PURRIKHET.
(462)
THE Kookies or Kukis are a tribe which belong to Eastern Assam, bordering upon Burmah. These highlands supply some of the affluents of the Kramfal, or eastern branch of the Chittagong river. To the north of the Bora or Bunza (Bomdee) are closely allied tribes, termed collectively Lungla and Kungyc or Kuki, who occupy the highlands of Tippera., and extend south-east towards the head of the Koladan. Both the Bunza and the Kuki appear to belong to the Burman family. The Kuki represent its most archaic and barbarous condition. The tribes that have been exposed on the seaboard of Arracan, in the basin of the Irawady, to the influence of the Chinese, Shanas, Mons, Bengahis, and others, have attained a comparatively high civilization. The Singpho, although much behind the Burmans, are greatly in advance of the Kukis; and the Burmese seem, at a very ancient period, when their condition was similar to that of the Kuki, and perhaps in many respects more barbarous, to have spread themselves from the Upper Irawady to the north and west, as far as the highlands of Tippera on the one side, and Pegu on the other. Wherever the stock from which they have been derived was originally divided, was originally located, they probably first appeared on the ultra-Indian ethnic stage as a barbarous Himalayan tribe, immediately eastward of the Mishmi, if indeed tbey were not identical with the Mishmi of that era. The Upper Irawady was probably then occupied by the ruder and inland tribes of the Mon-Assam alliance.—Balfour.
The Plate represents the chief of the Kuki tribe with his daughter. The tribe are cultivators to a small extent, and they follow also the chase, selling ivory, gums, and forest produce in the market of Chittagong. They appear to be a peaceable tribe, and it is probable, under the effect of explorations of their wild mountains, that they will become better known than they are at present.
