2OO MAN : PAST AND PRESENT. [CHAP. 



takes its name from the Ahoms, the "peerless," the title first 

 The Ahom, adopted by the Mau Shan chief, Chukupha, who 

 Chinese' * invaded the country from north-east Burma, and 



Shans - in 1228 A.D. founded the Ahom dynasty, which 



was overthrown in 1810 by the Burmese, who were ejected in 1827 

 by the English 1 . 



These Ahoms came from the Khamti (Kampti) district about 

 the sources of the Irawadi, where Prince Henri was surprised to 

 find a civilised and lettered Buddhist people of Pai (Shan) speech 

 still enjoying political autonomy in the dangerous proximity of le 

 leopard britannique. They call themselves Padao, and it is 

 curious to note that both Padam and Assami are also tribal 

 names amongst the neighbouring Abor Hillmen. The French 

 traveller was told that the Padao, who claimed to be T'/iat's (Tai) 

 like the Laotians 2 , were indigenous, and he describes the type as 

 also Laotian straight eyes rather wide apart, nose broad at base, 

 forehead arched, superciliary arches prominent, thick lips, pointed 

 chin, olive colour, slightly bronzed and darker than in the Lao 

 country ; the men ill-favoured, the young women with pleasant 

 features, and some with very beautiful eyes. 



Passing into China we are still in the midst of Shan peoples, 



Shan Cradle wnose range appears formerly to have extended up 



land and to the right bank of the Yang-tse-kiang, and whose 



cradle has been traced by de Lacouperie to " the 



Kiu-lung mountains north of Sechuen and south of Shensi in 



China proper 3 ." This authority holds that they constitute a chief 



element in the Chinese race itself, which, as it spread southwards 



beyond the Yang-tse-kiang, amalgamated with the Shan aborigines, 



and thus became profoundly modified both in type and speech, 



the present Chinese language comprising over thirty per cent, of 



1 Much unexpected light has been thrown upon the early history of these 

 Ahoms by Mr E. Gait, who has discovered and described in the Journ. As. 

 Soc. Bengal, 1894, a large number of ptithis, 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.}. 



2 Op. cit. p. 309. 



3 A. R. Colquhoun, Among the S/ians, Introduction, p. Iv. 



