184L] Account of Arakan. 709 



learnt the following particulars regarding the Lung-khes and Tsein- 

 dus : — 



" The Lung-Jches subject to me, amount to three hundred houses ; 

 they are all my slaves, except the immediate members of my family ; we 

 live in bamboo houses like the Ku-7nis ; we receive iron from the 

 Tsein-dus, and salt from the Ku-mis ; our cultivation in the hills is 

 toung-ya like theirs ; our language and that of the Tsein-dus is nearly 

 alike ; we possess cows, pigs, goats, cats, and fowls ; we bury our dead ; 

 the corpse is placed in a sitting posture, with a pipe in its mouth, food 

 by its side, and Inmg -* besides these a moung, (Burman gong,) sword 

 and spear, together with the feathers worn in the hair by men of rank. 



" We worship four j\''<a!^5, (spirits,) who are called Que-sing, Sur-paVj 

 Put-ten, and Wan-chung ; Sur-par is the head Nat ; he lives in the 

 sky, and so do the others. There are cities in the sky where the dead 

 men live ; there are many countries there, where trees bear food ready 

 cooked, and clothes, and all things necessary. If men do not worship 

 the Nats, when they sicken they die ; we worship once or twice a-year 

 in the village, by sacrificing a buffalo, or pig, and drinking kung ; we 

 do so to benefit ourselves, our wives, and children, and that no sick- 

 ness may arise ; in the cultivation we have another sacrifice of goats 

 and pigs to the Nats of the earth and water ; there are no names for 

 those Nats ; for them we kill a fowl and throw it into the water, and 

 leave meat or rice exposed on the ground. All men sacrifice for them- 

 selves, but we have tsha-yas, (instructors,) who at festivals are the first 

 to bring the kung, and adjure the spirits. What they say I do not un- 

 derstand J only a tsha-ycCs son can succeed him. They have nothing 

 to say to marriages or funerals. In marriages, the father and brother 

 of the damsel are presented with clothes, brass ornaments, cattle, &c. 

 A great feast takes place. I (Leng-kungJ gave the value of thirty 

 cows for my wife. A son can marry his father's inferior wife, after the 

 father's death. A chief can marry as many wives as he pleases. 

 When a woman of rank dies, a cow is killed and eaten, and the people 

 drink and dance ; she is buried in a grave lined with stones, and some- 

 times valuables are buried with her ; not always ; we do not practice 

 witchcraft, but other people around us do. A man's life when he dies, 



* An intoxicatinor drink. 



