PREFACE. 



The following account of hillmen of the N.-E. Frontier of India is the result of 

 about four years' study of the peoples concerned It does not pretend to be scien- 

 tific or exhaustive, but it describes what was either seen, or learnt on reliable autho- 

 rity. It is based on observation and evidence of the Galongs, and the more westerly 

 of the Minyong settlements. Observations made amongst the Upper Abors, com- 

 munities in the Kamla valley and in the Western Dafla Hills, and notes made 

 about the Mishmis have been drawn on for purposes of comparison. 



Only the most reliable evidence available in the various communities visited has 

 been considered, and the favourable circumstances under which the notes were 

 collected made systematic corroboration possible. Steps were taken to preclude 

 collusion amongst the witnesses. Whenever possible three evidences were taken in 

 order to test the truth of the statements on which this account is based. The frag- 

 ments of mythology in particular are the result of careful investigation and are, in 

 English, what was told, originally, in Galong, Abor and Dafla. The one tale which 

 has not been tested in any way is the Dafla story of the coming of fire. 



I wish to record the very great debt of gratitude I owe to Captain R. S. Kennedy, 

 I. M.S., who devoted his perfect command of Tibetan (a language of which 1 know 

 nothing) and a considerable amount of time in interpreting the statements of Tibetan 

 witnesses whose evidence has greatly enlarged the interest of such notes on trade 

 that I had collected among the different hill communities. The passage dealing with 

 the Abor from the Tibetan standpoint and the interesting comparison between certain 

 features of the Abor and Tibetan languages are entirely due to Captain Kennedy's 

 assistance, for without his help they could never have been written. Much of the 

 evidence elicited from the Tibetans who were examined had to be rejected, being 

 either too vague or showing signs of un trust worthiness, either unintentional or 

 deliberate. The evidence that is here recorded bore the impress of truth and, except 

 where noted as i.»-t at first hand, may be taken as probable. 



I am gratefully indebted to Mr. S. W. Kemp of the Indian Museum not only for 

 his beautiful photographs and for the rubbings of metal work that illustrate the 

 memoir but for the sympathetic help that he and Mr. Coggin Brown of the Geological 

 Survey of India extended to me during the writing of these pages, and for the 

 infinity of trouble they have so generously taken to help me with the proofs. 



The authoritative anthropometrical monograph by Mr. Coggin Brown and 

 Mr. Kemp that is incorporated with this account of the hillmen, gives great scientific 

 value to the Memoir. 



I wish to express my grateful thanks to Captain Bethell, ioth Gurkha Rifles, 



