that the first men were white and lived in Europe and North Africa;
others think the negroes of Africa are the oldest men; a few have argued
that the American Indian was the original race; most, however, have
thought that Asia was man’s first home. Whether this is so or not, Asia
to-day contains a swarming population composed of many peoples,
differing much in appearance, dress, life, and customs.
The Asian peoples belong chiefly to the Mongolic or yellow race. It is a
well-marked type. Medium stature, broad and round head, flat face, with
nose rather low, broad and high cheek bones, hair coarse and straight
and jet black, skin yellowish, dark eyes apparently set slantwise in the
face, are its characters. The yellow race includes the Chinese,
Japanese, Coreans, the peoples of Indo-China, and most of the wandering
tribes of Siberia. There are probably more of this race than of any
other on the globe; next to them in numbers is the white race; then the
negroes; then the island peoples; last and least, the American Indians.
Asia may justly be called the continent of yellow peoples. But it would
be a mistake to think that no other peoples but Mongolic peoples live
there. In almost every part of the great continent are peoples of white
or Caucasic types. Thus, in the far northeast of Asia we have the
curious Ghilyaks; in Japan, the Ainu; in China, various mountain tribes;
in Southeastern Asia, similar peoples; in India, the Todas. All these
tribes are white, bearded, with hairy bodies, rather long heads, and
straight eyes. These tribes are small in numbers, rather quiet and
timid, with little energy, and quite unlike European whites. They
usually live in mountainous, out-of-the-way places, and it almost seems
as if they are the scattered fragments of an ancient, white population,
who occupied much of Asia before the yellow race was important, and who
have been crowded back and almost destroyed by it.
In India, Persia, and other parts of Western Asia, are many white
peoples who are like true European whites in their Aryan languages and
in their forms and features. In Western Asia there are, and long have
been, many dark white populations who are vigorous and active, with
features much more European than Mongolian. These dark whites speak
languages related to each other, but not Aryan. To these peoples,
including the old Hebrews, and the modern Arabs, and many other ancient
and modern peoples, the name Semites is applied. So you see that in Asia
there are not only the yellow, Mongolian peoples, but three different
kinds of whites,—the ancient feeble race, the Aryans, and the Semites.
Nowhere do we find more interesting ruins telling of past grandeur than
in Asia. We think of Rome as old; of Greece as older; but in Mesopotamia
are ruins far older than those of Greece and Rome. There are the ruins
of Nineveh and Babylon, so often mentioned in the Bible. Both are old,
but lately explorers have found yet older ruins dating back six or seven
thousand years. And these are not ruins of small and unimportant places,
but of grand cities, whose people were already civilized, with fixed
laws, curious religions, and many arts and industries. Nowhere in the
world have ruins of older cities been found, and it is believed that the
people who built them were yellow Mongolians.
In Asia most of the great religions were born. The oldest religious
systems of which we know were those of Mesopotamia. In India Buddhism
began. Buddha was a teacher who felt that the old religion of India,
Brahmanism, was wrong. So he taught a new religion. There are more
believers in Buddhism to-day than in any other religion. It is the chief
religion of China, Japan, Tibet, Southeastern Asia, and Ceylon; but in
India itself, where Buddha lived and taught, the people are _not_
Buddhists. In China there arose a great teacher, Confucius. He taught no
religion, but to-day there are Confucian temples all through China.
Judaism, the worship of Jehovah by the Jews, began in Asia. There, too,
in Judæa also, Christianity was born. Christ dwelt and taught there, and
there the first Christian churches were founded. But just as Buddha’s
land is not Buddhist, so Palestine to-day is not Christian. It is a part
of the Mohammedan world. Mohammedanism, too, is Asiatic, beginning in
Arabia almost thirteen hundred years ago. Perhaps the original home of
man, Asia has certainly been the first seat of civilization, and the
cradle of religions.
XIII.
CHINESE.
Perhaps four hundred and twenty million people dwell in the Chinese
Empire and are called Chinese. They are not, however, all _true_
Chinese. When the Chinese (or their ancestors) moved eastward into what
is now China, four thousand or more years ago, they found many different
tribes living there. Some of these were driven forth to seek new homes;
many remained and have mixed and mingled with the Chinese.
So many Chinese now live in our country that you all know how they look
and dress. The Chinese in America are mostly from the poorest and
meanest class, and most of them come from Canton. Most of those here are
laundrymen, but in some of our larger cities there are merchants and
restaurant keepers, and in California hundreds of them are gardeners.
They quickly learn our ways of doing, and many are employed in
cigar-making, shirt-making, and railroad-building. They work hard and
save their money, as they want sometime to go home to their own country.
Chinamen who die here are buried only for a little time: later the bones
are gathered and sent home to be buried in China.
The Chinese who come here are short or of medium stature. In the
interior and north of China they are taller. They have yellow skin,
black straight hair, and black eyes. Their eyes appear to slant or be
set crookedly, the inner corners being lower than the outer; they are
really almost as straight as our own, and the appearance is due to a
fold of skin at the inner corner. The long queue that hangs down the
Chinaman’s back is not composed entirely of hair; it is pieced out below
with cord or strings braided in. This style of wearing the hair is _not_
truly Chinese. Formerly the Chinese wore their hair in a knot on top of
the head, but at the time of the Manchu Conquest, two hundred and fifty
or so years ago, they were compelled to wear the hair in the Manchu
fashion. For a Chinaman to cut off his queue would be almost the same as
declaring himself unloyal to his Manchu rulers.
[Illustration: CHINESE MANDARIN (RATZEL).]
Chinamen usually have three names. The family name, which we place last,
they place first. Thus _Li Hung Chang_, the great Chinese viceroy,
belongs to the _Li_ family. Few of the Chinese laundrymen in this
country have their true names on their signs. The _Li_ family is one of
the largest in China, but it is also generally poor and despised. Most
of our Chinese laundrymen are _Lis_, and are related to Li Hung Chang.
In writing, the Chinese use a brush, which they dip into ink. A single
character represents a word, though many Chinese words are written with
compound characters, one part of which gives the sound, and the other
part pictures the meaning. In Chinese many sounds have several different
meanings. If the character with which the sound is written stood alone,
it would not be clear which meaning was intended. Chinese books are
printed on thin paper, which is folded back and forth like a screen or
fan and then stitched at the back; this makes the pages double. The
Chinese book begins at what we would consider the back and goes through
to what we would call the front. The print goes from the top of the page
down, in vertical columns, and the first column is the one to the right
hand.
To be able to write well is considered of the greatest importance in
China. The Chinese respect learning also, and no man can hold office in
China unless he is educated and has passed his examinations. From the
time when a boy begins study he must keep it up for many years, if he
hopes for a government position. Often he is a middle-aged or old man
before he succeeds in passing all the necessary examinations. To be able
to write beautifully, to be able to compose a poem upon any given
subject, and to know the writings of Confucius and the other old
philosophers are the things the Chinaman must learn. The great
examinations at the Capital are attended by thousands from every part of
the Empire. The man who stands first is sure to have an important
governorship given to him at once.
[Illustration: CHINESE BOY CHOOSING TOYS (DOOLITTLE).]
There are many curious customs regarding Chinese children. One takes
place when a little boy is one year old. A great bamboo sieve, such as
farmers use, is placed upon the table. Upon it are spread many
articles—money-scales, shears, a measure, a mirror, a pencil, ink,
paper, inkstone, books, the counting-board, objects of gold or silver,
fruits, etc. The baby, all dressed in his best clothes, is then set in
the midst of the objects, on the sieve. His parents and friends watch
anxiously to see which of the articles he will grasp. They believe it
will show what he will do when he is a man. If he takes the money-scales
or the gold or silver, he will become a rich merchant; if he takes the
book or pencil, he will be a great scholar, and so on.
Chinese money consists chiefly of round brass coins with a square hole
in the middle. It takes from eight to sixteen of them to make one cent
of ours. They are called “cash” and are often strung on strings for
convenient carrying. Many hundreds of years ago the ancient Chinese used
clothing and tools for money. When they began to make metal coins they
made these in the shape of shirts, knives, and spades, and called them
shirt money, knife money, and spade money.
In eating the Chinese do not use knives and forks, but a pair of slender
sticks called “chopsticks.” These are both taken in one hand, and are
used to pick up bits of meat or vegetables from the soup or to lift
boiled rice or dumplings to the mouth. For eating soup they use little
flat-bottomed spoons of chinaware, which will not fall over when set
down on the table. In making tea the cup or bowl for each person stands
on the table with tea leaves in it; it sets into a little ring-shaped
saucer and has a little cover over it like a saucer turned bottom
upward. The servant lifts the cover and pours boiling water upon the
leaves and then replaces the cover to let the tea steep. The cover may
be used to stir the tea for cooling it, and when held in proper position
prevents the tea leaves from getting into the mouth of the person who is
drinking.
But how many things are left that we cannot speak of! The busy work in
the fields, the preparation of tea, the rearing of silkworms and making
of silk, the trades, the government, the love and respect for parents,
the respect for the graves of ancestors, the religious ideas, the life
and teachings of Confucius—these things would need many books like this.
XIV.
COREANS.
Corea is often called the Hermit Nation, because it has wanted to keep
foreigners away. In this respect it is what China, Japan, and Tibet have
sometimes been; all of them have followed at times policies of
exclusion. Still, Corea has had a good deal of contact with other
nations; she has learned many things from China and has passed on much
that she learned to Japan. Sometimes, too, Corea has been subject to
China, sometimes to Japan.
The dress of Corea, while somewhat like that of China, and that of
Japan, is still quite peculiar. The common people are all dressed in
bluish white stuffs. Rich people dress in silks of the most gorgeous
colors—blue, crimson, scarlet, orange. The chief garment worn by men is
a long, loose gown that hangs from the neck quite to the ground. This is
bound around, high above the waist, with a stiff, broad belt. No buttons
are used in the fastening of garments, but strips of colored ribbons.
The socks and shoes of the Coreans are like those of the Chinese, except
that the shoe soles are thick-set with nail-heads. Nowadays these
hob-nailed shoes are worn at all times, but formerly they were probably
used only in winter to prevent slipping on ice and snow. About this the
Coreans tell a story: long ago there was war between China and Corea,
and the Chinese sent an army of eight hundred thousand soldiers; Corea’s
army numbered but five thousand. It was in the midst of winter. The two
armies met at a river, which was frozen solid, and the battle took place
upon the ice. The Chinese wore their smooth-soled shoes, while the
Coreans wore hob-nailed ones. When they fought on the ice the Chinese
slipped helplessly, while the Coreans were able to fight well. The
result was a great victory for the Coreans who, since then, have worn
their hob-nailed shoes constantly in memory of their success.
But the most curious part of Corean dress is the hat. There are many
different kinds. There are hats for young and hats for old, hats for
out-doors and hats for the house, hats for people of different
occupations. The commonest out-door hat is round, square-topped, and
with the wide, flat, brim halfway up the crown. The hats worn at the
royal court are like high skull-caps, with wide flaps or wings
projecting at the sides. The straw hats worn by drovers and people in
mourning are shaped like the top of a parasol and measure two feet and a
half across.
[Illustration: COREAN HAT (LOWELL).]
Until lately people in Corea carried wooden blocks to show who they
were. These blocks were carried by boys of fifteen and all older
persons. They were called “name-tablets,” and were made of pear-wood or
mahogany. They were about two inches long and a half inch wide. There
was writing upon both sides. At the top on one side was the name of the
ward where the boy lived; below it were the words “leisure-fellow,”
meaning that he was not a servant; then came the boy’s name, and lastly
his date of birth. On the other side was the date on which the tablet
was issued, and the seal of the officer who gave it. When a boy was
older his “name-tablet” was of box-wood; still later—after he had passed
an examination—his tablet was cut from black horn; when finally he took
highest honors, it was made of ivory. Poor people, of the lowest class,
also carried tablets, but of a different sort; upon these the bearer was
_described_.
In Corea there is much cold weather with ice and snow. Much clothing is
needed for warmth, and several garments of one sort may be worn one over
another. In the houses they have _kangs_ for warmth at night. Under the
house, or under a certain part of it, there is built a sort of oven or
furnace; above this is a floor of stones and, perhaps, earth upon which
oiled paper is smoothly spread. A fire is built in the furnace and the
sleepers stretch themselves upon the heated floor. It is not a
satisfactory mode of heating, but is used not only among the Coreans but
also among their Tatar neighbors.
Everywhere in Corea, Japan, China, and Tibet the people are Buddhists.
But in all these countries we find also much worship of demons or bad
spirits. Nowhere is there more of this than in Corea. They believe that
there are spirits everywhere, some good, some bad. They are afraid of
these bad spirits and do many things to ward off their mischief. Upon
the roof of the king’s palace are a lot of ugly figures of bronze that
resemble pigs and monkeys. All are different, but all are as terrible as
their makers could shape. These are intended to frighten bad spirits
away. No one but the king may have just these guardian animals; other
important persons have two pictures fastened at the door; at the doors
of the poor are hung a bunch of rice straw, and a bit of old rag. The
two pictures represent two great generals, one a Chinese and the other a
Corean, who were such valiant fighters against demons that their very
pictures scare them. As for the things on the poor man’s door, it is
believed that the spirits will stop to eat the grains of rice, and that
they will think the rag the man’s clothing and will do their harm to it
without entering the house.
Among the Coreans the tiger is much admired and much feared. They
believe that bad men and evil spirits can turn themselves into tigers,
and they have many strange stories of these tiger-men magicians. Thus
they say that once a man was travelling through a lonely and desolate
region. Toward evening he was surprised to come upon a fine house.
Entering and asking shelter he found an old man living alone there. He
felt sure things were wrong and that the old man was a tiger-magician.
He was right; it was the king of all the tiger-magicians. If he had
shown his fear he would have been torn to pieces, but he pretended to be
brave. When the old man asked him who he was and where he was going, he
boldly declared he was hunting for tiger-magicians, of whom he meant to
kill two hundred, that he might carry their skins to the king. When the
old man—who you remember was king of the tiger-magicians—heard this bold
talk he was terribly scared. Secretly he called his subjects together
and told them of their danger. They advised him to kill two hundred
tiger-magicians who were in jail and give their skins to the hunter,
begging him to spare the rest. The traveller gladly accepted, and taking
the skins sold them for much money. This man had a cowardly neighbor who
heard the story and determined to try the same trick. When he reached
the tiger-king’s palace, however, he got scared, the tigers knew his
fraud, and falling upon him they killed him.
XV.
TIBETANS.
Few countries are naturally so difficult of access as Tibet. It is a
lofty plateau. To reach it from any side frightful mountains must be
passed. Not only is the country itself difficult to reach, but the
Tibetans do not like strangers. They do everything in their power to
keep white men out of the country. Few travellers of our race have ever
been to the heart of Tibet. Recently the American traveller, W. W.
Rockhill, has visited that country and written interestingly of it, and
later Walter Savage Landor claims to have had exciting adventures there.
But the journey that is best known and has been most talked of was made
more than fifty years ago by two French missionaries named Huc and
Gabet.
Starting from China these gentlemen traversed Mongolia and Tatary and
penetrated to the sacred Tibetan city of Lhassa. They returned to China
over a different route. It was a fearful journey. The road led along the
side of vast cliffs, over raging torrents where the bridges were
composed of chains hung from bank to bank with boards laid crosswise of
them, through snowdrifts, and over sheets of glacier ice.
The people of Tibet vary in stature, color, hair, and other characters,
but all are Mongolic and all speak Tibetan. Some of the tribes are
nomads—either herders or pillagers; others are settled and live by
agriculture, notwithstanding the climate. In Lhassa itself they are
tradespeople and traders. They are good weavers and make excellent
woollen stuffs. They are skilled goldsmiths, and their fine wares go to
decorate the temples and monasteries. They make the finest incense in
the world.
The most important thing in Tibet is religion. Their religion, which is
called Lamaism, is a sort of Buddhism peculiar to Tibet. Tibet might be
called a _theocracy_, or a land where a god rules. For the ruler of
Tibet, called the _Dalai-lama_, is considered no common man, but a real
god on earth. Many centuries ago, in India, there lived a man named
Gautama or Sakyi-muni. He was wise and good, and the new religion which
he taught was a great improvement upon the Brahmanism of India. On
account of his wisdom and goodness, he was called Buddha, but he never
claimed to be himself a god. Since his death, however, many millions of
people in many lands have worshipped him as a god.
All Buddhists believe that there may be many Buddhas—that Gautama was
one Buddha, and that there were others before him and will be others
hereafter. In Tibet, however, they think that there are always Buddhas
on earth, and that when one Buddha dies his spirit at once enters the
body of some little babe, who becomes a Buddha in his place. The
Dalai-lama is the greatest of living Buddhas. There are many others in
different parts of Tibet and Tatary, all of whom are worshipped as gods.
The Dalai-lama lives in Lhassa, the sacred city, in a beautiful palace,
and has many priests to serve him. He is the all-powerful being in the
land.
[Illustration: TIBETAN LAMAS BLOWING ON SHELLS (VERNEAU).]
But he does not trouble himself about governing his people. He appoints
a _nomekhan_ to rule for him. The nomekhan has four _kalons_ who are
appointed to assist him. These four appoint all the other officers, most
of whom are lamas or priests. Really the lamas control everything in
Tibet. Generally they live together in great buildings called
lamaseries. These are to be seen everywhere in the land, and are often
perched upon the summits of lofty mountains, from which they overlook
the country for miles around. Some lamaseries contain but a few priests,
others contain many thousands. The lamas are at once known from the
people by their dress.
The lamas receive support from the common people, and when it is not
brought to them, they go to gather it. Huc met two lamas on horseback
gathering gifts of butter from the shepherds. “Their course is this:
they present themselves at the entrance of each tent and thrice sound a
marine conch.[1] Thereupon some member of the family brings out a small
roll of butter, which, without saying a word, he deposits in a bag
suspended from the saddle of each lama’s horse. The lamas never once
alight, but content themselves with riding up to each tent, and
announcing their presence to the inmates by the sound of the shell.”
Footnote 1:
A shell used as a trumpet.
When a Dalai-lama dies, search is made for the new one. Prayers are said
in all the lamaseries, processions are made, incense is burned. Even the
common people everywhere pray. There are certain signs by which a baby
shows that the spirit of a lama has entered him. All parents who think
their baby the one send word to Lhassa and bring their babies there. All
are carefully examined, and the three who best show the signs of being
Buddha are taken. After fasting for six days, the priests who decide the
matter take a golden urn containing three little fish of gold, upon each
of which is engraved the name of one of the three babies. The urn is
shaken and one of the fish is drawn. The baby whose name is engraved on
it becomes the Dalai-lama. To the unlucky babies before they are sent
home a present of five hundred ounces of silver is given.
[Illustration: MONGOLS CHOOSING A LAMA (HUC).]
Every day near sunset in Lhassa, all the men, women, and children stop
whatever they may be doing and gather in the public squares of the city.
There, grouped by sex and age, they kneel and chant their evening
prayer. This prayer would seem to us curious, for it asks for nothing.
The commonest prayer is—_om mani padme hum_, which means “the jewel in
the lotus.” By the jewel they mean divine power. The lotus is a
water-lily. The prayer is about the same thing as calling on the name of
God. This prayer they repeat over and over again.
To write this prayer where it will be seen is a good act. One may see it
everywhere. It is printed on the flags that fly above the buildings.
Pious rich men pay lamas to go through the country and chisel these
sacred words on rocks and cliffs.
Tibet is the land of prayer wheels. Prayer wheels contain the prayer
written many times: every time the wheel is turned, so many prayers are
supposed to have been said. Prayer wheels are of all sizes. The
commonest stand near lamaseries, and are set to turning with the hand.
Some lazy lamas, however, find it too much work to turn the wheels
themselves and so arrange them that they are turned by wind or water.