28 Dr Hamilton's Account of the Frontier 



a head at each end. With these they venture to attack the 

 tiger. The bowls of their tobacco pipes are made of wood, 

 and, like their shields, are blackened and varnished with the 

 milky juice of a tree ( Holigarna longifolia^ Roxb. Hort 

 Beng. 22,) called by them vombul, by the Joomeas kei, and 

 by the neighbouring Bengalese belua. I have little doubt 

 that this is the same with the varnish tree, the juice of which 

 is used by the people of Ava and Siam in their lackered ware. 

 The juice of the holigarna is very acrid, and the Joomeas 

 are so much afraid of it that they carefully avoid touching 

 the plant. They brought a branch and some unripe fruit in 

 a cleft stick, and would have persuaded me not to allow it to 

 remain on my table, alleging that even its vapours would oc- 

 casion a person's skin to break out into sores. This precau- 

 tion is needless, for I saw the Langaeh handle the plant freely. 

 They avoided only to allow the milky juice to touch their 

 skin. One of them, who had been climbing a tree to procure 

 the juice, had on his hands, arms, legs, and body, large black 

 marks containing some excoriated places. The juice is col- 

 lected from twigs cut across in the joint of a bamboo, and will 

 keep for a long time. 



The following words of the Langaeh language may serve to 

 give some idea of its affinities : Sun, nee ; moon, klaw ; stars, 

 arsee ; earth, toil ; water, tee; fire, nioi; stone, hong; wind, 

 hlce ; rain, koa ; man, moo ; woman, noo-nau ; child, ngau ; 

 head, loo ; mouth, moor ; arm, ban ; hand, koot ; leg, perai ; 

 foot, pepaw ; bird, oazv ; fish, ngaw ; good, tchazeck ; bad, 

 meetchalo ; great, aycen ; little, atom ; long, set ; short, atoi ; 

 one, hakka ; two, pannyeeka ; three, toomka ; four, leeka ; 

 five, ngaka ; six, roopka ; seven, sereeka ; eight, rietka ; 

 nine, koaka; ten, somka ; eat, ha?ro ; drink, tcvinro ; sleep, 

 eenro ; walk, paroltee ; sit, chooro ; stand, deengro ; kill, 

 hamro ; yes, tootakanelro ; no, bou ; here, mekeen ; there, 

 mahou ; above, chunchooa ; below, koentoya. 



From this the language of the Langaeh appears to have 

 many words in common with that of Ava and Rakhain, in 

 which dialects also the imperative in ro is common. The ka 

 annexed to the numerals seems peculiar to the Langaeh, but 

 is perhaps analogous to the prefixed to used by the Movoosas. 



