The Human Race Part 27

The _Burmans_ and the _Annamites_.--The Burmese are a nation which has made a good deal of progress in civilization. In this respect the Annamites are not behind them. The physical, moral, and political characteristics of these two nations have no particular point of interest to engage our attention. We content ourselves with showing the reader (figs. 147 and 148) the types and the costumes of the inhabitants of the Burmese Empire.

The _Siamese_.--The population of the kingdom of Siam, which amounts to nearly five millions, scarcely includes two millions of Siamese.

The Siamese, according to the travelling notes of M. Henry Mouhot, a French naturalist, are easily recognized by their effeminate and idle appearance, and by their servile physiognomy. Nearly all have rather a flat nose, prominent cheek-bones, a dull unintelligent eye, broad nostrils, a wide mouth, lips reddened by their habit of chewing betel, and teeth as black as ebony. They all keep their heads entirely shaved, except just on the top, where they allow a tuft to grow. Their hair is black and coa.r.s.e. The women wear the same tuft, but their hair is finer and carefully kept. The dress of both men and women is by no means an elaborate one.

Figs. 149, 150, and 151 give an exact idea of the type and mode of dress of the Siamese. A piece of cloth, which they raise behind, and the two ends of which they fasten to their belt, is their only garment. The women wear besides a scarf across their shoulders. Apart from the delicacy of her features, a Siamese girl of from twelve to twenty need but little envy the conventional models of our statuary.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 147.--BURMESE n.o.bLE.]

The Siamese are pa.s.sionately fond of trinkets. Provided they glitter, it matters little whether they are real or false. They cover their women and their children with rings, bracelets, armlets, and bits of gold and silver. They wear them on their arms, on their legs, round their necks, in their ears, on their bodies, on their shoulders, everywhere they can place them. The king's son is so covered with them, that the weight of his clothes and jewellery is heavier than that of his body.

The greatest conjugal harmony seems to prevail in Siamese families. The wife is not kept secluded as in China, but shows herself everywhere. As a shadow to this picture, we must add that parents have a right to sell their children as slaves.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 148.--BURMESE LADY.]

The Siamese have retained intact all the superst.i.tions of the Hindoos and the Chinese. They believe in demons, in ogres, in mermaids, &c. They have faith in amulets, philtres, and in soothsayers. They support a king, a court, and a seraglio, with its numerous progeny. A second king possesses also his palace, his army, and his mandarins. Between these two kings and the people intervene twelve different ranks of princes, several cla.s.ses of ministers, five or six of mandarins, and an endless series of governors and lieutenant-governors, all equally incapable and rapacious.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 149.--WOMEN OF BANKOK.]

Like all degraded and servile nations, the inhabitants of Siam devote a great part of their existence to games and amus.e.m.e.nts.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 150.--SIAMESE DOMESTIC.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: 151.--SIAMESE LADIES DINING.]

M. Mouhot visited Udeng, the present capital of Cambodia. The houses of this town are made of bamboo, sometimes of planks. The longest street is nearly three-quarters of a mile long. The tillers of the soil and the hard-working cla.s.ses, as well as the mandarins and the other employes of the government, dwell in the suburbs of the town. M. Mouhot met at every moment mandarins in litters or in hammocks followed by a swarm of slaves each carrying something; some, a red or yellow umbrella, the size of which is an indication of the rank and quality of its owner; others, boxes of betel. Hors.e.m.e.n, mounted on small active horses caparisoned in a costly manner and covered with little bells, and followed by a pack of slaves begrimed with dust and sweat, often took their turn in the panorama. He also noticed some light carts drawn by a couple of small but swift oxen. Elephants too, moving majestically forwards with outstretched ears and trunk, and stopped occasionally by the numerous processions which were wending their way to the paG.o.das to the sound of boisterous music.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 152.--TOMB OF A BONZE, AT LAOS.]

The town of Bankok, the capital, was formerly called Siam, whence the name of the country.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 153.--CAMBODIANS.]

An absolute sovereign, looked upon as the incarnation of Buddha, rules over the kingdom of Siam, which is divided into four provinces; Siam, Siamese Laos, Siamese Cambodia, and Siamese Malacca. At one time a tributary of the Burmese Empire, the kingdom of Siam recovered its independence in 1759, and in 1768 even increased its territory by conquest.

There are scarcely any manufactures in Siam, but commerce still flourishes there, although less vigorously than formerly. The Siamese exchange their agricultural produce, their wood, their skins, cotton, rice, and preserved fish, with the Chinese, the Annamites, the Burmese, and especially with the English and Dutch possessions. Elephant's tusks are also an important article of barter, and elephant-hunting is the calling of many of the natives.

The country is rather fertile. It is an immense plain, hilly towards the north, and intersected by a river, the Meinam, on the banks of which are placed its princ.i.p.al towns. Bankok is situated on this river, not far from its mouth in the gulf of Siam, and is consequently the princ.i.p.al port of the whole kingdom, the head-quarters of its entire trade. The periodical overflowings of the Meinam fertilize the whole of its basin.

Art and science are not entirely neglected in the kingdom of Siam. It is one of the few Asiatic countries which possess a literature of its own and some artistic productions.

Although the Buddhist religion prevails in Siam and is the state religion, yet different sects are tolerated there, and Christianity can reckon two thousand five hundred disciples.

Fig. 154 represents the young prince-royal.

The Stieng savages are subjects of the king of Siam. Their stature is a little above the average. They are powerful, their features are regular, and their well-developed foreheads show intelligence. Their only clothing is a long scarf. They are so much attached to their mountains and forests, that when away from their own country they are frequently seized with a dangerous kind of home-sickness.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 154.--THE PRINCE-ROYAL OF SIAM.]

These Siamese aliens of civilization work in iron and ivory; and make hatchets and swords which are sought after by collectors. Their women weave and dye the scarves they wear. They cultivate rice, maize, tobacco, vegetables, and fruit-trees. They possess neither priests nor temples, but they acknowledge the existence of a Supreme Being. The time they can spare from their fields they devote to hunting and fis.h.i.+ng.

Indefatigable in the chase, they penetrate with extraordinary rapidity the densest jungles. The women appear to be as active and as untiring as the men. They use powerful cross-bows with poisoned arrows to shoot the elephant, the rhinoceros, and the tiger. They are fond of adorning themselves with imitation pearls of a bright colour, which they make into bracelets. Both s.e.xes pierce their ears, and widen the hole every year by inserting in it pieces of bone and ivory.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 155.--CHINESE GIRL.]

THE BROWN RACE.

With M. d'Omalius d'Halloy we cla.s.s in the Brown Race a great variety of peoples who have nothing in common but a complexion darker than that of the White and Yellow races, and whom we are led to believe the product of the mixture of these two with the Black Race. This theory accounts for one portion of the Brown Race possessing White characteristics, while the other has a greater resemblance to the Yellow Race.

The Brown Race forms three branches or geographical groups, viz.--

1. The Hindoo branch.

2. The Ethiopian branch.

3. The Malay branch.

We will proceed to describe the princ.i.p.al peoples belonging to these three branches.

CHAPTER I.

HINDOO BRANCH.

The peoples composing the Hindoo branch have been frequently cla.s.sed in the White Race. In fact, their shape, their language, and their inst.i.tutions partly correspond to those of Europeans and Persians, but their darker and sometimes black skins distinguish them from either.

The civilization of the Hindoos was, in the earliest historic times, already far advanced; but for many centuries it has remained stationary, or has gone backwards.

Most Hindoos practise the creed of Brahma, a religion sprung up in their own land. A few have embraced Mahometanism, others have become Buddhists.

The most striking feature of Hindoo society is its division into castes.

These castes, originating ages and ages ago, have always been the princ.i.p.al obstacles to the development of civilization. How can progress, talent, or remarkable works be expected from men whom society forbids ever to emerge from the conditions of their birth?

These castes are four in number. The _Brahmin_ caste, whose members are devoted to the practice of religious rites, to the study of the law, and to teaching. The _Rajpoots_ or _Cshatriyas_, who are professional soldiers. The _Banians_, who are agriculturists, cattle breeders, and traders. Lastly, the _Sudras_, who follow various callings, and who are subdivided into many sub-castes corresponding to as many different handicrafts.

Each caste has its peculiar religious observances. Its members cannot intermarry with those of other castes, and must always follow the profession in which destiny has placed their parents.

The descendants of those, who, by improper marriages or otherwise, have forfeited their caste, form an inferior caste, known under the name of _Varna-Sancara_. Finally below even this last division come the _Pariahs_, beings cursed by destiny, who exist in the most deplorable state of moral abjection.