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INHABITANTS THE MANCHUS. 121
burn their dead, placing the ashes in leather sacks, which they attach to the
branches of the trees. On the other hand, the Daurians, although the bravest and
fiercest of all the race, have become zealous Buddhists, one member at least of every
family being a lama.
Owing to the mixture of races, which has produced a larger and more vigorous
population than that of Central China, it has become almost impossible
to distin-
guish the natives from the intruding Chinese. But the Manchus are distinguished
above all the northern peoples for their natural politeness and courtesy towards
strangers. Although descendants of the conquerors of China, they have the good
taste to avoid any reference to their origin in the presence of the " Sons of Heaven,"
in this respect differing greatly from their kinsmen in China, the insolent
mandarins, who have been corrupted by the enjoyment of power and privileges.
The Solons, Daurs, and other northern tribes, like the Siberian Tunguses of the
same original stock, are brave, cheerful, good-natured, and resemble the Japanese
in their aptitude for assimilating foreign ideas and adapting themselves to the
altered surroundings. Hence in Manchuria religious differences have at present
far more importance than those of race. The Mohammedans, who form in some
districts one-third of the whole population, reside mostly in villages or in separate
quarters, where they constitute quite a distinct element, holding aloof from those
of other religions, although themselves of Chinese race and speech.
For military purposes the Manchus are grouped in eight banners, whence their
name of Paki ; that is,
" Eight Flags." But the men, whose only arms till 1873
were the bow and arrow, are at present employed more frequently on hunting than
on strategical expeditions. They are bound to pay a yearly tax of 2,400 deer and
a certain number of sable-skins. But even into this organization the Chinese
element has been largely introduced, multitudes of immigrants from Shantung
having been enrolled at the time of the conquest. These military colonists are
collectively known as Tsi-jen, or Ki-jen ; that is, "Banner-men."
Altogether the Manchus as a distinct nationality seem to bo threatened with
rapid extinction. The children mostly attend the Chinese schools, where they study
the four books of Confucius and the " Book of Ceremonies." Most of the native
geographical names have already given place to a Chinese nomenclature, and the
Manchu speech would have probably already disappeared as a cultivated language,
had it not been specially studied, owing to the Manchu origin of the reigning
family. This circumstance has caused it to become one of the classic languages of
the empire, which candidates for high offices of State are obliged to learn, and a
knowledge of this idiom has lx>come almost indispensable to savants engaged in the
study of Chinese history and literature. Since the conquest the more important
Chinese works have been translated into the language of the conquerors, and these
translations often throw great light on the obscurities of the original texts.
Manchu is a sonorous language, easily acquired, thanks to the regularity of its
inflections and syntax. Like all Tungns tongues, it consists of monosyllabic or
disyllabic roots, whose meaning is modified by agglutinated suffixes. The Ninchi,
ancestors of the present Manchus, and who gave to China the Kin dynasty,
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