f he had acquired new life, he
begins to brandish his staff of bells, and to dance with a quick but wild
unsteady step. Suddenly the afflatus descends; there is no mistaking that
glare, or those frantic leaps. He snorts, he stares, he gyrates. The demon
has now taken bodily possession of him, and though he retains the power of
utterance and motion, both are under the demon's control, and his separate
consciousness is in abeyance. The bystanders signalise the event by
raising a long shout, attended with a peculiar vibratory noise, caused by
the motion of the hand and tongue, or the tongue alone. The devil-dancer
is now worshipped as a present deity, and every bystander consults him
respecting his diseases, his wants, the welfare of his absent relatives,
the offerings to be made for the accomplishment of his wishes, and in
short everything for which superhuman knowledge is supposed to be
available." (_Hodgson, J.R.As.Soc._ XVIII. 397; _The Tinnevelly
Shanars_, by the _Rev. R. Caldwell, B.A._, Madras, 1849, pp. 19-20.)

[1] "_Singpho_," says Colonel Hannay, "signifies in the Kakhyen
language 'a man,' and all of this race who have settled in Hookong or
Assam are thus designated; the reason of their change of name I could
not ascertain, but so much importance seems to be attached to it, that
the Singphos, in talking of their eastern and southern neighbours,
call them Kakhyens or Kakoos, and consider it an insult to be called
so themselves." (_Sketch of the Singphos, or the Kakhyens of
Burma_, Calcutta, 1847, pp. 3-4.) If, however, the Kakhyens, or
_Kachyens_ (as Major Sladen calls them), are represented by the
_Go-tchang_ of Pauthier's Chinese extracts, these seem to be
distinguished from the Kin-Chi, though associated with them. (See pp.
397, 411.)

[2] [Mr. E.H. Parker (_China Review_, XIV. p. 359) says that Colonel
Yule's _Langszi_ are evidently the _Szilang_, one of the six
_Chao_, but turned upside down.--H.C.]

[3] _Cathay_, etc., pp. ccl. seqq. and p. 441.

[4] Written in 1870.

CHAPTER LI.

WHEREIN IS RELATED HOW THE KING OF MIEN AND BANGALA VOWED VENGEANCE
AGAINST THE GREAT KAAN.

But I was forgetting to tell you of a famous battle that was fought in the
kingdom of Vochan in the Province of Zardandan, and that ought not to be
omitted from our Book. So we will relate all the particulars.

You see, in the year of Christ, 1272,[NOTE 1] the Great Kaa