Directory_and_Chronicle_1842 — Page 470

1.52

Portrait of Shánhán

Ara

the Chinese in some of these places have settled in such great num- bers, and constitute such an important portion of the community that they have transferred many expressions from their colloquial medium to the native language of the place: e. g. the Siamese numerals are năng, song, sân, si, hu, hok, chet, pét, kou, sắp, sounds sufficiently resembling those given to the numerals in some of the dialects of Chinese to show that one is derived from the other. In Siamese a chair is called kaou-i, the same as in Chinese; a horse is called ma, so in Chinese; money is called gîn, which is nearly or quite the sound for the same thing in some of the dialects of Chinese. Again, we trace a resemblance in the form of asking a question; the Siamese say ki- mong, for what time, the Chinese' ki-shi? the Siamese say ki-m'noi, for how many? the Chiuese, kitó. Again for finished the Siamese have laou, and the Chinese liau; for great the Siamese would say to, and the Chinese tả or twá. In short, in listening to the Siamese and Chinese as they are spoken, one is daily noticing sounds used alike in the two, with the same signification, while the written language of the two is as unlike as English and Arabic.

D.

ART. VI. Portrait of Sháuháu, the fourth of the five ancient

sovereigns, with remarks on Chinese historical writing.

BUT for the purpose of rendering our series of portraits complete, we might content ourselves with saying of this monarch, as professor Kidd has properly enough done, that nothing occurs in his history, as written by native authors, worthy of being translated. The profes- sor's remark is perfectly correct. It would, however, in a Chinese historian, be an unpardonable omission of duty thus to pass over even the humblest of the five great monarchs of antiquity. His names, with the reasons for them; his parentage; the circumstances attending his birth, with the place thereof; the character and acts of his government; and the particulars of his death, and so forth,- must all be related in the exactest manner. It matters little how the facts are obtained, or what may be their character, weighty or unim- portant; they must be cleared from all obscurities, and recorded as unquestionable verities. In the historian, who has exhausted all the means at his command for gaining the truth, such positiveness is not