Chapter VI: The Southern Mongols (3)

In China there are no hereditary nobles, indeed no nobles at all, unless it be the rather numerous descendants of Confucius who dwell together and enjoy certain social privileges, in this somewhat resembling the _Shorfa_ (descendants of the Prophet) in Muhammadan lands. If any titles have to be awarded for great deeds they fall, not on the hero, but on his forefathers, and thus at a stroke of the vermilion pencil are ennobled countless past generations, while the last of the line remains unhonoured until he goes over to the majority. Between the Emperor, "patriarch of his people," and the people themselves, however, there stood an aristocracy of talent, or at least of Chinese scholarship, the governing Mandarin[489] class, which was open to the highest and the lowest alike. All nominations to office were conferred exclusively on the successful competitors at the public examinations, so that, like the French conscript with the hypothetical Marshal's baton in his knapsack, every Chinese citizen carried the buttoned cap of official rank in his capacious sleeve. Of these there are nine grades, indicated respectively in descending order by the ruby, red coral, sapphire, opaque blue, crystal, white shell, gold (two), and silver button, or rather little globe, on the cap of office, with which correspond the nine birds--manchu crane, golden pheasant, peacock, wild goose, silver pheasant, egret, mandarin duck, quail, and jay--embroidered on the breast and back of the State robe.

Theoretically the system is admirable, and at all events is better than appointments by Court favour. But in practice it was vitiated, first by the narrow, antiquated course of studies in the dry Chinese classics, calculated to produce pedants rather than statesmen, and secondly by the monopoly of preference which it conferred on a lettered caste to the exclusion of men of action, vigour, and enterprise. Moreover, appointments being made for life, barring crime or blunder, the Mandarins, as long as they approved themselves zealous supporters of the reigning dynasty, enjoyed a free hand in amassing wealth by plunder, and the wealth thus acquired was used to purchase further promotion and advancement, rather than to improve the welfare of the people.

They have the reputation of being a courteous people, as punctilious as the Malays themselves; and they are so amongst each other. But their attitude towards strangers is the embodiment of aggressive self-righteousness, a complacent feeling of superiority which nothing can disturb. Even the upper classes, with all their efforts to be at least polite, often betray the feeling in a subdued arrogance which is not always to be distinguished from vulgar insolence. "After the courteous, kindly Japanese, the Chinese seem indifferent, rough, and disagreeable, except the well-to-do merchants in the shops, who are bland, complacent, and courteous. Their rude stare, and the way they hustle you in the streets and shout their 'pidjun' English at you is not attractive[490]." But the stare, the hustling and the shouting may not be due to incivility. No doubt the Chinaman regards the foreigner as a "devil" but he has reason, and he never ceases to be astonished at foreign manners and customs "extremely ferocious and almost entirely uncivilised[491]."

FOOTNOTES:

[375] _Ethnology_, p. 300.

[376] _Geogr. Journ._, May, 1898, p. 491. This statement must of course be taken as having reference only to the historical Malays and their comparatively late migrations.

[377] For the desiccation of Asia see P. Kropotkin, _Geogr. Journ._ XXIII. 1904; E. Huntington, _The Pulse of Asia_, 1907.

[378] See J. Cockburn's paper "On Palaeolithic Implements," etc., in _Journ. Anthr. Inst._ 1887, p. 57 sq.

[379] "Le type. primitif des Mongols est pour nous dolichocephale" (_Les Aryens au Nord et au Sud de l'Hindou-Kouch_, 1896, p. 50).

[380] Thus Risley's Tibetan measurements were all of subjects from Sikkim and Nepal (_Tribes and Castes of Bengal_, Calcutta, 1896, _passim_). In the East, however, Desgodins and other French missionaries have had better opportunities of studying true Tibetans amongst the Si-fan ("Western Strangers"), as the frontier populations are called by the Chinese.

[381] _Op. cit._ p. 319.

[382] _Op. cit._ p. 327. Here we are reminded that, though the Sacae are called "Scythians" by Herodotus and other ancient writers, under this vague expression were comprised a multitude of heterogeneous peoples, amongst whom were types corresponding to all the main varieties of Mongolian, western Asiatic, and eastern European peoples. "Aujourd'hui l'ancien type sace, adouci parmi les melanges, reparait et constitue le type si caracteristique, si complexe et si different de ses voisins que nous appelons le type balti" (p. 328).

[383] W. W. Rockhill, our best living authority, accepts none of the current explanations of the widely diffused term _bod_ (_bhot, bhot_), which appears to form the second element in the word _Tibet_ (_Stod-Bod_, pronounced _Teu-Beu_, "Upper Bod," _i.e._ the central and western parts in contradistinction to _Maen-Bod_, "Lower Bod," the eastern provinces). _Notes on the Ethnology of Tibet_, Washington, 1895, p. 669. This writer finds the first mention of Tibet in the form _Tobbat_ (there are many variants) in the Arab Istakhri's works, about 590 A.H., while T. de Lacouperie would connect it with the Tatar kingdom of _Tu-bat_ (397-475 A.D.). This name might easily have been extended by the Chinese from the Tatars of Kansu to the neighbouring Tanguts, and thus to all Tibetans.

[384] _Hbrog-pa_, _Drok-pa_, pronounced _Dru-pa_.

[385] The Mongols apply the name _Tangut_ to Tibet and call all Tibetans _Tangutu_, "which should be discarded as useless and misleading, as the people inhabiting this section of the country are pure Tibetans" (Rockhill, p. 670). It is curious to note that the Mongol Tangutu is balanced by the Tibetan _Sok-pa_, often applied to all Mongolians.

[386] _Notes on the Ethnology of Tibet_, 1895, p. 675; see also S. Chandra Das, _Journey to Lhasa and Central Tibet_, 1904; F. Grenard, _Tibet: the Country and its Inhabitants_, 1904; G. Sandberg, _Tibet and the Tibetans_, 1906; and L. A. Waddell, _Lhasa and its Mysteries, with a record of the Expedition of 1903-1904_, 1905.

[387] _Isvestia_, XXI. 3.

[388] _Ethnology_, p. 305.

[389] _Abor_, _i.e._ "independent," is the name applied by the Assamese to the East Himalayan hill tribes, the _Minyong_, _Padam_ and _Hrasso_, who are the _Slo_ of the Tibetans. These are all affiliated by Desgodins to the Lho-pa of Bhutan (_Bul. Soc. Geogr._, October, 1877, p. 431), and are to be distinguished from the _Bori_ (_i.e._ "dependent") tribes of the plains, all more or less Hinduized Bhotiyas (Dalton, _Ethnology of Bengal_, p. 22 sq.). See A. Hamilton, _In Abor Jungles_, 1912.

[390] Not to be confused with the _Khas_, as the wild tribes of the Lao country (Siam) are collectively called. Capt. Eden Vansittart thinks in Nepal the term is an abbreviation of Kshatriya, or else means "fallen." This authority tells us that, although the Khas are true Gurkhas, it is not the Khas who enlist in our Gurkha regiments, but chiefly the Magars and Gurungs, who are of purer Bhotiya race and less completely Hinduized ("The Tribes, Clans, and Castes of Nepal," in _Journ. As. Soc. Bengal_; LXIII. I, No. 4).

[391] _Embassy to the Court of the Teshoo Lama_, p. 350 sq.

[392] "Voila, je crois, le vrai Tibetain des pays cultives du sud, qui se regarde comme bien plus civilise que les pasteurs ou bergers du nord" (_Le Thibet_, p. 253).

[393] _Notes on the Ethnology_, etc., p. 677. It may here be remarked that the unfriendliness of which travellers often complain appears mainly inspired by the Buddhist theocracy, who rule the land and are jealous of all "interlopers."

[394] _Ibid._ p. 678.

[395] With it may be compared the Chinese province of _Kan-su_, so named from its two chief towns _Kan_-chau and _Su_-chau (Yule's _Marco Polo_, I. p. 222).

[396] "Buddhist Turks," says Sir H. H. Howorth (_Geogr. Journ._ 1887, p. 230).

[397] E. Delmar Morgan, _Geogr. Journ._ 1887, p. 226.

[398] "Whatever may have been the origin of polyandry, there can be no doubt that poverty, a desire to keep down population, and to keep property undivided in families, supply sufficient reason to justify its continuance. The same motives explain its existence among the lower castes of Malabar, among the Jat (Sikhs) of the Panjab, among the Todas, and probably in most other countries in which this custom prevails" (Rockhill, p. 726).

[399] T. Rice Holmes, _Ancient Britain_, 1907, pp. 110 and 465-6.

[400] At least no reference is made to the Bonbo practice in his almost exhaustive monograph on _The Swastika_, Washington, 1896. The reversed form, however, mentioned by Max Mueller and Burnouf, is figured at p. 767 and elsewhere.

[401] Sarat Chandra Das, _Journ. As. Soc. Bengal_, 1881-2.

[402] This point, so important in the history of linguistic evolution, has I think been fairly established by T. de Lacouperie in a series of papers in the _Oriental and Babylonian Record_, 1888-90. See G. A. Grierson's _Linguistic Survey of India_, III. Tibeto-Burman Family, 1906, by Sten Konow.

[403] _Ladak_, London, 1854.

[404] G. B. Mainwaring, _A Grammar of the Rong (Lepcha) Language_, etc., Calcutta, 1876, pp. 128-9.

[405] _Outline Grammar of the Angami-Naga Language_, Calcutta, 1887, pp. 4, 5. For an indication of the astonishing number of distinct languages in the whole of this region see Gertrude M. Godden's paper "On the Naga and other Frontier Tribes of North-East India," in _Journ. Anthr. Inst._ 1897, p. 165. Under the heading Tibeto-Burman Languages Sten Konow recognises _Tibetan_, _Himalayan_, _North Assam_, _Bodo_, _Naga_, _Kuki-Chin_, _Meitei_ and _Kachin_. The Naga group comprises dialects of very different kinds; some approach Tibetan and the North Assam group, others lead over to the Bodo, others connect with Tibeto-Burman. Meitei lies midway between Kuki-Chin and Kachin, and these merge finally in Burmese. Grierson's _Linguistic Survey of India_, Vol. III. 1903-6.

[406] Almost hopeless confusion continues to prevail in the tribal nomenclature of these multitudinous hill peoples. The official sanction given to the terms _Kuki_ and _Lushai_ as collective names may be regretted, but seems now past remedy. _Kuki_ is unknown to the people themselves, while _Lushai_ is only the name of a single group proud of their head-hunting proclivities, hence they call themselves, or perhaps are called _Lu-Shai_, "Head-Cutters," from _lu_ head, _sha_ to cut (G. H. Damant). Other explanations suggested by C. A. Soppitt (_Kuki-Lushai Tribes, with an Outline Grammar of the Rangkhol-Lushai Language_, Shillong, 1887) cannot be accepted.

[407] _Op. cit._

[408] See G. A. Grierson and Sten Konow in Grierson's _Linguistic Survey of India_, Vol. III. Part II. Bodo, N[=a]g[=a] and Kachin, 1903, Part III. Kuki-Chin and Burma, 1904.

[409] _The N[=a]ga Tribes of Manipur_, 1911, p. 2. Cf. J. Shakespear, "The Kuki-Lushai Clans," _Journ. Roy. Anthr. Inst._ XXXIX. 1909.

[410] _Op. cit. p. 5._

[411] _Op. cit._ p. 122. A custom of human sacrifice among the Naga is described in the _Journal of the Burma Research Society_, 1911, "Human Sacrifices near the Upper Chindwin."

[412] It is a curious phonetic phenomenon that the combinations _kl_ and _tl_ are indistinguishable in utterance, so that it is immaterial whether this term be written _Kling_ or _Tling_, though the latter form would be preferable, as showing its origin from _Telinga_.

[413] "The Aboriginal Tribes of Manipur," _Journ. Anthr. Inst._ 1887, p. 350.

[414] R. Brown, _Statistical Account of Manipur_, 1874.

[415] T. C. Hodson, _The Meitheis_, 1908, p. 96.

[416] T. C. Hodson, _The Meitheis_, 1908, pp. 96-7.

[417] G. Watt, _loc. cit._ p. 362.

[418] _The Chin Hills_, etc., Vol. I., Rangoon, 1896.

[419] _Op. cit._ p. 165.

[420] R. C. Temple, Art. "Burma," Hastings, _Ency. Religion and Ethics_, 1910.

[421] Dalton, _Ethnology of Bengal_, p. 9.

[422] Prince Henri d'Orleans writes "que les Singphos et les Katchins [Kakhyens] ne font qu'un, que le premier mot est _thai_ et le second birman." _Du Tonkin aux Indes_, 1898, p. 311. This is how the ethnical confusion in these borderlands gets perpetuated. _Singpho_ is not _Thai_, i.e. Shan or Siamese, but a native word as here explained.

[423] John Anderson, _Mandalay to Momein_, 1876, p. 131.

[424] Three skulls discovered by M. Mansuy in a cave at Pho-Binh-Gia (Indo-China) associated with Neolithic culture were markedly dolichocephalic, resembling in some respects the Cro-Magnon race of the Reindeer period. Cf. R. Verneau, _L'Anthropologie_, XX. 1909.

[425] _The Loyal Karens of Burma_, 1887.

[426] R. C. Temple, _Academy_, Jan. 29, 1887, p. 72.

[427] Forbes, _Languages of Further India_, p. 61.

[428] _Ibid._ p. 55.

[429] G. W. Bird, _Wanderings in Burma_, 1897, p. 335.

[430] The Burmese is the most mixed race in the province. "Originally Dravidians of some sort, they seem to have received blood from various sources--Hindu, Musalm[=a]n, Chinese, Sh[=a]n, Talaing, European and others." W. Crooke, "The Stability of Caste and Tribal Groups in India," _Journ. Roy. Anthr. Soc._ XLIV. 1914, p. 279, quoting the _Ethnographic Survey of India_, 1906.

[431] J. G. Scott, _Burma_, etc., 1886, p. 115.

[432] _Op. cit._ p. 118.

[433] "The Taungbyon Festival, Burma," _Journ. Roy. Anthr. Soc._ XLV. 1915, p. 355.

[434] _Amongst the Shans_, etc., 1885, p. 233.

[435] Cf. the Shans of Yunnan, who are nearly all "tatoues, depuis la ceinture jusqu'au genou, de dessins bleus si serres qu'ils paraissent former une vraie culotte," Pr. Henri d'Orleans, _Du Tonkin aux Indes_, 1898, p. 83.

[436] For recent literature on Burma and the Burmese consult besides the _Ethnographic Survey of India_, 1906, and the _Census Report_ of 1911, J. G. Scott, _The Burman_, 1896, and _Burma_, 1906; A. Ireland, _The Province of Burma_, 1907; H. Fielding Hall, _The Soul of a People_, 1898, and _A People at School_, 1906.

[437] Probably for _Shan-ts[)e], Shan-yen_, "highlanders" (_Shan_, mountain), _Shan_ itself being the same word as _Siam_, a form which comes to us through the Portuguese _Siao_.

[438] For the Laos see L. de Reinach, _Le Laos_, 1902, with bibliography.

[439] Carl Bock, MS. note. This observer notes that many of the Ngiou have been largely assimilated in type to the Burmese and in one place goes so far as to assert that "the Ngiou are decidedly of the same race as the Burmese. I have had opportunities of seeing hundreds of both countries, and of closely watching their features and build. The Ngiou wear the hair in a topknot in the same way as the Burmese, but they are easily distinguished by their tattooing, which is much more elaborate" (_Temples and Elephants_, 1884, p. 297). Of course all spring from one primeval stock, but they now constitute distinct ethnical groups, and, except about the borderlands, where blends may be suspected, both the physical and mental characters differ considerably. Bock's _Ngiou_ is no doubt the same name as _Ngnio_, which H. S. Hallett applies in one place to the Mosse Shans north of Zimme, and elsewhere to the Burmese Shans collectively (_A Thousand Miles on an Elephant_, 1890, pp. 158 and 358).

[440] "Les Pai ne sont autres que des Laotiens" (Prince Henri, p. 42).

[441] One Shan group, the Deodhaings, still persist, and occupy a few villages near Sibsagar (S. E. Peal, _Nature_, June 19, 1884, p. 169). Dalton also mentions the _Kamjangs_, a Khamti (Tai) tribe in the Sadiya district, Assam (_Ethnology of Bengal_, p. 6).

[442] Much unexpected light has been thrown upon the early history of these Ahoms by E. Gait, who has discovered and described in the _Journ. As. Soc. Bengal_, 1894, a large number of _puthis_, or MSS. (28 in the Sibsagar district alone), in the now almost extinct Ahom language, some of which give a continuous history of the Ahom rajas from 568 to 1795 A.D. Most of the others appear to be treatises on religious mysticism or divination, such as "a book on the calculation of future events by examining the leg of a fowl" (_ib._).

[443] _Op. cit._ p. 309.

[444] A. R. Colquhoun, _Amongst the Shans_, 1885, Introduction, p. lv.

[445] _Op. cit._ p. 328.

[446] _Temples and Elephants_, p. 320.

[447] "Der Gesichtsausdruck ueberhaupt naehert sich der kaukasischen Race" (_Im fernen Osten_, p. 959).

[448] Low's _Siamese Grammar_, p. 14.

[449] R. G. Woodthorpe, "The Shans and Hill Tribes of the Mekong," in _Journ. Anthr. Inst._ 1897, p. 16.

[450] _Op. cit._ p. 55.

[451] This omission, however, is partly supplied by T. de Lacouperie, who gives us an account of a wonderful Lolo MS. on satin, red on one side, blue on the other, containing nearly 5750 words written in black, "apparently with the Chinese brush." The MS. was obtained by E. Colborne Baber from a Lolo chief, forwarded to Europe in 1881, and described by de Lacouperie, _Journ. R. As. Soc._ Vol. XIV. Part I. "The writing runs in lines from top to bottom and from left to right, as in Chinese" (p. 1), and this authority regards it as the link that was wanting to connect the various members of a widely diffused family radiating from India (Harapa seal, Indo-Pali, Vatteluttu) to Malaysia (Batta, Rejang, Lampong, Bugis, Makassar, Tagal), to Indo-China (Lao, Siamese, Lolo), Korea and Japan, and also including the Siao-chuen Chinese system "in use a few centuries B.C." (p. 5). It would be premature to say that all these connections are established.

[452] _Op. cit._ p. 193.

[453] _Beginnings of Writing in Central and Eastern Asia, passim._ For the Lolos see A. F. Legendre, "Les Lolos. Etude ethnologique et anthropologique," _T'oung Pao II._ Vol. X. 1909.

[454] "Quelques-uns de ces Kiou-tses me rappellent des Europeens que je connais." (_Op. cit._ p. 252).

[455] _Deux Ans dans le Haut-Tonkin_, etc., Paris, 1896.

[456] With regard to _Man_ (_Man-tse_) it should be explained that in Chinese it means "untameable worms," that is, _wild_ or _barbarous_, and we are warned by Desgodins that "il ne faut pas prendre ces mots comme des noms propres de tribus" (_Bul. Soc. Geogr._ XII. p. 410). In 1877 Capt. W. Gill visited a large nation of _Man-tse_ with 18 tribal divisions, reaching from West Yunnan to the extreme north of Sechuen, a sort of federacy recognising a king, with Chinese habits and dress, but speaking a language resembling Sanskrit (?). These were the _Sumu_, or "White Man-tse," apparently the same as those visited in 1896 by Mrs Bishop, and by her described as semi-independent, ruled by their own chiefs, and in appearance "quite Caucasian, both men and women being very handsome," strict Buddhists, friendly and hospitable, and living in large stone houses (Letter to _Times_, Aug. 18, 1896).

[457] "Des paysannes nongs dont les cheveux etaient blonds, quelquefois meme roux." _Op. cit._

[458] _L'Anthropologie_, 1896, p. 602 sq.

[459] "On the Relations of the Indo-Chinese and Inter-Oceanic Races and Languages." Paper read at the Meeting of the Brit. Association, Sheffield, 1879, and printed in the _Journ. Anthr. Inst._, February, 1880.

[460] In the Javanese annals the invaders are called "Cambojans," but at this time (about 1340) Camboja had already been reduced, and the Siamese conquerors had brought back from its renowned capital, Angkor Wat, over 90,000 captives. These were largely employed in the wars of the period, which were thus attributed to Camboja instead of to Siam by foreign peoples ignorant of the changed relations in Indo-China.

[461] How very dark some of these corners can be may be seen from the sad picture of maladministration, vice, and corruption still prevalent so late as 1890, given by Hallett in _A Thousand Miles on an Elephant_, Ch. xxxv.; and even still later by H. Warington Smyth in _Five Years in Siam, from 1891 to 1896_ (1898). This observer credits the Siamese with an undeveloped sense of right and wrong, so that they are good only by accident. "To do a thing because it is right is beyond them; to abstain from a thing because it is against their good name, or involves serious consequences, is possibly within the power of a few; the question of right and wrong does not enter the calculation." But he thinks they may possess a high degree of intelligence, and mentions the case of a peasant, who from an atlas had taught himself geography and politics. P. A. Thompson, _Lotus Land_, 1906, gives an account of the country and people of Southern Siam.

[462] Probably a corruption of _talapat_, the name of the palm-tree which yields the fan-leaf constantly used by the monks.

[463] "In conversation with the monks M'Gilvary was told that it would most likely be countless ages before they would attain the much wished for state of Nirvana, and that one transgression at any time might relegate them to the lowest hell to begin again their melancholy pilgrimage" (Hallett, _A Thousand Miles on an Elephant_, p. 337).

[464] "Le gros orteil est tres developpe et ecarte des autres doigts du pied. A ce caractere distinctif, que l'on retrouve encore aujourd'hui chez les indigenes de race pure, on peut reconnaitre facilement que les Giao-chi sont les ancetres des Annamites" (_La Cochinchine francaise en 1878_, p. 231). See also a note on the subject by C. F. Tremlett in _Journ. Anthr. Inst._ 1879, p. 460.

[465] Properly _An-nan_, a modified form of _ngan-nan_, "Southern Peace."

[466] Cf. _Nan-king_, _Pe-king_, "Southern" and "Northern" Courts (Capitals).

[467] _La Gazette Geographique_, March 12, 1885.

[468] _Geogr. Journ._, Sept. 1893, p. 194.

[469] "Parmi les citoyens regne la plus parfaite egalite. Point d'esclavage, la servitude est en horreur. Aussi tout homme peut-il aspirer aux emplois, se plaindre aux memes tribunaux que son adversaire" (_op. cit._ p. 6).

[470] From _bonzo_, a Portuguese corruption of the Japanese _busso_, a devout person, applied first to the Buddhist priests of Japan, and then extended to those of China and neighbouring lands.

[471] This name, probably the Chinese _jin_, men, people, already occurs in Sanskrit writings in its present form: [Sanskrit symbol], _China_, whence the Hindi [Arabic symbol], _Chin_, and the Arabo-Persian [Arabic symbol], _Sin_, which gives the classical _Sinae_. The most common national name is Chung-kue, "middle kingdom" (presumably the centre of the universe), whence Chung-kue-Jin, the Chinese people. Some have referred _China_ to the _Chin_ (_Tsin_) dynasty (909 B.C.), while Marco Polo's _Kataia_ (Russian _Kitai_) is the _Khata_ (North China) of the Mongol period, from the Manchu _K'i-tan_, founders of the Liao dynasty, which was overthrown 1115 A.D. by the Nue-Ch[)a]n Tatars. Ptolemy's _Thinae_ is rightly regarded by Edkins as the same word as _Sinae_, the substitution of t for s being normal in Annam, whence this form may have reached the west through the southern seaport of Kattigara.

[472] _Western Origin of the Early Chinese Civilization, from 2300 B.C. to 200 A.D., or Chapters on the Elements Derived from the Old Civilizations of West Asia in the Formation of the Ancient Chinese Culture_, London, 1894.

[473] "Observations upon the Languages of the Early Inhabitants of Mesopotamia," in _Journ. R. As. Soc._ XVI. Part 2.

[474] MS. note, May 7, 1896.

[475] C. J. Ball, _Chinese and Sumerian_, 1913.

[476] _History of the Archaic Chinese Writing and Texts_, 1882, p. 5.

[477] The first actual date given is that of Tai Hao (Fu-hi), 2953 B.C., but this ruler belongs to the fabulous period, and is stated to have reigned 115 years. The first certain date would appear to be that of Yau, first of the Chinese sages and reformer of the calendar (2357 B.C.). The date 2254 B.C. for Confucius's model king Shun seems also established. But of course all this is modern history compared with the now determined Babylonian and Egyptian records.

[478] Amongst the metals reference is made to iron so early as the time of the Emperor Ta Yue (2200 B.C.), when it is mentioned as an article of tribute in the _Shu-King_. F. Hirth, who states this fact, adds that during the same period, if not even earlier, iron was already a flourishing industry in the Liang district (Paper on the "History of Chinese Culture," Munich Anthropological Society, April, 1898). At the discussion which followed the reading of this paper Montelius argued that iron was unknown in Western Asia and Egypt before 1500 B.C., although the point was contested by Hommel, who quoted a word for iron in the earliest Egyptian texts. Montelius, however, explained that terms originally meaning "ore" or "metal" were afterwards used for "iron." Such was certainly the case with the Gk. [Greek: chalkos], at first "copper," then metal in general, and used still later for [Greek: sideros], "iron"; hence [Greek: chalkeus] = coppersmith, blacksmith, and even goldsmith. So also with the Lat. _aes_ (Sanskrit _ayas_, akin to _aurora_, with simple idea of brightness), used first especially for copper (_aes cyprium, cuprum_), and then for _bronze_ (Lewis and Short). For Hirth's later views see his _Ancient History of China_, 1908 (from the fabulous ages to 221 B.C.).

[479] This term _Y-jen_ (_Yi-jen_), meaning much the same as _Man_, _Man-tse_, savage, rude, untameable, has acquired a sort of diplomatic distinction. In the treaty of Tien-tsin (1858) it was stipulated that it should no longer, as heretofore, be applied in official documents to the English or to any subjects of the Queen.

[480] See J. Edkins, _China's Place in Philology_, p. 117. The Hok-los were originally from Fo-kien, whence their alternative name, _Fo-lo_. The _lo_ appears to be the same word as in the reduplicated _Lo-lo_, meaning something like the Greek and Latin _Bar-bar_, stammerers, rude, uncultured.

[481] The _Hakkas_, _i.e._ "strangers," speak a well-marked dialect current on the uplands between Kwang-tung, Kiang-si, and Fo-kien. J. Dyer Ball, _Easy Lessons in the Hakka Dialect_, 1884.

[482] Numerous in the western parts of Kwang-tung and in the Canton district. J. Dyer Ball, _Cantonese Made Easy_, Hongkong, 1884.

[483] In this expression "Pidgin" appears to be a corruption of the word _business_ taken in a very wide sense, as in such terms as _talkee-pidgin_ = a conversation, discussion; _singsong pidgin_ = a concert, etc. It is no unusual occurrence for persons from widely separated Chinese provinces meeting in England to be obliged to use this common jargon in conversation.

[484] For the aboriginal peoples, with bibliography, see M. Kennelly's translation of L. Richard's _Comprehensive Geography of the Chinese Empire and its Dependencies_, 1908, pp. 371-3.

[485] _Kung-tse_, "Teacher Kung," or more fully _Kung-fu-tse_, "the eminent teacher Kung," which gives the Latinised form _Confucius_.

[486] _Kwong Ki Chiu_, 1881, p. 875. Confucius was born in 550 and died in 477 B.C., and to him are at present dedicated as many as 1560 temples, in which are observed real sacrificial rites. For these sacrifices the State yearly supplies 26,606 sheep, pigs, rabbits and other animals, besides 27,000 pieces of silk, most of which things, however, become the "perquisites" of the attendants in the sanctuaries.

[487] Arthur H. Smith, _Chinese Characteristics_, New York, 1895. The good, or at least the useful, qualities of the Chinese are stated by this shrewd observer to be a love of industry, peace, and social order, a matchless patience and forbearance under wrongs and evils beyond cure, a happy temperament, no nerves, and "a digestion like that of an ostrich." See also H. A. Giles, _China and the_ _Chinese_, 1902; E. H. Parker, _John Chinaman and a Few Others_, 1901; J. Dyer Ball, _Things Chinese_, 1903; and M. Kennelly in Richard's _Comprehensive Geography of the Chinese Empire and its Dependencies_, 1908.

[488] See _Contemporary Review_, Feb. 1908, "Report on Christian Missions in China," by Mr F. W. Fox, Professor Macalister and Sir Alexander Simpson.

[489] A happy Portuguese coinage from the Malay _mantri_, a state minister, which is the Sanskrit _mantrin_, a counsellor, from _mantra_, a sacred text, a counsel, from Aryan root _man_, to think, know, whence also the English _mind_.

[490] Miss Bird (Mrs Bishop), _The Golden Chersonese_, 1883, p. 37.

[491] H. A. Giles, _The Civilisation of China_, 1911, p. 237. See especially Chap. XI., "Chinese and Foreigners," for the etiquette of street regulations and the habit of shouting conversation.