14 GEORGE D-S-DUNBAR ON 



The migration of the Abors in a southerly direction , down the valley, may be 

 considered as fairly well established. 



It would seem, though no evidence has been sifted on the point, that the Padam 

 clan have steadily crept down the Yamne valley on the one side and towards the Dibang 

 on the other. Meybo ' and Siluk seem to have been in existence three generations (90- 

 100 years) ago. The Padam tendency has been to push the Mishmi settlers west 

 from their earlier colonies about the Ai-eng country and the Sisseri river, back over 

 the Dibang. The Abors have not succeeded in establishing themselves on the left 

 bank of the Dibang river. 



The obvious trade advantages that have opened out within the last thirty years 

 have attracted the colonies of Padam and Minyong Abors down to the plains of Assam, 

 where they can easily obtain salt, iron and cloth from the Hindu traders of Sadiya, 

 L,aimekuri and Dibrugarh. At one time, until they had killed most of the trees, the 

 Abors brought down a considerable amount of rubber to barter for their necessities of 

 life. The colonies at the foot of the hills have adopted many of the customs of the plains 

 people, and these influences are gradually spreading northwards. The use of boats 

 and casting nets, methods of agriculture and the substitution of bazaar-bought 

 thread for their own cotton are the more noticeable examples. In one of the more 

 southerly Dobang villages a ball game (learnt from the Bengalis of Dibrugarh, it is 

 believed) is now enthusiastically played. It is not unlike rounders. 



The normal causes of migration, that operate so clearly in the abrupt and com- 

 paratively unproductive zone through which the Dihang flows as it comes nearer the 

 plains, do not exist in the same degree in the Dobang and Memong country. The 

 older settlements of these clans are in wide fertile valleys that can easily support a 

 large population and the necessity for migration does not arise with any frequency. 

 Consequently Galong migrations cannot be traced to anything like the same extent 

 as the movements of the Minyongs and Pasis. The most careful investigations have 

 failed to trace the Dobang movements further back than the Ising settlement ; from 

 there Basar appears to have been colonized ; from Basar the villages of the Siemen 

 valley claim their origin. Ising and Basar are about 10 miles apart and are large and 

 flourishing communities to this day. It is however believed that the Galongs and 

 Subansiri Daflas once lived in the Yamne valley, and that the Galongs, at all events, 

 migrated by the gorge at Pasighat along the foot of the hills and up the Siemen valley. 



The Memong village of Nomdir claims Ising as its parent village. These two 

 places are a long day's march apart, over the ridge that divides the Subansiri and 

 Dihang drainage areas. The Memongs affirm that they are descended from one Memong 

 whose brother Rolero, so it is maintained, gives his name to the clan of Rolero, which 

 is believed to inhabit the country on the right bank of the Siyom, about 28 15' paral- 

 lel of latitude. With this clan touch has not as yet been established. 



The migratory lines of the clans may be summarized as follows: the Minyong 

 and Pasi from north to south, the Padam southwards and eastwards from their 

 metropolis Damroh, and the Galongs, Dobang Tadun, and quite possibly Memong 



1 Meuibu. 



