OF THE INDO-CHINESE NATIONS. 1^1 



With the exception of the Malays, and perhaps 

 soiii,e rude tribes (t, mountaineers, the nations who 

 occupy the q-ountries which extend from India to 

 C'lina, proiess only one religion, and adhere almost 

 solely to the syst^ui of Budd'ha. In so vast an 

 extent of country some diversity of local institutions 

 is always to be expected ; but the spirit of the system 

 audits influei,ice on . the manners of the people, in 

 the, saine statje' of . civilization, is essentially the same 

 f\Qw\ Chat igan to China. This system in its grand 

 features adentifies itself with that which prevails \\\ 

 Nepal, Butan,. and Tib^t^ and has extended itself over 

 the immense regions of Chin, Cham, and Japuen, or 

 China, Tartary, and Japan. Though it does not 

 appear that all the nations who occupy this pro- 

 digious extent of territory employ the same learned 

 language in the preservation of their sacred books 

 and religious tracts, yet this is the case with the 

 Inch Chinese nations, who, with the Singhalese, or 

 inhabitants of Ceylon, uniformly employ the Bali or 

 Pali, in the,sacj;ed compositions of the Buddhist 

 sect. This language does not exist as a vernacular 

 tongue, but is the language of religion, learning, and 

 science, and appears to have exerted an influence 

 over the vernacular languages of the Indo-Chinese 

 nations, similar to that which the Sanscrit has exhi- 

 bited among the popular languages of Hindostan and 

 Dek'hin. 



The Malayu language, and the more original lan- 

 guages of the eastern isles, seem in their original 

 formation, to have been polys3'llabic, like Sansctnt, 

 Pali, and the spoken dialects of India. The modifi- 

 catioi;is which these languages have received from 

 a foreign source, seem for the most part, to have 

 been effected, rather by the immediate agency of San- 



M 



