Burma: Census of India 1901 Vol. I - Khamkoo

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I 28
REPORT ON THE CENSUS OF BURMA.
children are called after the father though the mother belongs to the other tribe. There is
no object now in keeping up this distinction, but up to the time of the annexation and ever
since the " Apwas " paid double tax to the Shan Prince, they have had to pay double what
the "Amas" did.
" Another account, and one which has a ring of probability about it, is that the Kadus
are descendants of Kachins who were settled in the Katha district and as far south as
Shwebo many years ago. The Kadus who make this statement say that Kachin graves
have been found in Ganan and other parts of the district, and from some of these necklaces
and other ornaments of Kachin make have been dug up. One version is that the ancestors
of the Kadus were a band of Kachins who were taken captives by Burmans and made to
work by the latter at digging tanks and making canals. The Burmans called their captives
Kantus (tank-diggers) which in time came to be corrupted into Kaudus and finally Kadus.
In proof of their Kachin descent these Kadus point to the similarity of several words in the
two tongues.
These stories are variants of the legends given in the Upper Burma Gazetteer.
The Kadus have by now developed into what are little more than hybrids. All the
men talk Burmese and nearly all read and write it. The practice of staining the
teeth of the women used at one time to be a distinctive feature of the Kadus, but,
as Mr. Blake writes—
" In fairness to the present and rising generation, it must be said that, with few exceptions,
the young women and young girls have not followed this dirty custom. The few
young girls who stain their teeth are those who still adhere to the national costume."
This teeth-staining recalls some of the practices of the Bres of Karenni.
The fact that it is confined to the fair sex gives a hint at a Chin origin and suggests
an analogy with the tattooing of the faces of Chin women. As a disfigurement
it is apparently a superfluity, for Mr. Blake implies that adding artificially to
the uncomeliness of the average Kadu woman's features is like gilding refined
gold.' A total of 34,629 persons were returned as Kadus at the Census.
186. Sir George Scott in his Gazetteer treats the Taws of the Indauktha
... circle of the Katha district as differing racially from the
communities in whose midst they live. According to
the tradition given in the Gazetteer, the Taws are the descendants of a number of
Pagan ladies whom the reigning monarch of Pagan, a man or rather woman-eating,
birdlike being, considered unfit for human consumption and relegated to the jungles
of Katha.
The Deputy Commissioner of Katha, however, in his report on the
Census operations, writes as follows :
" Other people in the Pinlebu township returned themselves as Taws, but, as the
Myook, who is a local man, stated that the name was merely that of an old circle and not
of a tribe of people properly so-called, this designation was not accepted, the people being
shown as Shans."
As a matter of fact 833 people appeared in the schedules in Upper Burma
under the designation of " Taw."
In the same communication Mr. Houghton alludes to a community known
as the Kunyins, who have returned themselves as a distinct race and appear in
the Census returns as such for the first time to the number of 283. I can find no
reference to this people in the Gazetteer.
187. Mr. Smyth, Deputy Commissioner of the Upper Chindwin, has sent me
a
The Tamans.
.few P articular s regarding what is probably a hybrid
tribe found in the Homalinand Uyu townships of that
district and known as the Tamans. Their name as well as their habitat would
appear to hint at a Burmese-Shan mixture, but their language, like Kadu, shows
marks of a Kachin influence. Maung Myat Tun Aung, Subdivisional Officer of
Legayaing, who has furnished the particulars above referred to, thinks that the
Tamans are not Shans, but it appears probable that there is now more Shan than
anything else in their composition. It seems to me that a study of the Tamans
side by side with the Kadus might yield exceedingly interesting results. They
numbered 829 persons in all.
188. There were 1,427 Lisaws returned as such in the Northern Shan States,
in KengtOng and in the
The Lisha WS) Lisaws or Ya»
Ruby Mines district. In the
yi n.
past they were thought to be connected with the
Kachins. Sir George Scott holds the bond of union, if any, to be extremely slender.