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130
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[MAY, 1893.
immigrants into Burma. The evidence at present available points to the conclusion that this section of the race only arrived in Burma after the Burmese central authority had become somewhat established, and that these wild tribesmen, though superior in fighting qualities to the Burman, have been checked, if not forced back, by the superior power which comes from a centralised authority, even when imperfectly organised. The Kudôs would seem to have been an advance guard of the Kachin race, and, what between the Shâns and the Burmans, to have heen rapidly deprived of the autonomity which they originally possessed. They have in fact been chiefly subjugated by the former of these two races, which, unable owing to the Burmese power to get an outlet to the South-west, forced one to the North-west, a movement culminating in the irruption of the Ahoms into Assam.
A glance at the list of the words given will show that at the time the Kudôs left their Tibetan home they were in a very low state of civilisation, and could not in fact count up to more than 5, or at most 6. The numerals above 6, and probably also that number, have been obviously borrowed from one of the Shân family of languages. This is in curious contrast to the ChinLushais, who have their own numerals up to 100. The words for 'buffalo' and 'goat' have also been adopted by the Kudôs after their arrival in Burma, but it is evident that previously they had pigs, fowls, and dogs, and that they knew of horses.
Apart from the above-noted general relationship of the Kudôs, my examination of the words given has led to the very interesting discovery that the Saks, a small tribe living in the Valley of the Kuladaing in Arakan, are, of all known tribes, the most closely related to the Kudos, and that, in fact, it can scarcely be much more than 100 years since they formed one people. The list of Såk words given in Hodgson's Vocabulary is unfortunately incomplete, but the resemblances to the Kudô words now given are so striking, in several cases the Sak furnishes the only parallel to the Kudô word, as to show that they must have at one time formed one people, and that the period of separation cannot have been very long ago. This is the more remarkable as the Sâks live now far away from the Kudos, and are in fact surrounded by tribes of the Chin-Lushai race, from whom they probably received a rough handling before they reached their present habitat. The most probable explanation is that a portion of the Kudos, driven forth by some vis major, endeavoured to cross the hills to Naga-land, but were unable to get through, or else lost their way, and, striking the head waters of the Kulâdaing, followed that river down to where they now live. They now form on the West of these hills, as the Kudos do on the East, the most Southern extension of the Kachin-Naga races. The result of this discovery is that the Saks must be withdrawn from the Chin-Lushai branch and affiliated to Kachin-Naga branch, (sub-section Kudô), of the Tibeto-Burman
race.
As to the original habitat of the Kudos, together with that of the Kachin-Naga subfamily generally, it is probable on the evidence before us that they came from NorthEastern Tibet, their route lying through the passes North of Bhamo. Their congeners in those regions would appear to be Gyarungs, Gyamis, Sokpas and Thochus, of which races but little is as yet known.
The first of these peoples is, it may be remarked, somewhat closely allied to the Karens, whose passage into Burma, though by the same route as the Kachin-Naga immigration, was probably much anterior to it. The language of the Karens is very much corrupted, and prima facie does not seem to be specially related to those of the Kachin-Nagas. All, however, show a tendency towards the Chinese section of the family. I use this last expression advisedly,
1 A proof of this can be seen in the word for moon,' which in almost all dialects of this sub-family is da, (with variations), instead of la, &c. Now in the Tibetan language, which was reduced to writing about 632 A. D., it is spelt z-la wa (4), which must be taken as representing the usual pronunciation of that time, and it is only since then that the sound has become corrupted into dá-wa.
2 Perhaps a Shan immigration.
