The Journal of the Siam Society Vol. XXIX, Part 1-2, 1936 - Khamkoo

142 l\1~\'IEWR OF ll001{R [VOL. XXIX
Only the last chapter (written hy Lady Neott) Lren,ts of the Burmese,
as the idea of the author wrts to limit his 1.\'0l·k to the races
encircling Burma proper.
We are thus treated to a lmleidoscopic 1·eviuw of the peoples living
to the east, north twd \vest. of Bunurt :-the " mg-bag of races;" the
Karen; the Bre; the Padaung with their stiff giraf-neckecl belles;
the Shan; the Palaung; Kttchin; Chin, and, not to forget, the headhunting
"wild " Wa.
Most o£ what is tolcl here is already known fmm ''the Handbook,"
but this time the det:~cription is spiced with Sir George's personal
experiences and exploits from the time when the Shan States were
brought under British control in the eighties of b:,;t century.
On the very first page Sir George Scott asks " Who were the
ttutochthones clisposse;,;sed by the Burmese in the (:)th century B. 0. !"
and he thinks they were the Selu'ug or Proto-Maluy;,;. This may be
correct, as it is now thought that the distant forefathers of the
present l\Ialays came from Eastern '-l'ihet. 'l'he:,;e Proto-Malays may,
however, have partly disposse;,;secl partly ab:,;orbed the .!Helanesoids,
who are surmised to have been the population of Indochina in remote
times. Another erndit on Burmese matters, Mr. F. H. Giles (Phya
Indra lYlontri), says as follows: "I think that the autochthones were
the Riang, an ancient people who occupied most of the Shan States
prior to the southern march of the '-l'hui. The Hiang are a Kha
people of the M6n-Khrner race. When the Siamese ::;peak of the Kariangs,
meaning the Karen, they are speaking with the voice of racial
memory. rrhese people were very important aud probably the
autochthones; they are related to the Palaung."
With regard to the Burmese .Mr. Giles sayc; :- " The Burmese,
as a race, did not exist in the oth century B. C. '-!.'he people we
call Burmese to-day are undoubtedly a mixture of many peoples and
tribes. Their language is HO undeveloped that it ir-; nJmost impossible
to write a foreign word intelligibly in it. '-J'he Burmese language
seems to lack all the elements of a cultured tongue. '-l'he Burmese
are a composite people who would seem to have entered the realm of
civilization only about a thousand years ago. The Burmese came
frol!l '-l'ibet and moving down from the 'l'ibetan plateau entered Bm·
nm along the valleys o£ the Brahmaputra, the Chindwin and the
Irrawaddy rivers. Their movements south must have occupied cen·
turies. The Burmese call themselves lVIyanrna and Bhama. Both