The Ahom, on the extreme north-west, came into Assam about the beg,inning of the 12th century, about the same dine that the Siamese went south.
Before the 13th century, the Tai formed a coffipact body on the east, and perhaps north of Burma, probably pressed on by the Moghuls China, Kablai Khan having fixed himself in Asian'. in the time of the first Ahern chief.
The outct position of the Great Tai, the Laos of geographers, is unknown. .
In A.D. 1228, Chukupha, king of Pong, assumed for himself and people the title of Ahom, the peerless, now softened to Assam. . 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.
In the basin of the Irawadi, the Shan are inter mixed 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 Kliamti may be considered as independent. It is probable that the Siamese, with the tribes of the Upper Menam and of the Mei-kong, are directly connected with those of Yunnan, and are not offshoots from the colony of Muang - gating. The' SiaineFe have advanced more than half - way down the Malay Peninsula, arid but for the check given to them towards the close of the 18th centm7, 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. The northern clans almost everywhere retain their independence, although owning a nominal allegiance, 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 Phaki or Phakial race on the Dihang river, the Kamjang of Sadiya, and the numerous settle ments of the Khamti race, are all colonies of this Shan race, retaining the costume, customs, and religion they brought with them into the Assam valley. Of these the Khamti are the most numer
ous and important. 1Vhatever may have been the original. seat of the Khamti people, they immig rated to Assam, since the middle of the 18th century, from the country known to the British as Bor-Khamti, near the sources of the Irawadi, which was visited by Wilcox in 1826.
At present the I,au, under the name_s of Shan and Khamti, are found in Upper Assam, and scattered over a large portion of the northern half of the basin of the Irawadi, near to the confluence of the Kyendwen with the principal stream. Scattered villages are even found in Arakan, on the eastern side.
Their general complexion is light-brown, their hair black and abundant, nose not flattened.
Those residing in Burma are generally smaller than tile Burmese, from whom they are readily disting,uished by their black jackets of glazed calico and short blue breeches. The Siamese may be considered as having a remarkable modi fication of the Burma-Chinese head, with a peculiar tendency to elongation and verticality. '1'hey have large straight faces, flat occiputs, lowness of the hairy scalp, comParatively small and firm mouth, hard staring eye, and a grave expression. Siamese appears by far the most widely-spoken language of Ultra-India. It was at one time the lingua franca of Kidah, almost as much as the Malay, and even that waniering Negro tribe the Semang, spoke it tit some places. It was. also current in Assam and Yunnan, at the opposite extremities of Ultra-India.
At Bhanio, to the north, east, and south east of which they are numerous, the lan guage of the Shan corresponds with that of the Siamese.
The Lau, 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 old races they have considerably altered. In the valley of the Menam, their height is about lf inches less than the average Chinese, but the average stature of the French is the same, viz. 5 feet 3 inches.