Oakes Republican., 1899-08-04
WITH THE JINGHPAW
PEOPLE WHO THINK THEY ARE
THE FIRST RACE.
Stin Buy Their Wives-Are Oriental in
Character and Taken AS n Whole
: Are of the Mongolian Typc-Stand for
Ancient, Customs. A

Rev. Ola Hansen has just returned
from .Jinghpaw, the central nation Of
the world, says a Denver paper. Now,
you may not remember just what por
tion of the earth the Jinghpaw nation
.inhabits. When you learn you may
have grave doubts that the Jinghpaw
nation does inhabit the central loca-
ton of the nations that cluster on the
earth, and advance the claims of Bos-
ton, but if you will pause to consider
that. the Jinghpaw nation has said SO,
and that they, are the great and en-
lightened nation Of the teakwood for
ests and jade 'quarries of upper Bur-
NAH, you will probably give your own
private. opinion and be convinced. The
name of the. tribe itself is sufficient
proof that they live just where they
say they do-in the middle of the ma
tlons. Jinghpaw means 'the man" or
the nation" and the head men of the
tribes explained to Rev. Hansen when
he went into. their midst to introduce
clothes, gospel, ETC., with an indulgent
smile that they were really the great
est nation in the world; all others
white, black, yellow or otherwise-be-
ing simply subordinate peoples, maybe
sprung from them, but certainly come
long after, and far behind in sciences,
u tclVllEation and correctness of national
habit, and, indeed, relegated to the
outlying wastes of the earth. Rev
Hansen went to Burmah from Liver
pool, Oct. %, 1890. He had just grad
uated at the Colgate Baptist College
in New York, high in language and
philosophy, and the Temple at Boston
commissioned him to go to the Baptist
mission at Rhompo, Burmah, to study
the native dialects. More specifically
he was to write a grammar of the
kachin or Jinghpaw language and
translate certain books of the new
testament into the same tongue
Equipped with an enthusiastic young
wife and plenty of faith, he started
Nov. 22,. 1890, he arrived at Rangoon,
the nearest seaport to his destination,
and the present headquarters of Brit
lsh power in Burmah. Dec % found
MN at the scene of his labors far in
the interior of Burmah, a town i'm
memorially old. 1t took him about
eight and a half years to finish his
TASK, Tor it was no makeshift of job,
reducing a foreign dialect to writing,
and especially such mongrel dialect.
The great conglomerate of people
around Burmah consist of Budmans,
Shans, Chinese, Kichins and other
tribes. The language or dialect they
used had no literature, in fact, had no
alphabet. 1t took Rev. Hansen long
time to get up his alphabet, and then
TWO years before he finally got it Off
clally recognized by the British gov
ernment 1t was accepted, however,
and then he went to work writing the
grammar. Afterward he translated the
BOOK OF John and Luke, Exodus, Cen
esls, Jonah and Obadiah, and then
commenced a spelling book. After
that, having made written language
for the Jinghpaws, Rev. Hansen tried
IT. on them and taught in the Baptist
mission in Bhama for long time per-
fecting the whole thing and shown
the sons of the great and illustrious
tribes how to write. Now he is on his
way to Boston with the six or seven
thin letter volumes under his arm, en-
braclng the fruits of all his labors.
Rev Mr. Hansen is a thin, pale young
man now, with study circles" under
his eyes. Though naturalized Amer
lean, Rey. Hansen is by birth Swede.
IN reference to the character and hab-
its of the people among whom he has
been at work he says: They are the
most conglomerate people in all the
world, l. think, those people of Bhama
and the surrounding country They
are prevailingly of Mongolian type, but
most Infinitely varied. In their native
state they wear only small breech
clout; in cities, however, they dress az
richly as their means will allow. and
in the. height Of Chinese fashion. The
men have carried this to extreme
lengths, and wear absurdly baggv
trousers, the seat sweeping on the
ground One, of my servants fell off
pony one day and the pony pinned him
there until he was rescued by clamor-
ing crowd of fellow natives. Bhama
was formerly capital of upper Bur-
nah, in the ancient times, and lies on
the great highway from Burmah to
China This highway has been in ex-
istence for 1000 or 5000 years.
Though no longer the capital, that
having been moved down the river to
different successive cities centuries
ago, Bhama is still. one. of the great
towns of China. The city population
shows all the odd characteristics of the