302 COCHINCHINA. 
Tartars, on the conquest of the country, compelled them to 
submit to the ignominy of shaving the whole head except a 
little lock of hair behind. 
On the precepts of Confucius is gi'ounded the moral system 
for the regulation of the conduct in this country as well as in 
China. Here, however, to the exterior forms of morality- 
very httle regard seems to be paid. In China these precepts 
are gaudily displayed in golden characters in every house, in 
the streets and public places ; but here they are seldom seen 
and never heard. Were they, indeed, repeated in_ their ori- 
ginal language, (and they will scarcely bear a translation,) 
they would not be understood. Their conduct, in general, 
seems to be as little influenced by the solemn precepts of re- 
ligion as by those of morality. The Cochinchinese are, like 
the French, always gay and for ever talking ; the Chinese 
always grave and affect to be thinking : the former are open 
and famihar, the latter close and reserved. A Chinese would 
consider it as disgraceful to commit any affair of importance 
to a woman. Women, in the estimation of the Cochin- 
chinese, are best suited for, and are accordingly entrusted 
with, the chief concerns of the family. The Chinese code of 
politeness forbids a woman to talk unless b}' way of reply, to 
laugh beyond a smile, to sing unless desired and, as to 
dancing, she labours under a physical restriction which makes 
this kind of movement impossible. In Cochinchina the wo- 
men are quite as gay and as unrestrained as the men. And 
as a tolerably accurate conclusion may be drawn of the state 
of their society, from the condition in which the female part 
