A Chinese Pa-Y Vocabulary, Belonging To Professor Deveria,
Translates Kin-Chi By Wan-Chang (Yung-Ch'ang).
(Deveria, Front.
P.
128.) - H.C.]
It has not been determined who are the representatives of these
Gold-Teeth, who were evidently distinct from the Shans, not Buddhist, and
without literature. I should think it probable that they were Kakhyens or
Singphos, who, excluding Shans, appear to form the greatest body in that
quarter, and are closely akin to each other, indeed essentially identical
in race.[1] The Singphos have now extended widely to the west of the Upper
Irawadi and northward into Assam, but their traditions bring them from the
borders of Yunnan. The original and still most populous seat of the Kakhyen
or Singpho race is pointed out by Colonel Hannay in the Gulansigung
Mountains and the valley of the eastern source of the Irawadi. This agrees
with Martini's indication of the seat of the Kin-Chi as north of
Yung-ch'ang. One of Hannay's notices of Singpho customs should also be
compared with the interpolation from Ramusio about tattooing: "The men
tattoo their limbs slightly, and all married females are tattooed on both
legs from the ankle to the knee, in broad horizontal circular bands. Both
sexes also wear rings below the knee of fine shreds of rattan varnished
black" (p. 18). These rings appear on the Kakhyen woman in our cut.
[Illustration: Kakhyens. (From a Photograph.)]
The only other wild tribe spoken of by Major Sladen as attending the
markets on the frontier is that of the Lissus already mentioned by
Lieutenant Garnier (supra, ch. xlvii. note 6), and who are said to
be the most savage and indomitable of the tribes in that quarter. Garnier
also mentions the Mossos, who are alleged once to have formed an
independent kingdom about Li-kiang fu. Possibly, however, the Gold-Teeth
may have become entirely absorbed in the Chinese and Shan population.
The characteristic of casing the teeth in gold should identify the tribe
did it still exist. But I can learn nothing of the continued existence of
such a custom among any tribe of the Indo-Chinese continent. The insertion
of gold studs or spots, which Buerck confounds with it, is common enough
among Indo-Chinese races, but that is quite a different thing. The actual
practice of the Zardandan is, however, followed by some of the people of
Sumatra, as both Marsden and Raffles testify: "The great men sometimes set
their teeth in gold, by casing with a plate of that metal the under
row ... it is sometimes indented to the shape of the teeth, but more
usually quite plain. They do not remove it either to eat or sleep." The
like custom is mentioned by old travellers at Macassar, and with the
substitution of silver for gold by a modern traveller as existing in
Timor; but in both, probably, it was a practice of Malay tribes, as in
Sumatra. (Marsden's Sumatra, 3rd ed., p. 52; Raffles's Java, I. 105;
Bickmore's Ind.
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