• (3) Distinct people. They dress somewhat like the Chinese, but in stature, features, and speech they are very unlike them. Mr. Hover thinks the most plausible theory to account for their presence in the island is that they are descendants of the Miao-tsz, brought ages ago from the highlands of Kwangtung and Kwangsi to act as mediators between the Chinese and the wild aborigines of the interior. The aborigines of the interior, who are called Les, are again divided into tribes, nearly all of whom inhabit the mountains, in whose fastnesses they have been able to successfully maintain their independence against the Chinese for nearly two thousand years. Mr. HENRY penetrated into the country of the Les, and saw a good deal of the people. He gives a very favourable account of them, having found them strictly honest and simple-minded, little addicted to vicious habits like the Chinese on their borders. He was struck with the fine physique of many of these people. "Some were small, it is true, but most of the men would measure five feet nine and ten inches in height and were well proportioned, many of them with moustaches and slight beards. Their features were rather square; their noses not so flat as the Chinese, and their eyes of a different type. The women were a fair counterpart of the men, several being decidedly handsome." They are much more robust than the Chinese dwellers in the lowlands, and Mr. HENRY attributes their healthy condition to a simple diet, clear fresh water, and light airy houses. They tattoo their faces, arms, and legs. They know nothing of ancestral worship or feng-shui, and are apparently wedded to no particular superstition. From the foregoing account it will be seen that the Chinese really only hold the territory along the Coast, and that the mountainous interior is peopled by a hardy race who are more or less hostile to them.
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• (3)
tinct people. They dress somewhat like the Chinese, but in stature, features, and speech they are very unlike them. Mr. Hover thinks the most plausible theory to account
for their presence in the island is that they are descendants of the Miao-tsz, brought ages ago from the highlands of Kwangtung and Kwangsi to act as mediators between the Chinese and the wild aborigines of the interior. The aborigines of the interior, who are called Les, are again divided into tribes, nearly all of whom inhabit the mountains, in whose fastnesses they have been able to sue- cessfully maintain their independence against the Chinese for nearly two thousand years. Mr. HENRY penetrated into the country of, the Les, and saw a good deal of the people. He gives a very favourable account of them, having found them strictly honest and sim- ple-minded, little addicted to vicious habits like the Chinese on their borders. He was struck with the tine physique of many of these people. "Some were small, it is true,
but most of the men would measure five feat: ¡ nine and ten inches in height and were well proportioned, many of them with moustaches and slight beards. Their features were rather square; their noses not so flat as the Chinese, and their eyes of a different type. The women were a fair counterpart of the men, several being decidedly bandsome." They are much more robust than the Chi- nese dwellers in the lowlands, and Mr. HENRY attributes their healthy condition to a simple diet, clear fresh water, and light fairy houses. They tattoo their faces, arms,
and legs. They know nothing of ancestral, worship or feng-shui, and are apparently wed- ded to no particular superstition. From the foregoing account it will be seen that the Chinese really only hold the territory along the Coast, and that the mountainous interior is peopled by a hardy race who are more or less hostile to them.
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