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off from the main Burman body, probably during the period when Tagaung was the Burman capital, crossed the Arakan Yoma and settled down on the shores of the Bay of Bengal, thus penetrating into a region west of that occupied by the Western Tibeto-Burmans.
There is reason to believe that; just as the Arakanese branched off to the west, so in their turn the ancestors of the peoples now known as the Taungyos and Inthas moved off from the main Burman body towards the east, and took up their abode in the Southern Shan States. The main ground for this view is that both the Inthas and the Taungyos, though they have acquired some of the characteristics of the non-Burman communities among whom they reside, still speak a language which closely resembles Arakanese (i.e.) Burmese of an archaic type) and points to their having an identical origin. The above theory accounts in the simplest way for the speech of the Taungyos and Inthas. In any case, however, whether it is correct or not, there can hardly be any doubt but that the two tribes are Tibeto-Burman. They are certainly not Tai or Mon Khmer.
The only other Tibeto-Burmans besides those mentioned above that are numerous enough to deserve general mention here are the Kadus of the Katha District. They are a hybrid community with doubtless some Shan and almost certainly some Kachin or even Chin blood in their composition. Whatever their origin, however, they are now nearly Burmanized and in any case they fall properly into the Tibeto-Burman race family.
