308 J. Butler — Rough Notes on the Angdmi Nagds. [Xo. 4, 



the Kakhyen and Khyen (often pronounced Kachin and Chin) trihes, 

 spoken of by former writers (Pemberton, Yule, Hannay, Bayfield, Griffiths, 

 and others) are but offshoots of this one great race. Yule tells us that " the 

 " hills west of Kale are occupied by the Khyens, a race extending south- 

 " ward throughout the long range of the Yuma-doung to the latitude of 

 " Prome", and that '•' Colonel Hannay identifies the Khyens with the Xagas 

 " of the Asam mountains." Again Dalton in his work on the Ethnology 

 of Bengal tells us that " Karens are sometimes called Kakhyens", and 

 that " Latham thinks that word for word Khyen is Karen", whilst Dr. 

 Mason tells us " that it is a Burmese word signifying aboriginal". 

 Finally we have Major Fryer informing us in his late interesting paper 

 " On the Khyen people of the San do way District"*, that the Khyengs have 

 a tradition that they came down many years ago from the sources of the 

 Kaiendwen Elver. It will thus be seen that the question regarding the 

 identity of these tribes is at present a difficult one to decide, and I consider 

 that its final solution can be satisfactorily undertaken only when we have com- 

 pleted the explorations upon which we have been so busily engaged for the 

 last six years. We have already succeeded in completing the survey of about 

 8000 square miles of a country, about which we previously knew scarcely 

 anything at all, a terra incognita in fact, the greater portion of which 

 had been unseen by European eyes until visited by those enterprising 

 pioneers, our survey officers, who armed with the Theodolite and Plane-table 

 very soon cleared away the huge blots which had for so long been per- 

 mitted to disfigure our X. E. Frontier Maps. Thus it is obvious that any 

 theory propounded at the present stage of our knowledge must be more or 

 less based upon conjecture, a dangerous field of controversy which I 

 wish to avoid, especially as a few more seasons of such work as we have 

 done of late, must clear up the mystery in which this question has so long 

 been shrouded. 



Chaptee I. 

 Geography and History. 



Of all the tribes — and they are almost as numerous as the hills they 

 inhabit — into which the Xaga group is divided, the most powerful and war- 

 like, as it is also the most enterprising, intelligent, and civilized, so to say, 

 is the " turbulent Angami". This great division of the Xaga race occupies 

 for the most part a charming country of fine, open, rolling hill and valley, 

 bounded by lofty mountains, some of whose summits tower up to nine, ten, 

 and even twelve thousand feet above the sea level. Their villages are gener- 

 ally placed on the more tabular hills of about 5000 feet elevation, and enjoy 



* Journal, As. Socy. Bengal, for 1875, Pt. I, p. 39. 



