e. The Karens, who inhabit the upper valley of the Me Ping and the mountainous districts of Arakan, Pegu, and Tenasserim, the country between the Sittong and the Salwen (red Karens), probably came into Burma at a later date than the Mons; they maintain that they came thither from Yunnan about the fifth century of the present era. In stature they are under the average (1 m. 64, according to Mason), and they exhibit traits intermediate between those of the Malays and the Thai (see below). Numbering about a million, they are speedily becoming civilised while striving at the same time to preserve their independence.[440]
The Khyens or Chin of the mountains of Arakan and the Tung-tu of Tenasserim are Karens crossed with Burmese and Shans (p. [401]). The Lemets, the Does, and the Khmus of Fr. Garnier (Kamu and Kamet of MacLeod) who inhabit the east of Luang-Prabang (French Laos), and perhaps the Lavas or Does of H. Hallet, mountaineers of West Siam, are related to the Karens or Khyens.
f. The Nagas of Manipur and the mountains extending to the north (Patkoi, Barai) of this country are Indonesians more or less pure both in physical type ([Frontispiece] and Fig. [17]) and manners and customs. They may be sub-divided into Angami, Kanpui, etc., wearing the petticoat or apron, of the west; into Lhota, Ho, etc., wearing the plaid, of the centre; and into Nangta, or naked, of the east. Various ethnic peculiarities, skull-hunting and multicoloured hair or feather ornaments, long shields (Frontispiece), breast-plates, method of weaving, and houses in common (Morong), connect them with the Dyaks and other Indonesians. Tattooing prevails only among the tribes with a monarchical organisation (Klemm). The Lushai, who live at the south of Manipur, are Nagas mixed with Kyens and Burmese of Arakan. They may be sub-divided into several tribes: the Kuki, subject to the English, very short (medium height 1 m. 57); the Lushai properly so called, partly in subjection (41,600 in Assam), somewhat slender (1 m. 63), with brown skin, flat nose, prominent cheek-bones, husbandmen;[441] the Saks, Kamis, and Shendons or Shaws. West of the Lushai dwell the Tippera and the Mrows, tribes of short stature (1 m. 59), still more pronouncedly intermingled with the Burmese.[442]
FIG. 123.—Black Sakai of Gunong-Inas
(Perak, Malay Peninsula).
(Phot. Lapicque.)
g. The Selungs are also regarded as Indonesians; numbering but a thousand in all, they live in their canoes in the Mergui archipelago, wandering from island to island like veritable gypsies of the sea, after the manner of the Orang-Sletar of the Straits of Singapore, now quite disappeared. In the same category we may also place the natives of the Nicobar islands, though among the latter we must distinguish (1) the Nicobarese of the small islands and the coasts of Great Nicobar who have intermixed with the Malays, and (2) the Shom-Pen of the interior of the latter island, savages of a somewhat pure Indonesian type.[443]
h. We must also include in this long list of the aboriginal peoples of Indo-China the Negritoes,[444] belonging to a distinct race, chiefly characterised by short stature, black skin, and frizzy or woolly hair (see p. [288]). As genuine representatives of this race, only three tribes are known: the Aeta, who inhabit the Philippine islands (p. [483]); the Sakai of the interior of the Malay peninsula; and the Minkopis of the Andaman islands.
The Minkopis or Andamanese (Fig. [124]), of very short stature (1 m. 49), sub-brachycephalic (ceph. ind. 82.6 average on the skull and on the liv. sub.), are in the lowest scale of civilisation. They live in “chongs”—small roofs on four stakes (p. [160]), go naked, and procure the strict necessaries of life by hunting, making use of a peculiar kind of bow (p. [263]). In number they scarcely exceed five thousand (E. Reclus).
i. The pure Sakai, Semangs or Menik (as for example those of Gunong-Inas, Fig. [123]) are the same height as the Minkopis (1 m. 49), but their head is less round and their face more angular than those of the latter; they live likewise by hunting and by the gathering of honey, camphor, india-rubber, and other products of tropical forests, which they exchange with the Malays for tools, arms, etc. Several populations of the Malay peninsula, particularly the Mintra, the Jakhuns of Jokol, are Sakai-Malay half-breeds, as is shown by the light colour of their skin, their stature, higher than that of the Sakai, but still very short (1 m. 54), their frizzy hair, etc.