VI.] THE SOUTHERN MONGOLS. 213 



allows that they are " tricky and deceitful, disposed to thieve 

 when they get the chance, mendacious, and incurable gamblers 1 ." 



Yet they have one redeeming quality, an intense love of 

 personal freedom, strangely contrasting with the almost abject 

 slavish spirit of the Siamese. The feeling extends to all classes, 

 so that servitude is held in abhorrence, and, as in Burma, a demo- 

 cratic sense of equality permeates the social system 2 . Hence, 

 although the State has always been an absolute monarchy, each 

 separate commune constitutes a veritable little oligarchic common- 

 wealth. This has come as a great surprise to the present French 

 administrators of the country, who frankly declare that they cannot 

 hope to improve the social or political position of the people 

 by substituting European for native laws and usages. The Anna- 

 mese have in fact little to learn from western social institutions. 



Their language, spoken everywhere with remarkable uni- 

 formity, is of the normal Indo-Chinese isolating 

 type, possessing six tones, three high and three low, an ^ a fJJere 

 and written in ideographic characters based on the 

 Chinese, but with numerous modifications and additions. But, 

 although these are ill-suited for the purpose, the attempt made by 

 the early Portuguese missionaries to substitute the so-called quoc- 

 ngi\ or Roman phonetic system, has been defeated by the con- 

 servative spirit of the people. Primary instruction has long been 

 widely diffused, and almost everybody can read and write as 

 many of the numerous hieroglyphs as are needed for the ordinary 

 purposes of daily intercourse. Every village has its free school, 

 and a higher range of studies is encouraged by the public exami- 

 nations to which, as in China, all candidates for government 

 appointments are subjected. Under such a scheme surprising 

 results might be achieved, were the course of studies not based 

 exclusively on the empty formulas of Chinese classical literature. 

 The subjects taught are for the most part puerile, and true 

 science is replaced by the dry moral precepts of Confucius. One 

 result amongst the educated classes is a scoffing, sceptical spirit, 



1 Geogr. Journ., Sept. 1893, p. 194. 



' Parmi les citoyens regne la plus parfaite egalite. Point cTesclavage, 

 la servitude est en horreur. Aussi tout homme peut-il aspirer aux emplois, se 

 plaindre aux memes tribunaux que son adversaire " (op. cit. p. 6). 



