From this painful scene it is pleasant to turn to the market-place of Tayninh, with its various specimens of the human race. Cambodians are tolerably numerous; their comparatively tall stature, their dark skin, their thick and heavy lower jaw, their hair cut close like the bristles of a brush, and especially their air of passive savagery, give them an appearance totally different from that of the Annamites. The two races detest each other cordially. The Annamite, proud of his lighter complexion, of his more advanced civilization, to say nothing of the numerous defeats he has inflicted on his neighbour, looks upon him as little above the Moïs or wild people of the mountains. The Cambodians are savages, he says, whose nature is radically bad and vicious; they think nothing of law or order; they are stupid, and almost devoid of reason. On the other hand, the Cambodian, with his gloomier and more silent disposition, his deeper religious sentiment, regards with compassion the volatile Annamite. A cordial understanding between the two peoples will hardly ever be possible. The Cambodian, in spite of his somewhat coarse features, is more Hindu than Indo-Chinese; and both his language and his writing have affinities with those of the aboriginal inhabitants of the great Indian peninsula. He is the morose and untamable denizen of the hills and woods; while his neighbour is the sociable and light-humoured inhabitant of the plains. Unhappy is the Cambodian! Hemmed in between the Siamese on the one hand, and the Annamites on the other, who together have robbed him of his richest provinces; rendered stationary by the operation of a feudal law which prevents him from acquiring lands of his own,--a vigorous hand is needed to support him, and enable him to preserve his autonomy, while the ameliorating influences of European civilization are gradually brought to bear upon him. * * * * * ~THE CHINESE ELEMENT.~ Such are the two races which occupy the provinces watered by the lower branches of the great Cambodian river. In the large towns and seaports is found a considerable admixture of the Chinese element. Trade and commerce are almost entirely in the hands of Chinese merchants, who, here as elsewhere, exhibit an extraordinary amount of patience, industry, and thrift; and, here as elsewhere, untiringly amass large and even enormous fortunes. They preserve their nationality unaffected by the conditions in which they are placed; always a people apart, and always as distinct from the races around them as are the Jews from the nations of Europe. [Illustration: CHINESE MERCHANTS OF SAIGON.] CHAPTER V. M. MOUHOT IN CAMBODIA.