NOTE TO ACCOMPANY VOCABULARIES OF LANGUAGES SPOKEN BY TRIBES IN ARAKAN.

1. BURMESE.

This is the language of the Arakanese people, who for the most part live in the lowlands and on the sea-coast of the country called Arakan. Provincial words occur in this language, differing from those of Burmah proper, and the pronunciation in Arakan varies considerably from that current in the valley of the "Irrawaddy;" yet the written languages of both countries are for the most part alike. Thus the word for a day written is pronounced Rák by the Arakanese, but by the Burmese is softened to Yet: the word for water is called by the Arakanese Rí, by the Burmese Yé. It is written with the same letters by both people. The Arakanese and Burmese are of the same race, and have the common national name of Myam-má, which is however a comparatively modern appellation for the several tribes, into which the race was originally divided. The term Mug is applied by the people of India to the Arakanese. It is exclusively a foreign epithet, unknown to the Arakanese themselves. It probably takes its origin from the tradition of a tribe of Bráhmans, termed Mágas, said to have emigrated Eastward from Bengal.

2.—KHYENG

This name is given by the Burmese and Arakanese to a numerous race of people who live in the high range of mountains called Yo-má (that is "great ridge," or "back-bone"), which separates Arakan from the valley of the Irrawaddy. These people call themselves Shyou or Shyú. The word Khyeng (pronounced Khyáng or Kyáng by the Arakanese) is probably a corruption of Kláng,* their word for man; and

* Perhaps so; but Kyáng or Khiáng is a well-known ethnic designation to the Northward, where, by the way, with Chinese and Tibetans, many of the ethnic designations of the Indo-Chinese religion are familiar terms of their own, as Mon, Lho, Lao, Sák, Kyáng, Myau. Nearer at hand we have, as terms allied to Khyeng, Rakheng (whence our Arakan for “the Mugs"); Khyi for the “Cossiahs," Kho or Kyo and Ká for Kambojian tribes, and Ká Khyen for "the

their own present distinctive name for their tribe is no doubt recently adopted. An Arakanese in writing down for me words from the mouth of a man of this race, wrote Khyáng for what appeared to me to have the sound of Kláng. The Khyeng country extends along the Yo-má range (which runs nearly N.N.W. and S.S.E.) from about the nineteenth to the twenty-first degree of north latitude. The people inhabit both the Burmese and British side of the range. The ascertained number of this race under British rule in Arakan is 13,708 souls. An equal number probably reside within the Burmese territory. There are also a large number of Khyeng tribes, which, though living within the nominal British frontier, yet, from the rugged inaccessible nature of their country, are really independent, and which have never yet submitted to any foreign Government, whether Arakanese, Burmese, or British. Their language is unwritten. There appears to be some difference of dialect between the Northern and Southern tribes of Khyeng. The words here given were taken from a man belonging to the Northern tribes. The Khyengs believe themselves to be of the same lineage as the Burmese and Arakanese, the stragglers from armies or moving hordes left in the mountains.*

3.-KAMI' OR KU'MI'

This race of people, of which there are two divisions called by themselves Kamí vel Kimi and Kúmí, and by Arakanese respectively Awa Kúmí and Aphya Kúmí, inhabits the hills bordering the river which is named by the Arakanese Kuládán (that is, limit or border of the Kula or Western foreigner), Karens," whilst the Kambojian Kyo or Gyo reappears in the Kho of the Koladyne river, and in the "Moitay" of Manipúr we have the combined appellations of the Siamese Tai and the Kochin Chinese "Moy." In other words, the Manipurian tribe, called Cossiahs by the Bengális, belong to the Moí section of the great tribe called Tai by themselves and Shán or Syán by the Burmese, the sectional name being also foreign, and equivalent to the native. Khyi or Khyáng of Chinese and Khyeng of Burmese.

This native tradition and opinion accord with what follows relative to the Khyau and Mrúng in corroborating the doctrine which assigns the whole of the border mountaineers towards Ava, or inhabitants of the Yo-má range from Assam to Arakan, to the Rakheng division of the Myam-ma.

and by the Kamís Ye-man, by the Kúmís Yan pán. It is the chief river of Arakan. It is probable that the Kamís and Kúmís have not been settled in their present seat for more than five or six generations. They gradually expelled therefrom a tribe called Mrú or Myú. The Kamí clans are now themselves being disturbed in their possessions by more powerful tribes, and are being gradually driven Westward and Southward. They state that they once dwelt on the hills now possessed by the Khyengs, and portions of the tribe have been driven out by the latter within the memory of man. The language of the Kamí portion of this interesting race has lately been reduced to writing by the Rev. Mr. Stilson of the American Baptist Mission. The Kamí words entered in this vocabulary have been chiefly furnished by an intelligent Kamí young man educated by that gentleman, and are more to be depended upon than the other portions. For it is exceedingly difficult to acquire from savages, through the medium of a language foreign to them, any words but those which they use to designate some object or quality. The number of Kamís within the British territory amounts to 4129 souls. They are divided into several clans, each having a distinctive name. The dialects of these clans differ more or less from each other. Many clans are independent.

4.-MRU' OR TOUNG MRU'.

This is a hill tribe now much reduced from its ancient state. They once dwelt on the river Kuládán and its feeders, but have been gradually driven out by the Kamí tribe. They have therefore emigrated to the West, and occupy hills on the border between Arakan and Chittagong. The Rádzaweng, or history of the Arakanese kings, refers to this tribe as already in the country when the Myam-ma race entered it. It states also that one of this tribe was chosen king of Arakan about the fourteenth century of the Christian era. The traditions recorded in the same work also imply that the Mrú and Myamma races are of the same lineage, though this connection is denied by the Arakanese of the present day, who regard the