34 



THE ETHN'OLOGT OF SOUTH 1 A STERN ASIA. 



favoured the mutual independence of tribes and clans, while the 

 absence of fertile inland v allies or plains sufficiently sheltered, has 

 exposed them to mutual depredations and to the pressure of the 

 movements in China, thus retarding the development of civilised 

 nations. Ultraindia in this respect has probably still a great re- 

 femblai*.e to the state of China three or four thousand years ago. 

 Before population and cultivation had greatly extended, the nations 

 of the different basins of China must have had relations to each 

 other similar to those of the leading nations of Ultraindu* at pre- 

 sent, We do not find that these nations are spreading back into 

 the interior like the Chinese. The Anamese are confined to the 

 eastern marginal district and the lower and eastern part of the 

 Mekong basin, the Siamese to the lower part the Menam 

 basin, and the Burmese to the middle and lower part of the Irawadi 

 basin. Numerous tribes wnd clans of the two latter races possess 

 the greater part of Ultraindia, aud although acknowledging a 

 nominal subjection to them, maintain a real independence, If 

 European races had not entered the basin of the Indian Ocean, it 

 is more probable that the Chinese, as they gradually increased in 

 Yun-nan, would, by mere force of superior numbers and civilisa- 

 sation, have possessed themselves of Ultraindia, than that any of 

 the nations of the latter would have effectually subdued and as- 

 •imitated the others. The whole character of their civilisation leads 

 to the conviction that all in which they are distinguished from 

 the inland tribes of the same races, has been derived from without 

 in recent times, and has as yet had only a superficial influence 

 on the great mass of the people and not a very deep one on 

 the classes that have been most affected by it. 



It must often have excited surprise that Ultraindia, situated 

 between regions in which two ot the highest civilisations of 

 antiquity were attained, and possessing at least three districts well 

 adapted for the location of large communities, should still be so 

 backward. It is partly to he accounted ior by the great elongation 

 of the basins and by a large portion of them being of a hilly and 

 mountainous character and inhabited by numerous hardy tribes, 

 who can, without much difficulty, descend on the more civilised 

 nations of the southern plains. But the chief reason is to be found 

 in facta of which we are apt to lose sight in the vague ideas of 

 dense population, civilisation, riches and power, with which the 

 generic names India and China have for so many ages been 

 associated in the European mind, The, N. Chinese and N, 

 Indian civilisations began almost in historical limes to spread from 

 two inland points. A long period elapsed before they took 

 possession of the three great basins, and the farther extension of 

 their power and influence has been greatly hindered not only by 

 internal revolutions and foreign invasions, but by self imposed 

 obstacles of a religious and politic nature, At a period so recent 



