1845.] Hill Tribes in the Chittagong District. 383 



fruit, and a bottle of liquor distilled from rice ; some time after, the 

 house was filled with women and children : being the first Eu- 

 ropean they had ever seen, their curiosity did not surprise me. In 

 the evening the men came from their work, and the most respectable 

 Bunzoo of the village asked me to take up my abode in his house. 

 His dwelling being in a higher situation, I accepted with pleasure his 

 offer ; the house was elevated three or four feet from the ground, being 

 twenty feet broad and eighty or ninety feet long, without any partition ; 

 to one side was a small room which he offered me. At the entrance of 

 the house the heads of hogs, deer, and other animals killed in his hunt- 

 ing excursions were kept ; a large fire-place was in the centre of the 

 dwelling. Conical baskets, earthenware, and mats were all the furniture. 

 The principal post of the house is considered by them sacred, and the 

 head of the family is the only person who can touch it ; should any other 

 person do the same he becomes the slave of the master of the house. 

 This Bunzoo was fifty-six years old, he stood five feet ten inches, and 

 was well built ; his hair was long, and tied after the fashion of the Bur- 

 mese; he had projecting cheek bones, flat visage, scanty beard, and was 

 of dark yellow complexion ; his dress was a piece of cloth, one foot 

 broad, round his loins, His wife and daughters were of middle size, but 

 very stout ; they had the Burmese dress, but the cloth was red and 

 black ; their breast was covered with another piece of cloth of the 

 same color, one cubit broad and four feet long. His family consisted of 

 four boys and three girls ; he had two children from eight to ten years 

 old, with black eyes, small lips, and displaying great intelligence. The 

 other Bunzoos which I saw were not so tall as the men before men- 

 tioned, and the average is, I believe, from five feet two inches, to 

 six inches. The women are, generally speaking, much stouter than 

 the men. This tribe appeared to be grave and silent ; this is remark- 

 able in children, they shew no petulance, and partake of the character 

 of their parents ; six or seven of them were with me a part of the even- 

 ing, and to my great surprise they paid as much attention to the 

 conversation, as if the subject had been adapted to their intelligence. 

 I was particularly struck with their civility, no one took a thing offer- 

 ed to him without previously saluting by joining .his hands towards 

 the person who gave, and the same ceremony was repeated by the do- 

 nor : men, women, and children do the same ; when spirits is offered, 



