POPULATION OF ASAM. 339 



union or fraternity, and rarely to co-operate, except for some temporary pur- 

 pose of plunder. Of late years they have taken advantage of the weakness 

 of the Asam Government, and have carried their ravages with fire and 

 sword beyond the capital, Rangpur, laying waste the whole country, as far as 

 Jorhdth, and carrying off the wretched inhabitants into slavery : both banks 

 of the river have been swept by their depredations, and the number of cap- 

 tives stated to have been carried off appears almost incredible. Of these the 

 greater part have been sold to the hill Stnh-phos, Khamtis, Shams, &c., but 

 many of those retained for domestic and agricultural services in the Asamese 

 lowlands, were liberated by the advance of the British detachments. 



In the hills to the eastward of the pass to Ava, (the western hills being 

 inhabited by the Nagas) and the country beyond them, are the original pos- 

 sessions of the S'lnh-phos, whence, as before stated, they have descended into 

 upper Asam. In endeavouring to trace their manners, customs, and tradi- 

 tions, there is great discrepancy and contradiction between the accounts of the 

 different chiefs, although, in some material points, they agree. 



The statement given by the Bisa Gaum, the most intelligent of them, 

 appears to be the most consistent, and I therefore follow it, leaving the fabulous 

 portions to be brought up in the Appendix (No. II.) By his account, in which 

 he agrees with the others, the Sinh-phos were originally created and establish- 

 ed on a plain at the top of the mountain, called Mnjai Singra Bhum, situated 

 at a distance of two months journey from Sadiya, between the country of the 

 Bor Khamtis and the border of China, and washed by a river called Sri Lohit, 

 flowing in a southerly direction to the Iraumdi : during their sojourn there, 

 they were immortal, and held celestial intercourse with the planets and all 

 heavenly intelligences, following the pure worship of one supreme being ; but 

 on their descending to the plains, they fell into the common lot of huma- 

 nity, and having been obliged to embrue their hands in the blood of men 



o O 



