2/2 ON THE LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE 



as to listen to wliat they say of the Europeans, 

 What superior ability should that race be possessed 

 of? They have all the eyes of green serpents, and 

 we ought only to regard them as floating corpses, 

 cast on our shores by the seas of the north." (Nou- 

 velles des missions Orient ales — p. 144.) 



The religion of the Aiiam nation is a modification 

 of the Budd'hist system, nearly resembling that 

 which prevails in China. Many local and peculiar 

 superstitions, however, are blended with it; such as 

 the worship of the dog and tyger, to the first of which 

 human excrement, and to the second, human ilesh 

 is offered. Traces of this worship are found among 

 the mountaineers on the borders of India^ as well as 

 in the proper Indo-Chinese countries. Thus the tyger 

 is worshipped by the Hajiii tribe, in the vicinity of 

 the Garrows or Garudas. 



The Quan-td, an ancient race^ as the name signifies, 

 who inhabit Kaubang or the mountainous range which 

 divides the Jnam countries from China, regard them- 

 selves as tlie original inhabitants of Tonkin and 

 Cochin-China ; and consider the J nam as Si Chinese 

 colony. The Quan-to have a peculiar language, and 

 write with a style, on the leaves of a plant, termed 

 in Anam, jiwa. The Moi and Miiong are also 

 mountaineer tribes, who speak languages different 

 from the Anam, but it is hitherto unknown whether 

 •they are original races, or only branches of the 

 Quan-td. 



The following comparative vocabulary of the 

 Barjna, Tliaij, and Anam languages, with the Kong 

 dialect of the Chinese, will convey some idea of their 

 mutual relations and difi'erences. A few Ruklteng 



