1873.] Col. Mainwaring — On the term Mun, Mivon or Mon. 133 



as the Pegu Mun, for it means a district or country. In all probability, it 

 was first applied to the aboriginal people of these parts, but as they gradu- 

 ally disappeared before the conquerors, or were absorbed by them, it was 

 eventually transferee! to the country which they had inhabited, or was re- 

 stricted to districts in which they had been originally in great force. 

 "We thus find in Yunan Mungla, which would appear to be identical with 

 the Kolarian Munda. 



Col. Mainwaring said — 



I have been requested to say a few words with regard to a remark 

 made by Sir Arthur Phayre in his interesting narrative ' On the History 

 of Pegu' which appealed in the last number of the Asiatic Society's Journal. 

 In alluding to the inhabitants of Pegu, who, Sir A. Phayre says, are called 

 " Mun, Mwon or M6n," he refers to Csoma de Koros' Tibetan Dictionary 

 for the definition of the word, there rendered,— a general name for all the 

 people between Tibet and the plains of India, — by which Sir A. Phayre infers, 

 that the inhabitants of Pegu may have originally emigrated from the Hills 

 near Tibet. Csoma De Koros, when inscribing the aforequoted passage in 

 his Dictionary, must have been mistaken or must have written vaguely : 

 for of course there are numerous tribes who inhabit the hills between Tibet 

 and the plains of India, and to all of these, the term Mon is certainly not 

 applied by the Tibetans. The appellation may have formerly been, or 

 may still be, given to other races, but in Sikim and the neighbouring 

 countries north and east, the Tibetans apply the term Mon alone to the 

 Lepchas. None of the other races are so denominated ; for instance the 

 race, Europeans call Butia, (which literally means ' a Tibetan,' from *JS Bod, 

 Tibet), they distinguish by the name of Hlo-pa, literally Southerners ; the 

 Nepalese they call ' Bal po' (from ^QT^'^QI Bed po i/iil, the country of 

 wool), &c. It might therefore be considered probable that the inhabitants 

 of Pegu and the Lepchas might have originated from one source. The 

 physical conformation and features of the Mon of Pegu, as represented by 

 Sir A. Phayre, certainly correspond to that of the Lepcha ; he describes 

 them as short, stout and fair, especially the Karen tribes, who when young, 

 " are not darker than southern Europeans." The great criterion, however, 

 the language, tends to prove that no affinity exists between them. From test- 

 words in the Mon language of Pegu, taken from Dalton's Ethnology, I can 

 find no analogy between that language and the Lepcha tongue. Sir A. 

 Phayre ascribes the fairness of complexion that exists among the Pegu race, 

 to local causes. I should certainly not assume the same cause for that of the 

 Lepchas, whom I have often seen, especially in former days, quite as fair as 

 Europeans ; that they must have emigrated, at some early period, from 

 beyond the Himalayas, is undoubted ; a people and language, so noble and 

 perfect such as existed under the name of Pong, (by Europeans designated 



