THE PHÖ.

The very imperfect nature of our knowledge regarding the non-Chinese races of Western and South-western China, constitutes the great impediment to their exact scientific classification. Notwithstanding this, however, there are certain well-marked distinctions that cannot fail to attract the eye and the ear of the traveller. So great a contrast do the Lolos bear to the Chinese, that not for a single moment can any idea of affinity be entertained. And the same holds good with the Miao-tzu of Kuei-chow and the Shans of YÜn-nan who, with the Lolos, form the three great distinctive races of Kuei-chow, YÜn-nan, and Ssu-ch’uan. With regard to the Ku-tsung of North-western YÜn-nan and the Sifan of North-western Ssu-ch’uan, the former, from their physique, dress and language, are undoubted Tibetans, while the latter are in all probability a branch of the same stock. The term Man-tzu, although applied by the Ssu-ch’uanese to the inhabitants of the region to the west of Lolodom and often to the Lolos themselves, is generically used to designate the non-Chinese races of Western China.

Our knowledge of these races is defective, for the simple reason that no foreigner has ever paid them a lengthened visit, which is essential to a thorough grasp of their ethnological characteristics. Nor is this a matter for surprise, as the opportunities, which foreigners possess of visiting these tribes, whose haunts are removed from beaten tracks, are few and far between; and those few who have had such opportunities have been too much occupied with other work to study ethnological details or acquire a new language.

As recorded in the preceding pages, I passed through the countries of most of these tribes; but, like others, I found myself wanting in leisure to cultivate a closer intimacy with them. I need only appeal to travellers in Western China as to the facilities afforded for undertaking such a task. In what does the traveller’s day usually consist? He gets up at daybreak, hurries on to the end of the stage, writes up an account of the day’s journey, endeavours to get something to eat, and tries to enjoy a few hours’ sleep ere the labours of another day begin. The miseries of travel, too, breed a feeling of restlessness and a hankering after something more comfortable than his present experiences. But all the comfort the traveller in these regions may expect, and too frequently gets, is shelter in a miserable mud hovel without chair or table—hardly a promising spot in which to commence ethnological studies.

Nor is this all; given a chair and a table, the next difficulty is to find the man whose characteristics it is intended to study. The treatment which these aborigines receive at the hands of the Chinese, and the contempt in which they are held by them, have induced a timidity which is hard to overcome, and they have often expressed to me their fears that they would get into trouble through accepting my invitation to visit me.

In traversing the country between the Ta-tu River in Western Ssu-ch’uan and the north-west frontier of YÜn-nan, I have frequently seen so-called Man-tzu suddenly quit the roadway and conceal themselves in the bordering brushwood and tall reeds until we had passed. And even when an interview has with difficulty been obtained, my visitors were always anxious to get away as soon as possible, so that the most the traveller can do is to note down a few of their more common words, without attempting the analysis of even a few simple sentences.

A few short vocabularies are all that I was able to collect during my journeys; but, towards the end of 1884, chance threw in my way an opportunity of entering more fully into the language of the principal branch of the aborigines of Kuei-chow, known to the Chinese as the Hei or Black Miao, or, as they call themselves, the PhÖ.

In that year Mr. Broumton, who was then in charge of the China Inland Mission station at Kuei-yang, came to Ch’ung-k’ing bringing with him a man belonging to this tribe from the south-east of Kuei-chow, and he was good enough to place the services of this individual at my disposal. He was fairly well versed in Chinese, and I endeavoured to learn something of his language, and, with his assistance, to translate a few of the easy exercises of Sir Thomas Wade’s Chinese Colloquial Course into PhÖ.

I should state that, according to my teacher, there is no written character, and my aim was to preserve a specimen of a tongue which must sooner or later become extinct. Of late years, the authorities of the province of Kuei-chow have been endeavouring to compel the Miao-tzu to adopt the Chinese dress and learn the Chinese language. Their efforts, too, are meeting with considerable success, and it is safe to predict that the PhÖ tongue is within a measurable distance of extinction.

About twenty years ago a desperate struggle commenced between the Chinese and the PhÖ, the alleged origin being attempted extortion on the part of the former. The struggle lasted for five years, and had it not been, so say the PhÖ, that the Chinese obtained a supply of foreign rifles, it would not have ended so disastrously for the aborigines. In bright clear weather no advantage was gained by the Chinese; but the PhÖ were pressed hard in rainy weather, when they were unable to keep the powder of their matchlocks dry. In this connection I may state that the PhÖ manufacture their own guns and ammunition—their powder, which is of a brown colour, being famous for its strength and superiority even among the Chinese.

The result of the struggle was that the PhÖ were terribly decimated; and the population of the tribe is now estimated not to exceed seventy thousand souls. The Chinese were assisted in the war against the PhÖ by the Ka-tou, generally called the Hua, or Coloured Miao, and so named because they wear fancy-coloured garments, just as the PhÖ are called Black Miao because they affect dark clothes.

There can be no doubt that the Miao-tzu are a race altogether different from the Chinese. In physique they are decidedly inferior; in dress, manners, and customs they stand alone; and their language, although it contains a considerable number of borrowed Chinese words, is undoubtedly distinct. The problem that presents itself to the traveller in Kuei-chow is not the affinity between the Miao-tzu and the Chinese, but the relationship of the Miao-tzu to each other. They are divided into a number of tribes whose traits are recognized not only by the Chinese, but even amongst themselves; and, as I have already observed, one tribe is prepared to go to war with the other. In physique they are the same, but in dress they differ. Do they speak the same language? The following is a comparative table of the numerals of three different tribes dwelling in South-east, Central, and North-west Kuei-chow, respectively:—

A glance at the above will show that there is a great resemblance; and, as the difficulty of transcribing the living sounds is great, I have no hesitation in saying that a more careful study will evolve a still more marked resemblance. The transcription of the PhÖ sounds in column II. may be taken as fairly accurate, for they have been repeated and repeated by me in many hundreds of combinations without leading to a single mistake. Nor is the comparison limited to the numerals. I have transcribed hundreds of words of different tribes, and the resemblance is equally evident.

The conclusion I have arrived at, after careful comparison and research, is that the Miao-tzu tribes of Kuei-chow are branches of the same stem, speaking somewhat different dialects of the same language. This conclusion, I must not omit to mention, is at variance with the statements of my PhÖ teacher, who insisted that the Ka-tou tongue is totally unintelligible to a PhÖ; but I am inclined to think that he was more than anxious to disclaim all affinity with his quondam enemy.

But there is another proof that they are of the same stock. At a gathering of the PhÖ held once a year, representatives of the other tribes are present and take part in the proceedings. This gathering, which takes place at full moon of the third Chinese month, is of a character altogether different from the annual fair held during the third month at Ta-li Fu, where many different races meet. The latter is a market pure and simple, whereas the former appears to partake of a religious nature, and to be connected with the coming harvests.

What the religious aspect is, it is difficult to say, for deep potations would seem to be the order of the day. The Miao-tzu, like the Lolos, are great drinkers, the wine being a native spirit. Art is not wanting among them; the women are exceedingly skilful at embroidery, and the beautiful silver ornaments—rings, clasps, bracelets, ear-rings, brooches, and necklaces—which they wear on fÊte days, are highly finished. Some of the sterner sex also affect one large silver ear-ring in, if my memory is not at fault, the left ear.

The dress of the PhÖ male consists of black loose trousers surmounted by a short jacket with tight sleeves. The garments of the female are far more striking. They consist, to begin at the top, of a black turban, short jacket and kilt reaching almost to the feet, the wrists and backs of the sleeves and the hem of the kilt being ornamented with embroidery, usually with silk. At the gathering in question, music and dancing are much indulged in.

The musical instruments are manufactured from bamboos of different sizes, some of them from twelve to fifteen feet long, fitted with a mouth-piece, their lower ends being inserted in a large hollow cylinder (the hollowed out trunk of a tree), while the upper end of the longest reed is usually surmounted by a cone made of the sheath which grows at the joints of large bamboos. This instrument is called the ki, and from it a loud booming noise is, owing to the presence of the cylinder, extracted. The musicians move round in a circle as they play, followed on the outskirts by the young women, who dance in a slow, solemn manner. Of course the ladies, like their Lolo and Shan sisters, do not bind their feet. They lead altogether a freer life than the Chinese, both sexes sitting down to meals at the same table, and entering fully into the conversation even in the presence of a foreigner.

The language of the PhÖ, while following to a great extent the Chinese idiom, exhibits at the same time considerable divergence. A “cart-before-the-horse” principle is very marked throughout. An example or two will suffice to explain my meaning. The Chinese for “beef” and “mutton” is “niu jou” and “yang jou”—that is, “ox-meat” and “sheep-meat.” The PhÖ, on the other hand, say “ngi lia” and “ngi li,” which, literally translated, mean “meat-ox” and “meat-sheep.” Again, for “good man” the Chinese say “hao jÊn,” where “good man” is the subject of the sentence; the PhÖ say “nai ghou”—“man good,” and “very good man” is “nai ghou kuai,” that is, the adjective follows the noun and the adverb the adjective. There are eight tones readily distinguishable, but they are not so marked as in Chinese, where a false tone may lead to endless confusion. I have read over sentence after sentence to my teacher, carefully avoiding to distinguish tones, and, as a rule, he has interpreted in Chinese the exact meaning intended to be conveyed. With these brief remarks I leave the language to the student of philology. Appended are a few exercises and a short vocabulary in English and PhÖ. Those conversant with Chinese will at once detect the large admixture of Chinese words, which are for the most part only slightly modified; but the two most striking peculiarities of the language are the aspirated l and the v sound.