1845.] On the Meris and Abors of Assam. 427 



dread of it, soon breaks up or scatters the community. They therefore 

 prefer building apart, and depending upon their own resources for main- 

 taining themselves in their isolated positions. They are compelled to be 

 more industrious than the Meris, and can fashion themselves daos and 

 weave coarse cloth, arts of which the Meris are ignorant, or more 

 correctly speaking, which they have lost. The iron for the former is, I 

 believe, obtained from the other side, for I have not learnt that they un- 

 derstand the art of working the ore, and that which the Meris import 

 from the plains they purchase ready made into daos for their own use. 



The cotton used in the coarse cloths they weave is grown by them- 

 selves, very little of it ever finds its way down here ; but I saw one load 

 of it this year, and it appeared of excellent quality. Between the Abors 

 and Meris there is a considerable trade. The Meris import from the 

 Abor country munjeet, beads, daos, " Deo guntas" the little bells I 

 have described in my former account, and cooking utensils of metal, 

 Myttons, slaves, and I may say wives, their marriages being so entirely 

 a matter of barter. In return for which the Abors take cloths of 

 Assamese manufacture, salt or any articles imported by the Meris from 

 Assam. Of the mode in which their intercourse with Thibet is carried on, 

 I have as yet obtained very little information. I have never yet met 

 with an Abor who had been across, and the Meris I have questioned on 

 the subject assert they had not seen the tribes who are in direct com- 

 munication ; but from those who had seen them they had heard of a 

 fine rich country inhabited by people who wore fine clothes, dwelt in 

 stone houses, and rode on horses, which was watered by a mighty river. 

 How ever they manage it, the Abors import from this country every 

 thing above enumerated, save the munjeet, slaves, and wives that they 

 interchange with the Meris. The large metal dishes thus imported 

 are of superior manufacture, and fetch high prices when brought in 

 here by the Meris. The Meris possess cooking vessels of great size so 

 obtained, which they use at their feasts, but are very jealous of produc- 

 ing before strangers. The daos are of superior temper, but of rude 

 finish, and of the workmanship, as I believe, of Thibetan blacksmiths ; 

 they are probably made in the rough for the express purpose of barter 

 with these people, as they are made in Luckimpore for the Meris. In 

 addition to the articles I have enumerated, the Abors import salt (from 

 the description given of it rock salt) from the north, for it appears they 



