The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-07-26
III.

| III.
Tho people Of the mud have attracted
tho attention Of strangers from the
earliest ages. The author accepts readily
for fact the view that Cambodia,
Srok Khmer. II Identical with the Saka-
dvipa Of the northern Hindu records,
the sense being "the land Of the teak, -
There Is no particular reason why this
Identification should be invalid, yet on
the other hand he advances no compel
ling proofs OF its validity. The same
holds true OF his Identification with the
country Of tho Lestai of Ptolemy's ge-
ography.
Ethnolosists are by no means agreed
upon the kinship OF the Khmer. In
general they are regarded as mixed
race with Monaghan. Dravidian and
Aryan affiliations; yet II they are a
mixed race they have established a more
permanent race type than any of the
peoples OF the southeastern peninsula.
When we first make acquaintance with
them, In the carefully kept but not
readily interpreted Chinese annals, IL
Is at a period when the shores and the
Islands of tho Indian seas were seeth-
Ing in swirl of folk migration con-
corning which we are III Informed. It
was at this period that the advance OF
people rendered superior by the art
OF metal working and the possession Of
metallic weapons was driving out to-
ward the east the homogeneous race
which after long voyaging arrived at the
settlement OF the South Sea and which,
lacking a racial designation OF their
| own, we have designated by the Greek
style of the Polynesians. In Indones!a
tho Polynesians are not regarded as
autochthonous. Their place Of origin Is
not yet known. the time OF their arrival
in the Malay Archipelago is wholly
problematical. All that we know with
any certainty Is that this neolithic race
was in possession OF the shores and
waterways of Indonesia and that II had
partly subJugated and driven into the
interior negrito race OF yet lower Gull
tural attainment. About the Christian
era the Malayan peoples. forced from
some indeterminate region in Asia by
some cause ms TO which we have no
knowledge. advanced upon Indonesia by
the ready bridge offered TO such general
migration by the Malay Peninsula II is
Just at this epoch OF unrest that we
learn OF the Khmer. the conditions are
such that definite determination Of
their racial position Is scarcely 70 be
expected. Leclere assigns them q dis
ttnctly Hindu origin.
The early Chinese annalsts give
many details of the Mon Khmer, whose
country they designate AZ Fu-nan. The
people at that time went wholly nude
save for the tattooing OF their skins
and 5eered at strangers who came to
them wearing clothes. This. as a mark
Of savagery, seems to have made a
marked impression on Chinese travel
lers. who regarded their rude neighbors
from the position Of an assured and
ancient civilization. This custom was
partly abolished in the first century,
when the King. Houen-tien. gave his
Queen a poncho for her garb and the
khmer women followed the fashion:
n century later a succeeding King or
dered the men TO go clad. and slowly
the use OF costume made its way. In
these first reports the Cambodans are
described as uncomely, black and hav-
ing woolly hair. They had ornaments
Of gold and silver. which they engraved
or carved. They had the art OF writ
ing and libraries of books, They
passed much OF their time in fighting
cocks or pigs. They practised ordeals
with red hot axe heads which the ac-
cused was forced to carry In his naked
hands while he took seven steps OF
compurgation, or with rings and eggs,
which he had to seize in a pot of boil
ing water. Less painful, yet equally
successful in the detection OF theft was
the chewing Of the ball OF rice, which
here, as elsewhere. strangles the guilty
Prisons they had none. the culpable
were more promptly disposed OF by be-
ing cast to the crocodles in the rivers
When the King made his public ap-
pcararce 1t was always seated on an
elephant, accompanied by his wives and
other women and surrounded by the
great officers of the court. The Chinese
authorities note that the Mon Khmer
were greedy; that they were regardless
OF the customs of decent society, that
in morals they were abandoned, and
that girls and boys did quito as they
pleased.