Books are extant in the ancient language of Assam, which
is termed Ahom. The original Ahoms are supposed to have
been a branch of-the Shyun or T’hay race, which people
Laos and Siam, hut it has been remarked that no vestige of
the worship of Buddha is to be found in their old chronicles.*
Buddhism never penetrated into?-'this country «{ but Cam-
rup or the Lower Assam, including, besidi&'the country
which still retains that name, the modern Rangpur and
Rangamatty, besides Manipur, was under the influejncc of
the Brahmans, and the original seat, as it is said, of the1
corrupt and sensual system of the Tantras. This may account
for the close affinity between the languages of Bengal;
and of Assam. We have been assured that; six-tenth^gpf
the most common words are identical in the Assamese and
Bengali idioms, the former substituting some letters according
to rule for others iii the latter. ScjipeSbf the inflections
of nouns and verbs are like' the Sanskrit, but there
are likewise other peculiar features.t in which the Assam
approximates to the Indo-Chinese and Tartar languages':
namely, it has no plural forms in tenses of verbs, no. declension
of adjectives, no endings to denote degrees ' of comparison
; verbs come after their nominatives; particles are
always suffixed ; genitives preeeed the nounspby whj^h they
are governed.*
We may consider it as proved by these facts that the
Assamese are partly of Siamese and da partof Hind 6. descent.
This refers to the eivilised people of the Assam valley.
In various tracts, and especially on the neighbouring mountains,
there are, as we shall find, many distinct races.
A variety of tribes inhabit the mountainous regions bordering
on Assam or the valley of the Brahmaphtra, who must
be briefly described in order to complete the ethnography of
this region. I shall enumerate them in two divisions.
* Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, No. 61.
t See Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, No. 72.
1. Of the Garros, the Cachari, the Cossyahs, the Cassays
or Manipuri.
The Garros are a wild tribe of mountaineers, who formerly
occupied an extensile region bounded on the north by
the Brahmaphtra, on the south by the districts of Silhet and
Mymunsingh, on the. east by Assam and Gentiah, and to the
west by the. great f sweep of the Brahmapfitra. At present
this race of people is shut up in a mountainous tract occupying
only the central part of their former possessions, having
been driven from the valleys and river-hanks by colonists.
Their hills are productive and from one hundred to three
thousand feet in heighfch : the climate is humid and the
spil covered with forests. The Garros are much stronger
than the Bengalese: aGarro woman can carry over the hills
as large a burden as a Bengalese man can carry along the
plains. They rear among. the mountains, cattle, goats,
swine, dogs, cats, fowls, and ducks, for their: own eating.
Puppies "roasted alive are with them considered a great
delicacy. The law of revenge for blood prevails among
them* and they have the remarkable,custom of making a
solemn vow to eat the heads of their antagonists; and
although a generation may pass away before the vow is
accomplished, the,engagement is not forgotten.
The northern Garros are said to differ somewhat from
those of the southern parts. The former are a stout, strong-
limbed people, with strongly-marked Chinese countenances,
and in general with harsh features. Some of their chiefs
are rather handsome. The southern Garros are likewise
stout, well*shaped men, hardy and able to do much work.
<c They have a surly look, a flat Gafre nose, small eyes,
a wrinkled forehead, over-hanging eye-brows, with a large
mouth, thick lips, and round face. Their colour is of a
light or deep brown. They are of a mild temper, gay and
fond of dancing.”
The unconverted Garros believe in a transmigration of
souls as a state of reward and punishment
The Cachari.—The Rajah of Cachar is said to govern a