24 GEORGE D-S-DUNBAR ON 



reached by the exploration party in 1912, has kindly supplied the following account 

 of tribal conditions in the upper Dihang valley beyond the Minyong influence of Riga. 

 Simong is the richest and most powerful community in this northern zone and is allied 

 with the neighbouring Karko and Bomo Janbo clans. It dominates the smaller villages 

 in its vicinity and is believed to guide the councils of its allies. It is strong enough 

 to approach the Padam on equal terms and may be taken to be the strongest power 

 existing in the valley. 1 



There is a slight but quite perceptible trade southwards in such articles as woollen 

 coats and swords, through the Karka and Memong tribes, but trade does not run 

 freely and no other trace of indirect Tibetan, or rather Bori, influence is to be found 

 in the northern Dobang and Tadun villages. For instance, the white Tibetan studs 

 that generally adorn the waist-cloth hoops of the Memongs, are only in the very rarest 

 instances worn by the Dobangs and Taduns. The southern Galongs and the lower 

 Minyong and Padam colonies naturally buy all they require from the shops along the 

 Assamese frontier. The southern Memong communities obtain their salt and the 

 bulk of the metal for their swords, arrow-heads and spear heads, through Koiyu, Kak- 

 ing, Dosing, the recognized trade media, but they consider the long swords that they 

 buy from the Boris to be superior to anything they can get from the plains. The 

 Memong women get their cloth from Laimekuri (through Dobang intermediaries), 

 whilst the men buy their coats from the Boris. These are expensive luxuries and the 

 Memongs stated that every year they get more and more cloth from the south. The 

 Minyongs do not encourage trade with the Memong country through the eastern Siyom 

 valley or Yemsing and so connect up with the main Dihang-Balek-Sadiya trade artery. 

 The Memongs , being able to draw freely from other sources , are not concerned by this 

 commercial blockade in the adverse way that the Panggis are affected by the stifling 

 of trade intercourse by their neighbours. The prejudicial effect upon the Panggi 

 clan is very striking, and they compare in every way most unfavourably with their 

 neighbours. 



The best possible description of the general appearance of the Abor people is 

 r ,_ „ , afforded by photographs. 2 For the admirable series taken 



Appearance of the People. J r ° r 



in the Dihang valley, that forms so valuable a portion of 

 this Memoir, I am gratefully indebted to Mr. S. W. Kemp of the Indian Museum. 

 Only a shoit description of the people is therefore necessary. 



For the result of anthropometrical work in the Abor Hills, the reader is referred 

 to the valuable contribution that the authors, Mr. Kemp and Mr. Coggin Brown, have 

 most kindly incorporated in this Memoir. 



Like most hillmen, the Abors and kindred tribes are not a hairy race ■ weak strag- 

 gling moustaches and beards were occasionally noticed. Men and women turn grey in 

 the course of age, but I saw no cases of baldness. The hair is straight and black. 

 Amongst the Abors and to some extent amongst the Southern Galongs both sexes 

 shave their heads to a height of about 2\ inches above the ears, leavingacap of hair on 



1 This was corroborated in 1913. 1 See also the plates in Dalton's " Ethnology of Bengal." 



