THE RELATION OF CHINESE AND SIAMESE 5 



race the Tai were in at the beginnings of history, whenever 

 that was. 



The second mention of tribes belonging to the Tai Bace 

 which Professor Lacouperie cites from the Chinese Annals 

 occurs some two hundred years later than the first. The 

 Chinese ruler Ki of Hia is therein reported to have sent his 

 minister, Mang Tu, to the Pa people in western Szechuan. 

 Near the Pa lived the Lung. This time the Annals give a 

 definite date, corresponding to our 1971 B.C. According to 

 the Ussher chronology this was fifty years before Abrarn 

 entered the land of Canaan. 



The Lung and the Pa play an important part in the 

 subsequent history of the race. Anticipating our narrative a 

 little, I found the tribe calling themselves Lung in eastern 

 Yunnan in A.D. 1910, or 3881 years after their mention in 

 •Chinese History. Modern Chinese call them Lung-jen. And 

 it may well be that the Chinese derogatory name, Pai-i, 

 given to many Tai tribes in Yunnan, is a characteristic pun- 

 ning corruption of "Pa"-i. At any rate the speech of all 

 the "Pai-i" as well as the Lung is such good Tai that a man 

 fresh from Siam can get nearly all of it at first blush, as 

 I have demonstrated more than once. 



Moreover, no matter what the Chinese call the Tai, 

 they were not barbarians, from our viewpoint, 4000 years 

 ago. For the Pa were living under a government of their 

 own : a Chinese minister was sent them. 



It was not long, as historic ages go, after the second 

 mention of the race under two tribal names before the third 

 mention occurred. Kieh, the last ruler of the Hsia dynasty, 

 was exiled among the Chao or Tchao, by the new Shang 

 (Shan?) dynasty, in 1558 B.C.: thus the Annals a la 

 Lacouperie. The name Chao or Tchao is one of many cognate 

 forms of the word Lao (Laos the French romanize it), the 

 term which gave name to the Ai-Lao' kingdom, and the name 

 by which a large section of the race is still called. These 

 Chao lived at a long distance from western Szechuan, in what 

 is now Anhui province. Yet it was at the eastern terminus of 

 an almost continuous mountain range, connecting the two* 

 feci of the race. The Lao Shan, i.e., the Lao Mountains, 

 at the intersection of the modern provinces of Honan, Hupei 

 and Anhui, are said by tradition to be named for the Lao 

 people. And cognate forms of the name Lao, such as Leao, 

 Chao, Shen-lao, Ngai-lao, etc., were common, we are told, 

 all along the whole range from Szechuan to Anhui. Evidently 

 by 1558 B.C. the race had spread itself over territory extend- 

 ing nearly across the whole width of modern China, from 

 west to east, following the impulse and direction of their 



