16 On the Indo-Chinese borderers. [No. 1. 



seat for more than five or six generations. They gradually expelled 

 therefrom a tribe called Mm or Myu. The Kami clans are now 

 themselves being disturbed in their possessions by more powerful 

 tribes, and are being gradually driven "Westward and Southward. 

 They state that they once dwelt on the hills now possessed by the 

 Khyengs, and portions of the tribe have been driven out by the 

 latter within the memory of man. The language of the Kami 

 portion of this interesting race has lately been reduced to writing 

 by the Rev. Mr. Stilson of the American Baptist Mission. The 

 Kami words entered in this vocabulary have been chiefly furnished 

 by an intelligent Kami young man educated by that gentleman, and 

 are more to be depended upon than the other portions. For it is 

 exceedingly difficult to acquire from savages through the medium of 

 a language foreign to them, any words but those which they use to 

 designate some object or quality. The number of Kamis within the 

 British territory amounts to 4,129 souls. They are divided into 

 several clans, each having a distinctive name. The dialects of these 

 clans differ more or less from each other. Many clans are inde- 

 pendent. 



4. — Mru' or Toung Mru'. 

 This is a hill tribe now much reduced from its ancient state. They 

 once dwelt on the river Kuladan and its feeders, but have been gra- 

 dually driven out by the Kami tribe. They have therefore emigrated 

 to the West, and occupy hills on the border between Arakan and 

 Chittagong. The Eadzaweng, or history of the Arakanese kings, 

 refers to this tribe as already in the country when the Myam-ma 

 race entered it. It states also that one of this tribe was chosen 

 king of Arakan about the fourteenth century of the Christian era. 

 The traditions recorded in the same work also imply that the Mru 

 and Myam-ma races are of the same lineage, though this connection 

 is denied by the Arakanese of the present day, who regard the Mru 

 tribe as "wild men" living in a degraded state, and consider that it 

 would be disgraceful to associate with them. The number of the 

 Mm tribe in Arakan amounts to about 2,800 souls. Their language 

 is unwritten. They call themselves Mru. Toung Mru* is a name 



* Toung means wild, uncultured, as "hill men" with us and Pahari or Parbatia 

 with Hindus. Mru alias Myu = Myau of Chinese which aguin = Kyang. — B. H. H. 



