the Siamese seas, eastward to Tongking, and north
and west till it reached the Brahmaputra and founded
the Ahom kingdom of Assam. The Shan are now
found in Burma, in the Shan States, and far down
the eastern peninsula to Mergui. In the north they
spread over the whole of the upper territories of the
i b i b a w T a u n g -B a in g A h em m b o n 01 N y a u n g -Y w e - Thibaw
SH AN PR IN C E S
Irrawaddy from Myitkina to the Third Defile; and
along the Chindwin, where traces of their former supremacy
survive in the principalities of Singkaling—■
Hkamti and Thaungdut. They have ruled at Ava,
and have come near to the mastery of Burma. They
owe their failure to their inability to combine on any
national scale. In economic qualities they surpass the
26
Burmese, adding yet another to the list of competing
peoples destined, unless the latent vigour of the Burman
awakes, to divide up his heritage.
CHIN AND KACHIN
The Chin and Kachin have bulked largely in the
SH AN OF TH E YU N Z A L IN
recent history of Burma. Long after 1 hibaw, the last
of her kings, had been carried away to a sordid exile,
and the British peace had been established over the
land, the Chin and the Kachin continued to make war
upon the Empire. The plains of Burma had long been
their plundering grounds, where men and cattle lay at
27