[460] In the Javanese annals the invaders are called "Cambojans," but at this time (about 1340) Camboja had already been reduced, and the Siamese conquerors had brought back from its renowned capital, Angkor Wat, over 90,000 captives. These were largely employed in the wars of the period, which were thus attributed to Camboja instead of to Siam by foreign peoples ignorant of the changed relations in Indo-China.
[461] How very dark some of these corners can be may be seen from the sad picture of maladministration, vice, and corruption still prevalent so late as 1890, given by Hallett in A Thousand Miles on an Elephant, Ch. xxxv.; and even still later by H. Warington Smyth in Five Years in Siam, from 1891 to 1896 (1898). This observer credits the Siamese with an undeveloped sense of right and wrong, so that they are good only by accident. "To do a thing because it is right is beyond them; to abstain from a thing because it is against their good name, or involves serious consequences, is possibly within the power of a few; the question of right and wrong does not enter the calculation." But he thinks they may possess a high degree of intelligence, and mentions the case of a peasant, who from an atlas had taught himself geography and politics. P. A. Thompson, Lotus Land, 1906, gives an account of the country and people of Southern Siam.
[462] Probably a corruption of talapat, the name of the palm-tree which yields the fan-leaf constantly used by the monks.
[463] "In conversation with the monks M'Gilvary was told that it would most likely be countless ages before they would attain the much wished for state of Nirvana, and that one transgression at any time might relegate them to the lowest hell to begin again their melancholy pilgrimage" (Hallett, A Thousand Miles on an Elephant, p. 337).
[464] "Le gros orteil est très développé et écarté des autres doigts du pied. A ce caractère distinctif, que l'on retrouve encore aujourd'hui chez les indigènes de race pure, on peut reconnaître facilement que les Giao-chi sont les ancêtres des Annamites" (La Cochinchine française en 1878, p. 231). See also a note on the subject by C. F. Tremlett in Journ. Anthr. Inst. 1879, p. 460.
[465] Properly An-nan, a modified form of ngan-nan, "Southern Peace."
[466] Cf. Nan-king, Pe-king, "Southern" and "Northern" Courts (Capitals).
[467] La Gazette Géographique, March 12, 1885.
[468] Geogr. Journ., Sept. 1893, p. 194.
[469] "Parmi les citoyens règne la plus parfaite égalité. Point d'esclavage, la servitude est en horreur. Aussi tout homme peut-il aspirer aux emplois, se plaindre aux mêmes tribunaux que son adversaire" (op. cit. p. 6).