190 MAN : PAST AND PRESENT. [CHAP. 



(Kachins) about the Irawadi headstreams and southwards to the 

 numerous Karen tribes, who occupy the ethnical parting-line 

 between Burma and Siam all the way down to Tenasserim 1 . 



For the first detailed account of the Chins we are indebted to 

 Messrs S. Carey and H. N. Tuck 2 , who accept Mr B. Houghton's 

 theory that these tribes, as well as the Kuki-Lushai, "originally 

 lived in what we now know as Tibet, and are of one and the 

 same stock ; their form of government, method of cultivation, 

 manners and customs, beliefs and traditions, all point to one 

 origin." The term Chin, said to be a Burmese form of the 

 Chinese jin, " men," is unknown to these aborigines, who call 

 themselves Yo in the north and Lai in the south, while in Lower 

 Burma they are Shu. 



In truth there is no recognised collective name, and Shendu 

 (Sindhu) often so applied is proper only to the 



Confused . . 



Tribal Nomen- once formidable Chittagong and Arakan frontier 

 tribes, Klangklangs and Hakas, who with the Sokte, 

 Tashons, Siyirs, and others are now reduced and administered 

 from Falam. Each little group has its own tribal name, and 

 often one or two others, descriptive, abusive and so on, given 

 them by their neighbours. Thus the Nwengah (Nun, river, ngal, 

 across) are only that section of the Soktes now settled on the 

 farther or right bank of the Manipur, while the Soktes themselves 

 (Sok, to go down, te, men) are so called because they migrated 

 from Chin Nwe (9 miles from Tiddim), cradle of the Chin race, 

 down to Molbem, their earliest settlement, which is the Mobingyi 

 of the Burmese. So with Siyin, the Burmese form of Sheyante 

 (she, alkali, ya?i, side, /<?, men), the group who settled by the 

 alkali springs east of Chin Nwe, who are the Taute (" stout " or 

 " sturdy " people) of the Lushai and southern Chins. Let these 

 few specimens suffice as a slight object-lesson in the involved 

 tribal nomenclature which prevails, not only amongst the Chins, 

 but everywhere in the Tibeto-Indo-Chinese domain, from the 

 north-western Himalayas to Cape St James at the south-eastern 



1 " The Karens of Burma are related to the Angami Nagas, north of 

 Manipur, and to the allied tribes of Khyens [Chins] and Kakhyens of Burma'' 

 (Capt. Temple, loc. cit., p. 368). 



2 The Chin Hills, &c., Vol. I., Rangoon, 1896. 



