Page:The Tribes Of Burma - 32.png

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either like Burmans or Shans. In all 63,549 persons were returned as Danus at the 1901 Census.

The Taws and Kunyins of the Katha District (833 and 283 in 1901) are, so far as can be ascertained, of Burmese origin. For an account of the Taws see page 575 of Volume I, Part I, of the Upper Burma Gazetteer. Practically nothing is known of the Kunyins, who are alluded to at page 128 of Part I of the 1901 Burma Census Report. They have been placed provisionally with the other Burman tribes.

In so far as they are partly Arakanese, the Daingnets of the Akyab District (3,412 in 1901) may be looked upon as coming into the same category as the tribes above. So far as can be ascertained they are Tibeto-Burmans with a strain of Chittagonian blood and speaking Bengali. The 520 Rajbansis returned at the igoi Census in the Akyab and North Arakan Districts are doubtless a similar Arakanese Bengali compound.

The Marus, Lashis and Szis

The route taken by the Marus, Lashis and Szis or Atsis from their primaeval seats has been indicated in a previous portion of this note, The N'maikha valley is still the home of the northernmost members of these three tribes, and it may be presumed that they, with the Kiutzes or Khunnongs and the ancestors of the Burmans originally descended into the N'maikha ceuntry from the headwaters of the Sal ween, and are connected through the Lutzes of the Salween-N'maikha watershed with the Lisus or Lisaws of the Sal ween. The three tribes (Marus, Lashis and Szis) are all closely related to one another and speak vernaculars that have obviously the same origin as Burmese. The Marus appear to be the most numerous and most widely distributed of the