Khasmutse

Khas-mu-tse, aborigines of Indo - China, numerous especially in the Kuy-Cheu uplands and in the Mekhong Valley about Muong Lini, on the frontier of Siam and Burma. Their language, distinguished by its harsh and hissing sounds, differs altogether from that of the surrounding Lao (Shan) peoples, and Colonel Yule thinks they may be of the same stock as the Miao-tse of South China. (Fr. Gamier, i., p. 369.) Khassia (Kossyah), a large nation of South Assam, left bank of the Brahmaputra; of Tibeto-Burman stock, but speaking a distinct monosyllabic language, which presents several peculiar features; five well-marked dialects spoken by about 150,000 Kliyi, as the Khassias call themselves. They form a group of petty states occupying the whole of the

Khassia Hills, each under an elective chief, and all recognising the supreme authority of the Chief Commissioner of Assam, who resides at Chillong in their territory. The Khassias are still for the most part Nature-worshippers, rejecting the Brahmans and their system of castes. The dead are buried under dolmens or cromlechs formed by four monolithic uprights supporting a fifth slab placed horizontally. The whole country is dotted over with groups of such monuments, which occur also in the neighbouring Jaintia and Naga Hills, and which are strictly analogous to the prehistoric monolithic monuments of Mauritania, West Europe, and Britain.