i GENERAL 5

doubtful whether he ever was really subject to Tipperah, though
it is certain that all these Lushai clans had dealings with the
Tipperah Rajahs and feared them greatly. Among the tales
in Chapter V. will be found one which exemplifies this.

LalsuHla (Lai chokla), captured by Captain Blackwood in
1841, was a greatgrandson of Sibuta's. Purbura is said to
have been a very powerful Pallian chief and at one time to have
received tribute from almost all his contemporary Thangur
chiefs. He had a large village, said to contain 3,000 houses, on
the Dungtlang, whence he moved as far westwards as Pukzing,
where his village was destroyed by a combined force of Zadeng,
Sailo, and Chuckmahs. This attack took place somewhere
about 1830. Purbura rebuilt his village, but died soon, after,
and his descendants were attacked frequently by the chiefs of
the Eolura branch of the Sailo family, and now only two small
hamlets, close to Aijal, remain to remind us of this once powerful
clan.

The Sailo.—These chiefs are descended from Sailova, a great-
grandson of Thang-ura's. They came into prominence last, but
have crushed all their rivals, and have developed such a
talent for governing that they hold undisputed sway over
representatives of all sorts of clans, over nearly the whole of
the area now known as the Lushai Hills.

This great family has often come in contact with the British
Government, but from the fact that our dealings with them
have generally been through illiterate interpreters, they appear
in our records under various names. The Howlongs, who
caused much anxiety on the Chittagorig frontier from 1860 to
1890, LaluFs descendants, whose doings fill the records of
Silchar for nearly a century, Vonolel, Savunga, and Sangvunga,
against whom the two columns of the Lushai Expedition of
1871-72 were directed—all these were Sailos.

As above remarked, it seems most probable that the country
into which the various Thangur chiefs moved, under pressure
from the Chins, was almost entirely occupied by small
communities having no power of cohesion. The greater part
of these were absorbed, and now form the majority of the
subjects of the Thangur chiefs; but some fled north and west
into Manipur, Silchar, Sylhet and Tipperah, where they are