THE RELATION OF CHINESE AND SIAMESE 7 



assimilated, let me give an example per contra. In 1913 a 

 Joint Commission of missionary exploration, of which I was 

 a member, found in western Kwangsi that just the reverse 

 of the Yangtze condition was the rule. In the larger towns 

 along the course of the West Eiver and its tributaries many 

 Chinamen from farther east — possibly themselves of mixed 

 Tai and Chinese origin — had come in and settled as mer- 

 chants, taking Tai wives. In such cases we were told that it 

 was the rule that the children were Tai speakers. 



To return to the first great Tai migration : as to its da.te, 

 we know from Siamese sources that a migration of large 

 proportions was in progress at least as early as the sixth 

 century B.C. For the Mong Mao state, destined to attain 

 such power and proportions in later times, had been founded 

 in what is now the most westerly section of Yunnan (near 

 the 24th degree of north latitude) some considerable time 

 before the middle of the sixth century B.C. And in the 

 early part of that century, if not earlier still, the Ai-Lao 

 had built several large towns in what was then Yun (Karen) 

 country. Among these were Mong Lem and Chieng-rung 

 (where I am writing this), both now included in Yunnan; 

 Chieng-tung (officially spelled Keng-tung), now under 

 Burma; and Chieng-sen, the oldest town in what is now 

 Siam. According to the local history which I have read, in 

 the year 543 B.C. the Ai-Lao by strategy threw off the Karen 

 yoke in all these towns and surrounding districts. But they 

 got thereby the Karen name, according to Mr. Hallett. He 

 says that "the Burmese. . . . call the country to> the 

 east of the Salween Yun, and the Shans who inhabit it Yun 

 Shans." It was evidently people of the same migration who 

 founded Mong-nai (Burmese name Mone), 519 B.C. ; Hsenwi 

 (Theinni) 441 B.C.; and Hsipaw (Theebaw) 423 B.C. These 

 are Shan, that is Ai-Lao or Tai, towns in Burma, west of the 

 Salween Eiver. 



This general period is the time of Cyrus, Darius and 

 Xerxes in the Medo-Persian empire; of Thales, Pythagoras 

 and Heroditus in Greece; and of Daniel, Ezra and Malachi 

 in Judah. The lapse of two millenniums and more than two 

 centuries besides finds all these Yun towns and those to the 

 west of the Salween still extant as Tai towns. But such an 

 enormous stretch of time, bringing with it for most of the 

 whole period differing political relations and introducing 

 differing cults of Buddhism and differing alphabets, has 

 pretty thoroughly differentiated these Yun Tai and their Tai 

 brethren to the west of the Salween. 



The second great migration of the Ai-Lao is matter of 

 record, and its exact date is given. While the Ai-Lao im- 



