706 PROFESSOR SIR W. TURNER ON 



known as Kuki, Lushai, Poi, etc., are closely allied. They are all of the Mongolian type, 

 being a short, squat, muscular people, but effeminate in appearance. Mr Baker gives 

 in the Report the height of a Kuki measured by him as 4 ft. 11^ in. The return made 

 in the census of Assam, 1891, of the tribes designated as Kukis and Lushais was 60,652 

 of both sexes. 



In 1828 Lieut. T. A. Trant gave an account* of the Khyen tribe inhabiting the 

 Yuma Mountains between Ava and Arracan. He states that they differed in several 

 respects from the Burmese : their faces were flatter and not so regular, and the girls 

 tattooed the face. The men wore a black cloth, striped red and white, over the 

 shoulders, a black cloth round the loins, and occasionally a black jacket ; the women 

 wore a black petticoat reaching to the knees. 



Major G. E. Fryer describes by the name of Khyengst tribes extensively distributed 

 in the western mountains of Burma from 18° to 21° N. lat. The people who came under 

 his observation belonged to the Sandoway district, Arracan. The Khyengs, he says, regard 

 the Shendoos (Chins), Khumis and Lungkhes (Lunctas) as of the same race as themselves, 

 and the tradition is that they came from the sources of the Kyendweng (Chendwin) 

 river. Major Fryer gives some interesting facts on their physical characteristics. 

 The average height of twenty-five men was 65*2 inches, and their weight was 

 110 lbs. ; the average height of twenty-five women was 57'4 inches, and their weight 

 94 lbs. The colour of the skin corresponded with No. 28, and that of the eyes with 

 No. 1 of Broca's Tables ; the hair was black, though some women had reddish-brown 

 patches on the crown of the head. The faces of the women were tattooed. The heads 

 of a number of men and women were measured, and the mean length in the men is 

 given as 7 '5 inches, the mean parietal breadth 5 "5 inches; interzygomatic breadth 

 5 '3 inches. The corresjDonding dimensions in the women were 6'8, 5*0, and 5 "2 

 inches. The length-breadth index of the head, calculated from these data, gave 

 73'3 for the men, and 73"5 for the women ; so that both sexes were distinctly 

 dolichocephalic. As to clothing, the men wear a loin-cloth, passed between the thighs 

 with an end hanging down in front and behind, whilst the women wear a loose blouse 

 reaching to the knee. As regards the practice of wearing the breech-cloth tucked be- 

 tween the legs like a dog's tail, Lewin states that the Kiimi are called by the Arracanese, 

 Khive mi, dog-men, though he thinks that the name may also refer to the practice of 

 eating dog for food. 



Lewin, Fryer, and other writers make reference to tribes situated to the east of 

 the Lushai hill-tracts by the name of Shendoos or Shendus. Little that was definite 

 was known about them until the annexation of Upper Burma brought our Government 

 officials into contact with the wild mountain tribes living to the east of the Koladync 

 river. These tribes were known to the Burmese as Chins. The Chin hill-tracts lie 

 between the Koladyne river and the Chinduri river, and the ranges extend northwards 



* Asiatic Researches, vol. xvi. p. 261. 



t Journal Asiatic Sor., Bengal, 1875, vol. xliv. part i. p. 39. 



