Although this book deals chiefly with the social life and customs of the Palaung people, a brief account of their prigin and history may be of interest.
I cannot claim to have made any original research with regard to the migrations of the different races of Farther India; the greater part of of my information on the subject is derived from the waritings of Mr. C. Otto Blagden and Sir J. Georage Scott; Skeat and C. O. Blagden's Pagan Races of the Malay Peninsula.
We know practically nothing of the original inhabitants of Burma and the Shan State. Palaung, Shan, and Burmans describe in their folk-tales a race of ogres with supernatural powers- a tall, dark-complexioned, curly-haired race, voracious in eating animal flesh in a half-cooked or raw condition, and preferring human flesh when obtainable. They, in stories, inveriably married their captives- when they did not eat them. They were capable of moving fromplace to place with great rapidity. It is by many supposed that these tales arose out of reminiscences of a Negrito race of cannibals, who inhabited the more northerly parts of the country and fought against the incoming tribes.
