a in Siamese is
called Pa:thomma Somphothiyan, translated by Alabaster in
_The Wheel of the Law_. But like the Lalita vistara and other Indian
lives on which it is modelled it stops short at the enlightenment.
Another well-known religious book is the Traiphum (=Tribhumi), an
account of the universe according to Hindu principles, compiled in
1776 from various ancient works.

The Pali literature of Siam is not very large. Some account of it is
given by Coedes in _B.E.F.E.O._ 1915, III. pp. 39-46.]

[Footnote 241: When in Bangkok in 1907 I saw in a photographer's shop
a photograph of the procession which escorted these relics to their
destination. It was inscribed "Arrival of Buddha's tooth from Kandy."
This shows how deceptive historical evidence may be. The inscription
was the testimony of an eye-witness and yet it was entirely wrong.]

CHAPTER XXXVIII

CAMBOJA[242]

1

The French Protectorate of Camboja corresponds roughly to the nucleus,
though by no means to the whole extent of the former Empire of the
Khmers. The affinities of this race have given rise to considerable
discussion and it has been proposed to connect them with the
Munda tribes of India on one side and with the Malays and
Polynesians on the other.[243] They are allied linguistically to the
Mons or Talaings of Lower Burma and to the Khasias of Assam, but it is
not proved that they are similarly related to the Annamites, and
recent investigators are not disposed to maintain the Mon-Annam family
of languages proposed by Logan and others. But the undoubted
similarity of the Mon and Khmer languages suggests that the ancestors
of those who now speak them were at one time spread over the central
and western parts of Indo-China but were subsequently divided and
deprived of much territory by the southward invasions of the Thais in
the middle ages.

The Khmers also called themselves Kambuja or Kamvuja and their name
for the country is still either Srok Kampuchea or Srok Khmer.[244]
Attempts have been made to find a Malay origin for this name Kambuja
but native tradition regards it as a link with India and affirms that
the race is descended from Kambu Svayambhuva and Mera or Pera who was
given to him by Siva as wife.[245] This legend hardly proves that the
Khmer people came from India but they undoubtedly received thence
their civilization, their royal family and a considerable number of
Hindu immigrants, so that the mythical ancestor of their kin