CHAPTER V

RITES AND SUPERSTITIONS (_continued_)

Burial rites--Philology--Legends and fables _p._ 310

BIBLIOGRAPHY _p._ 325

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

The Tomb of a Radé Chief _Frontispiece_

A Moï Maiden with enlarged Ears _Facing page_ 16

A Cham Chief and his Daughter 16

Laotian Barque under full sail 17

A Moï Farmer at work 17

Fishing with Dynamite 26

A Floating Village 26

A Typical Village in Laos 27

Primitive Irrigation in Laos 27

Birth Ceremonies 54

The Wife of a Moï Chief 55

A Little Moï Family 55

A Sorcerer performing the Marriage Ceremony 64

Children scrambling over the Remains of the Marriage Feast 65

A Little Kha 78

Our Native Prisoners 78

The Village Musician serenading a Young Couple 79

A Hut of Propitiation 100

Tombs fenced with Bamboo and decorated with Elephants' Tusks 100

Woven Bamboo Baskets used to carry Offerings to the Priests 101

Memorial Stone erected to a Tiger 130

A Hunting Party 131

An Elephant and his Driver 131

The festival of the Dead: carrying home the Sacrificial Buffalo 160

The Festival of the Dead: Poles erected for the Celebration 161

Funeral Rites: the Body in a Coffin made from the Hollowed Trunk of a Tree 174

Funeral Rites: the Body by its weight has indicated its wish to be buried in this spot 175

A Medical Examination 186

Looking through the Stereoscope 186

Three Boys of our Native Guard 187

A Court of Trial on an Annamese Stage 204

A Group of Amateur Actors in Annam 205

A Mandarin of Annam 205

Royal Elephants in Cambodia 250

A Buddhist Procession 251

Image of a Departed Saint in a Phallic Temple 272

Statues erected to the Dead in Laos 272

Shrine of a Laotian Priest 273

The Interior of the Shrine 273

Statue of an Ancient King of Cambodia 288

Statue of an Ancient Queen of Cambodia 288

An Old Cham Temple in a Cambodian Forest 288

The House of a Cham Aristocrat 289

A Cottage Home in Cambodia 289

Cremation in Cambodia: the Head of the Procession 312

A Catafalque upon which several Bodies are carried away for Cremation 312

The Hearse and Bearers at an Annamese Funeral 313

The Altar of his Ancestors, which accompanies the Deceased 313

FOREWORD

No nation which desires worthily to fulfil the rôle of Protector to the barbarous races on whom it proposes to confer the benefits of civilization can afford to remain ignorant of their ways of life and thought. The interchange of ideas is as essential to successful colonization as the exchange of commodities. Unfortunately the path to knowledge is beset with difficulties. In the first place the savage or semi-savage is unable to apply the method of synthesis to those of his institutions which seem founded on custom. He cannot tell us which of his usages have been borrowed or imposed from outside. Further, as a rule, it seems impossible to find any medium of communication between his language and ours, so that any attempt at cross-examination is met by the sorry pretence that our questions "make his head ache."

During the period covered by the geodetical and topographical surveys which preceded the construction of the Trans-Indo-Chinese railway, the members of the mission to which I was attached lived for years among the natives upon terms of the greatest familiarity. We saw them in their homes, at their work and recreations, and we can at least claim that we obtained our knowledge at first hand.

I have not hesitated throughout this book to record the conclusions of my colleagues and to compare or contrast them with my own for the sake of the light they may throw upon each other.

I have analysed the rites and superstitions which came to my notice with a mind unhampered by obsession or prejudice. If I have seemed to dwell too fondly on analogous ceremonies among other peoples and in other days it is only because I wish to arrive at the broad principles which seem to me to underly all these phenomena, principles which are as immutable as human nature itself.