Man, Past and Present Part 20

South Mongol Domain--Tibet, the Mongol Cradle-land--Stone Age in Tibet--The Primitive Mongol Type--The Balti and Ladakhi--Balti Type and Origins--The Tibetans Proper--Type--The Bhotiyas--Prehistoric Expansion of the Tibetan Race--Sub-Himalayan Groups: the Gurkhas--Mental Qualities of the Tibetans--Lamaism--The Horsoks-- The Tanguts--Polyandry--The Bonbo Religion--Buddhist and Christian Ritualism--The Prayer-Wheel--Language and Letters--Diverse Linguistic Types--Lepcha--Angami-Naga and Kuki-Lushai Speech--Naga Tribes--General Ethnic Relations in Indo-China--Aboriginal and Cultured Peoples--The Talaings--The Manipuri--Religion--The Game of Polo--The Khel System--The Chins--Mental and Physical Qualities--G.o.ds, Nats, and the After-Life--The Kakhyens--Caucasic Elements--The Karens--Type--Temperament--Christian Missions--The Burmese--Type--Character--Buddhism--Position of Woman--Tattooing-- The Tai-Shan Peoples--The Ahom, Khamti and Chinese Shans--Shan Cradle-land and Origins--Caucasic Contacts--Tai-Shan Toned Speech--Shan, Lolo, and Mosso Writing Systems--Mosso Origins-- Aborigines of South China and Annam--Man-tse Origins and Affinities--Caucasic Aborigines in South-East Asia--The Siamese Shans--Origins and Early Records--Social System--Buddhism--The Annamese--Origins--Physical and Mental Characters--Language and Letters--Social Inst.i.tutions--Religious Systems--The Chinese-- Origins--The Babylonian Theory--Persistence of Chinese Culture and Social System--Letters and Early Records--Traditions of the Stone and Metal Ages--Chinese Cradle and Early Migrations-- Absorption of the Aborigines--Survivals: Hok-lo, Hakka, Pun-ti--Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism--Fung-shui and Ancestry Worship--Islam and Christianity--The Mandarin Cla.s.s.

CONSPECTUS.

#Present Range.# _Tibet; S. Himalayan slopes; Indo-China to the Isthmus of Kra; China; Formosa; Parts of Malaysia._

#Hair#, _uniformly black, lank, round in transverse section_; _spa.r.s.e or no beard, moustache common_. #Colour#, _generally a dirty yellowish brown, shading off to olive and coppery brown in the south, and to lemon or whitish in N. China_. #Skull#, _normally brachy (80 to 84), but in parts of China sub-dolicho (77) and high_. #Jaws#, _slightly prognathous_. #Cheek-bones#, _very high and prominent laterally_.

#Nose#, _very small, and concave, with widish nostrils (mesorrhine), but often large and straight amongst the upper cla.s.ses_. #Eyes#, _small, black, and oblique (outer angle slightly elevated), vertical fold of skin over inner canthus_. #Stature#, _below the average, 1.62 m. (5 ft.

4 in.), but in N. China often tall, 1.77 m. to 1.82 m. (5 ft. 10 in. to 6 ft.)_. #Lips#, _rather thin, sometimes slightly protruding_. #Arms#, #legs#, _and_ #feet#, _of normal proportions, calves rather small_.

#Temperament.# _Somewhat sluggish, with little initiative, but great endurance; cunning rather than intelligent; generally thrifty and industrious, but mostly indolent in Siam and Burma; moral standard low, with slight sense of right and wrong._

#Speech.# _Mainly isolating and monosyllabic, due to phonetic decay; loss of formative elements compensated by tone; some (south Chinese, Annamese) highly tonic, but others (in Himalayas and North Burma) highly agglutinating and consequently toneless._

#Religion.# _Ancestry and spirit-worship, underlying various kinds of Buddhism; religious sentiment weak in Annam, strong in Tibet; thinly diffused in China._

#Culture.# _Ranges from sheer savagery (Indo-Chinese aborigines) to a low phase of civilisation; some mechanical arts (ceramics, metallurgy, weaving), and agriculture well developed; painting, sculpture, and architecture mostly in the barbaric stage; letters widespread, but true literature and science slightly developed; stagnation very general._

Main Divisions.

#Bod-pa.# _Tibetan; Tangut; Horsok; Si-fan; Balti; Ladakhi; Gurkha; Bhotiya; Miri; Mishmi; Abor._

#Burmese.# _Naga; Kuki-Lushai; Chin; Kakhyen; Manipuri; Karen; Talaing; Arakanese; Burmese proper._

#Tai-Shan.# _Ahom; Khamti; Ngiou; Lao; Siamese._

#Giao-Shi.# _Annamese; Cochin-Chinese._

#Chinese.# _Chinese proper; Hakka; Hok-lo; Pun-ti._

The Mongolian stock may be divided into two main branches[375]: the _Mongolo-Tatar_, of the western area, and the _Tibeto-Indo-Chinese_ of the eastern area, the latter extending into a secondary branch, _Oceanic Mongols_. These two, that is, the main and secondary branch, which jointly occupy the greater part of south-east Asia with most of Malaysia, Madagascar, the Philippines and Formosa, will form the subject of the present and following chapters. Allowing for encroachments and overlappings, especially in Manchuria and North Tibet, the northern "divide" towards the Mongolo-Tatar domain is roughly indicated by the Great Wall and the Kuen-lun range westwards to the Hindu-Kush, and towards the south-west by the Himalayas from the Hindu-Kush eastwards to a.s.sam. The Continental section thus comprises the whole of China proper and Indo-China, together with a great part of Tibet with Little Tibet (Baltistan and Ladakh), and the Himalayan uplands including their southern slopes. This section is again separated from the Oceanic section by the Isthmus of Kra--the Malay Peninsula belonging ethnically to the insular Malay world. "I believe," writes Warington Smyth, "that the Malay never really extended further south than the Kra isthmus[376]."

From the considerations advanced in _Ethnology_, Chap. XII., it seems a reasonable a.s.sumption that the lacustrine Tibetan tableland with its Himalayan escarpments, all standing in pleistocene times at a considerably lower level than at present, was the cradle of the Mongol division of mankind. Here were found all the natural conditions favourable to the development of a new variety of the species moving from the tropics northwards--ample s.p.a.ce such as all areas of marked specialisation seem to require; a different and cooler climate than that of the equatorial region, though, thanks to its then lower elevation, warmer than that of the bleak and now barely inhabitable Tibetan plateau; extensive plains, nowhere perhaps too densely wooded, intersected by ridges of moderate height, and diversified by a lacustrine system far more extensive than that revealed by the exploration of modern travellers[377].

Under these circ.u.mstances, which are not matter of mere speculation, but to be directly inferred from the observations of intelligent explorers and of trained Anglo-Indian surveyors, it would seem not only probable but inevitable that the pleistocene Indo-Malayan should become modified and improved in his new and more favourable Central Asiatic environment.

Later, with the gradual upheaval of the land to a mean alt.i.tude of some 14,000 feet above sea-level, the climate deteriorated, and the present somewhat rude and rugged inhabitants of Tibet are to be regarded as the outcome of slow adaptation to their slowly changing surroundings since the occupation of the country by the Indo-Malayan pleistocene precursor.

To this precursor Tibet was accessible either from India or from Indo-China, and although few of his implements have yet been reported from the plateau, it is certain that Tibet has pa.s.sed through the Stone as well as the Metal Ages. In Bogle's time "thunder-stones" were still used for tonsuring the lamas, and even now stone cooking-pots are found amongst the shepherds of the uplands, although they are acquainted both with copper and iron. In India also and Indo-China palaeoliths of rude type occur at various points--Arcot, the Narbada gravels, Mirzapur[378], the Irawadi valley and the Shan territory--as if to indicate the routes followed by early man in his migrations from Indo-Malaysia northwards.

Thus, where man is silent the stones speak, and so old are these links of past and present that amongst the Shans, as in ancient Greece, their origin being entirely forgotten, they are often mounted as jewellery and worn as charms against mishaps.

Usually the Mongols proper, that is, the steppe nomads who have more than once overrun half the eastern hemisphere, are taken as the typical and original stem of the Mongolian stock. But if Ch. de Ujfalvy's views can be accepted this honour will now have to be transferred to the Tibetans, who still occupy the supposed cradle of the race. This veteran student of the Central Asiatic peoples describes two Mongol types, a northern round-headed and a southern long-headed, and thinks that the latter, which includes "the Ladakhi, the Champas and Tibetans proper,"

was "the primitive Mongol type[379]."

Owing to the political seclusion of Tibet, the race has. .h.i.therto been studied chiefly in outlying provinces beyond the frontiers, such as Ladakh, Baltistan, and Sikkim[380], that is, in districts where mixture with other races may be suspected. Indeed de Ujfalvy, who has made a careful survey of Baltistan and Ladakh, a.s.sures us that, while the Ladakhi represent two varieties of Asiatic man with ceph. index 77, the Balti are not Tibetans or Mongols at all, but descendants of the historical Sacae, although now of Tibetan speech and Moslem faith[381].

They are of the mean height or slightly above it, with rather low brow, very prominent superciliary arches, deep depression at nasal root, thick curved eyebrows, long, straight or arched nose, thick lips, oval chin, small cheek-bones, small flat ears, straight eyes, very black and abundant ringletty (_boucle_) hair, full beard, usually black and silky, robust hairy body, small hands and feet, and long head (index 72). In such characters it is impossible to recognise the Mongol, and the contrast is most striking with the neighbouring Ladakhi, true Mongols, as shown by their slightly raised superciliary arches, square and scarcely curved eyebrows, slant eyes, large prominent cheek-bones, lank and coa.r.s.e hair, yellowish and nearly hairless body.

Doubtless there has been a considerable intermingling of Balti and Ladakhi, and in recent times still more of Balti and Dards (Hindu-Kush "Aryans"), whence Leitner's view that the Balti are Dards at a remote period conquered by the Bhots (Tibetans), losing their speech with their independence. But of all these peoples the Balti were in former times the most civilised, as shown by the remarkable rock-carvings still found in the country, and attributed by the present inhabitants to a long vanished race. Some of these carvings represent warriors mounted and on foot, the resemblance being often very striking between them and the persons figured on the coins of the Sacae kings both in their physical appearance, att.i.tudes, arms, and accoutrements. The Balti are still famous hors.e.m.e.n, and with them is said to have originated the game of polo, which has thence spread to the surrounding peoples as far as Chitral and Irania.

From all these considerations it is inferred that the Balti are the direct descendants of the Sacae, who invaded India about 90 B.C., not from the west (the Kabul valley) as generally stated, but from the north over the Karakorum Pa.s.ses leading directly to Baltistan[382]. Thus lives again a name renowned in antiquity, and another of those links is established between the past and the present, which it is the province of the historical ethnologist to rescue from oblivion.

In Tibet proper the ethnical relations have been confused by the loose way tribal and even national names are referred to by Prjevalsky and some other modern explorers. It should therefore be explained that three somewhat distinct branches of the race have to be carefully distinguished: 1. The _Bod-pa_[383], "Bodmen," the settled and more or less civilised section, who occupy most of the southern and more fertile provinces of which Lhasa is the capital, who till the land, live in towns, and have pa.s.sed from the tribal to the civic state. 2. The _Dru-pa_[384], peaceful though semi-nomadic pastoral tribes, who live in tents on the northern plateaux, over 15,000 feet above sea-level. 3. The _Tanguts_[385], restless, predatory tribes, who hover about the north-eastern borderland between Koko-nor and Kansu.

All these are true Tibetans, speak the Tibetan language, and profess one or other of the two national religions, _Bonbo_ and Lamaism (the Tibetan form of Buddhism). But the original type is best preserved, not amongst the cultured Bod-pa, who in many places betray a considerable admixture both of Chinese and Hindu elements, but amongst the Dru-pa, who on their bleak upland steppes have for ages had little contact with the surrounding Mongolo-Turki populations. They are described by W. W.

Rockhill from personal observation as about five feet five inches high, and round-headed, with wavy hair, clear-brown and even hazel eye, cheek-bone less high than the Mongol, thick nose, depressed at the root, but also prominent and even aquiline and narrow but with broad nostrils, large-lobed ears standing out to a less degree than the Mongol, broad mouth, long black hair, thin beard, generally hairless body, broad shoulders, very small calves, large foot, coa.r.s.e hand, skin coa.r.s.e and greasy and of light brown colour, though "frequently nearly white, but when exposed to the weather a dark brown, nearly the colour of our American Indians. Rosy cheeks are quite common amongst the younger women[386]."

Some of these characters--wavy hair, aquiline nose, hazel eye, rosy cheeks--are not Mongolic, and despite W. W. Rockhill's certificate of racial purity, one is led to suspect a Caucasic strain, perhaps through the neighbouring Salars. These are no doubt sometimes called Kara-Tangutans, "Black Tangutans," from the colour of their tents, but we learn from Potanin, who visited them in 1885[387], that they are Muhammadans of Turki stock and speech, and we already know[388] that from a remote period the Turki people were in close contact with Caucasians. The Salars pitch their tents on the banks of the Khitai and other Yang-tse-Kiang headstreams.

That the national name Bod-pa must be of considerable antiquity is evident from the Sanskrit expression _Bhotiya_, derived from it, and long applied by the Hindus collectively to all southern Tibetans, but especially to those of the Himalayan slopes, such as the Rongs (Lepchas) of Sikkim and the _Lho-pa_ dominant in Bhutan, properly _Bhot-ant_, that is, "Land's End"--the extremity of Tibet. Eastwards also the Tibetan race stretches far beyond the political frontiers into the Koko-nor region (Tanguts), and the Chinese province of Se-chuan, where they are grouped with all the other Si-fan aborigines. Towards the south-east are the kindred _Taw.a.n.gs_, _Mishmi_, _Miri_, _Abor_[389], _Daflas_, and many others about the a.s.sam borderlands, all of whom may be regarded as true Bhotiyas in the wild state.

Through these the primitive Tibetan race extends into Burma, where however it has become greatly modified and again civilised under different climatic and cultural influences. Thus we see how, in the course of ages, the Bod-pa have widened their domain, radiating in all directions from the central cradle-land about the Upper Brahmaputra (San-po) valley westwards into Kashmir, eastwards into China, southwards down the Himalayan slopes to the Gangetic plains, south-eastwards to Indo-China. In some places they have come into contact with other races and disappeared either by total extinction or by absorption (India, Hindu-Kush), or else preserved their type while accepting the speech, religion, and culture of later intruders. Such are the _Garhwali_, and many groups in Nepal, especially the dominant _Gurkhas_ (_Khas_[390]), of whom there are twelve branches, all Aryanised and since the twelfth century speaking the _Parbattia Bhasha_, a Prakrit or vulgar Sanskrit tongue current amongst an extremely mixed population of about 2,000,000.

In other directions the migrations took place in remote prehistoric times, the primitive proto-Tibetan groups becoming more and more specialised as they receded farther and farther from the cradle-land into Mongolia, Siberia, China, Farther India, and Malaysia. This is at least how I understand the peopling of a great part of the eastern hemisphere by an original nucleus of Mongolic type first differentiated from a pleistocene precursor on the Tibetan tableland.

Strangely contradictory estimates have been formed of the temperament and mental characters of the Bod-pa, some, such as that of Turner[391], no doubt too favourable, while others err perhaps in the opposite direction. Thus DesG.o.dins, who nevertheless knew them well, describes the cultured Tibetan of the south as "a slave towards the great, a despot towards the weak, knavish or treacherous according to circ.u.mstances, always on the look-out to defraud, and lying impudently to attain his end," and much more to the same effect[392].

W. W. Rockhill, who is less severe, thinks that "the Tibetan's character is not as black as Horace della Penna and DesG.o.dins have painted it.

Intercourse with these people extending over six years leads me to believe that the Tibetan is kindhearted, affectionate, and law-abiding[393]." He concludes, however, with a not very flattering native estimate deduced from the curious national legend that "the earliest inhabitants of Tibet descended from a king of monkeys and a female hobgoblin, and the character of the race perhaps from those of its first parents. From the king of monkeys [he was an incarnate G.o.d]

they have religious faith and kindheartedness, intelligence and application, devotion to religion and to religious debate; from the hobgoblin they get cruelty, fondness for trade and money-making, great bodily strength, l.u.s.tfulness, fondness for gossip, and carnivorous instinct[394]."

While they are cheerful under a depressing priestly regime, all allow that they are vindictive, superst.i.tious, and cringing in the presence of the lamas, who are at heart more dreaded than revered. In fact the whole religious world is one vast organised system of hypocrisy, and above the old pagan beliefs common to all primitive peoples there is merely a veneer of Buddhism, above which follows another and most pernicious veneer of lamaism (priestcraft), under the yoke of which the natural development of the people has been almost completely arrested for several centuries. The burden is borne with surprising endurance, and would be intolerable but for the relief found in secret and occasionally even open revolt against the more oppressive ordinances of the ecclesiastical rule. Thus, despite the prescriptions regarding a strict vegetarian diet expressed in the formula "eat animal flesh eat thy brother," not only laymen but most of the lamas themselves supplement their frugal diet of milk, b.u.t.ter, barley-meal, and fruits with game, yak, and mutton--this last p.r.o.nounced by Turner the best in the world.

The public conscience, however, is saved by a few extra turns of the prayer-wheel at such repasts, and by the general contempt in which is held the hereditary caste of butchers, who like the Jews in medieval times are still confined to a "ghetto" of their own in all the large towns.

These remarks apply more particularly to the settled southern communities living in districts where a little agriculture is possible.

Elsewhere the religious cloak is worn very loosely, and the nomad _Horsoks_ of the northern steppes, although all nominal Buddhists, pay but scant respect to the decrees supposed to emanate from the Dalai Lama enshrined in Lhasa. Horsok is an almost unique ethnical term[395], being a curious compound of the two names applied by the Tibetans to the _Hor-pa_ and the _Sok-pa_ who divide the steppe between them. The Hor-pa, who occupy the western parts, are of Turki stock, and are the only group of that race known to me who profess Buddhism[396], all the rest being Muhammadans with some Shamanists (Yakuts) in the Lena basin.

The Sok-pa, who roam the eastern plains and valleys, although commonly called Mongols, are true Tibetans or more strictly speaking Tanguts, of whom there are here two branches, the _Goliki_ and the _Yegrai_, all, like the Hor-pa, of Tibetan speech. The Yegrai, as described by Prjevalsky, closely resemble the other North Tibetan tribes, with their long, matted locks falling on their shoulders, their scanty whiskers and beard, angular head, dark complexion and dirty garb[397].

Besides stock-breeding and predatory warfare, all these groups follow the hunt, armed with darts, bows, and matchlock guns; the musk-deer is ensnared, and the only animal spared is the stag, "Buddha's horse." The taste of these rude nomads for liquid blood is insatiable, and the surveyor, Nain Singh, often saw them fall p.r.o.ne on the ground to lick up the blood flowing from a wounded beast. As soon as weaned, the very children and even the horses are fed on a diet of cheese, b.u.t.ter, and blood, kneaded together in a horrible mess, which is greedily devoured when the taste is acquired. On the other hand alcoholic drinks are little consumed, the national beverage being coa.r.s.e Chinese tea imported in the form of bricks and prepared with _tsampa_ (barley-meal) and b.u.t.ter, and thus becoming a food as well as a drink. The lamas have a monopoly of this tea-trade, which could not stand the compet.i.tion of the Indian growers; hence arises the chief objection to removing the barriers of seclusion.

Tibet is one of the few regions where polyandrous customs, intimately a.s.sociated with the matriarchal state, still persist almost in their pristine vigour. The husbands are usually but not necessarily all brothers, and the bride is always obtained by purchase. Unless otherwise arranged, the oldest husband is the putative "father," all the others being considered as "uncles." An inevitable result of the inst.i.tution is to give woman a dominant position in society; hence the "queens" of certain tribes, referred to with so much astonishment by the early Chinese chroniclers. Survivors of this "petticoat government" have been noticed by travellers amongst the Lolos, Mossos, and other indigenous communities about the Indo-Chinese frontiers. But it does not follow that polyandry and a matriarchal state always and necessarily preceded polygyny and a patriarchal state. On the contrary, it would appear that polyandry never could have been universal; possibly it arose from special conditions in particular regions, where the struggle for existence is severe, and the necessity of imposing limits to the increase of population more urgent than elsewhere[398]. Hence to me it seems as great a mistake to a.s.sume a matriarchate as it is to a.s.sume promiscuity as the universal antecedent of all later family relations.

In Tibet itself polygyny exists side by side with polyandry amongst the wealthy cla.s.ses, while monogamy is the rule amongst the poor pastoral nomads of the northern steppe.

Great ethnical importance has been attached by some distinguished anthropologists to the treatment of the dead. But, as in the New Stone and Metal Ages in Europe cremation and burial were practised side by side[399], so in Tibet the dead are now simultaneously disposed of in diverse ways. It is a question not so much of race as of caste or social cla.s.ses, or of the lama's pleasure, who, when the head has been shaved to facilitate the transmigration of the soul, may order the body to be burnt, buried, cast into the river, or even thrown to carrion birds or beasts of prey. Strange to say, the last method, carried out with certain formalities, is one of the most honourable, although the lamas are generally buried in a seated posture, and high officials burnt, and (in Ladakh) the ashes, mixed with a little clay, kneaded into much venerated effigies--doubtless a survival of ancestry worship.

Reference was above made to the primitive Shamanistic ideas which still survive beneath the Buddhist and the later lamaistic systems. In the central and eastern provinces of Ui and Tsang this pre-Buddhist religion has again struggled to the surface, or rather persisted under the name of _Bonbo_ (_Boa-ho_) side by side with the national creed, from which it has even borrowed many of its present rites. From the colour of the robes usually worn by its priests, it is known as the sect of the "Blacks," in contradistinction to the orthodox "Yellow" and dissenting "Red" lamaists, and as now const.i.tuted, its origin is attributed to Shen-rab (Gsen-rabs), who flourished about the fifth century before the new era, and is venerated as the equal of Buddha himself. His followers, who were powerful enough to drive Buddhism from Tibet in the tenth century, worship 18 chief deities, the best known being the red and black demons, the snake devil, and especially the fiery tiger-G.o.d, father of all the secondary members of this truly "diabolical pantheon."

It is curious to note that the sacred symbol of the Bonbo sect is the ubiquitous svastika, only with the hooks of the cross reversed, [Symbol]

instead of [Symbol]. This change, which appears to have escaped the diligent research of Thomas Wilson[400], was caused by the practice of turning the prayer-wheel from right to left as the red lamas do, instead of from left to right as is the orthodox way. The common Buddhist formula of six syllables--_om-ma-ni-pad-me-hum_--is also replaced by one of seven syllables--_ma-tri-mon-tre-sa-ta-dzun_[401].

Buddhism itself, introduced by Hindu missionaries, is more recent than is commonly supposed. Few conversions were made before the fifth century of our era, and the first temple dates only from the year 698. Reference is often made to the points of contact or "coincidences" which have been observed between this system and that of the Oriental and Latin Christian Churches. There is no question of a common dogma, and the numerous resemblances are concerned only with ritualistic details, such as the cross, the mitre, dalmatica, and other distinctive vestments, choir singing, exorcisms, the thurible, benedictions with outstretched hand, celibacy, the rosary, fasts, processions, litanies, spiritual retreats, holy water, scapulars or other charms, prayer addressed to the saints, relics, pilgrimages, music and bells at the service, monasticism; this last being developed to a far greater extent in Tibet than at any time in any Christian land, Egypt not excepted. The lamas, representing the regular clergy of the Roman Church, hold a monopoly of all "science," letters, and arts. The block printing-presses are all kept in the huge monasteries which cover the land, and from them are consequently issued only orthodox works and treatises on magic. Religion itself is little better than a system of magic, and the sole aim of all worship, reduced to a mere mechanical system of routine, is to baffle the machinations of the demons who at every turn beset the path of the wayfarer through this "vale of tears."

For this purpose the prayer-wheels--an ingenious contrivance by which innumerable supplications, not less efficacious because vicarious, may be offered up night and day to the powers of darkness--are incessantly kept going all over the land, some being so cleverly arranged that the sacred formula may be repeated as many as 40,000 times at each revolution of the cylinder. These machines, which have also been introduced into Korea and j.a.pan, have been at work for several centuries without any appreciable results, although fitted up in all the houses, by the river banks or on the hill-side, and kept in motion by the hand, wind, and water; while others of huge size, 30 to 40 feet high and 15 to 20 in diameter, stand in the temples, and at each turn repeat the contents of whole volumes of liturgical essays stowed away in their capacious receptacles. But despite all these everlasting revolutions, stagnation reigns supreme throughout the most priest-ridden land under the sun.

With its religion Tibet imported also its letters from India by the route of Nepal or Kashmir in the seventh century. Since then the language has undergone great changes, always, like other members of the Indo-Chinese family, in the direction from agglutination towards monosyllabism[402]. But the orthography, apart from a few feeble efforts at reform, has remained stationary, so that words are still written as they were p.r.o.nounced 1200 years ago. The result is a far greater discrepancy between the spoken and written tongue than in any other language, English not excepted. Thus the province of Ui has been identified by Sir A. Cunningham with Ptolemy's _Debasae_ through its written form _Dbus_, though now always p.r.o.nounced _U_[403]. This bears out de Lacouperie's view that all words were really uttered as originally spelt, although often beginning with as many as three consonants. Thus _spra_ (monkey) is now p.r.o.nounced _deu_ in the Lhasa dialect, but still _streu-go_ in that of the province of Kham. The phonetic disintegration is still going on, so that, barring reform, the time must come when there will be no correspondence at all between sound and its graphic expression.

On the other hand it is a mistake to suppose that all languages in the Indo-Chinese linguistic zone have undergone this enormous extent of phonetic decay. The indefatigable B. H. Hodgson has made us acquainted with several, especially in Nepal, which are of a highly conservative character. Farther east the _Lepcha_ (properly _Rong_) of Sikkim presents the remarkable peculiarity of distinct agglutination of the Mongolo-Turki, or perhaps I should say of the Kuki-Lushai type, combined with numerous h.o.m.ophones and a total absence of tone. Thus _pano-sa_, of a king, _pano-sang_, kings, and _pano-sang-sa_, of kings, shows pure agglutination, while _mat_ yields no less than twenty-three distinct meanings[404], which should necessitate a series of discriminating tones, as in Chinese or Siamese. Their absence, however, is readily explained by the persistence of the agglutinative principle, which renders them unnecessary.