3'2 Remarks on the Sequel to the [Jan. 



account which is given in the Sequel would indicate that the merchan- 

 dize brought from Thina or Assam to Balk or Bactria was purchased 

 there by merchants who were proceeding or who were on their way to 

 India — and who afterwards sailed down the Indus to Barugaza or Guze- 

 rat, where they took shipping for the Red Sea. The second route men- 

 tioned by Arrian, viz., down the Ganges and thence by sea to Limurike, 

 no doubt refers, as Dr. Vincent supposes, to the Brahmaputra. Mer- 

 chandize from Thina or Serica was brought by this channel to the Gan- 

 getic mart in the vicinity of Dacca, and was thence shipped to Limu- 

 rike. It consisted of silk — raw and manufactured, skins and iron, all 

 of which are exports from Assam or the countries bordering on it. Silk 

 abounds in Assam and has always been an article of export from it. Mr. 

 Hugon states that large quantities of silk cloths were formerly exported 

 to Lassa by merchants known in Derung as the " Kampa Bhoteas," — 

 the quantity they used to take away was very considerable, but in the 

 latter years of the Assam Rajah's rule from the disorganized state of the 

 country the number of merchants gradually decreased. He estimates 

 the total quantity of raw silk now exported at upwards of 24,0001b. 

 weight, and the total quantity produced in the province at more than 

 double that weight — " the Assamese," he observes, " generally keeping 

 more for their own use than they sell." It is exported principally to 

 Berhampore and Dacca.* 



The people called Sesatse, who inhabited a country on the confines of 

 Thina, are generally supposed from their features, and make or form, 

 to be identical with the Besadee of Ptolemy, placed by him, as has al- 

 ready been mentioned, near a range of mountains called Mceandrus. 

 The Sesatse are described in the text as " a wild uncivilized tribe" and 

 as " a race of men squat and thick set, with their face broad, and their 

 nose greatly depressed." The words tw i£v <rdfxari ko\o&o\ koX (r&SSpa *-A.a- 



rvirpScrvTroi, ffifioi its reXos, avrbvi Se Aeye<r0ai SyffixTas irapafjiotovs avrj/Jidpiovs, of 



which Dr. Vincent's translation is given above, are rendered by Heeren " a 

 set of ill-formed, broad-faced, and flat-nosed people, who are called Se- 

 satse, and resemble savages. "f This is a correct description of the abo- 

 riginal tribes bordering on Assam, and there can be little doubt, therefore 

 that the Sesatae are one of them. All these tribes exhibit the Indo- 

 Chinese features, and many of them have the harsh and savage-like ex- 

 * Journal Asiatic Soo. Vol. VT. p. 34. f Heeren's As. Nations. 



