204 MAN : PAST AND PRESENT. [CHAP. 



alphabet, the hieroglyphs being handed down bodily from one 

 expert to another. Nevertheless Prince Henri looks on this as 

 one of the first steps in the history of writing ; " originally many 

 of the Chinese characters were simply pictorial, and if the Mossos, 

 instead of being hemmed in, had acquired a large expansion, 

 their sacred books might also perhaps have given birth to true 

 characters 1 ." 



Although now "hemmed in," the Mossos are a historical and 

 somewhat cultured people, belonging to the same 



Origins? rou P as tne lung* (NJ un g s \ wn came from the 

 regions north-east of Tibet, and appeared on the 

 Chinese frontiers about 600 B.C. They are referred to in the 

 Chinese records of 796 A.D. when they were reduced by the king 

 of Nanchao. After various vicissitudes they recognised the 

 Chinese suzerainty in the i4th century, and were finally subdued 

 in the i8th. De Lacouperie 2 thinks they are probably of the 

 same origin as the Lolos, the two languages having much in 

 common, and the names of both being Chinese, while the Lolos 

 and the Mossos call themselves respectively Nossu (Nesu) and 

 Nashi (Nashri). 



Everywhere amongst these border tribes are met groups of 



Abori in < aborigines, who present more or less regular features 



of South china which are described by various travellers as ''Cau- 



and Annam. ... _. 



casic or " European. 1 hus the Kiu-tse, who are 

 the Khanungs of the English maps, and are akin to the large 

 Lu-tse family (Me/am, Ami, Diasu &c.), reminded Prince Henri 

 of some Europeans of his acquaintance 3 , and he speaks of the 

 light colour, straight nose and eyes, and generally fine type of the 

 Yayo (Yao), as the Chinese call them, but whose real name is 

 Lin-tin-yu. 



The same Caucasic element reappears in a pronounced form 

 amongst the indigenous populations of Tonking, to whom 

 Dr A. Billet has devoted an instructive monograph 4 . This 



1 Op. cit. p. 193. 



- Beginnings of Writing in Central and Eastern Asia, passim. 



3 " Quelques-uns de ces Kiou-tses me rappellent des Europeans que je 

 connais " (Op. cit. p. 252). 



4 Deux Ans dans le Haul-Tonkin^ etc., Paris, 1896. 



