Burmese Sketches - Khamkoo

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]3URkE8E SKETCHES.
By raiding their numbers are reduced, which is thus a check
on the population ; and, if successful, a more bountiful foodsupply
is secured. They may be described as agricultural
nomads, moving continually from one locality to another in
search of new lands for cultivaiion. Their system of agriculture
is extremely wasteful. It consists in burning down tracts of
forests and sowing, on the land, their cereals without ploughing
or irrigating it or transplanting the seedlings. Holes are made
in the ground with a pointed bamboo and a few seeds are
placed in each of them. Their agricultural outturn and the
spoils of iheir chase are hardly sufficient to keep them in health
and comfort. Their supplies have to be supplemented from
the plains, whence they must also get their salt, and the
materials for chewing and smoking— to which they are
extremely addicted— such as tobacco, cutch, lime, and betel-nut
besides cotton twist or cotton fabrics to keep themselves warm.
The Chins are broken up into a number of tribes or clans,
whose basis of organization is the worship of common tutelary
deities, or consanguinity, real or fictitious. Their language
presents many dialectical differences, which are so pronounced
that they are liable to be taken for linguistic differences. Continual
feuds and constant warfare have caused their segrega-
tion and estrangement from each other.
The Chins have some very quaint traditions which may be
of some interest to students of anthropology. They say that
mankind sprang from loi eggs laid by their goddess Hli.
From the last egg were produced the first male and female
Chin, who stood in the relation of brother and sister to each
other. These two were separated ; and when they met each
other again, the brother had espoused a bitch. The sister
wanted to marry her brother, and she appealed to Hli for
assistance. The goddess advised that certain presents
should be given to the bitch in order to induce it to give up its
conjugal rights. The advice was followed, and the happy
consummation was brought about. It is said that, owing to
this circumstance, the worship of the dog nat or spirit as the
tutelary deity of Chin women, was instituted. Be this as it
may, the dog still plays an important part in the religious
ceremonies of the Chins, and is used for sacrifice as the sheep
was among the ancient Hebrews,
They have another tradition that the mediator between Hli
and mankind is Maung Sein, or Nga Thein. This deity plays
the role of a reporter, and the happiness or torment of mortals
depends on his accounts of their actions in this life,