At  the  most  western  point  reached  in  Yunnan,  in  a  representative  vocab-
ulary of  over  two  hundred  words,  only  one  in  fourteen  differed  essentially
from  the  standard  in  Chiengmai.  In  eastern  Yunnan,  about  one  in  eight
was  different.  And  even  in  Kuang-hsi,  not  to  exceed  one  in  six  by  actual
count."  He  found  about  the  same  proportion  in  Tongking.  Many  of
these  differences  were  doubtless  due  to  phonetic  changes  that  take
place  so  rapidly  in  the  languages  of  illiterate  peoples,  and  hence  more
apparent  than  real.  Of  a  short  list  of  words  taken  down  by  Dr.  Dodd  in
eastern  Yunnan,  every  one  is  in  common  use  in  the  British  Shan  states,
with  only  two  slight  changes  ("  dang  "  for  lang,  and  "  ko  "  for  kaw) ;
and,  surprisingly,  both  "dang"  and  "ko"  reappear  in  Ahom  and
Kham-ti  Shan.
8  THE   SHANS

must  have  been  Shans  then.  It  is  comforting  to  know  who
the  "  original  Chinese  "  of  southern  China  really  were.*

If  all  this — and  much  more — be  true,  there  seems  to  be
no  reason  why  this  proper  adjective,  "  Mon-Taic,"  might  not
be  just  as  well  written  the  other  end  to  Tai-Monic.  This
holds  for  all  that  we  have  seen  thus  far.  We  may  yet  agree
with  Mr.  Hallett  when  he  says  that  these  Shans  not  only
stretch  far  away  to  the  eastward,  perhaps  to  the  China  Sea,
but  that  they  actually  form  one  of  the  chief  ingredients  that
compose  the  so-called  Chinese  race.
One  more  push  up  stream.  M.  Terrien  says  that  a  race,
called  by  the  Chinese  "  Pang,"  f  was  predominant  in  central

•  See  ''Across  Chryse,"  Vol.  II,  p.  366.
