The information I obtained from the Stiêns accords perfectly with these remarks of M. Fontaine:—“The Thiâmes,” they said, “understand our language very well, but the Kouïs, who live beyond the great river, speak exactly the same language as ourselves.” M. Arnoux, another missionary in Cochin China, who has long resided amongst these savage tribes, speaks in the same way respecting the language. To M. Arnoux also I owe the exact latitude of many places on the map, and a great deal of topographical information about the whole country; and it affords me great pleasure here to express my gratitude and my esteem for his character.
“The languages of the Sedans,” says he, “of the Reungaos, and of the Italhans are almost identical, although often varying slightly even in the same tribe: the dialect of the northern Sedans is somewhat different from that of the southerns, and the Stiengs of Brelum speak differently from those farther to the east.
“The Bannav and the Bannam are nearly the same; the Bannav and Sedan much alike; generally only the terminations differ, but there are words in each not to be found in the other. M. Fontaine found that the Ieboune and Braon strongly resemble the Bannav. I cannot speak personally about the Giaraïe, Nedais, Bonous, and Bih; but doubtless others can.”
I myself remarked many Stiên words like the Cambodian, especially in the western districts, where there exists some commerce between the two countries. To all this must be added that the Siamese, Laotian,[3] and Cambodian seem to be sister languages: more than a fourth part of the words, especially those expressing intellectual things, are exactly the same in each.
In the course of this work I have cited several passages from the Life of the Abbé Gagelin, who died a martyr in Cochin China, and which was published by Abbé Jacquenet: in it mention is made of savage races on the coast of Siam and in the environs of Kompat (Cambodia). I have sought in vain for them, and no one has ever heard them spoken of. Probably the missionary was deceived by his servants, who were Annamites, and they always call the Cambodians and Siamese savages (Noye Uhen, inhabitants of the woods), while they give themselves the appellation of citizens.
Notwithstanding all my efforts to discover the traces of the probable migrations of the Jewish people through Siam and Cambodia, I have met with nothing satisfactory excepting a record of the judgment of Solomon, which, as I before stated, was found by M. Miche, Bishop of Laos and Cambodia, to be preserved verbatim in one of the Cambodian sacred books. To all my questions on this subject I received the same answer, “There are no Jews in the country.” Nevertheless, among the Stiêns, I could not but be struck by the Hebrew character of many of the faces.
LIMITS OF CAMBODIA.
In 1670 Cambodia extended as far as Isiampa; but the provinces of Lower Cochin China, as Bien-hoa, Digne-Theun, Vigue Laon, Ann Djiann, and Ita-Tienne—all at one time conquered and annexed—have, for more than a century, shaken off their dependence on Cambodia; and the language and ancient Cambodian race have entirely disappeared in those districts. The different states have now their limits and sovereigns entirely independent of each other. Cambodia is, however, to a certain extent tributary to Siam, but in no degree to Annam; and I cannot understand how, at the present day, the French newspapers, even the ‘Moniteur de la Flotte,’ still less how our admiral in those seas, should habitually confound these two countries.