1841.] Account of Arakan, 707 



are sometimes called Boung-ju and Boung-jwe. It is this extraordi- 

 nary variety of names given to one and the same people, that leads 

 to so much confusion, and causes so much difficulty in attempting 

 to classify the different tribes. Another difficulty is, the inability 

 of these people to give any connected account of themselves. The 

 most that can be done, is to treasure up what they incidentally let 

 fall, and draw inferences from it ; to gain a knowledge of them by 

 direct questions is almost hopeless, for they will give different answers 

 to the same questions day after day, not I conceive from any wish to 

 deceive, but from ignorance, and inability to reflect. 



In my inquiries concerning the Lung-khes, I learnt sufficient to 

 make it appear probable, that the Lung-khes and Boung-jwes were 

 originally separate tribes, who had been conquered and reduced to 

 slavery by a third. Their present toung-meng, or chief, is named 

 Leng-kung, and he describes himself as belonging originally to a very 

 powerful tribe to the N. E. of his present seat ; his clan in that 

 tribe is named Hlaingji-u^ Hlaing-choUy Hling-ju, and Hleng-tchyo.* 

 Several generations back, a portion of his clan coming from the N. E. 

 subdued the Lung-khes and Boung-jwes, and though still retaining 

 intercourse with his ancestor's nation, yet his dialect, he states, has 

 become changed. The nation from which he is descended, is called by 

 the Ku-mis, Tsein-du, or Shin-du^ a corruption probably of the clan- 

 name Hling-ju, but as the Ku-mis use the term for the whole people, 

 I shall adopt it with the same signification in this paper. I could not 

 discover from the Lung-khe chief, that they had any generic name for 

 the whole people. In speaking of the Tsein-dus^ he used the term 

 Que-sak, which he said signifies in his tongue, *' upper people," or 

 people living in the upper country ; while he and those of his clan, 

 who separated, as above described, are called by the Tsein-duSy 

 Que-tang or Que-plang, i. e. " people living lower down ;" referring 

 either to the course of streams, or to the diminished elevation of the 

 hills. The Ku-mis have a great dread of the Tsein-dus. 



I must proceed to narrate how I first met the Lung-khe chief, for he 

 formerly lived in independence beyond the British frontier. 



* I 

 brother. 



heard these four pronunciations given for the clan-name, by Leng-kung and his 



