This epithet indicates a change in physiognomy; and, indeed, the physical conformation of the Burmese tribes requires attention. It is Mongolian in the way that the Siamese is Mongolian; but changes have set in. The beard increases; the hair becomes crisper; and the complexion darkens. The Kyo,[24] the isolated occupants of a single village on the river Koladyng, are so much darker than their neighbours as to have been considered half Bengali; and, as a general rule, the nearer we approach India, the deeper becomes the complexion. The Môn, too, of Pegu, are very dark. What is this the effect of? Certainly not of latitude, since we are moving northward. Of intermarriage? There is no proof of this. The greater amount of low alluvial soils, like those of the Ganges and Irawaddi, is, in my mind, the truer reason. But this is too general a question to be allowed to delay us. The Red Kariens are instances of an Asiatic tribe with an American colour; just as the Red Fulahs were in Africa. Such are the occupants of the _continent_. 5. _The Silong._--In the _islands_ of the Mergui Archipelago, there is another variety; but whether it form a class itself, or belong to any of the previous ones, is uncertain. Their language is said to be peculiar;[25] but of this we have no specimen. As it is probably that of the oldest inhabitants of the continent opposite, this is to be regretted. They are called _Silong_, are a sort of sea-gipsy; and amount to about one thousand. Of all the creeds of either India or the Indo-Chinese peninsula theirs is the most primitive; so primitive as to be characterized by little except its negative characters. They believe that the land, air, trees, and waters are inhabited by _Nat_, or spirits, who direct the phenomena of Nature. How far they affect that of man, except indirectly, is unascertained. "We do not think about that," was the invariable answer, when any one was questioned about a future state. Too vague for monotheism, the Silong creed is also said to be too vague for idolatry, too vague for sacrifices. The Kariens, also, believe in _Nat_, but, as _they_ believe in their influence on human affairs, they sacrifice to them accordingly. Little, then, as we know, respecting these two families, we know that the common practice of _Nat_ worship connects them; and this worship connects many other members of the _Burmese_ stock. Consequently it helps us to place the Silong in that group. It also favours the notion of the Tenasserim aborigines being Burmese. It is the delta of the Irawaddi which isolates the _Tenasserim provinces_; and the British dependency from which it separates them is-- _Arakhan._--We are prepared for the ethnological position of the Arakhan populations. They are _Burmese_. We are likewise prepared for a division of them; there will be the Indianized and the Pagan--paganism and political independence going, to a certain degree, together.