LAOS are a people of the Thai or Siamese group, the most civilised of whom occupy the valley of the Menam and its feeders. They dwell in Zimmay, also on the Menam, between lat. 19° and 22° N., due north of Siam proper, and due west of the Burmese frontier, with Laphun and Lakhon, two small territories, attached.
The Laos races are divided into two very distinct sections, those who tattoo their bodies, the Thaung Dari or black bellies, and those who do not, the Thaung Khao or white bellies. The tattooed or black bellies occupy the districts of Xieng Mai, Laphun, Lakhon, Muang Phre, and Muang Nan. The non-tattooed (white-bellied) live in the districts of Muang Lom and Muang Luang and Phra-Bang.
Laos inhabit also the valley of the Mei-kong from lat. 13° to 21° N., and are thinly scattered over the mount aiuous countries which extend between that valley and the confines of Tonkin and Katn boja.
The Laos country has undergone great changes. About the 12th century of the Christian era, the Laos were a powerful and conquering people in the upper portion of the basin of the Irawadi, where their capital was at Mo-gaung (Muang gaung or Mung Khong), and whence, in A.D. 1224, they sent an expedition which subjugated Assam, and established Ahom rule. Their native country, own territory, being a portion of the basins of the Mei-kong and the Menam, including Yunnan. About the same time they took possession of a higher portion of the upper basin of the Mili, where their chief seat was at Khamti, whence the name by which this branch is still known. At present the Laos people, under the names of Shan and Klikinti, are found in Upper Assam, and scattered over a large portion of the northern half of the basin of the Irawadi, nearly to the confluence of the Khyen-dwen with the principal stream. Scattered villages are even found in Arakan ; on the eastern side they are scattered along the Sa luen as far as lat. 18° N. The whole of the Menam basin is in their hands, with the exception of a small part of the right side near its head ; and they also occupy a large portion of the basin of the Mei-kong. The eastern tribes are known as Lo-Lo, Lau, and Thai.
In the basin of the Irawadi, the Shan are intermixed with the Tibeto-Burman tribes amongst whom they have intruded, but in large portions of it they are the principal population, and, in the N.E. corner of the empire, the Khamti may be considered as independent. It is probable that the Siamese, with the tribes of the Upper Me uam and of the Mei-kong, are directly connected with those of Yunnan, and are not offshoots from the colony of Muang-gaung. The Siamese
have advanced more than half-way down the Malay Peninsula, and but for the check given to them towards the close of the 18th century by the establishment of Penang as a British settlement, their sway would now have embraced Perak, and probably have extended to the confines of Malacca. Ile northern clans almost everywhere retain their independence, although owning a nominal alle giance, and in some instances paying tribute to Burma, to China, or to Siam, those on the frontiers of Yunnan propitiating both the Golden Foot and the Son of heaven by an acknowledgment of fealty, and some sending a triennial offering to the latter.
The Laos people on the borders of China differ little from the Chinese of Yunnan, and their stock was probably the same. Where they are in contact with the older races, they have con siderably altered. In the valley of the Menem, their height is about 1 inches less than the average Chinese ; but as the average stature of the French is the same (5 feet 3 inches), the Siamese may still be considered as of the middle size.
The Laos people are partly under Burmese, partly under Siamese rule, and those of Burma are known as the Lu, or Thai, or Shan.
When the French mission moved up the valley of the Mei-kong in 1869, there were four tributary kingdoms or governors of the Laos. In the year 1828 Laos had been laid waste, Vien-chan, its capital, was utterly destroyed, and its people exterminated or deported by an army of Siamese. Its king was taken to Bankok, where he died, and all his relatives were in a degraded position (Do Came, p. 131). The manners, customs, and languages of Siam and Laos are similar.
Their language is the same as that of the Siamese. The alphabet more resembles that of Kafnbogia than that of Siam ; they use rice, and distil and use a liquor from it.
The arts of mining and smelting ore are under stood by the northern Lao tribes and the Shan races of Yunnan. The Laos pugilists have a metal cestus for their hands. M. de la Loubere says the Siamese nation was a colony from Laos. The Phi-phrai and the Phi-lok aro their wood (lemons. The Thevada are their tutelary deities.— Mr. Logan in Journal of the Indian Archipelago; Latham's Ethnology ; De Carne's Travels in Judo China ; Moor's Indian Archipelago.