Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/115

Rh COCHIN CHINA 95 quently, for fear of the authorities, are unwilling to give any information. Two excellent authors, Messrs T. Crawfurd and M Culloch have supported this false opinion in their works. More precise information has, however, been obtained, recent explorers of the country stating that Toug-king is very rich in metals, and furnishes especially gold, silver, brass, zinc, and iron. It is from Toug-king that the famous tam-tams, the manufacture of which is still a secret to Europeans, are obtained. Cochin China, properly so-called, furnishes also gold, silver, brass, and marble ; and coal is found there in several places. Lower Cochin China, like all alluvial plains, is poor in minerals ; quarries, however, of granite and of jet are worked. itr J r&amp;gt; There is little industrial activity in Anam, but in Tong-king the manufacture of articles inlaid with mother- of-pearl is carried on. From China Cochin China re ceives a large quantity of manufactured goods, cotton and silk stuffs, porcelain, and tea. The importation from France is also very considerable. The principal exports are rice (which forms of itself half the sum total), salt fish, provided principally by the fisheries at the mouth of the two chief rivers, salt, undyed cotton, pepper, and the skins of animals. The great commercial importance of Cochin China arises from the excellence of its situation, as a way of communication with the rich and populous provinces of middle China. England has long been seeking to open a route for trade between the north-east of India, or Pegu, and the south-west of China, but up to the present time, notwithstanding the courage and devotion of explorers, these attempts have failed. mm- From 1866 to 1868 a French expedition, commanded by Captain Doudart de Lagrde, followed up the course of the Me-kong, and penetrated into middle China. This expedi tion cost its chief his life, for he died in consequence of the fatigue which he underwent in Yun-nan. This examination of the Me-kong proved that this fine river is, as already noticed, unfit for regular navigation. Another route, however, by the Tong-king, may be opened up ; and it is comparatively easy and habitually used by the natives. In 1872 Mr Dupuis, a French merchant, passed up the course of the Hong-kiang as far as Maug-Hao, a town of Yun-nan, where the river ceases to be navigable. He came down the river again in 1873. He declares it to be navigable in every season, and has thus solved the problem which Captain Doudart de Lagre e sought to solve by means of the Me-kong. M. Dupuis s expedition led the French authorities, at the solicitation of the Government of Hue, to despatch M. Francis Gamier to the Tong-king ; but the gallant explorer was assassinated by pirates in the neighbourhood of Ha-noi. logy. The native of Anam is the worst built and the ugliest of all the Indo-Chinese who belong to the Mongolian race. He is scarcely of middle height, and is shorter and less vigorous than his neighbours. His complexion is tawny, darker than that of the Chinese, but clearer than that of the Cambodian; his skin is thick; his forehead low; his skull slightly depressed at the top, but well developed at the sides. His face is flat, with highly protruding cheek-bones, and is lozenge-shaped or eurygnathous to a degree that is nowhere exceeded. His nose is not only the flattest, but also the smallest among the Indo-Chinese ; his mouth is large, and his lips thick ; his teeth are blackened and his gums destroyed by the constant use of the betel-nut, the areca-nut, and lime, a custom which perhaps originated in hygienic reasons. His neck is short, his shoulders slope greatly, his body is thick-set, large, all of one piece, as it were, and wanting in suppleness. His pelvis is large, with a considerable separation of the upper part of the femora, giving to his gait a curious swagger, which has, uot without reason, been described as theatrical. This odd swagger by itself suffices to distinguish Jie Anamese from every other Indo-Chinese people without exception. Another peculiarity, which especially distinguishes this race from the other Indo-Chinese branches, is a greater separation of the big toe from the rest than is found in any of the other peoples that walk bare-footed. It is sufficiently general and well marked to serve as an ethnographic test ; and it indicates that the people of Anam are not descended as some authors have asserted from a mingling of indigenous savages with the Chinese, but have existed as a distinct race for a long time. According to Father Legrand de la Liraye (Notes historiques sur la nation Annamitc, Saigon, 1865), this curious feature has served to distinguish the people of Anam since the year 2285 B.C., that is to say, 63 years after the Biblical deluge. This statement, taken as it is from the Chinese annals, shows that the Anamese could not have received this char acteristic from their neighbours ; and it is a very curious fact that it has been transmitted to the present inhabitants despite the frequent intermarriages with other races&quot; which must have taken place during this period of forty centuries. The inhabitants of Lower Cochin China are evidently weaker and smaller than those of Tong-king, and this pro bably results from their dwelling in marshy rice-fields. In the midst of the Anamese live Cambodians and immigrant Chinese, the latter, associated together- accord ing to the districts they come from, carrying on nearly all the commerce of the country. In the forests on the frontiers of Cochin China dwell certain wretched savages called Mois, or Stiengs, of whom little is known ; and alongside of these are the Chams, a Mahometan people which appear to be of Arab origin, and, in spite of a strong infusion of Chinese blood, preserve the warlike qualities of their ancestors, their love of lighting, their gay and open character, and their abstinence from theft. Their stature is tall, and they are characterized by the enormous projection of the soft parts of the abdomen. Their women, while mixing freely in society without veiling, have a high- spirited virtue which forms a contrast to the corruption that prevails around them. Their language shows that they once knew the lion and the chamois ; and while they are now inferior in civilization, they preserve traces in their vocabulary of a higher condition. Among the different races which inhabit Indo-China numerous mixtures take place. There are crosses of the Anamite with the Hindu, with the Malay, with the Cambodian, and with the Chinese. The last of these half breeds, who are called Min-huongs, are the most numerous and interesting. Evidently derived from the Chinese, of which it appears Language, to be a very ancient dialect, the Anamese language is com posed of monosyllables, of slightly varied articulation, expressing absolutely different ideas according to the tone in which they are pronounced. It is quite impossible to connect with our musical system the utterance of the sounds of which the Chinese and Auamese languages are composed. What is understood by a &quot;tone&quot; in this language is distinguished in reality, not by the number of sonorous vibrations which belong to it, but rather by a use of the vocal apparatus special to each. Thus, the sense will to a native be completely changed according as the sound is the result of an aspiration or of a simple utterance of the voice. Thence the difficulty of substituting our phonetic alphabet for the ideographic characters of the Chinese, as well as for the ideophonetic writing partly borrowed by the Anamese from the letters of the celestial empire. We owe to the Jesuit missionaries the introduc tion of an ingenious though very complicated system, which has caused remarkable progress to be made in the employ ment of phonetic characters. By means of six accents, one bar, and a crotchet, it is possible to note with sufficient