228 THE NON-LUSHEI CLANS CH. vi

consists of timber and bamboos, he always uses " shut" when
he speaks of building a house, and we find "sha" in Thado
and " saba " in Manipuri mean " to make/' " to build."

In Lushai the verb " ni," " to be," is conjugated completely,
but in Manipuri " ni" means " is " and has no other tenses.
Manipuri: Ma ai-gi i nau ni.
Lushai: Ama ka nau a ni.

English: He my younger brother he is.

The following comparative vocabulary gives in the first two
columns the Thado and English words as given by Mr. Hodson.
The first word in the column of remarks is always Lushai, and
where it has not exactly the same meaning as the Thado word
the correct meaning is given ; then follow, where necessary, the
equivalents in other dialects.

About one word in every three given in Mr. Hodson's
vocabulary has been found to resemble closely the Lushai word
having the same or a similar meaning. Mr. Hodson's
vocabulary has no pretensions to be a complete dictionary of the
Thado language. Were such available I believe the number of
similar words in the two dialects would be found to be evqn
greater. As regards the Old Kuki dialects the information
available is not sufficient to make a thorough comparison. It
is clear that they are very closely allied to Lushai and Thado
and to each other. The connection between Manipuri and
what Dr. Grierson calls the Chin languages will, I believe, be
found on further enquiry to be closer than at first appears.