620 Notes on the Kasia Hills, and People. [No. 152. 



true ; of the Kasia tongue, genders, cases, numbers, tenses and all gram- 

 matical changes, are made by prefixing certain syllables. The mas- 

 culine prefix is u, the feminine ka, and the plural ki. Thus u-myau, 

 a tom-cat, has his feminine ka-myau, a tabby, and the plural ki-mayu, 

 cats of both genders. This prefix cannot I think be considered an ar- 

 ticle, as it is attached to adjectives and pronouns as well as nouns, e. g. 

 " u-ti u-kokardng ;" u-bakhrao usim, that Hornbill (is) a large bird, where 

 the demonstrative, the adjective, and both nouns have the prefix. It is 

 rather the representative of the terminations of Latin, German, &c. most 

 of which wear and tear have rubbed from our English tongue. 



It is a curious fact, that the people in the broken Hindustani in 

 which they converse with us, universally use the future instead of the 

 past tense. Thus to take a very common case, where the ambiguous 

 word " Kal" adds to the puzzle ; " Kal ham jaiga," from a Kasia signi- 

 fies, not * I will go to-morrow,' but, ' I went yesterday.' I never could 

 break my servants of this blunder. 



A great proportion of the proper names of men are quaint mono- 

 syllables, as Tess, Bep, Mang, Sor, Mir, Bi, reminding one irresistibly 

 of Sir Walter's Saxon Hig, the son of Snel. But these are generally 

 euphonized by the prefix into Utess, Ubeh, Usor, &c. They also address 

 each other by the names of their children, as Pabobon, father of 

 Bobon ! Pahaimon, father of Haimon ! The salutation at meeting is 

 singular, " Kuble ! oh God." It has been supposed that this is a pro- 

 fane deification of the person addressed. But this scarcely seems agree- 

 able to the blunt character of the people, and I never could ascertain 

 what they meant by it. It is probably an elliptical expression, the li- 

 teral signification of which is forgotten, corresponding to adieu, or like 

 good bye, the derivation of which (God be with you) no one thinks of 

 in using it. They have regular numerals on a decimal scale up to hun- 

 dreds, but their word for a thousand (chi-hajar) seems clearly borrowed 

 from ' hazar.' 



In the people perhaps the first thing that strikes a stranger, is their 

 extreme addiction to chewing pawn, and their utter disregard of the 

 traces which its use leaves on their teeth and lips. Indeed they pride 

 themselves on this, saying that " Dogs and Bengalees have white 

 teeth." Every man wears round his neck a thick woollen cord which 

 suspends a fine net of pineapple fibre, a clasp knife, and a pawn-box 



