206 Account of the Mountain Tribes April, 



siderable advantage. The amber is cut into cylinders about \ inch in 

 diameter, and two inches long, and is worn as an ornament stuck 

 through a hole in the lobe of the ear, both by Assamese and Burmese. 



Ivory. — A large quantity of ivory is exported by the China mer- 

 chants. It is almost all obtained by the Singphos, from shooting the 

 wild elephants with poisoned arrows fired from a loaded musket. 

 When once they get upon the tract of a herd, they continue the pursuit 

 for days together, taking up favourable positions upon trees, or lying 

 in wait in the long grass, till they can take a fatal aim. Vast numbers 

 of these noble animals are destroyed in this manner, both by the Sing- 

 phos and Kangtis ; they are as susceptible to the fatal effects of poison 

 as the smaller animals, and fall down dead immediately after being 

 slightly wounded. Their teeth are struck out by the hunters, and the 

 carcasses are left to be devoured by the beasts of prey. 



Chinese returns. — In return for these valuable commodities, the 

 Chinese bring into the Singpho country, nankins, silks, lacquered and 

 China ware, lead, copper, and particularly silver. 



A great portion of the silver that comes into Assam through the 

 Singphos is stamped with Chinese characters. It can scarcely be 

 called a coin, but a piece of bullion ; and appears to have been made 

 by scooping out a small round hole in a piece of clay, then filling it 

 with molten silver, and before it becomes cold, impressing it with the 

 Chinese stamp. Not two of these lumps of silver are of the same 

 value or size : their intrinsic worth is ascertained by their weight, and 

 is found to vary from two to 10 rupees. 



Bullion. — Though the metal is very pure, it is called kacha rupa, and 

 one sicca weight of it is fixed as equal to only half a sicca of the pro- 

 perly coined metal. No inconvenience arises in purchasing articles 

 of small value ; the hill tribes take out their dau, and chop it into pieces 

 even to the portion of a pice. This kacha rupa is eagerly purchased by 

 the chiefs in Upper Asam, who, after adulterating it largely, cast it 

 into their own coin, and thus realize an enormous profit. These chiefs 

 have most of them mints of their own, and are in the habit of coining 

 rupees for any one who will give them the raw material, retaining only 

 10 per cent, for their trouble. 



Muamarias or Mattuks. 

 The country of this tribe is bounded on the N. by the Brahmaputra, 

 on the S. by the Buri Dihing ; on the E. by a line drawn S. from the 

 mouth of the Kunili nallah to the Buri Dihing, and on the W. by a 

 line drawn from the mouth of the river Dibunu to the Buri Dihing. 

 About 1793, these people rose in arms against the reigning Rajah 

 Gourinath Sinh, and after many bloody engagements with the royal 



