Part of Bengal and the Kingdom of Ava. 53 



fail to be were there any in so narrow a space. (See Phil. 

 Journ. vii. 233.) 



Towards the west, between the territory of the Tripura 

 race and the central inaccessible mountains, there is a wide 

 hilly region occupied by the people called Kungkis, mention- 

 ed in my account of Asam, {Annals of Oriental Literature, 

 part iii. p. 26 1, and in the Phil. Jour. iv. 264.) as being 

 the Langaeh of the people of Ava, and the Lingta of the 

 Bengalese. I have had no intercourse, nor farther informa- 

 tion concerning the tribe of this race, which occupies the 

 frontier towards the Surma, by which there is the most di- 

 rect and important route between Bengal and Ava. Farther 

 south, ten kinds of the Kungkis, who dwell about the heads 

 of the Gomuti, are claimed as dependents by Radun Manik, 

 the Tripura Raja ; but his authority over them is probably 

 very small ; for his power is inconsiderable, and the Kungkis 

 seem to be a warlike predatory people. They are, or at 

 least in 1798 were, subject to a chief named Longshue, al- 

 though I am not sure whether this name was that of the in- 

 dividual chief, or his title as head of the tribe ; but I think 

 that the last is most probably the case, as the people on the 

 banks of the Karnaphuli, who were chiefly subject to the 

 depredations of these Kungkis, called the tribe Lusai or Lu- 

 shee, the same name, I suspect with Longshue : yet it must 

 be confessed that the Dewan of Radun Manik spoke of the 

 Lushee as being only one of the ten kinds of Kungkis de- 

 pendent on his master. The dependance of this tribe, or of 

 Longshue on the Tripura Raja is rather problematical, and 

 the Lusai, are rather supposed by the people on the Karna- 

 phuli to be subject to the tribe of Kungkis, called Bonzhu, or 

 Bonjugy. In war, probably the two kindred tribes unite; 

 but in peace, the Tripura Raja having the command of the 

 commercial routes, may exert a kind of authority, and re- 

 ceive a toll or tribute. 



I have not heard of any tribe that inhabits between the 

 Longshue Kungkis and the great central ridge, the eastern 

 side of which is occupied by the tribe, which the people of 

 Ava call Khiaen, (Phil. Journ. ii 263.); nor, as I have said, 

 have I been able to trace any route across the ridge : yet I 



