EVOLUTION 223 



at a much earlier date ; * or, again, they are of the same race 

 as the Battaks.f 



They are described as offshoots of the Malay race, being a 

 people which, while possessing much in common with the Indo- 

 Chinese stock, nevertheless, in their physical characteristics, hold 

 a place midway between the Malays and the Burmese.;^ 



It has also been said of them that they are "descended from 

 a mongrel Malay stock, the crosses being probably in the 

 majority of cases with the Burmese, and occasionally with natives 

 of the opposite coast of Siam, and perchance also in remote 

 times with such of the Shom Pen as may have settled in their 

 midst." § 



The natives of Teressa are probably not greatly wrong 

 when they say that the inhabitants of Nankauri are Malays, who 

 when out fishing lost their boats and settled there, and the 

 Kar Nicobarese are descendants of the Burmese who, in a 

 revolution that took place in their country, were obliged to 

 leave the Tenasserim coast. \\ 



In the first case, it is not difficult to admit that fishing-boats 

 belonging to Sumatra (90 miles distant), or to the Malay 

 Peninsula (260 miles away), should be blown off-shore in a 

 storm, and safely reaching Nankauri yet not care to face the 

 voyage back.H 



Pegu is about 400 miles from the islands, and Tenasserim a 

 little less. About 1000 A.D. the first historical conquest of the 

 Lower Irrawadi was effected by the Burmese, and its inhabitants, 

 the Mous, became known as " Takings," or slaves. Their final 

 defeat took place in 1757. 



* Dr Stoliczka, /our. Asiatic Soc, Bengal. 

 t P^re Barbe, Jour. Asiatic Soc, Bengal. 



I Dr Rink, Voyage of the Galathea. 



% E. H. Man,/<9«r. Anthrop. Inst.., 1889. 



II Pere Barhe, /our. Asiatic Soc, Bengal, vol. xv. 



IT In 1897, a Malay vessel, on a voyage from Olehleh to Pulo Wai, was 

 blown to sea and sunk. Her crew took to their boat and reached Trinkat, 

 whence they were returned by the agent to Acheen in a Chinese junk. In 

 earlier times these men would probably have settled amongst the natives, 

 and so have been instrumental in the further diversifications of the race. 



