140 DORJ1LTNG. Chap. V. 



of India proper ; all the Himalayan tribes of Sikkini being 

 markedly Mongolian in origin. It does not, hoAvever, 

 follow that they are all of Tibetan extraction; perhaps, 

 indeed, none but the Moormis are so. The Mechi of the 

 Terai is decidedly Indo-Chinese, and of the same stock as 

 the savage races of Assam, the north-east and east frontier 

 of Bengal, Arracan, Burmah, &c. Both Lepchas and 

 Limboos had, before the introduction of Lama Boodhism 

 from Tibet, many features in common with the natives of 

 Arracan, especially in their creed, sacrifices, faith in omens, 

 worship of many spirits, absence of idols, and of the doctrine 

 of metempsychosis. Some of their customs, too, are the 

 same ; the form of their houses and of some of their imple- 

 ments, their striped garments, their constant and dexterous 

 use of the bamboo for all utensils, their practice of night- 

 attacks in war, of using poisoned arrows only in the chase, 

 and that of planting " crow-feet " of sharp bamboo stakes 

 along the paths an enemy is expected to follow. Such are 

 but a few out of many points of resemblance, most of which 

 struck me when reading Lieutenant Phayre's account of 

 Arracan,* and when travelling in the districts of Khasia 

 and Cachar. 



The laws affecting the distribution of plants, and the 

 lower animals, materially influence the migrations of man 

 also ; and as the botany, zoology, and climate of the Malayan 

 and Siamese peninsula advance far westwards into India, 

 along the foot of the Himalaya, so do also the varieties of 

 the human race. These features are most conspicuously 

 displayed in the natives of Assam, on both sides of the 

 Burrampooter, as far as the great bend of that river, 

 beyond which they gradually disappear ; and none of the 



country by the Indo- Germanic conquerors, who are now represented by the 

 Hindoos. 



* "Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal." 



