NATURE 
169 
THURSDAY, JUNE 25, 1885 
THE CHITTAGONG HAILL TRIBES 
The Chittagong Hill Tribes. Results of a Fourney in 
the Year 1882. By Dr. Emil Riebeck. Translated by 
Prof. A. H. Keane. (Asher, 1885.) 
aye visit paid by Dr. Riebeck to the frontier tribes 
between Chittagong and Independent Burmah in 
the spring of the year 1882 formed a mere episode in the 
great expedition to the Far East, from which he has 
recently returned, laden with ethnological treasures of all 
sorts. But this episode, carried out at the suggestion of 
Dr. Bastian, “prince of ethnologists,” proved from a 
variety of causes so unexpectedly fruitful in results, that 
he has been well advised to publish a separate account of 
it, pending the appearance of a comprehensive work on 
his general travels in Somaliland, India, China, Japan, 
and other Eastern regions. In its arrangement, profusion 
of coloured and other illustrations, and especially in the 
treatment of the subject matter, this first instalment 
almost reaches the standard of ideal perfection—of such 
perfection as can be achieved only by patient and intelli- 
gent observation, and by the cooperation of specialists in 
their several faculties combined with a generous use of 
unlimited means. Certainly the principle of division of 
labour in literary and scientific work has never been more 
happily illustrated than in the present instance. Wisely 
limiting his own functions to those of a laborious collector 
and narrator of his personal experiences, Dr. Riebeck has 
placed all his rich materials at the disposal of the fore- 
most naturalists in Germany, by whom the data thus 
supplied have been made a convenient text for so many 
separate monographs of great value on the various scien- 
tific aspects of the subject. 
The work thus comprises, besides the journey itself 
graphically described by the traveller, four independent 
treatises—by Dr. A. Griinwedel, on the ethnology ; by Dr. 
Rudolf Virchow, on the anthropology ; by Prof. Julius 
Kiihn, on the zoology ; and by Herr von Danckelmann, on 
the meteorology of the hilly region traversed during the 
expedition. 
The trip included altogether two separate excursions, 
the first from Chittagong up the Karnaphuli river to 
Pakhoma and Forts Sirtay No. 1 and 2, close to the 
Burmese frontier; the second, again from Chittagong 
southwards to the Sangu, up that river nearly to its 
source, thence across the border to Dalakmey on the 
Koladan in Arakan, and from that point down the 
Koladan to its mouth at Akyab. None of these river 
basins can be described as unknown regions, seeing that 
they all lie well within British territory, and have been 
frequently traversed in various directions by Lewin, 
Hunter, and other explorers, by Government surveyors, 
and even occasionally by military expeditions. Never- 
theless, such is the intricate character of the land, con- 
sisting of nearly parallel mountain ranges running close 
together, mainly north and south, separated by deep inter- 
vening river gorges, often densely wooded, and inhabited 
by a multiplicity of semi-independent hill tribes in almost 
VOL. XXXII.—NOo. 817 
every stage of social culture, that the broad physical 
features both of the country and its inhabitants had 
hitherto been but imperfectly understood, while few of 
the details had been fully worked out. Hence a rich 
harvest still awaited our traveller, and the abundant 
materials collected by him and carefully sifted by his 
scientific fellow-workers could not fail to prove useful and 
help to solve some obscure problems in the natural 
history of the country. 
Thus a comparative study of the two Gayal skulls from 
Chittagong and Arakan enables Dr. Ktihn to clear up 
several questions touching the mutual relations of the 
gayal (Bos gaveus, Colebrooke), the arni or true wild 
buffalo (Budalus indicus), the gaur (Bos cavifrons, 
Hodgson), and other members of the ox tribe in India 
and Indo-China. It now appears evident that the gayal 
or wild ox of Bengal, Assam and Further India does not 
differ specifically from the gaur of India proper, as 
George Vasey and others wrongly supposed. ‘‘ While 
the wild gayals’ skulls show all the features of the gaur, 
the forms of the tame gayal from the same locality corre- 
spond altogether to the normal gayal type as described 
by its best observer, Hodgson. Room is thus afforded 
for the surmise that both types characterise, not two dis- 
tinct species, but forms only of the same species; that 
consequently gaur and gayal are specifically one, and that 
the deviations of the latter in its tame form have merely 
the value of a variation due to domestication.” 
Of more general interest are the admirable ethnological 
and anthropological papers of Dr. Griinwedel and Dr. 
Virchow, whose learned analysis of the data, and espe- 
cially of the numerous measurements supplied by Dr. 
Riebeck, throws a flood of light on the many perplexing 
questions connected with this obscure ethnical domain. 
Accepting the already-established broad distinction be- 
tween the Khyoung-tha or River Tribes, and Toungh-tha, 
or Hill Tribes (Lowlanders and Highlanders), a distinc- 
tion which has more than a mere geographical signifi- 
cance, these anthropologists find that, on the whole, the 
hill tribes are of purer descent, that is, represent the 
aboriginal element more closely, than the riverain popula- 
tions. The latter (Maghs, Chakmas, Toungjinyas, &c.), 
have become more ‘intermingled with the Bengalese and 
other intruders from India, and are characterised by a 
yellower complexion suggestive of Mongol, or perhaps 
Malay, affinities. The former (Pankhos, Banjogis, Mros, 
Kumis, Kukis or Lushais, Shos, Shindus, &c.) are of a 
darker hue, and seem to approach nearer to the Kolarian 
aborigines of India. At the same time Dr. Virchow is 
careful to point out that none of these Hill Tribes lend 
any support to the theory of an aboriginal Negrito ele- 
ment formerly spread over the whole of India and Indo- 
China, advocated especially by De Quatrefages and other 
French ethnologists. “According to unanimous testi- 
mony they have all black, long, and smooth, but by no 
means straight, hair, and, although not athletic, their 
stature still at ence separates them from the dwarfish 
Andamanese and Negritoes. On the other hand, in 
further inquiry the question cannot be waived whether 
the Hill Tribes of Chittagong, perhaps also of Nepal, 
may not, after all, be somewhat nearly related to the 
primitive ‘black skins’ of India. The name Dasyu, or 
I 
