VI.] THE SOUTHERN MONGOLS. 211 



Let anyone, who may fancy there is little or nothing in blood, 

 pass rapidly from the bright, genial if somewhat 



Tli ^ 



listless and corrupt social life of Bangkok to the Annamese. 

 dry, uncongenial moral atmosphere of Ha-noi or 

 Saigon, and he will be apt to modify his views on that point. 

 Few observers have a good word to say for the Tonkingese, the 

 Cochin-Chinese, or any other branch of the Annamese family, 

 and some even of the least prejudiced are so outspoken that we 

 must needs infer there is good ground for their severe strictures 

 on these strange, uncouth materialists. Buddhists of course they 

 are nominally ; but of the moral sense they have little, unless it 

 be (amongst the lettered classes) a pale reflection of the pale 

 Chinese ethical code. The whole region in fact is a sort of 

 attenuated China, to which it owes its arts and industries, its 

 letters, moral systems, general culture, and even a large part of 

 its inhabitants. Giao-shi (Ktao-shi], the name of 

 the aborigines, said to mean " Bifurcated," or 

 "Cross-toes 1 ," in reference to the wide space between the great 

 toe and the next, occurs in the legendary Chinese records so 

 far back as 2285 B.C., since which period the two countries 

 are supposed to have maintained almost uninterrupted relations, 

 whether friendly or hostile, down to the present day. At first the 

 Giao-shi were confined to the northern parts of Lu-kiang, the 

 present Tonking, all the rest of the coast lands being held by the 

 powerful Champa (Tsiampa) people, whose affinities are with the 

 Oceanic populations. But in 218 B.C., Lu-kiang having been re- 

 duced and incorporated with China proper, a large number of 

 Chinese emigrants settled in the country, and gradually merged 

 with the Giao-shi in a single nationality, whose twofold descent 

 is still reflected in the Annamese physical and mental characters. 

 This term Annam 2 , however, did not come into use till the 

 7th century, when it was officially applied to the frontier river 



1 " Le gros orteil est tres developpe et ecarte des autres doigts du pied. 

 A ce caractere distinctif, que Ton 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. 23 1). See also a note on 

 the subject by C. F. Tremlett in Joiirn. Anthrop. Inst. 1879, p. 460. 



2 Properly Aji-nan, a modified form of ngan-nan, " Southern Peace." 



142 



