Man, Past and Present Part 24

[413] "The Aboriginal Tribes of Manipur," _Journ. Anthr. Inst._ 1887, p.

350.

[414] R. Brown, _Statistical Account of Manipur_, 1874.

[415] T. C. Hodson, _The Meitheis_, 1908, p. 96.

[416] T. C. Hodson, _The Meitheis_, 1908, pp. 96-7.

[417] G. Watt, _loc. cit._ p. 362.

[418] _The Chin Hills_, etc., Vol. I., Rangoon, 1896.

[419] _Op. cit._ p. 165.

[420] R. C. Temple, Art. "Burma," Hastings, _Ency. Religion and Ethics_, 1910.

[421] Dalton, _Ethnology of Bengal_, p. 9.

[422] Prince Henri d'Orleans writes "que les Singphos et les Katchins [Kakhyens] ne font qu'un, que le premier mot est _thai_ et le second birman." _Du Tonkin aux Indes_, 1898, p. 311. This is how the ethnical confusion in these borderlands gets perpetuated. _Singpho_ is not _Thai_, i.e. Shan or Siamese, but a native word as here explained.

[423] John Anderson, _Mandalay to Momein_, 1876, p. 131.

[424] Three skulls discovered by M. Mansuy in a cave at Pho-Binh-Gia (Indo-China) a.s.sociated with Neolithic culture were markedly dolichocephalic, resembling in some respects the Cro-Magnon race of the Reindeer period. Cf. R. Verneau, _L'Anthropologie_, XX. 1909.

[425] _The Loyal Karens of Burma_, 1887.

[426] R. C. Temple, _Academy_, Jan. 29, 1887, p. 72.

[427] Forbes, _Languages of Further India_, p. 61.

[428] _Ibid._ p. 55.

[429] G. W. Bird, _Wanderings in Burma_, 1897, p. 335.

[430] The Burmese is the most mixed race in the province. "Originally Dravidians of some sort, they seem to have received blood from various sources--Hindu, Musalm[=a]n, Chinese, Sh[=a]n, Talaing, European and others." W. Crooke, "The Stability of Caste and Tribal Groups in India,"

_Journ. Roy. Anthr. Soc._ XLIV. 1914, p. 279, quoting the _Ethnographic Survey of India_, 1906.

[431] J. G. Scott, _Burma_, etc., 1886, p. 115.

[432] _Op. cit._ p. 118.

[433] "The Taungbyon Festival, Burma," _Journ. Roy. Anthr. Soc._ XLV.

1915, p. 355.

[434] _Amongst the Shans_, etc., 1885, p. 233.

[435] Cf. the Shans of Yunnan, who are nearly all "tatoues, depuis la ceinture jusqu'au genou, de dessins bleus si serres qu'ils paraissent former une vraie culotte," Pr. Henri d'Orleans, _Du Tonkin aux Indes_, 1898, p. 83.

[436] For recent literature on Burma and the Burmese consult besides the _Ethnographic Survey of India_, 1906, and the _Census Report_ of 1911, J. G. Scott, _The Burman_, 1896, and _Burma_, 1906; A. Ireland, _The Province of Burma_, 1907; H. Fielding Hall, _The Soul of a People_, 1898, and _A People at School_, 1906.

[437] Probably for _Shan-ts[)e], Shan-yen_, "highlanders" (_Shan_, mountain), _Shan_ itself being the same word as _Siam_, a form which comes to us through the Portuguese _Sio_.

[438] For the Laos see L. de Reinach, _Le Laos_, 1902, with bibliography.

[439] Carl Bock, MS. note. This observer notes that many of the Ngiou have been largely a.s.similated in type to the Burmese and in one place goes so far as to a.s.sert that "the Ngiou are decidedly of the same race as the Burmese. I have had opportunities of seeing hundreds of both countries, and of closely watching their features and build. The Ngiou wear the hair in a topknot in the same way as the Burmese, but they are easily distinguished by their tattooing, which is much more elaborate"

(_Temples and Elephants_, 1884, p. 297). Of course all spring from one primeval stock, but they now const.i.tute distinct ethnical groups, and, except about the borderlands, where blends may be suspected, both the physical and mental characters differ considerably. Bock's _Ngiou_ is no doubt the same name as _Ngnio_, which H. S. Hallett applies in one place to the Mosse Shans north of Zimme, and elsewhere to the Burmese Shans collectively (_A Thousand Miles on an Elephant_, 1890, pp. 158 and 358).

[440] "Les Pa ne sont autres que des Laotiens" (Prince Henri, p. 42).

[441] One Shan group, the Deodhaings, still persist, and occupy a few villages near Sibsagar (S. E. Peal, _Nature_, June 19, 1884, p. 169).

Dalton also mentions the _Kamjangs_, a Khamti (Tai) tribe in the Sadiya district, a.s.sam (_Ethnology of Bengal_, p. 6).

[442] Much unexpected light has been thrown upon the early history of these Ahoms by E. Gait, who has discovered and described in the _Journ.

As. Soc. Bengal_, 1894, a large number of _puthis_, or MSS. (28 in the Sibsagar district alone), in the now almost extinct Ahom language, some of which give a continuous history of the Ahom rajas from 568 to 1795 A.D. Most of the others appear to be treatises on religious mysticism or divination, such as "a book on the calculation of future events by examining the leg of a fowl" (_ib._).

[443] _Op. cit._ p. 309.

[444] A. R. Colquhoun, _Amongst the Shans_, 1885, Introduction, p. lv.

[445] _Op. cit._ p. 328.

[446] _Temples and Elephants_, p. 320.

[447] "Der Gesichtsausdruck uberhaupt nahert sich der kaukasischen Race"

(_Im fernen Osten_, p. 959).

[448] Low's _Siamese Grammar_, p. 14.

[449] R. G. Woodthorpe, "The Shans and Hill Tribes of the Mekong," in _Journ. Anthr. Inst._ 1897, p. 16.

[450] _Op. cit._ p. 55.

[451] This omission, however, is partly supplied by T. de Lacouperie, who gives us an account of a wonderful Lolo MS. on satin, red on one side, blue on the other, containing nearly 5750 words written in black, "apparently with the Chinese brush." The MS. was obtained by E. Colborne Baber from a Lolo chief, forwarded to Europe in 1881, and described by de Lacouperie, _Journ. R. As. Soc._ Vol. XIV. Part I. "The writing runs in lines from top to bottom and from left to right, as in Chinese" (p.

1), and this authority regards it as the link that was wanting to connect the various members of a widely diffused family radiating from India (Harapa seal, Indo-Pali, Vatteluttu) to Malaysia (Batta, Rejang, Lampong, Bugis, Maka.s.sar, Tagal), to Indo-China (Lao, Siamese, Lolo), Korea and j.a.pan, and also including the Siao-chuen Chinese system "in use a few centuries B.C." (p. 5). It would be premature to say that all these connections are established.

[452] _Op. cit._ p. 193.

[453] _Beginnings of Writing in Central and Eastern Asia, pa.s.sim._ For the Lolos see A. F. Legendre, "Les Lolos. etude ethnologique et anthropologique," _T'oung Pao II._ Vol. X. 1909.

[454] "Quelques-uns de ces Kiou-tses me rappellent des Europeens que je connais." (_Op. cit._ p. 252).

[455] _Deux Ans dans le Haut-Tonkin_, etc., Paris, 1896.

[456] With regard to _Man_ (_Man-tse_) it should be explained that in Chinese it means "untameable worms," that is, _wild_ or _barbarous_, and we are warned by DesG.o.dins that "il ne faut pas prendre ces mots comme des noms propres de tribus" (_Bul. Soc. Geogr._ XII. p. 410). In 1877 Capt. W. Gill visited a large nation of _Man-tse_ with 18 tribal divisions, reaching from West Yunnan to the extreme north of Sechuen, a sort of federacy recognising a king, with Chinese habits and dress, but speaking a language resembling Sanskrit (?). These were the _Sumu_, or "White Man-tse," apparently the same as those visited in 1896 by Mrs Bishop, and by her described as semi-independent, ruled by their own chiefs, and in appearance "quite Caucasian, both men and women being very handsome," strict Buddhists, friendly and hospitable, and living in large stone houses (Letter to _Times_, Aug. 18, 1896).

[457] "Des paysannes nongs dont les cheveux etaient blonds, quelquefois meme roux." _Op. cit._

[458] _L'Anthropologie_, 1896, p. 602 sq.