1905. | ON THE GORAL FOUND IN BURMA, 311 
3. Notes on the Goral found in Burma. 
By Major G. H. Evans *. 
[Received September 2, 19085. | 
The Himalayan range in Assam gives off a succession of spurs 
southward to form a tract of mountainous and, in many parts, 
almost impassable country extending into Arakan and Burma, 
and inhabited by numerous wild tribes. That portion of this 
tract lying between Assam and Manipur to the north, Chittagong 
and Tipperah on the west, Arakan on the south, and Burma on 
the east, is now known as the Chin-Lushai Hills. These so-called 
hills vary in their altitude from 1000 to 10,000 feet. 
T was employed in what was known as the Southern Chin Hills 
from November till June 1889-90, and during my stay visited 
several Chin villages. Like many others who have visited these 
people, I came to the conclusion that Chins generally, and their 
chiefs in particular, have one hobby at least, viz., collecting skulls. 
Outside and inside the villages, skulls were to be seen stuck on 
posts or kept in the houses. The finest collection I met with was 
in the house of a Boungshé chief, whose tribe is thus called by the 
Burmans, from the method in which they dress their long hair. 
The whole hair is done up ina large knot placed well forward on 
the top of the head, almost on the forehead, and round this ball 
of hair is wound, round and round, usually a white turban with 
a blue stripe through the centre. In the chief’s house was a 
collection of skulls, excellent as regards the number and variety. 
The heads ranged from those of elephants to palm-civets, and I 
doubt if there are many museums which could excel the collection 
of monkey skulls, at least numerically. The chief enjoyed the 
reputation of having been a mighty Nimrod in his youth, and I 
was informed that he had shot practically every head in the 
collection. I noticed one splendid gaur skull, three or four fine 
mythun or gayal, several sambar and serow, also some small heads 
which I concluded must be goral. Game throughout the hills was 
scarce, a matter not to be wondered at, inasmuch as every Chin 
had a gun of some sort, and in addition was always trapping and 
snaring. I was assured that the Goral heads had been obtained 
in the hills, but that now the animals were very scarce. I had 
no opportunity of verifying at this time the presence of Goral in 
these hills, and any attempt to do so would have been a matter 
of considerable risk owing to the most unfriendly attitude of the 
people. Many months later I happened to be in a Burmese 
village some hundred miles distant, but on the confines of the 
South Chin Hills, and there discovered in a house the skull of a 
Goral identical with those above mentioned. On enquiry from the 
Burmans I learned that it had been obtained from some Chinbéks, 
another tribe of Chins near Loungshé in the Yaw country. As 
* Communicated by R. LypEKKER, F.Z.S. 
Proc. Zoou. Soc.—1905, Vou. II. No. XXII. 
bo 
bo 
