visited in 1825 by Major Bedford, whose notice of them finds place in Major Wilcox's report upon Asam.

In the matter of food they were well-nigh omnivorous; but expressed a horror for those who eat beef. Whether or no they drank milk is not stated. The generality of the mountain tribes of the Himalaya eschew it. Each warrior had a bow and quiver; some of the arrows being poisoned. Their dress was from the bark of the Uddal tree. It was tied round the loins and hung down behind in loose strips. It served for a rug to sit down on by day, and for a pillow to sleep on at night. Some wore basket caps; some caps made of cane and skin; some caps made like helmets, and ornamented with stained hair. Every man had something woollen in his possession; sometimes a waistcoat, sometimes a blanket; sometimes coloured, sometimes figured. When first visited they were in the habit of making periodical descents from their highlands and taking tribute, or levying black mail, from the villagers of the level country. They also took slaves; for amongst the Abors of Pasial many Asamese captives were found. This has now been put a stop to.

The buffalo is the animal they most especially hunt. They wound him with a poisoned arrow, and follow his tract, until they find him either dead or dying. The favourite ornament for their caps is the beak of one of the toucans, or horn-bills, the Buceros (? Nepalensis). With this at the front, and a red chowry behind, the appearance of their head-gear is imposing.

If the derivation of the word Abor be accurate, the term Bor Abor is something like a contradiction. Bor means tribute ; whilst a (like the Greek a) = not. Hence, Abor free from tribute. It is no native word at all; but one used to the Asamese; consequently, it can be applied to more populations than one. They may, for instance,

be Bor Naga who pay tribute, and Abor Naga who do not; the latter being called simply Nagas. But what if one tribe more pre-eminently independent than the rest get called Abor, κατ' ἐξοχὴν? Such a thing may easily be. And what if a portion of it lose its independence, as it may easily do? In such a case it becomes Bor Abor, or the Tributary Independent, and we get an oxymoron.

This really happens. The population which the Asamese call Abor call themselves Padam, of which they are two divisions, the Bor and the Abor, the payers of no tribute, and the payers of tribute.

This really happens if the current explanation of the words Abor and Bor be accurate. But I take exception

Does

to it. The Bor Abors are the stronger, the more distant, the more independent population. Besides which, there is a branch of the Khamti called the Bor Khamti. Bor mean great? I have seen a statement to this effect; indeed, it appears in the very paper wherein we find the other etymology. It should be remembered, however, that it may do this and not mean much in the way of superiority of magnitude. Magna Græcia was not so large as ordinary Greece. Can it mean the mother country? In some cases it seems to do so. What it means in the case of the Bor Abor and the Bor Khamti remains to be decided.

A Padam village on the river Shiku consisted of 100 houses, with granaries at a distance (for security against fire), and a morang in the centre. The morang is a large building for the reception of strangers, for the transaction of public business, and for the residence of the unmarried men, who live in it as in a common club or boardinghouse. At the dawn of day the boys go round like watchmen, bawl out the time, and tell the half-awakened sleepers that it is time for them to be at work.

In their politics there is unlimited freedom, both of voting and of speaking. The people pass the resolutions,

each individual having a vote. And this they cherish carefully, jealously; their constitution being essentially democratic. Age and oratory have some weight. Upon the whole, however, the legislation lies with the masses, small though they be.

Their creed is simple. of the woods and hills.

They sacrifice to certain deities
The conical mountain, Regam,

is the abode of an ill-natured, not to say malignant demon, who would cause the death of any one who should pry into the secrets of his dwelling, which is at the very top of the peak.

The Miri.-The Miri are in closer relation to the Asam government than the Abor, for it is against the Abor that the Asam government protects them. The bow and arrow-the arrow poisoned-are the chief Miri weapons. Their occupancy is on the eastern frontier of the Abor area.

The Bor Abor.-The Bor Abor, probably, belong to the same division of the same class as the Abor. The evidence, however, of their speaking the same language is incomplete. They lie to the back of the Abor, on the higher hills, and in a more inaccessible country. They are rude, independent, powerful, and but little known.

As we approach the head of the valley, and prepare for turning round towards its south-eastern margin, we come to the country of

The Mishmi.-The Mishmi frontier touches that of the Padam, or Abor, being on the drainage of the Dihong and Dibong. The details of the area beyond it are unknown. Its villages are small. Jillee and Anundea contain from thirty to forty families, Mabúm ten, Alonga twenty, Chunda twelve; making, in all, eighty.

They were variously

The Mishmi, differing from the Padam in language, and in the shrine at which they worship, acknowledge them as relations, and are acknowledged by them; a common origin being claimed by the two populations. They also eat together. On the other hand, they quarrel and fight, and when the Mishmi of the above-named villages were visited by Captain Wilcox, they were at variance with the Padam of the Dihong and certain members of their own stock as well. dressed. None, however, were observed to wear anything woollen. Some wore rings beneath the knee, some caps of cane. Their ears were pierced, and their ear-rings various; now of metal, now of wood. Their arrows were poisoned so effectively that they were said to kill elephants. The wounded part was cut out; the rest eaten. They described the tribes with which they were at war, but which were as Mishmi as themselves, unfavourably. Those of Bubhajia were accused of cannibalism.

The hut of the chief of the Thethong Mishmi was

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strangely and filthily ornamented. Long poles of bamboo were hung with the blackened, smoke-dried skulls of all the animals with which the owner had ever feasted his friends and retainers. The smokiness of the huts has told upon the physiognomy of the Mishmi. They habitually contract their eyebrows. What is the mortality of the children? In Iceland, and the island of St. Kilda, where the reek is as impure as it is profuse, the deaths of infants from trismus neonatorum are inordinately numerous.

Some of the tribes turn up the hair and tie it in a knot, whilst others are closely cropped. The lower classes dress scantily; the chiefs well; in Chinese and Tibetan cloths, and with Chinese and Tibetan ornaments. The cross-bow is a common weapon.

Polygamy is common; the limit to the number of wives being the means of the husband. For each wife so many heads of cattle. Ghalim, one of the more powerful chiefs, had ten or twelve in his house, and a large remainder in separate establishments, or quartered amongst their relations. The women mix with the men, and join them in every labour but that of the chase.

For even ten wives a man must have a large house. Ghalim's was about one hundred and thirty feet long, and eleven wide. It was raised on posts. He was proud of the skulls that adorned it. It showed the number of cattle he had killed in the exercise of a noble hospitality. When he dies they will all be cleared away, and buried near the burial-place of the chief himself. And then his son will take his pride and pleasure in filling the house afresh. A chief who was either shabby or ostentatious retained the skulls of his father's time, and bragged of them as his own. He was voted an impostor accordingly.

The calf of the leg of the daughter of the Gam of Dilling measured more round than both Captain Wil