Far Cathay And Farther India

s impelled by the pressure of others behind them. Thus the Mons or Talaings have, as it were, been obliterated by the Burmese, to whose stronger individuality the Arakanese have also succumbed. The Burmese in turn have been enveloped and pressed forward by the Shans or Tais, who have occupied the upper basins of the Salwen and the Mekhong, the formertaking the whole of the Irawadi basin. The Karens again have either dispersed into the more or less inaccessible mountain systems, or have been content to become subjects of plain-dwelling peoples, though not amalgamating with them. Besides these prominent, if not historic races, there are a number of tribes whose civilisation varies through every degree excepting the highest, constituting a ragged fringe to the region between our own territories in Bengal, the Empire of China, and the Kingdom of Siam. The Burmese are probably the gayest and most light-hearted people in the world; their neighbours the dullest and least ... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.