Page:History of Corea, ancient and modern; with description of manners and customs, language and geography (1879).djvu/26

 4 IKTBODUCnON. who did not till the ground, and knew not how to use a fire ; who in summer lived on the hill sides, and dug deep pits for winter accommodation; whose clothing consisted of a square foot of cotton before and another behind ; and an inch thick of lard smeared over their bodies formed their winter coat I think we are therefore justified in believing the Sooshun to have been savages in every sense of the word, for they must have not only eaten flesh as their only food, but eaten it uncooked. The example said to have been set by Kitsu has been abundantly imitated; for from the time he fled to Chaosien, liaotung became subject to irregular immigration from C!hina — never more so than within the past century. Many fled to the inaccessible nomads for shelter from oppression, many for asylum firom justice. But though these might and did introduce a degree of Chinese civilization, the character of the people and the nature of their customs remained mainly stationary. It is now impossible to ascertain the resemblances, or differences, in the customs of the numerous kingdoms into which this region has almost always been divided. The languages, if not indeed originally of the same species, were, as they still are, of the same genus. For however different their various languages now, there is no positive proof that they were as distinct from each other, three or even two thousand years ago, as they now are. Analogy would lead us to suppose the reverse, and to infer that the Turanian languages of this region were at one time one and the same, but as unlike Chinese as now. During the Han dynasty — ^prior, contem- poraneous with, and subsequent to the time of our Lord — ^the names of men and places among the Turanian peoples of the modem Mongolia, Manchuria, and Corea, were polysyllabic as they are now. Much more we cannot learn ; nor is it possible to find such traces, at so early a period of Chinese histoiy, as would justify us in expecting proofs of a common original Turanian language over all that region. Long after Kitsu is said to have introduced Chinese civiliza- tion among the SUhvAi who formed the kingdom of Chaosien,