1845.] Report of an Expedition into the Mishm.ee Hills. 485 



pass. By 3 o'clock our party reached a flat piece of ground overlooking 

 the river, where it was considered advisable to remain during the night. 



The several clans in the neighbourhood of this stream consist of the 

 Manneah, Tshee, Dhah, Tummaih, and Mlee, who altogether are a 

 numerous people, but in appearance most indigent and ill provided both 

 in food and clothing, and are as wild a set of unwashed savages as may 

 perhaps be met with in any part of the world. 



The water of the Doo is by no means good, having a disagreeable 

 taste, and has the property of giving goitre to all those who drink it. 



Dec. VSth. — On leaving the bed of this river, the ascent up the Dagoom 

 range of mountains is very steep, and in many places where the rain 

 had cut the side of the mountain into deep chasms, the path could only 

 be passed by means of trees thrown from point to point, beneath which 

 a perpendicular scarp of rock was all the resting place that would have 

 been found had an unlucky step or a rotten bough caused any one 

 to fall at any of these places. 



On arriving at the village of Tuppang, I and my party put up at the 

 house of the Gam, and as the Lama people were staying at a house not 

 far distant, during the afternoon I had an interview with them. It 

 appeared they had come across the snowy range for the sake of trading 

 with the Mishmees for teeta ;* but from the snow having fallen unexpect- 

 edly, had not been able to return to their own country. 



In appearance these people much resemble the Chinese, and are dress- 

 ed in a loose robe that falls in folds around the waist, and are a fair and 

 tall race of men; some wear the hair plaited in the Chinese manner 

 down the back, while others have the head shaved ; and from their de- 

 scription of themselves, it appears that those who trade with the Mishmees 

 are likewise a hill tribe, and in their manner of life differ very little from 

 the Mishmees themselves. I should however imagine, that the country 

 they inhabit is not very rugged, as on all the cattle brought from 

 thence I observed the marks of the plough distinctly visible on the neckf. 



* Captis teeta, Wall. 



f This agrees with a report current in Upper Assam, that during an excessive inun- 

 dation of the Burhampooter, a great number of ploughs and other agricultural imple- 

 ments were brought down by the floods. 



The Assamese suppose the country they come from to be inhabited by Kotas; 

 of which are the Assamese themselves, as the great body of the Assamese population.— 

 F.J. 



