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 THE 
 
 HILL TRACTS OF ABAKAN, 
 
 Maior W. GAVYNNE HUGHES, F.R.n.s., 
 
 Deputy Comin'se.on. r, British. Burma, and late 
 SiiperiiiteiKLiM^';. Hill Tracts, A"-»kan. 
 
 
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 Ji a n 9 u : 
 
 PRINTED AT THE GO^'EENMENT PRESS. 
 1881. 
 
 
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THE 
 
 HILL TRACTS OF ABAKAN, 
 
 Major W. GWYNNE HUGHES, f.r.g.s., 
 
 Depiitj- Commissioner, British Burma, and late 
 Superintendent, Hill Tracts, Ai'akan. 
 
 " If we deem ourselves a uoble race, we should act as the gardener does, who grafts upon the wild pear 
 " tree a twig from a nobler stem, and so gives it the durability and higher qualities which he is 
 " anxious to propagate. It would be a disgrace to our boasted civilization to allow him, the abori- 
 " gine, to be oppressed by strangers who have no interest in the country ; no regard or attachment 
 " towards it, beyond its money value." 
 
 Travels in New Zealand, by Earnest Dieffenbach, 1843. 
 
 - '-'-{m 
 
 ^WWh 
 
 |S, a n 9 tt : 
 
 PRINTED AT THE GOVEENMENT PRESS. 
 1881. 
 

 !iER 
 
 I 
 
TO 
 
 SiE ARTHUR PURVIS PHAYRE, c.b., g.c.m.g., k.c.s.i., 
 
 the able administrator who served in British Borma for over a quarter of century, and for 
 
 five years as the Chief Commissioner of the province, in the development and 
 
 ■welfare of which he proved himself one of her best friends, 
 
 THIS PAMPHLET 
 
 is with feelings of gratitude and respect dedicated. 
 
 671427 
 
PP.EF ACE. 
 
 The condition of wild tribes and the country inhabited by 
 them has of necessity from time to time attracted the attention, 
 not only of Government, but also of the general i)ublic. Although 
 it may be open to question whether our rule and civilization in India 
 have been duly appreciated by dwellers on the plains and inhabit- 
 ants of cities, there cannot exist a doubt that England's policy 
 generally towards the hill tribes living on her north-east frontier 
 from Assam to Arakan has been beneficent and successful. In 
 tracts where butchery, slavery, misrule, and disorder reigned 
 supreme, raiding, with its attendant traffic in captives, has been 
 stamped out, and order and good government have been inaugu- 
 rated. The resources of the several hill tracts have been developed, 
 and hill men have been taught that trade and agricultural industry 
 are as attractive and as profitable as the barter of captives and 
 slaves. Thus, following in the wake of the Cossyah, Jynteah, 
 Naga, and other aboriginal tribes along our eastern border, the 
 Arakan hill races are gradually being brought to order ; internal 
 raids and crime are repressed, and external raids reduced in mag- 
 nitude. For so satisfactory a state of affairs it would be unsafe to 
 predict permanence, for on our north and north-east frontier are 
 many powerful and marauding tribes from time immemorial inde- 
 pendent of the British power, who have ceased to harass our fron- 
 tier only within the last few years, since the close of the Lushai 
 campaign. The habitat of these tribes, noted on the map as a 
 blank, undefined and unsurveyed, abuts on Upper Burma, and 
 is populated by the powerful tribe of Shandoos or Pools. 
 
 It is, however, the tract of country known as the Arakan hills, 
 lying between longitude 92° 35' and 93'' 30' East and latitude 
 
VI. PREFACE. 
 
 20° 30' and 22° 10' North, and its tribes, which I shall attempt to 
 describe. Little information has hitherto been placed before the 
 pubhc regarding this interesting conntry or the tribes inhabiting 
 or bordering on it. It is one of those few portions of the Indian 
 Empire whose superstitions have not yet yielded to education or to 
 the missionary, notwithstanding the steady march of civilization 
 in other parts. It still offers a virgin soil to the philanthropist for 
 the social elevation of wild races, such as has already been attained 
 in the case of the Cossyah, Garo, and other frontier tribes, and 
 notably the Karens of Burma. 
 
 These facts are in themselves sufficient grounds for my 
 bringing to public notice these tribes, their country, and the pro- 
 gress that has been made towards introducing rule and order 
 amongst them. But a few years ago this part of the eastern fron- 
 tier was notorious for its turbulence and disorder. The interest 
 shown by friends in England has also had its weight in inducing 
 me to give an account of the country. Should this book prove 
 useful to officers engaged in frontier administration, and assist 
 them in maintaining a firm, just, and patriarchal rule over an 
 interesting section of their fellowmen, I shall consider myself more 
 than requited. The appendices contain short vocabularies of the 
 Kamee, Shandoo, and Chin languages, which may be of service 
 to the philologist, as also to the officer studying the dialects of 
 these parts. With these and the codes (civil and criminal) of 
 the Chin and Kamee tribes, I trust that there are sufficient mate- 
 rials to enable future officers to form a correct estimate of the 
 races committed to their care. 
 
 W. G. Hughes. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Chapter. . Page. 
 
 I. Introductory ... ... ... ... ... 1 
 
 II. Historical ... ... ... ... ... ... 7 
 
 III. Ethnological ... ... ... ... ... 10 
 
 IV. General ... ... ... ... ... ... 34 
 
 V. Trans-Fronterial ... ... ... ... ... 42 
 
 VI. Conclusion ... ... ... ... ... ... 49 
 
 Appendix ... ... ... ... ... ... i — x. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 Frontispiece.— Kyouk Tan Doung. | Eastern Frontier of British India, 
 
THE HILL TRACTS OF ARAKAN. 
 
 CHAPTER I. ■ ' ■ 
 
 Introductory. ' ' " '^ '•■- 
 
 The first part of the journey from Akyab, up the Kooladan 
 river to the northern parts of Arakan, hes through a flat and 
 uninteresting country, of which depressingly level plains and fields 
 of rice form the principal features. Higher up the river, however, 
 this monotony is relieved by a complete change ; a fine wooded 
 country opens out, with ranges of hills rising from the banks, while 
 the stream itself, now pursuing its winding course over pebbly 
 banks and through hiUs, becomes more and more rapid, and 
 reminds one in places of a fine Scotch or Welsh salmon river. Here 
 and there are to be seen small villages, guarded against the attacks 
 of raiders by clievaux-de-frise set in the fords, or, as on the Mee river, 
 which is a tributary of the Kooladan, trusting for protection to a 
 musket-proof planked hut built in the fork of an ancient tree. The 
 hut is connected with the village by a bamboo ladder, and on the 
 approach, or rumour of the approach, of a raiding party, men, 
 women, and children take refuge in it. Against the coarsely-manu- 
 factured powder of the Looshai and Shandoo raider such planked 
 towers of refuge offer a fair resistance. Amidst such scenery, 
 one is introduced to the Hill tracts of Arakan ; they may be said 
 to commence about 100 miles from Akyab, and terminate on the 
 northern confines of our Indian Empire in a country inhabited by 
 independent wild tribes and described in maps as " undefined" and 
 " unsurveyed." 
 
 The Hill tracts of Arakan are separated from Cachar on the 
 north by the territories of independent tribes, chiefly Looshais and 
 Shaudoos ,• on the east, between Arakan and Upper Burma, lies 
 the country of the Shandoos and Chins ; on the south the Akyab 
 district; and on the west Chittagong and Hill tracts. But 
 although these are the geographical boundaries, the power of the 
 British Government beyond certain points has always been little 
 more than nominal, the wild tribes paying tribute either to Upper 
 Burma or to the more powerful neighbouring chiefs, much in the 
 same manner as, not so many centuries ago, blackmail was paid 
 among the Higliland clans. The Government of India accordingly 
 determined to lay down an inner or administrative boundary, within 
 which internal crime could be effectively repressed, and protection 
 
■^ THE HILL TRACTS OF ABAKAN. 
 
 afforded against external violence in the shape of raids and 
 depredations on British territory by trans-frontier tribes. Within 
 these limits, control, order, and administrative measures were to 
 be introduced, and at the same time friendly relations with the 
 independent 'bordfti' races were to be gradually established. 
 
 After long .and cy.reful consideration by the supreme and local 
 Gover,nrjients,.ibW'ai^ decided in 1866 that the Chief Commissioner 
 of British Burma should assume the direct administration of the 
 hill country. Colonel Phayre,* whose long experience of the hill 
 tribes of Arakan specially enabled him to deal with the question, 
 was at the time Chief Commissioner. He saw that in permanent 
 European supervision over the wild tribes lay the best chance of 
 success. A special officer, with the designation of " Superintendent 
 of Hill tribes," was therefore appointed to the exclusive charge of 
 the Hill tracts. The appointment was not made before it was 
 wanted, for at that time, to use the words of Colonel Phayre, 
 "the country was as little known to the British Government as 
 the tribes of Central Africa before the days of Burton, Speke, and 
 Grant." Notwithstanding these measures, however, raids on our 
 territory were of frequent occurrence from 1868 to 1870, and the 
 lives and liberty of British subjects were from time to time sacrificed 
 to the marauding proclivities of trans-frontier tribes : these raids 
 culminated in two on such a sanguinary and large scale as had for 
 years been unknown. In one, which was committed by some 
 remote Looshai tribes, the village of one of our most loyal and 
 influential tributary chiefs, named " Lahawk," was attacked, and 
 nine people were killed and forty made captives, f The other was 
 committed also on a tributary chief residing within the heart of the 
 hills named " Poonwet." The raiders, who were of the trans- 
 frontier tribes of Koon and Boukyay Shandoos, captured thirty of 
 our subjects and killed four. 
 
 Thus in two raids thirteen British subjects were killed and 
 seventy carried off as prisoners : these daring and cruel outrages 
 liad the effect of bringing before Government more prominently 
 than ever the question of the administration of these disturbed 
 tracts, and Colonel Fytche, who had succeeded Colonel Phayre as 
 Chief Commissioner of British Burma, was called upon by the 
 Earl of Mayo, then Governor-General, to submit a definite and 
 well-considered scheme " for the defence of this harassed frontier." 
 Th e scheme was, after copious correspondence, left to be inaugurated 
 
 * Now Sir Arthur Phayre, c.b., k.c.s.i. 
 
 t Of these captives, ten wore recovered from the [jooshais during the Looshai 
 Expedition in 1872 ; but twenty-eij,'ht still remain unrecovered, and though their where- 
 ahouts is known, it is considered that to press for thoir restoration may lead to compli- 
 
THE HILL TRACTS OF ARAKAN. " 
 
 by the late Chief Commissioner of British Burma, Mr. Eden,* 
 who from long and mature experience of hill tribes was the better 
 able to deal with the question. The general pohcy of the plan 
 which he submitted received the full approval of Government in 
 July 1871. Its salient features may be described as follows : — 
 
 (1) The demarcation of the administrative limits of the Hill 
 
 tracts district as distinct from the territorial limits, which 
 must for many reasons remain undefined. 
 
 (2) The enforcement of a stronger policy than had yet been 
 
 pursued. A necessary consequence of this was a con- 
 siderable increase in the pohce force and in the number 
 of officers. It was also decided that the Superintendent 
 of Hill tracts should reside permanently in the hills, so as 
 to be accessible to trans-frontier chiefs and emissaries 
 who might wish to visit him. With the border tribes, 
 the Superintendent was enjoined to " cultivate and 
 " maintain friendly relations, influencing them so far 
 " as he can, but not endeavouring to coerce or interfere 
 *' with them, or on the other hand doing anything which 
 " will have the effect of making us responsible for their 
 '* protection from other tribes." 
 
 (3) Efforts were to be made to interest in the administration 
 
 of the district, and enlist on the side of rule and order, 
 the more influential chiefs of the hill population. 
 The appointment of Superintendent of Hill tracts had been 
 previously sanctioned, and, in March 1870, Mr. E. F. St. John, of 
 the British Burma Commission and late of the 60th Rifles, was 
 appointed to the post. He held the office until June 1871, when 
 he was reheved by the writer, who, with the exception of two years 
 during which he was absent on furlough in England, in 1875 and 
 1876, \eld it till March 1880. 
 
 The physical features of the Hill tracts are characterized by 
 ranges of hills, covered with dense bamboo and tree jungle, and 
 drained by two large rivers, the Kooladan and Lemroo, on the 
 banks of which the majority of the hill tribes reside. It is worthy 
 of observation that, as will be seen by reference to the map, both 
 the ranges of hills and the rivers run nearly directly north and 
 south. Looking down on a fine clear day from the highest range, 
 which at its summit is over 4,500 feet, the lower ranges appear 
 to be a chaotic mass of hills tossed about here and there as if by 
 volcanic action. The area of the Hill district within our territorial 
 boundaries is calculated to be over 5,000 square miles, although 
 
 * Now Sii- Ashley Eden, Lieutenant-Governor of BengaU 
 
THE HILL TRACTS OF ABAKAN. 
 
 the portion under our direct and administrative control has for the 
 present been restricted to about 1,300 square miles. The Kooladan 
 and Lemroo are fine rivers, falling into the Bay of Bengal at Akyab ; 
 the exact position of their sources is not clearly known, as they rise 
 in a portion of the Hill tracts as yet unsurveyed. The Kooladan 
 has been explored by Europeans to nearly 300 miles from its mouth, 
 and the Lemroo to about 120 miles from its source : both of these 
 rivers are navigable by large boats and small steamers to the centre 
 of the hills, after which, owing to rapids and rocks, navigation 
 becomes difficult and dangerous. Of the more remarkable ranges 
 of mountains is one called the " Kyouk-pandoung," with a fine 
 plateau of several miles on the top composed of sandstone and trap 
 formation. Piunning almost due east and west, this plateau extends 
 over 13 miles, and averages in height from 3,000 to 4,500 feet. 
 Historical interest also attaches to this mountain, tradition describ- 
 ing it as having been, many centuries back, the site of a large city 
 and the seat of government under a prince called the " Kan Eaja." 
 The tradition that it was at one period inhabited is corroborated by 
 the fact that old fruit and palm trees are still growing there, and 
 by the existence of relics of the past in the shape of small pagodas 
 which have been discovered on the top. A large portion of the 
 surface is entirely denuded of all vegetation, and several acres are 
 covered with bare rock, indented here and there with remarkable 
 " pot-holes" or ** giants'-kettles." These pot-holes are of all 
 sizes, ranging from four inches to three and four feet in diameter. 
 As is generally the case with Burmese or Arakanese manuscripts 
 which purport to relate the history of remote ages, fact is freely 
 interlarded with myth and fiction. The legend refers to a period 
 prior to the appearance of Gaudama ; but it is quite clear that since 
 then, and (judging from the freshness of the inscription on a stone 
 found on the top and from the well preserved state of a small 
 pagoda discovered there in 1872) at no very remote date, this 
 mountain has been peopled. Many miles to the east, on the Yoma- 
 toung which separates Arakan and Pegu, is another prominent 
 mountain summit called to this day *' Pogouiig-toung." It is 
 referred to in this story as having been a halting-place for Prince 
 Kan Yaza Gyee on his way from the Irrawaddy to the Kooladan, 
 or, as it is known in the Pali language, Guttshapa-nuddee river, 
 prior to his forming the settlement of Kyouk-pandoung. Prettily 
 wooded with cinnamon and other valuable trees and a dwarf species 
 of oak, with a sheer precipice on one side of over 1,000 feet, this 
 mountain stands out grandly in the distance, and forms a ]-»ro- 
 niinent landmark. The temperature on the top is remarkal)ly 
 equable ; a soft sea breeze usually blows throughout the hot 
 
THE HILL TRACTS OF ABAKAN. 
 
 months, and the thermometer has not been known to rise above 85° 
 in April and May, which are the hottest months of the year, and 
 when often in the i)lains it is over 103°. Hill stations have to the 
 great benefit of the Anglo-Indian community been established in, 
 or are easily accessible from, every province throughout our Indian 
 Empire, British Burma alone excepted. If energy and public spirit 
 were devoted to the project, this range might supply the want at 
 Uttle cost. The practicability of the scheme will be recognized 
 when it is noted that to within 22 miles of the range a small 
 steamer or large-sized steam-launch, drawing from three to five 
 feet, could come up from Akyab throughout the year, while the 
 construction of a fair road from the point of disembarkation to the 
 top of the range presents no great engineering difficulties, the 
 ascent being gradual all the way. 
 
 The fauna and flora of the hills, though as yet comparatively 
 unknown, are both varied and interesting. The wild elephant, 
 rhinoceros, bison, bear, tiger, leopard, deer, pig, monkey, sloth, 
 woodcock, pheasant, partridge, jungle-fowl, imperial pigeon, 
 quail, green pigeon, duck, and snipe are found there. In this 
 varied collection the absence of the peacock is noteworthy. I have 
 never met with it on these hills, though it is abundant in other parts 
 of Burma. The monkey tribe furnishes some curious specimens, 
 and some months back a perfectly white one with a long tail, which 
 I understand is extremely rare, was given me. It was caught on the 
 Mee river, audit was my'^ intention to have sent it to the Zoological 
 Gardens, Calcutta, but "it died. The domesticated animals among 
 the hill tribes are the gyall, buffalo, goat, and pig ; and it is a 
 curious coincidence that as a white elephant is prized by the Courts 
 of Burma and Siam, so is a white buffalo by the hill man, whose 
 ambition is gratified by the possession of one of these ungainly 
 looking animals. I am unable to divine the charm which white 
 animals more than any other present to the Burmese race, unless 
 it be their comparative rarity. The gyall is a stately, noble animal, 
 and would seem to be a hybrid between a bison and common cow ; 
 in shape and appearance it partakes strongly of the bison 
 type, but the question of its breed is still an open one. It would 
 appear that its habitat is confined strictly to the hill ranges and 
 districts of the eastern border from Assam down to Arakan. 
 Attempts to bring up and acclimatize this animal in the plains 
 have, I believe, generally failed, and once banished from its home 
 among the mountains and streams it pines away and dies. Gyalls 
 are to be seen brought up by the hill men in as domestic 
 and quiet a state as the cow, roaming about the villages and hill- 
 sides, and so intensely fond of salt are they that they will follow 
 
^ THE Hn.L TRACTS OF ABAKAN. 
 
 any one with some like a dog. It is the height of a hill chiefs 
 ambition to own one or two of these animals, which are given often 
 as a marriage portion by the affianced to the father of his bride.. 
 Keptiles are well represented in snakes, from the small carpet 
 snake to the gigantic python ; but accidents from snake-bites are 
 extremely rare, a fact which is attributable in a great measure to 
 the universal custom among hill tribes of having the houses well 
 raised off the ground. Deaths from attacks of wild animals are 
 also few ; and within the last five years I have only known of six 
 deaths caused by tigers and two by alligators, which abound at the 
 foot of the hills. Like most hill races, the tribes of Arakan are 
 extremely keen and skilful trappers, and no sooner does a tiger or 
 panther carry off a village cow or pig than a bamboo or gun trap 
 is set for him, and he is almost certain to be taken. The timber 
 and flora of the hills are as numerous and varied as the animal 
 world. Of timber trees, there are Teak {Tectona grandis), Thingan 
 (Hopca odorata), Toungsakapin (Eiptaga arhorea, Kurz), Zeebin 
 {Ziziiphm jujiiba), Pyinma {Lagerstncmia regina), Pyingado {Xylia 
 dolahriformi.s), Thitseing {Terminalia belerica), Lulinkio {Cinnamomwn 
 iners, Kurz), Nyoungbin (Ficus laccifera), &c., &c., and on the 
 higher hills a dwarfed species of the oak (Quercus) : all these are 
 very useful and valuable, some for making the hulls of boats and 
 cutting into planks, and others for the oil or oil seed and gums 
 which they yield. In the forest flora we have various beautiful 
 shrubs, plants, and orchids, the latter being well represented by 
 Dendrohia ccelogyines, Vandas, Fleones, &c. Some of the orchids 
 W'hich have been sent to England have been j^ronounced valuable. 
 The sweet-scented Bauhinia and other plants and flowers are 
 much used by the young folks of the hills, who wear them in their 
 hair or in their ears when their " fancy lightly turns to thoughts 
 of love," or when they are otherwise anxious to appear smart and 
 interesting. 
 
 Tlie climate of the hiUs, especially in the valleys and along 
 the river banks, is notoriously unhealthy, owing to malaria, 
 consequent on the vast extent of uncleared jungle which pre- 
 disposes the system to fever in a severe and often fatal form : 
 this fever attacks with great severity newcomers, especially natives 
 of the plains. Goorkhas or other hill races are most at home on 
 such service. They, we know from the experience of late years, 
 possess in an eminent degree the qualities necessary for desultory 
 mountain warfare, such as campaigning against the hill tribes of 
 our Eastern frontier. What tends to make the climate the more 
 trying and depressing is the extreme ranges the thermometer is 
 liable to. I have known it be at 56° to 58° in the early morning 
 
THE HILL TUACTS OF ABAKAN. * 
 
 and over 90° in the afternoon : this, together with an extremely 
 moist chmate during the greater part of the year, has gained for 
 the country anything but an enviable notoriety. One rule towards 
 ensuring fair health is a good and generous diet, and certainly the 
 reverse of the adage "plain living and high thinking" has to be 
 followed. 
 
 From November until the middle of March the weather is 
 cool and pleasant ; but April, May, and June are trying months, 
 and the heat is aggravated by the burning of the jooms all over 
 the country. In June the rains begin, having been preceded by 
 violent storms, with the wind blowing often from every point of the 
 compass ; and the south-west monsoon continues with steady rain 
 until October. The rainfall averages from 1'20 to 130 inches. 
 
 During the rains, communication, otherwise than by boat, is 
 quite impracticable throughout the hills ; and under the old regime, 
 to avoid the secluded and isolated hfe otherwise imposed on the 
 Superintendent, he was allowed to remain at Akyab until the mon- 
 soon was over : this concession has of late years been withdrawn, 
 and the Superintendent and his officers are expected to remain 
 throughout the year in the hiUs. The present arrangement has 
 this advantage, that the Superintendent is accessible at all times 
 to the chiefs, frontier and trans-frontier, as well as to hill men 
 generally ; and hence he is fully alive to all their disputes and wants, 
 and cognizant of all that is going on, both in politics and in their 
 tribal life, and he thus gains, or should gain, a personal influence 
 over them, which is the keynote to an efficient administration. 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 HiSTOEICAL. 
 
 Old records of Arakanese lore, together with the more recent 
 despatches of officers employed in the administration of Arakan 
 when under the Bengal Government, all testify to the unruly and 
 turbulent character of the hill tribes. Prior to the annexation of 
 Arakan by our Government in 1826, we hear of the King of Arakan 
 deputing the hardiest and bravest of his subjects to settle high up 
 in the hills on the river Kooladan in order to check and control 
 the marauding habits of the Kwaymees or Kamees. To this day 
 the remnant of these immigrants exist, in dress and manners 
 resembling closely the Arakanese of the plains, though from the 
 force of habit and time they have become, in customs and life, 
 part and parcel of the hill tribes. These early immigrants from 
 
8 
 
 THE HILL TKACTS OF AKAKAN. 
 
 the plains are now termed '' Choungthas," and Sir Arthur Phayre 
 thus alludes to them in the Journal of the Asiatic Society for 
 lg47 : — «' How they came to be separated from their countrymen 
 " does not appear; it is rather extraordinary tliat they should 
 " remain so, as they subject themselves on the hills to great hard- 
 " ships, while to procure subsistence in the plains is a matter of 
 " no difficulty. Lately I have seen some instances of their settling 
 " in the plains and cultivating land with ploughs." From enquiries 
 made while living for some years among them, as well as from 
 researches into old documents in their possession, I am quite 
 satisfied with the explanation above given of their existence in the 
 Hill tracts, which, as Sir Arthur Phayre remarks, seems extra- 
 ordinary at first blush. The reason of their having been sent there 
 was simply, as noted above, to control, or rather attempt to control, 
 the turbulent hill tribes. 
 
 In 1842 an expedition under Captain Phayre and Lieutenant 
 (now Major-General) Fytche was undertaken to punish a maraud- 
 ing and refractory tribe called " Wullings." The eft'ect of this 
 expedition was to stave off raids for a few years ; but it is plain that 
 permanent quiet was not established, for subsequently opportunity 
 was taken to suggest the advisability of abandoning the country 
 inhabited by the wild tribes, unless somesuperintendency over them 
 could be established. In describing the country, Mr. Piicketts, the 
 Commissioner of Chittagong in 1847, thus writes: — " The country 
 *' is so unhealthy, so difficult, and so remote, we reahy have no hold 
 " upon it, except through the Phroos. Our police ofiicers are almost 
 " invariably attacked with fever on the fourth or fifth day after enter- 
 " ing the forests. Even the elephant-hunters, whose vocation takes 
 " them into the forests only at the finest seasons of the year, at times 
 " suffer much. " Again, Captain Hopkinson, Commissioner of Ara- 
 kan, in a despatch of 1856, writes as follows : — 
 
 '• I do not believe that a more impracticable set of savages 
 than these tribes exist on the face of the earth ; and I am sure 
 that a more impracticable country than that which they occupy 
 could not be found : all sorts of attempts have been made to win 
 the confidence of the chiefs, to attach them to our pohcy, and 
 to humanize them in some degree. Messrs. Bogle and Phayre, 
 and subsequently Sir Archibald Bogle as Commissioner of this 
 province, gave great attention to the realization of these objects; 
 but I have now some sixteen years' experience of Arakan, and 
 I never saw any real progress towards their attainment, and it is 
 my profound conviction that in the establishment of a superin- 
 tendency lies the best and only chance of success. If that 
 cannot ))e tried, or if that is tried and fails, the next best thing 
 
THE HILL TRACTS OF ABAKAN. 
 
 9 
 
 is, in my opinion, to leave the tribes altogether to their own 
 devices ; internally, to allow them the unchecked enjoyment of 
 their accustomed pursuits of rapine and murder ; externally, to 
 cut them off from all intercourse at the point at which our 
 authority ceases to be established. " 
 
 In June 1870, the Secretary to the Chief Commissioner wrote 
 to the Government of India as follows : — 
 
 " No orders appear to have been passed by the Government 
 of India on the recommendations of Captain Hopkinson in 1856 ; 
 and thus the matter stood over until 1861 and 1862, when the 
 Arakan local battalion was disbanded, the new pohce levies were 
 introduced, and Arakan became a separate division of the pro- 
 vince of British Burma. The progress of affairs since the forma- 
 tion of the Chief Commissionership on the 31st January 1862 will 
 be found fully detailed in a communication from Major Hamilton,* 
 the Officiating Inspector-General of Police in this province. No. 1064, 
 dated the 18th April 1870, which forms an enclosure to the present 
 despatch. It will be seen from paragraph 28 of Major Hamilton's 
 letter that from 1863 to 1869, inclusive, there have been thirty 
 separate raids on the part of the hill tribes, beside the ordinary 
 dacoities, and that in these raids 65 persons have been killed and 
 268 have been carried away into slavery : of the latter, only 72 
 captives have been recovered. General Fytche deeply regrets this 
 unhappy state of affairs, which has proved an insoluble difficulty, 
 not merely since the annexation of Arakan in 1824, but, as far as 
 can be ascertained, ever since the separation of Chittagong more 
 than a century ago. In 1777, under the administration of Waeren 
 Hastings, the British authorities in Chittagong were compelled to 
 apply for military aid against the Kookees, and now, 1870, it is as 
 difficult to open up negotiations with the Shandoos as in any 
 preceding period. It will be seen from paragraph 3 of Major 
 Hamilton's letter that when our messengers endeavoured to nego- 
 tiate for the release of the prisoners carried away in January 1870, 
 they were simply told that ' the prisoners had not been taken to 
 ' be given up, but to be ransomed, and unless they were ransomed 
 * they would be killed. ' " 
 
 Shortly after this despatch, General Fytche was relieved by 
 the Honourable Ashley Eden (now Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal), 
 who in 1871 drew up the scheme for the defence of this frontier, 
 the more marked points of which have been stated in a previous 
 P^ge. 
 
 * This active officer subsequently lost bis life in tbe service of the State, being shot by 
 dacoits in the Rangoon district in 1875 ; he was universally regretted throughout the 
 province. 
 
 2 
 
10 THE HILL TRACTS OF AKAKAN. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Ethnological. 
 
 The tributary tribes residing within the administrative 
 boundary of the Hill tracts may be classified as below : — 
 
 (1) Kamees or Kumees. 
 (•2) Mros. 
 
 (3) Chins. 
 
 (4) Choungthas. 
 
 (5) Chaws. 
 
 (6) Koons. 
 
 Which of the above clans are the aborigines of the Hill tracts, 
 or which of them first settled there, will never in all probability 
 be known. Neither tradition nor old records avail towards the 
 solution of the question, and probably the explanation given by 
 Pe:mberton* when writing of the Manipuris, and the way they 
 settled in Manipur, which lies more than 2° north of the latitude 
 of the Arakan hill tribes, holds good of most of the hill tribes 
 forming our Eastern frontier. He observes : — " Pi ejecting as 
 " totally unworthy of attention the Hindoo origin claimed by the 
 " Manipuris of the present day, we may safely conclude them 
 "to be descendants of a Tartar colony, which probably emigrated 
 *' from the north-west borders of China during the sanguinary 
 " conflicts for supremacy which took place between the different 
 " members of the Chinese and Tartar dynasties in the 13th and 
 " 14th centuries. " 
 
 These Mongohan hordes, passing southward from Thibet in 
 successive waves towards the sea, doubtless populated the valleys 
 of Burma and Arakan, leaving behind, in the hills of our Eastern 
 frontier (which running down from a spur of the Himalayas, and 
 branching out into several ranges, may be roughly said to comprise 
 the whole land from Thibet to Arakan), a succession of hill tribes 
 consisting of Assamese and the inhabitants of the Cossya, 
 Garrow, Jyntia, Chittagoug, and Arakan hills. The features of 
 the majority of the Arakan tribes point them out as nnmistake- 
 al)ly belonging to the gi'eat Mongolian family of which the Burmese 
 are an offshoot, and that their language, with few exceptions, is a 
 distinct and separate one will be apparent to any Burmese scholar 
 on reference to the small table of the more common words and 
 phrases in Kamine which I have given in the appendix ; in short, 
 
 * Report on the Eastern Frontier, Calcutta, 1835. 
 
THE HILL TRACTS OF ABAKAN. 
 
 11 
 
 my opinion is greatly against their being regarded as aboriginal 
 tribes, unless a prescriptive right, resting on the basis of their 
 occupation of the hill portion of our Eastern frontier for some 
 centuries, can entitle them to this appellation. Even within the 
 last thirty years, practical ihustration has been afforded of the 
 gradual movement of lower tribes towards the plains under the 
 pressure of stronger tribes above, and such a condition of things, 
 existing for centuries, would clearly explain the theory propounded 
 by Pemberton as to the process by which the Manipuris and 
 other tribes have been forced far south from the higher steppes of 
 the Himalayas and Thibet. Again, as stated before, the physiog- 
 nomy and physique of the population of the tract bear striking 
 testimony to their Mongolian origin ; and this remark applies with 
 equal truth to hill men I have seen living as far north as the 
 unsurveyed portion of our empire inhabited by the remote Shau- 
 doo tribes. It is not, however, within the scope of my present pur- 
 pose to enter minutely into the ethnology of the hill races, even 
 were I competent to do so : I merely refer to the subject with the 
 view of endeavouring to show how it w^ould appear that, by a certain 
 and inexorable law of the recession of other races towards the sea- 
 board, it is the fate of a very large portion of the population of 
 India to be left in the hills of which they are not, however, neces- 
 sarily the aborigines. Unfortunately, unlike some hill races, those 
 of Arakan have no written language, and being without buildings 
 or structures of any form, either in perpetuation of the deeds of their 
 ancestors, or of the rites and myths of their primeval rehgion, 
 possess no indications to assist in determining their history ; it is 
 only by deduction from the law of nature and by observation that 
 it can be somewhat unravelled. 
 
 I will now briefly describe the hiU tribes in the order given 
 at the commencement of the chapter. The Kamees, including the 
 Mros (for they are of one family), amounting to over 10,000, form 
 the largest division of the tribes, and some thirty years back dw^elt 
 on the mountain ranges, but w^ere forced down towards the river 
 banks from their highland homes in consequence of the pressure 
 and constant raids inflicted on them by stronger tribes to the north ; 
 they are divided into twenty-two clans, each with a distinct chief and 
 name, but their forced migration has upset in a great measure the 
 patriarchal authority and self-government that at one time the chiefs 
 of clans possessed. Each village has a chief or " Toungtja-min," a 
 title given by the Arakanese, in which language it means the chief of 
 a hiU Q'toung" a hiU, and '' min," a chief), a meaning which in 
 their own language is conveyed by the word ^' moiarain." The word 
 
19 
 
 ^^ THE HILL TEACTS OF AUAKAN. 
 
 '• hamine,"hoth. in the Mro and Kamee languages, simply means man, 
 but the Burmese, with that sense of the ludicrous which distin- 
 guishes them, seem to have seized upon the peculiarity of the 
 dress adopted by the tribe as the explanation of the word ; the body- 
 cloth, after being passed two or three times round the waist and 
 once between the legs, is allowed to hang down in front and behind, 
 and the Burmans compare it to the tail of a dog, the Burmese 
 for which is '^hvaij-vujee" {''hvay," a dog, and " mijee," tail) : this 
 explanation of the word has been accepted by more than one 
 modern writer, including Captain Lewin ; but it is, as shown above,, 
 wrong, as Kamee simply means man {homo). The male head-dress 
 consists of a piece of cloth twisted round the head, with the hair 
 tied up in a prominent top in front. The male dress of the Mros 
 is similar to that of the Kamees, except that the body-cloth is so 
 scanty as to be almost indecent. The women of both tribes wear 
 much the same dress, which is a body-cloth resembling that worn 
 by the Arakanese, but shorter, and fastened round the waist with 
 cords of polished metal, with a cloth round their bosom sufficient 
 only to conceal their breasts. 
 
 The Chins, who come next in order, are very much scat- 
 tered throughout Burma and Arakan, comprising many thou- 
 sands, living mostly along the watershed of the long and extensive 
 range of mountains known as the Yoma-toung, which extends 
 from far north, where our Eastern frontier is conterminous 
 with Upper Burma, into British Burma as far as the Myan- 
 oung district. The Chins of the Arakan hills are far wilder 
 and more retiring than any other of the tribes : this is attribut- 
 able to the circumstance that it is only wdthin the last six 
 years that an English officer has been placed in charge of 
 that portion of the hills which they inhabit, namely, the beautiful 
 and extensive valley of the Lemroo river and its feeders. Unlike 
 their brethren in the plains, they pursue no steady or profitable 
 cultivation, but only grow sufficient rice for their own consump- 
 tion, with some to spare for the preparation, by fermentation, 
 of their national beverage koiing or rice-beer, a liquor which is 
 sufficiently strong, if taken in any quantity, to quickly intoxi- 
 cate. In accordance with the custom of all tribes of the Chin 
 family, the faces of their women are tattooed, the thing being done 
 as a rule with some ceremony at the age of puberty. A few days 
 after birth, moreover, the practice among many of the tribes is to 
 have a small mark or cross tattooed on the foreheads of their children; 
 and in cases where the tribes reside in a more turbulent and dis- 
 turbed portion of the country, the custom is observed with special 
 
THE HILL TRACTS OF ABAKAN. 
 
 13 
 
 care. Some writers have assigned the following reasons for this 
 solitary* instance of tattooing among the hill tribes: — • 
 
 (1) in order, by disfigurement, to prevent their women being 
 
 carried off to the harems of the Burmese high officials ; 
 
 (2) to enable them to recognize their own women carried off 
 
 in raids, and to conceal the women of other tribes 
 
 carried off by them. 
 But, if either of the above theories rested on satisfactory grounds, 
 it would be reasonable to suppose that other adjoining tribes would 
 likewise have adopted the custom, though on the score of female 
 beauty, which is as lamentably conspicuous by its absence among 
 the Chins as among the hill tribes generally, there is certainly no 
 cause for resorting to the practice as a means of preventing their 
 women being carried off as concubines to the Burmese Court. 
 As the Chin tribes border on the frontier of Burma, it seems to me 
 most probable that tattooing was adopted by them in imitation of 
 the Burmese, and not especially invented for the purposes indicated 
 in the above two theories ; for against the acceptance of either stands 
 the fact that there are no greater raiders than the tribes adjoining 
 these Chins, viz., Shandoos, Kamees, and Upper Pin Mros, none of 
 whom practise tattooing. That it has, however, occasionally been 
 the means to some extent of enabling them to recognize their own 
 captives I can give practical proof, as it was only a short time 
 ago, when accepting the restoration of several Chin British subjects 
 carried of in a raid in 1875 by Upper tribes, that the offending 
 chief tried to palm off on me an unfortunate child of about three 
 years' old as one of the British captives demanded, and the decep- 
 tion was only discovered on the arrival of the interested Chins, who 
 stoutly denied any connection with the child, saying it was not a Chin 
 as it had not the usual mark on the forehead ; the consequence 
 was that I returned the child, and the chief was ordered to bring in 
 the real captive. The Chins are, Hke the other tribes, divided into 
 clans, and those nearer the plains adopt a costume similar to that of 
 the Burmese, while the more remote sail as close to perfect nudity 
 as it is possible to do, the Koo clan, who hve up the Pin river, 
 substituting for all other apparel a circle of bamboo-cane, dyed red, 
 coiled round and round their waists. Tattooing, though only 
 characteristic of one division of the hill tribes of Arakan, would 
 appear common to others of our Eastern border, for the Nagas of 
 Assam observe the practice ; indeed, further research may establish 
 the fact that the Nagas and Chins are of one family. 
 
 * This word is used advisedly, for, with the exception of a few claus of tlie Mro tribe 
 on the Mee river, none of tlie others tattoo. The Mros occasionally observe it by a 
 small inark or a star on the check, forehead, or breast, with which thoy associate 
 fecundity and various domestic virtues. 
 
14 
 
 THE HILL TKACTS OF .\KAKAN. 
 
 The next hill race of interest are the Choungthas, who 
 have been briefly alluded to in the previous chapter as of 
 Arakanese stock, sent up to the hills some centuries back by one 
 of the Kings of Arakan on account of their reputed bravery and 
 hardiness to control, or rather attempt to control, the hill tribes, 
 for they never appear to have succeeded : this tradition is partly 
 borne out by a remark of Sir Arthur Phayre in the Asiatic Journal. 
 When alluding to the Chouugthas, he says: — " This hill tribe belongs 
 "■ to the same great family of the human race as the Myamma, their 
 *' language being apparently of the same structure, their physiog- 
 " nomy alike ; they have black, straight hair, high cheek bones, 
 '* oblique eyes, and scanty beard. The Kamees appear, like the 
 *' Choungthas, in a more rude state of existence ; the traditions of the 
 " latter people refer to the former as already possessors of the 
 " country when the Myamma race entered it. From the fact that 
 *' they have never settled in the hills of the interior, but lived on, 
 " and cultivated land along, the banks of the river Kooladan, they 
 *' have been termed Choungthas from the Burmese word ' choiuig,' 
 " a river, and ' tha,' a son ; literally, ' son of the river.' " Mr. St. 
 John, Superintendent of HiU tribes in 1870, in his interesting 
 report for that year, gives such a life-like and detailed description 
 of this tribe that I quote it verbatim : — ■" The liakaing, commonly 
 " called Choungthas, are of the Burmese stock, and speak a 
 *' dialect differing but little from Arakanese. They are divided into 
 *' seven clans, viz., Loonhee (Arakanese), 2nd, Dala (Talaiug), 3rd 
 *' Tansata (Arakanese), 4th, Moontouk (Talaing), 5th, Koonsway 
 *' (Arakanese), 6th, Shwaybazweh (Arakanese), and Ttli, Pioke 
 *' (^Talaing), all situated on the Kooladan river, their most northern 
 " village being about eight miles above Dalekmay. Some clans, 
 " however, are said to be descended from Talaings, or Moons, who 
 *' came over to Arakan with a princess of Pegu who was married 
 *' to an Arakanese king A. D. 1588 : this story is borne out by 
 *' the fact that one clan is still called the Moon clan, and Dalekmay 
 " is said to be named from Dala opposite Pvangoon ; the name 
 *' should therefore be Dalagamay, named after Dala, contracted to 
 " Dalekmay. In manners and customs they differ but little from 
 •' the Arakanese and Burmese, and, as Captain Lewin observes, 
 *' belong to the great Myamma or Mramma family ; the root of 
 *' this word is mijam or mram, the ma simply beiug an affix signi- 
 «' fying mother in the sense of original parent. Choungtha simply 
 " means the sons of the river ; their numbers in this district are 
 *' 1,'2U0, but there are many more in Akyab; they are a quiet, 
 " pleasant people, more like the Burmese in disposition than the 
 *' proud, indolent, overbearing Arakauese ; their dress consists 
 *' of the Arakanese dolyah or waist-cloth, of dark homespun cotton, 
 
THE HILL TRACTS OF ABAKAN. 
 
 15 
 
 " and a white goung-boimg or turban, the hair being tied in a 
 *' knot on the top of the head. The women wear the Arakanese 
 " tamein, which is the same as the Burmese, save that it comes 
 " further round so as not to expose the leg in walking ; the colours, 
 " however, are sad, and throughout the whole of the Arakanese 
 «' family there seems to be a want of appreciation of the harmoni- 
 " ous blending of gorgeous colours so dear to the Eastern Burman's 
 "eye. Tattooing is practised, but not as in Burma, the utmost 
 ' ' being a few charms on the back or shoulders. Though professed- 
 "ly Buddhists, the spirit worship of their fathers finds a much 
 •' larger place in their hearts, and all the customs common to 
 " primitive tribes are strictly observed. Captain Lewin mentions 
 '* that the Choungthas of Chittagong tie the hair at the back like 
 <' a woman, and not on the top, and gives a curious legend to 
 ♦' account for the custom : this is certainly not the case on the 
 " Kooladan, though the knot is sHghtly further back than the centre. 
 ♦' The legend given by Captain Lewin is so palpably absurd that 
 •' no faith can be placed in it. The custom may have arisen from 
 •• the Choungthas of Chittagong having lived amongst tribes who 
 "wear their hair thus, or they may be the descendants of the 
 " Takings who came over, for, to judge from the terra-cotta 
 " pictures on the Thatone pagoda,* it was formerly the custom 
 " of the Takings to wear their hair in a large knot at the back of 
 " the head. The Taking clans of the Kooladan, however, do not do 
 " so. The written character used by the Choungthas was original- 
 " ly the same as the Burmese, but, in repeating the letters of the 
 " alphabet, they call some of the letters by different names, and 
 " the books which they use are written on rough paper cut to look 
 " like palm leaves ; but the character used in those books differs 
 " greatly from the usual Burmese form : this arises from the origi- 
 " nals having been copied by Bengallee writers, who were ignorant 
 " of the true form. Cultivation is carried on in the usual hill 
 " manner." The only exception I have to take to this description 
 of the Choungthas is the high estimate given by Mr. St. John of 
 their character as contrasted with that of the Arakanese. My 
 experience, as indeed the experience of most officers who have 
 served for any time on the Kooladan river, shows that they are 
 quite as tricky as the Arakanese, while, with their knowledge of the 
 Kamee language, they are enabled to tyrannize over, defraud, and 
 impose upon the Kamees to a far greater extent than the Arakanese, 
 who are hindered by want of local knowledge ; indeed, their influ- 
 ence among the Kamees is generally for evil ; they practise among 
 
 * This pagoda is in the Martaban sub-division of the Amherst district, Tenasserim 
 division. 
 
16 
 
 THE HILL TRACTS OF ABAKAN. 
 
 the other hill trihes much the same deception and chicanery as 
 the Mauipur officials appear to have done among the Looshais. 
 If employed as officials in the Hill tracts, they should never be 
 entertained in posts of power over Kamees or Sliandoos ; for by 
 both these clans they are regarded with feelings of mistrust and 
 contempt, and there is more than one instance on record in which 
 the Ghoungthas, when unable in the days of old to adopt fair means 
 for carrying out the royal edicts from the Court of Arakan for 
 holding in check the turbulent tribes, resorted to foul and deep 
 treachery for the purpose by inviting the more influential Shandoo 
 chiefs as guests to a big feast, making them drunk, and then 
 massacring them all in cold blood. Other stories, still preserved 
 with feelings of mistrust and dislike of the Ghoungthas, have been 
 told me by Kamees, and admitted with a smile by descendants of 
 these Ghoungthas, who doubtless, had they the opportunity, would 
 control the tribes even at this day much in the same fashion, 
 utterly ignoring all principles of fair play and honour. 
 
 These descendants of the Arakanese have almost entirely 
 severed themselves from Buddhism, and to all intents and pur- 
 poses form part and parcel of the wild tribes among whom they 
 live. Their history in this respect affords a striking illustration 
 of the manner in which a religion such as Buddhism, whose 
 vitality is to a great extent maintained by the doctrine of good 
 works, in the erection of monasteries, pagodas, &c., lapses into 
 decay and lethargy when isolated from the causes which give it 
 effect and power. 
 
 Lastly come the Chaws, who are a small tribe, an offshoot of 
 the great Aryan family. Tradition says that they were offered as 
 pagoda slaves by a pious Queen of Arakan, named " Saw Ma Gyee," 
 some three centuries back, when Arakanese influence and the tenets 
 of Buddhism extended far higher up in the hills than the limits of 
 our present control ; their duty was to keep clean and in order 
 some pagodas which are now more or less in ruins ; their lan- 
 guage is distinct, and, unlike the aboriginal tribes or the Ghoung- 
 thas", they contract marriage strictly among their own clan ; they 
 tie tlieir hair at the back in a manner resembling the Gingalese, 
 and most probably were, at some not very remote period, taken 
 prisoners of war when Arakan was a powerful kingdom and made 
 many conquests in Bengal, for their features point distinctly to 
 their connection with the Hindoo family. 
 
 The last division of our tributary tribes to be noticed is that of 
 the Koons, a portion of whom with their chief, Ka Pa, settled 
 witliin our frontier line in 1875, as they could no longer withstand 
 the frequent attacks made on them beyond the border. They 
 
17 
 
 THE HILL TRACTS OF AH ARAN. ■■■ ' 
 
 appreciated the more keenly the advantages of becoming subjects 
 of Government from liaving, for three or four years previously, 
 lived sufficiently near to the British boundary, though without it, 
 to enjoy the advantages accruing from proximity in the way of 
 trade, &c., but not security of life and property from tribes further 
 north. This chief, Ka Pa (since dead), was a most influential man, 
 and, as early as 1871, I had secured his good offices as a friend 
 by an oath of loyalty to Government which he never violated. 
 Previous to 1871 'there were few, if any, of the many cruel raids 
 committed on our tributary tribes of the Kooladan in which he or 
 his tribe were not actively mixed up, and now his people, number- 
 ing above seventy houses, have removed to our territory, and 
 become peaceful subjects, exporting in large quantities some of the 
 best cotton grown on the hills. There is no striking difference 
 between the Koons and the Kamees ; but they bury and do not burn 
 their dead, and are somewhat finer in physique. There is also but 
 little difference in the language of both tribes. 
 
 Of the six divisions of hill races above described, none present 
 any striking contrast either in their domestic lives or in the man- 
 ner in whicb, under a wild and primitive form, they abide by and 
 recognize certain common principles which regulate their social 
 usages connected with birth, marriage, death, divorce, inheritance, 
 and debt. Without the faintest notion of a Supreme Being, these 
 races enjoy a happy, primitive rehgion, which sees in the moun- 
 tain streams, trees^ and woods mysterious spirits, whose mission 
 is to watch over them for good or evil. Superstitious and igno- 
 rant to a degree, the hill men look to these spirits (almost as 
 numerous as the natural forces they represent) for the relief of 
 their bodily ailments, for protection from contagious diseases, and 
 even from death itself, and make suitable offerings to them accord- 
 ing to their status ; while, before embarking on any undertaking 
 associated with the routine of their daily life, whether it be, for 
 instance, the commencement of a journey, or the selection of the 
 site for a new village, they must always be consulted ; they have 
 neither priests nor caste distinctions, nor is polygamy common, 
 though a few chiefs practise it. Divorce is common and easily 
 obtained, marriage being regarded simply as a civil rite. It is 
 indeed often very difficult to fathom or account for the motives which 
 actuate their conduct even in trivial daily matters, as, Uke most 
 wild races, their behaviour and hfe are marked by a child -like 
 suspiciousness, which acts as a barrier to our ever becoming 
 thoroughly familiar with them, a difficulty which is increased by the 
 poverty of their language and its want of power to express abstract 
 ideas. Again, the circumstance of their brain being seldom called 
 
 3 
 
18 
 
 THK HII,1. TKACTS OK ARAKAX. 
 
 upon to work has rfiidored it so dormant and narrow, and theii 
 conception is so limited, that it is impossible to make an ordinary 
 hill man grasp any other suhject than the one he is immediately 
 occupied with or interested in. For instance, if engaged at tli( 
 moment in an ordinary avocation, such as cleaning a plate o: 
 folding up a cloth, he finds it quite beyond him to follow 3'ou if yoi 
 speak to him of anything which is to take place a few hours after 
 They possess but a limited nomenclature for the most mundaui 
 reqiiirements or for the expression of their feelings, while term 
 indicative of another or higher sphere of existence are quite wantino 
 I have often thought how conservative must have been their habit 
 to maintain to the extent they do their idiosyncracies of race am 
 primitive life. At no period do their women or men appear t 
 have married with natives of the plains, or to have imbibed thei 
 religion or race prejudices ; and, as a partial consequence, w"e stil 
 find the tribes of Arakan without priests and gods and with n 
 mythology. 
 
 There are, however, two customs which in every detail cha 
 racterise in the same manner all the hill tribes of Arakan. Thes 
 are — 
 
 (1) the method of cultivation by them ; 
 
 (2) the practice of slavery. 
 
 As to method of cultivation, it is the same wasteful system a 
 that pursued by all wild tribes throughout India ; and it woul 
 appear to be adopted partly through ignorance, and partly o 
 account of the difficult and mountainous nature of the countr} 
 which renders any other far from easy. The hill man's implemer 
 is a da or big knife. A piece of rich virgin soil is selected by hii 
 on which there is a good growth of timber or bamboo jungle, th 
 latter being preferred, as where the bamboo grows luxuriantly th 
 soil is said to be the best. Except perhaps the larger trees, wdiic 
 are girdled, the jungle is all cut down by about January, an 
 allowed to dry under the hot rays of the sun during February, Marcl 
 and part of April ; it is then set fire to, and on the rich surfac 
 thus formed are sown, or rather scattered, paddy, a few pumpkii: 
 and other vegetables, and cotton seed. If the rains are favourah 
 and set in early all the seed sown germinates, and by the end ( 
 November this miscellaneous crop will have been gathered, tb 
 paddy or rice being reaped in September and the cotton later oi 
 Each man will, with a good harvest, ])robably have enough padd 
 saved for himself and family for the year's consumption if wi] 
 animals, birds, and rats have treated his joom or da kindlv 
 but this is not always the case. In 1874-75 the rats made sue 
 inroads on the crops of the Karen tribes of the Toungoo hill trad 
 
THE HILL TRACTS OF ARAKAN. 
 
 19 
 
 as to result in a scarcity which was the cause of much anxiety 
 and outlay of Government money on rehef works, &c., for the 
 tribes were unable to meet the distress. 
 
 Of late years the hill tribes have suffered to some extent from 
 scarcity of grain, which is attributable to two causes : — 
 
 (1) The area of their jooming operations as population 
 
 increases becomes limited, unless they proceed far into 
 the interior. 
 
 (2) Finding tobacco cultivation an easy and lucrative source 
 
 of livelihood, they neglect jooming, which involves far 
 more labour and trouble, and with the proceeds of their 
 tobacco crop purchase grain from the plains. 
 The increase of tobacco cultivation at the expense of joom- 
 ing is not to be regretted on the whole, for jooming is undoubt- 
 edly a wasteful method of cultivation ; and it is very desirable that, 
 in the interests of the tribes themselves, the practice should be dis- 
 couraged. Among the wilder and more remote tribes, when scar- 
 city exists, rice well soaked in water is eaten ; and resort is also 
 freely had to many of the roots and jungle edibles which a 
 bountiful Providence has placed within easy access, so that 
 famine need never cause Government great anxiety with refer- 
 ence to the hill tribes. Great scarcity, and even distress, may 
 occur, as among the Karens in Toungoo, but need never, 
 with ordinary precaution, assume the dimensions of a famine. 
 The toungyas, or, as they are termed in India, " jooms," and da 
 clearings are abandoned after the first year, and being soon covered 
 with a thick undergrowth of jungle are not again employed for 
 cultivation until five or even eight years have elapsed. Tobacco- 
 planting is practised in the lowlands and on the rich aUuvial 
 deposits formed along the banks of the larger rivers and streams 
 after the subsidence of the heavy rains in October. In Novem- 
 ber, the seed, which is mostly of American origin, is sown 
 broadcast on the alluvial deposits, and when the plants are about 
 two feet high, the lower leaves are broken off to throw vigour and 
 substance into the plant. About April, the remaining leaves are 
 plucked and strung through the stalk on thin bamboo skewers — 
 about thirty to a skewer — and after being hung up in a shed or house 
 to dry and arranged in bundles are ready for sale. Owing to 
 ignorance of a proper system of fermentation and curing the 
 tobacco is coarse and only commands a local sale ; but further on 
 allusion will be made to the steps taken of late years both to 
 extend the cultivation, and also by proper curing to render the 
 leaf a valuable product. The local demand for the tobacco in 
 the plains is already great, and, from an ap[)roximale return 
 
20 THE HILL TRACTS OF ARAKAN, 
 
 furnished, it appears that about 4,000 iiiauuds (a maund is SOftis. 
 avoirdupois) were exported in 1876 from the hills. The Chins 
 are the only division of the hill tribes who do not follow this culti- 
 vation as a Uvelihood ; their extremely wild, shy, and retiring 
 habits have the effect of rendering them isolated and shut out from 
 civilization and tlie busy ways of men far more than the other 
 tribes. The hill tribes doubtless, in the tirst instance, acquired 
 the knowledge of the culture of the plant from the Choungthas 
 and immigrants from the plains, for we have old documents which 
 go to show that more than a century back tobacco was grown in 
 these hills, and so prized that it formed part of the tribute which 
 was paid to the old Arakanese kings by their Choungtha subjects. 
 
 Slavery in a mild, and also in its worst, form is common among 
 all the tribes, though nnder our rule in the hills it has been 
 reduced almost to a minimum within the administrative frontier. 
 Slaves in these hills, as past records show, arrange themselves in 
 three groups — 
 
 "War captives, or those taken in raids; 
 Debtor-slaves ; 
 
 Slaves who have become so voluntarily, or who have been 
 made over as slaves by their relatives in default of pay- 
 ment of gambling debts. 
 
 As regards war captives, in several instances they have been 
 sold by the more remote trans-frontier Sliandoo tribes to other 
 trans-frontier tribes, and again by them to tribes within our 
 frontier. It has generally been found impossible to ameliorate the 
 condition of these captives, and they have consequently been left in 
 stalu quo. For instance, there are some who, carried otf in raids 
 at a tender age and oblivious of or having survived their relatives, 
 have become part and parcel of the family household. Often 
 indeed, on being questioned, they do not know who their parents 
 were, and in such cases interference would be cruel as it would be 
 impolitic. Captives carried off in raids are not invariably sold into 
 hopeless captivity, for in many instances the relations of the captive, 
 after nnicli discussion of the terms carried on through the agency 
 of a neutral clan, manage to effect the release of the captive, 
 thouorh some years may have intervened since the commission of 
 the raid. Tlie ransom demanded is proportional to the position in 
 life of the captive and his family : thus, in the case of a member 
 of a small clan enjoying no influence or prestige, eighty to two 
 hundred rupees would be demanded ; while in the instance of a 
 child of a ])owerful and well-known chief, or for an influential 
 chief himself, six hundred to one thousand rupees, or the equiva 
 lent, would be exacted before the restoration of the captive could 
 
91 
 
 THE HILL TRACTS OP ABAKAN. ^■^ 
 
 be effected. Chief Lahawk, whose vihage was attacked by Looshais 
 ill 1869, as previously noted, did not effect the ransom of his son, 
 who was carried off on the occasion, until as late as 1875. A ran- 
 som of nearly seven hundred rupees was paid for the boy, though 
 he was only about 13 years of age. Muskets, spears, cattle, and 
 copper bowls and gongs, the possessions chiefly valued by the 
 trans-frontier tribes, are usuahy demanded as ransom. From my 
 experience in late years I find that it has been generally on behalf 
 of captives of the second and third classes above mentioned that 
 the intervention of Government has been desired. The exten- 
 sion of the Gambling Act to these hills (a measure I had strongly 
 advocated) has exercised a most beneficial effect in checking cases 
 of this kind, for the hill man entertains a strong sense of honour 
 regarding debt generally, but especially debt incurred in gambling, 
 to satisfy which, rather than be held up to public opprobrium, he 
 will readily mortgage himself or one of his family for a term of 
 years : this custom, analogous to the provision of the Mosaic law, 
 has been in vogue among the hill tribes for generations past, and 
 it will be the work of time before the provisions of the Civil Proce- 
 dure Code in relation to judgment-debtors will be viewed as a 
 substitute for their time-hallowed practice in this respect. 
 
 In the matter of reUgion, there is little difference between any 
 of the tribes ; their creed, as has been before remarked, is of the 
 most primitive kind, and is chiefly limited to the worship of the 
 numerous siurits which are supposed to reside in the mountains, 
 streams, and trees, and whose protection is invoked, or malignity 
 appeased, by blood-offerings of fowls, goats, and pigs. Y/liether 
 the good offices of the spirit are invited in aid of a war party start- 
 ing on a foray, or to bring a bumper crop to the hill man preparing 
 to cut his joom, an offering is in each case made after omen has 
 been sought by an incantation and ceremony held over an egg or 
 fowl. 
 
 In 1873, when requiring the attendance at Akyab of a 
 witness in an important trial of a captured outlaw who had joined 
 in the murder and raid of the British subjects in 1870, I had 
 practical experience of the influence of omens over the peculiarly 
 constituted mind of a hill man. Akyab being in the plains, and 
 about 140 miles from the witness's mountain home, he considered 
 attendance there almost in the hght of punishment, and the omen 
 of the egg, which he consulted, proving adverse to his journey, 
 he absented himself and braved all the penalties of the^law. It 
 need hardly be stated that, under the circumstances, he was let off 
 with merely a mild rebuke, which however was but dimly appreci- 
 ated by him. None of the numerous spirits which are objects 
 of worship to the tribes are, however, symbolized by idols. 
 
22 
 
 THE HILL TRACTS OF AKAKAN. 
 
 notwitli stall diiipr their proximity to a nation which for centuries has 
 seenvthe embodiment of all that is good represented by images of the 
 sacred Gaudama. It is worthy here of remark, as characteristic of 
 the Buddhist faith, that it has never sought to pros^'iijiize Uke other 
 religions in the workl, and is as tolerant of the doctrines of others 
 as it is unselfish and charitable in practice itself ; and hence we 
 find the hill tribes of Burma influenced in no respect by the religion 
 of the great majority of the province. 
 
 The generally' accepted dictum that every race on earth, 
 however wild and uncivilized be its condition, has an innate con- 
 ception of an All-powerful Being is certainly not correct as regards 
 the hill tribes. Words even are wanting in their language to convey 
 the idea of an almighty or other supreme controhing spirit or of 
 a heaven or hell ; they hold but a vague idea of a future state, 
 and are quite contented when they ' shuffle off this mortal coil' to 
 have placed near their bones, after the body has been burnt, every 
 month for the space of a year, sufficient rice to satisfy the appetite 
 of the departed. Should the deceased have been a mighty Nimrod, 
 his clan deposit along with his bones* his favourite spear or gun 
 to enable him to hold his own against wild animals and to provide 
 himself with food ; they have a vague belief that the defunct has 
 on the expiration of the year been able to settle down in some 
 other world to those pursuits to which in his lifetime he was 
 addicted. Cremation is, as a rule, practised by all the tribes, except 
 the IShandoos and Koons ; but there is one exception to this, and 
 that is in the case of those who have been killed by wild beasts or 
 alligators ; in such instances there is seldom any ceremony of 
 cremation held over the body, the bones are not collected and 
 dei)osited in a separate hut, nor are steps taken for providing the 
 manes of the deceased with the customary commissariat supply. 
 The explanation of this custom given by the people is that hill 
 lore abounds in legends and stories, tending to prove that when 
 for those who have departed this life by other than natural causes 
 obsequies are performed similar to those which are bestowed on 
 those who receive their quietus in the ordinary course of nature, the 
 members of the same family have again fallen victims to an 
 alligator's hug or a tiger's embrace. In the case of the death 
 of a chief the corpse is kept for several days, the length of time 
 varying according to his status. I have known the body of an 
 unusually influential chief kept as long as twelve days, during which 
 period a kind of «Y/Ac is kept u]) night and day and a quantity of 
 kouwj, which is not so intoxicating as its equivalent whiskey, is 
 consumed. 
 
 •■ For Kiinilar obsequieK and cnstoixiB in byfjone ages in Europe and elsewhere see 
 Chapter XI, Vuhime I, of Tyler's L'rhn'itivc Culture. 
 
THK 1111,1; TllACTS OF AKAKAN. 
 
 '23 
 
 The burial-places of many of the clans, and especially of the 
 Chins, are worthy of attention; they resemble miniature Stone- 
 henges, and consist of a slab of stone lying across four or six hewn 
 pillars. Under this slab, deep in the earth, is placed an urn con- 
 taining the bones of the deceased after cremation has been per- 
 formed. Round about are the skulls of animals sacrificed at the 
 funeral rites. 
 
 The average specimen of the hill men of Arakan is, in physi- 
 que, strong, robust, and hardy, a result which is to a great extent 
 due, I should think, to constant indulgence in animal food at 
 feasts, &c. In character they are honest in their dealings, and, 
 as a rule, truthful on most points, except those bearing on raids, 
 captives, or slaves. As they come into closer proximity to, and 
 contact with, the natives of the plains, they become more tricky 
 and cunning, but in their own primeval state they can compare 
 favourably with most races of mankind. Improvident to a degree, 
 they never look to the future, but, enjoying the present, almost 
 invariably spend their money as soon as they get it in feasting and 
 drinking; their wants being few and extremely simple, money, 
 beyond a certain sum, possesses but little attraction for them, and 
 the fertility of the soil and the peace and tranquillity which they 
 enjoy under our rule tend to make them lazy, good-natured, and 
 apathetic. Another marked trait in the character of the tribes 
 generally is the love they have for their country, a love so strong 
 that I have known villages to remain in their original sites until 
 literally decimated by raids before the inhabitants have been forced 
 to retreat lower down. The common and favourite reply of old 
 chiefs when asked why they do not remove to within our frontier 
 rather than incur the insecurity to life and property which they 
 experience beyond that limit is " do pyay, ho miiaij, ma pijit hnaing," 
 which, interpreted, means " we cannot forsake our own ground 
 and country." Even in isolated cases, where Kamees and Shan- 
 doos have followed officers to Burma, and enjoyed all the advan- 
 tages of civilization, they have almost invariably returned to their 
 mountain homes and wild life in the hihs, which have far stronger 
 fascinations for them. 
 
 The pursuit of cotton and tobacco cultivation allows a hill 
 man of industrious habits to realize, on an average, a yearly income 
 of about £4 to £5 by the sale of his cotton and from £6 to i^'lO 
 by tobacco, while the earnings of a family would be considerably 
 greater. About twelve years back tlie respective prices for these 
 two products ranged for tobacco from 8,s. to 10s. a maund and 
 cotton from 2.s. to 45. The ruling price for the last three years 
 has been £1 6s. to ^1 lO.s. for the former and 6.s. to 8s. for the 
 
24 
 
 THE HILL Tl'.ACTR OF ARAKAN. 
 
 latter, while the out-turn of both, and especially of tobacco, has 
 of late years increased to a degree which has surpassed the 
 expectation of those who have watched the yearly progress of each 
 on the spot. A great portion of the surplus cash, which with a 
 rich prolific soil is acquired, as shown, with but little trouble by 
 cultivation, is generally soon squandered in feasting and drinking. 
 It is the great ambition of the chiefs of clans or villages to possess 
 the reputation of having killed a large number of cattle at one 
 feast ; and hence during the year there is a considerable amount 
 of money expended in the purchase of cattle for such convivialities. 
 I have heard of as many as ninety head being killed at one feast, 
 the animals being tied up and speared to death, and the slaughter 
 followed by days spent in eating and drinking. Such jovialities 
 are not confined to any time or circumstance, neither are they held 
 as a rule with the object of commemorating any occurrence, but 
 would appear to be simply the outcome of a mind determined to 
 enjoy itself while health and money are left : these festivities are 
 accompanied by the music of drums and wind instruments of various 
 sorts, to the time of which men and women, forming a circle, dance 
 or rather shufile along with a side step. The music is remarkable 
 more for its monotony than for anything else, and certainly, as far 
 as I have been able to judge from experience among many different 
 tribes, possesses no charms "to soothe the savage breast:" on 
 these occasions, from the combined effect of drink and excitement, 
 the assembly becomes somewhat uproarious towards the end ; how- 
 ever, the proceedings rarely terminate in a fight. The improvident 
 nature of the hill men seldom suggests to them the necessity of 
 saving money against a rainy day, and their wants being extremely 
 limited, while the taxation or tribute imposed by Government is 
 merely nominal, a considerable amount of money is at their disposal 
 for indulging in such harmless festivities. The incidence of taxation 
 upon all tribes within our administrative boundary is only 45. a 
 house, irrespective of the number of the family in it : this system 
 of taxation commends itself to the hill tribes for its simplicity and 
 the ease with which it is collected. It has superseded within the 
 last two years one whicli was somewhat abused by Choungtha 
 officials, and which was in many cases quite unintelligible to the 
 hill man, who in the absence of a written language could not check 
 the proceedings of the tax-gatherer or understand the principles of 
 the system of taxation : this is now rendered clear to him, inas- 
 much as each house in a village knows that all it has to pay is 4s., 
 or lis. 2 a year ; and as every one can count the number of 
 houses, there is little cause for anxiety lest hungry tax-collectors 
 should abuse their power. The principle adopted by Government 
 
THE HILL TRACTS OF ARAKAN. 
 
 25 
 
 of enlisting on the side of order the more influential chiefs of the 
 country has had so far a good effect in tending to make our rule 
 popular, and in causing all taxes to be willingly and cheerfully 
 paid. 
 
 The hill women are decidedly plain, far more so than the men, 
 and as they work harder, and do more of the manual labour in the 
 jooms, they become coarse and uninteresting, with painfully ugly 
 high shoulders. The practice of carrying uphill on their backs 
 heavy baskets of paddy, cotton, or firewood fastened round their 
 forehead merely by a string has conduced towards making them 
 mostly knock-kneed, and causing them to waddle with an ungainly 
 gait. During marriage the women are usually faithful to their 
 husbands, and I have only in one solitary instance known an 
 injured husband ask for a divorce on account of the amours and 
 inconstancy of his wife. Divorces are common and easily obtained, 
 which probably accounts for the fidelity of the women while the 
 connection lasts. The principal causes which are urged for separa- 
 tion are much the same as those which influence highly civilized 
 communities, namely, the desh-e of change, incompatibility of tem- 
 per, and jealousy. The return of the dowry,* which generally is 
 from £4 to £5, by the husband to the wife, is aU that is necessary 
 to obtain a divorce. Among almost all the tribes, including the 
 Chins, it is the custom for the widow to become the wife of her 
 late husband's brothers; and I notice in Burnaby's Ride to Khiva 
 a reference to a similar usage to this day in force among the 
 Tartar tribes, of whose numerous family these hill tribes are 
 doubtless but an off-shoot. As regards the administration of jus- 
 tice, it is still left as much as possible to the people themselves. 
 Cases which involve the usages and habits of the tribes are, as long 
 as they are not opposed to morality and equity, invariably disposed 
 of by the chiefs. A girl generally settles down to married life at 
 the age of 17 and a man at about 20 to 21 ; but, notwithstanding 
 early marriages, the population has continued sparse, owing to the 
 constant raids and the unsettled and harassed life to which our 
 tribes have, until of late years, been exposed. A code of the hill 
 laws for the Kamee division of the tribes, chiefly extracted from 
 a list made by Mr. Davis, Superintendent of Hill tribes, in the 
 years 1806 and 1867, is given below ; it is, on the whole, fairly 
 correct, and tends, among other things, to show how little the 
 value of woman is appreciated by the tribes. The laws have been 
 classed under the two heads of " Criminal " and " Civil." 
 
 * The amount of dowry is regulated principally with reference to the local status of 
 the woman. For instance, if the betrothed is the dau,a;hter of a powerful chief, as iniicli 
 as Rs. 600, or the eiiuivalout in bullocks, fJtyalls, and spears, is expectetl, vvhiie among 
 trans-frontier tribes dowry is demanded generally in the form of slaves or guns. 
 
26 
 
 THE HILL TKACTS OF AKAKAN. 
 
 Criminal. 
 
 I. Murder or homicide. — If a person commit murder, he shall 
 be fined the vahie of two slaves, and several spears, swords, and 
 gongs, say in all about Ks. 000. If a death be caused accidentally, 
 the fine shall be half the above. 
 
 II. Raid. — When a village is plundered by a body of raiders, 
 the leader is alone to be held responsible, and, if apprehended, is 
 bound to return the value of all property taken (including the 
 value of the persons killed) and to pay a fine. 
 
 III. Raid and arson. — If a village be burnt down in com- 
 mitting a raid, the leader is bound to make good the damage done 
 and to pay a fine in addition. 
 
 IV. Theft. — A person who commits theft is bound to return 
 the property, or its value, and to pay a fine not exceeding Rs. 30. 
 
 V. Grievous hurt. — A person who causes grievous hurt may 
 be fined Rs. 100. 
 
 VI. Assault. — If a person assault another, he is to pay a fine 
 not exceeding Rs. 30. 
 
 VII. Rape. — If rape be commited on a married woman, the 
 husband is entitled to demand a sum not exceeding Rs. 60. Rape 
 of an unmarried woman is to be punished by a fine not exceeding 
 Rs. 30. 
 
 Civil. 
 
 I. Ordeal. — If two persons dispute about a debt or other 
 matter, and neither can produce evidence, they are obliged to go 
 through the ordeal of ducking the head in water ; the decision is 
 given in favour of him who keeps under longest. 
 
 II. Execution. — If a debt be not paid, and the debtor should 
 not be apprehended, the creditor's party, if strong enough, may 
 attack the debtor's village, and carry off as many captives as they 
 can. 
 
 III. Interest. — The rate of interest on a debt is double the 
 principal if one year be allowed to expire from the date of con- 
 traction of the debt. 
 
 IV. Sons liahle for father . — The debts of the father must be 
 paid by the sons ; a daughter never inherits, and cannot therefore 
 be held responsible.. 
 
 Noit:.—K\\ the above fines are to be accomjtaiiied by the ]ince of tlie annual (pig) 
 slain to niuko tlie agreement ijindin^'. "NVlicn nnudt'r is committed in a raid, any 
 raidcrK cauglit redlianded arc at once beheaded and the lioads stuck up in the vilhige. 
 A woman may not receive a tine, but a male relative or husband may receive it for 
 h.;r. 
 
THE HILL TRACTS OF ARAKAN. ^ * 
 
 V. A^o male issue. — If a man die without male issue, Ins estate 
 is claimed by his nearest male relative ; he, therefore, is responsible 
 for the debts of deceased, whether there be property or not. 
 
 VI. Minority. — Should a man die, leaving a son who is a 
 minor, the nearest male relative acts as guardian until marriage, 
 when minority ceases, and the guardian is bound to give an account 
 of his stewardship. 
 
 VII. Women, — A woman cannot inherit, and is therefore irre- 
 sponsible for debt. 
 
 VIII. Divison of inheritance. — If a man die, leaving two or 
 more sons, the property is divided as follows : two divide equally ; 
 if there be more than two, the eldest and youngest take two shares 
 each and the others one share each. 
 
 IX. Customs to he observed. — On the death of the father, the 
 eldest son must give his maternal uncle a full grown buffalo or 
 its value. On the death of the mother, the youngest son must 
 give a paternal uncle a full grown buffalo or its value. 
 
 X. Bequeathing sons.—l( a man be on the point of death, and 
 cannot pay his debt, he will leave a son to the creditor to work it 
 off. 
 
 XI. Slaves. — Slaves do not inherit, unless adopted according 
 to rule ; in this case they wiU be held responsible for debts. If a 
 slave however be adopted by a master who has sons, he cannot 
 inherit. 
 
 XII. Marriage. — There is no fixed age for marriage, nor is 
 any constraint used to influence choice. Marriage is contracted on 
 consent of the woman's parents after payment of the fixed dowry by 
 the suitor. 
 
 XIII. Divorce. — If a husband wish to divorce his wife, he may 
 do so and take all the children; but in so doing he will forfeit 
 claim to dowry. 
 
 XIV. If a woman have children by a former husband, she is 
 entitled to them on divorce. 
 
 XV. A divorced woman must be supported by the male rela- 
 tive who receives her dowry, or his heir, until re-married. 
 
 XVI. No female can receive dowry ; it must be received by 
 the nearest male relative. 
 
 XVII. If a husband chastise or ill-treat his wife and she 
 absconds in consequence, he is nevertheless entitled to receive back 
 the dowry. 
 
 XVIII. If a wife abuse or ill-treat her husband he may chastise 
 her ; but if on that account he divorce her, he forfeits claim to 
 dowry. 
 
28 
 
 THE HILL TRACTS OF ABAKAN. 
 
 XIX. If the husband divorce the wife for proved adultery, he 
 is entitled to receive the dowry paid by him ; and he may also 
 demand from the adulterer a sum equal to the dowry in addition 
 to a fine and costs. 
 
 XX. If a man commit adultery, the wife has no redress. 
 
 XXI. Should a woman die in giving birth to a child before 
 marriage, the reputed father must pay the value of the woman to 
 her father or nearest male relative. 
 
 As a contrast to the laws and usages of the Kamee portion of 
 the Hill tracts of Arakan, I give the code of the Chin race drawn 
 up for me by Mr. Porter, Superintendent of Police, when in 
 charge of the Lemroo. As he held this charge for nearly three 
 years, he had unusual facilities for studying the manners and 
 customs of this least known race of our tribes, and being an 
 officer of much intelligence and observation, he did not allow the 
 opportunity to slip by. 
 
 Chin Criminal Code. 
 
 I. Murder. — (1) If a person commit murder, he may at 
 once be put to death, or in lieu thereof pay blood-money amounting 
 to the value of nine slaves, or Rs. 270. (The valuation of a 
 slave at Rs. 30 dates from a time when money was much less 
 common than it now is. The present value of an able-bodied slave 
 on the Lemroo is Rs. 200.) 
 
 (2) The father of a family has absolute power of life and 
 death over his children and slaves, but not over his wife. 
 
 (3) If murder be committed by a slave, or death caused by 
 a domestic animal, the owner shall be fined the value of nine slaves, 
 and the offending slave or animal shall, if the relations of the 
 deceased so demand, be killed over the grave. 
 
 II. Accidental homicide. — If a person commit accidental homi- 
 cide, he shall be punished by a fine of three slaves. 
 
 III. Baidimj. — If a raid be committed on a village, the sit- 
 goung or leader is alone responsible for the blood-money of lives 
 lost and the value of property destroyed. If the raid be an inter- 
 tribal one on account of debt, the debtor is held responsible. 
 
 IV. Theft. — A person who commits theft is bound to return 
 the stolen property, or its value, to the owner and to pay a fine of 
 the value of two slaves. 
 
 V. Ki<ln(ij)]>iiiij. — If a person without sufficient reason is carried 
 off, the kidnapper's village may be attacked, and the kidnapper him- 
 self shall bo hold responsible for the blood-money payable for all 
 
THE HILL TRACTS OF ARAKAN. •^" 
 
 persons killed, and for the value of all property destroyed, and lie 
 shall be held responsible for the blood-money of all lives lost and 
 property destroyed in the raid. 
 
 VI. Grievous hurt. — If a person commit grievous hm^t, he shall 
 be fined the value of two slaves ; he should then give a feast at 
 which he may become reconciled with the injured person, and 
 they should enter each other's houses. Unless the latter clause 
 be strictly fulfilled, the aggrieved person is supposed still to have 
 cause of complaint against the other. 
 
 VII. Assault. — If a person assault another he shall be fined 
 the value of one slave, and the parties shall become reconciled at 
 a feast given at the expense of the offender. 
 
 VIII. Contempt of authority of chief — If a person disobey 
 any legal orders issued by the chief, or in any other way show 
 contempt of his authority, he shall be fined the value of three 
 slaves, and, if unable to pay, may be sold by order of the chief.* 
 
 IX. If a person abduct the wife of another, and eventually 
 marry her with the consent of the former husband, he shaU pay to 
 the latter double the amount of the original dowry. 
 
 X. If a person commit rape on a married woman, he may be 
 instantly put to death or fined the value of five slaves, which shall 
 be paid to the husband. 
 
 XI. The abduction or rape of a virgin is not criminal or 
 punishable. 
 
 XII. In Chin criminal law, females have absolutely no being; 
 they may appear as witnesses, but not as either plaintiff or 
 defendant, the husband or nearest male relative being their sub- 
 stitute, and being in every way responsible for them. 
 
 Chin Civil Law. 
 
 I. If two persons dispute a debt or other matter, the follow- 
 ing oath is administered : each party drinks some water in w^hich 
 a gun, spear, crocodile's tooth, meteoric stone, fire, da, and tiger's 
 tooth have been previously placed, at the same time calling on 
 the deity to prove the truth of his assertions by destroying 
 either his adversary or his property, by lightning, fire, tiger, or, 
 in some other way, within a given time not to exceed two months.. 
 The person who first within the given time dies or suffers loss is 
 adjudged to have sworn falsely, and the case is decided in favour 
 of his opponent ; should neither sufier loss within the stated time 
 the case remains in statu quo. 
 
 * This punishment can only be awarded at a general council of chiefs. 
 
32 THE HILL TKACTS OF AKAKAN. 
 
 Civil Law relating to Land. 
 
 I. Estates among the Chins are perfectly allodial. 
 
 IL Estates are strictly entailed in accordance with the order 
 of snccession, as noted in llulo V of the civil rules. 
 
 IIL All estates have natural and well-known boundaries, to 
 cultivate within which, without the owner's consent, is punishable 
 with hue of on(^ slave. The owner is also at liberty to set fire to 
 the crops and o-ranaiies of the aggressor, who has no redress. 
 
 IV. Land cannot be sold by the owner, nor descend to a 
 female. 
 
 V. Land cannot descend in the female line, unless the male 
 line be tirst extinct. 
 
 VL The chief may, with consent of the general council of 
 elders, oust a villager from his land for any misdemeanor. The 
 land then becomes common property. 
 
 Vn. AYhen the lands belonging to a village are more in 
 extent than can be cultivated, they are given in fee to other villagers, 
 who are bound to give ri'ditus in corn, cattle, service, or money, 
 or in a mixture of all. Among the Lower Lemroo Chins, the reditus 
 is paid to the chief once in his lifetime, the ^aUage having no 
 claim to it. Among the Anaya or Upper Lemroo Chins the 
 )rtllntfi is paid yearly, and equally divided among the villagers, the 
 chief taking an extra share. 
 
 YIII. In case of suzerain villages taking part in a raid, the 
 feudal villages are bound to follow, even against their own kin. 
 
 IX. Fees are not hereditary, and may at any time be dispen- 
 sed with by the suzerain village. 
 
 The form of oath is, as will be observed, much the same 
 among all the tribes, and is of the most solemn character. AYith 
 reference to the above codes, it is worthy of comment that though 
 the Chins are by far the wildest of the tribes, in some respects they 
 jiossess in reality more advanced ideas of law and the value of land 
 than most wild races. Thus Eule V of their civil code displays 
 a foresight and wisdom hardly to be expected for retaining the 
 wealth and power among the elders of the family. So again with 
 Rule VIII of the criminal law, which asserts the patriarchal 
 system in enforcing obedience and attention to the orders of the 
 chief. And if we scan their customs relating to land, there is 
 evidence of allodial possession and of a system in vogue which 
 carries us back to our ideal of the good old days — 
 
 " When noue weiv for a party, 
 But all wore for the Stato ; 
 
 When the rich man lovtnl the poor, 
 And the poor luaii loveil the great." 
 
THE HILL TBACT8 OF ABAKAN. "'^ 
 
 The above codes are interesting wlien considered as the embodi- 
 ment of the ideas of so primitive a people, and may be of some 
 value as a contribution to the materials for the study of compa- 
 rative law ; they indicate that, provided the means are afforded 
 them, these people are capable of gradually receiving that higher 
 culture wliich has so materially contributed towards raising the 
 moral condition of other races of mankind. Even now, tribes of 
 other races, notably the Mros of the Lemroo, in addition to 
 their yearly tribute to Government, acknowledge the prescriptive 
 title enjoyed by the Chins to certain land by paying either in kind 
 or in paddy for the right of cutting their jooms within the boun- 
 daries of these lands. With the Kamees, evidence is absolutely 
 wanting to show that any such rights as the above ever existed. It 
 must be further remarked that, when slaves are referred to in the 
 above rules as being demanded for any injur}^ done or as compen- 
 sation, they were of far less value than now, money being formerly 
 little knowiQ among the tribes, and slavery being universal. At 
 present, slaves, if able-bodied and strong, are valued at from 
 Rs. 200 to Rs. 300, and are only recognized as articles of purchase 
 and sale among tribes residing without our boimdar}% though, previous 
 to Government assuming direct administration over these hills, they 
 were common to nearly ever}' chief of any pretension and status, 
 and valued only at about Rs. 80 or Rs. 100. 
 
 It is but just to the tribes to remark that the criminal 
 returns of the last six years do not include one murder by hill 
 men, a proof that, in spite of assertions to the contrary-, their 
 natural character is not sanguinary or vicious. Ihe one great blot 
 on their character is the practice of '* vendetta," which was at 
 one time carried on to a most revengeful pitch. The existence of 
 this custom has led to a somewhat extravagant estimate being 
 formed of their faults, while due allowance has not, I think, been 
 made for the fact that, until the year 1867, direct and permanent 
 European administration in the heart of the hills was unknown. 
 The lawless tribes naturally took justice into their own bands, 
 and, as may h>e seen from these codes, the principle of the Ux talioms 
 and the maxim that " might is right" prevailed among them : 
 this state of things continues up to the present time among those 
 trans-frontier tribes not as yet under the *gis of our Government. 
 With due allowance made on the grounds above stated in ext€rnu- 
 ation of their former excesses, I think the followirig observations 
 by Mr. Taleoys Wheeleb, written in 1870, may be accepted as 
 correct : — 
 
 "Such, then, are the main charact^^ristics and specialities 
 of these hill tribes, who occupy the northern portion of Arakan, 
 
Oa THE HELL TRACTS OF ABAKAN. 
 
 Civil Law relating to Land. 
 
 I. Estates among the Chins are perfectly allodial. 
 
 II. Estates are strictly entailed in accordance with the order 
 of succession, as noted in Rule V of the civil rules. 
 
 III. All estates have natural and well-known boundaries, to 
 cultivate within which, without the owner's consent, is punishable 
 with fine of one slave. The owner is also at liberty to set fire to 
 the crops and granaries of the aggressor, who has no redress. 
 
 IV. Land cannot be sold by the owner, nor descend to a 
 female. 
 
 V. Land cannot descend in the female line, unless the male 
 line be first extinct. 
 
 VI. The chief may, with consent of the general council of 
 elders, oust a villager from his land for any misdemeanor. The 
 land then becomes common property. 
 
 VII. When the lands belonging to a village are more in 
 extent than can be cultivated, they are given in fee to other villagers, 
 who are bound to give reditiis in corn, cattle, service, or money, 
 or in a mixture of all. Among the Lower Lemroo Chins, the reditus 
 is paid to the chief once in his lifetime, the callage having no 
 claim to it. Among the Anaya or Upper Lemroo Chins the 
 reditus is paid yearly, and equally divided among the villagers, the 
 chief taking an extra share. 
 
 VIII. In case of suzerain villages taking part in a raid, the 
 feudal villages are bound to follow, even against their own kin. 
 
 IX. Fees are not hereditary, and may at any time be dispen- 
 sed with by the suzerain village. 
 
 The form of oath is, as will be observed, much the same 
 among all the ti'ibes, and is of the most solemn character. With 
 reference to the above codes, it is worthy of comment that though 
 the Chins are by far the wildest of the tribes, in some respects they 
 possess in reality more advanced ideas of law and the value of land 
 than most wild races. Thus Piule V of their civil code displays 
 a foresight and wisdom hardly to be expected for retaining the 
 wealth and power among the elders of the family. So again with 
 Rule VIII of the criminal law, which asserts the patriarchal 
 system in enforcing obedience and attention to the orders of the 
 chief. And if we scan their customs relating to land, there is 
 evidence of allodial possession and of a system in vogue which 
 carries us back to our ideal of the good old days — 
 
 " When none were for a party, 
 But all were for the State ; 
 
 When tlie rich man loved the poor, 
 And the poor man loved the great." 
 
THE HILL TRACTS OF ARAKAN. "^ 
 
 The above codes are iuterestiug when considered as the embodi- 
 ment of the ideas of so primitive a people, and may be of some 
 vahie as a contribution to the materials for the study of compa- 
 rative law ; they indicate that, provided the means are afforded 
 them, these people are capable of gradually receiving that higher 
 culture which has so materially contributed towards raising the 
 moral condition of other races of mankind. Even now, tribes of 
 other races, notably the Mros of the Lemroo, in addition to 
 their yearly tribute to Government, acknowledge the prescriptive 
 title enjoyed by the Ohins to certain land by paying either in kind 
 or in paddy for the right of cutting their jooms within the boun- 
 daries of these lands. With the Kamees, evidence is absolutely 
 wanting to show that any such rights as the above ever existed. It 
 must be further remarked that, when slaves are referred to in the 
 above rules as being demanded for any injury done or as compen- 
 sation, they were of far less value than now, money being formerly 
 little known among the tribes, and slavery being universal. At 
 present, slaves, if able-bodied and strong, are valued at from 
 Rs. 200 to Rs. 300, and are only recognized as articles of purchase 
 and sale among tribes residing without our boundary, though, previous 
 to Government assuming direct administration over these hills, they 
 were common to nearly every chief of any pretension and status, 
 and valued only at about Rs. 80 or Rs. 100. 
 
 It is but just to the tribes to remark that the criminal 
 returns of the last six years do not include one murder by hill 
 men, a proof that, in spite of assertions to the contrary, their 
 natural character is not sanguinary or vicious. The one great blot 
 on their character is the practice of " vendetta," which was at 
 one time carried on to a most revengeful pitch. The existence of 
 this custom has led to a somewhat extravagant estimate being- 
 formed of their faults, while due allowance has not, I think, been 
 made for the fact that, until the year 1867, direct and permanent 
 European administration in the heart of the hills was unknown. 
 The lawless tribes naturally took justice into their own hands, 
 and, as maybe seen from these codes, the principle of the lex talionis 
 and the maxim that " might is right" prevailed among them : 
 this state of things continues up to the present time among those 
 trans-frontier tribes not as yet under the ?egis of our Government. 
 With due allowance made on the grounds above stated in extenu- 
 ation of their former excesses, I think the following observations 
 by Mr. Talboys Wheeler, written in 1870, may be accepted as 
 correct : — 
 
 "Such, then, are the main characteristics and specialities 
 of these hill tribes, who occupy the northern portion of Arakan, 
 
 5 
 
"■* THE HILL TRACTS OF ARAKAN. 
 
 and the unknown region beyond the Blue mountain. Some 
 modern writers, of whom Captain Lewin is one, have laid 
 more stress upon the brighter side of these primitive and bar- 
 barous people, and have dwelt lovingly on their simple pleasures 
 and joyous festivals, and especially on the genial intercourse 
 which is carried on between the youth of both sexes. It has 
 also been urged by more than one writer that more kindness and 
 sympathy should be exhibited by the British Government in its 
 dealings with these remote and savage tribes. The Chief Com- 
 missioner has no objection to this somewhat remantic view of the 
 question, and indeed does not doubt that the merry gatherings 
 and idyllic loves of these people are as pure and graceful as those 
 which prevailed in the heroic times. But unfortunately these 
 tribes have been from time to time guilty of such brutal out- 
 rages and cold-blooded murders, and have on various occasions 
 shown themselves so utterly cruel and callous, that it would be 
 more in accordance with actual fact to compare them with the 
 nomad Turcomans on the Khorassan frontier than with the 
 fabled people of an arcadia which existed only in the imagina- 
 tion of the bards. Under these circumstances, the Chief Com- 
 missioner is compelled to regard the hill tribes from an admmis- 
 trative point of view, and whilst fully aware of the desirability 
 of pursuing a concihatory pohcy towards those who are amenable 
 to British influence, he feels at the same time bound to consider 
 what measures are necessary for suppressing their cruel raids and 
 savage outrages, and, above all, for putting dow^n with a strong 
 hand the ruthless practice of kidnapping and slavery." The 
 policy subsequently adopted has been detailed, while some of its 
 results will be noticed in another chapter. 
 
 CHAPTEK IV. 
 General. 
 
 The political condition of the hill tribes is thus described in 
 a report to the Government of India written as recently as 1870 : — 
 
 "While the division of Arakan extends geoqraphicaUii as far 
 north as the Blue mountain, yet politically 'it "does not extend 
 much beyond the police station at Kooladan, for the authority, if 
 any, which has been exercised by the local administration of 
 Arakan to the north-west of Kooladan has been little more than 
 nominal." But this picture cannot now be accepted as faithful 
 or correct, for witliin th(i administrative boundaries, which lie nearly 
 a degree and a half north of the Kooladan, rule and order prevail to 
 a degree which can compare favourably with any other frontier 
 
THE HILL TRACTS OF AKAKAN. 
 
 35 
 
 district of Burma, while, as will be shown further on, progress has 
 been made towards consolidating and extending our influence over 
 those independent Sliandoo tribes lying north and south of the 
 Blue mountain. Previous to the year 1870, the Shandoos, or 
 *' Pools," were almost an unknown race, notorious only for the cruel 
 and sanguinary raids which they perpetrated from time to" time with 
 impunity ; but, within the last few years, deputations from the 
 following septs of that powerful race have visited our territory and 
 gladly availed themselves of the necessaries of life, which to them 
 are all nearly summed up in one word, " salt." 
 
 Names of Clans, 
 
 1. — Bowkyees or Bokkays. 
 
 2. — Toungsats. 
 
 3.— Yallains. 
 
 4. — Hakkas. 
 
 5. — Sayboungs. 
 For salt, which has become a necessary of life to them, they 
 are at present wholly dependent on us, and the traffic in this article is, 
 if judiciously regulated, a powerful adjunct in the administration. 
 Burmese influence from the east appears to affect them but little ; 
 and all the information that I succeeded in obtaining from the late 
 Political Agent at Mandalay, Major Strover, regarding the wild 
 tribes who lay to the west of the Irrawaddy below Mandalay, was 
 that they were merely known by the general name of " Ayaings," 
 which simply means in Burmese " wild men." Such information 
 as has been gleaned regarding them from this side, scanty as it is, 
 will be found in another chapter. In addition to the commodity 
 of salt supplied to the Shandoo clans from our bazaars, or in the 
 absence of it (for often they are unable to pass through the country 
 lying between them and our frontier, owing perhaps to an esta- 
 blished feud with intervening tribes) they, as a substitute, flavour 
 their rice and other food with water boiled with earth obtained 
 from some of their numerous salt licks. Beads, brass bangles 
 about an inch in diameter, copper pots, and tin cooking utensils 
 are also obtained by them at bazaars in exchange for ivory, wax, 
 cloths, sporrans, and havresacks, the latter articles being worked up 
 from cccton grown by themselves. The designs and patterns of 
 some of their body-cloths and plaids are both neat and pretty ; 
 lately they have also brought down some India-rubber. While 
 endeavours have been made thus to open out trade with the trans- 
 frontier tribes, whose prejudices, diffidence, and mistrust as to our 
 intentions and policy are gradually disappearing before a strong, 
 just, and consistent policy, a great stimulus has been given to the 
 
36 
 
 THE HILL TRACTS OF ABAKAN. 
 
 development of trade within the hills, particularly as regards the 
 two important products tobacco and cotton. The increase of later 
 years in both of these valuable products has been already noted to 
 have been considerable, and of the 4,000 maunds of tobacco 
 exported from the hills, all but an extremely small portion was 
 consumed in Arakan, being sold at an average rate of £1 5s. to 
 £1 15s. a maund, according to quality, length of leaf, &c. The 
 cultivation of cotton has not increased with equal rapidity, princi- 
 pally because there has not been the same demand. The current 
 price per maund for last year was Qs. to 8s. The late Chief Com- 
 missioner, Mr. Eden, forwarded some Havanna and Manilla seed 
 for experiment in these hills in 1873, from which some very fine 
 leaf has been grown, and the tobacco produced, on analysis, was 
 thus reported on by Mr. Broughton, the Government Quinologist 
 of Madras, in 1874 : — 
 
 " The tobacco yielded 23*45 per cent, ash : this ash contained 
 8" 59 per cent, of potassic carbonate. By determination, the tobacco 
 was found to contain 1*95 per cent, of nicotine : these results show 
 that the tobacco contains these important constituents in amount 
 closely resembling those which are the most favourite tobaccos of 
 European smokers, or the Havanna and Manilla tobaccos of the 
 English market. 
 
 " The kind of tobacco of which the sample consists is not 
 stated, but I should believe it to be one of the American varieties ; 
 it is well cured and good smoking, but has a peculiar flavour, 
 far less perceptible when made into cheroots than when smoked 
 in a pipe. A slightly more continued fermentationwould, I believe, 
 preserv the flavour. Like all the tobaccos I have received from 
 British Burma, its qualities are most encouragmg and show 
 that its site of growth will produce tobacco quite worthy of export. 
 The sample sent is worth sending to the home market." 
 
 The indigenous hill cotton is also well reported on by the 
 Secretary to the Chamber of Commerce, Bombay, who describes a 
 sample sent to him by me as "being superior to ordinary Bengal 
 " cotton." By far the greater portion of the cloths worn by hill 
 men and women are worked up by them from home-spun cotton. 
 
 Teak plantations, started in 1872, have also been formed in 
 difl'erent portions of the hills, and these, if found to coma up to 
 the standard anticipated, can, with the immense tracts of unculti- 
 vated land at our disposal, be extended, and will eventually prove a 
 source of great wealth to the State. The comparatively quiet s^ate 
 of the frontier has thus allowed of an important development in 
 trade, which admits of the tribes supplying themselves with articl 3S 
 of food and ornament which heretofore they looked upon as luxurieri; 
 
THE HILL TRACTS OF ABAKAN. ^* 
 
 in fact, the power of obtaining money easily, without much 
 labour and with little or no risk, has enabled the hill men to buy 
 articles which in former times were quite unknown to them, a result 
 which has exercised a marked effect on the import trade of the dis- 
 trict. Fertile valleys which formerly lay waste, and from which 
 the hill cultivators were excluded through fear of attack by parties of 
 raiders, are slowly but surely being transformed into luxuriant 
 gardens under tobacco or cotton cultivation, and if peace and order 
 are preserved, and the tribes are dealt with honestly by the sharp 
 Native traders from the plains, the area under cultivation of both 
 these valuable products wiU, as a natural sequence, increase. In 
 promoting this result and assisting the extension of cultivation 
 into the interior, and so providing for the wants of an increasing 
 population, the contemplated location of a post on the Kyouk-pan- 
 doung range will be highly beneficial. Situated as this post will 
 be, in the centre of the country, it will be in a position of great 
 strength, and indeed will form the key to the Hill district. 
 
 While the material happiness and prosperity of the tribes have 
 thus increased, Government has also afforded them the means of 
 freely obtaining medical aid for the many disorders and diseases 
 incidental to the rough hfe led by them by establishing a civil 
 dispensary at head-quarters: this institution is becoming very 
 popular with the tribes, and has effected much good since its 
 estabhshment in 1872, as will be seen from the following figures :— 
 
 Year. 
 
 In-patients, 
 
 Out-patients. 
 
 Total. 
 
 1874 
 
 142 
 
 262 
 
 404 
 
 1875 
 
 277 
 
 1,164 
 
 1,441 
 
 1876 
 
 397 
 
 1,168 
 
 1,565 
 
 Men, women, and children from remote distances freely resort 
 to the dispensary. Before its estabhshment under an efficient 
 medical staff, Arakanese quacks from the plains freely practised 
 their chicaneries and charms on the simple hill men, who fell easy 
 victims to superior cunning and plausibility, and invariably suffered 
 in purse without deriving any corresponding benefit in body. 
 An old report printed in 1873 furnishes rather an amusing 
 anecdote, which I quote in illustration of the manner in which 
 these quacks carried on their operations : — 
 
 " The hill men have not the slightest knowledge of medicine, 
 and if offerings to the spirits fail in curing their disease they 
 resort to quacks. A few days back I was much amused with an 
 old chief who had been to the plains to cure what appeared from 
 the symptoms to be simply indigestion. He said his medico was 
 a female, and she successfully managed to clear from his stomach 
 sundry skins of sambur and bullocks which some enemy had 
 
^" THE HILL TRACTS OF ABAKAN. 
 
 bewitched into him. On remarking what a fortunate man he was 
 to survive the operation, he rei^lied that was not all, but that 
 the same good lady had managed to cure one of his friends from 
 deafness by taking stones out of his ear, though, when the oper- 
 ation was being performed, it was a sine qud non that the patient 
 should not be allowed to look up, and was simply cured by being 
 blown on the region of the ear, when lo ! out of the mouth '^of the 
 performer came three pebbles!! The old man related this with 
 gravity, and said he had paid Rs. 5 for being rid of this miscel- 
 laneous assortment of leather, and had further traveUed 100 
 miles to be thus taken in. Times will change when our dispen- 
 sary is in full swing." Since then indeed times have greatly 
 changed, and the marked good done, and the amount of suffering 
 alleviated, by the dispensary alone, is one of the many good results 
 of Enghsh rule over races such as the hill tribes, which, fettered 
 by no caste or prejudice, freely avail themselves of institutions or 
 innovations of the practical good of which they have ocular demons- 
 tration. The advantages conferred must, however, be visible and 
 unmistakeable, for with so conservative race as the hill men results 
 are everything. 
 
 Epidemics of small-pox and cholera commit at times great 
 havoc, but the area attacked is generally restricted owing to the 
 strict system of quarantine observed by the people on the appear- 
 ance of either of these malignant diseases. Before the introduction 
 of our rule, the mere fact of a person in a tabooed village breaking 
 the quarantine led, if followed by a death at the place visited by 
 him, to a heavy demand in money or, in default, to an attack on 
 the village breaking the quarantine : this system of quarantine 
 leads to httle inconvenience in a country so sparsely populated as 
 the hills of Arakan, and, even if this were not so, the end generally 
 justifies the means. 
 
 That loathsome and dreadful disease leprosy is also some- 
 what prevalent on the Mee and Lemroo rivers, though, among the 
 Chins of the Lemroo, the hereditary nature of the malady is so far 
 understood that lepers are compelled to live in villages inhabited 
 only by that unfortunate class and to marry only among themselves. 
 
 The more marked characteristics of our tributary tribes of 
 Arakan have been given in a previous part of this narrative, and 
 their life and pursuits, as far as the men are concerned, may be 
 briefly summarised thus : a httle cultivation, pursued, thanks to 
 a prolific soil, with but little of the sweat of the brow, a great deal 
 of feasting and drinking, combined with an average modicum of 
 sleeping, a fortunate combination of circumstances tending to 
 make them hapi)y and contented with their lot in life to a degree 
 which makes one almost envious of them. 
 
THE HILL TRACTS OF ABAKAN. 
 
 39 
 
 The women are by far the hardest workers and, though well 
 and kindly treated, are not respected, and, as'a natural result of the 
 arduous life led by them, their number is considerably smaller than 
 that of the male population. A detailed census has not as yet been 
 made of the tribes. 
 
 In 1875 a Code of Civil Procedure was specially sanctioned 
 by the Legislature for the administration of civil justice among the 
 tribes, the chief features of which are — 
 
 simplification of procedure ; 
 admission of verbal complaints ; 
 dispensing with stamps ; 
 
 dispensing with pleaders or vakeels should the 
 Superintendent deem it advisable. 
 
 The importance of the above points will be recognized when it 
 is considered that we have to administer the law among people with 
 no written language, many of whom have but lately emerged from 
 a state of barbarism. It is my ardent wish and hope that, 
 for years to come, nothing further than the above in the way 
 of legislation may be attempted if we wish to have a happy and 
 contented people. Native pleaders or vakeels among the hill tribes 
 would tend to subvert justice, set them by the ears, foster intertribal 
 disputes, and alienate the affections of the people from us. 
 
 Prior to my departure for England, the Superintendent was 
 not bound by the Criminal Procedure Code, though he was to 
 follow it as far as possible, but it has since been extended, together 
 with numerous other Ads, to the Hill tracts. The experience of 
 several years among these wild races most strongly assures me of 
 the necessity of introducing elaborate systems of law and proce- 
 dure cautiously and slowly, otherwise the application of codes at 
 variance and irreconcileable with their desire for swift and ready 
 justice will be productive of evil and will estrange the people. 
 When civil cases connected with marriage portion, debt, or divorce 
 could be disposed of by the chiefs of tribes, I invariably referred 
 the cases to their arbitration and watched the awards to satisfy 
 myself that the same were not inconsistent with equity or 
 morality : this practice contributes towards interesting the chiefs 
 in their own government, and affords important aid to the Super- 
 intendent in the general administration of the country. 
 
 The revenue of the Hill tracts is extremely small, and it is 
 constantly impressed upon the Superintendent by Government 
 " that the amount of revenue is a small matter in comparison 
 " with the work of preventing raids, suppressing slavery, and con- 
 " ciHatiug the petty chiefs on the border." The whole amount is 
 
40 
 
 THE HELL TRACTS OF AKAKAN. 
 
 only a little over .£600, and is made up of an annual tribute of two 
 rupees, or four shillings, a house from each village throughout 
 the district. 
 
 The total cost of the administration is nearly .£7,000 per annum. 
 A large quantity of building material in the shape of timber, bam- 
 boos, and canes is annually exported from the forests to the plains, 
 but on all the above there is no duty. Should the incidence of 
 taxation be considered too light, the revenue may be increased 
 without arousing discontent among the tribes, for some fifteen 
 years ago, when the people were in not nearly such a prosperous 
 state as they now are, each house used to pay on an average Rs. 3 
 to Government. Again, on reference to a royal order emanating 
 from the Arakanese Court, we find that at a still more remote 
 period, prior to Arakan becoming a British province, each man of 
 the Chouugtha tribe in the Hill tracts was called upon to pay as 
 revenue over Rs. 3-0-8, in addition to which he was liable to sundry 
 and arbitrary calls for tribute in the form of salt-fish or forced 
 labour. 
 
 This chapter would be incomplete without a brief reference to 
 the arms of warfare and implements of agriculture in use amongst 
 the tribes and a passing notice of their language. The weapons 
 common to all the clans are the spear, bow, and arrow, and da or 
 knife. Among the more remote Chins the bow and poisoned arrow 
 are the general weapons of offence and defence, though of late 
 years flint-guns have become common among them : these find 
 their way down the hill passes leading from Upper Burma into the 
 eastern portion of the Hill district, and are generally given as 
 ransom for Burmese slaves carried oft' by the Chins in their numerous 
 raids on Upper Burma in the proportion of four or five muskets for 
 a slave. In the use of the bow and arrow the Chins are very expert, 
 and to their unerring aim with a poisoned iron-tipped arrow elephants 
 even fall. The spear and shield, though common to all, are more 
 especially the national weapons of the Kamees, Mros, and Slian- 
 doos. The spear is a handsome weapon, with a shaft of about two 
 feet and a full length of about six feet, while shields of difterent 
 patterns prevail. Some of these, belonging to chiefs of high stand- 
 ing, are unique, consisting of the hide of the wild bison or buffalo 
 well prepared and worked up into a square of about three feet by 
 two-and-a-half feet, with a double handle to grasp, and handsome 
 rows of circular, ornamented brass to which are fastened pendants 
 of goat and horse-liair of different colours. The more ordinary 
 shield in use resembles precisely the sliape of the Roman scidum ; 
 it has no ornamentation, and only one liandle to grasp. The 
 manufacture of saltpetre is understood by all the tribes of Arakan, 
 
THE HILL TRACTS OF ABAKAN. 41 
 
 and the following rough method is adopted. The goats, gyalls, and 
 cattle belonging to a village are kept in one shed, and after the 
 ground is well saturated with urine a large bamboo is partly filled 
 with the earth ; into this is poured water, which, percolating through 
 the earth, is received into a pan below through small holes like a 
 sieve at the bottom of the bamboo. The water thus obtained is 
 boiled until evaporation takes place, and the sediment left consists 
 of saltpetre of a fair quality. Sulphur is obtained by the hill men 
 much in the same manner as their muskets from Upper Burma. 
 Among the Shandoos or Pools muskets are very numerous, and 
 several villages are known to have upwards of 100 : these found 
 their way up the Kooladan river into the Shaudoo country many 
 years back, when trade in muskets was carried on briskly from 
 Akyab without let or hindrance and was a source of great profit. 
 Many of the clans have gained a fair knowledge of smithery from 
 Bengali and Burmese captives carried off in raids, and their fire- 
 arms are generally in fair order. The only other weapon to be 
 noted is the da or knife, with a sharp blade of about a foot in 
 length, which is carried in a sheath of basket-work ornamented 
 with cowries ; it is a different weapon altogether from the " dao" 
 used for agricultural purposes, being thin, light, with a sharp 
 blade, and pointed like a dagger. 
 
 The only agricultural implements in common use are a chop- 
 per about twelve inches long by three broad, with the end fitted to 
 a bamboo handle, and a small axe of a triangular celt of iron, with 
 the small end run through a bamboo or a handle. A dao, or broad, 
 heavy knife, is likewise extensively used by the tribes who cultivate 
 jooms. The primitive state in which cultivation is carried on 
 throughout the hills would render any modern implements of httle 
 use in this wild upland tract. 
 
 From what has been previously written, it will be observed 
 that none of the tribes of Arakan have any written language, a 
 want which is common to almost all tribes on the eastern border : 
 as a consequence, we find that the dialects of the country are split 
 up into nearly as many divisions as the tribes themselves ; and 
 though from several years' close observation it seems to me that these 
 dialects rest on one common language, yet on further acquamt- 
 ance the distinctions appeared marked. In some instances, as 
 between the dialect of the Mros and Kamee tribe, this distinction, 
 however, does not exceed that discernible between the patois of a 
 Somersetshire and a Yorkshire man. The difference existing may, 
 I think, be attributed more often to the isolated and conservative 
 attitude, dating from time immemorial, wliich one tribe often 
 assumes towards another through old and sanguinary feuds, than 
 
4.0 
 
 ^■^ THE HILL TRACTS OF ABAKAN. 
 
 to any distinct or real discrepancy of tongue. There are few gram- 
 matical rules beyond those for determining the gender of nouns and 
 future of verbs together with the negative and interrogative. The 
 gender is denoted by an affix, which is generally a word expressing 
 the visible sign forming the gender, as " suzzouk." 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Trans-fkonteeial. 
 
 The trans-frontier tribes, whom the Superintendent is enjoined 
 to *' administer politically, at the same time taking care not to con- 
 " trol them in the management of their own people, or to interfere 
 " in their intertribal disputes," may be classified as — 
 
 Looshais. 
 Shandoos. 
 Chins. 
 Konesows. 
 The approximate position of the above tribes is indicated on 
 the map attached ; their exact position cannot be shown, as a large 
 tract of country to the east and north-east of our frontier remains 
 unsurveyed. 
 
 The Looshais, in consequence of the great distance at which 
 tliey reside from the British frontier, are hardly to any appreciable 
 degree amenable to our influence from this side, and, since the puni- 
 tive expedition against them in 1872 under Generals Brownlow 
 and BouRCHiER, have given no trouble by raids on our territory. 
 To the east and south-east of the Looshais lie the Shandoos 
 or Pools, who may be divided into the 
 eleven septs noted in the margin in the 
 order of their reputed numerical strength. 
 Each sept either resides in one strong 
 yillage, or else is separated into several 
 communities, which range in the num- 
 ber of their houses from 80 to 120. The 
 Sayboung clan musters as many as 700 
 houses. 
 
 Of the clans of this extensive race, deputations from the Say- 
 boungs, Toungsats, Yallains, and Bokkays have been received 
 within the last five years ; and it may be said that the last-named 
 three tribes have at lengtli become completely amenable to British 
 iufiuence. and have clianged their former role of inveterate raiders 
 and marauders on villages within our frontier for that of, compara- 
 tively speaking, peaceful neighbours. The depredations and cruel 
 
 1. 
 
 Tauklanj^s. 
 
 2. 
 
 Hakkas. 
 
 8. 
 
 4. 
 
 Mouugdoos. 
 Bwas. 
 
 5. 
 6. 
 
 7. 
 
 Sayboungs, 
 Tuuvigsats. 
 Yallains. 
 
 8. 
 
 9. 
 10. 
 11. 
 
 Saypees. 
 Bowkyees. 
 Rumpees. 
 Lalliaus. 
 
4'^ 
 
 THE HILL TRACTS OF ABAKAN. ^'-' 
 
 raids perpetrated by bands recruited from the Yallains, Bow- 
 kyees, and Koons* at one time caused their names to be a 
 household word among our tributary tribes as associated with 
 deeds of bloodshed and slavery, which reduced the frontier to a state 
 of ferment. With the exception of one instance in 1876, the 
 Yallain clan have, within the last six years, only once raided 
 a village within our territory, killing one British subject and carry- 
 ing off seven as prisoners. During the year 1877, however, all of 
 the prisoners were restored to Government by the offending tribe, 
 while the Bokkay clan have kept to the oath of friendship which 
 their chief made with me in 1872, and have neither raided nor 
 given any trouble. The Tanklangs, Hakkas, Bwas, and Moungdoos 
 abut on Upper Burma, and are as yet unknown personally to 
 our Government. Perhaps a sketch of the ceremony of receiving 
 these trans -frontier chiefs when they visit us wih not be deemed 
 out of place here. 
 
 The time of year invariably selected by them for their visits 
 is in the dry season, between November and May, as during the 
 rains the country is simply untraver sable. The chief, escorted 
 by a few followers, conspicuous for the amount of dirty raiment 
 they have on them, wiU come up to pay his respects by uttering a 
 succession of grunts and presenting two or three pipe-bowls, cut 
 out of the male bamboo, with specimens of Shandoo work in cloths 
 and havresacks. Through the medium of an interpreter, you give 
 him to understand that you are glad to see him, and hope his 
 visits will be repeated ; he is determined not to be communica- 
 tive, and evidently puts faith in the proverb that speech is silvern 
 and silence golden. A magnifying glass or a rifle, however, has a 
 magical effect ; his tongue becomes loosened, and he will probably 
 imfold some of his ideas and wants hitherto wrapped up within 
 his dormant brain : these are exceedingly crude, and confined 
 principally to powder and salt. Should the chief be one of a clan 
 whose behaviour has been good a feast is given him, bullocks are 
 killed, and several pots of koiing or rice-beer drunk, and with a 
 return present of a few baskets of salt, some copper bowls, or 
 money, the visitor takes his leave as abruptly as he appeared, gen- 
 erally favourably impressed with his reception. Should it be the 
 first occasion of a visit by an independent chief of any importance 
 to British territory, a review of some of the men composing the 
 HiU tracts force is held, and practice with breech-loaders at long 
 ranges is shown him for his edification. An oath is also entered 
 into with him of friendship on our part for the future in return 
 
 * The Koons have lately moved within our frontier ; as also have several families of 
 the Bokkay clan. 
 
44 
 
 THF. HIJ.L TRACTS OF ARAKAK, 
 
 for good conduct on his. In four cases out of five, a trans-frontier 
 chief will also, during liis visit, attempt to get to the smooth side 
 of one, by asking if you will not return to him any of his slaves 
 who may have absconded from him to British ground for protection, 
 or else naively ask if Government, on the strength of his past good 
 conduct, will not kindly guarantee his clan against forays from 
 other trans-frontier tribes ; but on these points the orders of Gov- 
 ernment are so clear and distinct as to admit of a reply being given 
 at once. It is ruled that "no other engagements (but those of 
 " friendship on behalf of Government in return for good behavi- 
 " our) should be contracted with independent chiefs without the 
 •' special orders of His Excellency in Council." 
 
 The form of oath is of a savage and barbarous nature, though 
 extremely solemn in its character. A cow or some other animal 
 is tied with two ropes, to which each of the contracting par- 
 ties holds on, — French and English fashion. A master of the 
 ceremonies then in a loud voice calls on the unknown powers to 
 visit on the head of any of the parties to this oath who may break 
 it similar pain, torture, and death as the animal now undergoes, 
 after which he plunges his spear into the carcase, and if he is an 
 expert the animal will probably die without a struggle, but if he is 
 clumsy a cruel series of stabs follows ; the blood of the animal 
 is tlien rubbed on the foreheads of the contracting parties, though 
 it is usual in the case of European officers for the shoe to be sub- 
 stituted for the forehead : this form of oath is observed by all the 
 tribes on entering into any binding stipulation, or when restoring 
 captives taken in raids on our territory. 
 
 From what we know of the Shandoo clans who have of late 
 years visited us, though better made and finer men than the 
 Kamees, they closely resemble them in physique, and belong to the 
 same Mongolian family. In their social life, manners, and usages, 
 there exists, as far as I have seen and can learn from the different 
 Shandoo chiefs with whom at various times I have conversed, but 
 little difference between them and the Kamee tribes ; but the 
 Shandoos bury their dead, and some clans erect cairns and posts 
 of wood to mark the burial-ground. In their own polity and self- 
 government they would appear also to appreciate, far more than 
 the Kamees, the desirability and necessity of retaining their posi- 
 tion and prestige by strengthening their clans by mutual alliances 
 with other powerful septs : thus the chief of the powerful Say- 
 boung clan (since dead) was married to the daughter of the Hakka 
 chief, a clan of equal weight and position, and during the minority 
 of her sons she ruled as regent over the Sayboungs. Again, the 
 T(jungsat and Sayboung chiefs are closely related by marriage ; 
 
THE HILL TRACTS OF ARAKAN. 
 
 45 
 
 and this practice is followed more or less by the other clans, and 
 constitutes them to a very great degree strong and independent. 
 The Shandoo women are not so free and airy in their dress as the 
 Kamees, but wear a long cloth, like the Burmese woman's tamein, 
 reaching down to the ankle ; they are also treated far better than 
 the Kamee women, and are not subjected to as much drudgery for 
 their liege lord. 
 
 Other clans, such as the Moungdoos, Tanklangs, Bwas, and 
 Hakkas, who are the nearest to the King of Burma's territory, 
 possess far better houses than the frail bamboo structures erected 
 by our tribes, and indeed some are said to be planked and with good 
 posts. 
 
 Little has to be said regarding the Chins and Konesows ; 
 but I find from some old notes that the Shandoos are known to 
 the Burmese and Yaws of Upper Burma by the name of Myouk- 
 chins, and also as Boungshays, though the almost universal term 
 used is Ayaings. 
 
 Raids by trans-frontier Chins on subjects of the King of 
 Burma appear to be of frequent occurrence, and within my 
 personal knowledge several captives have been recovered who had 
 been sold to our tributary Chins of the Lemroo, and regarding 
 whom their relations had been furnished with a letter to the Gov- 
 ernor of Loungshay. In one of these recent raids on a village in 
 the Loungshay township under the Yaw jurisdiction, five villagers 
 were killed and seventeen carried off, and many of the Burmans 
 have of late years been forced to retire further east towards the Irra- 
 waddy. 
 
 The Chin trans-frontier tribes do not possess nearly as many 
 muskets as the Shandoos ; and the arms generally used in their 
 attacks are bows with poisoned arrows, though of late years fire- 
 arms, which reach them from the Burmese side to a greater extent 
 than from ours, have been more freely used than formerly. Should 
 Government think proper to issue an order that for the future no 
 more flint muskets be issued to Natives residing in districts border- 
 ing on wild tribes, a great step will have been adopted towards 
 checking the transport of arms across the frontier. For the future, 
 percussion muskets might with advantage be substituted for flint 
 to all Natives of such localities, as the Government could to a great 
 extent control the supply of caps for them ; and consequently such 
 arms would be valueless to the independent tribes, who on the other 
 hand can use flmt muskets, and have acquired the knowledge of 
 making a coarse gunpowder to almost any extent. 
 
 Little is to be said regarding the Konesows, a tribe of a 
 race cognate with the Koons, who number about 160 houses in five 
 
46 
 
 THE HILL TRACTS OF ABAKAN, 
 
 different villages ; they are the most cunning of all the tribes, and 
 require management, being only too ready at any time to join in 
 raids on our territory, as well as to act as pilots to other marauding 
 tribes ; they were mixed up in the last raid committed in 1876. 
 
 Three days' journey to the north-east of our Lemroo boundary 
 lies an old trade route to Upper Burma, while other passes are 
 said to exist by which a very limited trade in buffaloes and bullocks 
 is carried on. It is doubtless to one of these passes that Yule 
 refers in the following passage in his work on Burma : — 
 
 *' Of the Yo or Yaw country lying along the rivers of that 
 name, between the barren Tangyi hills that line the Irrawaddy 
 opposite Pagan and the base of the Arakan Yoma-doung, nothing 
 more is known, I am sorry to say, than was recorded by 
 Dr. Buchanan long ago. The people are believed to be of the 
 same race as the Burmese, but, from their secluded position, 
 speak the language in a peculiar dialect. There are paths 
 from the Yaw country into the Kooladan valley in Arakan, 
 which King Tharrawaddy made some talk of rendering passable 
 for troops when he was threatenmg war in 1839 ; they must 
 traverse the country of some of the wildest tribes of the Yoma, 
 and nothing of them is known. The Yaws are great traders, 
 and are the chief pedlars and carriers of Northern Burma. South 
 of the Yaw comes the district of Salin, considered one of the 
 most productive districts of the empire." 
 
 Having been personally within three days' journey of one of 
 these passes, I am in a position to verify to some extent the truth 
 of the surmise thrown out in the above extract, as I have ascertained 
 that one of the routes alluded to is said to strike the river Irrawaddy 
 about a degree of latitude south of the royal city of Mandalay. 
 However, with a succession of lawless tribes intervening between 
 us and Upper Burma, it will be useless, unless by reciprocal action 
 on the part of the Burmese Court, to expect any such route to be 
 to any great extent utilized for trade, though, politically, it is as 
 well to know of the existence of this pass, which may, at some 
 future period, be considered worthy of exploration. A Burmese 
 note from a tribe near the Yaws has already been brought down to 
 me by this route, and in it they express a wish for it to be opened 
 out for traffic. 
 
 Few of the trans-frontier tribes alluded to in this chapter 
 have as yet shown any great eagerness for trade, simply because 
 we are to them a perfectly strange and new people ; but as the ice 
 has only lately been broken in regard to our relationship with 
 them, it would be premature to expect more than has been done in 
 this direction. 
 
THE HILL TRACTS OF ABAKAN. 
 
 47 
 
 In lac, wax, india-rubber, oil seeds, and ivory, in small 
 quantities, a trade will doubtless in time be developed, though the 
 majority of the tribes in the tracts where these articles chiefly 
 abound reside at so great a distance from our present frontier 
 that I am not sanguine of any very great results. I am, more- 
 over, induced to believe that the natural outlet for any trade from 
 the more remote Shandoo tribes lies to the east, in Upper Burma, 
 along the river Irrawaddy, and not to the west, through Arakan. 
 However, if a thorough entente cordiale can be established between 
 us and these trans-frontier tribes, the great object of our adminis- 
 tration will have been achieved. It is worthy of observation that 
 all the above tribes entertain so great a dread of water that they 
 will not venture much above their knees in it, and as a conse- 
 quence they are dirty and liable to skin diseases. 
 
 Boats are unknown to them, hving as they do in high moun- 
 tain ranges, where the only streams are mountain torrents, which 
 are crossed by a bamboo bridge, or one improvised for the occasion 
 by utilizing the trunk of some old tree. The tribes further south, 
 knowing how helpless these tribes are in water, live, as a rule, 
 during the raiding season, on rafts of bamboo moored in deep 
 water, or else on some high rock, when they are comparatively 
 safe from the weak powder of their more powerful neighbours. 
 The same tactics were formerly adopted by tribes within our fron- 
 tier ; but I am glad to say they have now more confidence in our 
 power to protect them. The most trustworthy, as well as clearest, 
 indication of the vast tract inhabited by the tribes treated of in this 
 chapter will be found in Yule's map of Burma and the regions 
 adjacent, and by reference to it the following would seem to be the 
 boundaries of their habitat : — 
 
 On the north, — Sylhet, Cachar, and Manipiir. 
 
 On the south, — Arakan Hill Tracts. 
 
 On the east, — Upper Burma. 
 
 On the west, — Chittagong Hill tracts and Hill Tipperah. 
 
 As an appendix to this pamphlet will be found a vocabulary 
 of the Shandoo language placed alongside that of the Kamee. The 
 greater portion of this vocabulary is from one compiled by Mr. Davis, 
 Superintendent of Hill tribes, in 1867-68, who enjoys high repu- 
 tation as an accomphshed Burmese scholar ; some corrections and 
 additions have been made by myself. Probably this vocabulary of 
 the Chin, Kamee, and Shandoo dialects, if contrasted with those of 
 other tribes on our eastern frontier up to Tibet, will be found to 
 contain many words that can be traced to one common source, and 
 may, I trust, prove of some service to the scientific philologist. To 
 
48 
 
 THE HILL TKACTS OF ABAKAN. 
 
 test the same, I think a selection should be made of names of 
 common animals and things, such as we know have existed from 
 time immemorial among all nationalities and tribes, as water, fire, 
 ox, elephant, rice, egg, foul, snake, &c. 
 
 In Shandoo, Chin, and Kamee land, it is customar}' to use 
 the name of the chief of the village as the name for the village 
 itself, owing probably to the extreme poverty of the language as 
 before noted. 
 
 Before concluding my remarks on these trans-frontier tribes, 
 I must mention one custom characteristic of all, which will i)erha])s 
 serve to explain the kind of unsettled, harrassed life fcliey lead 
 better than anything else : I refer to the system of "ata " or claim 
 for revenue or tribute which they exact from less powerful tribes. 
 " Ata, or claim for revenue," Mr. Talboys Wheeler observes, 
 ** corresponds in some measure to the Mahratta chout or the black- 
 " mail among the Highland clans, and is in fact a rude impost 
 '* which is paid by a weak tribe to a strong one. Sometimes it is 
 " evaded or refused altogether, and then follows a raid with its 
 '' usual accompaniments of murder, outrage, and capture of prison- 
 *' ers for the purpose of being sold into slavery." On our northern 
 and north-eastern frontier this time-hallowed system is followed 
 with the closest attention to detail, and any weaker tribe who may 
 attempt to assert its independence by neglecting to comply with the 
 demand is at once brought to a sense of its position by an attack 
 on the village: thus, in 1870, the Bowkyee tribe of Shandoos, 
 when residing without the frontier, was attacked by a strong party 
 of Looshais, whose foray was made simply to secure this ata, 
 and on the occasion the Bov/kj-ees lost twelve killed and thirty taken 
 captives. Black-mail or tribute thus enforced generally assumes 
 the form of salt, large copper basins, or else pigs or paddy and mar- 
 kets. Again, when a chiefs daughter is about to be married, it 
 may strike him as a good and favourable opportunity for demand- 
 ing ata from a weaker clan in the form of half-a-dozen slaves 
 as dowry. The payment of ata secures for the weaker tribes, 
 as a rule, immunity from attack and an understanding on the part 
 of the higher situated tribes to give timely information of the move- 
 ments of other hostile clans for the purpose of raiding ; indeed, 
 ata may be simply regarded as a mark of vassalage, a sub- 
 servience rendered by the weaker to the more powerful tribes in 
 order to protect themselves from aggression. 
 
 The tendency of this arbitrary system has been to drive the 
 tribes further south, and already four different clans have, as 
 recently as within the last three years, removed from without to 
 within our frontier, where, exempt from such impositions or fear 
 
THE HILL TRACTS OF AIIAKAN. 
 
 49 
 
 of attack, they can enjoy comparatively quiet lives. It is reason- 
 able to expect that unless the influence of some civilizing power is 
 directly felt by those more remote tribes, in the course of years 
 their present habitat will be greatly changed, and the weaker ones 
 will be driven right down to the south. Where the prestige and the 
 influence of the more powerful tribes commence and where they 
 end we scarcely know ; and indeed our information regarding the 
 Shandoo tribes generally, with the exception of those near our 
 frontier, who have been referred to as of late emerging from their 
 seclusion and seeking our friendship, is extremely scanty and 
 limited : these people offer a fine and unexplored field for the 
 investigation of the ethnologist and philanthropist. 
 
 C H A P T E R VI. 
 
 Conclusion. 
 
 While Pegu, the division of British Burma adjoining Arakan, 
 has, within the last twenty years, made astonishing progress and 
 displayed, for so short a period, an advance almost unparalleled in 
 the annals of Indian trade, in the development of the more impor- 
 tant articles of commerce, such as rice, cotton, lac, cutch, petroleum, 
 and timber, the Arakan division, though an older possession 
 of the British Government by nearly thirty years than Pegu, 
 has by no means advanced in the same proportion in the nature 
 of its trade, which is confined to almost one staple product, — rice : 
 this being the case, it would perhaps be useful to endeavour to 
 ascertain the causes of what cannot be viewed as other than 
 an unhealthy state of affairs, and one which points to the necessity 
 of discussing the means of opening out other valuable products 
 which are known to enjoy in the Hill tracts as favourable condi- 
 tions for their development in point of soil and climate as in Pegu. 
 The chief obstacles existing in Arakan which have militated in 
 the past, and, unless overcome, will in the future militate against 
 rapid national progress, are, speaking generally, the scantiness of 
 the population, and the natural apathy and proud indolence of the 
 Arakanese race, becoming, as they are, demoralized by opium, and, 
 as a class, possessing neither the requisite enterprise nor energy 
 for developing new channels of industry. As to the incidence of 
 population of the Arakan division, excluding the Hill tracts, the 
 Administration Report of British Burma for 1875-70 shows the 
 total area for the three districts it comprises to be over 18,000 
 square miles, covered by a population of a little over 484,000 ; the 
 approximate population of the HiU tracts within the geographical 
 or territorial boundaries, shown by the survey map to be over 
 
 7 
 
50 
 
 THE HILL TRACTS OF ABAKAK. 
 
 5,000 square miles, is not above 20,000. The number of souls to 
 the square mile will therefore stand thus : — 
 
 Souls to the square mile. 
 
 Arakan division 
 Hill tracts 
 
 Chittagong, the adjoining division to Arakan, possesses a popula- 
 tion of near 500 souls to the square mile, who are, as a class, 
 frugal and hard-worldng agriculturists. For some years past 
 slowly, but to a very appreciable extent, has the ebb of immigra- 
 tion from the above population to Arakan been taking place, and 
 it is to them and the province of Lower Bengal that we must hope- 
 fully look for the necessary infusion of new blood. For the sake 
 of comparison, a statement of the population of three districts of 
 Pegu containing nearly the same area as the three districts of 
 Arakan is given from the report above quoted, and when it is con- 
 sidered that the sparseness of population in Pegu, though double 
 that of Arakan to the square mile, affords from time to time a 
 theme for comment, a fair estimate can be arrived at by glancing 
 at this statement of the serious wants of Arakan in this respect. 
 
 Province of Pegu. 
 
 Name of district. 
 
 Ai-ea in square miles. 
 
 Population. 
 
 Bassein 
 Prome . . 
 Heuzada 
 
 6,517 
 
 2,887 
 4,047 
 
 301,916 
 267,860 
 490,234 
 
 Total 
 
 13,451 
 
 1,060,008 
 
 Province of Arakan. 
 
 Name of district. 
 
 Area in square miles. 
 
 Population. 
 
 Akyab.. 
 Kyouk-pyoo 
 
 Sandoway 
 
 5,337 
 4,309 
 3,667 
 
 283,160 
 148,240 
 
 63,790 
 
 1 
 
 Total 
 
 13,313 
 
 485,190 
 
THE HILL TRACTS OF ARAKAN. *^1 
 
 Fine rivers, navigable to almost every populated part of Arakan, 
 penetrate the division, and it is to utilizing these to the fullest 
 extent with steamers and flats of hght draught that attention 
 should be first directed. Let European capital and enterprise 
 prove that Arakan can supply other produce than rice, and with 
 imported labour open out the rich fields that exist for the cultiva- 
 tion of tea, coffee, tobacco, and cotton. The opinion already 
 professionally passed on the cotton and tobacco of the Hill 
 tracts, as noticed in a previous page, is so extremely favourable 
 and encouraging as to bear me out in the assertion that both can 
 be grown on a large scale with profit and success, and, together 
 with tea and coffee, find employment for thousands of immigrants, 
 thus opening out to Arakan new and rich industries. 
 
 The configuration of the district, as just observed, is emi- 
 nently favourable for tapping it throughout, open as it is to boats 
 and steamers not drawing about four feet to the heart of the hills, 
 while, for imported labour, it has the advantage of adjoining the 
 province of Bengal, from whose teeming population the tea gar- 
 dens of Assam and Cachar, and to some extent the colonial labour 
 market, are supplied. The resources of these uninhabited hills, with 
 their hundreds of miles of virgin soil, yet remain for the pioneer of 
 the future to develop, and he need be no visionary who anticipates 
 the time as not so very far distant when this at present almost 
 uninhabited tract of country will be converted into the centre of a 
 thriving population and trade. Trans-frontier raids are now 
 extremely rare, and from 1871 to 1875 none occurred which were 
 successful within our frontier line. Since then the only two which 
 have occurred have been vigorously dealt with, the captives, with 
 the exception of those killed or else sold into hopeless captivity, 
 have been recovered, and the refractory tribes punished. 
 
 The two last captives were accompanied by the belligerent 
 chiefs, who wished to acknowledge perpetual friendship with our 
 G-overnment and a complete cessation from all raids ; they were 
 restored in November and December 1877, or nearly two years 
 after the commission of the raid. Fifteen captives out of twenty 
 carried off in the two raids of 1875 and 1876 have thus been 
 recovered. 
 
 With a long frontier line surrounded by independent tribes, 
 whose normal state from time immemorial has been one of dis- 
 order and bloodshed, it would, it has to be observed, be somewhat 
 Utopian to anticipate permanent peace and quiet ; but I do affirm 
 that, under a vigorous and strong policy, these raids should be 
 exceedingly rare. The presence in the heart of the hills of 
 men bent upon their development cannot but exercise a salutary 
 
^^ THE HILL TRACTS OF ABAKAN. 
 
 and beneficial effect and stimulate the tribes to habits of industry ; 
 their laziness, which has been already the subject of comment, is 
 not fostered by vicious habits, but is simply the outcome of a free 
 and easy habit of life. And here with pleasure it is to be observ- 
 ed, as redounding much to the credit of the tribes, that though 
 closely associated with Arakanese and natives of the plains for 
 several generations, the pernicious habit of smoking opium or other 
 intoxicating drugs is as yet almost unknown amongst them ; I have 
 only known of two cases during several years' residence among 
 them. 
 
 It is for some reasons unfortunate that the only effort made 
 some twenty-five years ago by some worthy missionaries to civilize 
 and morally improve the low status of the tribes should have been 
 unsuccessful through their health not allowing of their remaining. 
 With their work are associated the names of Kincaid and Inglis, 
 of the American Mission. The position chosen for the centre of 
 their work on the Mee river I have visited, and cannot imagine a 
 much more unhealthy spot, while the graveyard at Akyab bears silent 
 record to how more than one of their number were cut off in the 
 midst of their labours in Arakan. Doubtless, with the knowledge 
 we now possess of the climate and geography of the country, a 
 central spot could be found, where the good work of education in 
 such a virgin soil and among so interesting a race might be 
 resumed, and meet with the success which has marked similar 
 efforts among other wild tribes of Burma, notably the Karens. 
 In 1878 a weekly steam service on the Kooladan river running 
 between the Hill tracts and Akyab was started, but the ves- 
 sel, being small, has been found quite insufficient for the require- 
 ments of the traffic and freight during the dry season of the 
 year. The steamer leaves Akyab for the head-quarters of the 
 hills district — Palukwa — the day after the arrival of the Calcutta 
 mails. Thus the public, whether bent on pleasure or business, 
 are now afforded an opportunity of seeing, in about three or 
 four days' journey from Calcutta, a tract of country comparatively 
 unknown, whose scenery and various types of tribes render it alike 
 interesting to the admirer of nature and the ethnologist ; while to 
 the capitalist must arise the conviction after passing along the 
 rich land and luxuriant vegetation which clothe the banks on the 
 sides that capital and enterprise only are wanting to render 
 such a fertile tract the tea and tobacco garden of Burma. The 
 moist and steamy climate is eminently adapted to the growth of 
 both of these products, and in the local market the tobacco roughly 
 grown and cured by the tribes realizes as much as from 3(/. to 
 5iL a pound. However, the supply falls very short of the demand, 
 
THE HILTi TRACTS OF ARAKAN. 
 
 as the following statement of foreign tobacco imported into Arakan 
 shows : — 
 
 Ye.ars. ... ••• — Mds.* 
 
 1872-73 ... ... — 18,535 
 
 1873-74 ... ... •.. 14,393 
 
 1874-75 ... ... - 23,438 
 
 The area of tobacco under cultivation in the hills is yearly 
 increasing, and the trade may be expected to develop rapidly as 
 long as order is maintained. A former Chief Commissioner, the 
 Honourable A. Rivers Thompson, recognizing the importance of 
 tobacco cultivation and its curing as factors in the future industries 
 of Arakan, established an experimental tobacco farm at Myouk-toung 
 in the Hill tracts, where some very good leaf for the home market 
 has been grown and cured. The intention of the farm was to 
 ascertain whether tobacco grown on high ground could not be 
 cured and formed into leaf fit for the home market, and to impart a 
 knowledge of the best means of curing to Native cultivators. The 
 following extracts from London and Continental reports on ship- 
 ments made last year tend to show that the experimental farm 
 has to a great extent answered its purpose, and are, I think, very 
 encouraging. 
 
 The London brokers thus report on a chest cured on the farm, 
 and forwarded by Government for report : — 
 
 "Burma tobacco has never been before in this market in 
 favour with our manufacturers. The sample now sent of long 
 leafy tobacco shows a narrow leaf which is too thick and veiny 
 to be fit for cigar purposes. The colours are mixed, and this 
 makes the leaf unfit for wrappers. The quality of the tobacco 
 and flavour are tolerably good, value nominal 5^fL to l^d. a 
 pound. If this tobacco arrives here in a perfectly dry condition, 
 it ought to find a good market. It appears that the tobacco 
 has not been fermented sufficiently, and that it was shipped too 
 early. The general character and the quahty of the tobacco are 
 satisfactory ; and if fermenting and packing are carried out in 
 a careful manner, it would probably find a good market in 
 England. " 
 
 The Hamburg brokers reporting on another sample, under 
 date April 26th, 1879, write thus :— 
 
 " Several of our tobacco brokers to whom I submitted samples 
 for inspection are of opinion that its value would range between 
 8. and lOpfg. (Id.) per pound. A leading broker, who has worked 
 my sample, informs me that this tobacco has a certain analogy with 
 that from Kentucky, which finds a ready market here in casks of 
 800 to 1,000 pounds; but nevertheless your tobacco should be much 
 
 '■^A mauncl=:82 lbs. 
 
54 
 
 THE HILL TRACTS OF ABAKAN. 
 
 lighter in both senses of the word, and the leaves considerably 
 thinner, to meet with anything like a demand. Should the 
 German Government, however, come to a satisfactory decision 
 with regard to tobacco duty, then we would feel rather more 
 inchnecf to speak for a small consignment, and we wdsh to know 
 whether the tobacco would be shipped in casks or bales. " 
 
 Messrs. Ernsthausen and Oesterley, Merchants, Calcutta, writ- 
 ing on another sample, under date April 10th, 1879, note thus : — 
 
 " We have examined the tobacco forwarded us from the Myouk- 
 toung Farm in the Arakan Hill tracts. We find the leaves to 
 be of large size, but somewhat indifferent in cure, and of an 
 agreeable, mild flavour : this tobacco being unknown here, we 
 propose to send the same to the Austrian Government for report 
 of the Regie Office in Vienna if permitted by you. The value 
 is uncertain ; we estimate the same at 4:d or 5d. a pound in bond if 
 shipped to England. " 
 
 These extracts prove, I think, that there is a sufficient prospect 
 of success to any one judiciously embarking capital and enterprise 
 on this farm. It has now passed its experimental stage, and, with 
 skilled curers from America or the centres of the tobacco industries 
 of the West Indies, the most favourable results might be achieved. 
 Hitherto the farm has gone through many vicissitudes of the nature 
 incidental to most experiments in a new country, and one of these 
 has been the inability of Government to procure a really competent 
 curer. Nevertheless the objects attained under but indifferent 
 curing have estabhshed a very strong case in favour of Arakan 
 bemg considered as a probable future exporter of this valuable 
 article of commerce. Cotton also forms a considerable item of the 
 export trade from the hihs, and in 1877-78 10,000 maunds was 
 calculated as the approximate yield. It is all exported in a raw 
 state, and generally averages from 7s. to Ss. amaundof 82 pounds. 
 The season for its sale commences in December and ends in Febru- 
 ary ; while that for tobacco commences in June and ends in 
 August. Experiments undertaken a few years back with teak and 
 cinchona prove that both, and especially the former, can be raised 
 most successfully in the hills. As to mineral wealth, in the absence 
 of any geological information, it is unsafe to hazard an opinion. 
 Petroleum oil and coal have both been discovered, and the coal 
 was pronounced by the late Mr. Mark Fryar, Mining Geologist, 
 •' a carbonaceous shale associated with a small quantity of a kind 
 •' of coal which w^ould, I think, be a useful fuel." 
 
 It has been noted in the body of this pamphlet that more 
 remote trans-frontier tribes abutting on Upper Burma have 
 been induced recently to bring down India-rubber in considerable 
 
THE HILL TRACTS OF ABAKAN. 55 
 
 quantity. I am much afraid, however, that the magic Hne which 
 is said to bound the habitat of this valuable product (latitude 24") 
 will under existing circumstances preclude its forming an important 
 item of our export industries, as the present administrative frontier 
 does not go beyond 21° 30' north latitude. Gentlemen whose 
 experience has been gained in Assam, Cachar, and Ceylon, who have 
 visited me in the previous two years, give it as their opinion that 
 most of the estabhshed products which European energy have 
 opened out in those parts, with the exception of coffee, should 
 flourish well in the Arakan hills. For coffee, the hills are said to 
 be too far north. On this point, however, I am not at all satisfied, 
 inasmuch as very fine coffee plants, which gained a prize at the 
 Vienna Exhibition for the size and quality of their berry, are grown 
 successfully by a tea planter in the adjoining district to this — 
 Chittagong — which is considerably north of these hills. 
 
 In Akyab, a port surpassed by few in India, Arakan possesses 
 a splendid outlet for her industries, which only require popula- 
 tion and capital for their development. As the population 
 within the hiUs is exceedingly sparse, and the tribes too lazy 
 and independent to work, labour of a hardy character must be 
 imported. Probably the introduction of labourers from Chota 
 Nagpore could be effected at least as cheaply as from that division 
 to Assam. However, enough has, I think, been said to show that 
 the capacities, large, varied, and comparatively undeveloped, of 
 these hills offer sufficiently reasonable prospects of success to the 
 mercantile public to make it worth their while to turn some atten- 
 tion to this part. With the contingency of China and East Africa 
 becoming formidable rivals in the growth of opium, it is some 
 satisfaction to think that, from the favourable reports on the 
 tobacco grown and cured roughly in the hills, we have grounds 
 for believing that this part of Burma will supply its quota towards 
 what may hereafter become a very important source of revenue. 
 
 That Burma should be to the English, and even to the Indian, 
 public one of the least known of the provinces of the Indian empire 
 is a matter of regret, especially to those whose interests connect 
 them with this the most promising appendage of the Crown. In 
 official life it has been denounced by an eminent writer as the 
 " grave of fame," and in order that such a term should not attach 
 itself to mercantile hfe in Arakan, it is more than ever desirable 
 that spirited efforts be made to open out those new industries 
 which have recently largely attracted public attention, and which 
 are capable of great expansion. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
' \ 
 
VOCABULARY. 
 
 m. 
 
 English. 
 
 I.— WOKDS RELATING TO THE HUMAN BODY. 
 Chin. Shandoo or Pooee. 
 
 Man 
 
 ..Hklap, 
 
 . . Tsan-sah 
 
 ..Noung-pasow. 
 
 Woman 
 
 . . Gnoo-mee 
 
 . . Tsah-noung 
 
 . . Noung-parir, 
 
 Head 
 
 ..Kah-loo 
 
 ..Loo 
 
 ..Loo. 
 
 Neck 
 
 . . Kah-awe 
 
 . . Kaw-hmee 
 
 . . Gun-noung. 
 
 Chest 
 
 ;:-..Kah-hkan 
 
 ..'Isa-fsoo-hna 
 
 ..Pa-loon. 
 
 Stomach 
 
 ..Kah-kmi 
 
 ..Pa-wa 
 
 .. . Ga-yaw. 
 
 Thigh 
 
 . . Kah-och-hkan 
 
 ..Ban 
 
 Y.Pai. 
 
 Leg 
 
 . . Kum-tan 
 
 ..Ngai-lang 
 
 ..Kouk. 
 
 Hand 
 
 . . Kah-goot-deen ' 
 
 . . Koo 
 
 ..Ken. 
 
 Arm 
 
 v'.Kah-hpan 
 
 . . l3o-pee 
 
 .i<Kook. 
 
 Elbow 
 
 . . Kah-kyee-root 
 
 . . Koo-sahkee 
 
 . . Kopk-tsagee. 
 
 Shoulder 
 
 ..Kah-hplay 
 
 ..Ngai-klo 
 
 ..Palain. 
 
 Finger 
 
 . . Kum-yoon 
 
 ..Koo-payow 
 
 ..Kook. 
 
 Toe 
 
 ..Kah-kaw 
 
 . . Phai-payow 
 
 ..Cote-tsow. 
 
 l-' Hair 
 
 ..Kah-loo-sam 
 
 ,.Shyo 
 
 ..Tsarm. 
 
 Finger nail 
 
 i'. .Kam-deen 
 
 . . Koo-patso 
 
 ..Koo-parun. 
 
 Forehead 
 
 . . Kum-sam-ree 
 
 . . Khwee-klo 
 
 ..Lu-pan. 
 
 :. Eye 
 
 , . Kah-mee 
 
 ..Mie-hkoo 
 
 ..Mhay. 
 
 Ear 
 
 . . Kan-hur-quoi 
 
 ..Na-kaw 
 
 . . Gun-now. 
 
 Nose 
 
 ..Kah-har 
 
 . , Hna;pashoo 
 
 ..Noteran. 
 
 Cheek 
 
 ^..Kah-bein 
 
 ..Beh-amhay 
 
 ..Tan-bein, 
 
 Moustache 
 
 . .Kan-myoung-a-maoo 
 
 . .Hua-pashoo-hmee 
 
 
 
 
 nose hau- 
 
 ..Leban-mway. 
 
 Beard 
 
 ..Kan-kah-a-hmoo 
 
 . . Ko-hmee 
 
 .. 
 
 Tongue 
 
 * . . Kam-myree 
 
 ..Palai 
 
 ..PuUay. 
 
 Teeth 
 
 . . Kah-har 
 
 ..Hah 
 
 ..How. 
 
 Mouth 
 
 ..Kam-rah-kuee 
 
 ..Pa-ka 
 
 i^.La-boung. 
 
 V 
 
 n.- 
 
 -ANIMALS. 
 
 
 Elephant 
 
 ..Myeei 
 
 . . Ma-say 
 
 ..Kus-sai 
 
 Bhinoceros 
 
 ..Moung-tsan 
 
 . . Kwa-roi 
 
 ..Sat-pu 
 
 Bison 
 
 ..Tsai 
 
 ..Tsan-lai 
 
 ..Tslin 
 
 Gyall 
 
 .. 
 
 ..Htsee-hmon 
 
 . . Sut-tan 
 
 Sambar 
 
 . . Sah-soo-up 
 
 ..Htsee-su 
 
 i.Tur-zuk 
 
 Tiger 
 
 ..Kyai 
 
 . . Tsa-kee 
 
 ..Tuggai 
 
 Buffalo 
 
 ..Umnah . 
 
 . . Anah 
 
 . . Pein-uow 
 
 Dog 
 
 ..0-wee 
 
 ..Ee 
 
 ..Ow-e 
 
 Cat 
 
 . . Myeen 
 
 ..Htsa-hah 
 
 . . Mc-young 
 
 Monkey 
 
 i.Nah-yaw 
 
 ..Ayan 
 
 '..Gullai 
 
 Squirrel 
 
 .. 
 
 .,Lee-tso 
 
 ..Amoung 
 
 Wild goat 
 
 . . Sat-pyee 
 
 '...Htsa-yah 
 
 . . Tsow-payow 
 
iY, 
 
 
 VOCABULARY. 
 
 
 
 II. 
 
 -ANIMALS— co«c/«(fe(Z. 
 
 
 English. 
 
 Chin 
 
 Shandoo or Pooee 
 
 Kamee 
 
 Goat 
 
 .Mai 
 
 . . Mya or Htsa-hta 
 
 K Ma-aye 
 
 Cow or Ox 
 
 .Mah-say 
 
 ..Va-tsan-panow 
 
 ..Tsera 
 
 V Pig 
 
 .Wot 
 
 ..Woe 
 
 ..Oke 
 
 Wild pig 
 
 . . Sat-koo 
 
 ..Neray-hpa 
 
 . . Suttowe 
 
 Barking deer 
 
 . 
 
 ..Tsa-htee 
 
 ..Tugge 
 
 Porcupine 
 
 . 
 
 '..Htsa-koo 
 
 ..Tsupahu ^ 
 
 \ Pony 
 
 
 -..Maro 
 m.-BIEDS. 
 
 . . Goung-now 
 
 Kite 
 
 .Nah-hoon 
 
 ..Pa-hmo 
 
 ..Ah-mu. 
 
 Pea fowl 
 
 . 
 
 . . Lee-pee-warra 
 
 . . Klowdai. 
 
 Pheasant 
 
 . Sam -rah 
 
 ..Warra 
 
 ..Timit. 
 
 Jungle fowl 
 
 .Wah-rah 
 
 ..Ko-ah 
 
 ..Tui-ram 
 
 Pigeon (Dove) 
 
 .Hkyun 
 
 ..Pee-wa 
 
 i-.Ba-hu 
 
 Duck 
 
 . Ha-pie-hluck 
 
 . . Tan-phar 
 
 . . Eam-pan 
 
 , Fowl 
 
 .1 
 
 ..Ah 
 
 ..Ah 
 
 \ PaiTot 
 
 .Kyee 
 
 ..A-kee 
 
 . . Puggee 
 
 .Crow 
 
 .Ak 
 
 ..Ea-ah 
 
 ..0-ar 
 
 \ Bird 
 
 .Hka 
 
 ..Pa-wah 
 
 ..Tow-wow 
 
 : Fowl's egg 
 
 . I-twee 
 
 ..Ah-te 
 IV.-FISHES, &c. 
 
 ..A-dwe 
 
 \ Fish 
 
 .Gna 
 
 ..Nga 
 
 . , Gnow 
 
 Alligator 
 
 .Hchab 
 
 . . Sadan 
 
 . . Suttam 
 
 Turtle 
 
 
 . . Seela-kung 
 
 ''..Salip-po 
 
 Crab 
 
 .Chu-bite 
 
 ..Tsah-eh 
 
 •..Ta-ai 
 
 Eel 
 
 .Nga-rai 
 
 . . Nga-rai 
 
 ..Law-jao 
 
 v.— EEPTILES AND INSECTS. 
 
 Snake 
 
 ..Hkoo 
 
 ..Pai-ee 
 
 >..Paway 
 
 Frog 
 
 ..Koup-roonie 
 
 .VTsa-oo 
 
 . . Kouug-can 
 
 Gecko 
 
 .. 
 
 ..T-hoopan 
 
 ..Tow-kay 
 ..Pa-way-ayan 
 
 Cobra 
 
 . . Tsouk 
 
 ..Tso'-hpoa 
 
 Python 
 
 ..Nga-gah 
 
 . . Pree-pee 
 
 , . Pa-way-gul-loon 
 
 Ant 
 
 ..Myeen 
 
 ..Hlike-ai 
 
 . . Pal-lain 
 
 Fly 
 
 ..Pee 
 
 ..Ma-hto 
 
 ..Pa-tow 
 
 Ant (white) 
 
 
 ..Lay -raw 
 
 . . Kaw-ran 
 
 Bee 
 
 ..Kyoi 
 
 ..Hkee 
 
 ..Coy 
 
 Maggot 
 
 ..Ti'nget 
 
 ..Along-ahklo 
 
 ..Gulloon 
 
 Centipede 
 
 ..Mrohoh 
 
 . . Kee-paree 
 
 . . Poay-putty 
 
 Scorpion 
 
 . . Um-raw 
 
 
 
 Butterfly 
 
 ..Pah-lak 
 
 ..Balah 
 
 .. 
 
English. 
 
 VOCABULAEY. 
 
 VI,— TREES AND PLANTS. 
 
 CniN. Shandoo or Pooee. 
 
 Kamee. 
 
 Tree 
 
 ..Yeen 
 
 .'.Htein-koung 
 
 ..Din-koung. 
 
 Yam 
 
 ..Kbah 
 
 ..Ber^r 
 
 ..How. 
 
 Wild yam 
 
 j..Bai 
 
 . . Bai-liay 
 
 . . How-wai. 
 
 Capsicum 
 
 . . Sam-paw 
 
 . . Me-yow 
 
 . . Tsam-ruuy. 
 
 Brinjal 
 
 
 . . Meito-kouk 
 
 . . Meng-tow. 
 
 Tobacco 
 
 ..Tsee 
 
 ..Omab-kouk 
 
 . . Say-rok. 
 
 Bamboo 
 
 ..Raw 
 
 „ .Ra-mu 
 
 ,..W-woo. 
 
 Cotton 
 
 ..Nah-bmgoon 
 
 V.Palab 
 
 (/ ..Hpullow. 
 
 Rice 
 
 : ..Tsan 
 
 . . Suppir 
 
 . . Suunay. 
 
 Grass 
 
 . . Luke-su 
 
 ..Tai-nar-day 
 
 . .Asa 
 
 Ginger 
 
 ..Tee 
 
 ..A-tsain 
 
 . . Kus-seen 
 
 Gourd 
 
 .. 
 
 ..Tee-oung 
 
 ..Actung 
 
 Pumpkin 
 
 . . Tsan-my 
 
 ..Omare 
 
 . . Amai 
 
 Cucumber 
 
 ..Pah-su 
 
 ..Eb-btsa-kouk 
 
 ., 
 
 Paddy 
 
 ..Tsa 
 
 ..Tsabow 
 
 ..Sow 
 
 Wood 
 
 /..Tee 
 
 ..Ab-tsab 
 
 
 Bark 
 
 ..Teiu-houk 
 
 ..A-koo-a 
 
 
 Flower 
 
 . . Um-roi 
 
 C/.Apa 
 
 . . Ka-tsoung 
 
 Fruit 
 
 ..Uk-teit 
 
 ..A-btai 
 
 '..Ab-tai 
 
 VII.— WORDS RELATING TO THE EARTH, &c. 
 
 Fire 
 
 ..Mee 
 
 ..Mee 
 
 ..Mai 
 
 Air 
 
 ..Rob-cbee 
 
 . .Lee-pee 
 
 ..Alee 
 
 Water 
 
 ..Twee 
 
 , ..Lee 
 
 ..Twee 
 
 Fuel 
 
 ..Tee 
 
 ..Htain 
 
 ..Tain 
 
 Village 
 
 ..Nam 
 
 ..Hka 
 
 . . Awung 
 
 Hill 
 
 . . Msoon 
 
 ..Klo-pee 
 
 ..Mboi 
 
 Road 
 
 ^..Tiam, 
 
 ■ ..Lo-kblouk 
 
 .-..Leam. 
 
 Plain 
 
 ..Gum . 
 
 ..Ban -pee 
 
 
 Jungle 
 
 ..Koi 
 
 ..Ro-lai 
 
 ..Die-see, 
 
 Toungya 
 
 ..Lab-oo 
 
 ..Hlouk-loe 
 
 ..Hlow. 
 
 River bank 
 
 ..Myaee 
 
 . . Haw-soor 
 
 ..Ban-wai. 
 
 River 
 
 ..Mooi 
 
 ..Tsavab-pee 
 
 ..Tawow. 
 
 Rain 
 
 V.Kaw 
 
 ..Evean 
 
 . . Gunne. 
 
 Streamlet 
 
 ..Hklung-sah 
 
 ..Vab-pya 
 
 . . Tawow-^sow. 
 
 
 vni- 
 
 -METATiS, WEAPONS, &c. 
 
 
 Iron 
 
 ;.Um-tee 
 
 V..Htee-wab 
 
 ..Tammow. 
 
 Silver 
 
 ..Dingah 
 
 ..Toe-ka 
 
 ..Dinga. 
 / 
 
 Lead 
 
 ..Um-sat 
 
 ..Kan 
 
 ;-•. .Key-ma, 
 
 Rock 
 
 ..Tseni 
 
 i.Ai-louk 
 
 ..Loon-soung-pin. 
 
 Flint 
 
 ..Kob-loon 
 
 ..Mee-btai-louk 
 
 ..Loon-to. 
 
 Gun 
 
 ,.Mai-pouk 
 
 ..Mee-btai 
 
 ..Maib-pow. 
 
VI. 
 
 EXGUSH, 
 
 VOCABULARY. 
 Vm.— METALS WEAPONS, &c.—co7icluded. 
 Chin. Shandoo ob Pooee. 
 
 Kamee. 
 
 Dagger 
 
 . . See-plan 
 
 . . Chee-yow 
 
 ..Alisow, 
 
 Spear 
 
 ,.Tsai 
 
 V:.Ee-see 
 
 ..Tawhe. 
 
 Ear-ring 
 
 ..Nah-mour 
 
 ..Na-ko 
 
 . . Gimnow. 
 
 \/ Eartheu-pot 
 
 ..Aim 
 
 ..Bai 
 
 ..La-om. 
 
 Saltpetre 
 
 .. 
 
 ..Yai-tsee ■ 
 
 
 Sulpbiir 
 
 
 ..Eai 
 
 ..Kai. 
 
 Gunpowder 
 
 ..Yam 
 
 ..Yai 
 
 ..Maiporse. 
 
 Salt 
 
 ..Pway-ai 
 
 ..Ai-loixng 
 
 V:.Pulllioi. 
 
 Ashes 
 
 ..Mee-ait 
 
 . . Mee-pwah 
 
 ..Tham-twee. 
 
 IX.— COMMON WOEDS. 
 
 Name 
 
 . . Guam-meen 
 
 . . A-mie 
 
 . . Amie. 
 
 House 
 
 ..Enie 
 
 ..Tye 
 
 ..Oum. 
 
 Boat 
 
 . . Mloung 
 
 ^CBalan ^ 
 
 . . Pul-loung. 
 
 Padaie 
 
 ..Yat 
 
 i.Ba-lan-haima 
 
 ..Tap-pai. 
 
 Casting-net 
 
 . . Umbuay-buai 
 
 ..Ba-loke 
 
 ..PuUao. 
 
 Fish-hook 
 
 ..Um-kille 
 
 ..Eai-pa 
 
 ..Tuk-koy. 
 
 Line 
 
 . . Um-kike-revee 
 
 ..Hree 
 
 ..Whay. 
 
 Bed 
 
 . . Duuig 
 
 . . Ai-yai (Bur-aik-yah) 
 
 ..Enab. 
 
 PiUow 
 
 ..Eum-km- 
 
 ..La-hooa 
 
 ..Lu-kloung. 
 
 Mat 
 
 ..Paw 
 
 ..Ee-hpya (Bui'-hpyah) 
 
 ..Bu. 
 
 Turban 
 
 ..Loo-ban 
 
 ..Loo-bu 
 
 . . Lupoung. 
 
 Jacket 
 
 ..Hplau 
 
 ..Vai-kan-hrai 
 
 ..Bassu. 
 
 Basket 
 
 ..Lak-oo 
 
 . . Ka-tsoo 
 
 ..Din-comb. 
 
 Meat 
 
 ..Tha (as ooScoO 
 
 
 
 
 
 pig flesh 
 
 ..Htsa-klouk 
 
 . . Mooy. 
 
 Dry fish 
 
 . . Gna-kyeit 
 
 ..Nga-tsa-pan 
 
 . . Gna-koy. 
 
 Skin 
 
 ..Kah-win 
 
 ..Htsah-pouk 
 
 . . Ahoou. 
 
 White "^'^ ..A-hbank 
 
 . . Ah-ngoo 
 
 . . Kam-loou. 
 
 Black 
 
 ..A-lay 
 
 . . Apa-nouk 
 
 . . Kam-iibim. 
 
 Bed 
 
 ..A-sbin 
 
 ..Ah-klitsai 
 
 ..Kam-lain. 
 
 Sore 
 
 ..An-ua-au 
 
 ^.A-hma 
 
 . . An-whoy. 
 
 Wound 
 
 ..Kum-nay 
 
 ..A-hma 
 
 ..Au-whoy. 
 
 Dead 
 
 ..Uk-tee 
 
 ..A-doe 
 
 ..Day-bow. 
 
 Live 
 
 ..Yay-tee 
 
 ..A-khla 
 
 ..Ahane. 
 
 Burmau 
 
 ..Ooke-sa 
 
 ..Maroe 
 
 ..Eay-tha. 
 
 Mro 
 
 . . Mbroo 
 
 ..Law-hoo 
 
 ..Mro. 
 
 Hkamie 
 
 . . Sangai 
 
 ..Ma-too 
 
 .. 
 
 Loosway 
 
 ..Looshay 
 
 ..Kli-kwa 
 
 . . Lunger-say. 
 
 Chm 
 
 ..Chin 
 
 . . Amike-hmai 
 
 ..Palouug. 
 
 Grandfather 
 
 ..Kah-poo-pah 
 
 . . Mie-pa 
 
 ..Amsee. 
 
 Grandmother 
 
 . . Ka-bwee 
 
 . . Ma-noung 
 
 . . Amun-tow. 
 
 Father 
 
 ..Ka-bah 
 
 ,.A-pa 
 
 ..Ampow. 
 
VOCABULAKY. 
 
 YU. 
 
 
 IX.-COMMON yVOBDS-continued. 
 
 m^ 
 
 English. 
 
 Chin. 
 
 Shandoo or Pooee. 
 
 Kamee. 
 
 Mother 
 
 ..Rah-nuna '^ 
 
 ..Anoa 
 
 .'.Amnu. 
 
 Uncle 
 
 .. 
 
 ..Oo-pa 
 
 . . Ampow-mow. 
 
 Son 
 
 '..Kai-sah 
 
 ..A-htsab , 
 
 ..Tsup-pow. 
 
 Daughter 
 
 ..Rai-sah-mh-hoo-mee 
 
 . . A-btsah-tsa-noung 
 
 .. . Tsun-nu. 
 
 Brother-in-law 
 
 ,.Pah-mee 
 
 . . Atoo-pa 
 
 . .Nai-tsa. 
 
 Friend 
 
 . . Eoung-hein 
 
 . . Tson-pee 
 
 :..Ahoi. 
 
 Enemy 
 
 . . Come-lone-seet-tee 
 
 ..Vai-tsa-rai 
 
 . . Ka-yow. 
 
 Chief 
 
 . . T-yah-kan-nah-mah 
 
 -..Eh-bai , 
 
 ..Arain. 
 
 Warrior 
 
 ,.A.rai 
 
 4 . Kar-rai 
 
 ..Lawai-Tsai. 
 
 Slave 
 
 ..Myrar 
 
 ..A-tsaik 
 
 ..Mer-shoung. 
 
 Sun 
 
 .. 
 
 ..Mie 
 
 . . Guune. 
 
 Moon 
 
 ..Pee-Hla 
 
 . . Kbla-pah 
 
 ..Low. 
 
 Star 
 
 ..I-shee 
 
 ..A-tsee 
 
 ..Ka-se. 
 
 Brother 
 
 ..Reik-tie 
 
 ..W-tapir 
 
 . . Amyow. 
 
 Sister 
 
 ..Keik-noon 
 
 . . Sittam-noung 
 
 . . Tussow. 
 
 Good 
 
 ..Douk-tee 
 
 .'.Apha 
 
 ..Hoi. 
 
 Bad 
 
 ..Um-lane 
 
 ..Hpa-wai 
 
 ..Hoi-ir. 
 
 Sweet 
 
 ..Swo-tee ^/i^' ^ 
 ..Rak-tee ''/,U'^ 
 
 ,*.A-klilon 
 
 .'.Twe-pai. 
 
 Sour 
 
 f.A-htoo 
 
 . . Tow-pai. 
 
 Bitter 
 
 "'• . . Um-tee-tee 
 
 ;.A-hka (Bnr-hkah) 
 
 ..Kolai. 
 
 Long 
 
 . . Ouk-san 
 
 ..A-htsee (Burra-shay) 
 
 ..Ashang. 
 
 Short 
 
 ..Ouk-toi 
 
 ..Alsea 
 
 ..Anindwe. 
 
 Stout 
 
 ..Um-bak-tee 
 
 ..Alai 
 
 ..Leen-pai. 
 
 Thirsty 
 
 . . Twee-ank-twee-awan 
 
 ..Edo-ehpee 
 
 . . Twee-nai. 
 
 Hungry 
 
 . rHboo-ka-soit 
 
 ..Enouk-edoo 
 
 . . Brf-nai. 
 
 Sick 
 
 ..Um-hat-ai 
 
 . . Klean-wow 
 
 . . Goung-now, 
 
 Drunk 
 
 ..Yam-wik-tee 
 
 ..Parn 
 
 . . Paive. 
 
 Lazy 
 
 . . Uk-sai "" . . A-htah-seah 
 
 . . Atow-se-pai. 
 
 Dirty 
 
 ..Lake-e-tee 
 
 ..Apooa 
 
 ..Punuu-krai. 
 
 Clean 
 
 ..Pouk-tee 
 
 ..A-pah-tai 
 
 ..Ahoi. 
 
 Pretty 
 
 . . Tsai-a-tee 
 
 ', .A-hpa 
 
 ..Hoi-brai. 
 
 Ugly 
 
 . . Um-daw ^ 
 
 ..Hpa-vai (wow) 
 
 ..Aku-se-pai. 
 
 Sharp 
 
 . . Um-soon 
 
 'l..Atsa-hra 
 
 ..Tsupa. 
 
 Blunt 
 
 ..Um-kait 
 
 ..Atsa-houk 
 
 ..Tsu-ir. 
 
 Young 
 
 . . Par-me-sak 
 
 \.Tai-htsa 
 
 ..Tsan-ir. 
 
 Old 
 
 ..Pak-sai 
 
 . . Papee 
 
 . . Metoung. 
 
 Wise 
 
 ..Lein-mar-tee 
 
 ..Apa-hlo 
 
 ..Alain. 
 
 Round 
 
 ..A-boom-loom 
 
 ..A-hloiik 
 
 ..Kautukn. 
 
 Flat 
 
 ..A-par-tet-leip 
 
 ..A-hpai-kla 
 
 . . Purmai-Ian. 
 
 Hard 
 
 ..Um-zoon 
 
 ..A-tsean 
 
 ..Atan-lai. 
 
 Soft 
 
 ..A-htee-sah 
 
 ..Aueh 
 
 :..Naw. 
 
 Strong 
 
 . . Um-boi-tee 
 
 . . Ahta-an 
 
 ..Malai. 
 
 Weak 
 
 . . Um-bc-num 
 
 . . A-hta-a-moc 
 
 ..Atoom-bii'. 
 
 . Bravo 
 
 . . Gree-tee 
 
 ..A-rai-a-hpa 
 
 ..Yce-ir. 
 
 Cowardly 
 
 ..Ree-et-tce 
 
 ..A-tsee 
 
 ..Yee-pai. 
 
 Large 
 
 ..Um-baktce 
 
 ..EU-lai 
 
 !.'. Leen-pai, 
 
Vlll. 
 
 English. 
 
 VOCABULARY. 
 
 IX.— COMMON \\0'RDS.— concluded. 
 
 Chin. Shandoo ok Pooee. 
 
 '^ 
 
 Kamee. 
 
 Small 
 
 ..A-kee-sah V 
 
 . .A-tsan 
 
 ..Guttan. 
 
 Tutrid 
 
 ..Louk-tee ^ 
 ..0uk-tie/.-7 i^l' 
 
 ..A.htoo 
 
 ..A-mwe-pa. 
 
 New 
 
 ;.A-hlea 
 
 V . Kantar. 
 
 Old 
 
 . . Ouk-hkeim 
 
 .A-pron 
 
 . . Ka-uhum. 
 
 Dry 
 
 . .Um-soi-vee 
 
 ..A-tsah 
 
 ..A-nai. 
 
 Wet 
 
 . . Ouk-tsee 
 
 . .Te-pus-se 
 
 . . Twe-Vhouk. 
 
 f Dark 
 
 . . Koim-tah-tee 
 
 ..A-yike 
 
 ..Kaween. 
 
 ") Light 
 
 i/.Voite-tee 
 
 ,' . A-pa-vae 
 
 . . Ku-toi. 
 
 ^Heavy 
 
 ^.Eee-et-tee 
 
 ..A-hioo 
 
 i.Yee-pai."^ 
 
 Deep 
 
 .' /Ouk-too 
 
 ;'.A-htoo 
 
 . . A-nhum. 
 
 ShaUow 
 
 . . Ouk-zoot 
 
 . .A-hpon 
 
 ..Kan-pai. 
 
 Hollow 
 
 ..Ar-poh-soot 
 
 . . Or- way 
 
 ..Bir. 
 
 Smooth 
 
 . . Platt-tee 
 
 .^A-pa-hnai 
 
 ... Punnai-pai. 
 
 Tame 
 
 ..Douk-tee 
 
 ..A-nge 
 
 ..Km--pai. 
 
 WUd 
 
 ..Igeit-tee 
 
 ..A-tsea 
 
 
 Lame 
 
 ..Ar-koh-koh 
 
 i.A-hpai 
 
 ..Ler-pay-ou-ir. 
 
 Straight 
 
 . . A-ploona 
 
 . . A-pa-klan 
 
 . . Taw-pai. 
 
 Crooked 
 
 ..A-hkoh 
 
 ..A-kouk 
 
 ..A-koy. 
 
 Angi-y 
 
 . . Eom-loon-seit-ee 
 
 ..A-roo-htsouk 
 
 . . Guddow-touk. 
 
 Mad 
 
 ..A-eet 
 
 ..A-pa-maw 
 
 . . Kamtu. 
 
 Hot 
 
 ..Loo-m6ni 
 
 J<A-soh 
 
 ..Bee-pai 
 
 Cold 
 
 . . Kauk-set-tee 
 
 / Ts-usse 
 
 . . Pudday-pai. 
 
 True 
 
 . . Auk-san-a-tee 
 
 ..A-hmai-sai 
 
 . . Amhantwe. 
 
 False 
 
 ..Ah-dah-ma-tee 
 
 ..A-hree 
 
 ..Ha-shoy-twe. 
 
 
 X. 
 
 — VEEBS. 
 
 
 Go 
 
 ..Vay-mah 
 
 . . Htseea 
 
 . . Tuggow. 
 
 V Give 
 
 > . Nga-pay-law 
 
 V.Pai-tai 
 
 i'.Pay-te. 
 
 Take 
 
 ..Set 
 
 i.Lah-tai 
 
 ^Low-te. 
 
 Come 
 
 ..In-nar-lwah 
 
 ..Veh-vaw-tai 
 
 ..Ler-te, > 
 
 Hear 
 
 ..Naug-yah-aue 
 
 . . Nah-khlea-tai 
 
 LTai-te. 
 
 See 
 
 . . Kah-hoon 
 
 ..Mon-maw-te 
 
 ,. . Nhu-to. 
 
 Eat, drink 
 
 ..Boo-aye, Twee'-ka-auk 
 
 ..Ngya-tai 
 
 K . Bw-sa-twe-uhai 
 
 Sleep 
 
 i.A-eip-tee 
 
 . . Mouug-tay 
 
 (..E-te. 
 
 ; Get up 
 
 ..Toe 
 
 ..Hto 
 
 . . An-tow. 
 
 Speak 
 
 ..Uk-hklee 
 
 ..Htson 
 
 . . Twc-tc. 
 
 Bleed 
 
 ..Tee-eitee 
 
 ..A-hteea-htoa 
 
 ..Tee-'towk. 
 
 V Shoot 
 
 :.A.hka 
 
 k Mc-tai-kar 
 
 ..Mai-pow-kow. 
 
 Beat 
 
 . . A-pio ^''- . .Too-tai (Bur- too) 
 
 . . Puk-kow. 
 
 Cut (chop) 
 
 ..A-choom 
 
 ^..Htia-tai 
 
 . . Cow-tse. 
 
 Cry (weep) 
 
 ..Ouk-yi .' 
 
 ..Ah-tsa 
 
 . . Awow. 
 
 kLaugh 
 
 i.Ar-ri 
 
 .VApa-hnai 
 
 .\. Punuohe. 
 
 Run 
 
 . . Ouk-seen 
 
 ..Eh-ro-tai 
 
 ... Au-preng. 
 
 Cook 
 
 . . Auk-koon 
 
 ..Htsou 
 
 ..Bu-toung. 
 
 I 
 
VOCABULARY. 
 X.—YEBBS— concluded. 
 
 IX. 
 
 English. 
 
 Chin. 
 
 Shandoo ok Poc 
 
 )EE. 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 Cough 
 
 ..Um-koo 
 
 . . Apa-hkoo 
 
 ..Puk-kao, 
 
 Sneezo 
 
 ..Um-=ee 
 
 . . Apa-htsoo 
 
 ..Apa-say. 
 
 Lie 
 
 . . Ouk-hlay 
 
 ..Tsa-tsan-tai 
 
 ..Akomai. 
 
 Sink 
 
 '/nioot-tee 
 
 ..Pa-boo 
 
 . .Akoon. 
 
 Steal 
 
 . . Um-roope 
 
 . . Aproo 
 
 . . Apawow. 
 
 Kill 
 
 ..A-tay 
 
 . . Hteea-tai 
 
 ..Day-sow. 
 
 Break 
 
 . . Ouk-et 
 
 kHklaik-hta 
 
 <.Akla. 
 
 Sell 
 
 . . Ah-yoit 
 
 . . Yee-thee 
 
 ..Tow-te. 
 
 Buy 
 
 ..Ka-kleit 
 
 . . SuUay-te 
 
 . . Awuiite. 
 
 Call 
 
 .,. A-kooe 
 
 ..0 
 
 ..Han. 
 
 Speak 
 
 ..A-tee 
 
 ..Tsangtey 
 
 ..Twe. 
 
 Kamee. 
 
 XI.— WOEDS DENOTING TIME AND PLACE. 
 
 Where 
 
 . . Hannanai 
 
 ..Lay-tay 
 
 ..Mhan-mhow. 
 
 When 
 
 ..Ee-ta-aw6 
 
 . . Ka-too-maw 
 
 . . Muuuai-a-ma 
 
 Wlience 
 
 . . Hanna-anai 
 X.Htoo .\ . 
 
 . .Ka-tai-mie-sa-maw 
 
 ..Naban-ter, 
 
 Now 
 
 ..Eta-mi 
 
 . . Waimaw. 
 
 Yesterday 
 
 . . Umnaw 
 
 ..Yoe-hai 
 
 ..Yandu. 
 
 To-morrow 
 
 . .Naw-yaw 
 
 ..Me-hkla-hee 
 
 ..Kud-dam. 
 
 Month 
 
 .-.Law 
 
 ..Hkla-hka 
 
 '. .Low. 
 
 Year 
 
 ..Koo-maut 
 
 ..Kon-hka 
 
 . . Sunnay. 
 
 This 
 
 ..Heln-hemine 
 
 ..Heh-hai 
 
 ..Henai. 
 
 That 
 
 ..Eein 
 
 ..Haw-toe 
 
 ..Honai. 
 
 Above 
 
 ..A-ka-nah 
 
 . . Ah-tu-law 
 
 . . Kloy-ban. 
 
 Below 
 
 . . Um-say-ah 
 
 ..Aein-garu 
 
 . , Ahoun-toung, 
 
 Day 
 
 . . Koo-hmee 
 
 kNie-htson 
 
 ..Gnuue-tnn. 
 
 Night 
 
 . . Hwai-lam 
 
 . . Ayie 
 
 ..Wiuldo. -' 
 
 Morning 
 
 . . Koi-ta-ee-tee 
 
 ..Na-hkla 
 
 ..Kuiam. 
 
 Evening 
 
 . . Yah-na-kow-moue 
 
 ..Na-hno 
 
 
 XII.— PKONOUNS. 
 
 I 
 
 . . Kai-oor-ai-xim 
 
 . . Ka-mar 
 
 ..Cin. 
 
 He 
 
 . . Kein 
 
 V. . A-mali 
 
 ..Me. 
 
 Which 
 
 ..Ee-ah 
 
 ..Hey-he 
 
 . .Manai-maw 
 
 Wliat 
 
 . .Eu-nah 
 
 . . Kaw-pa-maw 
 
 ..Ate-maw. 
 
 Why 
 
 . .Eu-nar-tee 
 
 . . Kaw-hai-maw 
 
 . . Atena-maw. 
 
 Who 
 
 ..Een-oo-yah 
 
 . . A-hwa-maw 
 NUMEEALS. 
 
 . . Me-maw. 
 
 One 
 
 ..Man 
 
 ..Pouk-hka 
 
 . . Haree. 
 
 Two 
 
 . . Nga-hoe 
 
 . . Pouk-mi 
 
 ..Ahnre. 
 
 Three 
 
 . . Toom 
 
 . . Poiik-htouk 
 
 . . Tiuire. 
 
English. 
 
 VOCABULAUY. 
 NUMERALS— conchtrfed. 
 Chin. Shandoo or Pooee. 
 
 
 Kamee. 
 
 \ Foiir 
 
 ..Plee 
 
 . Pouk-lee 
 
 . Paloore. 
 
 V Five 
 
 ..Mah-hah 
 
 . Pouk-pan 
 
 . Paure. 
 
 Six 
 
 . . Koup 
 
 . Poiik-tsaroo 
 
 .Tarure. 
 
 Seven 
 
 ..Hkee 
 
 . Pci;k-sah-ree 
 
 . Sanu-e. 
 
 , Eight 
 
 ..Ket 
 
 .Poiik-tsa-reea 
 
 . Tayare. 
 
 Nine 
 
 ..Koh 
 
 .Poiik-tsa-koo 
 
 . Tiikkawrc 
 
 / Ten 
 
 ..Har 
 
 .Ponk-rha 
 
 . Hawre. 
 
 Eleven 
 
 ,.Ea-lu-att 
 
 
 
 Twelve 
 
 . . Ra-lu-hee 
 
 
 
 Thirteen 
 
 . . Ea-li-toom 
 
 
 
 Fourteen 
 
 ..Ea-li-plee 
 
 
 
 Fifteen 
 
 . . Ea-li-mah 
 
 
 
 Sixteen 
 
 . . Ea!-li-koiip 
 
 
 
 Seventeen 
 
 ..Ea-H-khee 
 
 
 
 Eighteen 
 
 ..Ea-li-ket 
 
 
 
 Nineteen 
 
 , . Ea-li-koh 
 
 
 
 V Twenty 
 
 ..Um-goo 
 
 
 
 i 
 
9'^ 
 
/ 
 
 VOCABULARY. 
 NUMERALS— concZMded. 
 
 English. 
 
 Chin. 
 
 Shandoo or Pooee. 
 
 K 
 
 , Foiir 
 
 ..Plee 
 
 . Pouk-lee 
 
 . Paloore. 
 
 V Five 
 
 ..Mah-hah 
 
 .Pouk-pan 
 
 . Paiire. 
 
 Six 
 
 . . Koup 
 
 . Pouk-tsaroo 
 
 .Tarure. 
 
 Seven 
 
 ..Hkee 
 
 . Poiik-sah-ree 
 
 . Sariu-e. 
 
 Eight 
 
 ..Ket 
 
 . Pouk-tsa-reea 
 
 . Tayare. 
 
 Nine 
 
 ..Eoh 
 
 .Pouk-tsa-koo 
 
 . Tiikkawre 
 
 [/ Ten 
 
 ..Har 
 
 . Poiik-rha 
 
 . Hawre. 
 
 Eleven 
 
 ..Ea-lu-att 
 
 
 
 Twelve 
 
 ..Ea-lu-hee 
 
 
 
 Thirteen 
 
 . . Ea-li-toom 
 
 
 
 Fourteen 
 
 ..Ea-li-plee 
 
 
 
 Fifteen 
 
 . . Ea-li-mah 
 
 
 
 Sixteen 
 
 ..EaUi-koup 
 
 
 
 Seventeen 
 
 ..Ea-li-khee 
 
 
 
 Eighteen 
 
 ..Ea-li-ket 
 
 
 
 Nineteen 
 
 ..Ea-li-koh 
 
 
 
 V Twenty 
 
 . . Urn -goo 
 
 
 
 K.\MEE. 
 
 , i 
 
OP 
 
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 HILL TRACTS OF ABAKAN, 
 
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