1847.] Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, fyc. 45 



appear to be the Bhotiyas, who are a tall race of men, and who probably 

 dyed their hair of a red colour. According to Klaproth,* the ancient Tibe- 

 tans called Khiang, who were of the Bhotiyah race, painted their faces of a 

 red colour. The Bhotiyas repair to the great fair held annually in the 

 Rungpore district, and it was probably here that Rachia, the ambassa- 

 dor's father, saw them. Pliny himself, in describing the Seres, seems 

 to allude to the aboriginal tribes of Rungpore bordering on Assam. 

 The forests of their country produced silk (tassar) which was bartered on 

 the banks of a river described as the first in their territory, and which 

 was perhaps the frontier between Bengal and Assam. The barter was 

 carried on in the manner mentioned by Arrian and Pomponius Mela. 



Pausanias mentions two nations of the Seres. Hoi well in his Dic- 

 tionary extracted from " Bryant's Analysis of Ancient Mythology" 

 states : " Pausanias (L. 6. p. 519.) describes two nations of the Seres 

 who were of an Ethiopic, Indie and Sythic family. The first was upon 

 the Ganges, the other region of the Seres is the same with China, and 

 lies opposite to the island of Japan, called by Pausanias Abasa and 

 Sacaia." The Ethiopic and Indie Seres here mentioned are the hill tribes 

 and the people of the valley of Assam. The term Ethiopic was applied 

 to the former from the similarity of some of their features to those of 

 the Negro race. Megasthenes compares the inhabitants of India with 

 the Ethiopians. Sir William Jones also remarks, " that the mountain- 

 eers of Bengal and Behar can hardly be distinguished in some of their 

 features, particularly in their lips and noses, from the modern Abyssini- 

 ans ;" — a fact which he adduces in confirmation of the opinion that 

 Ethiopia and Hindoostan were peopled or colonized by negroes.f The 

 Indie Seres, on the other hand, were a people who occupied the lower 

 or western part of the valley next to the Ganges, and who consisted of 

 the descendants of the early Hindoo invaders of the country and of the 

 aboriginal inhabitants of the plains. The Scythic Seres may be regard- 

 ed as the Thinse or Sinse who occupied Upper Assam and the region 

 extending to the gulf of Siam, opposite to which was the island of Abasa 

 or Sacaia, which is apparently Java. 



The Sfo'ea PdpPapa %t\pwv f Dionysius % are the Sesatse of Arrian, or 

 some kindred uncivilized hill tribe bordering on Assam. He describes 



* Nouv. Journal Asiatique, Tom. 4, p, 104. 



f As. Res. Vol. I. p. 427. \ Orb. Descript. V. 752. 



