Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-09-14

they appear to be a people destitute
OF the sense of self-respect At any
rate the French treat them if they had none.
The first time l went into dejeuner at the
dirty plate on the little table to which the host
showed me. QUEST ce que tn fails, toi2" de-
manded the latter pointing to the plate, and
smack! box on the ears followed that you
could have heard fifty yards of. And this in
the middle Of a crowded dining room. You
would no more think of striking a Chinese
servant like that than of tweaking police
mans nose en- Broadway. Before q French
man an Annamite appears to have no rights.
BOTH MEN AND WOMEN IN ToNaK1Na
wear their hair long and twisted up into a kind
OF chignon on the top OF the head. 1t is, Of
course, always lanky and jet black. Their
dress is Of the most simple. The men wear a
loose jacket and short trousers and the women
long straight shift reaching from neck to
heels. The Alnamite man il a very poor crea-
ture, and it is only among the upper classes
that one sees occasionally a well-formed or
handsome face with some elevation or dignity
OF expression. The women are much better
looking and would often be pretty except for
the stained mouth and teeth. which render
them horrible to European eye. But in figure
they are much the most favored of any have
yet seen in the east and in the course Of a walk
In Hanoi You may meet a dozen who are
straight enough and strong enough and shapely
enough to serve as a sculptOr's models. Their
native dance is a burlesque of the Japanese, to
the accompaniment Of a fiddle six feet long.
The few women you see with clean mouths and
white teeth are almost sure to be the mistresses
of Europeans
THE LANGUAGE OF THE PEOPLE.
The most curious of the surface impression
of Tongking is the language you must learn to
talk with the natives. Your ear becomes
familiar with ''pidgin English" before you have
spent day in the east, and a horrid jargon it
is-convenient, no doubt, but growing posi-
lively repulsive after awhile. But ''pidSin
French, or petit negre" as it is called. comes
as complete surprise. And it is all the fun
nier because of the excellent native pronuncia-
ton of French. Petit negre'' is character
lied, as compared with French proper. by four
features-omission of the auxiliary verbs, ig-
noring of gender, employment of the intinitive
for all moods and lenses, and absence Of words
taken bodily from the native. like "maskee,"
'man-man" and .'chop-chop" in pidgin. The
one expression which recurs again and again
with an intinity OF meanings is .'y-a-moyen, or
''y-a-pas moyen." And after this comes ''fili''
for 'tini' nearly as often. The you savvy" of
pidgin is "toi connaitre?" The .'my wantchee"
Is moi vouloir." The native servant is every
where called by the English word "boy," pro-
nounced 'boy-ee," in two syllables.
ENRIcHINa THE LANGUAGE.
And the language is further enriched by a
number of words recalling the nursery, like
'.pousse-pousse, for jinrikisha, ''coupe-coupe,"
for big knife, and SO on. "Beaucoup" does
duty for tires" and ''bien," 80 one is constantly
hearing sentences like these: "Moi beaucoup
vouloir avoir sampan." ''Soupe beaucoup
mauvais-moi bonner vous beaucoup bambou, -
and .Toi beaucoup imbecile." petit negre"
Is of course much younger than ''pidgin;" for
one person who speaks it hundred thousand
speak the latter, and it is not capable of
the flights of oratory to which the accom-
piished speaker of pidgin can soar. Nor will it
ever become what pidgin has long been-the
vehicle of communication between vast numbers
Of people otherwise acquainted with only a
score of different dialects and tongues. l m v
add here that 'Tongking" is the same word as
Tokyo" meaning eastern capital" and that
the former is the only correct spelling to ex-
press the Chinese sounds. "Tonquin' is abb
surd either in French or English.
In my next letters will describe my visit to
the Chinese-TOngking frontier, where believe
only one Englishman and no journalist has yet
been, and where we spent night in the midst
OF pirates, and will give the conclusions have
arrived at concerning the future of this vast
French possession. HENRY NORMAN.