1864.'] On the history of the Burmak Baca. 25 



ribes are called Byoo or Byoo, Kam-yan or Kan-ran, and Thek or by 

 ;he Arakanese Sak. # They probably were three allied tribes, more 

 closely connected with each other than were others of the same original 

 stock, settled in the upper Irrawaddy valley, or on the adjoining 

 mountains. I see no reason for doubting that they had found their 

 way to the valley of the Irrawaddy by what is now the track of the 

 Chinese caravans from Yunan, which track debouches at Bamo on 

 the river. There they probably remained for many ages without 

 being disturbed by any superior tribe. The history of the Burmese 

 being written under the direct influence of the kings, it is not surprising 

 that every effort should therein be made to show, that the royal race 

 is descended from the kings of those people who brought to the Bur- 

 mese letters, science, and religion ; whereby the savage Indo-Chinese 

 tribes of the Irrawaddy were civilized and made into a nation. 

 Accordingly we find that the foundation of the state of Kap -pi-la-wot 

 . by a tribe of Rajpoots is carefully described, and as it appears to be 

 admitted to be an historical fact that Kap-pi-la-wot was attacked, and 

 the people dispersed, even during the life of Gautama, a previous 

 emigration from thence to Burmah under Abhi Radza is invented for 

 the national history. This name Abhi is native not Pali, signifying 

 an ancestor in the fourth generation, and the names of his two sons, 

 both called Kan, with the Pali word for king and the native terms 

 elder and younger, added, appear to refer to them as acknowledged 

 ' chiefs of the Kan-ran tribe. Under the two sons of Abhi Radza a 

 separation of the tribes or of the people under their sway takes place ; 

 I the elder branch going westward and settling in the country now called 

 . Arakan ; the younger remaining in the valley of the Irrawaddy. In 

 ' this legend there appears to be a germ of truth. The Arakanese also 

 | have the national name of Mran-ma. The country they inhabit 

 t received the Budhist name of Beh-hhaih from the monsters believed 

 I to inhabit that wild unknown coast, and hence the modern native name 

 \ Ba-khaing and the European Arakan. But this name has no connec- 

 tion with the race of the people. The Arakanese being of the same 

 . f , stock as the Burmese, and still acknowledged to be the elder branch 

 I of the family, undoubtedly entered their present country from the 

 eastward, that is from the upper valley of the Irrawaddy, as their own 



* Sak is still the name of a small hill tribe in Arakan. It is similar in sgwud 

 to the name of the tribe Gautama belonged to, • 



