INDO-CHINA

indo-china, french.[1] the geographical denomination of french indo-china includes the protectorates of annam, tongking and cambodia, the colony of cochin-china and part of the laos country. in 1900 the newly-acquired territory of kwang-chow bay, on the coast of china, was placed under the authority of the governor-general of indo-china. cochin-china, a geographical definition which formerly included all the countries in the annamese empire--tongking, annam and cochin-china--now signifies only the french colony, consisting of the "southern provinces" originally conquered from annam, having saigon as its capital. in its entirety french indo-china, the eastern portion of the indo-chinese peninsula, lies between 8° 30 and 230 25 n. and 100° and 109° 20 e. it is bounded n. by china, on which side the frontiers have been delimited; e. and s.e. by the gulf of tongking and the china sea; w. by the gulf of siam and siam, and n.w. by burma. the area is estimated at about 290,000 sq. m., with a population of 171⁄4 millions, of whom 75 or 80% are annamese. the french inhabitants number about 13,000. the configuration of the country is determined by two rivers of unequal importance--the mekong and the song-koi--and a continuous chain of mountains, an offshoot of the great chinese group of yun-nan, which, making a double curve, forms an immense s. south and west of this mountain chain the country forms part of the mekong basin. to the north and north-east of the chain the valley of the song-koi, or red river, constitutes almost the whole of tongking, of which its delta represents the most fertile and populous if not the largest portion. the small mountainous provinces of lang-son, that-ke and kao-bang, however, belong geographically to the si-kiang basin. on the east the small province of mon-kay, on the borders of kwang-tung, forms a little basin enclosed between the mountains and the sea; on the south the province of thanh-hoa, although crossed by the small river song-ma, forms the extremity of the red river delta and belongs to it, the two rivers being united at some distance from the sea by a natural channel formed by the junction of a northern branch of the song-ma with a southern branch of the song-koi. the red river descends from the mountains of yun-nan, rising near tali-fu between deep and inaccessible gorges, and becomes navigable only on its entry into tongking. means have been taken to render it available to steam launches, and in consequence of an agreement between the state and the compagnie des correspondances fluviales a service of steamers is provided from its mouth to lao-kay. near hung-hoa the red river receives its two chief tributaries, the black river from the plateaus of the west--the land pf the muongs--and the clear river, one of the largest of whose tributaries issues from the ba-be lakes. the black river is navigable for a considerable distance, the clear river only from tuyen-kwang. between the basins of the song-koi and the mekong the chain of mountains, crowned by tolerably extensive plateaus, covers, with its ramifications and transverse spurs, a vast extent of country little known, although several trade-routes traverse it, thus placing the laos country in communication with tongking and annam. in about 19° n. the mountain-ridge approaches the sea and runs parallel to the coast, presenting on its eastern side a steep declivity which encloses a narrow littoral, in places only a mile or two broad, between the base of its cliffs and the shore. this coast-belt constitutes the habitable and cultivable portion of annam proper, and consists of alluvial matter accumulated at the mouths of mountain streams, and marshes and swamps enclosed between land and sea by sand ridges heaped up by wind and tide. the high valleys and plateaus originally belonged to the empire, the limits of which, although invaded and occupied by siamese, formerly extended to the banks of the mekong. the western slopes form part of the french laos possessions. the mekong valley includes laos, cambodia and the greater part of cochin-china. the mekong (q.v.) is one of the largest rivers of south-eastern asia, having a course 1900 m. in length. its mouths, six in number, communicate by means of a navigable canal with the saigon river (fed by the don-nai and the two vaico rivers), which is navigable by the largest warships, rendering saigon the most important natural port of indo-china. _geology._--the deltaic tracts of the mekong and red river are composed of alluvium (generally silicious clay) deposited by the rivers. the mountains from which this soil is derived are granitic in formation, the framework being almost always schists of ancient date, dislocated, folded and occasionally rounded into hills 1000 to 1300 ft. in height, belonging to the devonian period. above these schists lie--more especially in the north and south of tongking--marbles and other highly crystalline limestones, upon which rest, unconformably in places (nong-son, ke-bao, hon-gay), carboniferous formations. in the upper part of the red river valley rich deposits of coal have been found between yen-bay and hai-duong, in a considerable tract of tertiary rock. limestone occurs also in the valley of the mekong, forming an extensive _massif_ in the district of lakhon and in the basins of the nam-ka-dinh and nam-hin-bun. these limestones appear to be carboniferous. in the region south of lakhon the rock is triassic, and gold has been found in several districts. the natives collect it in very small quantities by a washing process. in the lateral valleys of the mekong copper and tin are found. on the course of the nam-paton, a tributary of the nam-hin-bun, the natives work a moderately productive tin-mine. layers of spiegeleisen, limonite and other iron ores are numerous in the laos states, in which also antimony occurs. _climate._--the climate of indo-china is that of an inter-tropical country, damp and hot. but the difference between the southern and northern regions is marked, as regards both temperature and meteorology. cochin-china and cambodia have very regular seasons, corresponding with the monsoons. the north-easterly monsoon blows from about the 15th of october to the 15th of april, within a day or so. the temperature remains almost steady during this time, varying but slightly from 78.8° to 80.6° f. by day to 68° by night. this is the dry season. from the 15th of april to the 15th of october the monsoon reverses, and blows from the south-west. the season of daily rains and tornadoes commences. the temperature rises from 80.6° to 84.2°, at which it remains day and night. april and may are the hottest months (from 86° to 93.2°). the damp unwholesome heat sometimes produces dysentery and cholera. the climate of annam is less regular. the north-easterly monsoon, which is "the ocean-wind," brings the rains in september. the north-easterly gales lower the temperature below 59°. september is the month in which the typhoon blows. during the dry season--june, july and august--the thermometer oscillates between 86° and 95°. the nights, however, are comparatively cool. tongking has a winter season--october to may. the temperature, lowered by fog and the rains, does not rise above 75.2° and descends to 50° over the delta, and to 44.6° and even 42.8° in the highlands, where white frost is occasionally seen. the summer, on the other hand, is scorching. the wind veers to the south-east and remains there until october. the temperature rises to over 83°; often it reaches and continues for several days at 95° or even more. the nights are distressingly airless. the laos country in the interior and lying at a high altitude is cooler and drier. its deep valleys and high hills vary its climate. _fauna and flora._--from the populous cultivated districts wild animals, once plentiful, have retired towards the wooded and mountainous districts. the wild life of laos includes fairly numerous herds of elephants, the rhinoceros (one- and two-horned rhinoceros horn is employed as a "medicine"), tiger, panther, brown bear, tree-bear, monkeys and rats, among which are the musk rat, the palm rat and the _nu-khi_, or rat found in the rice-fields of the highlands, in which its ravages are considerable. in mountain districts the leopard, wild boar and deer are found, and in the neighbourhood of habitations the tiger-cat and ichneumon. the buffalo is commonly found wild in laos as a domesticated animal it also holds a prominent place. the zebu bull is used for transport purposes. attempts to acclimatize the arab horse and to introduce sheep from aden and china have failed. there is, however, an indigenous race of horses, excellent in spite of their small size--the horses of phu-yen. among birds the woodcock, peacock and numerous species of duck inhabit the woods and marshes. the goose and guinea-fowl appear, as also the turkey, to have become easily acclimatized. reptiles (apart from the caimans of the mekong, which attain a length of over 30 ft., and are much appreciated by the annamese as food) are extremely numerous and varied in species. the rivers are rich in fish. the sole is found in the rivers of tongking. the mekong is fished for two species peculiar to it--the _pa-beuk_ and the _pa-leun_, which attain a length of nearly 6 ft. all varieties of mosquitoes, ants and leeches combine to render the forests bordering the mekong impracticable. peculiar species of grubs and caterpillars destroy the cotton and coffee plantations of cochin-china. the silkworm may be said to be indigenous in tongking, where there are several thousand acres of mulberry trees. the flora is inter-tropical, and comprises nearly all the trees known in china and japan. the bamboo is utilized in building and a variety of other ways. formerly the teak was believed not to exist in the forests of indo-china, but it was found some years ago in considerable abundance, and plantations of it have been made. certain hard woods are used for marqueterie and other ornamental work. rubber is also exploited. cotton, previously cultivated in cochin-china and cambodia, gives excellent results in laos. tea, of which there are a certain number of plantations in the highlands of tongking and annam, grows wild in upper laos, and in quality closely resembles the pou-eurl or pueul variety noted in yun-nan. cocoa, coffee and cotton are cultivated in tongking and cambodia. cinnamon and cardamoms are gathered in laos and annam. ground nuts, sesame, sugar canes, pepper, jute, tobacco and indigo are also grown. the area under rice, which is incomparably the most important crop, is approximately 1,750,000 acres. all european fruits and vegetables have been introduced into tongking, and with certain exceptions--the grape, for example--succeed perfectly. measures taken to secure the monopoly of opium have notably increased the cultivation of the poppy. _people._--the population of french indo-china falls into five chief divisions--the annamese, forming the bulk of the population in annam, tongking and cochin-china and four-fifths of that of the whole country; the khmers or cambodians; the chains of southern annam; the thais, including the laotians; and the autochthonous tribes classed by the other inhabitants as mois or khas ("savages"). driven into the interior by the now dominant races, these older people have mixed and blended with the peoples whom they found there, and new tribes have arisen, intermingled with fugitives from china, annam and even siam. in the north of tongking people of laos origin occur--the thos round kaobang, the muongs in the mountains bordering the red river. when mixed, with chinese the muongs and the thos are known as the hung-dans, mans and miens. the muongs are bigger and stronger than the annamese, their eyes often almost straight. they have square foreheads, large faces and prominent cheek-bones. in the centre and south of the indo-chinese mountain chain are found, under a multiplicity of names--phon-tays, souis, bah-nan, bolovens, stiengs, mors, kongs, &c.--people of malayan origin mixed with all the races of indo-china. laos is inhabited by an essentially miscellaneous population--falling into three main groups--the thais; various aboriginal peoples classed as khas; and the moos and yaos, tribes of chinese origin. _religions._--the annamese religion is a somewhat vague and very tolerant buddhism, which in practice resolves itself chiefly into the worship of ancestors. certain ceremonies performed in cambodia resemble distantly the brahminical cult. the roman catholic religion has been introduced by missionaries. the course of its history has not been free from catastrophes and accidents. there is an apostolical vicariate in cochin-china, one in cambodia and several mission stations in tongking. two of these missions are mainly conducted by spanish priests. _administration._--before taking its present form the governmental organization of indo-china underwent many changes. originally cochin-china, the only french possession in the peninsula, was a colony directly administered, like other colonies, by the ministry of marine, and its earliest governors were admirals. later, as further conquests were effected, tongking and cambodia were subjected to the regime of a protectorate somewhat ill-defined, and placed under the authority of residents-general. the seat of the resident-general of tongking was at hanoi; of cambodia, at pnom-penh. the government of the colonies having been transferred (1889) from the ministry of marine to the ministry of commerce, and in 1894 to the newly created ministry of the colonies, the control of the residencies passed gradually into the hands of civil agents. cochin-china, which already by the decree of the 8th of february 1880 had been endowed with a colonial council, had a municipality, a chamber of commerce, and even a deputy in the french parliament. there had thus been three distinct states, each with its own ruler and government. but by the decrees of the 17th of october and the 3rd of november 1887 the unity of indo-china was determined. by decree of october the post of director of the interior of cochin-china was done away with and replaced by that of lieutenant-governor under the immediate authority of a governor-general. the functions and powers of the latter official were, however, but vaguely defined before the decree of the 21st of april 1891, which conferred on m j. m. a. de lanessan, appointed governor-general, the most extensive powers. the residents-general of tongking, annam and cambodia, and the lieutenant-governor of cochin-china, as well as the military authorities, were placed under him. but this change of policy, which put an end to the system of expeditions and minor military operations, and restricted the power of the residents whilst restoring to the mandarins a share of authority, was unwelcome to numerous interests, which, combining, secured the abrupt recall of m de lanessan on the 29th of december 1894. the decree of the 21st of april 1891 was not, however, revoked, but the powers it conferred were restricted. after the appointment of m doumer, successor to m rousseau, who died on the 10th of december 1896, this decree was again put in force on the former scale, and in 1898 it was supplemented by the decrees of the 3rd and 31st of july, which definitely established the political and financial unity of indo-china. the governor-general is the sole intermediary between the indo-chinese union and the home government, the powers of which, with few restrictions, are delegated to him. as supreme administrative and military authority, he directly controls the civil services, and, though prohibited from commanding in the field, disposes of the land and sea forces in the country. his diplomatic negotiations with foreign powers must be carried on under the authorization and surveillance of the home authorities. the governor-general is assisted by the superior council of indo-china, which meets monthly, and as reorganized by the decree of the 8th of august 1898 is composed as follows: the governor-general (president); the general commanding as head of the troops; the rear-admiral commanding the naval squadron of the far east; the lieutenant-governor of cochin-china; the residents superior of tongking, annam, cambodia and laos; the director-general of finances; the director of the _controle financier_; the head of the judicial service of indo-china; the director-general of the customs and excise of indo-china; the directors-general of agriculture, forests and commerce; of public works; of posts and telegraphs; of health; and of public instruction; the treasurer-general of indo-china; the director of the school of medicine at hanoi; the president of the colonial council of cochin-china; the presidents of the chambers of commerce of saigon, hanoi and hai-phong; the presidents of the united chambers of commerce and agriculture of annam and cambodia; the presidents of the chambers of agriculture of tongking and cochin-china; four influential natives; the chief of the cabinet and the governor-general's secretary. this list sufficiently indicates the departmental services, by means of which the general government is carried on. the superior council meets not only at hanoi, the seat of the government, but also at saigon, hue and pnom-penh. it delegates its powers to a "permanent commission" consisting of thirteen of its members, and dispensing with the attendance of the local authorities of regions other than those in which the place of meeting is situated. the superior council meets annually to receive the general budget and the local budgets which "must be accepted by the governor-general at a session of the superior council."[2] it must also be consulted on the distribution of military credits, and on the credits to be devoted to public works. the _controle financier_, which scrutinizes and sanctions all measures of the public services involving outlay of money, is dependent on the ministry of the colonies. its returns have to be communicated to the governor-general. the governor-general is also assisted by a "council of defence," comprising the chief military and naval authorities. _justice._--the whole of indo-china is, in principle, subject to french justice, represented by a court of appeal and a certain number of tribunals. before 1898 the administration of justice was not centralized. there was a court of appeal at hanoi, and another at saigon. but the decree of the 8th of august 1898 established one court of appeal for french indo-china: two chambers sitting at saigon and the other two at hanoi. three tribunals of commerce are established at saigon, hanoi and hai-phong. there are courts of first instance at saigon, my-tho, vinh-long, ben-tre, chau-doc, kantho, soc-trang, tra-vinh, long-xuyen for cochin-china, at pnom-penh for cambodia, and at hanoi and hai-phong for tongking. these courts are supplemented by _juges de paix_ in cochin-china, and there are _juges de paix_ at nam-dinh (tongking) and tourane; elsewhere in the protectorates the residents perform judicial functions. there are criminal courts at saigon, my-tho, vinh-long and long-xuyen in cochin-china, at hanoi in tongking and at pnom-penh in cambodia. in cochin-china annamese law is administered in the french courts in suits between natives, but native tribunals have been superseded. in annam-tongking, outside the sphere of the french tribunals, the natives are subject to annamese justice, represented in each province by a mandarin, called the _an sat_, and in cambodia the natives are subject to the native tribunals. at the same time, whenever a french subject or european or other foreigner is a party in an affair, french justice only is competent. _public works._--the order of the 9th of september 1898 placed the public works of indo-china under the "direct authority of the governor-general as regards works entered to the general budget account." there is a director of public works in indo-china at saigon, a director of engineering in the other countries. in 1895 a "special service" was created in tongking to consider railway business. _posts and telegraphs._--the country is divided into two sections for the purposes of this service, the one comprising annam, tongking and upper laos, the other cochin-china, cambodia and lower laos. the post and telegraph offices in indo-china number about three hundred. tourane communicates by submarine cable with amoy in china, thence with vladivostok and europe. _the army--land force._--the military services are under the authority of a general of division commanding in chief. the european troops in 1907 comprised four regiments of colonial infantry with 22 batteries of artillery (10 in tongking and 12 in cochin-china). the native troops, numbering over 18,000, comprised four regiments of tongkingese _tirailleurs_ (sharp-shooters), two of annamese, a battalion of cambodian and a battalion of chinese _tirailleurs_, a squadron of annamese _chasseurs_ or light horse and two companies of engineers. _sea force._--indo-china is protected by the naval division of the far east. in addition five gunboats are stationed at saigon and a third-class cruiser and some minor vessels at hai-phong. the _policing_ of the country is performed by natives (the _garde indigene_) under european officers and by the _gendarmerie coloniale_, which is reinforced by native auxiliaries. _money, &c._--the monetary unit is the _piastre_, which is of variable value, having fallen from 4.50 francs to 2.40 francs and fluctuating round that figure. the chief native coin is the _sapek_ of zinc or tin, six hundred of which strung together form a _ligature_, a tenth of which is called a _tien_. the piastre is worth 2700 sapeks. the unit of weight, the _picul_, equals 60.4 kilos. (about 133 lb.); the _thuoc-moe_ equals .425 metre (about 17 in.). _education._--the annamese are intelligent and have old intellectual and artistic traditions. in consequence the promotion of education has been assigned to a special council (_conseil de perfectionnement de l'enseignement_) selected from frenchmen and asiatics particularly qualified for membership. among its preoccupations are the reconstitution of the schools of chinese characters in cochin-china, the remodelling of the programmes of the triennial examinations in annam and tongking (see annam) with a view to completing them with a summary knowledge of french and science, the improvement of the teaching given in the pagodas in cambodia and laos, and the foundation of a university comprising classes for natives. in 1906, in cochin-china, where the largest sum (£45,000 in 1906) is devoted to instruction, 22,500 children received a french education. _finance._--the unification of the budget brought about by m doumer (decree of the 31st of july 1898) specially contributed to that of the government. the financial scheme is based on the political. just as a single central government directs the various local governments, so in addition to the general budget, comprising the revenue and expenditure of the supreme government, there are several local budgets, including the revenue and expenditure incidental to the individual provinces. the general budget in 1899 and 1904 is summarized below:-- _receipts._ _expenditure._ 1899 £1,968,770 £1,639,800 1904 2,809,851 2,797,031 while direct taxes, e.g. the poll-tax and land tax or (in cambodia) the tax on products, are the main sources of revenue for the local budgets, those for the general budget are the indirect taxes: (1) customs (£619,616 in 1904); (2) "regies" and other indirect taxes (£1,733,836 in 1904), these including the excise on alcohol, the monopoly of the purchase and sale of salt, and the monopoly of the purchase, manufacture and sale of opium. the chief items of expenditure in 1904 were the following:-- public works £385,680 customs and "regies" 618,654 naval and military services 527,663 loans[3] 417,421 _shipping._--the following table shows the total tonnage of shipping entered and cleared at the ports of french indo-china in 1905 and its distribution over the countries of the union:-- +--------------+-----------------------+ | | tonnage. | | country. +-----------+-----------+ | | entered. | cleared. | +--------------+-----------+-----------+ | cochin-china | 1,117,054 | 1,007,510 | | tongking | 242,119 | 348,947 | | annam | 28,065 | 26,406 | | cambodia | 2,520 | 2,012 | +--------------+-----------+-----------+ | total | 1,389,758 | 1,384,875 | +--------------+-----------+-----------+ over half the tonnage was french (698,178 tons entered); the united kingdom came second (284,277 tons); germany, third (205,615 tons). _commerce._--the value of the trade of french indo-china increased from £6,796,000 in 1896 to £16,933,000 in 1905, its average annual value for the years 1896-1905 being £12,213,000. the following table shows the movement of commerce in 1905: +------------------+------------+-----------+------------+ | | imports. | exports. | total. | +------------------+------------+-----------+------------+ | | £ | £ | £ | | france | 4,314,586 | 1,233,295 | 5,547,881 | | french colonies | 163,568 | 76,855 | 240,423 | | foreign countries| 5,704,257 | 5,440,156 | 11,144,413 | +------------------+------------+-----------+------------+ | total | 10,182,411 | 6,750,306 | 16,932,717 | +------------------+------------+-----------+------------+ in 1905 the principal foreign countries from which goods were imported were: hong kong for £2,473,882[4] singapore " 598,449 china and japan " 1,473,704 burma and siam " 289,542 the british isled " 141,381 the united states " 126,425 the principal countries to which goods were exported were: hong kong for £1,706,597[4] china and japan " 497,288 singapore " 360,510 burma and siam " 80,071 the british isles " 55,539 the principal imports were: wheat for £214,156 rice " 226,755 raw opium " 271,582 raw cotton " 167,020 wine " 340,027 pit coal " 206,221 petroleum " 388,163 gold " 203,369 iron and steel " 353,214 tin " 526,428 cotton thread " 672,040 jute tissues " 254,255 cotton tissues " 922,250 silk tissues " 241,113 paper " 344,633 metal-work " 1,170,576 arms, powder and ammunition " 170,882 the principal exports were: dried fish, salt and smoked for £151,415 rice " 2,848,389 pepper " 214,297 pit coal " 182,077 tin " 553,914 cotton thread " 421,162 the customs tariff is substantially the same as that of france, severe import duties being levied on foreign goods. french goods pay no import duty and goods exported thither are exempt from export duty, with the exception of sugar, which is regulated by special legislation, and of various other colonial products (e.g. coffee, cocoa, tea, vanilla, pepper) which pay half the duty applicable to similar foreign products according to the minimum tariff. goods from french colonies pay no import duty. about 53% of the imports, comprising nearly all manufactured goods of european origin, come from france. china, japan and singapore are the other chief sources of imports. the bank of indo-china (capital £1,440,000) besides receiving deposits and discounting bills, issues bank-notes and has, till 1920, the privilege of lending money on security. _communications._--the railway communications of french indo-china comprise lines from hai-phong to lao-kay, continued thence via the nam-te valley to yun-nan; from hanoi northward to lang-son and south to vinh; from tourane to kwang-tri via hue and from kan-tho (cochin-china) to khanh-hoa (annam) via my-tho, saigon, bien-hoa and jiring with branches to phan-tiet and phan-rang. the three last are the completed sections of a line which will unite tongking with cochin-china. the towns in the deltas of the mekong and red river are united by a network of canals. the mandarin road following the coast line of annam connects tongking with cochin-china, but the easiest means of communication between these two territories is by sea, the voyage from saigon to tourane lasting three days, that from tourane to hai-phong, thirty hours. _history_--the beginning of french influence in indo-china dates from 1787, when a treaty was concluded between gia-long, king of annam (q.v.), and the king of france, whereby tourane and the island of pulo-condore were ceded to the latter. the successors of gia-long were averse from french influence and instituted persecutions of the christian missionaries and natives, which led, in the reign of tu-duc in 1858, to the arrival at tourane of a french and spanish fleet. the capture of that town was followed early in 1859 by the storming of saigon, which rigault de genouilly, the french admiral, chose as his base of operations. the french and spanish were, however, too few to take the offensive, and were forced to submit to a blockade, conducted by the annamese general nguyen tri phuong, at the head of 20,000 troops. it was not till february 1861 that reinforcements under admiral charner reached saigon, and the annamese were defeated and my-tho taken. a revolt against tu-duc in tongking, and the stoppage of the rice supplies from cochin-china, obliged the king to submit, in 1862, to a treaty by which three provinces of cochin-china were ceded and other concessions accorded to france. however, it was only after further military operations that tu-duc consented to the ratification of the treaty. in 1863 admiral de la grandiere was appointed governor of cochin-china and in the same year france established her protectorate over cambodia. it was under la grandiere that the exploration of mekong was undertaken (see garnier, m. j. f.) and that in 1867 the three provinces of cochin-china left to annam were annexed. french intervention in tongking, which began with the expedition of francois garnier to hanoi in 1873, culminated after a costly and tedious war (see tongking) in the treaties of 1883 and 1884, whereby annam and tongking passed under the protectorate of france. the latter treaty, though its provisions were subsequently much modified, remains theoretically the basis of the present administration of annam. from 1884 onwards the history of indo-china may be divided into two distinct periods, characteristic of the political conception and governmental system adopted by the french government. in the first period, 1884-1891, the french agents in tongking and indo-china generally proceeded under cover of the treaty of 1884 with the definite conquest and annexation of tongking and also annam. cochin-china itself openly designed to seize the southern provinces of annam, upon the borders of which it lay. this policy, momentarily checked by the war with china, was vigorously, even violently, resumed after the treaty of tientsin (june 1885). the citadel of hue was occupied in july 1885 by general de courcy. the annamese government forthwith decided upon rebellion. an improvised attack upon the french troops was led by the ministers thu-yet and thu-ong. the revolt was promptly suppressed. the regent thu-yet and the king ham-n'ghi (crowned in august 1884) fled. at this time the french government, following a very widespread error, regarded tongking and annam as two distinct countries, inhabited by populations hostile to each other, and considered the tongkingese as the oppressed vassals of the annamese conqueror. to conquer annam, it was said, would liberate tongking. this misconception produced the worst consequences. with the flight of the king civil war commenced in annam. the people of tongking, whose submission the court of hue had not dared to demand, began to rise. taking advantage of this state of anarchy, pirates of the black flag, chinese deserters and tongkingese rebels devastated the country. the occupation of tongking became a prolonged warfare, in which 25,000 french, compelled to guard innumerable posts, had to oppose an intangible enemy, appearing by night, vanishing by day, and practising brigandage rather than war. the military expenditure, met neither by commerce, which had become impossible, nor taxation, which the annamese could not pay nor the french receive, resulted in heavy deficits. the resident-general, paul bert, who hoped to gain the confidence of the mandarins by kindness and goodwill, did not succeed in preventing, or even moderating, the action of the military regime. than-quan, hon-koi, lao-kay, pak-lun and kao-bang were occupied, but the troops were driven back to the delta and almost invested in the towns. disappointed in his hopes and worn out rather by anxiety than work, paul bert succumbed to his troubles in november 1886, seven months after his arrival in the country. his successors possessed neither the strength nor the insight necessary to grapple with the situation. m. constans, however, appointed "provisional" governor-general after the death of m. filippini, succeeded to a certain extent in reviving commerce in the towns of the delta. mm. richaud, bihourd and piquet, successors of m. constans, were all powerless to deal with the uninterrupted "bush-fighting" and the augmentation of the deficit, for no sooner was the latter covered by grants from the mother country than it began to grow again. at the close of the financial year in 1890 france had paid 13,000,000 francs. in april 1891 the deficit again approached the sum of 12,000,000 francs. the rebels held almost all the delta provinces, their capitals excepted, and from hanoi itself the governor-general could see the smoke of burning villages at the very gates of his capital. at this point a complete change of policy took place. m. de lanessan, a paris deputy sent on a mission in the course of 1887, made himself acquainted, with the government and the court of hue. he recognized the absolute falsity of the story which represented the tongkingese as the oppressed subjects of the annamese. he demonstrated the consanguinity of the populations, and after intercourse with the regents, or ministers, of hue he realized that the pacification of the country depended upon harmonious relations being established between the general government and the court. appointed governor-general with the fullest powers on the 21st of april 1891, he presented himself at hue, concluded with the _comat_ an agreement based on the principle of a "loyal protectorate," and reassured the court, up to this point uneasy under menace of annexation. the _comat_ shortly issued a proclamation under the great royal seal, never hitherto attached to any of the public acts imposed upon the king by the governors, who had been unaware of its existence. in this proclamation the king ordered all his subjects to obey the governor-general and to respect him, and commanded rebels to lay down arms. the effect was immediate--disorders in the delta ceased. the pirates alone, in revolt against the king of annam and all authority, continued their brigandage. but the governor-general instituted four "military districts," the commanders of which were commissioned to destroy the pirates. at the same time he placed a force of native police, the _linh co_, at the disposal of the mandarins, hitherto regarded with suspicion and intentionally deprived of all means of action. order was restored within the delta. in the mountainous districts infested by pirates roads were opened and posts established. the chief haunts of the pirates were demolished, and during 1893 the foremost pirate chiefs gave in their submission. the indo-chinese budget regained its balance. on the chinese frontier agreements were concluded with marshal sou, in command of the chinese forces, regarding the simultaneous repression of piracy in both countries. but on the mekong difficulties arose with the siamese. for centuries siam had occupied the right bank of the mekong, and her troops had crossed the river and occupied the left bank. luang-prabang was in the hands of the siamese, who had also established posts at stung-treng and elsewhere. friction occurred between the french agents and siamese soldiery. after the death of inspector crosgurin on the 5th of june 1893 the french government occupied stung-treng and khong. france demanded explanations and redress at bangkok, but the court refusing concessions, an ultimatum was presented to the king by m. pavie, french minister to siam. the terms of the ultimatum not having been complied with within the given time, the french flotilla, consisting of the gunboats "l'inconstant" and "la comete," crossed the bar of the menam on 13th july 1893, forced the entrance of the channel, and anchored at bangkok, before the french legation. a second ultimatum was then presented. it contained the following conditions:--first the occupation of chantabun by the french until the siamese should have entirely evacuated the left bank of the mekong; secondly, the siamese to be interdicted from maintaining military forces at battambang, siem-reap, and generally from establishing fortified positions within 151⁄2 m. of the right bank of the mekong; thirdly, siam to be interdicted from having armed boats on the great lake tonle-sap. this agreement was executed immediately, the laotians being eager parties to it. on the 29th of september 1893 the king of luang-prabang made his submission to the french government, and besought it to use its influence with the court of siam for the return to their families of the sons of princes and mandarins then in schools at bangkok. the siamese evacuated the left bank of the mekong, and france took possession of laos, a treaty, on the basis of the ultimatum, being signed on the 1st of october 1893. the disputes to which this affair with siam had given rise between france and great britain were amicably settled by an agreement concluded on the 15th of january 1896. this "declaration," virtually ratifying the treaty concluded in 1893 between france and siam, settled the limits of the zones of influence of the two contracting powers in the north of the mekong regions and on the frontiers of siam and burma. great britain resigned to france the regions of the muong-sing which she had previously occupied. the great part of siam included in the menam basin was declared neutral, so also the me-ping basin in the north, meklong pechaburi and bang pa kong rivers in the south. the neutral zone, 151⁄2 m. wide on the right bank of the mekong, was formally recognized. in 1904, by a new franco-siamese treaty setting aside that of 1893, chantabun was evacuated and the neutral zone renounced in return for the cession of the provinces of bassac and melupre and the district of dansai (comprising the portion of luang prabang on the right bank of the mekong) and the maritime district of krat. by a further convention in 1907 siam ceded the provinces of battambang, siem-reap and sisophon, and received in return the maritime province of krat and the district of dansai ceded in 1904. at the same time france abandoned all designs on territory of siam by giving up certain areas obtained for the purposes of railway building on the right bank of the mekong. [illustration: map of french indo-china & siam.] after the recall of m. de lanessan in 1894 (see above), and before his successor, m. rousseau, was able to acquaint himself fully with the condition of the country, military expeditions began again and the deficit soon reappeared. tranquillity, however, being restored, attention was given to public works. on the 12th of october 1895 m. rousseau left to ask parliament to vote a loan of 100,000,000 francs. on the vols., of february 1896 a law was passed authorizing a loan of 80,000,000 francs, and on the 14th of march 1896 an office for the financial control of the government-general of indo-china was established. in the interval a french company had obtained from china a concession to prolong the railway from langson to lungchow on a tributary of the canton river. m. rousseau, who died on the 10th of december 1896, was replaced by m. dourner, previously minister of finance, under whose government was realized, as has been before stated, the union of indo-china. on the 20th of december 1898 m. doumer obtained from parliament authorization to contract a loan of 200,000,000 francs, the proceeds of which were appropriated to the construction of railway lines. authorities.--m. j. f. gamier, _voyage d'exploration en indo-chine_ (paris, 1873); j. m. a. de lanessan, _l'indo-chine francaise_ (paris, 1889); p. doumer, _l'indo-chine francaise_ (souvenirs) (paris, 1905); f. bernard, _indo-chine_ (paris, 1901), l. salaun, _l'indo-chine_ (paris, 1903); a. girault, _principes de colonisation et de legislation coloniale_ (paris, 1907); m. petit, _les colonies francaises_ (2 vols., paris, 1902); j. c. gervais courtellemont, _l'indo-chine_ (paris, 1902); a. neton, _l'indo-chine et son avenir economique_ (paris, 1904); a. pavie, _mission pavie indo-chine_ (1879-1895); _geographie et voyages_ (paris, 1901-1906); h. lorin, _la france: puissance coloniale_ (paris, 1906); m. monnier, _la tour d'asie: cochinchine, annam, tonkin_ (paris, 1899); e. bonhoure, _l'indo-chine_ (paris, 1900); r. castex, _les rivages indo-chinois_ (paris, 1904); l. de reinach, _le laos_ (paris, 1902) (this work gives a very complete bibliography); _annuaire general administratif, commercial et industriel de l'indo-chine_ (hanoi); _revue indochinois_ (hanoi); c. madrolle, _guide-books_ (paris, 1904-1907); _bulletin economique de l'indo-chine_ (saigon). (j. m. a. de l.; r. tr.) footnotes: [1] see also annam, cambodia, cochin-china, kwang-chow bay, laos, tongking. [2] this does not apply to the budget of cochin-china, which is voted by the colonial council and approved by the governor-general alone. [3] this does not include the expenditure on account of the 3% loan of £8,000,000, which is inscribed in a special account. the debt of the government-general of indo-china is composed as follows:-- +---------------------------+--------------+-----------------+ | | nominal | nominal capital | | | capital. |in circulation on| | | | jan. 1, 1907. | +---------------------------+--------------+-----------------+ | 21⁄2% loan of 1896 (annam- | | | | tongking) | £3,678,000 | £3,342,800 | | 31⁄2 % loan of £8,000,000 | | | | issued from 1899 to 1905| 8,748,260 | 8,640,060 | +---------------------------+--------------+-----------------+ | total | £12,426,260 | £11,982,860 | +---------------------------+--------------+-----------------+ [4] the transit trade between hong kong and yun-nan via tongking is of considerable importance (see tongking). indo-european languages. the indo-european (i.e.) languages are a family of kindred dialects spread over a large part of europe, and of asia as far as india. the main branches so far identified fall easily into two groups of four. these groups are distinguished from one another by the treatment of certain original guttural sounds, _k(c)_, _g_, _kh_, _gh_, which one group shows as consonants, while the other converts them into sibilants. the variation is well shown in the word for "hundred": gr. [greek: he-katon], lat. _centum_, old irish _cet_; sanskrit _satam_, zend _satem_, lithuanian _szimtas_, old bulgarian (old ecclesiastical slavonic) _suto_. in the first three the consonant is a hard guttural (the romans said _kentum_, not _sentum_), in the others it is a sibilant (the lithuanian _sz_ is the english _sh_). the first group (generally known as the _centum_-group) is the western and entirely european group, the second (generally known as the _satem_-group) with one exception lies to the east of the _centum_-group and much its largest part is situated in asia. to the _centum_-group belong (1) greek; (2) the italic languages, including latin, oscan, umbrian and various minor dialects of ancient italy; (3) celtic, including (a) the q-celtic languages, irish, manx and scotch gaelic, (b) the p-celtic, including the language of ancient gaul, welsh, cornish and breton: the differentiation, which exists also in the italic languages, turning upon the treatment of original _kw_ sounds, which all the italic languages save latin and the little-known faliscan and the (b) group of the celtic languages change to _p_. with these go (4) the germanic or teutonic languages, including (a) gothic, (b) the scandinavian languages, swedish, danish, norwegian, icelandic--differentiated in historical times out of a single language, old norse,--(c) west germanic, including english and frisian, low frankish (from which spring modern dutch and flemish), low and high german. to the _satem_-group belongs (1) aryan or indo-iranian, including (a) sanskrit, with its descendants, (b) zend, and (c) old persian, from which is ultimately descended modern persian, largely modified, however, by arabic words. this group is often divided into two sub-groups, _indo-aryan_, including the languages of india, and _iranian_, used as a general title for zend and old persian as the languages of ancient iran. although the sounds of indo-aryan and iranian differ considerably, phrases of the earliest form of the one can be transliterated into the other without change in vocabulary or syntax. (2) to the west of these lies armenian, which is so full of borrowed iranian words that only in 1875 was it successfully differentiated by hubschmann as an independent language. it is probably related to, or the descendant of, the ancient phrygian, which spread into asia from thrace by the migration of tribes across the hellespont. of ancient thracian unfortunately we know very little. (3) north of the black sea, and widening its borders in all directions, comes the great balto-slavonic group. in this there are two branches somewhat resembling the division between indo-aryan and iranian. here three small dialects on the south-east coast of the baltic form the first group, lithuanian, lettish and old prussian, the last being extinct since the 17th century. the slavonic languages proper themselves fall into two groups: (a) an eastern and southern group, including old bulgarian, the ecclesiastical language first known from the latter part of the 9th century a.d.; russian in its varieties of great russian, white russian and little russian or ruthenian; and servian and slovene, which extend to the adriatic. (b) the western group includes polish with minor dialects, czech or bohemian, also with minor languages in the group, and sorb. in the _satem_ division is also included (4) albanian, which like armenian is much mixed with foreign elements--latin, greek, turkish and slavonic. the relation between it and the ancient illyrian is not clear. besides the languages mentioned there are many others now extinct or of which little is known--e.g. venetic, found in clearly written inscriptions with a distinctive alphabet in north-eastern italy; messapian, in the heel of italy, which is supposed to have been connected with the ancient illyrian; and possibly also the unknown tongue which has been found recently on several inscriptions in crete and seems to have been the language of the pre-hellenic population, the finds apparently confirming the statement of herodotus (vii. 170) that the earlier population survived in later times only at praesos and polichne. names of deities worshipped by the aryan branch are reported to have been discovered in the german excavations at boghaz-keui (anc. _pteria_, q.v.) in cappadocia; names of kings appear in widely separated areas elsewhere in asia,[1] and a language not hitherto known has recently been found in excavations in turkestan and christened by its first investigators tocharish.[2] so far as yet ascertained, tocharish seems to be a mongrel dialect produced by an intermixture of peoples speaking respectively an i.e. language and a language of an entirely different origin. the stems of the words are clearly in many cases i.e., but the terminations are no less clearly alien to this family of languages. it is remarkable that some of its words, like _ku_, "dog," have a hard _k_, while the other languages of this stock in asia, so far as at present known, belong to the _satem_-group, and have in such words replaced the _k_ by a sibilant. till the latter part of the 18th century it was the universal practice to refer all languages ultimately to a hebrew origin, because hebrew, being the language of the bible, was assumed, with reference to the early chapters of genesis, to be the original language. even on these premises the argument was unsound, for the same authority also recorded a confusion of tongues at babel, so that it was unreasonable to expect that languages thus violently metamorphosed could be referred so easily at a later period to the same original. the first person to indicate very briefly the existence of the indo-european family, though he gave it no distinctive name, was sir william jones in his address to the bengal oriental society in 1786. being a skilled linguist, he recognized that sanskrit must be of the same origin as greek, latin, teutonic (germanic) and possibly celtic (_asiatic researches_, i. p. 422; _works_ of sir w. jones, i. p. 26, london, 1799). unfortunately sir william jones's views as to the relationship of the languages were not adopted for many years by later investigators. he had said quite definitely, "no philologer could examine them all three (sanskrit, greek and latin) without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which perhaps no longer exists." friedrich schlegel, who learnt sanskrit from alexander hamilton in paris nearly twenty years later, started the view that sanskrit, instead of being the sister, was the mother of the other languages, a mistake which, though long since refuted in all philological works, has been most persistent. curiously enough the history of the names given to the family is obscure. the earliest known occurrence of the word "indo-european" is in an article in the _quarterly review_ for 1813[3] by dr thomas young. the term has been in use in english and in french almost continuously since that date. but a glance at dr young's article will show that he included under indo-european many languages like basque, etruscan and arabian (his term for semitic), which certainly do not belong to this family of languages at all; and if the term is taken to mean, as it would seem to imply, all the languages spoken in india and europe, it is undoubtedly a misnomer. there are many languages in india, as those of the dravidians in southern india and those of northern assam, which do not belong to this family. on the other hand there are many languages belonging to the family which exist outside both india and europe--zend, old persian, armenian, phrygian, to say nothing of languages recently discovered. the term most commonly used in germany is "indo-germanic." this was employed by klaproth as early as 1823. it is said not to have been invented by him, but by whom and when it was invented is not quite ascertained.[4] it is an attempt to name the family by its most easterly and most westerly links. at the time when it was invented it had not yet been settled whether celtic was or was not a member of this family. but in any case the term would not have been wrong, for members of the germanic stock have been settled for above a thousand years in iceland, the most westerly land of europe, and for the last four centuries have increasingly dominated the continent of america. as has been pointed out by professor buck of chicago (_classical review_, xviii. p. 400), owing to the german method of pronouncing _eu_ as _oi_, the word "indo-germanic" is easier for a german to pronounce than "indo-european." attempts to discover a more accurate and less ponderous term, such as "indo-celtic" or "celtindic," have not met with popular favour. aryan (q.v.) is conveniently brief, but is wanted as the proper term for the most easterly branch of the family. what is wanted is a term which does not confuse ethnological and linguistic ideas. not all speakers of any given language are necessarily of the same stock. in ancient rome latin must have been spoken by many slaves or sons of slaves who had no latin blood in their bodies, though a slave if manumitted by his master might be the father or grandfather of a roman citizen with full rights. plautus and terence were both aliens, the one an umbrian, the other an african. the speakers of modern english are even a more multifarious body. a possible name for the family, implying only the speaking of a language of the stock without any reference to racial or national characteristics, could be obtained from the name for man, so widely though perhaps not altogether universally diffused throughout the family--sanskrit _viras_, lithuanian _wyras_, lat. _vir_, irish _fer_, gothic _wair_, &c. if the speakers of these languages were called collectively _wiros_, no confusion with ethnological theories need arise. it is customary to talk of the roots, stems and suffixes of words in the indo-european languages. these languages are distinguished from languages like chinese by the fact that in the great majority of words suffixes can be separated from roots. but the distinction between them and the so-called agglutinative languages is one of degree rather than of kind. in the agglutinative languages, or at any rate in some of them, some of the post-fixed elements have still an independent value. in the indo-germanic languages no one can say what the meaning of the earliest suffixes was. suffixes which have developed in individual languages or individual sections of this family of languages can often be traced, e.g. the often quoted -_hood_ in english words like "manhood," or the english -_ly_ in "manly," which has gradually extended till it is actually attached to its own parent _like_ in "likely." but all recent investigation goes to show that before the indo-european languages separated they possessed words with all the characteristics which we recognize in substantives like the latin _dominus_ or verbs like the greek [greek: deiknytai]. or, to put the same fact in another way, by the comparative method it is impossible to reach a period when the speakers of indo-european languages spoke in roots. a "root" is only a convenient philological abstraction; it is merely the remnant which is left when all the elements that can be analysed are taken away; it is therefore only a kind of greatest common measure for a greater or smaller body of words expressing modifications of the same idea. thus, though by no means the earliest form of the word, the english _man_ might be taken as the "root" from which are derived by various suffixes _manhood_, _manly_, _mannish_, _manful_, _manned_ (past tense), _manned_ (participle), _unman_, _mannikin_, &c. how far the suffixes which can be traced back to indo-european times (i.e. to a time before the separation of the languages) had existence as separate entities it is impossible to say. from what we see of the later history of the languages it is much more probable that both forms and signification were very largely the result of analogy. for in the making of new words analogy plays a much larger part than any reference to general principles of formation or composition. new words are to a large extent, even in modern times, the invention of persons unskilled in the history of language. the first to point out that the term indo-european (or indo-germanic) was not used uniformly in one sense was professor kretschmer in his _einleitung in die geschichte der griechischen sprache_ (gottingen, 1896), pp. 9 ff. it is in fact used in three senses. (1) indo-european is treated as preceding and different from all its descendants, a single uniform speech without dialects. but, strictly, no such language can exist, for even individual members of the same family differ from one another in pronunciation, vocabulary, sentence formation, etc. thus it appears impossible to ascertain what the indo-european term for the numeral 1 was, since different languages show at least four words for this, three of them presenting the same root with different suffixes: (a) sanskrit _eka_ (= *[greek: oi]-quo-); (b) zend _aeva_, old persian _aiva_, greek [greek: oi-([digamma])o-s] (= *[greek: oi]-uo-); (c) greek [greek: oine], "ace," latin _unus_ (older _oenus_), old irish _oen_, gothic _ains_, lithuanian _venas_ (where the initial _v_ has no more etymological signification than the _w_ which now begins the pronunciation of the english _one_), old bulgarian _inu_; (d) greek [greek: eis, en] (= *_sem-s_). but the indo-european community must have had a word for the numeral since the various languages agree in forms for the numerals 2 to 10, and the original indo-european people seem to have been able to count at least as far as 100. on the other hand, if the indo-european language must have had dialects, the line of differentiation between it and its descendants becomes obliterated. (2) but even when a word is found very widely diffused over the area of the indo-european languages, it is not justifiable to conclude that therefore the word must have belonged to the original language. the dispersion of the indo-european people over the areas they now inhabit, or inhabited in the earliest times known to history, must have been gradual, and commerce or communication between different branches must have always existed to some extent; the word might thus have been transmitted from one community to another. when a word is found in two branches which are geographically remote from one another and is not found in the intermediate area, the probability that the word is original is somewhat stronger. but even in this case the originality of the word is by no means certain, for (a) the intervening branch or branches which do not possess the word may merely have dropped it and replaced it by another; (b) the geographical position which the branches occupy in historical times may not be their original position; the branches which do not possess the word may have forced themselves into the area they now occupy after they had dropped the word; (c) if the linguistic communities which possess the word have a seaboard and the intervening communities have not, the possibility of its transmission in connexion with early sea-borne commerce must be considered. at the dawn of european history the phoenicians and the etruscans are great seafarers; at a later time the varangians of the north penetrated to the mediterranean and as far as constantinople; in modern times sea-borne commerce brought to europe words from the caribbean indians like _potato_ and _tobacco_, and gave english a new word for man-eating savages--_cannibal_. thus with kretschmer we must distinguish between what is common indo-european and what is original indo-european in language. (3) a word may exist in several of the languages, and may have existed in them for a very long time, and yet not be indo-european. hehn (_das salz_, ed. 2, 1901) rejects _salt_ as an indo-european word because it is not found in the aryan group, though in this case he is probably wrong, (a) because, as has been shown by professor johannes schmidt, its irregular declension (_sal-d_, genitive _sal-nes_) possesses characteristics of the oldest indo-european words; (b) because the great plains of iran are characterized by their great saltness, so that the aryan branch did not pass through a country where salt was unknown, although, according to herodotus (i. 133), the persian did not use salt to season his food. since kretschmer wrote, this argument has been used very extensively by professor a. meillet of paris in his _dialectes indo-europeens_ (paris, 1908). in this treatise he brings forward arguments from a great variety of facts to show that in the original indo-european language there were dialects, the aryan, armenian, balto-slavonic and albanian, as we have seen, forming an oriental group with novel characteristics developed in common, although in various other characteristics they do not agree. similarly italic, celtic and germanic form a western group, while greek agrees now with the one group now with the other, at some points being more intimately connected with italic than with any other branch, at others inclining more towards the aryan. this grouping, however, is by no means exclusive, members of either group having characteristics in common with individuals of the other group which they do not share with the other languages of their own group (meillet, p. 131 ff.). from all this it is clear that in many cases it must be extremely uncertain what is original indo-european and what is not. some general characteristics can, however, be predicated from what is handed down to us in the earliest forms of all or nearly all the existing languages. (1) the noun had certainly a large number of distinct cases in the singular: nominative, accusative, genitive, ablative, locative, instrumental, dative.[5] in the plural, however, there was less variety, the forms for dative and ablative being from the earliest times identical. in the dual, the oblique cases cannot be restored with certainty, so little agreement is there between the languages. in the locative-singular the ending -_i_ seems to have been of the nature of a post-position, because in various languages (notably in sanskrit) forms appear without any suffix. in the locative plural also the difference between the -_su_ of sanskrit and early lithuanian (slavonic -_chu_) on the one hand, and of -[greek: si] in greek on the other, seems to be best explained by supposing that the -_u_ and -_i_ are postpositions, a conclusion which is strengthened by the greek rule that -[sigma]- between vowels disappears. in the instrumental singular and plural it is noticeable that there are two suffixes--one, represented in germanic and balto-slavonic only, beginning with the sound -_m_, the other, surviving in most of the other languages for the plural, going back to an indo-european form beginning with -_bh_. professor hirt of leipzig has argued (_idg. forschungen_, v. pp. 251 ff.) that -_bh_- originally belonged to the instrumental plural (cf. the lat. _filiabus_, _omnibus_, &c.), and the forms with -_m_- to the dative and ablative. but this is merely a conjecture, which has no linguistic facts in its favour, for the -_bi_ of the latin dative _tibi_, which has parallel forms in many other languages, belongs to the pronouns, which show in their declension many differences from the declension of the noun (cf. also brugmann, _grundriss_ (ed. 2), ii. 2, p. 120). (2) the adjective agrees with its noun in gender, number and case, thus introducing a superfluous element of agreement which is not found, e.g. in most of the agglutinative languages. thus in phrases like the greek [greek: he kale kore] or the latin _illa pulchra puella_ the feminine gender is expressed three times, with no advantage, so far as can be detected, over the modern english, _that fair maid_, where it is not obviously expressed at all. in this respect and also in the employment of the same case endings for the plural as well as the singular, in the plural after a syllable expressing plurality, the agglutinative languages have a distinct superiority over the indo-european languages in their earliest forms. some languages, like english and modern persian, have practically got rid of inflexion altogether and the present difficulty with it; others, like modern german, as the result of phonetic and analogical changes have even intensified the difficulty. (3) in the personal pronouns, especially those of the first and second persons, there is widely spread agreement, but more in the singular than in the plural. forms corresponding to the english _i_ and _thou_, the latin _ego_ and _tu_, are practically universal. on the other hand the demonstrative pronouns vary very considerably. (4) the system of numerals (subject to slight discrepancies, as that regarding 1 mentioned above) is the same, at least up to 100. (5) in the verb there were at first two voices, the active and the middle, and three moods, the indicative, the subjunctive and the optative. it has been suggested by professors oertel and morris in _harvard studies_, xvi. (p. 101, n. 3) that the similarity which exists between the earliest greek and the earliest aryan in the moods is the result of a longer common life between those two branches. but of this there is no proof, and the great difference in the treatment of the sounds by these two branches (see below) militates very strongly against the supposition. the tense forms indicated originally not relations in time but different kinds of action. the distinctive forms are the present, the perfect, and the aorist. the present indicated that an action was in progress or continuous, the aorist on the other hand regarded the action as a whole and, as it were, summed it up. the aorist has sometimes been said to express instantaneous action, and so it does. but this is not the essence of the aorist; the aorist may be used also of a long continued action when it is regarded as a whole. greek shows this very clearly. in athenian official inscriptions it was usual to fix the date of the record by stating at the commencement who was the chief magistrate (archon) of the year. this was expressed by the imperfect ([greek: erche]). but when reference was made to a past archonship, that was expressed by the aorist ([greek: epxe]). the same characteristic is evident also in prohibitions; thus, in plato's _apology of socrates_, [greek: me thorybesete] is "do not begin to make a disturbance," [greek: me thorybeite] is "do not keep on making a disturbance." these points are most easily illustrated from greek, because greek, better than the other languages, has kept the distinctive usages of both moods and tenses. the perfect as distinguished from the other forms expresses either repetition of the action, emphasis, or the state which results from the action expressed by the verb. different languages regard this last in different ways. sometimes the state resulting from the action is so characteristic that the perfect is almost an independent verb. thus in greek [greek: ktaomai] is "i acquire," but [greek: kektemai] (the perfect) is "i possess," the result of the action of acquiring. on the other hand the perfect may mean that the action has come to an end. this is specially common in latin, as in cicero's famous announcement of the execution of the catilinarian conspirators,--_vixerunt_ ("they have lived" = "they are no more"). but it is by no means confined to latin. the pluperfect, the past of the perfect, is a late development and can hardly be reckoned indo-european. in greek the forms clearly arise from adding aorist endings to a perfect stem. the forms of latin are not yet completely explained--but it is certain that the specially latin meaning expressing something that was past at a time already past (relative time) is a late growth. when homeric greek wishes to express this meaning it uses most frequently the aorist, but also the imperfect as well as the pluperfect, the notion of relative time being derived from the context. in the earliest latin the pluperfect is not uncommonly used with the value of the aorist perfect. as regards the future it is difficult to say how far it was an original form. some languages, like germanic, preserve no original form for the future. when the present is found not to be distinctive enough, periphrastic forms come in. in other languages, like latin and greek, there is constant confusion between subjunctive and future forms. it is impossible to distinguish by their form between [greek: deixo] (future) and [greek: deixo] (subjunctive), between _regam_ (future) and regam (subjunctive). a special future with a suffix -sio- (_syo_) is found only with certainty in the aryan group and the baltic languages. the future perfect is, strictly speaking, only a future made from a perfect stem; in the latin sense it is certainly a late development, and even in early latin, _videro_ has occasionally no different meaning from _videbo_. the imperative, which was originally an exclamatory form to the verb, of the same kind as the vocative was to the noun, and which consisted simply of the verb stem without further suffixes, developed, partly on the analogy of the present and partly with the help of adverbs, a complete paradigm. the infinitives of all the languages are noun cases, generally stereotyped in form and no longer in touch with a noun system, though this, e.g. in early sanskrit, is not always true. the participles differ only from other adjectives in governing the same case as their verb; and this is not an early distinction, for in the earliest sanskrit all verbal nouns may govern the same case as their verb. the system here sketched in the barest outline tended steadily to fall into decay. the case system was not extensive enough to express even the commonest relations. thus there was no means of distinguishing by the cases between starting from outside and starting from inside, ideas which, e.g. finnish regards as requiring separate cases; without a preposition it was impossible to distinguish between _on_ and _in_, though to the person concerned there is much difference, for example between being on a river and in a river. there are other difficulties of the same kind. these had to be got over by the use of adverbs. but no sooner had the adverbs become well established for the purpose of defining these local relations than the meaning was felt to exist more in the adverb than in the case ending. for this syntactical reason, as well as for mechanical reasons arising from accent (q.v.), the case system in some languages fell more and more into desuetude. in sanskrit it has been kept entire, in balto-slavonic the only loss has been the disappearance of the original genitive and its replacement by the ablative. in latin the locative has been confused with the genitive and the ablative, and the instrumental with the ablative. the loss of the locative as an independent case had not long preceded historical times, because it survives in oscan, the kindred dialect of the neighbouring campania. greek has confused ablative with genitive, except for one small relic recently discovered on an inscription at delphi; in the consonant stems it has replaced the dative by the locative form and confused in it dative, locative and instrumental meanings. in some other members of the family, e.g. germanic, the confusion has gone still farther. the fate of the verb is similar, though the two paradigms do not necessarily decay at the same rate. thus latin has modified its verb system much more than its noun system, and greek, while reducing seriously its noun forms, shows a very elaborate verb system, which has no parallel except in the aryan group. from the syntactical point of view, however, the greek system is much superior to the aryan, which has converted its perfect into a past tense in classical sanskrit, and to a large extent lost grip of the moods. the decay in aryan may be largely attributed to the power, which this group developed beyond any other, of making compounds which in practice took the place of subordinate sentences to a large extent. the causes for the modifications which the latin verb system has undergone are more obscure, but they are shared not only by its immediate neighbours the other italic dialects, but also to a great degree by the more remote celtic dialects. the origin and spread of the indo-european languages has long been, and remains, a vexed question. no sooner had bopp laid the foundation of comparative philology in his great work, the first edition of which appeared in 1833-1835, than this question began to be seriously considered. the earlier writers agreed in regarding asia as the original home of the speakers of these languages. for this belief there were various grounds,--statements in the biblical record, the greater originality (according to schlegel) of sanskrit, the absurd belief that the migrations of mankind always proceeded towards the west. the view propounded by an english philologist, dr r. g. latham, that the original home was in europe, was scouted by one of the most eminent writers on the subject--victor hehn--as lunacy possible only to one who lived in a country of cranks. latham's view was first put forward in 1851, and in half a century opinion had almost universally come over to his side. max muller indeed to the last held to the view that the home was "somewhere in asia," and professor johannes schmidt of berlin, in a paper read before the oriental congress at stockholm in 1889, argued for a close contact between early indo-european and assyrian civilization, from the borrowing of one or two words and the existence of duodecimal elements in the indo-european numeral system side by side with the prevalent decimal system--the dozen, the gross, the long hundred (120), &c. at 60 the systems crossed, and 60 was a very characteristic element in assyrian numeration, whence come our minutes and seconds and many other units.[6] even before latham a belgian geologist, d'omalius d'halloy, in 1848 had raised objections to the theory of the asiatic origin of the indo-europeans, but his views remained unheeded. in 1864 he brought three questions before the _societe d'anthropologie_ of paris: (1) what are the proofs of the asiatic origin of europeans? (2) have not inflectional languages passed from europe to asia rather than from asia to europe? (3) are not the speakers of celtic languages the descendants of the autochthonous peoples of western europe? (reinach, _op. cit_. p. 38). broca in replying to d'omalius emphasized the fact which has been too often forgotten in this controversy, that race and language are not necessarily identical. in 1868 professor benfey of gottingen argued for the south-east of europe as the original home, while ludwig geiger in 1871 placed it in germany, a view which in later times has had not a few supporters. truth to tell, however, we are not yet ready to fix the site of the original home. before this can be done, many factors as yet imperfectly known must be more completely ascertained. the prehistoric conditions of northern, western, central and south-eastern europe have been carefully investigated, but important new discoveries are still continually being made. investigation of other parts of europe is less complete, and prehistoric conditions in asia are at present very imperfectly known. in western europe two prehistoric races are known, the palaeolithic and the neolithic. the former, distinguished by their great skill in drawing figures of animals, especially the horse, the reindeer, and the mammoth, preceded the period of the great ice age which rendered northern europe to the latitude of london and berlin uninhabitable for a period, the length of which, as of all geological ages, cannot definitely be ascertained. for the present purpose, however, this is of less importance, because it is not claimed that the indo-european stock is of so great antiquity. but when the ice again retreated it must have been long before northern europe could have maintained a population of human beings. the disappearance of the surface ice must have been followed by a long period when ice still remained underground, and the surface was occupied by swamps and barren tundras, as northern siberia is now. when a human population once more occupied northern europe it is impossible to estimate in years. the problem may be attacked from the opposite direction. how long would it have taken for the indo-european stock to spread from its original home to its modern areas of occupation? some recent writers say that it is unnecessary to carry the stock back farther than 2500 b.c.--a period when the civilizations of egypt and mesopotamia were already ancient. wherever the original home was situated, this date is probably fixed too low. the discussion, moreover, is in danger not only of moving in one vicious circle but in two. (a) the term "indo-european stock" necessarily implies race, but why might not the language have been from the earliest times at which we can trace it the language of a mixed race? (b) it is usual to assume that the indo-european stock was tall and blond, in fact much as the classical writers describe the early germans. but the truth of this hypothesis is much more difficult to demonstrate. in most countries known to the ancients where blond hair prevailed, at the present day dark or brown hair is much more in evidence. moreover the colour of fair hair often varies from childhood to middle life, and the flaxen hair of youth is very frequently replaced by a much darker shade in the adult. it has been often pointed out that many of homer's heroes are _xanthoi_, and it is frequently argued that [greek: xanthos] means blond. this, however, is anything but certain, even when vacher de lapouge has collected all the passages in ancient writers which bear upon the subject. when diodorus (v. 32) wishes to describe the children of the galatae, by whom apparently he means the germans, he says that their hair as children is generally _white_, but as they grow up it is assimilated to the colour of their fathers. the ethnological argument as to long-headed and short-headed races (dolichocephalic and brachycephalic) seems untrustworthy, because in countries described as dolichocephalic short skulls abound and vice versa. moreover this classification, to which much more attention has been devoted than its inventor retzius ever intended, is in itself unsatisfactory. the relation between the length and breadth of the head without consideration of the total size is clearly an unsatisfactory criterion. it is true that to the mathematician 3⁄4 or 6/8 or 9/12 are of identical value, but, if it be also generally true that mental and physical energy are dependent on the size and weight of the brain, then the mere mathematical relation between length and breadth is of less importance than the size of the quantities. anthropologists appear now to recognize this themselves. the argument from physical geography seems more important. but here also no certain answer can be obtained till more is known of the conditions, in early times, of the eastern part of the area. according to ratzel[7] the caspian was once very much larger than it is now, and to the north of it there extended a great area of swamp, which made it practically impossible for the indo-european race to have crossed north of the caspian from either continent to the other. at an early period the caspian and black sea were connected, and the sea of marmora and the dardanelles were represented by a river which entered the aegean at a point near the island of andros. while the northern aegean was still land divided only by a river, it is clear that migration from south-eastern europe to asia minor, or reversely, might have taken place with ease. even in much later times the dardanelles have formed no serious barrier to migration in either direction. at the dawn of history, thracian tribes crossed it and founded, it seems, the phrygian and armenian stock in asia minor; the gauls at a later time followed the same road, as did alexander the great a generation earlier. at the end of the middle ages, asia sent by way of the dardanelles the invading turks into europe. the greeks, a nation of seafarers, on the other hand reached asia directly across the aegean, using the islands, as it were, as stepping-stones. though much more attention has been devoted to the subject by recent writers than was earlier the practice, it is doubtful whether migration by sea has even now been assigned its full importance. the most mysterious people of antiquity, the pelasgians, do not seem to be in all cases the same stock, as their name appears merely to mean "the people of the sea," [greek: pelasgoi] representing an earlier [greek: pelags-koi], where [greek: pelags] is the weak form of the stem of [greek: pelagos], "sea," and [greek: -koi] the ending so frequent in the names of peoples. a parallel to the sound changes may be seen in [greek: misgo], for *[greek: mig-sko], by the side of [greek: mig-nymi]. as time goes on, evidence seems more and more to tend to confirm the truth of the great migrations by sea, recorded by herodotus, of lydians to etruria, of eteocretans both to east and west. an argument in favour of the original indo-europeans being seated in north-western germany has been developed by g. kossinna (_zeitschrift fur ethnologie_, 1902, pp. 161-222) from the forms and ornamentation of ancient pottery. it has certainly not been generally received with favour, and as kossinna himself affirms that the classification of prehistoric pottery is still an undeveloped science, his theory is clearly at present unequal to the weight of such a superstructure as he would build upon it. as the allied sciences are not prepared with an answer, it is necessary to fall back upon the indo-european languages themselves. the attempt has often been made to ascertain both the position of the original home and the stage of civilization which the original community had reached from a consideration of the vocabulary for plants and animals common to the various languages of the indo-european family. but the experience of recent centuries warns us to be wary in the application of this argument. if we cut off all past history and regard the language of the present day as we have perforce to regard our earliest records, two of the words most widely disseminated amongst the indo-european people of europe are _tobacco_ and _potato_. without historical records it would be impossible for us to discover that these words in their earliest european form had been borrowed from the caribbean indians. most languages tend to adopt with an imported product the name given to it by its producers, though frequently misunderstanding arises, as in the case of the two words mentioned, the _potato_ being properly the yam, and _tobacco_ being properly the pipe, while _petum_ or _petun_ (cp. _petunia_) was the plant.[8] the first treatise in which an attempt was made to work out the primitive indo-european civilisation in detail was adolphe pictet's _les origines indo-europeennes ou les aryas primitifs_ (1859-1863). the idyllic conditions in which, according to pictet, early indo-european man subsisted were accepted and extended by many enthusiastic successors. the father, the protector of the family (_pater_ from _pa_, protect), and the mother (_mater_ from _ma_, to produce) were surrounded by their children (skt. _putra_), whose name implied that they kept everything clean and neat. the daughter was the milkmaid (skt. _duhita_ from _duh_, milk), while the brother (skt. _bhratar_), derived from the root of _ferre_, "bear," was the natural protector of his sister, whose name, with some hesitation, is decided to mean "she who dwells with her brother," the notion of brother and sister marriage being, however, summarily rejected (ii. p. 365). the uncle and aunt are a second father and mother to the family, and for this reason _nepos_, skt. _napat_, is both nephew and grandson. the life of such families was pastoral but not nomad; there was a farmstead where the women were busied with housewifery and butter-making, while the men drove their flocks afield. the ox, the horse, the sheep, the goat and the pig were domesticated as well as the dog and the farmyard fowls, but it was in oxen that their chief wealth consisted. hence a cow was offered to an honoured guest, cows were the object of armed raids upon their neighbours, and when a member of the family died, a cow was killed to accompany him in the next world. even the phenomena of nature to their naive imaginations could be represented by cows: the clouds of heaven were cows whose milk nourished the earth, the stars were a herd with the sun as the bull amongst them, the earth was a cow yielding her increase. before the original community, which extended over a wide area with bactria for its centre, had broken up, agriculture had begun, and barley, if not other cereals, and various leguminous plants were cultivated. oxen drew the plough and the wagon. industry also had developed with the introduction of agriculture; the carpenter with a variety of tools appears to construct farm implements, buildings and furniture, and the smith is no less busy. implements had begun with stone, but by this time were made of bronze if not of iron, for the metals gold, silver, copper, tin were certainly known. spinning and weaving had also begun; pottery was well developed. the flocks and herds and agriculture supplied food with plenty of variety; fermented liquors, mead, probably wine and perhaps beer, were used, not always in moderation. a great variety of military weapons had been invented, but geographical reasons prevented navigation from developing in bactria. towns existed and fortified places. the people were organized in clans, the clans in tribes. at the head of all, though not in the most primitive epoch, was the king, who reigned not by hereditary right, but by election. though money had not yet been invented, exchange and barter flourished; there were borrowers and lenders, and property passed from father to son. though we have no definite information as to their laws, justice was administered; murder, theft and fraud were punished with death, imprisonment or fine (_resume general_ at end of vol. ii.). further investigation, however, did not confirm this ideally happy form of primitive civilization. many of pictet's etymologies were erroneous, many of his deductions based on very uncertain evidence. no recent writer adopts pictet's views of the indo-european family. but his list of domesticated animals is approximately correct, if domestication is used loosely simply of animals that might be kept by the indo-european man about his homestead. even at the present day domestication means different things in the case of different animals. a pig is not domesticated as a dog is; in areas like the hebrides or western ireland, where cattle and human beings share the two ends of the same building, domestication means something very different from the treatment of large herds on a farm extending to many hundreds of acres. in other respects the height of the civilization was vastly exaggerated. that the indo-european people were agricultural as well as pastoral seems highly probable. but as heraclides says of the athamanes (_fragmenta hist. graec._ ii. 219), the women were the agriculturists, while the men were shepherds. agriculture begins on a very small scale with the dibbling by means of a pointed stick of a few seeds of some plant which the women recognize as useful either for food or medicine, and is possible only when the people have ceased to be absolutely nomad and have fixed settlements for continuous periods of some length. the pastoral habit is broken down in men only by starvation, if the pasture-lands become too cramped through an excessive increase of population or are seized by a conqueror. as has been well said, "of all the ordinary means of gaining a livelihood--with the exception perhaps of mining--agriculture is the most laborious, and is never voluntarily adopted by men who have not been accustomed to it from their childhood" (mackenzie wallace, russia, new ed. i. p. 266, in relating the conversion of the bashkir tatars to agriculture). even the plough, in the primitive form of a tree stump with two branches, one forming the handle, the other the pole, was developed, and to this period may belong the representations in rock carvings in sweden and the alps of a pair of oxen in the plough (s. muller, _nordische altertumskunde_, i. 205; dechelette, _manuel d'archeologie_, ii. pp. 492 ff.). the indo-european civilization in its beginnings apparently belongs to the chalcolithic period (sometimes described by the barbarous term of italian origin _eneolithic_) when copper, if not bronze had come in, but the use of stone for many purposes had not yet gone out. while primitive indo-european man apparently knew, as has been said, the horse, ox, sheep, goat, pig and dog, it is to be observed that in their wild state at least these animals do not all affect the same kind of area. the horse is an animal of the open plain; the foal always accompanies the mother, for at first its neck is too short to allow it to graze, and the mare, unlike the cow, has no large udder in which to carry a great supply of milk. the cow, on the other hand, hides her calf in a brake when she goes to graze, and is more a woodland animal. the pig's natural habitat is the forest where beech mast, acorns, or chestnuts are plentiful. the goat is a climber and affects the heights, while the sheep also prefers short grass to the richer pastures suited to kine. to collect and tame all those animals implies control of an extensive and varied area. what of the trees known to primitive indo-european man? on this the greater part of the arguments regarding the original home have turned. the name for the _beech_ extends through a considerable number of indo-european languages, and it has generally been assumed that the beech must have been known from the first and therefore must have been a tree which flourished in the original home. now the habitat of the beech is to the west of a line drawn from konigsberg to the crimea. the argument assumes that its distribution was always the same. but nothing is more certain than that in different ages different trees succeed one another on the same soil. in the peat mosses of north-east scotland are found the trunks of vast oaks which have no parallel among the trees which grow in the same district now, where the oak has a hard struggle to live at all, and where experience teaches the planter that coniferous trees will be more successful. on the coast of denmark in the same way the conifer has replaced the beech since the days of the "kitchen middens," from which so much information as to the primitive inhabitants of that area has been obtained. but with regard to the names of trees there are two serious pitfalls which it is difficult to avoid. (a) it is common to give a tree the name of another which in habit it resembles. in england the oriental plane does not grow freely north of the trent; accordingly, farther north the sycamore, which has a leaf that a casual observer might think similar, has usurped the name of the plane. (b) in the case of the beech (lat. _fagus_), the corresponding greek word [greek: phegos] does not mean _beech_ but _oak_, or possibly, if one may judge from the magnificent trees of north-west greece, the chestnut. it has been suggested that the word is connected with the verb [greek: phagein] to eat, so that it was originally the tree with edible fruit and could thus be specialized in different senses in different areas. if, however, bartholomae's connexion of the kurd _buz_, "elm" (_idg. forschungen_, ix. 271) be correct, there can be no relation between [greek: phagein] and [greek: phegos], but the latter comes from a root *_bhaug_, in which the _g_ would become _z_ among the _satem_ languages. the birch is a more widely spread tree than the beech, growing as luxuriantly in the himalayas as in western europe, but notwithstanding, the latin _fraxinus_, which is almost certainly of the same origin, means not _birch_ but _ash_, while the word akin to ash (gr. [greek: oxue]) appears in latin without the _k_ suffix as _os_- in latin _ornus_, "mountain ash," for an earlier *_osinos_, cp. old bulgarian _jasenu_ (the _j_ has no etymological value), welsh and cornish _onnen_, from an original celtic *_onna_ from *_os-na_. one of the most widely spread tree names is the word _tree_ itself, which appears in a variety of forms, gr. [greek: drys], goth _triu_; skt. _daru_, [greek: dory], &c., which is sometimes as in greek specially limited to the oak, while the indian _deodar_ (_deva-daru_) is a conifer. o. schrader, who in his remarkable book, _sprachvergleichung und urgeschichte_ (1883, 3rd ed., 1906-1907), locates the original home in southern russia, would allow the original community (ii. p. 178) to be partly within, partly without the beech line. the only other tree the name of which is widely spread is the willow: the english _with_, _withy_, lat. _vitex_, gr. [greek: itea] for [greek: witea], lithuanian _wytis_, zend _vaeti_. otherwise the words for trees are limited to a small number of languages, and the meaning in different languages is widely different, as gr. [greek: elate], "pine," old high german _linta_, "linden," with which go the latin _linter_, "boat," and lithuanian _lenta_, "board." the lime tree and the birch do not exist in greece, and the latin _betula_ is a borrowing from gaulish (irish _bethe_), the native word _fraxinus_, as we have seen, being used for the _ash_. the equation of the latin _taxus_, "yew," with gr. [greek: toxon], "bow," is no doubt correct; schrader's equation of skt. _dhanvan_, "bow," with the german _tanne_, "fir," must, if correct, show at least a change of material, for no wood is less well adapted for a bow than fir. the only conclusion that can be drawn with apparent certainty from the names of trees is that the original settlements were not in the southern peninsulas of europe. some of the names for cultivated plants are widely spread, but like the names of trees do not always indicate the same thing. this is not surprising if we consider that the word _corn_, within the teutonic languages alone, means wheat in england, oats in scotland, rye in germany, barley in sweden, maize in the united states of america. thus the skt. _yava_ means corn or barley, in zend corn (modern persian _jav_, barley, but in the language of the ossetes _yeu_, _yau_ is millet), the gk. [greek: zea] is spelt, the lithuanian _jawai_ corn, the irish _eorna_ barley (schrader, _sprachvergleichung_[3] ii. p. 188). the word bere or barley itself is widely spread in europe--latin _far_, spelt, goth, _barizeins_, "of barley," old norse _barr_, old slav, _buru_, a kind of millet (ibid.). but the original habitat of the cultivated grain plants has not yet been clearly established, and circumstances of many kinds may occasion a change in the kind of grain cultivated, provided another can be found suitable to the climate. in early england it is clear that the prevalent crop was _barley_, for _barn_ is the _bere-ern_ or barley-house. the earliest tree-fruits found in europe are apparently those discovered by edouard piette as mas d'azil in a stratum which he places between palaeolithic and neolithic. they included nuts, plums, birdcherry, sloe, &c., and along with them was a little heap of grains of wheat. if piette's observations are correct, this find must go back to a date long preceding the fruits found by heer in the pile-dwellings of switzerland. here also cherry-stones were found, though the modern cherry is said to have been imported first by lucullus in the first century b.c. from cerasus in pontus, whence its name. in the pile-dwellings a considerable number of apples were found. they were generally cut up into two or three pieces, apparently to be dried for winter use. in all probability they were wild apples of the variety _pirus silvatica_, which is found across the whole of central europe from north to south (buschan, _vorgeschichtliche botanik_, p. 166). the original habitat of the apple is uncertain, but it is supposed to be indigenous at any rate south of the black sea (schrader, _reallexikon_, s. v. _apfelbaum_). the history of the name is obscure; it is often connected with the campanian town abella, which virgil (_aeneid_, vii. 740) calls _malifera_, "apple-bearing." here also the material for fixing the site of the original habitat is untrustworthy. the attempt has been made to limit the possible area by a consideration of three animals which are said not to occur in certain parts of it--(a) the eel, which is said not to be found in the black sea; (b) the honey bee, which is not found in that part of central asia drained by the oxus and jaxartes; (c) the tortoise, which is not found in northern areas. from evidence collected by schrader from a specialist at bucharest (_sprachvergleichung_,[3] ii. p. 147) eels are found in the black sea. the argument, therefore, for excluding the area which drains into the black sea from the possible habitat of the primitive indo-european community falls to the ground. honey was certainly familiar at an early age, as is shown by the occurrence of the word *_medhu_, skt. _madhu_, gr. [greek: methy] (here the meaning has shifted from mead to wine), irish _mid_, english _mead_, old slav, _medu_, lithuanian _medus_ honey, _midus_ mead. schrader, who is the first to utilize the name of the tortoise in this argument, points out (_op. cit._ p. 148) that forms from the same root occur in both a _centum_ and a _satem_ language--gr. [greek: chelus, chelone], old slav. _zily_, _zeluvi_--but that while it reaches far north in eastern europe, it does not pass the 46th parallel of latitude in western europe. this argument would make not only the german site for the original home which is supported by kossinna and hirt impossible, but also that of scandinavia contended for by penka. from the foregoing it will be seen that the arguments for any given area are not conclusive. in the great plain which extends across europe north of the alps and carpathians and across asia north of the hindu kush there are few geographical obstacles to prevent the rapid spread of peoples from any part of its area to any other, and, as we have seen, the celts and the hungarians, &c., have, in the historical period, demonstrated the rapidity with which such migrations could be made. such migration may possibly account for the appearance of a people using a _centum_ language so far east as turkestan. but our information as to tocharish is still too fragmentary to decide the question. it is impossible here to discuss at any length the relations between the separate indo-european languages, a subject which has formed, from somewhat different points of view, the subject of kretschmer's _einleitung in die geschichte der griechischen sprache_ and meillet's _les dialectes indo-europeennes_. bibliography.--besides the articles on the separate languages in this encyclopaedia the following works are the most important for consultation: k. brugmann (phonology and morphology) and b. delbruck (syntax), _grundriss der vergleichenden grammatik der indogermanischen sprachen_ (1886-1900), ed. 2, vol. i. (1897); of vol. ii. two large parts, including the stem formation and inflexion of the noun, the pronoun and the numerals, have been published in 1906 and 1909. a shorter work by brugmann, _kurze vergleichende grammatik der indogermanischen sprachen_, dealing mainly with sanskrit, greek, latin, germanic and slavonic, appeared in three parts in 1902-1903. a good but less elaborate work is a. meillet, _introduction a l'etude comparative des langues indo-europeennes_ (1903, 2nd ed. 1908). for the ethnological argument: w. z. ripley, _the races of europe_ (1900); g. sergi, _the mediterranean race_ (english edition, 1901). other works, now largely superseded, which deal with this argument are k. penka, _origines ariacae_ (1883), and _die herkunft der arier_ (1886), and i. taylor, _the origin of the aryans_, n.d. (1890). the ethnologists are no more in agreement than the philologists. for the arguments mainly from the linguistic side see especially o. schrader, _sprachvergleichung und urgeschichte_ (3rd ed., 2 vols., 1906-1907)--the second edition was translated into english by dr f. b. jevons under the title _prehistoric antiquities of the aryan peoples_ (1890); _reallexikon der indogermanischen altertumskunde_ (1901); m. much, _die heimat der indogermanen_ (1902, 2nd ed. 1904); e. de michelis, _l'origine degli indo-europei_ (1903); h. hirt, _die indogermanen_ (2 vols., 1905-1907); s. feist, _europa im lichte der vorgeschichte und die ergebnisse der vergleichenden indogermanischen sprachwissenschaft_, 1910, in w. sieglin's _quellen und forschungen zur alten geschichte und geographie_. important for special sections of this question are s. muller, _nordische altertumskunde_ (2 vols., 1897-1898), and _urgeschichte europas_ (1905); v. hehn, _kulturpflanzen und haustiere_ (1870), 7th ed. edited by o. schrader, with contributions on botany by a. engler (1902); j. hoops, _waldbaume und kulturpflanzen im germanischen altertum_ (1905). delbruck has devoted a special monograph to the i.-e. names of relationships, from which he shows that the i.-e. family was patriarchal, not matriarchal (_die idg. verwandtschaftsnamen_, 1889). e. meyer, from tocharish being a _centum_ language, has revived with reserve the hypothesis of the asiatic origin (_geschichte des altertums_,^2 i. 2, p. 801). (p. gi.) footnotes: [1] e. meyer, _sitzungsberichte der berliner akademie_ (1908, pp. 14 ff.), and more fully in _kuhn's zeitschrift_ (xlii. pp. 17 ff.); also _geschichte des altertums_ (i. 2, 2nd ed. pp. 807 ff.). [2] sieg und siegling, "tocharisch, die sprache der indoskythen" (_sitzb. d. berl. ak._ 1908, pp. 915 ff.). [3] no. xix. p. 255, "another ancient and extensive class of languages, united by a greater number of resemblances than can well be altogether accidental, may be denominated the indo-european, comprehending the indian, the west asiatic, and almost all the european languages." [4] leo meyer, "uber den ursprung der namen indogermanen, semiten und ugrofinner," in the _gottinger gelehrte nachrichten, philologisch-historische klasse_, 1901, pp. 454 ff. [5] the vocative is not strictly speaking a case at all, for it stands outside the syntax of the sentence. it was originally an exclamatory form consisting of the bare stem without case suffix. in the plural the nominative is used to supply the lacking vocative form. [6] for the history of the controversy see the excellent summary in salomon reinach's _l'origine des aryens: historie d'une controverse_ (1892). max muller's latest views are contained in his _biographies of words and the home of the aryas_ (1888). see schmidt's _die urheimat der indogermanen und das europaische zahlsystem_ (1890). [7] "geographische prufung der tatsachen uber den ursprung der volker europas" (_berichte der k. sachsischen ges. d. wissenschaften_, 1900, pp. 34 ff.). [8] see the essay on "evolution and the science of language," in _darwin and modern science_ (1909), p. 524 f.