchang la, tchan 
 phainrey. 
 
 I 
 
 the bamboo, 
 
 The elephant is caught 
 by the elephant. 
 
 English synonyms : 
 
 " Like goes to like ;" 
 
 " Set a thief to catch a thief." 
 
 " The bamboo is bound by the bamboo," is 
 an allusion to the way that the hill people 
 build their houses ; the whole house is built 
 on bamboo poles, and these are bound 
 together by the fibres of the bamboo twisted 
 together into a sort of rope. 
 
 [Proa gyan ma heegtiey.l From silence the tongue 
 J Shia lop ma ra. grows rusty ; 
 
 ' 1 Lagyan ina heeguey. [From long rest the legs 
 I Akreelop ma ra. grow disobedient. 
 
 Seera seemey, nga^ If I must die, I must die ; 
 amauk go ma koyn- 1 but do not touch my 
 guey wodong tcho [ -top-knot, as the pea- 
 hnewn. cock said. 
 
 This proverb reminds one of the picture by 
 dear old John Leech, of the swell and the 
 robber : " Take all, take money, take life ; 
 but spare, oh ! spare my collars." 
 
 In bathing, a Khyoungtha will never wet
 
 140 THE KHYOUNGTHA. 
 
 his head, owing to the difficulty which he 
 would afterwards experience in drying his 
 thick, long hair. The consequence is, as I 
 have said, that parasites therein are abun- 
 dant. With reference to this point, I was 
 one day taking a hill man to task for his 
 dirtiness, and he told me the following 
 story : 
 
 " One day the head of the King of Arracan 
 itched enormously; scratching was of no 
 effect, and combing seemed rather to increase 
 than allay the irritation. Now, at that time, 
 lice were unknown to the people of Arracan ; 
 so he called to his wife, and said, My life, 
 just fetch here your small tooth-comb, and 
 see what is the matter with my head, as I 
 have a feeling there as if a ground dog (the 
 jackal) were burrowing for himself a nest in 
 my brain.' So the Queen came and made him 
 sit down; and searching vigorously, she found 
 a parasitic insect, such as had never before 
 been seen in that country. All the courtiers 
 and the Queen's maids came up and inspected 
 it, but no one was able to tell what it was.
 
 SOCIAL HABITS. 141 
 
 The wise man and the astrologers were 
 called, and they cast its nativity, and pro- 
 nounced that this is not a born native of 
 this country, as the stars give no information 
 about it. Then the King was greatly puzzled, 
 and again scratched his head in perplexity. 
 At last he issued a proclamation throughout 
 the kingdom, giving notice of this strange, 
 new animal, and setting forth that whoever 
 should come forward and disclose its name and 
 origin should receive the hand of the princess, 
 his daughter, in marriage. The insect, mean- 
 while, was carefully shut up in a golden box, 
 and hung up at the head of the ladder lead- 
 ing to the palace, for all persons to inspect. 
 Well, the King's proclamation went forth into 
 all parts of the world, and there was at that 
 time a 'rakus,' or ogre, who lived on the 
 other side of the wall which surrounds the 
 world, which God will throw down at the last 
 day, and he heard this proclamation, and by 
 virtue of his inner consciousness he at once 
 became aware that this insect had come forth 
 from the head of one Abulkhan, a merchant
 
 142 THE KHYOUNGTHA. 
 
 of the Kulas (Bengallees), who had come to 
 the King's city to sell clothes, and who was 
 at that time residing in the house of the chief 
 minister in Arracan. So the ' rakus ' took 
 the form of a fair young man, and coming to 
 the King's court, he said as much. On this 
 the King sent and arrested the Kula mer- 
 chant, and lo ! it was so. Therefore, the 
 merchant was cast into a den of serpents, 
 and the King's youngest daughter, who was 
 not a little beautiful, was espoused by the 
 'rakus.' After residing some time at the 
 court, the 'rakus' became greatly afflicted 
 with his cannibalistic longings, so much so 
 that he was obliged to occupy a chamber 
 alone for fear the temptation should prove 
 too strong for him. At last, at his wife's 
 solicitations, he went with her to his father- 
 in-law, and having both performed obeisance, 
 they requested permission to depart, which 
 the King granted. A favourable day and 
 hour were accordingly fixed upon by the 
 astrologers, and the young couple set forth, 
 accompanied by a guard of honour sent by
 
 SOCIAL HABITS. 143 
 
 the Queen-mother. Now the 'rakus' was 
 very hungry ; so he went a short day's jour- 
 ney, and there halting, informed his wife that 
 he would take three of the guards with him 
 and go out shooting. He no sooner, however, 
 had entered the jungle, than he devoured the 
 three men with much delight, and returning 
 to the princess said that the three men who 
 had accompanied him had returned to Arra- 
 can. This mode of acting he repeated every 
 day, until, by the time they arrived at the 
 borders of the great forest which separates 
 the 'rakus' country from the rest of the 
 world, all the guard had been made an end 
 of. The princess, however, in her heart had 
 not been without suspicions of her husband's 
 mode of procedure ; and the last time he had 
 gone out shooting, she had followed him, and 
 beheld the awful fate of the guard. When 
 she saw this, she became greatly terrified, 
 and flying back to the camp, she remained in 
 prayer for her deliverance. Back came the 
 'rakus' eager for the discussion of the dainty 
 bit which he had saved for his last mouthful;
 
 144 THE KHYOTJNGTHA. 
 
 and when the princess heard his hasty step, 
 she prayed that ' if I have been chaste and 
 good from my birth, let the lamp which I 
 brought from my father's temple open and 
 hide me from the 'rakus.' So the lamp 
 opened, and she was hid just as her husband 
 entered. The ' rakus ' was greatly enraged 
 at this, and he seized the lamp and hammered 
 it, and cut it, but to no avail ; so at last he 
 threw it into a river that ran close by, and 
 departed howling to his own country. The 
 lamp was carried down by the next freshet of 
 rain, and was found on the shore by a young 
 prince, who took it up and kept it carefully 
 in his chamber. When night came, the prin- 
 cess came out of the lamp and swept the 
 room, cooked the prince's dinner, prepared 
 pawn and betel, ate some herself, and touch- 
 ing the prince's dress with some of the red 
 juice of the betel nut, she re-entered her 
 lamp and was hidden. The prince was natu- 
 rally much surprised in the morning to find 
 his house in order without visible agency. 
 This happened three nights in succession,
 
 SOCIAL HABITS. 145 
 
 and the third night the prince determined to 
 lay awake ; so he thrust a needle through his 
 thumb in order that the pain might prevent 
 his sleeping, and he reaped the reward of his 
 watchfulness in surprising the princess while 
 performing her self-imposed task. They were, 
 of course, married, and lived happily ever 
 afterwards." 
 
 It is by no means an uncommon thing for 
 a young man to elope with his sweetheart, 
 should the consent of the parents be difficult 
 of attainment. I remember one young fellow, 
 who, having made a runaway match of this 
 description, came to me to sanction it ; and 
 his account of the proceeding was very curious, 
 and threw much light on their village life. 
 He said, " When I reached the village, it was 
 nightfall ; the village was empty, for the grain 
 was now ripening, and every one was up 
 in the jooms ; so I stayed that night in the 
 house of one Akra, in his joom. In the 
 morning the house-mother woke me, saying, 
 ' Hasten, get up ; wash your face and make 
 yourself smart, for to-day the girls of the
 
 14C THE KHYOUNGTHA. 
 
 village come here to reap our crop.' I looked 
 down the hill, hearing the hoia (hill call) far 
 away down the slope, and saw the girls 
 coming, and the young men with them ; so I 
 hastened and tied my hair behind in a knot 
 and put a silver bangle on my arm, and a 
 gold bead hanging at my neck, and tied on 
 my white turban sprucely, for these are the 
 fashions of the Kowkdyntsa clan ; and if one 
 wants to get on with the people, one must 
 conform to their customs. Then they ar- 
 rived, and we all went out to cut the rice. 
 After a time one young girl said to a com- 
 panion, * Pynchainda, sing to us ;' so she sang, 
 and afterwards she said, turning to me, * Here 
 is a young Palaingtsa come to see us. How 
 bashful he is, and how young ! When is he 
 going to be married, I wonder !' and all the 
 girls began making fun, until I was quite 
 ashamed and could hardly cut the grain ; the 
 blood went all into my head. Then some one 
 said, * Sing to us, brother ;' so I sang, and 
 they said, 'You sing well, sit you on that knoll, 
 and sing to us while we work ;' so I did so.
 
 SOCIAL HABITS. 147 
 
 "At noon we had to eat, and the young girls 
 came round me, and said, * You have sung 
 much to us, now you must eat :' but I replied, 
 'No, I am not hungry.' Then the house-mother 
 said, * What kind of maidens are you, to let a 
 guest stand thus making excuses ? Why, when 
 I was a girl, we should have taken him by the 
 hand and made him eat.' So five of the girls 
 came and drew me forcibly to where the food 
 was, and I said, ' If you will all eat out of the 
 same dish with me, then I will eat ;' so they 
 agreed, and spread a mighty platter, and we all 
 ate. They tried at first to feed me ; but after 
 a mouthful or two, for courtesy's sake, I said, 
 c No, at that rate I shall never be satisfied.' 
 
 " At night one of the young men said to 
 me, ' Come, and we will go out for some fun ;' 
 so I went. We went up to a joom, where 
 there were two houses, in which lived a 
 family of two unmarried sisters a married 
 one with her husband, and the father and 
 mother. When we came there, my com- 
 panion said to the girls, ' We have come to 
 eat birnee grain ;' and they said, * Come in, 
 L 2
 
 148 THE KHYOUNGTHA. 
 
 and we will cook for you ; and I said to him, 'I 
 don't want to eat ;' he said, ' You do not 
 understand : when I said we have come to 
 eat birnee, that meant, that we had come to 
 have some fun ; if they had been disinclined, 
 they would have said the birnee is not yet 
 ripe ; come up, you don't know our customs :' 
 so we went up, and saluted the elders. The 
 house-father had been drinking, and he was 
 merry, and called to me and said, ' How ! are 
 you married ?' and I said, ' No.' Then he 
 said, laughing, ' If you were married, I should 
 look upon you as good company for me ; but 
 as you are a bachelor, you are only good 
 enough for the girls. Quite right : we did 
 the same when we were young.' Presently 
 he and the mother and the married daughter 
 got up and went off to the other house where 
 they slept, and then my companion blew out 
 the light and threw water on the fire. We 
 stayed there all night, to eat ' birnee ' grain, 
 that is the polite way of phrasing it ; but this 
 is a Kowkdyntsa custom ; we have not got it 
 among the Palaingtsa. I stayed some time
 
 SOCIAL HABITS. 149 
 
 in the village, and I took a great liking for 
 Pynchainda ; so we settled to run away. 
 That night there was to be a feast at ner 
 father's house, and she and I were to have a 
 singing match, for she was the best singer in 
 her village, and I also sang well. Many 
 people assembled, and they killed a pig and 
 feasted. Afterwards we two sat in the 
 middle of the room, opposite to each other, 
 with a large tray of fresh flowers between us ; 
 and the liquor went round, and we sang. I 
 put much love in my song; so after a time 
 Pynchainda' s heart become full, and she 
 stopped singing, and took flowers and put 
 them on my head ; and she rose quickly and 
 went away, saying she would fetch water ; 
 and I also got up and went after her, at 
 which everybody began to laugh. When we 
 got outside, she left her water-pitcher on the 
 bank of the stream, and we came straight 
 away through the jungle." 
 
 At the Mang Rajah's village I was once 
 witness of the proceedings in a divorce case, 
 which are worthy of note. The wife was the
 
 150 THE KHYOUNGTHA. 
 
 complainant. She said she had gone down to 
 the stream about twilight with some other 
 girls and a young man to fetch water; and 
 while they were there, the girls began to 
 laugh and splash water on the young man. 
 Her husband had jealously followed her, and 
 saw the fun from the bank ; and he had fallen 
 into a fury and abused the young man, and 
 beaten her before every one. She asked the 
 Chief for a divorce, and would not be pacified, 
 although her husband had now become very 
 humble. It was not the first quarrel of the 
 sort, she said; and a woman could endure 
 Anything save a jealous husband : that was 
 not according to their customs. The elders 
 of the village assembled; and after hearing 
 all that was to be said on both sides, they 
 tried to make peace, but in vain; so they 
 decreed that the pair should be shut up alone 
 together in an empty room with no bedding 
 (it was in the cold weather), and they would 
 hear the matter again in the morning. Morn- 
 ing came, and the couple came out still un- 
 united; the woman still begged and prayed
 
 LANGUAGE. 151 
 
 for a divorce. On this, the court of elders 
 determined that she had cause, and that a 
 divorce should be granted; but the woman 
 should pay Rs. 30 to her husband as a fine. 
 This sentence was accordingly carried out. 
 Rs. 10 of the fine were spent by the jury in a 
 feast as some recompense for their trouble. 
 
 The Khyoungtha speak a provincial dialect 
 of the Arracanese language, which tongue 
 was also the parent stock of the modern 
 Burmese language. The written character is 
 the same as the Burmese. The Arracanese 
 language has strong affinities with the Hima- 
 layan and Thibetan dialects. Mr. Brian 
 Hodgson is of opinion (Journal B. Asiatic 
 Society, September 1849) that the Burmese 
 language has sprung from the Thibetan, while 
 he finds that it has much in common with the 
 Singpho and Naga dialects. 
 
 The Khyoungtha do not dance together. 
 Their festive gatherings, however, have a 
 most distinctive feature in the " Poie," or 
 travelling theatrical company, which every 
 cold season makes its round to the larger
 
 152 THE KHYOUNGTHA. 
 
 and more wealthy villages. I was present 
 a short time ago at an entertainment of this 
 description, given by one of the Chiefs on the 
 marriage of his son, and to which I was in- 
 vited. Accordingly, preceded by a lantern, 
 and surrounded by about twenty of the vil- 
 lagers, I took my way about 9 p.m. to the 
 opera-house. The proceedings were carried 
 on under a large awning, which spread over 
 a small grassy plot of land, not far from 
 where I was living. The centre pole was 
 tastefully wreathed with green branches and 
 flowers, amid which, at the foot, were set four 
 large lamps, and a big black earthenware pot 
 holding water for the refreshment of the per- 
 formers. Round this centre pole was left 
 vacant a circular path stage, arena call it 
 what you will ; and here the business of the 
 evening was transacted. The whole sur- 
 rounding space was crammed with men and 
 women, old and young, all sitting in wrapt 
 attention, on mats spread on the ground; 
 every one having in his mouth the inevitable 
 cigar. I saw children four or five years old
 
 THEATRICAL PEEFOEMANCES. 153 
 
 smoking cheroots nearly as big as themselves. 
 The performers, also, male and female, each 
 had a cigar, which, at emotional passages, 
 was stuck either behind the ear or through 
 the pierced lobe thereof. The orchestra 
 occupied a raised position on my left. Before 
 saying anything of the performance, I must 
 describe this orchestra. The instruments 
 were first and foremost a " shawm," I can 
 call it nothing else; not that I know in the 
 least what a shawm is like, but this was the 
 name that at once suggested itself to me on 
 seeing it. It was both in sound and appear- 
 ance a cross between the clarionet and the 
 trumpet. Its music was anything but dis- 
 agreeable. Besides, this was a curious clap- 
 per of white wood used to emphasize the 
 acrid passages of old age. Lastly, there were 
 the drums, musical drums, positively musical. 
 They were of all sizes, in shape semi- spheres, 
 from the small bell-toned tenor to the deep 
 boomer, dedicated to rage and male choruses. 
 The performer on the drums tuned up his bat- 
 talion with screws in the most scientific style
 
 154 THE KHTOUNGTHA. 
 
 before commencing : he sat in the middle of 
 a circle of these drums, and was the back- 
 bone of the orchestra. I was much struck 
 by the opera itself; there was a style and 
 continuity about it such as I have never 
 before seen in eastern performances. 
 
 When I arrived, the circle was occupied by 
 about six male performers, and their acting 
 was ludicrously remindful of the European 
 stage. First, the basso would address him- 
 self to the chorus, in "recitative," accom- 
 panied gently by the tuned drums and a small 
 invisible instrument of flute-like sound ; then 
 full power would be turned on by the whole 
 company. The story or action of the drama, 
 as it seemed to me, was something after this 
 fashion : First, the King, with four or five 
 attendant courtiers, is discovered walking in 
 his garden. Bass solo by his Majesty; he 
 bewails the wilfulness of the princess royal, 
 who has set her heart upon the worthless 
 young scamp So-and-so, instead of the admir- 
 able match that she might make ; grumbling 
 and sympathetic chorus of courtiers follows,
 
 THEATRICAL PERFORMANCES. 155 
 
 all with cheroots in their hands, from which 
 they take furtive puffs at breathing times. 
 The monarch stops for a moment to light his 
 weed at one of the foot-lights, and then com- 
 mences an aria, expressive of intense vexa- 
 tion of spirit, during which the courtiers 
 wisely retire. Enter then the young scamp 
 of a lover, " II Primo Tenore," got up in all 
 the height of hill dandyism ; the monarch now 
 stalks moodily round the stage, followed by 
 the lover, making gestures of entreaty. This 
 dumb show gives occasion for a wonderful 
 display of musical ability on the part of the 
 shawm, the performer on which surpasses 
 himself, and nearly bursts a blood vessel in 
 his efforts, apparently, to get inside his in- 
 strument. A duet follows, in which the 
 infuriated monarch tears from the Tenore' s 
 ear the flower which his lady-love had given 
 him; and the first act appropriately closed 
 by the King kicking the lover off the stage. 
 Here, looking about me, I noticed a curious 
 arrangement hanging in front of the orchestra. 
 This consisted of a string attached to two
 
 156 THE KHYOTTNGTHA, 
 
 bamboos, set perpendicularly, and held by 
 men on each side. From this string hung 
 pendant about twenty of the most uncouth 
 masks that it ever entered into the mind of man 
 to conceive. Men's faces, devils' heads, with 
 the reverse of a woman's face, horses' heads, 
 human feet and hands, all hanging together 
 in most bizarre confusion. A strange and 
 eerie effect was given to this, by the two 
 bamboos being gently shaken to and fro by 
 the men who held them, thus giving to the 
 line of fantastic images a monotonous and 
 regular swaying motion. 
 
 I really did like the music ; it had distinct 
 rhythm and tune, while the choruses were 
 sometimes very quaint and jolly. The drums, 
 too, with their different and mellow tones 
 were employed most judiciously, varying in 
 expression and "tempo" to suit the dramatic 
 action of the piece. 
 
 The next scene showed the princess and 
 three faithful attendants. She has absconded 
 from her father's house, and they are now 
 wandering in the jungle, waiting for the
 
 THEATRICAL PERFORMANCES. 157 
 
 lover. The female performers were three very 
 pretty girls, and there was besides, one comic 
 male retainer. It was curious to see how 
 closely these girls resembled the pictures of 
 Chinese princesses that one sees on screens 
 and in pictures dress, figures, and fans, all 
 celestial. The performers, without exception, 
 all played their parts, singing and speaking to 
 each other, and not at the audience. The poor 
 little princess's lament, when she thought her- 
 self abandoned by her lover in the jungle, was 
 quite pathetic, and when she sank down on 
 her knees, as though all hope were gone, 
 some of the susceptible female portion of the 
 audience were moved to audible weeping. 
 The comic retainer also was very good ; even 
 his walk and attitudes were ludicrous. 
 
 The piece, of course, closed in the happy 
 conjunction of the lovers, and the traditional 
 parental blessing. 
 
 THE CHUKMA TRIBE. 
 
 Although the majority of this tribe do not 
 speak the Arracanese dialect, I have classed
 
 158 THE CHUKMAS. 
 
 them with the Khyoungtha, on account of 
 their similarity of habit in the location of 
 their villages on the banks of the streams, 
 in contradistinction to the other tribes, whom 
 I have called Toungtha, from their living on 
 hills in preference to the low lands. 
 
 The name of Chukma is given to this tribe 
 in general by the inhabitants of the Chitta- 
 gong District, and the largest and dominant 
 section of the tribe recognizes this as its 
 rightful appellation. It is also sometimes 
 spelt Tsakrna, or Tsak, or, as it is called 
 in Burmese, Thek. A smaller section of 
 the same tribe is called Doingnak. The 
 names of Chukma, Tsak, Thek, and Doing- 
 nak, may all therefore be taken as names 
 representing the tribe of which I now propose 
 to speak. There is a third division, or clan, 
 called Toungjynyas. The origin of the tribe 
 can only be inferred from their traditions 
 and physique, as they possess no written 
 records of ancient times. Intelligent persons 
 among them, however, have informed me 
 that it has been handed down from father
 
 THEIE ORIGIN. 159 
 
 to son; that they came originally from a 
 country called Chainpango, or Champanug- 
 ger. As to where this country is situated 
 accounts vary somewhat. By some it is said 
 to be near Malacca; this would ascribe to 
 them a Malay origin : while, on the other 
 hand, there are many that assert that Cham- 
 panugger is situated far to the north in the 
 North - Western Provinces of Hindostan 6 . 
 Those who hold to this latter view say that 
 they are descended from a Khettrie family 
 of the name of Chandra. The facial charac- 
 teristics of the tribe are indicative of Mon- 
 golian, and not Aryan extraction; and it 
 is, moreover, only of late years that the use 
 of the Arracanese vernacular has died out 
 among them. The majority of the tribe, 
 however, hold that they are descended from 
 
 6 Champanugger. Probably the kingdom of Champa, 
 mentioned in the travels of Fa Hian, a Chinese pilgrim, 
 who traversed India in the year 429 of the Christian 
 Era. He speaks of the kingdom of Champa, the capital 
 of which was Campapuri, or Karnopura, situated not far 
 from the site of the present Bhagulpore. (See also 
 Bishop Bigandet's Life of Gaudama, p. 430, 2nd edition.)
 
 160 THE CHUKMAS. 
 
 a Hindoo family of good caste. The story 
 they tell is as follows : The reigning King of 
 Champanugger had two sons; and the elder 
 of these went forth with a picked body of 
 men to attack the King of Mogoda 7 . In the 
 contest he was victorious ; but on his turning 
 his face homewards news reached him that his 
 old father had died, and his younger brother 
 had usurped the throne, and was prepared 
 to resist his return. On this the elder 
 brother determined to remain in the country 
 he had newly conquered, and accordingly 
 settled in these hills. His followers took wives 
 from among the country people, who were 
 Buddhists ; and to this it is attributable that 
 they forsook the religion of their forefathers, 
 and have altered also somewhat in com- 
 plexion and appearance. The Khyoungtha, 
 again, have another story of the origin of the 
 Chukma tribes. It is this : The Chukmas 
 
 7 This, doubtless, refers to Magotha, a country fre- 
 quently named in Buddhistic writings. It is the country 
 known now as South Behar. Its situation has been well 
 ascertained.
 
 THEIR ORIGIN. 161 
 
 were originally Moguls or Mussulmans. Once 
 the " Wuzeer" of Chittagong collected to- 
 gether an army to attack the King of Arra- 
 can; and as the force went travelling over 
 the hills they came to the hut of a Poongyee, 
 a holy man in the wilderness. This Poongyee 
 begged the Wuzeer to halt and partake of 
 some refreshment which he would quickly 
 prepare; and to this the Wuzeer consented. 
 After some time, as the food did not make 
 its appearance, he sent a soldier to the 
 Poongyee' s hut to see when it would be 
 ready. The soldier entered the hut and saw 
 that the Poongyee had put rice and flesh in 
 a pot, and had placed the pot over the fire- 
 place; but he noticed with astonishment 
 that there was no wood in the fire-place : 
 instead thereof the Poongyee had put his 
 foot under the pot, and flames were issuing 
 from the tips of his toes. So the soldier 
 returned to the Wuzeer and made his report. 
 On hearing the man's statement the Wuzeer 
 became enraged, and said, "At that rate the 
 rice will never be ready;" and he gave orders 
 
 M
 
 162 THE CHUKMAS. 
 
 for the march to be recommenced. Conse- 
 quently, when the holy man came out to 
 redeem his pledged hospitality, he found his 
 guest had unceremoniously departed. On 
 this the Poongyee waxed very wroth, and 
 he cursed the Wuzeer and all his army, and 
 sent forth powerful charms after them, so 
 that when they met the King of Arracan's 
 troops their hearts turned to water, and they 
 were all made prisoners. The King of Arra- 
 can settled all these Mussulmans as slaves in 
 his territory, and gave them wives of the 
 people of the country ; and they increased 
 and multiplied. This was the origin of the 
 Chukma tribe. In corroboration of this story 
 I subjoin a list of the Rajahs who are known 
 to have reigned over the tribe, from which it 
 will be seen that the name of Khan, a purely 
 Pathan patronymic, is commonly in use among 
 them : 
 
 1. Jumaul Khan. 
 
 About 1715 A.D. first paid 
 tribute of cotton to 
 Mogul Wuzeer Fumuck 
 Shah.
 
 LIST OF EAJAHS. 
 
 2. Sheremusta Khan. 
 
 3. Sookdel Roy. 
 
 4. Shere Dowlut Khan. 
 
 5. Jaunbux Khan. 
 
 6. Tubber Khan. 
 
 7. Jubber Khan. 
 
 8. Dhurmbux Khan. 
 
 9. Kalindee Ranee. 
 
 A.D. 1737 made settlement 
 with English Government. 
 
 In 1776 he revolted against 
 Government, and two 
 expeditions were sent 
 against him and Ranoo, 
 or Ramoo Khan, his 
 relative, and a chief 
 man of the tribe. (See 
 Introduction.) 
 
 A.D. 1782 the cotton tri- 
 bute reduced to 500 
 maunds. This chief op- 
 pressed the tribe heavily, 
 and many of them fled 
 to Arracan. He also re- 
 volted against Govern- 
 ment ; but in 1787 he 
 made submission. In 
 1789 the Government 
 determined that the tri- 
 bute should be paid in 
 money instead of cotton. 
 
 A.D. 1812, died about 1830. 
 The present head of the 
 tribe (a woman). 
 
 Mr. Hodgson (Journal Bengal Asiatic 
 
 M 2
 
 164 THE CHUKMAS. 
 
 Society, No. I. of 1853) states his opinion 
 that the Thek (Chukma) of Arracan are of 
 aboriginal descent. In this view, however, I 
 cannot concur. 
 
 Colonel Phayre treats of the Thek and the 
 Doingnak apparently as if they were two 
 separate tribes. In this idea I venture to 
 think that he is mistaken, as the Doingnaks 
 are known and recognized throughout the 
 tribe as a branch of the Chukmas that aban- 
 doned the parent stem during the Chiefship 
 of Jaunbux Khan about 1782. The reason of 
 this split was a disagreement on the subject 
 of marriages. The Chief passed an order 
 that the Doingnak clan should intermarry 
 with the tribe in general. This was contrary 
 to ancient custom, and caused discontent, and 
 eventually a break in the tribe. The Doing- 
 naks, however, are now straggling back, vil- 
 lage by village, on their return to the tribe. 
 Several of their villages are found in the Cox 
 Bazar Hills, and they preserve to this day the 
 remembrance of the places inhabited formerly 
 by their ancestors on the Kurnafoolee River,
 
 THEIE OEIGIN. 165 
 
 althougli from long residence in Arracan their 
 vernacular language is the dialect of that 
 country, and they are, comparatively speak- 
 ing, ignorant of Bengallee, a bastard dialect 
 of which is spoken by the tribe at large. 
 Colonel Phayre (J. A. S. } No. 117 of 1841) 
 says of the Doingnaks : " They call them- 
 selves Kheem-ba-nago. Of their descent I 
 could learn nothing ; probably they may be 
 the offspring of Bengallees carried into the 
 hills as slaves, where their physical appear- 
 ance has been modified by change of climate. 
 In religion they are Buddhists." Whatever 
 opinion may be formed of the primal origin 
 of the Thek, or Chukma tribe, no doubt can 
 exist as to their having been at one time in- 
 habitants of the province of Arracan, from 
 whence they have migrated to these hills. 
 The Radza-wong, or History of the Arracan 
 Kings, gives the following account of them. 
 It is there written that King Kaumysing, the 
 son of the King of Baranathi, having been 
 assigned by his father, as heritage, all the 
 country inhabited by the Burman, Shan, and
 
 166 THE CHUKMAS. 
 
 Malay races, came to Ramawati, the ancient 
 capital of Arracan, near the modern town of 
 Sandoway. He there collected men from the 
 different countries of Western Hindoostan, 
 having a variety of languages. They then 
 asking for subsistence; to the first who so 
 applied he gave the name of Thek, and their 
 language being different from the rest, they 
 lived separate. The Thek tribe appears after- 
 wards to have played a part of some impor- 
 tance in the annals of the kingdom. King 
 Nya-ming-nya-tain, with the help of the Tsaks, 
 is said to have gained the throne in the year 
 356 of the Arracan Era. Again, in 656, King 
 Mengdi is said to have undertaken an expe- 
 dition against the Shans and Tsaks, who had 
 become very troublesome (Phayre's History of 
 Arracan, J. A. S.,No. 145 of 1844). The tribe 
 is also mentioned by Buchanan in his paper 
 on the religion and literature of the Burmese 
 (Asiatic Researches, Vol. VI., p. 229). The 
 Toungjynya section of the tribe, to the number 
 of 4000 souls, is said to have come into the 
 Chittagong Hills, as late as 1819, in the time
 
 LANGUAGE. 167 
 
 of the Chief Dhurmbux Khan. They acknow- 
 ledge as their head one Phahproo, but Dhurm- 
 bux Khan would not recognize him as head 
 of the Toungjynya clan, and consequently 
 the major part of them returned to Arracan. 
 At the present time the Toungjynyas in this 
 district are said to number 2500 souls. The 
 elders among them are still acquainted with 
 the Arracanese vernacular, but the present 
 generation are fast amalgamating with the 
 rest of the tribe, and use with them a corrupt 
 species of Bengallee. Some few words are in 
 general use among the Chukmas, which are 
 apparently derived neither from Arracanese 
 nor Bengallee roots, and from which possibly 
 some clue may be gained as to their origin. 
 My collection, however, is very scanty ; and a 
 closer acquaintance with their dialect would 
 perhaps give more ample and satisfactory 
 results. 
 
 Lyngia, a lover. 
 
 Langonee, a mistress. 
 
 Sowalta, best man at wedding. 
 
 Sowullee, bridesmaid.
 
 168 
 
 THE CHUKMAS. 
 
 Ojha, 
 
 Tagul, 
 
 Mooi, 
 
 Bey, 
 
 Siggun Bey, 
 
 Boojee, 
 
 Moozee, 
 
 Jeydee, 
 
 Sillum, 
 
 Khadee, 
 
 Rain-ya, 
 Moyn 
 
 an exorcist, 
 
 a dao, or hill knife. 
 
 I. 
 
 sister. 
 
 little sister. 
 
 elder brother's wife. 
 
 mother's younger sister. 
 
 mother's elder sister. 
 
 a jacket. 
 
 woman's breast-cloth. 
 
 an abandoned joom. 
 a hill. 
 
 Masmoola, about a month. 
 
 Arracanese ya, a 
 joom, or field of 
 hill cultivation. 
 
 Mas (Bengallee), a 
 month. 
 
 Goza, 
 
 clan or family. 
 
 They have a written character peculiar to 
 the tribe, but the form of the letters show 
 that they are merely a rude adaptation of the 
 Arracanese alphabet. 
 
 The tribe is said to contain about 25,000 
 souls exclusive of the Arracan offshoots. 
 The Chukmas Proper, as distinguished from 
 the Toungjynya and Doingnaks, whom they 
 largely outnumber, are divided into 21 Gozas,
 
 CLANS. 169 
 
 or clans. In calling to a Chukma, one does 
 not ask him his caste, that is shown by his 
 face and dress ; but it is usual to demand, 
 " Of what Goza are you ? " 
 
 Over each Goza there is a Dewan, who 
 represents the head of the family, from which 
 his clan originally sprung. Among the Toung- 
 jynyas this hereditary head is called the 
 Ahoon. He collects the poll-tax (the sole 
 hill revenue), and, retaining a certain fixed 
 proportion thereof, pays the remainder to the 
 Chief of the tribe, together with a yearly 
 offering of first-fruits. He has the privilege 
 of deciding cases, and for so doing receives 
 certain fees, the amount of which is prescribed 
 by custom (of these more hereafter). The 
 Dewan also receives as a right a portion of 
 any wild animal, fit for food, that may be 
 killed by any of his people. When the Goza 
 is a large one, the Dewan appoints several 
 subordinates under him to assist in the 
 administration ; these officers are called 
 " Khejas." They are exempt from the pay- 
 ment of revenue, and from the "corvee," or
 
 170 THE CHUKMAS. 
 
 unpaid labour, to which the rest of the tribe 
 are liable ; but every year they are bound to 
 present to their Dewan an offering of one 
 measure of rice, one bamboo tube of spirits, 
 and one fowl. Their office does not appear 
 to be hereditary. 
 
 The religion professed by the Chukma tribe 
 is Buddhism; but their propinquity to, and 
 constant contact with, the Bengallees, has 
 caused them to mingle with their pure and 
 aesthetic rites much that appertains to Hindoo 
 superstition. They have not as yet imbibed, 
 I am thankful to say, any prejudices as to 
 caste, but many signs and tokens manifest 
 their gravitation towards Hindooism. They 
 have for the most part abandoned the Arra- 
 canese vernacular ; they observe the Luckhee 
 and Doorga Poojahs, both purely Hindoo 
 festivals. They consult Hindoo astrologers, 
 and have begun to find out that they are 
 descended from the caste of Khettries in 
 Hindoostan. 
 
 They observe eight festivals of their own 
 during the year.
 
 EELIGION. 171 
 
 These holy times are common to, and ob- 
 served alike by, both the Khyoungtha and 
 the Chukmas ; and it may be that they are 
 followed by Buddhists generally : but on this 
 point I am not able, neither is it necessary, 
 for me to speak. The Bishoo is the chief 
 festival in the year. At that time, as I have 
 previously described, all classes, men and 
 women alike, resort to the Mahamuni temple 
 to make offerings at the shrine of Gaudama, 
 to give gifts to each other, and rejoice. This 
 festival occurs in the month of April. In 
 the month of July the Sadhang begins. This 
 is a time of fasting, when persons who wish 
 to do meritorious actions give alms, and bind 
 themselves by a vow to abstain from some 
 particular pleasure, such as good eating, fine 
 clothes, their wife's society, or the like. The 
 fast continues for three months ; and for that 
 period the priests are bound to remain sta- 
 tionary at whatever place they may be, and 
 continuously to recite the law and chant the 
 praises of Gaudama. The Tummungtong is 
 a feast at the close of this fast. Magiri is a
 
 172 THE OHUKMAS. 
 
 time of festival when the rice begins to ripen, 
 and when prayers are offered up that no harm 
 may befall the crop. The Hoia and Nowarno 
 occur in October. This is a season of much 
 feasting, corresponding to our harvest home. 
 The Chukmas at this season have a curious 
 custom of suspending seven breast-cloths 
 (worn by their women) from a lofty pole 
 erected in the village, at the foot of which 
 sacrifice is offered. This is the time of 
 eating the new rice. The Kheyrey and 
 Tsoomoolang are festivals of minor impor- 
 tance, and of no fixed date. The Shongbasa 
 is the worship of the "nats," or deities of 
 wood and stream. The priests have nothing 
 to do with this, and it has been condemned 
 as an unorthodox practice. The sacrifice is 
 either offered by the votary himself in person, 
 or an " ojha," or exorcist, is called in to 
 perform the necessary ceremonies. 
 
 At a Chukma village I was once present 
 when sacrifice was thus offered up by the 
 head man. The occasion was a thank-offer- 
 ing for the recovery of his wife from child-
 
 . EELIGION. 173 
 
 birth. The offering consisted of a sucking 
 pig and a fowl. The altar was of bamboo 
 decorated with young plantain shoots and 
 leaves. On this raised platform were placed 
 small cups containing rice, vegetables, and a 
 spirit distilled from rice. Round the whole 
 from the house-mother's distaff had been 
 spun a long white thread, which encircled 
 the altar, and then, carried into the house, 
 was held at its two ends by the good man's 
 wife. The sacrifice commenced by a long 
 invocation uttered by the husband, who stood 
 opposite to his altar, and between each snatch 
 of his charm he tapped the small platform 
 with his hill knife, and uttered a long wailing 
 cry; this was for the purpose of attracting 
 the numerous wandering spirits who go up 
 and down upon the earth, and calling them 
 to the feast. When a sufficient number of 
 these invisible guests were believed to be 
 assembled, he cut the throats of the victims 
 with his "dao," and poured a libation of 
 blood upon the altar and over the thread. 
 The flesh of the things sacrificed was after-
 
 174 THE CHUKMAS. 
 
 wards cooked and eaten at the household 
 meal, of which I was invited to partake. 
 
 The social customs of the Chukmas are 
 on the whole very similar to those of the 
 Khyoungtha. 
 
 When a child is born the mother is looked 
 upon as impure for one month afterwards. A 
 male child is preferred to a female. On the 
 birth of a son guns are fired, and a feast is 
 given ; not so when a daughter is brought 
 into the world. There seem to be no parti- 
 cular ceremonies in the naming of a child ; a 
 name is usually given that has been borne 
 by some ancestor. Children are generally 
 suckled by their mothers for a long time ; it 
 is not uncommon to see a boy of three years 
 old sharing his mother's milk with a young 
 infant. Girls reach puberty at the age of 
 thirteen, and boys at fourteen to fifteen years. 
 When a lad becomes fit, he goes out to cut 
 his first joom; this is a sign of manhood 
 among them, and the parents are bound in 
 honour to give a feast to all their relatives 
 on this occasion. Child marriages among the
 
 MAEEIAGES. 175 
 
 Chukmas, or indeed among the hill people in 
 general, are unknown ; there is no fixed time 
 for getting married. Some of the young men 
 indeed do not marry until they reach the age 
 of twenty-four or twenty-five ; after that age, 
 however, it is rare to see a man unmarried. 
 Marriage is after this fashion. Father, 
 mother, and son, first look about them and 
 fix upon a bride ; this indispensable prelimi- 
 nary accomplished, the parents go to the 
 house where their intended daughter-in-law 
 resides. They take with them a bottle of 
 spirits (this is an absolute necessary in every 
 hill palaver). The matter will at first be 
 opened cautiously ; the lad's father will say, 
 " That is a fine tree growing near your house, 
 I would fain plant in its shadow." Should 
 all go well, they retire after mutual civilities. 
 Both in going and coming, omens are care- 
 fully observed ; and many a promising match 
 has been put a stop to by unfavourable augu- 
 ries. A man or woman carrying fowls, water, 
 fruit, or milk, if passed on the right hand, is 
 a good omen, and pleasant to meet with ;
 
 176 THE CHTJKMAS. 
 
 but it is unfavourable to see a kite or a vul- 
 ture, or to see one crow all by himself, croak- 
 ing on the left hand. If they are unfortunate 
 enough to come upon the dead body of any 
 animal on their road, they will go no further, 
 but at once return home and stop all pro- 
 ceedings. Old people quote numerous stories 
 to show that the disregard of unfavourable 
 omens has in former times been productive of 
 the most ruinous consequences. 
 
 By the time a second visit is due, the rela- 
 tives on both sides have been consulted ; and if 
 all has progressed satisfactorily, and there are 
 no dissentient voices, they go accompanied by 
 some of the girls of the village, taking with 
 them presents of curds and " birnee " grain, 
 and " jogra," a sweet fermented liquor made 
 from rice. Then a day is settled (after the 
 harvest is a favourite time), and a ring of 
 betrothal is given to the bride. Now also is 
 arranged what price the young man is to pay 
 for his wife, for the Chukmas, in contradis- 
 tinction to all our other tribes, buy their 
 wives. The ordinary price is 100 to 150
 
 MARRIAGES. 177 
 
 rupees. On the marriage day a large stock 
 of provisions is laid in by both houses. A 
 procession of men and women starts from the 
 bridegroom's village with drums and music 
 to fetch home the bride. The parents of the 
 bridegroom present their intended daughter 
 with her marriage dress. No ceremony, 
 however, is performed; and the bride, after 
 a short interval, is taken away, accompanied 
 by all her relatives to her new home. 
 
 On arriving all enter the house, and the 
 bride and bridegroom sit down together at 
 a small table the bride on the left hand of 
 her husband. On the table are eggs, sweet- 
 meats, rice, and plantains, all laid out on leaf 
 platters. The best man (sowalla) sits behind 
 the bridegroom, and the bride has a repre- 
 sentative bridesmaid (sowallee) behind her. 
 These two then bind around the couple a 
 muslin scarf, asking, "Are all willing, and 
 shall this thing be accomplished?" Then 
 all cry out, "Bind them, bind them:" so 
 they are bound. The married pair have now 
 to eat together, the wife feeding the husband 
 
 N
 
 178 THE CHUKMAS. 
 
 and the husband the wife; and as at this 
 stage of the ceremony a great deal of bash- 
 fulness is evinced, the bridesmaid and best 
 man raise the hands of their respective 
 charges to and from each other's mouths, 
 to the intense enjoyment and hilarity of every 
 one present. After they have thus eaten and 
 drunken, an elder of the village sprinkles them 
 with river water, pronounces them man and 
 wife, and says a charm used for fruitfulness. 
 The couple then retire, and the guests keep 
 it up until an early hour on the following 
 morning. The next day, at the morning 
 meal, the newly married come hand-in-hand 
 and salute the elders of their families. The 
 father of the bride generally improves this 
 occasion by addressing a short lecture to his 
 son-in-law on the subject of marital duties. 
 " Take her," he says, "I have given her to 
 you; but she is young and not acquainted 
 with her household duties. If therefore at 
 any time you come back from the joom and 
 find the rice burnt, or any thing else wrong, 
 teach her, do not beat her ; but at the end of
 
 ELOPEMENTS. 179 
 
 three years, if she still continues ignorant, 
 then beat her, but do not take her life, for 
 if you do I shall demand the price of blood at 
 your hands ; but for beating her I shall not 
 hold you responsible, or interfere." 
 
 All marriages, however, do not go on in 
 this happy fashion; it often happens that 
 the lad and the lass have made up their 
 minds to couple, but the parents will not 
 hear of the match. In such a case the lovers 
 generally elope together; but should the 
 girl's parents be very much set against the 
 match, they have the right to demand back 
 and take their daughter from the hands of 
 her lover. If, notwithstanding this opposi- 
 tion, the lovers' intentions still remain un- 
 altered, and they elope a second time, no one 
 has then the right to interfere with them. The 
 young husband makes a present to his father- 
 in-law according to his means, gives a feast 
 to his new relatives, and is formally admitted 
 into kinship. 
 
 These elopements in the hills are some- 
 times the occasion of tragical consequences. 
 N 2
 
 180 THE CHUKMAS. 
 
 A case in point happened in the district the 
 other day among the Chukmas. 
 
 A young man, named Boopeea, was in love 
 with a girl called Shonia-mullah. The girl 
 lived with her old father (her mother was 
 dead) and one brother named Heeradhun. 
 It was joom time, and they all lived together, 
 away from the village, in the lonely little 
 house which it is the custom for each family 
 to build in their own joom (this reminds one 
 of Isaiah's solitary "lodge in a garden of 
 cucumbers"). An elder brother, named Joo- 
 radhun, lived separately down in the village. 
 He was married. Boopeea loved the girl, and 
 could not keep away from her. He was con- 
 stantly hanging about the house, helping in 
 the joom, and eating and sleeping in the com- 
 mon room of the house. He was too poor to 
 make the legitimate proposals to the girl's 
 relatives, for this course would entail numer- 
 ous heavy expenses, besides a cash payment 
 of at least 40 rupees. For two years he 
 hung about her, and she loved him. At 
 last they agreed to elope. The rest of the
 
 ELOPEMENTS. 181 
 
 story is best told in the words of Heeradhun, 
 the girl's brother : 
 
 " Last Friday, when I came home from 
 work, my father said to me, e Where is your 
 sister ? She went out some time ago to fetch 
 water and has not returned. I suspect she 
 has run off at last with that worthless fellow 
 Boopeea, who is always hanging about the 
 house.' On this I went and called two or 
 three other young men who lived close by, 
 and we went off after my sister. We met 
 her and Boopeea in the valley by the stream. 
 Boopeea was first in the path; my sister 
 followed after him holding his hand. Then 
 I was enraged, and I ran at Boopeea and cut 
 at him with my dao : he leapt on one side, 
 and the blow fell on my sister. She said 
 once, ' Oh brother ! ' and then fell dead. 
 The dao cut her side open. Then I was 
 frightened and ran away. I knew nothing 
 positive of Shonia and Boopeea being in love, 
 although I suspected it : it is not our custom 
 to make public our love affairs. If Boopeea 
 had applied to the family, and been able
 
 182 THE CHUKMAS. 
 
 to pay the usual sums of money, we would 
 have consulted together, and given him our 
 sister in marriage. He would not have 
 spoken himself; he would have employed a 
 third party : but as he was unable to pay the 
 necessary expenses, he ran away with her. 
 It is our custom, in elopements, for the young 
 men of the village to go in search of the 
 runaway couple. If they catch them, they 
 ask the girl whether she leaves her home 
 voluntarily, or whether force has been used. 
 In the former case she is let go, but her hus- 
 band has afterwards to pay a fine. If they 
 are not caught, they get off free, and the 
 elders settle it according to custom." 
 
 Among the Toungjynya and Doingnak sec- 
 tions of the tribe, the unmarried lads are all 
 assembled at night in one house under the 
 charge of an elder lad, in the same way as in 
 the Khyoungtha villages. This, however, is 
 not the custom with the Chukmas Proper. 
 The lads play at "konyon," as described 
 among the Khyoungtha ; the game is known 
 to them as " geela kara." They also play a
 
 CUSTOMS. 183 
 
 game resembling our English "touch." Peg- 
 top is a common amusement among them. 
 Cards, dice, or gambling for money, are 
 unknown. The Jew's-harp has, on its late 
 introduction, gained a high place in the esti- 
 mation of the junior portion of the community. 
 
 In one point in particular the Chukmas 
 differ from the whole of the other hill tribes, 
 viz., that they are averse from changing the 
 sites of their villages. From generation to 
 generation the village is kept at one place ; 
 but yet they do not aim at any permanency 
 of structure, the houses being built in hill 
 fashion, of bamboo only, thatched with leaves. 
 
 The custom of putting a village in quaran- 
 tine in case of sickness is universal amongst 
 them. The average duration of life, they say, 
 does not run beyond sixty years, but that 
 formerly disease was much less common among 
 them, and it was not unusual to find men and 
 women attain the age of 90 or even 100 years. 
 They instance, in proof of this, three diseases 
 which have appeared among them within the 
 last two generations : First, a sickness called
 
 184 THE CHUKMAS. 
 
 " tsana peera." This disease appears first in 
 the form of a low intermittent fever ; but the 
 attacks increase in frequency until the type 
 changes to remittent, the tongue and throat 
 become ulcerated, delirium sets in, and is 
 followed by death. Second, " noa-bees," or 
 the new poison ; this is simply a strong re- 
 mittent fever. Both these diseases are said 
 to have been unknown until within the last 
 sixty years, and I can quite believe this to be 
 true, as the wilder hill tribes, further east, 
 still enjoy immunity from these attacks. The 
 third disease, which has only lately made its 
 appearance among them, is syphilis. They 
 are well acquainted with herbs and simples, 
 and possess a rough pharmacy of their own ; 
 but they have no medicine-men, professionally 
 speaking. The dress of the Chukmas is 
 similar to that of the Khyoungtha, save that 
 the petticoat of the women is of coarse blue 
 and red home-spun, and is worn rather 
 shorter. Their jewellery also is somewhat 
 different in shape. 
 
 They burn their dead. In the case of a
 
 FUNERALS. 185 
 
 man, the body is burnt with its face to the 
 east, and five layers of wood are used ; while 
 a woman is burnt face westward, and seven 
 layers of wood are consumed in the funeral 
 pile. Both the Chukmas and Khyoungtha 
 use more wood to burn the dead body of a 
 woman than of a man, and this is curious, 
 as one would imagine that from the greater 
 development of fatty and cellular tissue in 
 women, less combustibles would be required. 
 On the death of a Dewan or of a priest a 
 curious sport is customary at the funeral. 
 The corpse is conveyed to the place of crema- 
 tion on a car ; to this car ropes are attached, 
 and the persons attending the ceremony are 
 divided into two equal bodies and set to work 
 to pull in opposite directions. One side re- 
 presents the good spirits ; the other, the 
 powers of evil. The contest is so arranged 
 that the former are victorious. Sometimes, 
 however, the young men representing the 
 demons are inclined to pull too vigorously, 
 but a stick generally quells this unseemly 
 ardour in the cause of evil. If possible, at
 
 186 THE OHUKMAS. 
 
 the close of a funeral, there is a display of 
 fireworks, and guns are discharged. If a man 
 is believed to have died from witchcraft, the 
 body, when half burned, is divided down the 
 chest. A post, pole, or some other portion 
 of the dead man's house is usually burned 
 with him. The ashes of the pile are thrown 
 into the river, by the side of which cremation 
 invariably takes place. At the burning place 
 the relatives erect a lofty pole with a long 
 streamer of coarse cloth pendent therefrom. 
 Seven days after death, as among the Khy- 
 oungtha, the priests assemble to read prayers 
 for the dead, and the relatives give alms. 
 
 Crime of any sort is rare amongst the 
 Chukmas ; the most frequent misdemeanours 
 are those connected with women, and for 
 these a certain scale of fines is allotted. The 
 said fines are divided between the Chief of 
 the tribe and the head man or Dewan. 
 
 If a man runs away with another man's 
 wife, he has to repay to the injured husband 
 all the former expenses of marriage, and is 
 fined 40 to 60 rupees. Should near relatives
 
 CRIMINAL PUNISHMENTS. 187 
 
 (within certain prohibited degrees) fall in 
 love with each other, it is usual for both of 
 them to pay a fine of 50 rupees, and corporal 
 punishment is also administered. 
 
 Divorce is not difficult of attainment 
 amongst them, and can be awarded by a 
 jury of village elders. The party who is 
 judged to be in fault is fined heavily. As a 
 rule, however, divorce is uncommon, and the 
 women make good and faithful wives. 
 
 In serious cases, where the guilt or inno- 
 cence of any person is to be tested, they use 
 the ordeal by rice. A seer of rice is put into 
 a pot and left all night before the shrine of 
 Gaudama at one of the temples ; in the morn- 
 ing the elders assemble, and the supposed 
 culprit is called upon to chew some of this 
 rice. If he is innocent, he finds no difficulty 
 in doing so ; but if justly accused, he is not 
 only unable to masticate the rice, but blood 
 is believed to issue from his mouth. In a 
 case like this a very heavy fine is exacted. 
 In default of payment of fine, the culprit 
 ought, according to old custom, to become a
 
 188 THE OHUKMAS. 
 
 slave for such time as will enable him to work 
 off the penalty. 
 
 The abduction of a young girl against her 
 will is punished by a fine of 60 rupees, and 
 the offender also receives a good beating from 
 the lads of the village to which the girl 
 belongs. Theft is unknown among the Chuk- 
 mas, and formerly they settled all their dis- 
 putes among themselves. Of late years, 
 however, a spirit of litigation has grown up 
 among them, and they now resort to our 
 courts more than any other tribe. The 
 Chukmas allow no songs to be sung in or 
 near their villages save those of a religious 
 character ; love songs, they say, demoralize 
 the young girls. In the joom, or jungle, 
 however, the tongue is free. They are famous 
 for their flute-playing. Their instrument is 
 simple enough, being merely a joint of bamboo 
 pierced with holes ; but from this rough 
 medium they evoke wondrously soft music. 
 I have often, by the river side, listened to 
 the wild, melancholy notes of some unseen 
 player.
 
 SONGS MUSIC. 189 
 
 " Sweet, sweet, sweet, Pan ! 
 Piercing sweet by the river ! 
 Blinding sweet, O great god Pan ! 
 The sun on the hill forgot to die, 
 And the lilies revived, and the dragon-fly 
 Came back to dream on the river."
 
 nn 
 
 PART III. 
 
 THE HILL TRIBES (SONS OF THE RIVER). 
 Continued. 
 
 tribes to be noticed under this head 
 are 
 
 A. 
 
 r l. The Tipperahs, or 
 Mroongs. 
 
 2. The Kumi, or 
 
 Kweymee. 
 
 3. Mi-oos. 
 ^4. Khyengs. 
 
 p. The Bungees. 
 *\2. Pankhos. 
 
 1. The Lhoosai, or 
 
 Kookies. 
 
 C '|2. The Shendoos, or 
 Lakheyr. 
 
 Of the three subdivisions, A, B, and C, the 
 tribes mentioned under A are tributary to us 
 and entirely subject to our control. Those 
 included in B, although paying no revenue, 
 are subject to our influence; while the tribes 
 mentioned under C are entirely independent. 
 
 These tribes are in every respect wilder 
 than the Khyoungtha ; they are more purely
 
 THE TOUNGTHA. 191 
 
 savages, and unamenable to the lures of civili- 
 zation. Alcohol and tobacco, the two great 
 speech solvents, they have among them 
 already, and indeed they are independent of 
 all external assistance, the earth supplying 
 them with every necessary of their simpler 
 life. As civilization advances, they will 
 retire, and it will be found, I think, difficult, 
 if not impossible, to wean them from their 
 savage life. The above remarks do not apply 
 to the first-mentioned tribe ; for the Tipperahs, 
 although assimilating in manners and customs 
 with the remainder of the Toungtha, are en- 
 tirely different in character, and are the only 
 hill people, in truth, among whom I have met 
 with meanness and lying, the only people 
 whose savagery is unredeemed by simplicity 
 and manly independence. 
 
 The Toungtha are distinguished from the 
 Khyoungtha in many ways. Their villages 
 are, generally speaking, situated on lofty hills 
 and in places difficult of access. The men wear 
 hardly any clothes at all, and the petticoat of 
 the women is scanty, reaching barely below
 
 192 THE TOUNGTHA. 
 
 the knee, while their bosoms are left uncovered 
 after the birth of the first child ; previous to 
 that the unmarried girls wear a narrow breast- 
 cloth. Both men and women are much given 
 to dancing together. The women do not hold 
 so high a position among them as among 
 the Khyoungtha, and upon them falls the 
 greater part of the labour of life. 
 
 Their religion is simple : it is the religion 
 of nature. They worship the terrene ele- 
 ments, and have vague and undefined ideas 
 of some divine power which overshadows all. 
 They were born and they die, for ends to them 
 as incomputable as the path of a cannon-shot 
 fired into the darkness. They are cruel, and 
 attach but little value to life. Reverence or 
 respect are emotions unknown to them ; they 
 salute neither their chiefs nor their elders ; 
 no form of greeting exists in their many 
 tongues ; neither have they any expression 
 conveying thanks. The mainsprings of their 
 existence are hunger, fear, and that sexual 
 impulse which is common to every mere pro- 
 letarian animal.
 
 SOCIAL HABITS. 193 
 
 They attach importance to an oath; it is 
 with them a rude test or touchstone in mat- 
 ters pertaining to crime, and by which they 
 ratify engagements. The oath is made upon 
 the things upon which their very existence 
 may be said to depend, viz., water, cotton, 
 rice, and the " dao," or hill knife. They are 
 monogamists, and, as a rule, are faithful hus- 
 bands and good fathers after marriage. Great 
 license is allowed before marriage to the youth 
 of both sexes, between whom intercourse is 
 entirely unchecked. This practice, however 
 immoral as we should consider it, produces 
 no evil effects among them, but, on the con- 
 trary, acts rather beneficially than otherwise. 
 For a man or woman to be unmarried after 
 the age of thirty is unheard of; prostitution 
 is a thing not understood, or, if explained, 
 regarded by them with abhorrence. They 
 draw rightly a strong distinction between a 
 woman prostituting herself habitually as a 
 means of livelihood, and the intercourse by 
 mutual consent of two members of opposite 
 sexes leading, as it generally does, to mar- 
 
 o
 
 194 THE TOFNGTHA. 
 
 riage. Venereal diseases are unknown among 
 them. Marriage with them is more a civil 
 contract than a religious ceremony or sacra- 
 ment. It is entered into by the mutual 
 agreement of the contracting parties, and can 
 be dissolved at their joint request. Divorce, 
 however, if applied for by one of the parties 
 only, cannot be obtained save by payment of 
 an almost prohibitive fine. Adultery among 
 the wilder tribes is punished by death. 
 Concubinage among them is regarded as 
 disgraceful ; and although slavery is a recog- 
 nized institution among them, yet it is not 
 considered right for a master to take advan- 
 tage of his position with regard to the female 
 slaves in his house. A master's slaves are 
 his children, and are universally treated well. 
 Should a man's wife die, he may marry one 
 of his slaves ; his so doing at once raises her 
 to the position and privileges of a free woman. 
 Slaves are in all cases captives taken in 
 war ; the system of debtor slavery, prevailing 
 among the Khyoungtha, is unknown among 
 the wilder tribes.
 
 SOCIAL HABITS 195 
 
 The position of Chief among them carries 
 with it no great power or privileges. They 
 pay no revenue to their Chief, but he is 
 entitled to receive from each house yearly 
 one basket of rice and one jar of seepah (fer- 
 mented drink) ; his share also of the spoils of 
 war is the largest. Each village is a small 
 state, owing fealty and allegiance to no one 
 save their own special leader. A man may 
 leave one Chief, and transfer himself and his 
 family to the village of another; hence it 
 happens that the power of different Chiefs, 
 which depends upon the size of their re- 
 spective villages, varies considerably from 
 time to time, according to their success or 
 popularity. 
 
 They enjoy, as a rule, comparative im- 
 munity from the diseases which afflict the 
 people of the plains ; and on the only occa- 
 sions when they have suffered from the 
 scourges of small-pox and cholera, the dis- 
 eases have been conveyed to them by Ben- 
 gallees from the plains. The average duration 
 of age is from seventy to eighty years ; but 
 o 2
 
 196 THE TOUNGTHA. 
 
 it is by no means uncommon to see among 
 them white-haired and bowed old men, of 
 whose age all count has been lost. Women 
 die at a comparatively early >age, owing to 
 the constant labour which their sex entails 
 upon them. There is but one medicine cur- 
 rent among all the Toungtha ; this is the 
 dried gall bladder and the dung of the boa- 
 constrictor, which is supposed to be, and is 
 used as, a remedy -for everything. Amber, 
 however, is greatly prized among them, and 
 is worn as a necklace ; but I cannot say 
 whether it is believed to possess any curative 
 powers. Sacrifices are also offered by them 
 in cases of sickness, to avert the anger of 
 some special deity of wood or vale, who is 
 supposed to have sent the disease. If their 
 offerings prove unavailing, they conclude 
 either that they have not hit upon the right 
 deity, or that he is implacable and refuses to 
 be appeased. 
 
 In cases of epidemics, the custom of 
 quarantine, or, as it is called, "khang," is 
 universal among them. The quarantine is
 
 SOCIAL HABITS. 197 
 
 inaugurated and declared with a certain de- 
 gree of ceremony. A sacrifice is offered, 
 and the village is encircled with a fresh-spun 
 white thread. The blood of the animal 
 sacrificed is then sprinkled about the village, 
 and a general sweeping and cleansing takes 
 place, the houses and gates being decorated 
 with green boughs. They attach great 
 importance to the quarantine being kept 
 unbroken. It generally lasts three days, and 
 during that time no one is allowed to enter 
 or leave the village. I have known several 
 murders committed, owing to persons per- 
 sisting in breaking the " khang." The 
 intoxicating liquors used by them are of 
 three kinds, viz., khoung, a sweet fermented 
 liquor made from rice ; seepah, a fermented 
 liquor made from "birnee" grain ; and arrack, 
 that is alcohol, distilled from rice. Opium, 
 ganja, bhang, and other stimulants, are as yet 
 unknown to them. 
 
 There are four clans of the Tipperah tribe 
 resident in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, as 
 follow: The Pooran, the Nowuttea, the
 
 198 THE TIPPERAHS. 
 
 Osuie, and the Reeang. All caine originally 
 from Hill Tipperah. 
 
 According to the report of the Trigono- 
 metrical Survey, Hill Tipperah is situated 
 between the plains of the British District 
 of Tipperah and the Chatterchoora Range 
 south of Cachar, and consists of five ranges 
 of hills, which run almost parallel with each 
 other from north to south. Below Lat.2348 / , 
 these ranges are connected by transverse 
 branches, which separate the head waters 
 of the streams flowing north into the Barak 
 River, from those of the Goomtee flowing 
 west into British Tipperah, and the Fenny 
 and Kurnafoolee flowing into the Chittagong 
 District. 
 
 The origin of the name of Tipperah is 
 doubtful. It is pronounced and spelt in 
 Bengallee, " Tripoora." The Sanscrit term 
 " Tripoorardana " is used to indicate the 
 sun; and as judging by the remains of a 
 temple dedicated to the sun, which exist at 
 Odeypara, the ancient capital of Tipperah, 
 the worship of the sun seems to have formed
 
 THEIR NAME AND ORIGIN. 199 
 
 part of the cultus of Hill Tipperah; it is 
 not an improbable hypothesis to suppose 
 that the name Tipperah is derived from 
 " Tripoorardana," the sun god. The name 
 of Tipperah, however, is, I believe, an appel- 
 lation of purely Bengallee derivation. The 
 people themselves, in their own tongue, 
 recognize no generic term by which their 
 race may be designated. If you ask a man 
 of what race he is, he will tell you the name 
 of his clan, Pooran, Osuie, or whatever it 
 may be ; but if he is speaking Bengallee, he 
 will use the generic term Tipperah. 
 
 The country of Hill Tipperah is governed 
 by a Kajah. He calls himself a Hindoo of the 
 Khettrie caste ; but the people themselves 
 say that he is descended from their blood 
 and bone, " otherwise how should we pay 
 him tribute." The Rajah, however, has be- 
 come, to all intents and purposes, a Hindoo ; 
 and a crowd of needy parasites of that reli- 
 gion surround him, and are the agents by 
 which his country is administered. These 
 proceedings are naturally not approved by
 
 200 THE TIPPEEAHS. 
 
 the bulk of his people, and consequently a 
 yearly emigration takes place from Hill Tip- 
 perah into the Chittagong Hills ; and, we now 
 possess a large population of Tipperahs, num- 
 bering some 15,000 souls. 
 
 The Tipperahs for the most part live in 
 the country to the north of the River Kur- 
 nafoolee. The hills bordering on Hill Tip- 
 perah are principally inhabited by the Pooran 
 and Nowuttea clans. Eeeangs are the wildest 
 of all, and live in close juxtaposition with the 
 independent tribes of Lhoosai (or Kookies) 
 on our eastern frontier. The Osuie are a 
 comparatively small and scattered clan ; some 
 of their villages are found near the Fenny 
 River; some on the hills near the Kurna- 
 foolee ; while two of their villages have gone 
 southward into the Bohmong's country, and 
 have cultivated on the Dollookhyoung, a 
 tributary of the River Sungoo. Like all the 
 hill tribes the village community, governed 
 by the head man, or Roaja, is the leading 
 characteristic of their social polity. They 
 cultivate in the usual manner by jooming.
 
 SOCIAL HABITS. 201 
 
 Their villages, however, do not stay long in 
 one place : they are a restless people. The 
 Tipperahs are passionately fond of dancing, 
 and at the time of their great harvest festival, 
 which takes place generally in November, the 
 dances are kept up sometimes for two days 
 and two nights without intermission. The 
 dances are in every way seemly, although 
 the drinking of seepah and "khoung" (sweet 
 fermented liquor made from rice) is enormous. 
 Drunkenness among them, however, does not 
 take an amorous or a pugnacious direc- 
 tion ; it generally expends itself in vehement 
 dancing, until such time as the head becomes 
 giddy, and the dancer lies down to sleep off 
 what he has drunk. When the dance begins 
 it is the custom for the old men and women 
 of the village to lead off, and after they have 
 retired the young people have their fling. 
 
 Great freedom of intercourse is allowed 
 between the sexes; but a Tipperah girl is 
 never known to go astray out of her own 
 clan. An illegitimate birth, also, is hardly 
 known among them, for the simple reason
 
 202 THE TIPPERAHS. 
 
 that, should a girl become enceinte, her lover 
 has to marry her. The girls are totally free 
 from the prudery that distinguishes Mahom- 
 medan and Hindoo women, and they have an 
 open, frank manner, combined with a womanly 
 modesty that is attractive. At a marriage 
 there is no particular ceremony, but a great 
 deal of drinking and dancing. A pig is killed 
 as a sacrifice to the deities of the wood and 
 stream, the crowning point of the affair being 
 this : the girl's mother pours out a glass of 
 liquor and gives it to her daughter, who goes 
 and sits on her lover's knee, drinks half, and 
 gives him the other half; they afterwards 
 crook together their little fingers. If a match 
 be made with the consent of the parents, the 
 young man has to serve three years in his 
 father-in-law's house before he obtains his 
 wife or is formally married. During the 
 period of probation his sweetheart is, to all 
 intents and purposes, a wife to him. On the 
 wedding night, however, the bridegroom has 
 to sleep with his wife surreptitiously, entering 
 the house by stealth, and leaving it before
 
 MARRIAGES. 203 
 
 dawn. He then absents himself for four days, 
 during which time he makes a round of visits 
 among all his friends. On the fourth day he 
 is escorted back with great ceremony, and has 
 to give another feast to his cortege. A Tip- 
 perah widow may re-marry if it so seems 
 good to her. Every lad before marriage has 
 his sweetheart, and he cohabits with her 
 whenever opportunity serves ; this, however, 
 is without the knowledge of the elders. I 
 once asked a young man whether he was 
 not afraid of his liaison coming to the know- 
 ledge of the girl's relatives. He replied, 
 " No, it is the custom ; what can they say ? 
 they did the same when they were young, 
 and their daughter is responsible for her own 
 actions. She likes me and I like her." 
 
 The following story is illustrative of their 
 customs and feelings in this respect. I took 
 it down from the lips of a handsome young 
 Tipperah of the E/eeang clan : 
 
 " Once in our village it was harvest time, and we 
 were all to go to Chomteyah's joom to gather in the 
 grain. At early morning we all started all the lads
 
 204 THE TIPPERAHS. 
 
 and lasse of the village. Among the girls was one 
 pretty young creature, about fourteen years old; her 
 name was Bamoyntee. I had never seen her before ; 
 her father and mother had just come from another vil- 
 lage, and settled in ours, where they had relatives. On 
 the road I could not take my eyes from off her she was 
 so pretty. I spoke to her, but she would answer nothing 
 save yes or no. Some of the other girls noticed us, and 
 they began teasing me and laughing. When we got to 
 the joom, before setting to work, some one had to be 
 chosen to cook the midday meal, which is eaten on the 
 spot ; so they all laughed at us a great deal, and chose 
 Bamoyntee and me, and said to us, ' Go you two, and 
 gather vegetables, and come back quickly to cook.' 
 Then I was glad, and said to her, ' Come,' but she 
 would not walk with me ; she walked at some distance 
 away. I had my dao, and she carried a small basket 
 slung at her back ; so we went down the hill into the 
 bed of a small stream, but I never thought about vege- 
 tables ; I thought about her only. She began looking 
 for young vegetables, the tender shoots of the fern, the 
 sprouts of young canes, and other things that grow 
 wild. I was ashamed ; I did not know what to say. 
 Presently, as we were going along in the cool bed of the 
 stream, with the trees meeting over our heads, she saw 
 a beautiful pink orchid growing high up on the branch 
 of a forest tree, and she said, ' Oh, I wish I had that ! ' 
 So I threw down my dao, and climbed to get the flower. 
 Our Reeang girls prize this sort of flower much, and 
 wear it in their hair. I soon got up the tree; but the 
 branch on which the flower grew was rotten, and broke
 
 COUBTSHIP. 205 
 
 with me, and I fell down from a great height, and lost 
 my senses. When I woke I found her crying, and 
 bathing my face with water from the stream ; and I 
 said to her, ' Bamoyntee, do not be angry, and I will 
 say something ! ' She answered, ' Speak.' I said, ' You 
 won't be angry ? ' And she answered, ' No ; ' and she 
 took the flower that was in my hand. So I said, ' I 
 love you ; ' and she hid her face, and I took her in my 
 arms and said, ' Answer me you are not angry ? ' She 
 said, ' No.' So I asked her, ' Do you love me ? ' And 
 she whispered, ' Yes ; ' and I said, ' Then why did you 
 not tell me so ? ' She replied, ' It is not the custom for 
 women to speak first ; I was ashamed.' Then I said, 
 ' May I come to your father's house to-night ? ' And she 
 answered, ' Come ; but now we must be quick and gather 
 vegetables, or they will laugh at us when we get back.' 
 So we made haste and got vegetables, and went back 
 to the joom. When we got there, the young men and 
 maidens began laughing, and said, ' Well, have you come 
 to an understanding, you two ? is it all settled ? ' But 
 we said nothing in reply. When the sun was sinking, 
 and the baskets filled with corn-ears, we all set off home- 
 wards. I delayed, on one pretence and another, until I 
 was left behind, and she saw this ; but at last they all 
 went off singing. She loitered and fell back on the way, 
 so we two went home together. She said to me, ' Come 
 to-night to my father's house before we sleep, so that you 
 may see where I spread my mat.' When we got near the 
 village she went on alone, and I made a circuit through 
 the jungle, and came in at the other side of the village 
 where our house was. At nightfall I went to her house,
 
 206 THE TIPPERAH?. 
 
 and her parents received me kindly, and brought out the 
 arrack, and I ate with them, hut I said nothing. After- 
 wards we sat and smoked our pipes. I was determined 
 that I would not go away until I had seen where 
 Bamoyntee spread her mat ; and at the last she was 
 ashamed, and would not spread it till her mother got 
 angry and rated her, saying, ' Come, my daughter, you 
 are lazy to-night; spread the mats, for it is time to 
 sleep.' Then I saw the place where she slept, and I 
 went away. At midnight I got up, and came softly 
 hack to the house. I went up the ladder to the door, 
 and was just going in, when their great dog came at me, 
 barking ; but Bamoyntee came to the door and quieted 
 him. Then I took her hand, and we went in together, 
 keeping step as we walked, like one person. I slept 
 there that night and many nights afterwards, till at last 
 the old people called me son ; and I left my father's 
 house, and lived there for good. She is my wife now." 
 
 The dress of the Tipperahs is of the sim- 
 plest description. Among the men a thick 
 turban is worn, and a narrow piece of home- 
 spun cloth, with a fringed end hanging down 
 in front and rear, passes once round the waist 
 and between the legs. In the cold season 
 they wear a rudely-sewn jacket. The males 
 wear silver earrings, crescent-shaped, with 
 little silver pendants on the outer edgq. The
 
 DRESS MODE OF OBTAINING FIRE. 207 
 
 dress of the women is equally unornate. The 
 petticoat is short, reaching a little below the 
 knee, and made of very coarse cotton stuff of 
 their own manufacture. It is striped in 
 colours of red and blue. If the woman be 
 married, this petticoat will form her whole 
 costume ; but the unmarried girls cover the 
 breast with a gaily-dyed cloth with fringed 
 ends. The women never cover their heads ; 
 they wear earrings like the men ; but in 
 addition to this ornament they distend the 
 lobe of the ear to the size of half a crown by 
 the insertion of a concave-edged ring of silver, 
 placed, not through, but in the lobe. Both 
 sexes have long, black, abundant hair, which 
 is worn in a knot at the back of the head. 
 The use of false hair is common among them, 
 especially the women. The meshes of false 
 hair are woven in among the back hair to 
 make the knot look larger. 
 
 The Tipperahs make use of an ingenious 
 device to obtain fire; they take a piece of 
 dry bamboo about a foot long, split it in half, 
 and on its outer round surface cut a nick or
 
 208 THE TIPPERAHS. 
 
 notch, about an eighth of an inch broad, 
 circling round the semi-circumference of the 
 bamboo, shallow towards the edges, but 
 deepening in the centre, until a minute slit 
 of about a line in breadth pierces the inner 
 surface of the bamboo fire-stick. Then a 
 flexible slip of bamboo is taken, about 1^ feet 
 long and an eighth of an inch in breadth, to 
 fit the circling notch or groove in the fire- 
 stick. This slip or band is rubbed with fine 
 dry sand, and then passed round the fire- 
 stick, on which the operator stands, a foot on 
 either end. Then the slip, grasped firmly, an 
 end in each hand, is pulled steadily back and 
 forth, increasing gradually in pressure and 
 velocity as the smoke comes. By the time 
 the fire-band snaps with the friction, there 
 ought to appear through the slit in the 
 fire-stick some incandescent dust, and this, 
 placed smouldering as it is, in a nest of dry 
 bamboo shavings, can be gently blown into a 
 flame. At night, in camping out in the jun- 
 gle, they adopt a novel precaution to prevent 
 the dew from the trees dripping on them.
 
 CAMPING IN THE JUNGLE. 209 
 
 The trunk of the tree tinder which they 
 intend to rest is notched upwards with a dao. 
 This, they say, causes the tree to absorb all 
 the dew that falls on it, and the leaves will 
 not drip. On rising in the morning, the 
 operation must be reversed, and the tree 
 knotched seven times with the dao, edge 
 earthwards, otherwise they say that the 
 spirits of the wood would be offended, and 
 both the tree and those who slept beneath 
 it would die. Another characteristic trait 
 of theirs I remember. We were travelling 
 once through the jungles, and the path led 
 across a small streamlet. Here I observed 
 a white thread stretched from one side 
 to the other, bridging the stream. On in- 
 quiring the reason of this, it appeared that 
 a man had died away from his home in a 
 distant village ; his friends had gone thither 
 and performed his obsequies, after which it 
 was supposed that the dead man's spirit 
 would accompany them back to his former 
 abode. "Without assistance, however, spirits 
 are unable to cross running water ; there- 
 
 p
 
 210 THE TIPPEEAHS. 
 
 fore the stream here had been bridged in the 
 manner aforesaid. 
 
 Divorce can be obtained among the Tip- 
 perahs as among all the hill tribes, on the 
 adjudication of a jury of village elders. One 
 such case I remember to have seen. The 
 divorce was sued for by the wife, on the 
 ground of habitual cruelty. The jury delibe- 
 rated and found that the cruelty was proved, 
 and that the divorce should be granted. 
 Some check, however, they determined must 
 be put upon the women, or otherwise every 
 wife would complain if her husband raised 
 his little finger at her. Accordingly they 
 gave sentence that the divorce was granted ; 
 but that as the woman was wrong to insist 
 upon abandoning her lawful husband, she 
 should give up all her silver ornaments to 
 him, pay a fine of 30 rupees, and provide a 
 pig with trimmings, in the shape of ardent 
 spirits, to be discussed by the jury. 
 
 In disputes among the Tipperahs, where 
 one man asserts a thing and the other denies 
 it, I have frequently seen the matter decided
 
 SETTLEMENT OF DISPUTES. 211 
 
 at the request of both parties by the hill oath 
 on the dao, rice, cotton, and river water. I 
 remember one case in which two men dis- 
 puted as to the ownership of a cow ; both 
 parties claiming the animal : at last the man 
 who wished to get possession of the beast 
 said, " Well, if he will swear by the dao that 
 the cow has always been in his possession 
 and is his property, I will abandon all claim." 
 The other man agreed to this, and took the 
 required oath; after which both parties re- 
 tired quite satisfied, the man at whose in- 
 stance the oath was taken, remarking that 
 the result now was in the hands of the 
 deities. 
 
 The Tipperah village system is the same 
 as that of the Khyoungthas; there is a 
 village head man chosen by the residents, 
 through whom they pay the yearly Govern- 
 ment tax or tribute to the local Khyoungtha 
 Chiefs, whose supremacy they recognize. 
 The wildest clan among them is the Reeang. 
 Indeed, it is only of late years that this clan 
 has settled down peaceably within British 
 p 2
 
 212 THE TIPPERAHS. 
 
 territory. Their villages formerly were far 
 away in the Kookie country, and they took 
 part with the independent tribes in the 
 savage raids on British subjects, the perpe- 
 tration of which led to the direct adminis- 
 tration of the Hill Tracts by our Government. 
 Since they have seen that a stable executive 
 authority has been established in the hills, 
 the villages have one by one left the Kookie 
 country, and moved to within the sphere of 
 the British authority. 
 
 The chief men among the Tipperahs in this 
 district are Kisto Chunder Thakoor and his 
 brother Modho Chunder, who live in the 
 country bordering on the Fenny River. They 
 are near relatives of the present Rajah of 
 Hill Tipperah, and in 1860 seemed to think 
 that they had some claim to succeed to the 
 Raj, as at that time, owing, to the dissensions 
 between them and the Rajah, they fled hither, 
 and obtaining the assistance of the Kookies, 
 committed the outrages of 1860, which led 
 to Major Raban's expedition against the 
 independent tribes. The Tipperahs, how-
 
 VILLAGE CUSTOMS. 213 
 
 ever, seem to have no tribal or feudal attach- 
 ment to these brothers ; they are feared, but 
 neither respected nor loved by the people of 
 their tribe in the Hill Tracts; and there 
 seems to be no inclination or wish on the 
 part of the people to constitute or recognize 
 them as Chiefs in any way. 
 
 The Tipperah customs in these hills are 
 much affected by the locality of their villages. 
 Having, as it were, no distinct and collective 
 nationality, they are apt to fuse with, and 
 amalgamate in, customs at any rate with the 
 races with whom they are brought in contact. 
 Thus the Eeeangs differ very little in habi- 
 tudes from the Kookies. The great Nowuttea 
 clan, with its many sub-divisions, living for 
 the most part in the Mong Rajah's country, 
 on the banks of the Fenny, are in close con- 
 tact with the Bengallees of the plains. They 
 are consequently addicted to Hindoo super- 
 stitions and observances, and I regret to say 
 that latterly there have been some slight 
 indications that the most important men 
 among them are fostering the hurtful and
 
 214 THE TIPPEEAHS FUNERALS. 
 
 obnoxious doctrine of caste and niceties of 
 feeding. Again, the Osuies will be found, 
 most of them, able to talk the Arracanese 
 vernacular, and with ideas assimilating to 
 those of the Khyoungtha. 
 
 When a Tipperah dies his body is imme- 
 diately removed from within the house to the 
 open air. A fowl is killed and placed with 
 some rice at the dead man's feet. The body 
 is burnt at the water side. At the spot where 
 the body was first laid out, the deceased's 
 relatives kill a cock every morning for seven 
 days, and leave it there with some rice as an 
 offering to the manes of the dead. A month 
 after death a like offering is made at the 
 place of cremation, and this is occasionally 
 repeated for a year. The ashes are deposited 
 on a hill in a small hut built for the purpose, 
 in which are also placed the dead man's 
 weapons, a spear, daos of two sorts (one 
 his fighting dao, the other his every-day bread- 
 winner), arrow heads, his metal- stemmed 
 pipe, earrings, and ornaments. The place 
 is held sacred. In all ceremonies of a reli-
 
 CLASSIFICATION. 215 
 
 gious nature among them the " ojha," or 
 " owkchye," is in much request. The ojha 
 is simply an exorcist, or person supposed 
 to have power over spirits ; the office depends 
 upon a knowledge of charms, and is there- 
 fore necessarily handed down from father 
 to son. 
 
 The classification of the Tipper ah s, as be- 
 longing to the Toungtha, is perhaps incor- 
 rect, as in many of their habits and customs 
 they assimilate both with the Bengallees of 
 the plains and with the Khyoungtha tribes ; 
 and they possess, also, a distinct head or 
 Chief in the adjacent district of Hill Tip- 
 perah, who is recognized as Rajah by the 
 whole race. I have, however, so classed 
 them, as I believe that they belong to the 
 same branch. Among the wilder clans, the 
 Reeangs for instance, they still live in accord- 
 ance with primitive customs; and in Hill 
 Tipperah the Rankhul and Dhopa clans are 
 called Kookies, but, as far as habits of life 
 and customs go, are much the same as the 
 Reeangs. As I have before said, however,
 
 216 THE TIPPERAHS. 
 
 the Tipperah, where he is brought into con- 
 tact with, or under the influence of, the Ben- 
 gallee, easily acquires their worst vices and 
 superstitions, losing at the same time the 
 leading characteristic of the primitive man 
 the love of truth. In an account of Arracan 
 by Colonel Sir A. P. Phayre, which appeared 
 in the Bengal Asiatic Society's Journal, it is 
 said that a people, called Mroongs by the 
 Arracanese, are found in the Akyab District. 
 They announce themselves as descendants of 
 persons carried away from Tipperah several 
 generations back by the Arracan Kings, by 
 whom they were first planted on the Le-myo 
 River, with a view to cutting off their retreat 
 into their own country; but when Arracan 
 became convulsed in consequence of the, 
 invasion of the Burmese, they gradually 
 commenced leaving the Le-myo, and return- 
 ing through the hills to their own country. 
 For a time they dwelt on the Koladyne ; but 
 none are now to be found in Arracan, save 
 on the Mayoo on its upper course, and only 
 a few stragglers there. The language of the
 
 MUSIC AND DANCING. 217 
 
 Mroongs is identical with, the Tipperah 
 tongue. The Mroongs referred to by him 
 are still living in the southern part of this 
 district ; their villages are principally situated 
 in the valley of the Matamoree River and its 
 tributaries. Their customs and habits differ 
 in no essential particular from those of the 
 rest of the Tipperah clans. 
 
 The whole Tipperah tribe is known to the 
 Khyoungtha by the name of Mroong. I have 
 visited some of the Mroong villages on the 
 Matamoree River. They are very hospitable, 
 and I was perforce compelled to go from 
 house to house ; in every dwelling a fresh pot 
 of " seepah" being broached. They have a 
 most curious musical instrument, in sound 
 something between an organ and a bagpipe. 
 It is made from a gourd, into which long 
 reedpipes of different lengths are inserted, 
 which have each one hole-stop ; this is their 
 sole instrument. Towards the close of the 
 day, becoming enthusiastic, they performed 
 a dance for me, and the instruments which 
 accompanied the measure were single reeds,
 
 218 THE TIPPERAHS. 
 
 each player having one reed on which he 
 played his solitary note as his turn came 
 round, after the manner of the old-fashioned 
 Russian horn bands. The tune was mo- 
 notonous, but not inharmonious. Little 
 boys played the tenor reeds, and men the 
 bass, while every now and then a gong 
 would sound a deep sonorous note that 
 chimed in with the melody in a quaint 
 barbaric manner. 
 
 Men only took part in the dance, the 
 women being shy before a stranger. The 
 dancers stood in a circle, turning now to 
 the right and again to the left in unison and 
 at certain periods in the rhythm of the music. 
 The music was as it were punctuated by the 
 dancers bending their knees, and at the end 
 of the movement came a sharp jerky pause. 
 It is curious to compare this dance with 
 a description of a like performance which 
 Baron Humboldt describes in his travels 8 . 
 
 8 " The travellers saw the Indians dance. The men, 
 young and old, formed a circle holding each other's 
 hands, and turned sometimes to the right and sometimes
 
 LANGUAGE. 219 
 
 While they were playing, a tame " beemraj " 
 (a small bird) came and settled on the tur- 
 ban of the Roaja, or village head man, and 
 fluttered its wings in apparent delight at the 
 noise. The little children had tame lizards 
 in a string for playthings. 
 
 The Tipperahs have a separate and dis- 
 tinct language of their own, but they have 
 no written character. 
 
 An account of the tribe as it exists in Hill 
 Tipperah, will be found in the Annual Eeport 
 to the Surveyor-General for 1863-64 of Mr. 
 R. B. Smart, of the Revenue Survey. He 
 appends to the report a vocabulary of the 
 Tipperah tongue. He has, however, been 
 misled, as the words given by him are not 
 the Tipperah language, but a dialect of the 
 
 to the left for whole hours with silent gravity. Feeble 
 sounds, drawn from a series of reeds of different lengths, 
 formed a slow and plaintive accompaniment. The first 
 dancer, to mark the time, hent both knees at the cadence. 
 Sometimes they all made a pause in their places, and 
 executed little oscillatory movements, bending the body 
 from one side to the other." Voyage aux Regions Equi- 
 noxiales du Nouveau Continent. Humboldt.
 
 220 THE KUMI. 
 
 Lhoossai tongue, spoken by the Bankhul 
 Kookies who reside on the borders of Hill 
 Tipperah. 
 
 The Kumi, or Kweymee, dwell on the 
 Koladan River in Arracan and on the upper 
 portion of the Sungoo River, or Rigray 
 Khyoung, in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. 
 The name Kweymee is Arracanese, and was 
 applied to this tribe first, I imagine, because 
 it was something like their own tribal name 
 of Kumi, and, secondly, on account of a pecu- 
 liarity in their dress. "Kwey/' or "Khwee," 
 in Arracanese, means a dog, and " mee" is 
 an affix conveying the idea of men; Kwey- 
 mee therefore means dog-men. Now the 
 Kumi wear a very scanty breech cloth, 
 which is so adjusted, that a long end hangs 
 down behind them in the manner of a tail ; 
 add to this that the dog is a favourite article 
 of food among them, and the derivation of 
 the name seems pretty clear. Colonel Sir 
 A. P. Phayre, in his paper on the Indo- 
 Chinese Borderers, published in the Journal 
 of the Asiatic Society of Bengal (No. 1 of
 
 DIFFERENT TRIBES. 221 
 
 1853), says that the Kumi have lived on the 
 Koladan River only for the last four or five 
 generations. They had expelled the Mrii 
 tribe from that part of the country, and 
 were themselves being driven west and south 
 by more powerful tribes. Mr. Hodgson, in 
 the same number of the Asiatic Society's 
 Journal, states his belief that the Kumi, 
 Khyeng, and Mrii are aboriginal inhabitants 
 of the country, broken and dispersed into 
 different tribes. In the Chittagong Hills 
 the Kumi tribe numbers some 2000 souls. 
 Their numbers, however, fluctuate, as year 
 by year some families either go to, or return 
 from, their relatives living on the Koladan 
 in Arracan. The journey is always made by 
 a well-known pass across the hills, leading 
 from the Sungoo River over Modho Tong. 
 The distance is a short two days* journey. 
 The Pee Khyoung in Arracan is reached on 
 the first day. 
 
 The Kumis pay three rupees per house 
 yearly to the Bohmong, whom they recog- 
 nize as their ruler.
 
 222 THE KUMI. 
 
 In common with all hill tribes, each village 
 has its recognized head, who receives no 
 money tribute, but has certain definite rights 
 and privileges pertaining to his position. The 
 Kumis, owing to their more immediate juxta- 
 position with the independent and predatory 
 tribes, are more warlike than the majority of 
 our hill dwellers. Their villages are gene- 
 rally situated on the top of a lofty hill, and 
 are regularly stockaded and fortified. The 
 village has generally but one door, and this is 
 defended by a winding passage trebly stock- 
 aded. The door itself is of solid timber, 
 thickly studded from top to bottom with a 
 thicket of bamboo spikes. The enceinte of 
 the village has lofty look-out stations placed 
 at intervals, where a watch is kept day and 
 night ; the steep slopes of the hill are ren- 
 dered difficult of ascent by chevaux de /rise 
 of bamboo, while the ravines below are 
 strewn with caltrops. In one village I 
 noticed a most extraordinary stronghold in 
 a tree. It was a small house built of shot- 
 proof logs of timber, and elevated about 100
 
 VILLAGES. 223 
 
 feet from the ground in the branches of an 
 enormous tree that grew in the village. The 
 hut was capable of holding about twenty per- 
 sons ; it was loopholed all round and in the 
 floor, and was reached by a ladder which 
 could be drawn up when necessary. It was 
 probably some such structure as this that led 
 to the tale of the tree-living Kookies which 
 Colonel Phayre notices. (Journal of Bengal 
 Asiatic Society for 1841.) Certain it is that 
 none of the tribes known to us live in trees, 
 although it is not improbable that some such 
 device as that described above might be re- 
 sorted to by them as a safeguard and retreat 
 in the event of a night attack or a surprise. 
 
 The Kumi houses are all built of bamboo and 
 thatched with palm-shaped leaves, which are 
 found in moist places in the jungle. The 
 houses are always raised 8 or 10 feet from 
 the ground. There is a platform in front of 
 the house where the plates and dishes are 
 washed, and where the bamboo tubes, in 
 which the women fetch water, are kept. The 
 house itself consists of one immense hall with
 
 224 THE KUMI. 
 
 an enclosed platform at the back. This hall 
 is about 50 feet long by 20 broad ; it has two 
 large fire-places, or hearths, one at each end, 
 made in the usual way of loose earth bat- 
 tened into a square between four logs. The 
 walls are double, of bamboo mat, with about 
 18 inches between the outer and inner wall ; 
 this, no doubt, adds greatly to the coolness 
 of the house, but must prevent the free in- 
 coming of the breeze. Outside the house, 
 along the whole plinth above the door, is a 
 line of skulls, antlered deer, and tusked boar, 
 guyal and bear, all smoked to one uniform 
 dark brown tinge. Inside the house, towards 
 the centre, if the owner is a mighty hunter, 
 will be seen another trophy of arms and 
 skins, including buffaloo horns, and mixed 
 with weapons, such as shields, powder horns, 
 spears, &c. Guns (if there be any) are gene- 
 rally kept concealed. 
 
 The Kumis have a tradition of the Crea- 
 tion, but I am unable to say whether it is 
 peculiar to them or derived from some other 
 source. It is as follows : " God made the
 
 TRADITION OF THE CREATION. 225 
 
 world and the trees and the creeping things 
 first, and after that he set to work to make 
 one man and one woman, forming their bodies 
 of clay ; but each night, on the completion of 
 his work, there came a great snake, which, 
 while God was sleeping, devoured the two 
 images. This happened twice or thrice, and 
 God was at his wit's end, for he had to work 
 all day, and could not finish the pair in less 
 than twelve hours ; besides, if he did not sleep, 
 he would be no good," said my informant. 
 " If he were not obliged to sleep, there would 
 be no death, nor would mankind be afflicted 
 with illness. It is when he rests that the 
 snake carries us off to this day. Well, he 
 was at his wit's end, so at last he got up 
 early one morning and first made a dog and 
 put life into it, and that night, when he had 
 finished the images, he set the dog to watch 
 them, and when the snake came, the dog 
 barked and frightened it away. This is 
 the reason at this day that when a man is 
 dying the dogs begin to howl ; but I sup- 
 pose God sleeps heavily now-a-days, or 
 
 Q
 
 226 THE KUMI. 
 
 the snake is bolder, for men die all the 
 same." 
 
 When small-pox first made its appearance 
 among the Kumis, they considered it to be 
 a devil that had come from Arracan. The 
 villages were put in " khang," and all egress 
 or ingress put a stop to. A monkey was 
 killed by dashing it on the ground, and was 
 then suspended at the village gate ; a mixture 
 of monkey's blood and small river pebbles 
 was sprinkled on the houses, and the threshold 
 of each house swept with the monkey's tail, 
 and the fiend was adjured to depart ; but the 
 poor Kumis found that this was a very strong 
 devil indeed, for the exorcisms were of no 
 effect. They therefore abandoned their homes, 
 leaving the sick to take care of themselves ; 
 and men, women, and children, fled to the 
 jungles. 
 
 Kumi music is made with a sort of guitar, 
 in shape not unlike a large fiddle, but made 
 of one solid lump of wood, with wooden frets 
 tied down the stem, as in a guitar. It is 
 thrummed with a bit of bamboo ; drums of
 
 MUSIC DANCING RELIGION. 227 
 
 every size give an ad libitum accompaniment. 
 Their dance is simple. It is more a species 
 of march than a dance : about twenty young 
 men move round in a circle to measured time ; 
 the rhythm distinctly marked, both by the 
 music and by the motions of the dancers. 
 The leader, on the occasion I saw them dance, 
 held in his hand a small dao with a brazen 
 handle, from which streamed a tuft of goats' 
 hair dyed scarlet. The other performers bore, 
 some a shield, some an ordinary dao or a 
 spear; and these weapons they clanked 
 together in time to their movements. The 
 measure went something in this fashion : 
 One step, a pause ; two steps, all sink down 
 on their hams, clank weapons, and rise again ; 
 another step, then a jump and a shout, and 
 so on. In an adjoining room to that in which 
 this dance took place were the drinkers, two 
 to each pot of "seepah," which they sucked 
 vigorously through reeds. 
 
 The religion of the Kumis is the same as 
 that of the other Toungtha tribes. They 
 offer sacrifice to the spirits of the hills and 
 Q 2
 
 228 THE KUMI. 
 
 rivers. On one occasion I had to swear an 
 oath of friendship with certain Chiefs among 
 the Kumis, and sacrifice was then offered up 
 as follows : A goat was tied by the neck, 
 the cord being held by me ; another rope was 
 fastened to the animal's hind legs, and held 
 by the five Chiefs with whom I was con- 
 cerned. The ropes were kept taut, so that 
 the animal was thrown into an extended 
 position. The head Chief bearing a fighting 
 dao, stood over the goat ; and taking a 
 mouthful of liquor from a cup which was 
 handed to him, he blew it first over me, then 
 over the Chiefs, and a third mouthful upon 
 the goat. He then raised his dao over his 
 head, and addressed a loud invocation to the 
 "Nat," or spirit of the river, at the same 
 time plucking some hairs from the goat, and 
 scattering them to the wind. Then with one 
 stroke of the dao he severed the animal's 
 head from its body. The warm blood from 
 his weapon was afterwards smeared upon the 
 feet and foreheads of all who took part in 
 the ceremony, with a muttered formula, indi-
 
 MARRIAGES FESTIVALS. 229 
 
 eating that any one who was false or acted 
 contrary to the object for the attainment of 
 which the sacrifice was offered, could be 
 slain without fault by his coadjutors. A 
 grand feast on the goat's flesh concluded the 
 ceremony. 
 
 The marrying of a wife among them does 
 not appear to entail the performance of any 
 particular ceremonies. It is simply a festive 
 occasion, when much is eaten and drunk. 
 The practice of taking the omens from cer- 
 tain conditions of a fowl's tongue seems to 
 prevail among them as among the Khyoung- 
 tha. A child is named on the falling off of 
 the navel string. In giving it a name, the 
 mother binds seven threads round its wrist, 
 saying, " Be fortunate ! be brave! be healthy!" 
 The name given is generally one that has 
 been borne by some progenitor. They have 
 no special festival days ; a fortunate war- 
 party, a marriage, or a lucky hunt, are all 
 occasions for merry-making. They are large 
 drinkers, and they smoke tobacco freely, 
 either from a bamboo pipe, or rolled up as
 
 230 THE KUMI VARIOUS CUSTOMS. 
 
 a cigar. A favourite festival dish, among 
 them is a dog stuffed with rice. The young 
 cur is plentifully fed with cooked rice about 
 half an hour before cooking time, and when 
 stuffed to repletion is knocked on the head, 
 skinned and roasted. The rice is left in the 
 stomach and eaten with the dog's flesh as a 
 concomitant relish. Surely men's appetites 
 and their wits are sharpened on the same 
 grindstone. 
 
 Women among them have no rights of 
 inheritance; the eldest son is recognized as 
 his father's sole heir and representative. 
 Slavery is a recognized institution among 
 them. They burn their dead, first filling the 
 mouth of the corpse with rice and rice beer. 
 The ashes are afterwards placed in a small 
 hut built near the place of cremation. Here 
 are also deposited the every-day clothes, 
 the eating utensils, and the sleeping mat of 
 the deceased. They have no salutations or 
 forms of greeting among them ; neither does 
 their language contain any precative terms : 
 they have no written character.
 
 THE MRUS. 231 
 
 The Kumis wear their hair bound in a 
 knot over their foreheads. Their earrings 
 are flat discs of silver, with the centre cut 
 out; among the women the lobe of the ear 
 is distended to a large size, with a roll of 
 or a flattened cylinder of wood. 
 
 The Mrii tribe formerly dwelt in the Arra- 
 can Hills ; they now live principally to the 
 west of the River Sungoo, and on the Mata- 
 moree River in this district. They state that 
 they were driven from Arracan by the Kumi 
 tribe, between whom and themselves, within 
 the last few years, a blood feud existed, and 
 affrays often took place. The spread of 
 British influence among both tribes has now 
 put a stop to these encounters. The Raja- 
 weng, or History of Arracan, states that a 
 Mrii was King of Arracan in the 14th cen- 
 tury A.D. The Mriis are despised as wild 
 men by the Khyoungtha : they are tributary 
 to the Bohmong, a Chief of Arracanese stock, 
 residing at Bundrabun, on the Sungoo River. 
 They are perhaps the weakest tribe in the 
 hills, not numbering more than 1500 souls.
 
 232 THE MRUS. 
 
 They have no written language. In phy- 
 sique they are tall, powerful men, dark-com- 
 plexioned, but with no traces of the Mongol 
 in their faces. They have no medicine among 
 them. To sores or wounds they apply a 
 poultice of pounded rice or the earth of an 
 ant-hill made into mud with warm water. 
 Headaches are cured by biting the head till 
 the blood flows. In cases of colic, a favourite 
 remedy is a hot dao applied to the stomach 
 over a wet cloth. They are subject to fevers 
 and inflammation of the bowels from over- 
 drinking. They are a peaceable people, timid 
 and simple. In a dispute they do not fight, 
 but call in an " ojha," or exorcist, who takes 
 the sense of the spirits in the matter. In 
 taking a journey, on starting in the morn- 
 ing, each man takes a young green shoot of 
 " sunn " grass, and the leading man, going 
 ankle-deep into the stream, offers up a prayer 
 to the water kelpie, the others standing 
 meanwhile reverently on the marge. The 
 shoots are then planted in the sand along the 
 edge of the stream ; also, on crossing a hill,
 
 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 233 
 
 each man, on reaching the crest, plucks a 
 fresh young shoot of grass, and places it on 
 a pile of the withered offerings of former 
 journeyers who have gone before. They 
 have three gods, viz. : Turai, 'the great All- 
 father ; Sung-tung, the hill spirit ; and Oreng, 
 the deity of the rivers. Their ideas as to a 
 future state are formless; their oath is by 
 gun, dao, and the tiger. On solemn occa- 
 sions they will swear by one of their gods, to 
 whom, at the same time, a sacrifice must be 
 offered; the breaking of an oath of this 
 description is sure to be punished by disease, 
 ill luck, and death. They have no recollec- 
 tion of there having been at any time any 
 great chief or ruler memorable in the tribe : 
 they have always, they say, been a wandering 
 and a scattered people. Before marriage 
 the sexes have unrestrained intercourse. In 
 naming a child, three or four names are fixed 
 upon, and they determine which it shall be by 
 the throwing of cowries ; when all the shells 
 turn in one way upwards, that name is chosen. 
 The child is named one day after birth.
 
 234 THE MEUS. 
 
 A young man has to serve three years for 
 his wife in his father-in-law's house ; or, if he 
 be wealthy, he can dispense with this pre- 
 liminary by paying 200 or 300 rupees down. 
 At the marriage there is, of course, a big 
 feast and a corresponding drink. Every one 
 attending a marriage has a thread tied round 
 his right wrist; this is done by the oldest 
 woman of the bride's family. This string 
 must remain on the wrist until it drops off 
 by wear and tear, the wearer must not remove 
 the string himself; it is called the "bom- 
 gom." Their favourite time for dancing is 
 a moonlight night. They use the same kind 
 of reedpipes as the Mroongs. The boys 
 play at " konyon," or, as they call the game, 
 " tsing khing;" and the peg-top is also a 
 favourite plaything. Their earrings and or- 
 naments are the same as those worn by the 
 Kumi. 
 
 On a man dying and leaving a young 
 family, his eldest and nearest adult male rela- 
 tive takes the family and the deceased's wife 
 to live with him. If a man has sons and
 
 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 235 
 
 daughters, and they marry, he will live with 
 his youngest child, who also inherits all pro- 
 perty on the death of the father. The vil- 
 lagers choose their own head man, but a 
 Eoaja's son generally succeeds to his father's 
 place. In cases of divorce the husband is 
 repaid all that he gave for his wife, and she 
 has to leave behind her all her ornaments. 
 A widow may < marry again, but a second 
 marriage is unusual among women. Slavery 
 is an ancient institution among them. Two 
 sorts of slavery are recognized: captives 
 taken in war and debtor slaves. Both are 
 treated alike. The master of a female slave 
 cannot marry or have connexion with her. 
 Any other person can do so by paying her 
 price, and so making her free. All children 
 are free. Concubinage is unknown among 
 the Mrii. They drink milk and eat the flesh 
 of the cow, or indeed any kind of flesh. All 
 the Hill races indeed may be broadly dis- 
 tinguished as flesh-eaters from those of the 
 plains, whose ordinary diet is farinaceous. 
 This principle of diet may, I think, be largely
 
 236 THE MRUS. 
 
 accountable for the superiority in character 
 possessed by the men of the hills over the 
 plain dwellers. Eousseau says, " H est cer- 
 tain que les grands mangeurs de viande sont 
 en general cruels et feroces plus que les 
 autres homines" (Emile, vol. i. p. 274). Sir 
 William Temple also, in his account of the 
 United Provinces, remarks that all fierce and 
 bold animals are carnivorous. 
 
 The site of a village is fixed by the dream- 
 ing of dreams. If in a dream they see fish, 
 it is good, and they will get money ; if they 
 dream of a river, it is also fortunate, as it 
 foretokens a plentiful crop of rice; but if 
 they see a dog or a snake, the site is an un- 
 lucky one, and the village ought not to be 
 built there. On the village being built, a big 
 sacrifice is offered to all the gods, and the 
 village is placed in "khang" for three days. 
 When the rice springs up in July, the village 
 is again placed in quarantine; but sacrifice 
 then is only offered to Sung-tung, the god 
 of the hills. They weave their own clothes 
 from cotton grown in their jooms. Their
 
 THE KHYENGS. 237 
 
 clothing is of the scantiest sort, the men 
 wearing merely one strip of cloth round the 
 waist and between the legs, while the women 
 wear a short petticoat, and have their bosoms 
 completely bare. They seem to think that 
 the tribe is dying out :' there are now many 
 more diseases known to them than there 
 used to be in former times ; and they say 
 that in their fathers' times men used to 
 live to the age of 100 years, but that now 
 the average duration of life does not exceed 
 fifty or sixty years. The Mru bury their 
 dead. 
 
 The Khyengs, or Khyang, are very few in 
 number in this district ; they chiefly inhahit 
 the spurs of the great hill range separating 
 the Hill Tracts from Arracan. They are the 
 offshoots of a large and powerful hill tribe in 
 Burmah, who are as yet said to be indepen- 
 dent. In religion and customs they differ 
 in no material particular from the Mru tribe 
 already described. 
 
 These tribes state themselves to be of com- 
 mon origin, sprung from two brothers; and
 
 238 THE KHYENGS. 
 
 the great similarity in their customs, habits, 
 and language, confirms this statement. 
 
 Their account of the creation of man and 
 their origin is characteristic. I give it as 
 nearly as possible in the same words that it 
 was told to me : 
 
 "Formerly our ancestors came out of a 
 cave in the earth, and we had one great Chief, 
 named Tlandrok-pah. He it was who first 
 domesticated the guyal ; he was so powerful 
 that he married God's daughter. There were 
 great festivities at the marriage, and Tlan- 
 drok-pah made God a present of a famous 
 gun that he had. You can still hear the 
 gun ; the thunder is the sound of it. At the 
 marriage, our Chief called all the animals to 
 help to cut a road through the jungle, to 
 God's house, and they all gladly gave assist- 
 ance to bring home the bride all save the 
 sloth (the huliiq monkey is his grandson) and 
 the earth-worm; and on this account they 
 were cursed, and cannot look on the sun 
 without dying. The cave whence man first 
 came out is in the Lhoosai country close to
 
 ACCOUNT OF THE CEEATION. 239 
 
 Vanhuilen's village, of the Burdaiya tribe ; it 
 can be seen to this day, but no one can enter. 
 If one listens outside, the deep notes of the 
 gong and the sound of men's voices can still 
 be heard. Some time after Tlandrok-pah's 
 marriage, all the country became on fire, and 
 God's daughter told us to come down to the 
 sea-coast, where it is cool ; that was how we 
 first came into this country. At that time 
 mankind and the birds and beasts all spoke 
 one language. Then God's daughter com- 
 plained to her father that her tribe were 
 unable to kill the animals for food, as they 
 talked and begged for life with pitiful words, 
 making the hearts of men soft, so that they 
 could not slay them. On this, God took from 
 the beasts and birds the power of speech, and 
 food became plentiful among us. We eat 
 every living thing that cannot speak. At that 
 time, also, when the great fire broke from the 
 earth, the world became all dark, and men 
 broke up and scattered into clans and tribes. 
 Their languages also became different. 
 
 " We have two gods : Patyen ; he is the
 
 240 THE PANKHOS AND BUNJOGEES. 
 
 greatest : it was lie made the world. He 
 lives in the west, and takes charge of the sun 
 at night. Our other god is named Khozing ; 
 he is the patron of our tribe, and we are 
 specially loved by him. The tiger is Kho- 
 zing' s house-dog, and he will not hurt us, 
 because we are the children of his master." 
 
 The great distinction between the Pankho 
 and Bunjogee tribes is the mode of wearing 
 the hair. The Pankhos bind their hair in a 
 knot at the back of the head in the same way 
 as the Tipperahs and Lhoosai do; but the 
 Bunjogees, like the Shendus and Kumi tribe, 
 tie up their hair in a knot on the top of the 
 head over the forehead. As it is considered 
 a beauty to have long, thick hair, the young 
 men of the Bunjogees stuff a large ball of 
 black cotton into their topknot to make it 
 look bigger. The origin of the mode in which 
 the Bunjogees wear their hair is as follows : 
 One day the squirrel and the horned owl had 
 a quarrel, and the squirrel bit the owl on his 
 head, so that he became all bloody; and 
 when the squirrel saw the owl under this new
 
 CUSTOMS LANGUAGE ORIGIN. 241 
 
 aspect, lie became frightened and ran away, 
 and the owl devoured all his young ones. 
 A Bunjogee Chief observed this ; he was a 
 "Koa-vang," and the tiger came and told him 
 that what he had seen was a message from 
 Khozing. Thus it is that when the Bunjo- 
 gees go to war, they bind their hair over the 
 forehead, and put red cloth in their hair, so 
 that like the horned owl they may take heads. 
 The two tribes are not numerically strong : 
 they number about 700 houses or 3000 souls. 
 There are three villages of Pankhos, and one 
 of Bunjogees living in the country bordering 
 on the Kurnafoolee; the majority, however, 
 are found in the Bohmong's country to the 
 east of the Sungoo River. Their language 
 strongly resembles that of the Lhoosai ; and 
 in physique and appearance also one would 
 suppose them to be an offshoot of that tribe. 
 They, however, affirm that they came origi- 
 nally from the south, and are sprung from the 
 great nation of Shans in Burmah. Some of 
 their customs also differ materially from those 
 of the Lhoosai. For instance, the Lhoosai 
 
 K
 
 242 THE PANKHOS AND BUNJOGEES. 
 
 and our Chukmas bind their grain in baskets, 
 while the Pankhos and Bunjogee reap and 
 sheave it. Again, they bury their dead feet 
 northward, but the Lhoosai dry and preserve 
 their dead. In the time of one of theif 
 Rajahs, Ngungjungming, the Pankhos and 
 Bunjogees assert that they were the dominant 
 and most numerous of all the tribes in this 
 part of the world. They attribute the decline 
 of their power to the dying out of the old 
 stock of Chiefs to whom divine descent was 
 attributed. Although admitting the supre- 
 macy of one great god, the Pankhos and 
 Bunjogees offer no worship to him ; all their 
 reverence and sacrificial rites are directed 
 towards Khozing, the patron deity of their 
 nation. In some villages are men said to be 
 specially marked out as a medium of inter- 
 course between Khozing and his children. 
 Such a possessed person is called " Koa- 
 vang." He becomes filled with, and possessed 
 by, the divine afflatus. During these mo- 
 ments of inspiration he is said by his fellows 
 to possess the gift of tongues and to be
 
 RELIGION. 243 
 
 invulnerable. He can also caress tigers un- 
 harmed. It is generally a male who is thus 
 gifted : the favour of God falls seldom on the 
 weaker sex. He it is who makes sacrifice and 
 interprets the omens by examination of the 
 entrails. The " Koa-vang " receives no pay- 
 ment or other consideration save the honour 
 accruing to him by his position as interpreter 
 of the wishes and commands of Khozing. The 
 god Khozing has a village somewhere in these 
 hills, where he lives; but no mortal can enter 
 it. Formerly one of the Bunjogee Chiefs was 
 leading a war-party against the Lhoosai, and 
 he came in sight of Khozing' s village; it was 
 situated on a very high hill, and hung round 
 with red and white cloth. The Chief wished 
 to surprise this village, and get some heads ; 
 for to be the possessor of a large number of 
 human heads is the acme of Bunjogee hap- 
 piness. So he went towards the village for 
 ten days, but got no nearer to it, and at last 
 it receded altogether from sight. Then the 
 Chief knew that it was the village of Khozing. 
 After death they believe that the deceased 
 E 2
 
 244 THE PANKHOS AND BUNJOGEES. 
 
 go into the large hill whence man first 
 emerged ; this they say is the land, of the 
 dead : but although they wish to return, and 
 weep much, they are unable to do so if they 
 have led a bad life in this world ; but if other- 
 wise, Khozing sometimes sends them back in 
 a new body. Sacrifice is offered inside the 
 house. In former times they used to offer 
 human sacrifices ; but although this practice 
 is still considered very beneficial, and great 
 plenty would result from the rite should they 
 do so, they are prevented from the good act 
 by fear of the Government. The great oath 
 is by dao, spear, gun, and blood : this must 
 be taken by the side of a river ; but it is a 
 solemn undertaking, and only to be performed 
 on great occasions. Should a person disre- 
 gard this oath, he and his family will cer- 
 tainly die a violent death. On ordinary occa- 
 sions an oath is taken by the Chief's spear ; 
 for instance, if any thing were stolen in a 
 village, the spear of the Chief is stuck in the 
 ground at the gate of the village, and every 
 one who passes has to take hold of it and
 
 BIRTHS AND MARRIAGES. 245 
 
 swear that they know nothing of the matter 
 in question. Whoever will not thus swear, 
 has to account for whatever may have been 
 stolen. 
 
 In ordinary sacrifices each man is his own 
 priest. On the birth of a child a pig must be 
 sacrificed at the foot of the house ladder, and 
 a fowl on the river bank. When the child is 
 named, which is on the seventh day after 
 birth, a red cock is sacrificed, and five jars 
 of " seepah" drunk if it is a son; while for a 
 daughter, two hens are offered up and three 
 pots of "seepah" are disposed of. If a 
 married woman goes astray, her seducer is 
 not punished, but the woman is fined, and 
 has her ears cut off". The intercourse between 
 both sexes is free and unrestrained until after 
 marriage. 
 
 In making a marriage the omens are 
 always carefully consulted, such as the tongue 
 of a fowl, the interior of an egg, &c. To see 
 a deer is a bad omen; a tiger, a good one. 
 Auspicious dreams also are requisite before a 
 marriage can be contracted. They have no
 
 246 THE PANKHOS AND BUNJOGEES. 
 
 festivals in the year, save one at the sprout- 
 ing of the young rice, and then Patyen, the 
 supreme god, is implored to grant a plentiful 
 harvest. The success of a war-party or the 
 killing of big game in the chase forms occa- 
 sions for merry-making. In observing qua- 
 rantine they follow the same ceremonies as 
 have been previously described as prevalent 
 among the Toungtha. The Bunj ogees bury 
 their dead. A Chief is buried in a sitting 
 posture. They are entirely ignorant of medi- 
 cine. In cases of illness they offer sacrifice 
 to avert the anger of the deity who has sent 
 the disorder. They also use the gall and 
 dung of the boa-constrictor, mixed with 
 spirits, as a universal remedy. In general 
 customs and habits they assimilate closely 
 with the Lhoosai, of whom I shall next pro- 
 to speak. ___ , 
 
 The Lhoosai, commonly called the Kookies, 
 are a powerful and independent people, who 
 touch upon the borders of the Chittagong 
 Hill Tracts. They extend in numberless 
 hordes, north and north-east, until they reach
 
 THE ROOKIES CLANS. 247 
 
 Cachar on the one hand, and the frontiers of 
 Burmah on the other. They cannot be con- 
 sidered as a nation, for they have no co- 
 herence of government or policy, but, with 
 slight differences, they speak one language 
 and follow the same customs. They are 
 known to the Bengallees by the name of 
 Kookie, and to the Burmese as the Lankhe 9 . 
 Our knowledge of the Lhoosai clans is of 
 course confined to the tribes on our imme- 
 diate frontier, with whom we have been 
 brought into contact. They are three in 
 number, viz., the Howlong, the Syloo, and 
 the Button Poiya clans. Their numbers were 
 estimated as follow by Captain Graham in 
 1861 : 
 
 Howlong .... 12,600 
 
 Syloo 10,800 
 
 Button Poiya . . . 2,580 
 In comparing the Lhoosai dialect with the 
 hill languages given by Major MacCulloch in 
 
 * The people of Bhootan, who are of undoubted 
 Thibetan origin, call themselves Lhotsa. Can this bear 
 any affinity to " Lhoosai " ?
 
 248 THE LHOOSAI, OE KOOKIES. 
 
 his account of Munnipoor, published by the 
 Government of India, although many words 
 are found to be identical, and the derivation 
 of the tribes from a common stock seems 
 certain, yet the Lhoosai dialect is substan- 
 tially different from those of the Munnipooree 
 hill tribes given by MacCulloch. It would 
 seem of closest affinity to those of the 
 Murring and Thada Kookies of the Munni- 
 poor frontier. Mr. Hunter, in his Rural 
 Annals of Bengal, p. 144, states, " In the 
 district between Kamaun and Assam, one 
 inquirer counted 28 distinct dialects mutually 
 unintelligible to the different tribes who use 
 them. Among the Naga tribes, also, about 
 30 languages exist, affording a striking proof 
 of the tendency of unwritten language to 
 split up into dialects." , Captain Stewart, also, 
 in his account of the hill tribes of Cachar, 
 concurs in this idea. I must needs add that 
 my experience somewhat militates against this 
 theory. I have found the Lhoosai language 
 almost identical with the tongue of the 
 Pankho and Bunjogee tribes. The different
 
 LANGUAGE. 249 
 
 tribes of Lhoosai also on our frontier speak 
 (with slight differences) the same dialect ; 
 and this, too, in spite of all these tribes being 
 widely scattered apart over the country, and 
 in many cases having no intercourse with each 
 other. Note, moreover, that the Tipperah 
 tongue is spoken in the same manner and 
 understood by all the numerous clans of that 
 tribe both in this district and in Hill Tip- 
 perah. The Mriings, also, originally from Tip- 
 perah, who have no intercourse with their 
 parent tribe, nor have seen their native country 
 for more than 150 years, still preserve their 
 vernacular unchanged to any material extent. 
 There is certainly not so much difference as 
 there is between the English tongue as com- 
 monly spoken, and the blurred patois of a 
 Somersetshire labourer. 
 
 The theory in question, therefore, appears 
 to me to deserve more close and careful in- 
 vestigation before a decisive conclusion can 
 be arrived at. 
 
 Besides the three large Lhoosai clans with 
 which we are well acquainted, there exist
 
 250 THE LHOOSAI, OE KOOKIES. 
 
 many more, known to us by hearsay. The 
 village system among the Kookies is best 
 described as a series of petty states, each 
 under a Dictator or President. To illustrate 
 the position of the Chief, or President, I may 
 mention that in 1866, when on a visit to the 
 village of one of the leading Chiefs among the 
 Lhoosai, I was standing talking with him in 
 the path that ran through the village. While 
 we were thus standing a drunken Lhoosai 
 came stumbling along, and finding us some- 
 what in the way, he seized the Chief by the 
 neck and shoved him off the path, asking 
 why he stopped the road. On my asking 
 the Chief for an explanation of such disrespect 
 being permitted, he replied, " On the war- 
 path or in the council I am Chief, and my 
 words are obeyed ; behaviour like that would 
 be punished by death. Here, in the village, 
 that drunkard is my fellow and equal." In 
 like manner any presents given to the Chief 
 are common property. His people walk off 
 with them, saying, "He is a big man, and 
 will get lots more given to him. Who will
 
 THE CHIEF, AND THE VILLAGE SYSTEM. 251 
 
 give to us if lie does not?" On the other 
 hand, all that is in his village belongs to the 
 Chief; he can and does call upon people to 
 furnish him with everything that he requires. 
 A Chief's son, on attaining manhood, does 
 not, as a rule, remain with his father ; he sets 
 up a separate village of his own. The men 
 of one Chief can transfer their allegiance to 
 another at will; hence it happens that a 
 Chiefs village becomes large or small as he 
 is successful in war, or the reverse. Chief- 
 ship, however, is confined to a certain clan 
 called " Aidey," from whence all the tribes are 
 said originally to have sprung. Only the son 
 of a Chief can set up a village for himself. 
 Hence there is a fiction that all Chiefs are 
 blood-relatives, and it is consequently for- 
 bidden to kill a Chief, or, as he is called, Lai, 
 save in the heat of battle. The Lai directs in 
 war ; he is the last in the advance, and the 
 rearmost in retreat. 
 
 The house of a Lai is a harbour of refuge. 
 A criminal or fugitive taking shelter there 
 cannot be harmed ; but he becomes the slave
 
 252 THE LHOOSAI, OE ROOKIES. 
 
 of the Lai, under whose protection he has 
 placed himself. Each man is bound to labour 
 three days yearly for his Chief, and each house 
 in the village furnishes its share of any ex- 
 pense incurred in feeding or entertaining the 
 Lai's guests. The Chief's house also is built 
 for him by the voluntary labour of his people. 
 The residence of a powerful Chief is generally 
 surrounded by the houses of his slaves, who 
 marry and cultivate, enjoying undisturbed the 
 fruits of their labour. On the death of a 
 slave, however, his wife and children and all 
 his property go to the Chief. The messages 
 and errands of a Lai, or Chief, are done by 
 his favourite slaves. They are his ambassadors 
 in war. 
 
 To collect his people, or in fact to authen- 
 ticate any order, the Chief's spear, which' is 
 usually carved and ornamented, is sent by a 
 messenger from village to village. Should 
 the message be a hostile one, the messenger 
 carries a fighting dao, to which a piece of red 
 cloth is attached. Another method is by the 
 " phuroi," which is a species of wand made
 
 INHEEITANCE MARRIAGE. 253 
 
 out of strips of peeled bamboo, about eight 
 inches long, in this shape (f). If the tips 
 of the cross-pieces be broken, a demand for 
 black mail is indicated ; a rupee to be levied 
 for each break. If the end of one of the 
 cross-pieces is charred it implies urgency, 
 and that the people are to come even by 
 torch-light. If a capsicum be fixed on to 
 the " phuroi," it signifies that disobedience 
 to the order will meet with punishment as 
 severe as the capsicum is hot. If the cross- 
 piece is of cane, it means that disobedience 
 will entail corporal punishment. Among the 
 Lhoosai, women cannot inherit. Property is 
 divided amongst the sons ; the youngest, 
 however, gets the largest share; the rest in 
 equal portions. Widows can marry again, 
 but do not often avail themselves of the pri- 
 vilege if they have children, as a widowed 
 mother is paramount in a son's house. 
 
 They have no caste or class distinctions 
 among them ; all eat and drink together, 
 and one man is as good as another. Mar- 
 riage is a civil contract, soluble at the will
 
 254 THE LHOOSAI, OR KOOKIES. 
 
 of both parties concerned. A woman, on 
 leaving her husband, takes with her only 
 what she brought originally from her father's 
 house. There are no sacrifices or other re- 
 ligious ceremonies on the occasion of a mar- 
 riage only a big feast and a dance. Adultery 
 is very uncommon. It is punished by the 
 death of both parties ; a husband is allowed 
 to cut them down, and no fault attaches to 
 him; their only shelter is in the Chief's 
 house and a life-long slavery. Concubinage, 
 or whoredom, is unknown among the Lhoosai ; 
 but the intercourse between the unmarried of 
 both sexes is entirely unchecked a girl may 
 go with any young man she fancies. If 
 parents marry a girl to a man whom she 
 does not like, she generally runs away from 
 her husband, and is not thought to be wrong 
 in doing so. 
 
 Women are generally held in consideration 
 among the Lhoosai ; their advice is taken, 
 and they have much influence. Should the 
 father of a house die, his wife becomes the 
 head of the family. Upon the women, how-
 
 EMPLOYMENT CRIME. 255 
 
 ever, falls the whole burden of the bodily 
 labour by which life is supported. They 
 fetch water, hew wood, cultivate and help 
 to reap the crop, besides spinning, cooking, 
 and brewing. The men employ themselves 
 chiefly in making forays upon weaker tribes, 
 or in hunting. Of home work, they only 
 clear the ground and help to carry the har- 
 vest; they also build the house. The men 
 are generally to be seen lounging about, 
 cleaning their arms, drinking, or smoking. 
 A strange custom exists among them, that 
 when a man, either through laziness, cow- 
 ardice, or bodily incapacity, is unable to do 
 his work, he is dressed in women's clothes, 
 and consorts and works with the women. I 
 have seen instances of this in several villages. 
 The Lhoosai, as a rule, are not prolific ; a 
 family is generally limited to three or four 
 children. A child is suckled for a great 
 length of time. They sometimes do not 
 leave the breast until four years old. 
 
 Crime is rare among them. Theft in a 
 man's own village is unknown, but they will
 
 256 THE LHOOSAI, OR KOOKIES. 
 
 sometimes steal if visiting another clan. On 
 such a theft being discovered, the Chief, in 
 whose village it has been committed, sends 
 and makes a formal complaint to the Chief 
 under whom the thief is living. The goods 
 stolen are, if discovered, given up, and the 
 offender is fined. Should a man be fined so 
 heavily that he is unable to pay, he becomes 
 the slave of his Chief. A life is exacted for 
 a life. The murderer will not escape, even 
 by taking refuge in the Chief's house; the 
 relatives will cut him down. If, however, 
 the Chief's wife adopts him as a son, he 
 escapes scatheless. No vendettas, or blood- 
 feuds, are carried on among them. They 
 reverence parents, and honour old age. 
 When past work, the father and mother are 
 supported by their children. They have no 
 salutation or greetings among them, nor does 
 their language contain any precative affixes 
 or expressions. 
 
 The religion of the Lhoosai and their 
 traditions as to origin are similar to those 
 already described of the Pankho tribe.
 
 PHYSIQUE DRESS. 257 
 
 In physique both, men and women are 
 well-made and wonderfully muscular. The 
 average height of the males is about 5 feet 8 
 inches, and of the women 5 feet 4 inches. 
 They are never corpulent. Their physiognomy 
 is not pleasing, being generally of a sulky 
 and forbidding appearance. They differ en- 
 tirely from the other hill tribes of Burman or 
 Arracanese origin, in that their faces bear no 
 marks of Tartar or Mongolian descent. They 
 are swarthy in complexion, and their cheeks 
 are generally smooth among the Howlong 
 tribe. However, one meets many men having 
 long, bushy beards. I should be inclined to 
 attribute this to a mixture of Bengallee blood, 
 from the many captives they have from time 
 to time carried away ; but I have seen old 
 men white-bearded, and we possess no record 
 of any Lhoosai raids so long as even thirty 
 or forty years ago. 
 
 The men wear one long home-spun sheet 
 or mantle of cotton cloth, and, save this, they 
 have no other garment. These mantles are 
 sometimes of very good manufacture; the 
 
 s
 
 258 THE LHOOSAI, OR KOOKIES. 
 
 best description are dyed blue and interwoven 
 with crimson and yellow stripes. They are 
 fond of wearing in the ear a small bunch of 
 brilliant feathers. Their hair is bound into 
 a knot on the nape of the neck. The women 
 wear a strip of thick blue cloth round the 
 loins, about eighteen inches in breadth ; their 
 bosoms being left bare. They distend the 
 lobe of the ear to an enormous size with 
 circular discs of wood or ivory. Both sexes 
 attach the greatest value to amber, which is 
 worn in large cylindrical beads as a necklace. 
 They attach a fabulous value to some of these 
 necklaces. The amber is said to be brought 
 from Burmah. 
 
 A Lhoosai village is always situated on 
 the top of a high hill, and in time of war is 
 fortified by a stockade of heavy timber logs. 
 The time that a village stays in one place 
 is determined by the facilities afforded for 
 cultivation in the neighbourhood. When all 
 the land within easy reach is exhausted, the 
 village is moved to a fresh site. The ordinary 
 time of remaining in one place is four to five
 
 VILLAGES. 259 
 
 years. The houses are built, not of bamboos, 
 as is usual in the hills, but of logs, and 
 thatched with the palmated leaf commonly 
 used throughout the hills for that purpose. 
 At the door of every house is a small raised 
 platform, where, in the cool of the evening, 
 the men lounge about and whittle sticks. 
 The interior of most houses is partitioned off 
 into sleeping and living rooms. The houses 
 are low-pitched, and the floor is raised from 
 the ground some four feet. A Chiefs house 
 is simply an enlarged edition of the ordinary 
 Lhoosai house. In a Chief's house at all 
 times one is sure to find two or three men 
 imbibing " khong" out of horn cups. Among 
 the other tribes " khong " and " seepah " are 
 sucked up through a long reed out of the jar, 
 as we drink sherry-cobbler; but among the 
 Lhoosai they empty the jars (which are full 
 of rice, water, and the other things from 
 which the liquor is brewed) by means of a 
 syphon made from two pieces of reed joined 
 together by lac or resin at an angle of about 
 45. In the Chiefs house will be seen also 
 s 2
 
 260 THE LHOOSAI, OK KOOKIES. 
 
 large brazen vessels, embossed with Burmese 
 characters, for containing rice, and the big 
 gong which tolls out when the council of war 
 is assembled, or when the Chief calls his 
 people together. On one occasion my pre- 
 decessor, Captain Graham, was visiting a 
 Kookie village, and he discovered that they 
 held some British subjects in captivity. On 
 demanding their release, however, the Chief 
 refused to let them go ; and Captain Graham 
 equally refusing to go without them, things 
 began to look mischievous. At length the 
 Chief in a rage betook himself off to his house, 
 and the big gong began to toll. Captain 
 Graham describes the effect as miraculous : 
 every woman and child disappeared from 
 sight as if by magic, and the Lhoosai, with 
 their weapons in their hands, came crowding 
 to the Chief. Matters, however, were even- 
 tually arranged on a peaceable footing, and 
 the captives were released. 
 
 Two animals domesticised among the 
 Lhoosai strike one immediately on entering 
 a village; they are the guyal and the hill
 
 DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 261 
 
 goat. Nearly every house has its guyal 
 tethered near the door ; they are not fed in 
 the village, but simply receive salt, of which 
 they are immoderately fond, at their owner's 
 hand. Early at the first dim break of dawn, 
 they troop out of the village to pasture, 
 untended by any cattle-herd, returning again 
 at night of their own accord. The Kookies 
 do not milk them; they are used only for 
 slaughter at big feasts or sacrifices. In 
 appearance they are magnificent beasts, 
 resembling nothing so much as the Chilling- 
 worth wild cattle magnified. 1 The goats 
 
 1 " The guyal delights to range about in the thickest 
 forest, where he browses evening and morning on the 
 tender shoots and leaves of different shrubs, seldom feed- 
 ing on grass when he can get them. His disposition is 
 gentle ; even when wild in his native hills, he is not con- 
 sidered dangerous, never standing the approach of man, 
 and much less bearing his attack. The Kookies hunt 
 the wild ones for the sake of their flesh. Guyals have 
 been domesticated among the Kookies from time imme- 
 morial, and without any variation in their appearance 
 from the wild stock. No difference whatever is observed 
 in the appearance of the wild and tame animals, brown 
 of various shades being the general colour of both. The
 
 262 THE LHOOSAI, OE KOOKIES. 
 
 are remarkable for being pure white, with a 
 long shaggy coat which, in the males, almost 
 
 wild guyal is about the size of the wild buffalo in India. 
 The tame guyal among the Kookies being bred in nearly 
 the same habits of freedom and on the same food, with- 
 out ever undergoing any labour, grows to the same size 
 as the wild one. This animal lives to the age of fifteen 
 or twenty years ; and in the fourth year the cows pro- 
 duce, after eleven months' gestation, bearing a calf only 
 once in three years, and so long an interval between each 
 birth must tend to keep the species rare. The calf sucks 
 for eight or nine months, when it is capable of supporting 
 itself. The Kookies tie up the calf until it is of sufficient 
 age to do so. The guyal (cow) gives very little milk, 
 and does not yield it long, but what she gives is of 
 remarkably rich quality, about equally so with the cream 
 of other milk, which it resembles in colour. The Kookies 
 make no use whatever of the milk, but rear their guyals 
 entirely for the sake of their flesh and skins. They 
 make their shields of the hide of this animal. The flesh 
 of the guyal is in the highest estimation among the 
 Kookies ; so much so, that no solemn festival is ever 
 celebrated without slaughtering one or more of these 
 beasts, according to the importance of the occasion. The 
 Kookies train their guyals to no labour. The domes- 
 ticated guyals are allowed by the Kookies to roam at 
 large during the day through the forest in the neigh- 
 bourhood of the village; but, as evening approaches, 
 they all return home of their own accord, the young
 
 DOMESTIC ANIMALS, 263 
 
 sweeps the ground. Of these goats' skins 
 some of the Lhoosai clans make a kind of 
 pouch, with the long hair pendent; this is 
 worn like a Highland sporran. In almost 
 every house will be found a pet pig. This 
 animal goes loose, and is generally enormously 
 fat, having the run of all the leavings in the 
 way of food. Somewhere near the village 
 one is sure to come upon some of their traps 
 for game. They have three kinds of traps : 
 two for deer and pigs, in which the main- 
 spring is a bent-down sapling, or a strong 
 
 guyal being early taught this habit by being regularly 
 fed every night with salt, of which he is very fond ; and 
 from the occasional continuance of this practice, as he 
 grows up, the attachment of the guyal to his village 
 becomes so strong, that when the Kookies migrate from 
 it, they are obliged to set fire to their huts lest their 
 guyal should return thither from their new place of 
 residence before they have become equally attached to it 
 as to the former, through the same means. The Kookies 
 give no grain to their cattle. The cry of the guyal has 
 no resemblance to the grunt of the Indian ox, but a good 
 deal resembles that of the buffalo. It is a kind of low- 
 ing, but shriller." Wild Types and Sources of Domestic 
 Animals, Land and Water, May llth, 1867.
 
 264 THE, LHOOSAI, OR KOOKIES. 
 
 bamboo, and which either transfixes the 
 game with an arrow or jerks it high and 
 pendent in the air; the other, generally used 
 for tigers, bears, and such-like game, is a 
 rough cage of logs open at two ends, and 
 placed in the run of the animals whose 
 destruction it is wished to effect. The top 
 of the cage is composed of two or three 
 enormous tree-trunks, so arranged as to fall 
 on and kill any animal attempting to pass 
 through the trap. The Lhoosai are great 
 eaters of flesh, and domestic animals not 
 being very plentiful among them, their sup- 
 plies depend a good deal upon their success 
 in the chase. They make large hunting 
 parties, and their favourite game is the wild 
 elephant, which abounds throughout the hills. 
 As, however, they are very careless and 
 reckless in the management of their guns 
 and ammunition, a large hunting party seldom 
 returns' without one or more of its members 
 having been accidentally shot. It is only 
 within the last ten or twenty years that the 
 Lhoosai have learnt the use of fire-arms ; but
 
 ARMS WARFARE* 265 
 
 nmskets, mostly of English make and Tower- 
 marked, are now common enough among 
 them, and render what was formerly a horde 
 of simple savages a band of very dangerous 
 marauders. They are constantly warring 
 among themselves ; or when a short interval 
 of comparative peace comes, they make a 
 raid upon the nearest British territory to 
 procure slaves. Lately, however, the leading 
 Chiefs among the Lhoosai have sworn a 
 solemn and lasting peace with the British 
 authorities. The whole art of war among 
 them may be described in one word surprise. 
 They never advance openly to attack an 
 enemy, but send forward spies to make sure 
 of taking their foe unawares. Should their 
 object be discovered, they at once abandon 
 the attack, and retreat as they came. A 
 sacrifice and a big drink is always an indis- 
 pensable preliminary to an expedition. 
 
 On starting for a raid, the old men and 
 women of the village accompany the party 
 an hour's journey on their way, carrying the 
 provisions, and then leave them with loud
 
 266 THE LHOOSAI, OR ROOKIES. 
 
 wishes for their success. " May you be un- 
 hurt, and bring home many heads," is the 
 formula. This is when open hostilities have 
 commenced with some other clan; but if a 
 virgin enterprise is to be inaugurated, it is a 
 sine qua non among them that no woman 
 should know a word about the matter. They 
 will march four and five days, traversing 
 enormous distances to the village they intend 
 to attack, and burst upon their prey about 
 an hour before dawn. A young man of the 
 Pankho tribe gave me the following sketch : 
 " When I was quite a little boy, my father 
 and mother lived in Ardung Roaja's village, 
 and the Lhoosai battle came to us. It was 
 one night when all the village had well 
 drunken. Our village was on a spur of a 
 lofty hill in the valley of the Sungoo. The 
 women used to go down an hour's journey 
 every day to bring water in the bamboo 
 tubes which we use for the purpose. The 
 hill spur at the back of the village was 
 defended by a double palissade, inside which 
 a sentry was always posted; on the other
 
 WARFARE. 267 
 
 three sides the village was inaccessible. 
 About four in the morning, when it was 
 neither light nor dark, the sentry saw some- 
 thing moving in the jungle outside the stock- 
 ade, and he thought it was a guyal or a 
 jungle pig, and threw a stone at it ; then up 
 sprung the Lhoosai, about 200 men, and 
 gave a low guttural shout, hoarse and deep. 
 All our villagers abandoned their houses, and 
 fled for their lives down a concealed path. 
 My mother took me on her back and ran. 
 The Lhoosai only got two of our people, and 
 they were too drunk to move. They hauled 
 one fellow up, but he only grunted and lay 
 down again; then they prodded him with a 
 spear, and he only grunted the more. So 
 they cut him to pieces as he lay. Then they 
 plundered our village and went away." A 
 young man, a Riang Tipperah, who lives in 
 my house, was formerly a slave of Rutton 
 Poia's (a Lhoosai Chief), and I have heard 
 from him many accounts of raids made by 
 his master. He used to accompany the Chief 
 as the bearer of his weapons. His first raid
 
 268 THE LHOOSAI, OR KOOKIES. 
 
 was in I860, made on the Bengallee inhabi- 
 tants of Kundal in Tipperah. They fell 
 upon the villagers at day-dawn, according to 
 custom; and the Bengallee men, with one 
 consent, ran away. The women, however, 
 stood their ground, and abused their grim 
 assailants vociferously for breaking into honest 
 people's houses. The Lhoosai laughed at 
 their shrill tongues at first, but later it was 
 found troublesome, and one young woman 
 had to be cut down pour encourager les autres. 
 The Chief confided to my boy's care two 
 women, captives. All the prisoners were 
 fastened together by a cord through the lobe 
 of the ears, and the Lhoosai set out with 
 their plunder on the return journey. Now, 
 one of the captive women was young, and 
 not accustomed to walking ; so after the first 
 day's march her feet swelled, and she was 
 unable to go further. The Chief therefore 
 ordered that she should be speared. "Well," 
 said the narrator, "I took the spear and 
 went towards her, and Rutton Poia said, * Do 
 it neatly, I will look on,' for it was the first
 
 TREATMENT OF PRISONERS. 269 
 
 time I had ever speared any one. When the 
 girl saw me take the spear and come towards 
 her, she fell a-weeping, and caught my gar- 
 ments and my hands, and all my heart 
 thumped, and I could not hurt her. It was 
 pitiful ! So the Chief began to laugh at me, 
 and said, * white-livered, and son of a 
 female dog, when we return to the village, 
 I will tell the young maidens of your courage;' 
 so I shut my eyes and speared her. My 
 stroke was ill-directed, and she did not die ; 
 so the Chief finished the work, and he made 
 me lick the spear. The blood of Bengallees 
 is very salt. Since then I have not been 
 afraid to spear any one." 
 
 Among the Lhoosai it is customary for a 
 young warrior to eat a piece of the liver of the 
 first man he kills; this, it is said, strengthens 
 the heart and gives courage. The use of 
 stimulants, as churrus, bhang, &c., to spur a 
 man up for fight, is unknown among these 
 tribes. In each tribe will be found some pre- 
 eminently brave men ; they are described as 
 " not knowing pain or death." The weapons
 
 270 THE LHOOSAI, OR KOOKIES. 
 
 of the Lhoosai are the dao, spear, and gun. 
 I have seen no other among them. Gun- 
 powder they obtain, it is said, from Burmah, 
 and, until lately, from the Bengallees of 
 Cachar and Chittagong. Latterly, however, 
 increased vigilance on the part of the autho- 
 rities has driven them to manufacture a rough 
 sort of powder; they learnt to do this from 
 the Shendoo tribe. 
 
 The custom of putting the village in qua- 
 rantine is strictly observed by all the Lhoosai 
 in case of sickness ; and once a year, at the 
 sprouting of the young rice, as a matter of 
 religion. At the gathering of the harvest, 
 they have a festival called among them "Chuk- 
 chai." The Chief goes solemnly with his 
 people into the forest, and cuts down a large 
 tree, which is afterwards carried into the vil- 
 lage, and set up in the midst. Sacrifice is then 
 offered, and " khong," spirits, and rice, are 
 poured over the tree. A feast and dance 
 close the ceremony. The unmarried men and 
 girls only are the dancers. 
 
 The Lhoosai cultivate byjooming in the
 
 EMPLOYMENTS. 271 
 
 manner common to all hill tribes. They some- 
 times suffer severely from the inroads of rats, 
 which again disappear as mysteriously and 
 suddenly as they arrived. In carrying loads 
 or cutting joom, the Lhoosai clear the lungs 
 with a continuous " hau ! hau !" uttered in 
 measured time by all. Without making this 
 sound, they say they would be unable to work. 
 The village lads whistle with their fingers in 
 a manner exactly similar to a London street 
 boy. As a rule, they bathe but seldom, as 
 their villages are generally situated at a long 
 distance from water, and at an elevation 
 which much reduces the temperature. They 
 work in iron. A rough species of forge is 
 found in every village, and they have made 
 borne progress in iron-working, having been 
 taught by Bengallee captives to repair the 
 lock of a gun, as also to make spear-heads 
 and fish-hooks. They cannot, however, make 
 a gun-barrel. They are ignorant of the art of 
 making pottery. Their plates and bottles are 
 the leaves of the jungle and gourds ; they use 
 brass and earthen vessels when they can
 
 272 THE LHOOSAI, OE KOOKIES. 
 
 obtain them either in war or by barter at the 
 frontier bazaars. They smoke pipes of bamboo 
 lined with copper or iron. They have no 
 money current among them; but they are 
 aware of its use, and employ it in purchasing 
 articles in the frontier markets. They suffer 
 sometimes from remittent fever. Boils are 
 common among them, and sometimes inflam- 
 mation of the bowels from over-drinking and 
 eating ; but, save these ailments, they were 
 formerly unacquainted with disease. In 1861, 
 however, they made a raid into British terri- 
 tory, and took back cholera with them. This 
 disease excited the greatest terror, so much 
 so, that numbers of the tribe put an end to 
 their existence by suicide, blowing out their 
 brains with their own guns on the first 
 symptoms declaring themselves. They called 
 it " the foreign sickness." In like> manner 
 they took back the small-pox among them 
 from Kassalong Bazaar in 1860. They are 
 ignorant of medicine; but if a man be very ill 
 they offer sacrifice, and the " koa-vang " is 
 consulted. I have never met or heard of an
 
 DISEASES FtfNERAL CEREMONIES. 273 
 
 instance of goitre among the hill men, 
 although I am told that persons in some of 
 the Bengallee villages at the foot of the hills 
 suffer from it. Syphilis is unknown. Dis- 
 eases are sometimes attributed to witchcraft ; 
 and if the tribe declares this proven, the 
 wizard is cut down without more ado. 
 
 On the death of a father of a family, notice 
 is sent to all his friends -and relatives. The 
 corpse is then dressed in its finest clothes, and 
 seated in the centre of the house in a sitting 
 posture. At the right hand is laid the dead 
 man's gun and weapons ; on the left sits the 
 wife weeping. All the friends assemble, and 
 there is a big feast. Food is placed before the 
 dead man, who sits upright and silent among 
 them; and they address him, saying, "You 
 are going on a long journey, eat." They also 
 fill his pipe with tobacco, and place it between 
 his lips. These ceremonies occupy twenty- 
 four hours, and on the second day after death 
 they bury the corpse. Among the Dhun and 
 Khoon clans the body is placed in a coffin 
 made of a hollow tree-trunk, with holes in 
 
 T
 
 274 THE LHOOSAI, OE ROOKIES. 
 
 the bottom. This is placed on a lofty plat- 
 form, and left to dry in the sun. The dried 
 body is afterwards rammed into an earthen 
 vase and buried ; the head is cut off and pre- 
 served. Another clan sheathe their dead in 
 pith (solah) ; the corpse is then placed on a 
 platform, under which a slow fire is kept up 
 until the body is dried. The corpse is then 
 kept for six months to allow relatives and 
 friends of every degree to come from a dis- 
 tance and take farewell of the deceased ; it is 
 then buried. The Howlong clan hang the 
 body up to the house-beams for seven days, 
 during which time the dead man's wife has to 
 sit underneath spinning. She may not stir; 
 and if friends do not bring her food, she must 
 perforce starve. 
 
 It is curious to compare with the foregoing 
 account a relation of the customs and man- 
 ners of the Lhoosai Kookies given by a 
 traveller in the last century. I transcribe it 
 verbatim :
 
 RELIGION, MANNERS, AND CUSTOMS. 275 
 
 [From the French of M. Boucheseiche, who translated the 
 original from the English of J. Rennel, Chief Engineer 
 of Bengal. Upon the religion, the manners, laws, and 
 the customs of the Cuds, or the inhabitants of the Tipra 
 Mountains. Published at Leipsic in 1800. 3 
 
 " The nation which inhabit the hills to the east of 
 Bengal give to the Creator of the world the name of 
 Patyen, or Putchien. They believe that in every tree 
 resides a deity, that the sun and moon are gods, and 
 that the worship rendered by them to those deities of 
 secondary importance is agreeable to Patyen, the Great 
 Creator. 
 
 " If a man of this nation should happen to slay another, 
 neither the Chief nor any of the relations of the deceased 
 have the right of vengeance ; but if his brother or other 
 near relation chooses to kill the murderer, none have the 
 right to prevent them. When a Cuci is taken in theft 
 or any other crime, the Chief can compel him to reim- 
 burse the persons who have been injured by his misdeed ; 
 and, after giving his decision, the Chief is entitled to a 
 fee. The criminal and the aggrieved parties are com- 
 pelled to give a feast to their respective tribes. The 
 Cucis formerly were not in the habit of killing all women 
 found by them in the dwellings of their adversaries. 
 The origin of the present barbarous custom is, indeed, 
 singular enough. A woman, who was engaged working 
 in the fields, asked another why she had come so late to 
 her sowing. She replied, that her husband having just 
 started on the war-path, she had been detained in pre- 
 paring his food and other necessary arrangements. One 
 T 2
 
 276 THE LHOOSAI, OR ROOKIES. 
 
 of the enemies of the tribe heard her say this, end be- 
 came very angry at learning that she had thus succoured 
 one who had gone out to do injury to his people. He 
 bethought himself, also, that if the women did not take 
 care of the house and prepare their husbands' food when 
 going on the war-path, there would be considerable in- 
 convenience accruing. Since then, the Cucis always cut 
 off' the heads of the women of vanquished enemies ; more 
 especially are they murderously disposed to any who 
 may be with child. A Cuci, who, in surprising a village, 
 can kill a woman big with child, and obtain both her 
 head and that of the unborn infant, is thought to have 
 committed a most meritorious act, as with one blow he 
 has destroyed two enemies. 
 
 " The marriage customs among this people are as 
 follow : When a rich man desires to take to wife a 
 certain girl, he makes a present of four or five head of 
 cattle (guyal) to her parents, and forthwith takes her to 
 his house. Her parents kill the guyal, and having 
 . cooked much rice and brewed much liquor, they give a 
 great feast to all their relations and kin. Poorer people 
 follow the same custom in accordance with their means. 
 Cucis are allowed to marry without regard to blood 
 relationship : only a mother may not wed with her son. 
 If a woman has a son by her husband, the marriage is 
 indissoluble ; but if they do not agree, and have no son, 
 the husband can cast off" his wife and take another. The 
 Cucis have no idea of hell or heaven, or of any punish- 
 ment for evil deeds, or rewards for good actions. They 
 believe only that when a person dies, a being or spirit 
 seizes his soul and carries it off'. At the moment of its
 
 RELIGION, MANNERS, AND CUSTOMS. 277 
 
 being carried off, whatever is named, the dead man will 
 obtain and enjoy hereafter. 
 
 " This people eat the flesh of elephants, pigs, and 
 other animals ; and, if they happen to find a dead beast, 
 they do not hesitate to dry its flesh for consumption. 
 When a tribe determines to make war, they send out 
 spies to discover the position and force of their enemy, 
 as well as to find out the path. They then lay an 
 ambush at night, and at two or three in the morning they 
 fall upon the village to be cut up. Their weapons are 
 the sword and lance, the bow and arrow. If an enemy 
 abandons his village, they slay all the women and chil- 
 dren who may fall into their hands, and carry off all they 
 can lay hands on ; but if the enemy, having learnt their 
 design, has the courage to await and meet the onslaught, 
 they quietly and quickly return to their homes. 
 
 " If the Cucis see a star very near the moon, they 
 look upon it as a certain sign of an intended assault on 
 their village, and they pass the night under arms. Often 
 they lie in wait in the jungles and paths near their vil- 
 lage, and kill any one who may present themselves. 
 
 " When the Cucis are thus ambushed, leech-bites or 
 snake-bites will not draw the faintest cry from them nor 
 make them quit their hiding-place ; and the man who 
 brings back the head of a foe is sure of universal applause. 
 
 " If two tribes, fighting hand to hand, see the victory 
 uncertain between them, they make a signal to suspend 
 the combat, send out ambassadors, and conclude a peace 
 with a grand feast, taking sun and moon to witness the 
 sincerity of their peace-making. But if one tribe is 
 weaker than the other, and succumb in conflict, they are
 
 278 THE LHOOSAI, OE KOOKIES. 
 
 compelled to pay a yearly tribute in rice, cattle, slaves, 
 or arms. 
 
 " In the field, the Cucis' provisions consist of yams 
 and rice boiled to a cake in bamboos. They are thus 
 enabled to dispense with cooking, and can make long 
 and rapid marches ; and they can perform in one day 
 as much as an ordinary man can do in three or four. 
 Arrived at the place which they wish to attack, they 
 surround it during the night ; and if they surprise it, 
 they massacre, without pity, men, women, and children, 
 reserving only such as they wish for slaves. They carry 
 away the heads of the slain in leather sacks, and are 
 careful, if possible, to keep their hands unwashed and 
 bloody. The slaughter is always crowned by a big 
 feast, where they indulge in the grim pleasantry of filling 
 the dead mouths of the heads they have cut off with 
 food, saying, ' Eat, appease your hunger and thirst. In 
 the same way that I have slain you, may my children 
 kill yours.' This feast is repeated a second time in the 
 course of the expedition, and as often as possible news is 
 sent to their village as to their success and the number 
 of heads they have taken. Whenever it is known that 
 heads have been obtained, the whole village evinces the 
 liveliest satisfaction. They make head-dresses of red 
 and black threads, embroidered with beads and all 
 precious things ; and taking with them large vessels 
 of spirits, they go to meet the conquerors. During the 
 journey they blow reedpipes, strike gongs, and make 
 the woods resound with rude music. When they meet 
 the conquerors, they break into gong and dance, and 
 give themselves up to the expression of the most frantic
 
 EELIGION, MANNERS, AND CUSTOMS. 279 
 
 enjoyment. When a married man brings his wife a head, 
 they pledge one another alternately in horns of liquor, 
 and she even washes his bloody hands in the liquor that 
 they drink. 
 
 " As soon as the conquerors reach their village, they 
 assemble before the Chief's house, and make a pyramid 
 of the heads they have taken. Round this monument of 
 their victory they dance and drink until they generally 
 fall from intoxication. They kill by the thrust of a 
 spear some pigs and guyals, and make a fresh feast, in 
 which the liquor is not spared. The principal men of 
 the tribe place their enemies' heads on bamboo poles, 
 which they place on the tombs of their ancestors. The 
 man who brings most heads receives from the richest 
 persons in the tribe presents of cattle and liquor ; and 
 when any of the enemy have been brought in alive, the 
 chiefs who have not taken part in the expedition are 
 allowed to slaughter these unhappy captives. Certain 
 tribes in particular are the artificers of all warlike 
 weapons, while others are quite ignorant of all handicraft. 
 
 "The women do all the house work. The men are 
 employed in hunting, in cultivating, and in war. They 
 know no division of time save from day to day. Five 
 days after the birth of a male, and three days after that 
 of a daughter, they give a feast to all their kin. The 
 ceremony commences by the placing of a pole before the 
 house ; they then kill a guyal or pig, and drink is served 
 out ad libitum. The day concludes with songs and dances. 
 Those Cucis whom nature or accident renders incapable 
 of reproduction keep no house ; they live from door to 
 door like religious mendicants. When one presents him-
 
 280 THE LHOOSAI, OR KOOKIES. 
 
 self at the house of a rich man, the owner ties a long 
 string of red and white stones to a bamboo. He gives 
 alms to the mendicant, and feasts the village. They pay 
 superstitious homage to those red and white stones. 
 
 " When a man dies, his relatives kill a pig or a guyal, 
 and boil the flesh. They cover the corpse with a piece 
 of cloth, pour a little liquor into its mouth, of which they 
 all first partake, as a species of offering to the deceased's 
 manes. This ceremony is repeated at intervals for many 
 days. They afterwards place the body on a low platform 
 of split bamboo. They pierce the corpse in several 
 places, and light a slow fire underneath, so as to dry the 
 body. They then wrap it in a shroud and bury it, and for 
 a year afterwards they offer the first fruits of their crops 
 on the tomb. Some tribes pay different honours to the 
 dead. They cover the body in cloth and matting, and 
 suspend it from the branches of a lofty tree. When the 
 flesh is quite decomposed, they collect the bones, clean 
 and preserve them in a vase, which they open on all 
 important occasions, pretending that in thus consulting 
 the bones, they are following the wishes of their deceased 
 relative. 
 
 " A widow of this tribe is compelled to remain for a 
 year beside the tomb of her deceased husband, her family 
 bringing her food. If she dies during this year, they 
 pay her funeral honours ; if she survives, they re-conduct 
 her to her house, and celebrate her return by a festival. 
 
 " When, in dying, a Cuci leaves three sons, the eldest 
 and the youngest share the inheritance ; the second has 
 nothing. If he leaves no sons, his goods fall to his 
 brothers ; and if he has no brothers, they revert to the
 
 THE SHENDOOS. 281 
 
 Chief of the tribe. In the spring of 1776 many Cucis 
 visited Mr. Charles Croftes, who was the Commandant for 
 the English East India Company at Jafferabad. They 
 appeared very satisfied with their reception, executed 
 their dances, and promised to return after the harvest." 
 
 The Shendoo people is the last I shall have 
 to mention. They indeed seem to be more 
 a nation than a tribe ; but the accounts and 
 information of their habitudes possessed by 
 us are scanty and insufficient. The little 
 that we do know I proceed to set forth : 
 They inhabit the country north-east and 
 east of the Blue Mountain, which is a con- 
 spicuous mark in the range which bounds 
 the Hill Tracts south and east. It is said 
 that the Lhoosai have been driven northward 
 and westward by the Shendoos ; they again 
 may have been driven northward on to the 
 Lhoosai by the stir and movement of the 
 tribes to their south. They bind their hair 
 in a very high and lofty knot over the fore- 
 head, and both male and female are distin- 
 guished by a decorum in the matter of dress 
 that, from our knowledge of the other tribes, 
 would hardly be expected.
 
 282 THE SHENDOOS DRESS. 
 
 The Shendoo women wear a short chemise 
 of white home-spun cotton covering thebosom, 
 and a long petticoat of dark-blue cotton stuff, 
 reaching below the knee. Over the shoulders 
 and head, when out of doors, they wear 
 the fine cotton robe or cloth, for the manu- 
 facture of which they are pre-eminently distin- 
 guished : the cloth is black, with brilliant red 
 and yellow stripes. The women bind their 
 hair in smooth bands on each side of the face, 
 fastening it in a knot at the back of the head. 
 The men wear a cloth round their waist and 
 a mantle of cotton cloth over their shoulders. 
 Both sexes in stature are above the ordinary 
 height of the hill men, and of a fairer com- 
 plexion. The faces of those I have seen do 
 not bear any signs of the prevailing Mongo- 
 lian type of physiognomy. I am told that 
 they do not cultivate with the dao in joom 
 fashion, but are acquainted with the method 
 of terrace cultivation common among the 
 Himalayan tribes ; they use a large heavy hoe 
 in breaking up the land for seed. They do 
 not reap the grain with a sickle, but pluck
 
 HABITS AND CUSTOMS. 283 
 
 the ears by hand. Field labour, as a general 
 rule, is performed by the men : only the wives 
 of very poor men labour in the fields. The 
 Shendoo houses are raised from the ground, 
 and built entirely of planks and logs of wood. 
 The bamboo is said not to grow in that part 
 of the country. 
 
 Iron is found in the Shendoo country. 
 They make salt from brine springs existing in 
 the country. They manufacture their own 
 gunpowder. Sulphur they obtain from Bur- 
 mah, and an inferior sort of saltpetre is col- 
 lected from heaps of earth which they strongly 
 impregnate with urine. Their guns do not 
 appear to be of European manufacture ; the 
 stocks are painted red, black, and yellow, and 
 are highly varnished. Their powder flasks are 
 made of guyal horns, polished and beautifully 
 inlaid with silver and ivory. The men smoke 
 a pipe made of a joint of a bamboo, copper- 
 lined. The women use a tiny hookah, also of 
 copper, with a clay bowl. The tobacco water 
 which collects in the bottom of the women's 
 hookahs is held in high estimation among
 
 284 . THE SHENDOOS. 
 
 them as a preservative of the teeth and gums. 
 Every man carries a small gourd full of it, and 
 it is an act of common courtesy among them 
 to present it to an acquaintance or visitor, in 
 order that he may take a sip ; just as among 
 us, it used formerly to be customary to offer 
 a neighbour a pinch of snuff. Their tobacco 
 is fermented, pressed, and cut up, presenting 
 exactly the appearance of our Cavendish to- 
 bacco. The Chiefs wear a thick plume of the 
 tail feathers of the "beemraj" in their tur- 
 bans. A slave among them is valued at eight 
 muskets or two guyals. They appear to be 
 ignorant of money or its value. Both the 
 Shendoos and Lhoosai are to a man unable 
 to swim or manage a boat : this is owing to 
 their dwelling in the higher ranges of hills 
 at the head waters of the rivers, where the 
 stream is swift, shallow, and broken by rapids. 
 They are said to worship four spirits, or 
 deities, viz. Surpar, Patyen, Khosing, and 
 Wanchang. Surpar is the head of all. They 
 believe that after death they will live again in 
 another country where there is no trouble, the
 
 EELIGION MAERIAGES. 285 
 
 trees bearing food, clothes, and every thing 
 necessary for life. In addition to the four 
 deities above named, they sacrifice to the 
 spirits of earth and water on the occasion of 
 their beginning to cultivate. They seem to 
 have no distinctive names for these minor 
 spirits. Their sacrifice to the water kelpie 
 is a fowl killed and thrown into the river. 
 For the earth-god meat and rice is left ex- 
 posed on the ground. They have no priests ; 
 each man performs his own sacrifice ; but as 
 among the Lhoosai and Pankhos, they have 
 men among them supposed to be the special 
 favourites and oracles of their gods, and at 
 certain times and seasons these men become 
 possessed or filled by the divinity. They are 
 monogamons, as a rule by choice ; but a 
 Chief or any other powerful man may marry 
 his stepmother after his father's death. Mar- 
 riage, as with all the tribes, is merely a matter 
 of mutual consent, and is celebrated by feast- 
 ing and dancing. 
 
 The Shendoo country is said to be very 
 extensive, some fifteen days' journey across.
 
 286 THE SHENDOOS BURIALS. 
 
 They procure ponies, cattle, and silks from 
 the Province of Yan on the east, while to the 
 north they are said to have communication 
 with the British authorities of Cachar. The 
 Shendoos bury their dead in a grave lined 
 with stone. A Chief or a woman of any 
 position is buried in a sitting posture as 
 among the Bunj ogees. With the body are 
 interred its weapons, ornaments, and insignia 
 of rank. 
 
 The tribes wearing their hair in a high knot 
 over the forehead, as Shendoos, Bunjogees, 
 and Kumi, are called Poy. The Shendoo 
 tribe is called Lakheyr Poy in the Lhoosai 
 tongue. 
 
 During the cold season of 1865 I under- 
 took a journey into the Shendoo country, with 
 a view to, if possible, entering into friendly 
 relations with them, or at any rate to as- 
 certain something definite concerning them. 
 My experiences will, I think, be best set 
 before my readers in the form of a diary kept 
 by me during the expedition, which is as 
 follows :
 
 JOURNEY INTO THEIR COUNTRY. 287 
 
 " 29th November ,1865. We are camped on 
 the fork of brawling hill stream among heaps 
 of water-worn boulders. I am sitting on my 
 mat nnder a great tree, which spreads over 
 the stream. Half the party have gone road- 
 hunting, the remainder are smoking cheroots 
 and making baskets, while a select few are 
 damming up one of the small streams hard by 
 with ulterior views as to fish. Close by me, 
 just on the edge of the water, are a number of 
 young shoots of the sunn grass, which were 
 stuck there at early dawn by the exploring 
 party. The reason for this ceremony is a 
 belief in the existence of a powerful water 
 Kelpie, who inhabits the streams of the Twine 
 Kheong, and to whom they make peace offer- 
 ings. Each man having his green shoot in 
 hand, the Roaja 2 goes ankle deep into the 
 water, the others standing on the marge, and 
 offers up some sort of prayer or invocation 
 for success. This done, each man plants his 
 grass shoot, and they go away satisfied. I 
 gave the son of the chief Roaja a lesson on 
 2 Roaja a village head-man or leader.
 
 288 THE SHENDOOS. 
 
 the fiddle last night, to the intense delight of 
 all the others who sat round, and upon my 
 word the lad made a very good beginning. 
 If I were located here, I think a stringed band 
 would not be an impossibility. These people 
 have a capital ear for rhythm and time. I 
 served out to them to-day half my store of 
 salt pork, and at this moment great is the 
 frizzling in pots and sniffing of noses that is 
 going on. They eat also frogs, young plan- 
 tain shoots, and the tops of fern leaves, such 
 at least is part of to-day's bill of fare. We 
 all dined off plantain leaves and drink out of 
 bamboo cups ; the table equipage had to be 
 abandoned when we commenced marching. 
 Twekam Tonlyn, head of Lama Kheong people, 
 promises me a gecko steak on the first oppor- 
 tunity. I dare say it will be very good. I 
 know they eat them in the "West Indies. 
 
 " 1st December) 1865. I could not write 
 yesterday, I was so tired. We started at early 
 morning, and to the top of Eanrong Tong we 
 followed the survey road, which was easy 
 enough, although trying to the back sinews.
 
 JOURNEY INTO THEIR COUNTRY. 289 
 
 When, however, we got to the top we struck 
 off to the north into a wild elephant track. 
 This we followed for about two miles, and 
 then we had to cut our way through bamboo 
 jungle. We had two precipices to go down, 
 in the doing of which it is a wonder no one 
 was killed. The stones came rattling about 
 one's ears like hail, and one had to hang on 
 by roots and to grass in the most dangerous 
 manner, with a fall of I don't know how 
 many feet below. At 4 p.m., however, dead 
 beat, we all reached a Kumi village on the 
 Sungoo side. I got a touch of fever here, 
 the result of my last ten days' diet of rice, 
 water, and fish. 
 
 " There is a stone near the Sungoo not far 
 off the embouchure of Teendoo Kheong, on 
 which is an inscription in an unknown lan- 
 guage, the people say it is a magical incanta- 
 tion that was set up by a Burmese Raja a 
 hundred years ago. 
 
 " During my yesterday's march I noticed 
 wild thyme, parsley, celery, and sage in the 
 jungle ; also for about a mile a tract of wild 
 
 D
 
 290 THE SHENDOOS. 
 
 coffee. On the jooms here and there are 
 melons, cucumbers, rice, genara, grain, &c. 
 Soil seems first-rate, like garden mould. We 
 also fell in with a troop of Huluq monkeys. 
 
 " It would be a good plan, I think, to dis- 
 tribute English seeds among these hill people. 
 Our advanced posts should be furnished with 
 a few rockets ; the hill people fear them much. 
 Prevalent diseases rheumatism, eye diseases, 
 fever, and diarrhoea. Some gaudy-coloured 
 ear-rings are wanted for presents, in shape 
 truncated cone-hollow. The language of the 
 people of this part is beginning to change. 
 They only understand Mughi slightly. The 
 village here is situated in a bend of the 
 Teendoo Kheong, and surrounded on all sides 
 with high hills. The people wear slightly 
 more clothing than those on the Mahamoree 
 side, but the women still have but the one 
 waistcloth and pewter girdle. They drink 
 the universal seepah of fermented rice. A 
 big jar of it was brought me this morning. 
 They were greatly pleased at my drinking. 
 You suck it up through a reed, like sherry
 
 JOURNEY INTO THEIE COUNTRY. 291 
 
 cobbler. It is slightly acidulated in taste, 
 and by no means unpleasant. 
 
 " Moved on down the Teendoo Kheong to 
 the banks of the Sungoo. In the Kheong 
 there was one rather striking place, which 
 made me stop to look at it. It seemed as if 
 half a large hill had topped bodily into the 
 small stream, and that too quite recently, for 
 the rent face of the rock was fresh and bare, 
 without a sign of vegetation. I should have 
 liked to see the fall; its magnitude I could 
 appreciate by the immense fragments of 
 debris over which we with difficulty made 
 our way. Our camp at the Sungoo was 
 lonely swift rapids, long stretches of calm 
 water just simmering into streaks of silver, 
 like a wind-flaw, on the brink of the falls 
 and the banks, such moss-grown overhang- 
 ing rocks, water- worn and fern-plumed it 
 was a feast of beauty. Towards evening my 
 party brought four boats, hired at two annas 
 a-day, and cheap too. As soon as they ar- 
 rived, I proceeded to shoot the rapids; and 
 anything more exciting cannot be conceived. 
 u 2
 
 292 THE SHENDOOS. 
 
 I thought we were in for a ducking race, but 
 we scraped through amid shouts of laughter 
 from my Mroongs, who stood on the bank 
 smoking their pipes and watching * the 
 ashiang' handle a paddle. In the bed of 
 the stream to-day my men amused them- 
 selves looking for fish when we halted. 
 They peeped cautiously about, and then 
 putting their hands under a rock, just as boys 
 tickle trout at home in England, they would 
 produce a great eel-like fish, white-bellied, 
 and his back mottled with brown and black. 
 
 " Memorandum. Presents prized by these 
 people would be some wooden cheroot- 
 holders and some wax matches in small tin 
 boxes. 
 
 " 3rd December, 1865. Halted at Ramakree 
 Kheong a very heavy day's work. Passed 
 no less than twelve rapids ; the first two or 
 three were exciting, but afterwards it became 
 a bore. The importance of a thorough know- 
 ledge of Burmese cannot be over-estimated; 
 it irks me like a seton in the neck to feel 
 myself at the mercy of my interpreters. I
 
 JOURNEY INTO THEIR COUNTRY. 293 
 
 know enough to give orders and make myself 
 understood, but when it comes to a council, 
 I hobble hopelessly in the rear. I wish to 
 goodness I had brought no escort at all. 
 Bengallees are worse than useless in the hills ; 
 they are vile, cumbersome lumber, which eats 
 largely, and is not even pretty to look at. I 
 would send them back even now, but there 
 may be need for them, and it's a pity after 
 having brought them so far, to send them 
 back just as I get to the place where they 
 may be needed. We passed the Fairy's Stone 
 to-day ("Nye Kyak"), not the one with the 
 inscription which I could not visit, but a 
 great square mass of rock standing up alone 
 in the middle of the river, its sides terraced 
 as if by men's hands; but this, I suppose, is 
 merely the action of the water on the cleavage 
 of the strata. Further on was a castle-like 
 crag on the left bank ; this is called the 
 Joomeah's Rock. They say that it is filled 
 with rupees, which were buried there by a 
 village of Joomeahs, who were carried off by 
 the Shendoos, en masse) into slavery.
 
 294 THE SHENDOOS. 
 
 " 4>th December, 1865. From Eamacree 
 Kheong to Modhocree Kheong, a long day's 
 journey. The camp not settled until night- 
 fall, and without food all day. We live now 
 in true jungle fashion ; my plates are plantain 
 leaves, my cooking-pots bamboo choongas. 
 Dinner good nevertheless, consisting of fish 
 freshly caught, two slices salt pork, oatmeal 
 cake, a dish of fern-tops, and a curry of the 
 young shoots of wild plantain. 
 
 " Tiger spoor all round the camp, as well 
 as dung. Had a general inspection of arms, 
 &c. ; found all fit for service. We ascended 
 some light rapids to-day. After passing 
 Singopha the river gets less rocky and nar- 
 rower. I stopped at Singopha to see the 
 fort. It consists of some dozen of old posts 
 lying rotting in a thick jungle. The post 
 has not been occupied for two years. There 
 are no houses from Eamacree upwards. The 
 great difficulty in a journey like this is the 
 conveyance of food. It takes more men to 
 carry their own and my party's food than all 
 the traps put together. A party of the
 
 JOUENEY INTO THEIR COUNTEY. 295 
 
 hill people joined us to-day, and asked to 
 travel with us to the Koladyne for protection. 
 " bth December, 1865. From Modhocree, 
 over Moddo Tong, down the Tumtoo Kheong, 
 to the Pee Kheong Biver. There was a sort 
 of path by which we came, but it has been a 
 hard day's work; sometimes cutting a way, 
 sometimes creeping on hands and knees, then 
 wading knee-deep in water. Leeches there 
 were in myriads. Although I had thick 
 woollen socks, and shooting boots with 
 trousers and gaiters over all, no less than 
 eight managed to draw blood ; and, as for 
 the men, they were covered with them. As 
 we were going along on one side of a ravine, 
 on the other, through the bamboos, we saw 
 a magnificent elephant going slowly up the 
 opposite hill. I did not fire at him, as he 
 could not be effectually hurt, and it would 
 only have been giving pain needlessly. At 
 the junction of the Tumtoo Kheong, with the 
 Pee Kheong right in our path, we found two 
 arrows set trap-fashion, with a spring. I 
 was on ahead with my Mugh servant, so we
 
 296 THE SHENDOOS. 
 
 quietly removed them, and said nothing to 
 the others. I, however, loaded the whole 
 party, and put on double sentries ; it might 
 have been accidental, but one cannot be too 
 cautious. I was stung several times by 
 nettles to-day, the first I have seen in the 
 country. They are just like an English 
 nettle seen through a magnifying-glass. The 
 people on the Sungoo say that fever is most 
 prevalent with them in October and Novem- 
 ber at the end of the rains. The Roajas were 
 talking to me to-night. They say they will 
 come and see me at Chittagong. I must try 
 and get the Commissioner to let me have a 
 small guest-house built, as when these people 
 know me, I do not doubt they would fre- 
 quently come in if they had anywhere to go 
 to. I tried to get them to send me one or 
 two of their sons to live with me, but as 
 yet they are afraid. They have no written 
 character. I should like to introduce the 
 English letters among them, and it could be 
 done without difficulty. 
 
 " The people say that from the source to
 
 JOUENEY INTO THEIR COUNTRY. 297 
 
 the junction of the Pee Kheong with the 
 Koladyne there is not a single inhabitant. 
 Two hundred years ago the valley was 
 thickly populated, but the Kookies and 
 Shendoos have emptied it. 
 
 " 6th December, 1865. To-day we left the 
 Pee Kheong by Lama Kheong, wading up, 
 crossed a spur of the Pee Kheong range, 
 named Kanka Tong, then down again across 
 a tributary of Pee Kheong, and so over the 
 main range of Eynko Tong. Much the same 
 journey as yesterday. We halted at Teyn 
 Kreyng. Roaja Rhoma, caste Khoomee, course 
 east, and then east by south. Teyn Kreyng 
 is on the Khoo Kheong falling into the Kola- 
 dyne. The village is not stockaded, but they 
 had a most extraordinary stronghold in a 
 tree. The hut was capable of holding some 
 twenty people,, and made shot-proof by 
 strong billets of wood, looped all round and 
 in the floor. I went up, but the passage 
 seemed very perilous ; my foot went through 
 the bamboos twice, and the whole affair 
 shook fearfully. The people here are much
 
 298 THE SHENDOOS. 
 
 subject to boils; they treat them by the 
 actual cautery. A bad-looking set they are, 
 these men, and dishonest to boot. They 
 said they knew nothing of the Shendoos ; but 
 they had some pretty little hookahs, which 
 the women smoked, and I wanted to buy 
 one, and they talking about it in their own 
 tongue, which one of my men understood, 
 although they did not know it. Heard that 
 they had brought them from the Shendoo 
 country, and could not replace them, so 
 they concluded not to let me have a hookah. 
 Their village, being all alone too, is suspicious. 
 Depend upon it, they are in league with the 
 Shendoos. Could get no assistance here. 
 
 " They say that there are villages three 
 days' journey up the Pee Kheong to the 
 north. There is a track that leads to them 
 nearly opposite to Teendoo Kheong on the 
 Sungoo. Here is another expedition in em- 
 bryo. I am sick of my escort, and shall send 
 them back to-morrow by Akyab. A Ben- 
 gallee is no more use than a log of wood in 
 these hills. They are nearly all footsore,
 
 JOURNEY INTO THEIE COUNTRY. 299 
 
 ailing, and what is worse, grumbling. No 
 European has been in these parts or up the 
 Pee Kheong 3 . 
 
 " Akyab, 1st February, 1866. Having been 
 so unfortunate during my recent expedition 
 into the Hill Tracts of the Upper Koladyne 
 as to lose the whole of my books, papers, 
 memoranda, &c., I am compelled to supply 
 their place, as far as lies in my power, by 
 recording from memory the most salient 
 events of the last six weeks. My last diary 
 was sent back by me from the junction of the 
 Khoo Kheong and Koladyne, a little below 
 Tulukmee, whence I also dispensed with the 
 services of the main body of my small escort 
 which had so far accompanied me from 
 
 3 The first part of my diary concluded here, and I 
 sent it back to the Commissioner of Chittagong by the 
 hands of my useless Bengallee escort of constables. We 
 had arrived at the river Koladyne, and I saw no further 
 use for them, but rather hindrance. I also dismissed 
 here all my Mahamoree Roajas and coolies ; they, honest 
 fellows, being content to take my I. 0. U. instead of pay. 
 I had left with me one head constable, a cook, and two 
 Mugh interpreters. T. H. L.
 
 300 THE SHENDOOS. 
 
 Chittagong. My object in doing this was 
 two-fold : First) to lessen the very heavy 
 expense which the carriage of our food alone 
 gave rise to ; and secondly, because I was of 
 opinion that my being attended by even a 
 small number of armed men might give rise 
 to suspicion on the part of the hill tribes and 
 perhaps hinder my movements. It was, I 
 think, the 8th of December when I arrived at 
 Tulukmee. I had with me one head con- 
 stable, Phusla, a Punjabee, and the two inter- 
 preters, Cox Bazaar men, who had come 
 with me from Chittagong. The inhabitants 
 of the place received us with caution. They 
 feared two things : ls, the consequences, 
 from the Shendoos; 2nd t that the Akyab 
 authorities might take umbrage. I explained 
 that I had no intention of interfering with 
 the Akyab authorities, and indeed had come 
 over by invitation to attend a conference of 
 hill tribes that was to be held here, I under- 
 stood, in January. They said that they 
 knew nothing of any conference, and saw but 
 little of any sahibs up in these parts. They
 
 JOURNEY INTO THEIR COUNTEY. 301 
 
 seemed very averse to helping me at all. 
 However, I went into the village, ate and 
 drank with them, distributing a few small 
 presents, and the talk lasted far into the 
 night. The * Katungree,' or head man of the 
 village, was old, sick, and a nonentity; 
 although his sons, two likely lads, will be 
 good for something eventually. One of these 
 boys had been a prisoner for two years 
 among the Shendoos, whence he had been 
 ransomed by a payment of eight muskets. I 
 offered him a head constableship ; he would 
 be useful in our Hill Tracts. The man who 
 seemed to have the most influence in the 
 village was one Khiloo, a Doctor, supposed 
 to be possessed of magic powers and great 
 wisdom. His father had formerly been the 
 Government ' Kyun,' or revenue collector on 
 the Koladyne, and with him my arrange- 
 ments were carried on. They fleeced me 
 heavily by-the-bye here on account of pro- 
 visions, every thing seeming to be at famine 
 price. They said they had not suffered from 
 a Shendoo raid for some years ; that formerly
 
 302 THE SHENDOOS. 
 
 the village was small and had few inhabi- 
 tants, but that now there were many men, 
 although they admitted that in case of an 
 attack the entire population would take to 
 their boats, where, they said, the Shendoos 
 could not follow them. It was a curious fact, 
 and one that was borne out by my after- 
 experience, that the Shendoos appear to be 
 unable to manage a boat, or even to swim. 
 All their journeyings and fightings are ex- 
 clusively by land. Tulukmee is on the left 
 bank of the river going up ; it numbers, I 
 should say, some 300 inhabitants, and there 
 are about fifty houses. The people are 
 Kheongthas, or sons of the river; in other 
 words, inland Hughs. They speak the Rak- 
 haing dialect, but all of them are also well 
 acquainted with the Koomee patois. A 
 Koonaee village is close by, almost in fact 
 one with the Kheongtha settlement. The 
 Koomees are incurably nomadic, but these 
 Kheongtha villages seem to remain very long 
 in the same place. This I attribute to the 
 fact of their carrying on some small system
 
 JOURNEY INTO THEIR COUNTRY. 303 
 
 of barter or trade in cotton and cloth in 
 addition to the subsistence they derive merely 
 from agriculture. I noticed that several of 
 the finer descriptions of foreign cotton had 
 been introduced by the Akyab authorities; 
 the plants, however, did not seem to have 
 much favour in the eyes of the inhabitants, 
 being merely cultivated, exceptionally, near 
 the houses. They said the foreign plant was 
 not hardy enough and required too much 
 attention, indeed the indigenous staple ap- 
 peared to me to be very fine, almost match- 
 less in colour and apparently of long fibre. 
 A system of hybridization, if possible, I 
 should think, would prove serviceable. It 
 was agreed at length that Khiloo would 
 accompany me up the river to see the country 
 and gain what information I could. In the 
 morning, however, there was such delay in 
 starting that it was not until with our own 
 hands we had shouldered and carried down 
 our baggage that we managed to get off. 
 Khiloo appeared in full fig. Round his head 
 a thin muslin turban twisted rope fashion
 
 304 THE SHENDOOS. 
 
 and showing the grizzled topknot of hair 
 which he wore in common with all Mughs. 
 His chupkun, or robe of black satin, somewhat 
 tarnished, but still very presentable, a dhotee 
 or potoho of dark purple and black silk, 
 while a Burmese cutlass in a wooden sheath 
 was tucked under his arm. He wore sus- 
 pended round his neck the silver pincers and 
 appendages for trimming the beard which all 
 these people use. 
 
 " We were to go first to the village of one 
 Yuong, who was a Koomee Chief or Toung- 
 meng of some influence, a short day's journey 
 up the river ; thither accordingly, through the 
 dense morning fog, we bent our way. The 
 fog in these parts commences on the river at 
 about 2 a. m., and does not lift until mid-day; 
 the cold, too, now began to be something 
 intense. Our boats were the usual wooden 
 dug-outs propelled by paddles in the deeps 
 and poled along by men in the bow through 
 the shallows and up the rapids, which now 
 became somewhat numerous and dangerous. 
 Arrived at Yuong' s we found that he was not
 
 JOURNEY INTO THEIR COUNTRY. 305 
 
 in the village, or at least the people said so. 
 I, however, got out of the boats and installed 
 myself in his house, stating my intention to 
 remain there until he honoured me with an 
 interview. This man's house was altogether 
 unique in its way, and by far the finest and 
 best-built dwelling I had ever seen in the 
 Hill Tracts. It was built in the usual fashion 
 about five feet from the ground with a plat- 
 form in front, where the bamboo water tubes, 
 &c., were placed, the platters cleaned, &c. 
 The house itself consisted of one immense 
 hall or atrium and an enclosed platform at 
 the back. This hall was at least 50 feet long 
 by 20 broad, with two large fireplaces made 
 in the usual way of loose earth battened into 
 a square at either end ; the walls were double 
 with an interval of about 18 inches between. 
 Outside and along the whole plinth above 
 the door ran a line of skulls of deer, the 
 guyal and the bear, all smoked to one 
 uniform dark brown tinge, for this was 
 the custom of the people, and I was told 
 that Yuong was a mighty hunter. Inside
 
 306 THE SHENDOOS. 
 
 the house in the centre towered up another 
 trophy of horns and skins, including buffalo 
 horns of large size, and mixed with weapons, 
 shields, powder-horns, and spears. I regret 
 much that I lost my diary, for I obtained 
 here much information as to the people, 
 their diseases, average length of life, reli- 
 gious ceremonies and belief, together with 
 the names of their months, system of days, 
 numerals, about 300 words of the language ; 
 all, however, is gone, and my memory fails 
 me. This man, Yuong, is at feud with the 
 Shendoos. The occasion of his quarrel I 
 ascertained here, and afterwards verified in 
 the Akyab Police Office. It appears that 
 some time ago a Shendoo chief sent an em- 
 bassy to Kounglaphroo, or, as we call him, 
 ' the Poang/ consisting of six men, bearing 
 ivory and home-spun cloths. Of these men 
 five were murdered by Kounglaphroo's orders, 
 and the man who escaped was captured and 
 slain by Yuong on his way back to his tribe. 
 For this reason it was that the Shendoos 
 made raids on the Chittagong frontier, and
 
 JOURNEY INTO THEIE COUNTRY. 307 
 
 are at enmity with Yuong. He has burnt 
 one of their villages, and they have returned 
 the compliment twice over to him. Yuong 
 himself soon came in, and from him I gained 
 most of my information. He is a young man, 
 not more than thirty I should say, with a 
 somewhat crafty expression of face. I should 
 not like to trust him. 
 
 " He had living with him two slaves, 
 one Langtoo Mooroong, known at Karyoung 
 Roa, on the Proda Kheong (vide Report of 
 Superintendent, 'Hill Tracts,' on raid made 
 in December, 1864), who he had either taken 
 or brought from the Shendoos, whose lan- 
 guage he spoke, besides Koomee and Rak- 
 haing. The dialect of Arracan, both here 
 and in our own district, is the universal 
 ' lingua franca,'' spoken and understood by 
 every one. One of these slaves was a Mroo, 
 from Chittagong side; he could speak little 
 Bengallee, but was careful to hide his accom- 
 plishment, which only oozed out when he was 
 under the influence of liquor. 
 
 " From Young Roa we went on to Teynwey 
 x 2
 
 308 THE SHENDOOS. 
 
 Roa, tlie residence of Teynwey, the further- 
 most tribute-paying chief on the Akyab 
 frontier. Here I halted. The village itself 
 consists of some fifty houses, and is situated 
 on the top of a hill about 500 feet high. It 
 was the first place I had yet seen that was 
 regularly fortified. The approach to it was 
 only by one side, and here you were met by 
 a triple gateway; the doors were of solid 
 three-inch timber, while a treble stockade of 
 bamboo, covered from top to bottom with a 
 perfect labyrinth of spikes, offered a some- 
 what formidable obstacle to any attacking 
 party. Like all these hill villages, however, 
 the position would be quite untenable before 
 any competent assailants ; a rocket or two, 
 or even a fire-tipped arrow, would burn the 
 village to the ground. There were lofty look- 
 out stations placed all round the enceinte of 
 the village, and the steep slopes adjacent 
 were also defended by sharp chevaux de frise 
 of pointed bamboo, as well as by ' poees ' 
 strewn in the ravines. The old chief Teyn- 
 wey soon made his appearance, with a some-
 
 JOURNEY. INTO THEIR COUNTRY. 30i) 
 
 what numerous following. He was unarmed, 
 save for an enormous pipe which he carried 
 in his hand. He wore a fine Shendoo cloth 
 and turban, and in the latter was fixed a 
 thick plume, consisting of the slender tail- 
 feathers of the 'bhimraj.' The inhabitants 
 of his village are one-half Koomees, the re- 
 mainder are Kyaws. This latter tribe, or 
 rather family, is curious, inasmuch as this 
 is the only place where they are known to 
 exist. Their physiognomy and dress also 
 are unlike those of the Koomees. They 
 have also a separate chief of their own. 
 The most noticeable difference in their ap- 
 pearance was that the men, instead of wear- 
 ing their hair like the Koomees or Mroos in 
 a knot on the forehead, invariably tie it up 
 behind in a club like the Cingalese. The 
 women also wear their hair in a plaited coro- 
 net over the forehead. As I was talking to 
 Teynwey another Chief made his appearance. 
 He was the head of a small community of 
 Shendoos (the only one in our limits), who 
 resided close by and paid tribute to Govern-
 
 310 THE SHENDOOS. 
 
 merit. He brought eggs and fowls as a pre- 
 sent, and was accompanied curiously enough 
 by four women of his tribe. I gave him some 
 small presents, and learnt all I could from 
 him. He could speak no language save his 
 own. He was a powerful, rough-looking old 
 fellow, with a thick stubble of a beard all over 
 his chin (he shaved with a dao, by-the-bye, so 
 he said). His dress was not in any very 
 marked degree different from that of other 
 hill men, save that the turban was wound in a 
 very high sort of tower or excrescence over 
 the forehead. This head-dress, by the way, 
 was distinctive of all the Shendoos I saw 
 afterwards. The women, on the contrary, 
 were in every way different from those of the 
 other tribes. In the first place they seemed 
 to have some regard for decency, as they 
 wore a kind of short habit shirt or shift and a 
 petticoat of similar material. They also wore 
 over the shoulders the usual fine striped Shen- 
 doo cloth, which is very handsome, although 
 home- spun. Their hair was brought carefully 
 in bands on each side of the face, fastening in
 
 JOURNEY INTO THEIR COUNTRY. 311 
 
 a knot behind at the back of the head. The 
 physiognomy of the whole party was different 
 from that of the Koomees, the women, indeed, 
 reminding me of nothing more than a Portu- 
 guese half-caste. The eyes, in particular, were 
 well-shaped, with nothing of the Mongol type 
 about them. 
 
 "On my presenting a present of some beads 
 and a looking-glass to the oldest and chief 
 dame of the party, she acknowledged my 
 courtesy with a gracious smile, and in return 
 drawing a small bottle-shaped gourd from 
 some recess in her garments, she presented 
 it to me to drink. On inquiry this appeared 
 to contain the lees or dirty water from the 
 bottom of the small Shendoo hookah which 
 all the women smoke, and this poisonous 
 decoction is held in high esteem by the men 
 as a preservative for the teeth and gums. I 
 was told not to swallow the nauseous abomi- 
 nation, but merely to rinse my mouth with 
 it. On giving the old fellow some liquor to 
 drink, I was surprised to notice that he 
 would not touch it until the women had first
 
 312 THE SHENDOOS 
 
 partaken thereof, and in faith they required 
 severally a great deal of pressing before they 
 would drink. The old man told me that 
 many of the Shendoos would like to come 
 and settle in British limits, but that the 
 revenue demanded from them was the great 
 hindrance. In their own country, he said, 
 five days' journey from here, they paid no 
 tribute to their Chiefs, but lived together in 
 community, the only acknowledgment of 
 fealty being that each male was bound to 
 give to the Chief a third of all flesh killed by 
 him either in hunting or for home consump- 
 tion, and also to follow him upon any warlike 
 expedition ; in return for this the Chief was 
 bound to provide his followers with salt. 
 He also confirmed the story I had previously 
 heard as to the reason of the Shendoos' hos- 
 tility to the Poang, but he said there were 
 many Chiefs in his nation, some were friends 
 of Kounglaphroo and some enemies. The 
 Loungtsweys were a powerful tribe to the 
 north-east of Chittagong, who were on 
 friendly terms with the Poang.
 
 JOUENEY INTO THEIR COUNTEY. 313 
 
 " On his taking his departure with the 
 women folk he requested me as a favour to 
 fire my gun over their heads as they went, 
 and with this wish I complied much to their 
 satisfaction. At night I went up into the 
 village to sleep, more especially as there was 
 to be a grand dance, feast, and consultation 
 as to me and my purposes. I was lodged in 
 old Teynwey's house, and after dinner, which 
 by-the-bye comprised, among other things, 
 snake, flesh, and elephant's feet, the kyaw 
 dance commenced. The music consisted of 
 a rough kind of guitar, thrummed across by 
 a bamboo stick, in shape not unlike a large 
 fiddle, but made of one solid lump of wood, 
 with wooden feet tied down the stem like a 
 guitar. Drums of course ad libitum. The 
 dance was simple enough, being performed 
 by about twenty young fellows marching 
 round in a circle to measured time. The 
 rhythm, indeed, of the measure was wonder- 
 fully well marked, and just about the same as 
 a stage triumphal march. The leader of the 
 circle held in his hand a pretty little * dao '
 
 314 THE SHENDOOS. 
 
 with a brazen handle bedizened with a long 
 flowing tuft of scarlet goat's hair, the other 
 performers bore some a shield, some an 
 ordinary dao, and these weapons were clanked 
 together as the dancers moved. One step a 
 pause, two steps all sink down on their hams 
 and rise again, another step, then a jump, and 
 a shout, and so on ; I meanwhile putting in 
 an ' obligate ' accompaniment with fiddle and 
 voice. 
 
 "In an adjoining room were the drinkers. 
 Here two rows of pots were filled with the 
 ( khoung ' or ' seepah,' of which they are so 
 fond, and to every pot were two or three 
 men waiting for their turn at the reed through 
 which the liquor is sucked. It is by no 
 means an unpleasant drink; indeed, I got to 
 like it very much before I left the hills, but, 
 like all brews, there are sorts. 
 
 " Next day I abandoned the village, being 
 driven out by the legions of bugs and other 
 vermin with which the place was swarming, 
 and proceeded to take up my abode in a 
 little shanty or hut which they constructed
 
 JOURNEY INTO THEIR COUNTRY. 315 
 
 for me below on the banks of the river. 
 Meantime the conference had been held, and 
 it was decided after sundry experiments in 
 divination by Khiloo, that I was to be assisted. 
 Accordingly it was determined that after due 
 sacrifice to the Water Kelpie a deputation of 
 six men should go to Kheynung's village (the 
 largest in the Shendoo country), and en- 
 deavour to prevail upon him to come down 
 and escort me to his residence. The sacrifice 
 was performed in this wise ; a goat was tied 
 by the neck and another cord was attached 
 to his hind legs ; these cords being kept tight, 
 she was thrown into an extended position. 
 Then I took one cord, while the other was 
 held by the five Chiefs ; Yuong bearing the 
 brazen-hilted dao stood in the midst over 
 the goat, and taking in his hand a small cup of 
 liquor he took a mouthful and blew it out over 
 me, then another mouthful over the Chiefs, 
 and a third over the sacrifice, at the same 
 time raising his dao in the air and in a loud 
 voice addressing an invocation to the river 
 spirit ; a few hairs were plucked from the goat
 
 316 THE SHENDOOS. 
 
 and cast to the wind, and then with one 
 stroke of the dao he severed the goat's head 
 from the body. The warm blood on the 
 weapon was then smeared by him on my 
 forehead and naked feet, and on those of all 
 who had taken part in the ceremony. I was 
 now informed that any one of us who acted 
 falsely would be slain at once by his col- 
 leagues without more ado. This at any rate 
 was decisive, and so after a big feed on the 
 flesh of the goat, together with another which 
 was slaughtered, and for both of which I had 
 to pay, the messengers bearing with them 
 presents from me departed for the Shendoo 
 country, leaving me to await for the next 
 twelve days the result of their mission. This 
 preliminary of obtaining permission was made 
 a sine qua non by Teynwey and all the other 
 Chiefs. Without it they said our lives would 
 not be worth a moment's purchase in the Shen- 
 doo country, and although I pressed hard to get 
 on I could not get a single man to go with me. 
 " The next day I was sitting in my little 
 shanty playing my fiddle, when one of the
 
 JOURNEY INTO THEIR COUNTRY. 317 
 
 guides I had brought with me discharged my 
 gun close outside and sent the ball into me, 
 wounding me in the thigh. It entered a little 
 below the hip and came out just above the 
 knee, and as the wound looked serious and 
 gave me great pain, I felt myself obliged to 
 go down to Akyab and obtain the services of 
 the Doctor. It was not so much the pain I 
 suffered, or the danger I was in, that made 
 me thoroughly wretched, but that after going 
 through so much privation my labour would 
 now be fruitless, or that at any rate some one 
 else would get the credit of it. 
 
 " I was wounded on the 15th of December 
 at evening, and arrived in Akyab on the 20th 
 at mid-day, having met Captain Munro, the 
 Superintendent of Police, on my way down. 
 He was out on tour and returned with me to 
 his head- quarters. Here we found Colonel 
 Phayre, the Chief Commissioner of British 
 Burmah. I was of course unable to call upon 
 him, but I wrote reporting all I had done and 
 also forwarded my diary for his perusal. He 
 was good enough to express satisfaction at
 
 318 THE SHENDOOS. 
 
 my report, and to say that it would be proper 
 for me to accompany Captain Munro up the 
 Koladyne on my recovery, supposing that 
 the Chittagong authorities approved of my 
 so doing. I accordingly telegraphed to the 
 Commissioner of Chittagong, and received his 
 assent to the proposed arrangement. 
 
 " On the 5th of January, although my 
 wound was still open, I was sufficiently re- 
 covered to make a fresh start. 
 
 " Colonel Phayre himself accompanied us 
 some 250 miles, and held two conferences 
 with the Hill chiefs on the way. He deter- 
 mined that a Superintendent of Akyab Hill 
 Tracts should be appointed, and also that the 
 tax paid by our tribute-paying tribes should 
 be decreased. The following assessment will 
 prevail for the future : 
 
 " For every married man and family, two 
 rupees a year. 
 
 " For every dao used in clearing, one rupee 
 yearly. Cripples, men over sixty years of 
 age, are altogether exempt. Unmarried men 
 to pay the duo tax only. Any tribes from
 
 JOURNEY INTO THEIR COUNTRY. 319 
 
 beyond our frontier coming to settle would 
 not be required to pay tribute for two years. 
 These rates apply to the Keongthas only. 
 The other hill tribes, as Koomees and Mroos, 
 at the rate of one rupee per annum for each 
 house or family. 
 
 " These arrangements will, to a certainty, 
 draw a great number of our people from 
 Chittagong to the Koladyne. 
 
 " The custom of Goung-hpo, or price of a 
 head, as it exists among all the hill tribes, is 
 curious, and more especially noteworthy, as 
 it is either the cause or pretext of every raid 
 that is committed. The custom may be 
 briefly described as the enforcement of de- 
 mands, either of claims made by one tribe on 
 another, for 'ata' or revenue, or for the price 
 of the body of some deceased member of the 
 community called Goung-hpo. The latter is 
 the most frequent pretext, it being the practice 
 among them, on the death of any inhabitant 
 of their village, to saddle his death upon some 
 other tribe or clan whose village the deceased 
 may recently have visited, and then to demand
 
 320 THE SHENDOOS. 
 
 a certain price for his life. This custom is 
 but too often a cloak for mere robbery of the 
 most violent description, in which both men 
 and women are carried off as slaves. 
 
 " It is, however, a practice among them, in 
 borrowing money, to give some relative as 
 bodily security for repayment ; care should, 
 therefore, be taken in listening to any com- 
 plaints as to slavery, that the voluntary bond- 
 age of the security is not misrepresented to 
 be the forcible detention of a captive. The 
 tribute of the hill tribes in Arracan is not 
 paid exclusively in cash, but often in the 
 shape of ivory and. other country produce. 
 Colonel Phayre, Captain Munro, and myself 
 reached Tulukmee on the 12th January, 
 whence, after staying one day, the Chief 
 Commissioner left us with instructions to go 
 as far as we could into the Shendoo country, 
 and to endeavour to make friends with the 
 chiefs of the principal tribes, as also, if pos- 
 sible, to prevail upon them to discontinue for 
 the future all raids upon the Akyab and Chit- 
 tagong frontiers. "We were to obtain what
 
 JOURNEY INTO THEIR COUNTRY. 321 
 
 information we could as to the British sub- 
 jects in captivity; but on this point no direct 
 steps as to ransom or release were to be 
 taken, pending the result of our trip and fur- 
 ther orders. We halted at Tulukmee for five 
 days, sending on messengers and presents to 
 the Shendoos' country to obtain permission 
 to advance. We should have been detained 
 longer than this, but fortunately news of my 
 first visit and the motives thereof had reached 
 the village of Khenung, a considerable Chief 
 among them, and he had sent his second 
 son, with five others of the tribe, down to 
 Teynwey's village to reconnoitre. Our mes- 
 sengers, therefore, going up met this small 
 party of Shendoos coming down, and with a 
 great deal of difficulty prevailed upon them 
 to come down the river as far as Tulukmee to 
 meet us. They were very suspicious and 
 frightened, but eventually made their appear- 
 ance with old Teynwey. The interview was 
 satisfactory. The Chiefs son, Aylong, said 
 there was no objection to our going into their 
 country, but that we must pay for it to the 
 
 Y
 
 322 THE SHENDOOS. 
 
 tune of sundry brazen vessels, red cloths, 
 beads, &c. These stipulations, after some 
 haggling, we at length agreed to, and then 
 Munro was informed that it was indispens- 
 able that ah 1 parties concerned should take 
 an oath of friendship and alliance. Accord- 
 ingly a fine fat young heifer was procured and 
 slaughtered, in the same manner and with the 
 same ceremonies as I have before described, 
 with this exception, that the offering was tied 
 to a thick stake set fast in the ground, and 
 thrust through with a spear. 
 
 " On the 18th, then, we started once more 
 on our upward course. The Shendoos would 
 not go in a boat, but made their way by 
 preference through the jungle on the river's 
 bank, or when we came to any deep and 
 impassable part of the river they would jump 
 into my boat for five minutes, leaving it again 
 as soon as possible. I was great friends with 
 them by this time, and noted down a large 
 number of their words and phrases. They 
 were never tired of examining me and my 
 belongings; the fiddle, lucifer matches, my
 
 JOURNEY INTO THEIR COUNTRY. 323 
 
 writing materials and books apparently 
 afforded them endless topics of conversation, 
 but what most of all seemed to astonish them 
 was my white skin. Aylong would take my 
 hand and examine it attentively, then he 
 would put it down carefully and stroking me 
 on the shoulder say * apa, aputlah,' it is good, 
 it is fair. They gave me of their tobacco too, 
 and this was a most welcome gift, as my stock 
 had long ago run out. The tobacco they 
 smoke is fermented, pressed and cut up just 
 like our American Cavendish, and is by no 
 means bad smoking. We halted nowhere 
 now but pushed steadily on, passing Teynwey's 
 on the 19th. Beyond his village we found 
 three settlements of Khoons. These tribes 
 are independent. In outward appearance, 
 however, both they and their women very 
 much resemble the Koomees of the Upper 
 Koladyne. I noticed among them two men, 
 who curiously enough had long brown beards, 
 although in all other respects thorough hill 
 men and claiming pure descent. I imagine, 
 however, they must have had a cross of Ben- 
 T 2
 
 324 THE SHENDOOS. 
 
 gallee blood in them, probably from captives 
 taken in some raid. The women here wore large 
 circular horn earrings, distending the lobe of 
 the ear to an enormous size in true Koomee 
 fashion. After passing the Khoom villages, 
 which were all on hills, and with some attempt 
 at fortification, we proceeded some two hours 
 up the river until we arrived at the entrance 
 of the Sullah Kheong, on the east bank of the 
 Koladyne. The direction of the stream was 
 about N". N. E., and we found considerable 
 difficulty in getting our boats up it at all, as 
 the water in some places was very shallow, 
 and in one instance we had to land all our 
 traps and draw the canoes up a small fall of 
 about 4 feet. That same evening we arrived 
 at Tawoo Kheong, a small streamlet running 
 into the Sulla Kheong. Here our Shendoo 
 guides informed us that we must leave our 
 boats and strike inland. The coolies built 
 themselves huts of plantain leaves on the 
 bank, but Munro and self slept in our canoes. 
 Next morning there was of course a great 
 delay in starting. Munro finding that he
 
 JOURNEY INTO THEIE COUNTRY. 325 
 
 had brought too many things, and that there 
 were not sufficient coolies, therefore all super- 
 fluities were discarded, such as cooking pots, 
 some provisions, with the heavier part of the 
 presents, and concealed in the jungle, the 
 Shendoos saying they would send people to 
 fetch them when we reached their village. 
 Our road lay in a N. E. direction, and was 
 through the densest jungle. The guides 
 showed wonderful sagacity in finding, or 
 rather following, the path. Indeed there was 
 no path, although they seemed to see one. 
 True, for perhaps a mile here and there we 
 would follow an elephant track, but the whole 
 jungle was cut up with elephant roads, and 
 there was no telling one from the other. 
 
 " Towards evening we halted on the banks 
 of the Sulla Kheong. "We appeared to have 
 crossed a loop of country ; indeed they told 
 us that the stream made a long circuit to the 
 east. 
 
 " The men ran up a small hut for Munro 
 and self, and here we slept on the ground 
 Next day we started early in a due north direc-
 
 326 THE SHENDOOS. 
 
 tion, and after travelling about six hours over 
 very much the same kind of ground as the day 
 before, we suddenly met three Shendoos, two 
 of whom were armed with muskets, while 
 one carried a spear. The Shendoos who were 
 with us entered into conversation with them, 
 and after a little while we learnt that they 
 were the scouts of a large party which was 
 some distance off. The three men seemed 
 uneasy and disinclined to talk, being evidently 
 suspicious of treachery. They were well 
 armed with English Tower-marked flint 
 muskets of King George's time. From the 
 appearance of the stocks, however, I should 
 imagine that the barrels had been re-stocked 
 by themselves. Their powder horns were 
 made of guyal's horns, beautifully inlaid and 
 ornamented with silver and ivory. We now, 
 through our interpreter, informed the strangers 
 who we were and where we were going, viz., 
 to the village of Kyannan or Kheynung, bear- 
 ing presents and with peaceful intent, and we 
 requested permission to proceed. They replied 
 that they must get their Chiefs orders first,
 
 JOURNEY INTO THEIR COUNTRY. 327 
 
 and on this one of our Shendoo guides went 
 with them to obtain permission. Two of the 
 strangers returned shortly after and persuaded 
 Aylong to go with them also. They were 
 followed at a short interval by our other two 
 Shendoos, so we were now left alone with 
 only the hill men, coolies, &c., and they began 
 to chatter vehemently together, putting down 
 their loads and evidently in a fright about 
 something. Yetshee, one of our friendly 
 Shendoos, now returned and told us that 
 there was a body of 3 to 400 Shendoos in 
 front, and that they were on the war-path, so 
 we had better be prepared. 
 
 " He said they were men from the follow- 
 ing villages : Moungtoo, Tunkran, Eoupee 
 Yonoo, all Shendoos, and that they were 
 accompanied by some Lootsways from Chitta- 
 gong. They were going to attack a village 
 called Khoon. Thus much he said, and then 
 went off" into the jungle. Old Teynwey now 
 seemed alarmed, and advised us to retire, but 
 we did not think there was any danger and 
 determined to wait awhile. Presently five of
 
 328 THE SHENDOOS. 
 
 the stranger Shendoos were seen coming 
 through the jungle. They said they were 
 looking for Aylong, who had run into the 
 jungle, and began to call him, but without 
 effect. I then proposed that I should go 
 forward with them and see the Chiefs, with 
 a view to friendship ; but this Munro would 
 not hear of. In the meantime the Koomee 
 coolies had, one by one, lifted their loads 
 and taken the back track. Old Teynwey 
 now entered into conversation with the 
 Shendoos, and seemed to be entreating 
 them. Several times he took the hand of 
 the leader, and tried to place it on his fore- 
 head ; but the Shendoo would not do what 
 he required, and so Teynwey, without more 
 ado, quietly took his departure also. We 
 now began to think that there really was 
 some danger. We were but six in all, viz., 
 Lieutenant Munro, myself, my orderly, two 
 constables, orderlies of Lieutenant Munro, 
 and a Bengallee Khitmutgar, the latter being 
 unarmed. On the other hand, one by one, 
 the Shendoos had straggled up till they num-
 
 JOURNEY INTO THEIE COUNTRY. 329 
 
 bered about twenty men, and we could see 
 more coming through, the jungle. Four of 
 the Shendoos were now seen to go behind a 
 tree and commence priming their muskets, 
 and another man deliberately levelled his 
 piece at Lieutenant Munro and myself as 
 we stood together. One of our constables, 
 seeing this threatening gesture, immediately 
 covered the Shendoo with his musket, and 
 this made him lower his weapon. Almost 
 immediately afterwards, two Shendoos rushed 
 upon my orderly and attempted to wrest his 
 carbine from him ; and one of them tried to 
 do the same with my gun, but they were 
 repulsed, and were not successful in their 
 endeavour. Seeing now that they had openly 
 declared themselves hostile, we judged it 
 expedient to retreat, and so went backwards 
 with levelled guns, while the Shendoos rapidly 
 took cover behind the trees and commenced 
 priming. We were careful not to fire, as 
 nearly all our ammunition was with the bag- 
 gage. I had myself only four cartridges. 
 We thus retreated, until the jungle becoming
 
 330 THE SHENDOOS. 
 
 somewhat thicker, we turned and went at the 
 double, in the hopes of overtaking some of 
 our coolies and procuring a guide, for in the 
 pathless wilderness in which we were, one 
 could but have a very general idea of the 
 road we had followed. We had not gone 
 far, however, when we became aware that 
 the enemy were out-flanking us, as men 
 could be heard and seen on our right and left. 
 A very little time after this we heard two 
 shots, directly in our front, and concluded 
 that the Shendoos had surrounded us. We 
 halted for a few breathless moments, and held 
 a hurried council, when all agreed it would be 
 better to conceal ourselves in the jungle. For 
 myself, I could not have gone much further 
 at the rapid rate at which we had been tra- 
 velling, with an open wound on my thigh, and 
 having only recently been able to walk at all, 
 it was hardly to be wondered at. Turning, 
 then, from the path to the right, we crept into 
 a small ravine in the heart of the jungle, 
 densely overgrown with thorny bushes and 
 long grass. Here we agreed to remain until
 
 JOURNEY INTO THEIR COUNTRY. 331 
 
 night-fall, and then under cover of the dark- 
 ness we hoped to escape. "We had forgotten, 
 however, that although the darkness could 
 hide us, it would also hide from us all traces 
 of the direction in which we should travel. 
 We could hear the rustling and movement as 
 the enemy went past, and a small dog belong- 
 ing to Lieutenant Munro here nearly cost us 
 our lives. Twice she gave little sharp growls, 
 and I feared every moment she would begin 
 to bark and so discover our hiding-place. I 
 wanted to cut her throat, but Lieutenant 
 Munro at length managed to gag her by 
 covering her up in the breast of his coat. 
 Slowly, very slowly as it seemed, night fell, 
 and as the sun went down we could hear the 
 wild elephants trumpeting as they came down 
 from the hills to their feeding-grounds, and 
 once the stillness was broken by the deep 
 guttural roar of a tiger. It was hardly dark 
 when we sallied forth from our hiding-place, 
 and with some little difficulty at length re- 
 gained the path. We had not gone very far 
 when we found evidence that we were on the
 
 332 THE SHENDOOS. 
 
 right road. Just about the place whence we 
 had heard the two shots our baggage lay scat- 
 tered right and left, as the coolies had thrown 
 it away on the terror of their flight. Here was 
 my bed, there lay my fiddle, in another place 
 Munro's medicine chest was lying. I stayed 
 here a short time to endeavour to find my diary 
 and papers, but was unsuccessful. We were, 
 however, lucky enough to find a small box of 
 biscuits and a bottle of gin, and with this we 
 pursued our way. As we proceeded the moon 
 went down, and the jungle seemed to grow 
 thicker and blacker ; the elephant tracks also 
 crossed each other in every direction, and we 
 began to fear we had lost the path. Still we 
 held on. Closer and closer grew the under- 
 growth, so that in some places one would 
 have to wrestle with thick withy -like creepers 
 that would wind round head and neck and 
 arms, stopping all progress. Munro's hat, 
 too, fell off, and it was so dark that we 
 could not find it. On and on we toiled for 
 hours and hours, until at last dead-beat we 
 found we had a hill in front of us, and then
 
 JOUENEY INTO THEIE COUNTET. 333 
 
 were convinced that we were going in the 
 wrong direction. We dropped down altoge- 
 ther, lying as close as we could for warmth's 
 sake, and I soon fell into a heavy, dreamless 
 sleep. The orderlies took in turn to watch. I 
 was awakened about an hour before day- 
 break by the dripping of the dew from the 
 trees overhead; it pattered down almost like 
 a smart shower wetting us through the cold, 
 also was something fearful, and we had not 
 eaten or drank since the morning before. 
 However, a biscuit each and a dram of gin 
 gave us some little strength, and we then 
 took counsel as to our future proceedings. 
 We could not go southward towards the boats 
 as we knew the Shendoos had gone there 
 before us in hot haste, not even stopping to 
 plunder the baggage, while we knew that due 
 west lay the Koladyne river. Westward then 
 lay our course, though a mighty range of hills 
 lay between us and the desired destination. 
 However, we took heart and started. If our 
 journey of the day before had been tedious our 
 present route was doubly so; there was no
 
 334 THE SHENDOOS. 
 
 path, and our road lay through a dense thicket 
 of dead bamboos and up a hill slope of 45 or 
 more. We had to creep sometimes on our 
 bellies for ten minutes at a time, and some- 
 times had to cut a path with a sword which 
 I had with me. We encouraged one another, 
 however, to persevere, as there was but this 
 hill between us and safety. We had been 
 travelling about five hours up-hill the whole 
 time and without a drop of water. The sun 
 came down on us with a terrible heat, and 
 poor Munro, being without his hat, suffered 
 terribly. At length, however, we reached the 
 top of the hill, and then to our utter dismay 
 we discovered that before us lay another of 
 equal dimensions. For aught we knew there 
 might be another beyond that, and our 
 strength was rapidly failing for want of food 
 and drink. We sat down here, and cutting 
 down a plantain tree we managed, by squeez- 
 ing the stalk, to get a small quantity of 
 moisture, and also we were fortunate enough 
 to find some wild plantains nearly ripe, which 
 we divided amongst us. From where we sat
 
 JOURNEY INTO THEIR COUNTRY. 335 
 
 there was a most magnificent view of the 
 whole valley of the Sulla Kheong, which we 
 could see here and there like a silver thread 
 winding its way up northward towards the 
 Shendoo country, while beyond towered up 
 range after range of mighty hills blue in the 
 distance. As we looked out upon the pros- 
 pect from the south came the sound of a heavy 
 musketry fire. One conclusion we all arrived 
 at, that Shendoos or no Shendoos, we must 
 have water, for life was not worth keeping 
 under the burning thirst from which we suf- 
 fered. Munro put a bullet into his mouth, 
 but that did not bring him any relief. More- 
 over, on account of my wound I could not 
 climb any further, although I could go over a 
 great deal more of comparatively level ground. 
 We determined then to go down. We roused 
 a tiger on our way, and he fortunately was as 
 scared as we were, for had we been compelled 
 to fire at him we should very quickly have had 
 the Shendoos on us. We had got about two- 
 thirds of the way down, when looking down 
 through the trees we were startled to see
 
 336 THE SHENDOOS. 
 
 three natives ; one of them sat in the fork of a 
 tree with his gun over his knee, while the two 
 others stood beneath. At the same time from 
 the jungle to the southward came the sound 
 of many voices, so we turned and began pain- 
 fully to ascend the hill again ; but in a little 
 while our strength failed us, and creeping 
 into the jungle we lay down to wait the 
 event. Soon, however, the sound of voices 
 increased (there must have been a great many 
 of them), came nearer, and then passed away 
 towards the north. This was cheering, as we 
 inferred that our enemies were on their way 
 back. Towards night-fall, therefore, we de- 
 scended with greater confidence, and after 
 some little time we reached a stream of water, 
 from which we did not think of moving for at 
 least an hour. We could find no path, and so 
 were compelled to guess at the direction in 
 which we should go. 
 
 " There were no stars or moon, for a thick 
 fog came over everything and bewildered us. 
 Still we pushed on, the ground seemed to fall 
 lower and lower, while the trees grew larger
 
 JOUENEY INTO THEIR COUNTRY. 337 
 
 and the jungle thicker and more dark. We 
 toiled away far into the night, until at last, 
 feeling utterly lost and confused, we halted 
 and lay down for the night. By great good 
 luck I found four matches in my pocket, and 
 as we were perishing with cold, and the 
 jungle very dense, we determined to light a 
 fire to warm ourselves and scare away wild 
 beasts which we could hear moving in the 
 jungle. Our biscuits were nearly finished, 
 there being only three left, and we had no 
 idea how long we might wander in this forest 
 before reaching the Koladyne; so we deter- 
 mined the next day, if still unsuccessful, that 
 we would kill Munro's little dog and cut her, 
 and so gain some little strength for our 
 struggle. 
 
 " We were all now much dispirited, and 
 some of the natives who were with us began 
 to give vent to expressions of despondency. 
 We passed that night in the same manner as 
 the previous one, the fire soon went out, as 
 owing to our being in very low land we could 
 get no dry wood. The cold was something
 
 338 THE SHENDOOS. 
 
 terrible. When we awoke in the morning, 
 and the jungle looked even more black and 
 hopeless than it had done the night before, 
 we started off, determining to follow down- 
 wards the first small stream we should cross 
 until we should arrive at the Sulla Kheong, 
 by following which we should eventually 
 reach the Koladyne. So we followed a small 
 nullah, and after a considerable time we came 
 up a track or path beaten by many feet and 
 leading due south. Into this we turned and 
 had not gone far when we came upon one of the 
 Mughs, who had been with us lying prone in 
 the path. He had been knocked down with 
 fever, and this, combined with three days' 
 fasting, brought him into a somewhat ex- 
 hausted condition. He was not of this part 
 of the country, having followed the train of 
 Munro in some menial capacity. He told us 
 that when he could run no further, he had 
 crawled into the jungle and hidden himself. 
 He had hardly done so when about 200 
 Shendoos armed with muskets and spears had 
 passed rapidly by on the same path which he
 
 JOURNEY INTO THEIR COUNTRY. 339 
 
 had just left. He said that on the next day 
 they returned accompanied by a great many 
 more men, about 500 in all, bearing packages 
 and goods, evidently our baggage. They must 
 have divided in the pursuit, which would ac- 
 count for our being out-flanked. We did 
 what we could for the new addition to our 
 party, taking it by turns to lug him along. 
 Fortunately we found in the path two or 
 three handfuls of rice which had been spilled 
 on the ground, and this was food for all of 
 us. We had to proceed very cautiously, for 
 although we knew now that we were in the 
 right road (so large a body of men had made 
 a well beaten track) we could not be sure that 
 there was no outlying body of the enemy 
 waiting to cut up stragglers; so two of us 
 kept ahead as scouts, while the remainder 
 painfully dragged themselves along behind. 
 At length, however, we reached the Sulla 
 Kheong at the place where we had left the 
 boats about 1 p.m., but to our dismay not 
 a boat was to be seen. On going a little 
 way down stream we were fortunate enough 
 z 2
 
 340 THE SHENDOOS. 
 
 to see one of our boats stranded on the 
 opposite side, and this was soon brought 
 over by one of the orderlies, who swam over 
 for it. We found the paddles in the bottom 
 of the canoe, and were soon on our way down 
 stream as fast as we could go. A little further 
 on we found all the boats scattered hither and 
 thither as they had drifted down. The worst 
 was now over, and then came the reaction. 
 My leg literally was useless as a log of wood, 
 perfectly numbed and without strength, and 
 in hauling the canoe through the shallows 
 into the big river Koladyne, I could give 
 little or no assistance. 
 
 " That same evening we got down once 
 more to Teynwey's village. The old man 
 had returned and told us the following addi- 
 tional news : That the major part of our 
 fugitives, having lightened themselves of 
 their loads, had safely reached the boats, but 
 that as they were preparing to put off, the 
 Shendoos arrived in hot haste and poured a 
 volley upon them, when sauve qui pent was 
 the order of the day, and every one fled into
 
 CONCLUSION. 341 
 
 the jungle. He could not say what had be- 
 come of all of them, but some had gone by 
 his village on their way to their homes. After 
 this we returned to Akyab with as much dis- 
 patch as possible, and I returned to Chitta- 
 gong by the first steamer that offered, arriv- 
 ing there on the llth of February, 1866. I 
 had thus been absent a period of two months 
 and twenty-seven days." 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 THUS, with regret, I draw towards the close 
 of my account of the Chittagong Hill Tribes. 
 There is much that is loveable about them. 
 They are very simple, and honest, and merry; 
 but they have no sympathy with anything 
 above the level of their bodily wants. There 
 are whole tracts of mind, and thought, and 
 feeling, which are unknown to them, and 
 which could not be made known by any 
 explanation. The idea that they are well 
 enough as they are is a seductive one to
 
 342 CONCLUSION. 
 
 live according to Nature as the old Stoic 
 philosophers taught; and if this idea could be 
 perfected, if these people could be taught to 
 live according to Nature in its higher sense, 
 to rise above all gross and base indulgences, 
 mindful of those higher laws of which only 
 self-denial and self-command can render ob- 
 servance possible, I am not prepared to say 
 but that this would be the wisest and the 
 grandest ideal. We see in all other parts of 
 the world that the introduction of civilization 
 by means of European energy brings in its 
 train a crowd of evils both mental and physi- 
 cal; yet everywhere throughout the world we 
 force upon all the non-progressive races our 
 intercourse, and finally our laws, with one 
 grand object Civilization. The latest au- 
 thority on the subject, Sir Samuel Baker, 
 says, " The primary object of geographical 
 exploration is the opening to general inter- 
 course such portions of the earth as may 
 become serviceable to the human race. The 
 explorer is the precursor of the colonist ; the 
 colonist is the human instrument by which
 
 CONCLUSION. 343 
 
 the great work must be constructed, that 
 greatest and most difficult of human under- 
 takings, the civilization of the world." (Dis- 
 covery of the Albert Nyanza, Introduction.) 
 But what does civilization bring with it? 
 Mr. Laing, in summing up the advantages of 
 civilization in his "Theory of Business," after 
 noting the increase of national wealth and 
 the different scientific discoveries which have 
 ministered thereto, adds, " True, there is 
 now, as ever, a large class on the verge of 
 starvation, but this is not incompatible with 
 a state of great prosperity." I can imagine 
 a hill man saying, " From such prosperity the 
 Lord deliver me !" The motive power of civili- 
 zation is the desire for wealth, wealth, not 
 as the necessaries, but for the delicacies and 
 luxuries of life. " Le superflu, chose tres 
 necessaire," as Yoltaire said. Among a sim- 
 ple people like our hill men there is no such 
 desire ; their nomadic life precludes any great 
 accumulation of wealth, and they enjoy a 
 perfect social equality. There is certainly no 
 starvation among them; they occupy the "juste
 
 344 CONCLUSION. 
 
 milieu" of neither poverty nor riches. Civili- 
 zation brought into contact with these simple 
 aboriginal races would not improve but exter- 
 minate them. In defining the object of explo- 
 ration as "to discover and render serviceable 
 to the human race unknown parts of the 
 earth's surface," Sir Samuel Baker forgot to 
 add that by the human race he implied only 
 the civilized portion thereof. The question 
 seems to me to be, what is the use of this 
 God's earth ? Is it not the happiness of the 
 beings dwelling thereon ? I doubt if civiliza- 
 tion would render our hill men happier ; not 
 that I for a moment advocate leaving them 
 undisturbed and unassisted in their present 
 happy barbarism. Strength of mind is better 
 than strength of body. But if one contrasts 
 the simplicity and freedom of wild life with 
 the hollow enjoyments and artificial joys of 
 civilization (" Tsedet me harum quotidianarum 
 formarum"), it should not be forgotten that 
 civilization has joys that are not artificial, and 
 enjoyments that are not hollow. The plea- 
 sures of art, the enjoyments of nature, the
 
 CONCLUSION. 345 
 
 subtler delights of tlie affections, all these 
 are unknown to the simple denizen of the 
 hills, even to the last. In marriage with us, 
 a perfect world springs up at the word, of ten- 
 derness, of fellowship, trust, and self-devotion. 
 "With them it is a mere animal and convenient 
 connexion for procreating their species and 
 getting their dinner cooked. They have no 
 idea of tenderness, nor of the chivalrous 
 devotion that prompted the old Galilean 
 fisherman when he said, " Giving honour unto 
 the woman as to the weaker vessel." It is 
 the rule of the strongest that commands 
 their reverence. Women are non-combatants; 
 therefore contempt for them and their weak- 
 ness marks all savages. The best of them 
 will refuse to carry a burden if there be a wife, 
 mother, or sister near at hand to perform 
 the task. All this requires refinement and 
 change ; but, on the other hand, the position 
 of women among them is preferable, in my 
 opinion, to that occupied by the females of 
 Hindoostan. Here is no mock modesty, but 
 nature, pure and simple ; the custom of con-
 
 346 CONCLUSION. 
 
 cealing their women and hiding their faces, 
 conveying as it does how much mistrust of 
 man to man, exists only among the more 
 effeminate races of Asia. Here, if a woman 
 is condemned for her physical weakness, and 
 forced, moreover, to bear the heaviest share 
 of the toil for bread, she is still honoured as a 
 wife and mother, trusted in her in-comings 
 and out-goings, and her words of advice 
 listened to with respect. 
 
 The relations that should exist between the 
 sexes is one of the most important problems 
 of the day, and it is therefore interesting to 
 note the, to us, somewhat strange customs 
 prevailing among these tribes. The reader 
 will doubtless have found much to astonish, 
 and perhaps somewhat to revolt, him in the 
 strange moral and social habitudes of these 
 races ; but as in JSToah's ark, where both the 
 clean and the unclean beasts alike entered in, 
 so we, to attain a true and faithful portraiture 
 of these people, must take the bad with the 
 good, their mores, manners or morals their 
 virtus, courage or virtue, together with the
 
 CONCLUSION. 347 
 
 immorality, licence and intemperance, which 
 form integral portions of all human natures, 
 civilized or not. TJbi homines sunt, modi sunt. 
 In one point notably these hill men are in 
 consonance with us, in contradistinction to 
 the custom generally observed by the nations 
 of the East. I mean in the freedom of action, 
 respectability of position, and consideration 
 enjoyed by their womankind. If we turn our 
 eyes to the nations of Hindoostan Proper, 
 Persia, and Turkey, we shall find women 
 reduced to the position of coveted chattels 
 preserved for the convenience of the male sex. 
 Here amongst these hill races, women enjoy 
 almost perfect freedom of action; they go 
 unveiled, they would seem to have equal 
 rights of heritage with men, while their power 
 of selecting their own husband is to the full 
 as free as that enjoyed by our own English 
 maidens. In Plutarch, the judge and pane- 
 gyrist of so many illustrious men, we read 
 that Gerudas, a primitive Spartan, on being 
 asked by a stranger what punishment their 
 law had for an adulterer, replied that it would
 
 348 CONCLUSION. 
 
 be just as possible to find one in Sparta as 
 to meet with a bull whose neck should be so 
 long as to reach over the mountain Taygetas 
 and drink from the river Eurotas, which lay on 
 the other side of the mountain. So in these 
 hills the crime of infidelity amongst wives is 
 almost unknown ; so also harlots and courte- 
 zans are held in abhorrence among them, and 
 rendered unnecessary moreover by the free- 
 dom of intercourse indulged in and allowed 
 to both sexes before marriage. These things 
 are doubtless strange to us ; their very dress, 
 or perhaps I should say undress, might almost 
 be called indecent; but it is not really so. 
 Habit and temperature make usual and proper 
 among them what we should consider the 
 reverse. We cannot then condemn them on 
 the score of indecency, for to the pure all 
 things are pure. Our present notions of 
 sexual decorum are highly artificial. The 
 question of more or less clothes is one purely 
 of custom and climate. If it were the custom 
 for the legs of horses and dogs to be clothed, 
 it would assuredly in a short time be stigma-
 
 CONCLUSION. 349 
 
 tized as gross indecency were they to appear 
 in the streets without trousers. "We, in 
 England, wear many articles of clothing, 
 simply because life could not be preserved in 
 that climate without them ; but here any large 
 amount of clothing is absolutely insupport- 
 able. True modesty lies in the entire absence 
 of thought upon the subject. Among medical 
 students and artists the nude causes no ex- 
 traordinary emotion ; indeed it was a remark 
 of Flaxman's, that the students in entering 
 the academy seemed to hang up their passions 
 along with their hats. 
 
 In considering the customs of a nation less 
 advanced than ourselves, we are too apt to 
 forget the time when the English word " wife" 
 was derived from the Anglo-Saxon "wifian," 
 to weave. We cannot forget that we are one 
 of the dominant races of the world, and we 
 look down consequently upon the subject 
 races with an exclusive and haughty super- 
 ciliousness as outer barbarians. A tithe of 
 the care and beneficence expended upon the 
 Hindoo would make of these hill races a noble
 
 350 CONCLUSION. 
 
 and enlightened people. They have until 
 lately been totally neglected, and yet a word 
 of kindness, one sympathizing expression, and 
 their hearts are open to you. My great and 
 distinctive feeling with them has been that 
 they were my fellow-creatures, men and 
 women like myself: with the Bengallee I 
 have never been in accord. 
 
 As far as I am able to judge, the civilizing 
 instincts of the English have acted upon the 
 unbreeched races with whom we have come 
 in contact as conquerors, in two ways. By 
 one method, as Sir Samuel Baker observes, 
 " The explorer is the precursor of the colonist, 
 and the colonist is the human instrument by 
 which . . . . " right or wrong, whole races of 
 men are driven from the lands of their ances- 
 tors. It is the old story of the earthen pot 
 and the brazen vessel : contact with us is fatal 
 to them ; they are crushed down as with a 
 hand of iron by laws and customs, to them 
 alien and incomprehensible. Thus in America 
 and New Zealand. Of the other method we 
 have one grand example, which in its enor-
 
 CONCLUSION. 351 
 
 mous inclusiveness is sufficient, viz., India. 
 Here we have the strange spectacle of a great 
 nation wishful to do good to the people sub- 
 ject to its rule, but powerless when the in- 
 terests of trade are supposed to be endan- 
 gered. India is a monument of English great- 
 ness and philanthropy, but it is also the outlet 
 for the piece goods of Manchester, and the 
 receptacle for Birmingham hardware. It is 
 due to Englishmen to say that they do try to 
 do good to the country and the people ; but 
 when it is a question of the people's benefit 
 or an increased or diminished sale of Man- 
 chester cottons, piff! paff! the people are 
 nowhere. 
 
 This I say, then, let us not govern these 
 hills for ourselves, but administer the country 
 for the well-being and happiness of the people 
 dwelling therein. Civilization is the result 
 and not the cause of civilization. What is 
 wanted here is not measures but a man. 
 Place over them an officer gifted with the 
 power of rule ; not a mere cog in the great 
 wheel of Government, but one tolerant of the
 
 352 CONCLUSION. 
 
 failings of his fellow-creatures, and yet prompt 
 to see and recognize in them the touch of 
 Nature that makes the whole world kin ; apt 
 to enter into new trains of thought and to 
 modify and adopt ideas, but cautious in 
 offending national prejudice. Under a guid- 
 ance like this, let the people by slow degrees 
 civilize themselves. With education open to 
 them, and yet moving under their own laws 
 and customs, they will turn out, not debased 
 and miniature epitomes of Englishmen, but a 
 new and noble type of God's creatures. 
 
 GILBERT AND HITIKCTON, PRINTERS, IT. JOHN'S SQUARE, LONDON.

 
 
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