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ANL.

　The Anls are a small tribe living in the hills on the east of the Manipur valley. Their chief village is Anal in the south-east. It is stated that they belong to a set of tribes whose populations vary between 500 and 1,000 souls each. Major McCulloch has given the following account of the tribe:-

　'The whole of the people in a large tract in the south-east have received the name of Anal-Namfau from the two largest villages amongst them. These people say they came from a position south of their present one, and they celebrate in their songs the beauties of the land of their origin. In personal appearance they are much like Khongjais, with whom, though they are at deadly feud, they appear to have affinity. The Anals, in more immediate connection with Munnipore, have been corrupted so far as to have given up many of their former customs. They have now no longer amongst them hereditary chiefs, but the villages in the interior retain their old habits and hereditary heads. Their houses are made like those of the Khongjais, and in their social usages there is but little difference. From its birth every male child is called "mot," and every female one "keenoo," their ears are pierced at the annual festival for this purpose, and a distinguishing name is added to the mot or keenoo, but for this there does not appear to be any fixed time, or particularity as to the name to be given. Their marriages are effected much in the same way as those of the Khongjais. After the first application for their daughter, if the parents consent and drink of the wine brought, the young man goes to the girl's father's house as accepted husband. After this the young man, four different times, feasts the bride's family. At the fourth time they settle what is to be given finally for the girl; the rich giving according to their means, and the poorer according to theirs, not less however than a pig and a piece of iron one cubit long. The want of eye-brows and eye-lashes is amongst this people admired, and the young men to render themselves attractive carefully extract them.'

AUTHORITIES-

　McCULLOCH, MAJOR W.,-Account of the Valley of Munnipore and of the Hill Tribes; with a Comparative Vocabulary of the Munnipore and other Languages. Selections from the Records of the Govern- ment of India. (Foreign Department.) No. xxvii. Calcutta 1859. Account of the Anal- Namfau tribe on p. 64; Vocabularies, Anal-Namfau, etc., Appendix, pp. vii. and ff.

　DAMANT, G.H.,-Notes on the Locality and Population of the Tribes dwelling between the Brahmaputra and Ningthi Rivers. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. xii, 1880, pp. 228 and ff. Note on Anal-Namfau on p. 279.

　The name of the tribe, Anl, is that under which it is known to the Manipuris. Major McCulloch states that the hill tribes have also distinctive names of their own, but we have no information about these names.

　Two specimens and a list of standard words and phrases have been received from Manipur. They are all due to Babu Bisharup Singh. The first specimen, a translation of the Parable of the Prodigal Son, is to a great extent mixed up with Meithei forms, and this latter language seems to have largely influenced the Anl dialect. The second specimen, a war-song, exhibits a much purer language. But there are several mistakes in the translation, and it has not, therefore, been possible to analyse it throughout. The remarks on Anl grammar which follow are entirely based on the texts just mentioned and are given with every reserve.

　Pronunciation.-The marking of long vowels is not consistent. Thus, we find f-n, has been found; but fa-rang, to be found; ka-p-m-n, gave not; but rho-ma-n, wished not. is interchangeable with i in the negative particle; thus, tha-mi, good- not, bad; but ikopi-n-m-n, ill-not-being. We find and in chr and chr, small. The word char, child, probably represents a third form of the same word. Compare ka-da-b and d-n, saying. Ai and are interchanged in ma-khai and ma-kh, whatever. I seems to be written for in wonich, the-two-brothers-for. This compound seems to contain the words wo, elder brother, and n, younger brother. McCulloch gives o for wo.