Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 21, ROT-Siam

774
S H A —S H A
Each Shan state is governed by a tsobwa {chao p'hya), or supreme
chief, aided by a council, and often by a coadjutor. Where the
Shans are in immediate contact with one of their great neighbours
their habits and customs are necessarily modified; otherwise,
speaking generally, civilization increases southwards. Religion
is nominally Buddhist, and the priests, though their lives are
usually far from correct, have great influence ; temples, caves, and
other localities sacred to Buddha are thronged with worshippers
liberal with their offerings ; but the practical exercise of religion
consists chiefly in efforts to propitiate or avert the evil influence
of the nats or p’hees, demons and spirits everywhere present, to
whom all accidents and illnesses are attributed. Along with the
Buddha, various images, among which the horse is not uncommon,
are adored (though there are temples in which these are not found);
and fetiches—natural objects of special form, e.g., of some part of
the body—are kept in the house to avert disease. Medical treat¬
ment consists largely in magical practices, and individuals de¬
nounced by the sick as the cause of their illness frequently have
their houses burned and are themselves deported to a distance.
Thus, too, ordeals have a prominent place in legal practice. The
Shans have no Buddhist prejudices against killing poultry or cattle
for food, but like other Indo-Chinese and the Malays do not use milk.
Slavery is general; the supply is recruited partly by raids on
neighbouring hill tribes ; the Indo-Chinese practice of slavery for
debt also prevails. The slaves are not ill-treated, and are chiefly
employed in field labour by the chaos, who own great numbers.
In appearance the North Shans are sallow, but hardly darker than
South Europeans, and are characterized by a short broad flat face,
more elongated and nearer the Tartar type in the upper classes ;
they have red cheeks, brown eyes hardly oblique, black hair,
nose almost aquiline, and are of medium height. The Chinese
Shans are much smaller, with squat figures, prominent cheek-bones,
and oblique eyes.
The practice of tattooing prevails in some districts, down to the
upper waters of the Me-nam, and it occurs also among the Laos in
the south-east, the tattooed being known as the black-bellied, the
non-tattooed as the white-bellied. The Shans are all hardier and
more manly than their congeners the Siamese, and they are also
more sedate and more self-possessed than the Burmese. Most
travellers speak of them as brave, friendly, social, and hospitable,
but a good deal of the oppression and cruelty natural to a semi-
barbarous condition prevails. They are cleanly and fond of
bathing, the towns and villages being supplied with bamboo
aqueducts. Drunkenness, except at festivals, is rare. Gambling
is common, whole families being sold into slavery to pay debts
thus contracted. Public gaming and the sale of spirits and
opium are monopolies. They show much artistic taste in the
beautiful colours of their textile fabrics, the needlework and
embroidery of the women, and the designing and execution of the
silver ornaments which are worn in profusion. They show great
aptitude for trade, and are said by Mr Holt Hallett to welcome
the prospect of the railway intended to connect their country with
Maulmein, crossing thence to Raheng or some neighbouring point
on the Me-nam, and on through the fertile valleys and plateaus on
its upper tributaries to the Chinese frontier.
Tea is found, both wild and cultivated, from Zimme to Rian"
Tung. Opium is exported to Mandalay and to China. Indian
corn, sugar, and tobacco are grown in the low grounds, and
excellent cotton and indigo (which also grows wild in the hills).
Teak has long been worked by Anglo-Burmese in the eastern
affluents of the Toong-yen and neighbouring valleys, and has
become comparatively scarce west of the Me-ping; but it grows
freely in the hills and valleys around Kiang Sen and Lagong, and
in the hill region of eastern Siam, where, however, it is of inferior
quality. Silk is produced, and iron, copper, and silver-lead
(galena) ores are worked.
The Shan languages are classified by Dr Cushing as follows
Ahom (Assam), extinct; Khamti, on the upper Irawadi and other
valleys on the extreme north of Burmah ; the Chinese (Mau) Shans,
east from Bamo ; Shans proper, between the mountains which
bound the Burmese plains in the east and the Me-kong, and between
23 and 19° N. lat.; Laos to the south of this, from 19° north to the
frontiers of Siam ; and lastly, Siamese. The last two, as spoken,
differ but little, and the three others may be grouped together.
All have separate alphabets (related, however, in form), except the
Siamese ; and, the spelling being phonetic, the orthography is
tolerably fixed. But it is a tonal language, and the vowel signs
are few, so that some have two or three values assigned them.
I here are a good many Pali words due to Buddhism, many Bur¬
mese words in the districts under Burmese influence, and a lar^e
foreign element in the Chinese Shan state of Ho-tha, where the
race is perhaps not fundamentally Shan.
See Ney Elias, Introductory Sketch of the History of the Shans in Upper
Burmah and West Yun-nan, Calcutta, 1876 ; Yule, Glossary of Anglo-Indian Words
and Phrases (1886), and Narrative of the Mission to Ava (1858): Anderson, From
Mandalay to Momien; Colquhoun, Among the Shans ; Cushing, Shan Dictionary
(Introduction); Bock. Temples and Elephants-, Sir A. Phayre, History of
[jllVfJlClfl, ^
SHARK. The systematic position of the group of
Sharks or Selachoidei in the class of Fishes, their classifica¬
tion, and their general external and anatomical character¬
istics have been already sufficiently noticed under Ichthy¬
ology (yol. xii. pp. 630 sq.), and we have here to supplement
that article only by a fuller reference to the natural history
of the more common and more important types of the
group.
Sharks are almost exclusively inhabitants of the sea,
but some species freely enter the mouths of large rivers,
and one species (Carcharias gangeticus) occurs frequently
high up in the large rivers of India, and in the Tigris
about Baghdad, at a distance of 350 miles from the Persian
Gulf in a straight line, and has even been reported from
a lake in Yiti Levu (Fiji Islands) which is shut off from
the sea by a cataract. Sharks are found in all seas ; most
numerous between the tropics, they become scarcer beyond,
a few only reaching the Arctic circle ; it is not known how
far they advance southwards in the Antarctic region. Alto¬
gether some hundred and fifty different species have been
described.
With regard to their habits many are littoral species,
the majority pelagic, and a few are known to belong to
the bathybial fauna, having hitherto been obtained down
to a depth of 500 fathoms.
Littoral Sharhs.—The littoral forms are of small size,
and generally known under the name of “dog-fishes,”
“hounds,” &c. Some pelagic sharks of larger size also
live near the shore on certain parts of a coast, but they
are attracted to it by the abundance of food, and are as
frequently found in the open sea, which is their birth¬
place ; therefore we shall refer to them when we speak of
the pelagic kinds.
I he majority of the littoral species live on the bottom,
sometimes close inshore, and feed on small marine animals
or on any animal substance. The following are deserving
of special notice.
The Tope (Galeus) is common on the coasts not only of
England, Ireland, and of the more southern parts of
Europe, but also of South Africa, California, Tasmania,
and Hew Zealand. Its teeth are equal in both
jaws, of rather small size, flat, triangular, with
the point directed towards the one side, and
with a notch and denticulations on the shorter
side (fig. 1). It is of a uniform slaty-grey
colour, and attains to a length of 6 feet. The
female brings forth some thirty living young at
one birth in May. It cannot be regarded as a l
very destructive fish, but becomes troublesome FlG- i-—Teeth
at times to fishermen by taking their bait and upper1; tdowl
driving away other fish they desire to catch. er- <x 2->
The Hounds proper (Mustelus) possess a very different
dentition, the teeth being small, obtuse, numerous, arranged
in several rows like pavement (fig. 2). Five or six species
are known from the shores of the
various temperate and subtropical
seas, one (M. vulgaris) being common
on the coasts of Great Britain and the
United States on the Pacific as well as
the Atlantic side. It is of a uniform
grey colour or sparingly spotted with Fl6, 2-—Teeth of Mustek.
white, and attains to a length of 3 or 4 feet. The young,
about twelve in number, are brought forth alive in Nov¬
ember. It is a comparatively harmless fish, which feeds
on shells, crustaceans, and decomposing animal substances.
Of the Dog-Fishes proper (Scyllium, Chiloscyllium, &c.)
some twenty species are known, which are spread over nearly
all the temperate and tropical seas. Their teeth are small,
in several series, with a longer pointed cusp in the middle,
and generally one or two smaller ones on each side (figs.