io8 



THE LIVING RACES OF MANKIND 



be seen for miles walking in single file along the 

 narrow dykes which separate the soaking rice-plots, 

 and carrying their produce in baskets at the end 

 of a bamboo pole. Others will approach in sampans 

 along the waterways and canals. When business 

 opens, there is just such a jabbering as in the 

 monkey-house in the Zoo. The women squat down 

 by the side of their wares and intersperse a ceaseless 

 chatter with chewing of the betel-leaf and ejection 

 of long splashes of scarlet saliva from their discoloured 

 mouths. You will see exposed for sale pigs, chickens, 

 and ducks in hampers, fish fresh and slimy, and 

 sun-dried big prawns and tiny land-crabs, cabbages, 

 radishes, the areca-nut, vermicelli, cakes, sweetmeats, 

 and eggs. Elsewhere will be cheap articles of furni- 

 ture or raiment, tin lamps for petroleum, pottery, 

 brass-ware, opium-pipes, bracelets, necklets, amber 

 buttons, palm-leaf hats, turbans, Bombay cotton, and 



CAMBODIA. 



THE ancient kingdom of Cambodia has long been 

 restricted to the lower course of the Me Kong River. 

 For some time it was a vassal of the Siamese 

 kingdom; but the king is now subject to ' France. 

 The stupendous ruins of Angkor Vaht and many 

 other remains are evidence of the former greatness 

 of this old empire. The finest of these monuments, 

 which are now in Siamese territory, cover a space 

 of twenty square miles, and have been carefully 

 studied by French archaeologists. Lord Curzon says 

 they form "the most remarkable collection of ruins 

 in the world, whether we regard the prodigious 

 magnitude of the ground-plan, the grandiose dimen- 

 sions of the principal palaces and temples, or the 

 artistic beauty and delicacy of the bas-reliefs and 

 sculptures." There is reason to believe although the 

 French savants do not accept this view that they 

 were built by the Cambodians under the direction 

 of Brahman missionaries from India, who introduced 

 Aryan culture among the rude inhabitants of the 

 country. 



"Some of these wild tribes," says Keane, "are still distinguished by a gentle disposition, 

 a certain innate politeness and courtesy, as well as a surprising artistic taste and skill lavished 

 on their dress, ornaments, pipes, quivers, and other objects. These traits may well be the 

 faint reflection of a now extinguished culture still cherished by these children of nature, lost 

 for ages amid their dense woodlands, which they believe to be the centre of the universe, and 

 which nothing can ever induce them to leave. But the Cambodians themselves seem to have 

 retained little of their former greatness, except an overwhelming pride and arrogance. They 

 are being gradually absorbed by the surrounding Anamese and Lao populations. A strange 

 mystery hangs over this Cambodian race, who, fully 2,000 years ago, built cities and raised 

 monuments amid the swamps of Tonle-sap, vying in size and grandeur with those of the 



Photo by Signm- Beuto] \_Mandalay. 



A BURMESE NATIVE, WITH TATTOOED LEGS. 



