(12 EASTERN GEOGRAFirY, 



Pt*niriKtdn. Here they form a ^orapnet nationality, which has long been 

 dominant throughout all the riverain parts of the uppur rvnil middle 

 Irawuddy Ijfltfaii, And whieh has gradually crowded out or absorbed the, 

 Taking {Hon) mco, now nearly extinct as a, separate ethnical element ia 

 Pegu and the Irawaddy-Sittang delta. 



The Takings, who at one time held iJmoat exclusive possession 

 of tti ia region, from Proroe to llaulmetn, can no longer be dis- 

 tingxiinhed physically from their Burmese neighbours. But their 

 language is totally different from all tho surrounding idioms, and 

 affinities have been sought for it on tins one hand in the Kolarian 

 of Centrul India, on the other, in the Annainese of Tonkin. The 

 lliLlhv ■ ■• ilivihidlis: tlu: M»>ti .Tin?, of Pegu, the Mtitl Di 



of Ilangfin and Tuvoy, nnd the Mon Myat Laura of MyawadL The 

 term Talalwj is the same ns Ttlinga {Tftntpi), pointing at the 

 Indian origin, not of tlio race, bat of its former rulers. 



The Burmese national name, alwavn written J/jfwmww, and formerly 

 pronounced Byamma or 2iamma f for Jltahma, there being no letter r in 

 tho language, U associated by the natives witb the ** mne Brahman, " 

 from whom they claim descent. Hut it is obviously derived from a root 

 myt* for mro f meaning "iNeoplc," "men," a term by which some of the 

 primitive membtii-zt of the race are still known in thoArakanese highlands. 



The SrAMKSK, Shajtr, and Laos. 



Under a general uniformity of typo tho Siamese present in 

 llieir outward appearance and mental characteristics seme marked 

 differences from their western neighbours. They are on the whole 

 a less vigorous race both physically and morally, of shorter stature, 

 and less robust frames, Icjj8 independent and more subservient to 

 despotic rule. In SLrnn ulavery, little practised rn Bunna, is a wide- 

 spread national institution, and tho people, although in some respects 

 more culiuwd nnd rained, are at the a nine time mora effeminate. 

 Those differences may perhaps to some extent be accounted for by 

 the different origin of the two races, the Burmese coming directly 

 from the lofty Tibetan tableland, the Siamese from the low-lying 

 plains of Eastern China, Rue cut ethnological research lias revealed 

 the fact that the Chinese people are not the primitive inhabitants of 

 the Yangtse-Kiang basin, which on their comparatively recent arrival 

 from the north they found already settled by a semi-civilised 

 agricultural race that Isaa been identified with the modem Shana, 



This term ,Shm is probably the same as Stum, which comes to 

 ua through the intermediate Portuguese form SiAo* But in any 

 case there can he no doubt that the Siamese are a Southern branch 

 of the great Shan nation, the transition between the two being 



