The first is a physical one. Cheek-bones that project outwards, a broad
and flat face, a depressed nose, an oblique eye, a somewhat slanting
insertion of the teeth, a scanty beard, an undersized frame, and a tawny
or yellow skin, characterize the Mongol of Mongolia.

The second is a philological one. A comparative absence of grammatical
inflexions, and a disproportionate preponderance of monosyllabic words,
characterize the language of China.

So much for the simple elementary facts; the former of which will be
spoken of under the designation of _Mongolian conformation_; the second
under that of _monosyllabic language_.

Neither term is limited to the nation by which it has been illustrated.
Plenty of populations besides those of Mongolia Proper are Mongol in
physiognomy. Plenty of nations besides the Chinese are monosyllabic in
language.

All the nations speaking monosyllabic tongues are Mongol in physiognomy;
though all the nations which have a Mongol physiognomy do _not_ speak
monosyllabic tongues. This makes the latter group, which for shortness
will be called that of the _monosyllabic_ nations or tribes--a section,
or division, of the former.

Little Tibet, Ladakh, Tibet Proper, Butan, and China, are all Mongol in
form, and monosyllabic in language. So are Ava, Pegu, Siam, Cambojia,
and Cochin China, the countries which constitute the great peninsula,
sometimes called _Indo-Chinese_, and sometimes _Transgangetic_.

The extremity however--the Malayan peninsula--is _not_ monosyllabic.

_The British possessions of Hindostan are monosyllabic on their Tibetan
and Burmese frontiers._

_Hong-Kong._--Aden was disposed of briefly. So is Hong-Kong; and that
for the same reason. Politically, British, it is ethnologically Chinese.

_Maulmein, Ye, Tavoy, Tenasserim, and the Mergui Archipelago._--These
constitute what are sometimes called the _ceded_, sometimes the
_Tenasserim_ provinces. They came into possession of the British at the
close of the Burmese war of 1825. Unlike our dependencies in Hindostan,
they are cut off from connection with any of the great centres of
British power in Asia--in which respect they agree with the smaller and
still more isolated settlements of the Malaccan Peninsula. The power
that ceded them was the Burmese, so that it is with the existing
subjects of that empire that their present limits are in contact; though
only for the northern part. To the south they abut upon Siam.

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