The ‘Dzo’ tribes inhabit the hilly country to the east of the Chittagong district in lower Bengal; their habitat may be roughly stated as compared within the parallels of Latitude 24 .45° N and 25.20 ° N., and between the Meridians of Longitude 92.30 °and 93.45 °

Under the term ‘Dzo’ are included all the hill tribes of this region, who wear their hair in a knot resting on the nap of the neck. The tribes further south and east, of whom little is yet known, are distinguished under the generic title of ‘Poi’; these wear the hair knotted upon the temple.

The ‘Dzo’ state that the Poi language is entirely distinct from theirs, and that they have no common medium of intercommunication. I am myself disposed to think that the two languages must have some affinity, but I have as yet no certain information on this point.

The term Kuki is a generic name applied by the inhabitants of the plains, Bengallees and others, to all hill-dwellers who cultivated by Jum. The word Kuki is a foreign to the different dialects of the hill tribes, the nearest approach to it being the ‘Dzo’ term for the Tipra tribe, which is called by them Tui-Kuk.

3 Capt. Thomas Herbert Lewis, B.S.C,
DeputyCmmissioner, Chittagong Hills, in his INTRODUCTION
To Progressive Colloquial Exercises in the Lushai Dialect
Of the ‘Dzo’ or KUKI LANGUAGE, with vocabularies
And Popular Tales (Annoted), Calcutta, 1874