66 A Note on some Hill Tribes [No. 169. 



with a new-born life at the absence of man. Compelled thus to wear 

 away an errant life, and in continual dread of being massacred by their 

 foes, the poor Toungthas know not what comfort or secureness is ; all 

 their valuables are secreted in some hidden cave, known only to them- 

 selves. Should the maiden weave for herself a choice petticoat, or the 

 young man fashion a favourite bow, it is forthwith taken and stowed 

 away : and yet, in spite of all, they are a merry and laughter-loving race, 

 fond to a passion of beads, with which they profusely decorate every 

 thing that belongs to them : one little Khumi damsel showed me her pet 

 pipe so ornamented. 



Having thus endeavoured to give a general sketch of the Khumts, 

 I will proceed to a few remarks on their language. 



The Khumis, in common with all the Toungthas, have no written 

 characters. Their dialect is evidently cognate to the Burmese, that is, 

 the pure and original Burmese, but it presents itself under the harsh 

 type of the Arracanese, not softening down any of its sounds in the 

 usual manner of the Burmese language. It is monosyllabic, and ex- 

 presses the relations of its parts of speech by means of affixes ; of these 

 some seem to be merely euphonic, as ma, ga, va, ta, &c, these gener- 

 ally occur between the root and its affixes. In like manner, for the sake 

 of euphony, some of its roots are slightly inflected, as tchau, " to eat," 

 when preceding the past affix bau, or bauk, is changed into tcha. It is 

 moreover necessary to premise that all final consonants such as the k 

 in the above word bauk, are invariably mute, that is, not pronounced, 

 hut formed in the mouth. Indeed by a person whose ear was not ren- 

 dered sensible to the value of these finals by an acquaintance with the 

 Burmese language, of which they are a marked characteristic, the above 

 word bauk, would be written bau. As we might expect in a rude, and 

 unformed tongue, the affixes, above alluded to, are omitted whenever 

 the sense can be conveyed without them ; as kai, 1st pers. pron. and 

 pe, " give," form kai pe, " give me," or it might equally convey 

 " I give ;" kai, " as above," and yu, " wife," kai yu, " my wife ;" bok 

 " food," and tchau, " eat," bok tchau, " eat food." 



NOUNS. 

 Mau signifies "in;" as urn mau, " in the house." Hloyd, "under;" 

 as wto hloyd, " under the house." Hi loung6, " on the top of;"wTO hi 

 lovngd, "on the top of the house." Te6, "near;" as urn ted, "near the 



