Page:Essays on the Chinese Language (1889).djvu/343

Rh marked their boundaries lived four large groups of "barbarian" tribes. Those on the East were called I, the men who knew to draw long bows. They painted themselves, wore their hair as nature made it, and did not always wait to have their food cooked. On the South were the Man, who were bandy-legged, tattooed the forehead, and did not shrink from the uncooked. To the West were the Jung, with hair unkempt, clothed with skins, and not always having grain for food. On the North were those called Ti, who wore hair and feathers for clothing, lived in caves, and did not depend on grain for their food. This was the distribution of mankind recognised in the period of the Chou dynasty. It is probably still accepted as sufficiently accurate by some Confucianists who do not know the present and rate too high the teachings of antiquity.

In the course of time, however, extended intercourse led to the knowledge of other tribes and regions. The names of these, whether native or foreign, came gradually into use among the Chinese. Some of them were taken into the language as parts of the names of certain foreign commodities to indicate the countries from which these originated. Such a term is hu (胡), which has long been in use as a common Chinese word. It was at first used vaguely as the designation of any tribe to the West of China proper, including Turks, Tartars, Indians and Persians. But from the seventh century of our era its application has been restricted by learned and careful writers to the nomad tribes between China and India. It became nearly a synonym for Mongol, while India and the countries adjacent became the hsi-yü or West Lands. But the old use of hu survives in the names of several products derived from various countries. Thus we have onions from Kashgar called Hu onions—hu-ts‘ung, and pepper from India called hu-chiao. The term hu-ma, Hu hemp, is loosely applied to foreign flax and to sesamun. The cucumber has as one of its names hu-kua, and the carrot is hu-lo-po, the Hu turnip.

As new countries yielding new products became known to the Chinese these added to their vocabulary by occasionally giving to new commodities the names of the regions from which they