ASSAM, BURMA, AND CEYLON 185

who visited this earth and stayed there. According to
Sir Arthur Phayre, ¢ The Burmese many years ago were
‘ormed into a nation by the union of Mongoloid tribes
who then occupied the land which is still the home of
their race.” Most authorities agree that the Burmese are
closely allied to the Singphos on the north, and the Manipuris
 and kindred tribes on the west, and it seems probable
(although there is a difference of opinion on this point)
that they found their way originally from beyond the
snowy ranges, through Assam, into the basin of the Irawadi.
The true aborigines are to be found, as might be expected,
in the southern districts of Pegu, and are known as Mons
or Talaings (an equivalent for Telinga), which latter name
the Burmans once applied to all strangers who reached
their shores by way of the sea. Whatever their prehistoric
origin may be the Burman Mongoloid has been very
iargely modified by the influence of the Aryan Hindu-—
who figures in Burmese traditions and in Buddhist legends
as the founder of the Saverna Bhumi, or Golden Land in
which the city of Thahtun was famous. The Golden
Land is nearly identical with the province of Pegu, and
Thahtun was visited by ships from Ceylon and India as
late as the sixth century. So rapidly has the land gained
5n the sea in this part of Burma that the ruins of Thahtun
are now twelve miles inland.
Aryan influence may be traced in the religion, lansuage,
 and literature of the country, but the first prinsiples
 of commerce were taught by the Dravidian races
(Telingas), who traded from the Coromandel coast, and
formed settlements amongst them. Thus Aryans and
Dravidians have combined to mould the Burman into his
present shape.
The Shans, the inhabitants of the great stretch of highjands
 which encompass the Salwin, are “the most widely
liffused and probably the most numerous of the peoples of
Indo-China.” According to J. G. Scott, “ They overlap all
Burma, and extend so far into Yunnan that it is a question
whether there are not more Shans than Chinamen in that
province of the Middle Kingdom.” , , , “As far as history