VI.] THE SOUTHERN MONGOLS. 199 



bewildering ; but it will help to notice that Shan, said to be 

 of Chinese origin 1 , is the collective Burmese name, and therefore 

 corresponds to Lao, the collective Siamese name. These two 

 terms are therefore rather political than ethnical, Shan denoting 

 all the Tai peoples formerly subject to Burma and now mostly 

 British subjects, Lao all the Tai peoples formerly subject to Siam, 

 and now (since 1896) mostly French subjects. The Siamese 

 group them all in two divisions, the Lau-pang-dun, "Black-paunch 

 Lao," so called because they clothe themselves as it were in a dark 

 skin-tight garb by the tattooing process ; and the Lau-pang-Kah, 

 "White-paunch Lao," who do not tattoo. The Burmese groups 

 call themselves collectively Ngiou z , while the most general Chinese 

 name is Pa'i (Pa-y). Prince Henri d'Orleans, who is careful to 

 point out that Pa'i is only another name for Lao 3 , constantly met 

 Pai groups all along the route from Tonking to Assam, and the 

 bulk of the lowland population in Assam itself belongs origin- 

 ally 4 to the same family, though now mostly assimilated to the 

 Hindus in speech, religion, and general culture. Assam in fact 



1 Probably for Shan-tse, Shan-yen, " high landers " (Shan, mountain), Shan 

 itself being the same word as St'am, a form which comes to us through the 

 Portuguese Siao. 



2 Carl Bock, MS. note. This observer notes that many of the Ngiou have 

 been largely assimilated in type to the Burmese, and in one place goes so far 

 as to assert 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 constitute 

 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 Mr 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). 



3 " Les Pa'i ne sont autres que des Laotiens " (Prince Henri, p. 42). 



4 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, Assam 

 (Ethnology of Bengal, p. 6). 



