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LAKHER DIALECT.

　The Lakher dialect is spoken by about 1,000 individuals, living in 300 houses to the south of the Blue Mountains in the Lungleh sub-division of the South Lushai Hills. Their customs are distinet, and it is not thought probable that their language will die out. According to Mr. Drake-Brockman they call themselves Tlongsai. They are an off-shoot of the Tlantlang tribe of Lais. This tribe occupies the Chin Hills to the south and west of the Tashns. Their number in the Chin Hills was estimated at about 5,000 by Messrs. Carey and Tuck. Some inhabitants of the Tlantlang villages on the frontier between the Lushai and the Chin Hills are Lushis. There has been a good deal of intermarriage, and there are many half-breeds. These all claim to be Lais. The Lakhers are said to be called Zao by the Chins. Zao is probably the same as Zo or Yo, a name which is used to denote most of the tribes in the Hills.

　The Tlantlangs were first known on the Arakan and Chittagong Frontiers where they were called Shendus. It is not, however, certain whether all the tribes called so were Tlantlangs. Captain Lewin calls them Shendoos or Lakheyr Poy. His vocabulary seems to be taken from a dialect which in all essentials is identical with that which Major Hughes has used for his list of words in Shandoo. The materials are, however, insufficient for a definite decision. The negative particle seems to be wai which may be compared with the Sh . The suffix of the Imperative seems to be tai or te, which seems to correspond to Siyin t and perhaps to Lai wa. The numerals mainly correspond to those usual in Lai, but also sometimes to the forms occurring in Sh and Khami. It is probable, though it cannot as yet be proved, that the two vocabularies represent one or more dialects intermediate between Lai and Sh. This would agree with the position assigned to the tribe, north-east and east of the Blue Mountains, i.e., the country occu- pied by the Tlantlangs and Hakas. We are unable to state whether the language spoken by the Lakhers in the Lushai Hills is the same, though we might infer that it is so from the fact that Captain Lewin states that the Shendus are also called Lakheyr. The name Heu-m given by Captain Tickell is perhaps the same as Zao, see above. Colonel Elles states that the Lakher or Longshing clan came originally from Tlantlang.

　The authorities dealing with these tribes are given below. But it must be remem- bered that it is uncertain whether they have anything to do with the Lakhers of the Lushai Hills.

　TICKELL, CAPT. S.R.,-Notes on the Heu-m or "Shendoos," a tribe inhabitiny the Hills North of Arracan. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. xxi, 1853, pp. 207 and ff. LEWIN, CAPT. T.H.,-The Hill Tracts of Chittagong and the Dwellers therein; with Comparative Voca- bularies of the Hill Dialects. Calcutta, 1869. Account of the Shendoos on pp. 113, and ff. Shendoo vocabulary on pp. 147 and ff.

　SPEARMAN, H.R.,-The British Burma Gazetteer. Vol. i, Rangoon, 1880. Note on the Shandoos on pp. 185 and f.

　HUGHES, MAJOR W. GWYNNE,-The Hill Tracts of Arakan. Rangoon, 1881. Notes on the Shandoos or Poois on pp. 35 and 42 ff.; Shandoo vocabulary, Appendix pp. iii, and ff.

　CHAMBERS, CAPT. O.A.,-Handbook of the Lushai Country.. compiled in the Intelligence Branch, 1889. Contains a Shendu vocabulary. ELLES, COLONEL E.R.,-Military Report on the Chin-Lushai Country. Simla, 1893. Note on the name Shendu on p. 12; on the Lakher or Longshing clan on p. 14. CAREY, BERTRAM S., and H. N. TUCK,-The Chin Hills: A History of the People, our Dealings with them, their Customs and Manners, and a Gazetteer of their Country. Vol. i, Rangoon, 1896. Account of the Klangklangs on pp. 160 and f.