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 future. The past and future participles are passive in their origin, and hence tenses formed with these participles must be construed passively. Thus, instead of “I struck him” we must say, either “he was struck by me,” or else (impersonally) “it was struck by me with reference to him.” So, for an intransitive verb we have, either “I am gone,” or “it is gone by me.” In the language of the Midland this is quite simple and clear, but in those of the Outer Band the subject (in the instrumental, or as it is usually called “agent” case) is indicated by means of pronominal suffixes attached to the participle or auxiliary verb; thus (Bengali) mārila + am, struck + by-me, becomes mārilām, I struck. In such cases all memory of the passive meaning of the participle is lost by the eastern languages, and it, together with the appropriate pronominal suffixes, becomes in appearance and in practical use an ordinary past tense conjugated as in Latin or in Sanskrit. It is an instance of reversion to the original type; first synthetic, then analytic, and then again a new synthetic conjugation. In the other languages of the Outer Band, the memory of the passive nature of the participle is retained, although the conjugation is as synthetic as in the East, and the subject has to be put into the “agent” case.

—No work has yet been published dealing with Indo-Aryan subjects as a whole, although several have been written which treat of one or more stages of their development. For the general question of the Piśāca languages, the reader may consult G. A. Grierson’s The Piśāca Languages of North-Western India (London, 1906). For the different languages of this group, see G. W. Leitner, Dardistan (Lahore, 1877); J. Biddulph, Tribes of the Hindoo Koosh, (Calcutta, 1880); D. J. O’Brien, Grammar and Vocabulary of the Khowār Dialect (Lahore, 1895); J. Davidson, Notes on the Bashgali (Kāfir) Language (Calcutta, 1901). For the linguistic conditions of Vedic times, the Introduction to J. Wackernagel’s Altindische Grammatik (Göttingen, 1896) gives much useful information in a convenient form. For the literature concerning Pāli and Prakrit, see under those heads. The following are the principal works dealing with the general question of the Tertiary Prakrits: J. Beames, Comparative Grammar of the Modern Aryan Languages of India (1872–1879); A. F. R. Hoernle, A Grammar of the Eastern Hindi compared with the other Gaudian Languages (1880); R. G. Bhandarkar, “The Phonology of the Prakrits of Northern India,” in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (Bombay Branch), vol. XVII., ii., 99-182 (see also the same author’s series of papers on cognate subjects in vol. XVI. of the same Journal); and G. A. Grierson’s essays “On the Phonology of the Modern Indo-Aryan Vernaculars” in the Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft, vols. xlix., 1. (1895–1896), 393, 1; “On the Radical and Participial Tenses of the Modern Indo-Aryan Vernaculars” in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. lxiv. (1895), part i., 352; and “On certain Suffixes in the Modern Indo-Aryan Vernaculars” in the Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung (1903), p. 473. The general subject of this article is discussed at greater length in chapter vii. of the Report on the Census of India, 1901 (Calcutta, 1903). The volumes of the Linguistic Survey of India also contain much detailed information, summed up at length in the introductory volume.

 INDO-CHINA, FRENCH. The geographical denomination of French Indo-China includes the protectorates of Annam, Tongking and Cambodia, the colony of Cochin-China and part of the Laos country. In 1900 the newly-acquired territory of Kwang-Chow Bay, on the coast of China, was placed under the authority of the governor-general of Indo-China. Cochin-China, a geographical definition which formerly included all the countries in the Annamese empire—Tongking, Annam and Cochin-China—now signifies only the French colony, consisting of the “southern provinces” originally conquered from Annam, having Saigon as its capital. In its entirety French Indo-China, the eastern portion of the Indo-Chinese peninsula, lies between 8° 30′ and 23° 25′ N. and 100° and 109° 20′ E. It is bounded N. by China, on which side the frontiers have been delimited; E. and S.E. by the Gulf of Tongking and the China Sea; W. by the Gulf of Siam and Siam, and N.W. by Burma. The area is estimated at about 290,000 sq. m., with a population of 17 millions, of whom 75 or 80% are Annamese. The French inhabitants number about 13,000.

The configuration of the country is determined by two rivers of unequal importance—the Mekong and the Song-Koi—and a continuous chain of mountains, an offshoot of the great Chinese group of Yun-nan, which, making a double curve, forms an immense S. South and west of this mountain chain the country forms part of the Mekong basin. To the north and north-east of the chain the valley of the Song-Koi, or Red river,

constitutes almost the whole of Tongking, of which its delta represents the most fertile and populous if not the largest portion. The small mountainous provinces of Lang-Son, That-Ke and Kao-Bang, however, belong geographically to the Si-Kiang basin. On the east the small province of Mon-Kay, on the borders of Kwang-Tung, forms a little basin enclosed between the mountains and the sea; on the south the province of Thanh-Hoa, although crossed by the small river Song-Ma, forms the extremity of the Red river delta and belongs to it, the two rivers being united at some distance from the sea by a natural channel formed by the junction of a northern branch of the Song-Ma with a southern branch of the Song-Koi. The Red river descends from the mountains of Yun-nan, rising near Tali-fu between deep and inaccessible gorges, and becomes navigable only on its entry into Tongking. Means have been taken to render it available to steam launches, and in consequence of an agreement between the state and the Compagnie des Correspondances Fluviales a service of steamers is provided from its mouth to Lao-Kay. Near Hung-Hoa the Red river receives its two chief tributaries, the Black river from the plateaus of the west—the land of the Muongs—and the Clear river, one of the largest of whose tributaries issues from the Ba-Be lakes. The Black river is navigable for a considerable distance, the Clear river only from Tuyen-Kwang. Between the basins of the Song-Koi and the Mekong the chain of mountains, crowned by tolerably extensive plateaus, covers, with its ramifications and transverse spurs, a vast extent of country little known, although several trade-routes traverse it, thus placing the Laos country in communication with Tongking and Annam. In about 19° N. the mountain-ridge approaches the sea and runs parallel to the coast, presenting on its eastern side a steep declivity which encloses a narrow littoral, in places only a mile or two broad, between the base of its cliffs and the shore. This coast-belt constitutes the habitable and cultivable portion of Annam proper, and consists of alluvial matter accumulated at the mouths of mountain streams, and marshes and swamps enclosed between land and sea by sand ridges heaped up by wind and tide. The high valleys and plateaus originally belonged to the empire, the limits of which, although invaded and occupied by Siamese, formerly extended to the banks of the Mekong. The western slopes form part of the French Laos possessions. The Mekong valley includes Laos, Cambodia and the greater part of Cochin-China. The (q.v.) is one of the largest rivers of south-eastern Asia, having a course 1900 m. in length. Its mouths, six in number, communicate by means of a navigable canal with the Saigon river (fed by the Don-Nai and the two Vaico rivers), which is navigable by the largest warships, rendering Saigon the most important natural port of Indo-China.

Geology.—The deltaic tracts of the Mekong and Red river are composed of alluvium (generally silicious clay) deposited by the rivers. The mountains from which this soil is derived are granitic in formation, the framework being almost always schists of ancient date, dislocated, folded and occasionally rounded into hills 1000 to 1300 ft. in height, belonging to the Devonian period. Above these schists lie—more especially in the north and south of Tongking—marbles and other highly crystalline limestones, upon which rest, unconformably in places (Nong-Son, Ke-Bao, Hon-Gáy), Carboniferous formations. In the upper part of the Red river valley rich deposits of coal have been found between Yen-Bay and Hai-Duong, in a considerable tract of Tertiary rock. Limestone occurs also in the valley of the Mekong, forming an extensive massif in the district of Lakhon and in the basins of the Nam-Ka-Dinh and Nam-Hin-Bun. These limestones appear to be Carboniferous. In the region south of Lakhon the rock is Triassic, and gold has been found in several districts. The natives collect it in very small quantities by a washing process. In the lateral valleys of the Mekong copper and tin are found. On the course of the Nam-Paton, a tributary of the Nam-Hin-Bun, the natives work a moderately productive tin-mine. Layers of spiegeleisen, limonite and other iron ores are numerous in the Laos states, in which also antimony occurs.

Climate.—The climate of Indo-China is that of an inter-tropical country, damp and hot. But the difference between the southern and northern regions is marked, as regards both temperature and meteorology. Cochin-China and Cambodia have very regular seasons, corresponding with the monsoons. The north-easterly monsoon blows from about the 15th of October to the 15th of April, within a day or so. The temperature remains almost steady during this time, varying but slightly from 78.8° to 80.6° F. by day to 68°