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KYAU OR CHAW.

　The Kyaus or Chaws are settled on the banks of the Koladyne. It is a very small tribe, and 'tradition says that they were offered as pagoda slaves by a pious queen of Arakan, named "Saw Ma Gyee," some three centuries back, when Arakanese influence and the tenets of Buddhism extended far higher up in the hills than the limits of our present control.' In features, dress, and appearance they are said to be hardly distinguish- able from the lower class of the Bengali peasantry of Chittagong. They are, perhaps, Aryan half-breeds. Their language, however, is pure Tibeto-Burman, and is closely related to the Kuki dialects of Cachar and Hill Tipperah.

AUTHORITIES-

　PHAYRE, LIEUT.-Account of Arakan. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. x, 1841, pp. 679 and ff. Note on the Kyaus on p. 701, Vocabulary Ky, etc., p. 712.

　LATTER, LIEUT.-A Note on some Hill Tribes on the Kuladyne River;-Arracan. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. xv, 1846, pp. 60 and ff. Account of the Kyaus, notes on the language and vocabulary on pp. 70 and ff.

　SPEARMAN, H.R.,-The British Burma Gazetterr. Vol. i, Rangoon, 1880. Note on the Khyaw on p. 186.

　HUGHES, MAJOR W. GWYNNE,-The Hill Tracts of Arakan. Rangoon, 1881. Note on the Chaws on p. 16.

　EALES, H.L.,-Report on the Census of Burma. Rangoon, 1892. Note on the Kyau or Chaw on p. 163.

　Very little is known of the dialect spoken by the Chaws. The vocabularies published by Latter and Phayre show that it most closely agrees with Rngkhl and connected dialects, such as Hallm, Km, and Langrong. Thus the word for 'cat' is meng in Chaw, Rngkhl, Hallm, Km, Langrong, and also in Khongzi. 'Cow' is charr in Chaw, which seems to correspond to Rngkhl sh-rht, Km s-rht, Hallm and Lang- rong se-rt, while other connected languages have other forms; thus, Lushi se-bng, Khongzi bng, Lai z-p. The word for 'mother' occurs as n and nng, which two forms also are used in Rngkhl. 'Woman' is n'pang, corresponding to n-png in Rngkhl, Hallm, and Langrong. N'rmng is given as the word for 'name,' but prob- ably means 'thy name,' the word for 'name' being rmng. The initial r in this word recurs in Rngkhl ir-ming, Km ra-mhing, and Hallm r-ming, while other connected languages have ming or mhing. The r in rmng is a prefix while the form mhing repre- sents a secondary development, the prefix being dropped before m. The word tshamak, bad, compared with atsh, good, shows that the negative particle is mak as in Rngkhl, Hallm, Km, and Langrong; compare Rngkhl shmk, bad.

　The few remarks on Chaw grammar which Lieutenant Latter has made in his article quoted above also show a close resemblance to the same dialects. The male suffix tsl used to denote a male animal occurs in Rngkhl, Hallm, and Langrong, but also in other connected languages such as Lushi, Banjg, Pnkh, Lai, Khongzi, etc. The Chaw numerals are of more interest. The first ordinals are:-

One kht.	Six -rk.	Twenty tchom niek.
Two niek.	Seven s'r.	Fifty tchom nga.
Three t'hm.	Eight ret.	Hundred r'za.
Four m'l.	Nine k.
Five nga.	Ten tchom.