236 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap. 



coming from the north across a great river of sand 

 and of having been driven out of the basin of the 

 Irrawadi at a later date (i). At present the Karens 

 are found chiefly in the Karen hills of Lower Burma 

 between the Irrawadi and the Sal ween and in 

 the basin of the Sittang River, which runs south- 

 wards midway between those two greater rivers to 

 open into the head of the Gulf of Martaban. But 

 they have been much oppressed by their more 

 civilised neighbours, the Burmese and the Shans, 

 and their communities are widely scattered in the 

 remoter parts of the country and are said to extend 

 into Tenasserim far down the Malay Peninsula. 

 By the Burmese they are called also Kay ens or 

 Kyens, the y and r sounds being interchangeable in 

 Burmese (i and 3). 



Peoples generally recognised as closely akin to 

 the Karens are the Chins (who are also known as 

 Khyens) (14) of the basin of the Chindwin, the 

 large western tributary of the Irrawadi ; and the 

 Kakhyens (also called Kachings and Singpho), who 

 occupy the hills east of Bhamo and the basin of the 

 river Tapang in the borderlands of Burma and 

 Yunnan (7). The Nagas of Manipur and of the 

 Naga Hills of Assam also seem to belong to the 



tribes most nearly related to them seem significant for our purpose from the 

 following sources. The figures in brackets in the text refer to this list, 

 (i) J, R. Logan, ** The Ethnology of Eastern Asia," loc. cit. 



(2) Lieut. -Col. James Low on " The Karean Tribes of Martaban and Javai," 



Journ. of Indian Arch. , vol. iv. 



(3) A. R. McMahon, The Karens of the Golden Chersonese ^ London, 1876. 



(4) E. B. Cross, "The Karens,"/^^^- of the Amer. Oriental Soc, 1854. 



(5) T. Mason, "The Karens, "yi7wr«. of the Asiatic Soc.^ 1866, part ii. 



(6) D. M. Smeaton, The Loyal Karens of Burma, London, 1887. 



(7) J. Anderson, From Mandalay to Momien. 



(8) Lieut. -Col. Waddell, "Tribes of the Brahmaputra Valley, "/^«''«- of the 



Royal Asiatic Soc, 1900. 



(9) A. R. Colquhoun, Afnongthe Shans, London, 1885. 



(10) T. C. Hodson, Naga Tribes of Manipur, London, 191 1. 



(11) T. C. Hodson, "The Assam Hills," a paper read before the Geogra- 



phical Society of Liverpool in 1905. 



(12) Sir J. G. Scott, Burma. 



(13) A. H. Keane, Man, Past and Present, London, 1899. 



(14) J. Deniker, The Races of Man, l.oiidoTi, 1900, 



