Man, Past and Present - Agustus Henry Keane, A. Hingston Quiggin, Alfred Court Haddon (most popular novels txt) 📗

"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.

CHAPTER VII(THE OCEANIC MONGOLS)

 

Range of the Oceanic Mongols--The terra "Malay"--The Historical Malays--Malay Cradle--Migrations and Present Range--The Malayans--The Javanese--Balinese and Sassaks--Hindu Legends in Bali--The Malayan Seafarers and Rovers--Malaysia and Pelasgia: a Historical Parallel--Malayan Folklore--Borneo--Punan--Klemantan-- Bahau-Kenyah-Kayan--Iban (Sea Dayak)--Summary--Religion--Early Man and his Works in Sumatra--The Mentawi Islanders--Javanese and Hindu Influences--The Malaysian Alphabets--The Battas: Cultured Cannibals--Hindu and Primitive Survivals--The Achinese--Early Records--Islam and Hindu Reminiscences--Ethnical Relations in Madagascar--Prehistoric Peoples--Oceanic Immigrants--Negroid Element--Arab Element--Uniformity of Language--Malagasy Gothamites--Partial Fusion of Races--Hova Type--Black Element from Africa--Mental Qualities of the Malagasy--Spread of Christianity--Culture--Malagasy Folklore--The Philippine Natives--Effects of a Christian Theocratic Government on the National Character--Social Groups: the Indios, the Infielos, and the Moros--Malayans and Indonesians in Formosa--The Chinese Settlers--Racial and Linguistic Affinities--Formosa a Connecting Link between the Continental and Oceanic Populations--The Nicobarese.

CONSPECTUS.

#Present Range.# Indonesia, Philippines, Formosa, Nicobar Is., Madagascar.

#Hair#, same as Southern Mongols, scant or no beard. #Colour#, yellowish or olive brown, yellow tint sometimes very faint or absent, light leathery hue common in Madagascar.

#Skull#, brachy or sub-brachycephalic (78 to 85). #Jaws#, slightly projecting. #Cheek-bones#, prominent, but less so than true Mongol. #Nose#, rather small, often straight with widish nostrils (mesorrhine). #Eyes#, black, medium size, horizontal or slightly oblique, often with Mongol fold. #Stature#, undersized, from 1.52 m. to 1.65 m. (5 ft. to 5 ft. 5 in.). #Lips#, thickish, slightly protruding, and kept a little apart in repose. #Arms# and #legs#, rather small, slender and delicate; #feet#, small.

#Temperament.# Normally quiet, reserved and taciturn, but under excitement subject to fits of blind fury; fairly intelligent, polite and ceremonious, but uncertain, untrustworthy, and even treacherous; daring, adventurous and reckless; musical; not distinctly cruel, though indifferent to physical suffering in others.

#Speech#, various branches of a single stock language--the#Austronesian# (#Oceanic# or #Malayo-Polynesian#), at different stages of agglutination.

#Religion#, of the primitive Malayans somewhat undeveloped--a vague dread of ghosts and other spirits, but rites and ceremonies mainly absent although human sacrifices to the departed occurred in Borneo; the cultured Malayans formerly Hindus (Brahman and Buddhist), now mostly Moslem, but in the Philippines and Madagascar Christian; belief in witchcraft, charms, and spells everywhere prevalent.

#Culture#, of the primitive Malayans very low--head-hunting, mutilation, common in Borneo; hunting, fishing; no agriculture; simple arts and industries; the Moslem and Christian