VI.] THE SOUTHERN MONGOLS. 



extremity of Farther India. I have myself collected nearly a 

 thousand such names of clans, septs, and fragmentary groups 

 within this domain, and am well aware that the list neither is, 

 nor ever can be, complete, the groups themselves often being 

 unstable quantities in a constant state of fluctuation. 



Most of the Chin groups have popular legends to explain 

 either their origin or their present reduced state. 

 Thus the Tawyans, a branch of the Tashons, claim Legends'" 

 to be Torrs, that is, the people of the Rawvan 

 district, who were formerly very powerful, but were ruined by 

 their insane efforts to capture the sun. Building a sort of Jacob's 

 ladder, they mounted higher and higher; but growing tired, 

 quarrelled among themselves, and one day, while half of them 

 were clambering up the pole, the other half below cut it down 

 just as they were about to seize the sun. So the Whenohs, 

 another Tashon group, said to be Lushais left behind in a district 

 now forming part of Chinland, tell a different tale. They say 

 they came out of the rocks at Sepi, which they think was their 

 original home. They share, however, this legend of their under- 

 ground origin with the Soktes and several other Chin tribes. 



Amid much diversity of speech and physique the Chins pre- 

 sent some common mental qualities, such as "slow 



Mental and 



speech, serious manner, respect for birth and know- physical Quaii- 

 ledge of pedigrees, the duty of revenge, the taste 

 for a treacherous method of warfare, the curse of drink, the virtue 

 of hospitality, the clannish feeling, the vice of avarice, the filthy 

 state of the body, mutual distrust, impatience under control, the 

 want of power of combination and of continued effort, arrogance 

 in victory, speedy discouragement and panic in defeat 1 ." 



Physically they are a fine race, taller and stouter than the 

 surrounding lowlanders, men 5 feet 10 or u inches being common 

 enough among the independent southerners. There are some 

 "perfectly proportioned giants with a magnificent development 

 of muscle." Yet dwarfs are met in some districts, and in others 

 "the inhabitants are a wretched lot, much afflicted with goitre, 

 amongst whom may be seen cretins who crawl about on all fours 



1 Op. dt. p. 165. 



