Towards the close of the fifteenth century, Hájo founded a Kooch empire, which extended beyond the limits of the Assam valley, into Morung and Bengal. His daughter, for he left no sons, was married to a Bodo chief, the Bodos being Pagans. These two divisions of the aborigines held their own against the Moslem and Hindus equally; but only for a while. Visva Sinh, the conqueror's grandson, became a convert to Hinduism, the majority of his subjects to the religion of Mahomet; renouncing, at the same time, their original name. A portion, however, remained unconverted, and remain so; and these agree with the Bodo in appearance, manners, and customs, and are said to do so in language also. If so, and if the Raibansi Kooch be so closely allied to them as they are described to be, they must, although speaking a dialect closely allied to the Assam Bengali, be monosyllabic in origin. The whole details, however, of the Kooch may be found in Mr. Hodgson's Dissertation. * * * * * The Chinese civilization must be taken as the measure of the moral development of the monosyllabic nations; a form to which the _non_-culture of the tribes represented by the Bodo and Garo, stands in prominent contrast. I do not think it necessary to tell the reader what Chinese civilization _is_. It is sufficiently known in itself; its affinity with that of the Indo-Chinese nations is known also; and equally well-known is its distinct character, as compared with the other civilizations of the world--Asiatic as well as European. A point of more ethnographical importance, is the question as to its antiquity; since this involves the higher question still--as to the extent to which it is a self-developed phenomenon, or one effected by influences from without. I am prepared to admit without much criticism, the statements of travellers as to the possession, on the part of the Chinese, of several of the most important arts and discoveries belonging to the civilization of Europe--of the art of printing, of paper-money, of a certain amount of astronomical knowledge, of the mariner's compass, and even of gunpowder. There is no reason why the Chinese, _when once civilized_, should not have worked out an average amount of discovery in the way of detail. The point upon which I doubt is the _antiquity_ of that civilization, and still more the self-evolution of it; a necessary consequence of such antiquity. Within the historical period, three civilizing influences have, at different times, been introduced into China, and each has had time to do its work in. I begin with the latest, the European. 1. _The Portuguese, Dutch, English, and American._--This may be disposed of briefly. It has not changed the Chinese cultivation in anything essential.