been introduced
at different times; a fact which gives us a distinction between the
native Siamese and the recent settlers.

Like the _Mon_, the Tha'y, at least in its more classical dialect, is a
lettered language; the alphabet, like the Buddhist religion, being
Indian. Unlike, however, the _Mon_, which is the only representative of
the family to which it belongs, the _Tha'y_ tribes constitute a vast
class, falling into divisions and subdivisions, and exceedingly
remarkable in respect to its geographical distribution.

The Siamese of Siam, the kingdom of which Bankok is the capital, form
but a fraction of this great stock. The _upper_ half of the river Menam
is occupied by what are called the _Lau_, or _Laos_. These are partly
wholly independent, and partly in nominal dependence upon China; and
proportionate to their independence is the unlettered character of their
language, and the absence of Indian influences. Nor is this all. The
Menam is pre-eminently the river of the Tha'y stock, and along the
water-system of the Menam its chief branches are to be found; their
position being between the Burmese populations of the west, and the
Khomen of Cambojia on the east. This distribution is _vertical_, _i.e._,
it is characterized by its length, rather than its breadth, and runs
from south to north. So far does it reach in this direction that, as
high as 28 deg. North lat., in upper Assam we find a branch of it. This
is the _Khamti_. In a valuable comparison of languages, well-known as
"Brown's Tables,"[23] the proportion of the Khamti words to the South
Siamese is ninety-two _per cent._

Of the physical appearance of the Siamese, we find the best account in
"Crawfurd's Embassy," the classical work for the ethnology of the
southern part of the Indo-Chinese peninsula. Their stature is low; the
tallest man out of twenty having been five feet eight inches, the
shortest five feet three. The complexion, darker than that of the
Chinese, is lighter than that of the Malay; the eye oblique; the jaw
square; and the cheek-bones broad.

_Tha'y_ is an ethnological term, and denotes all the nations and tribes
akin to the Siamese of the southern, the Khamti of the northern, or the
Lau of the intermediate area. The difference between the first and the
last of these three should be noticed. Some members of the family are
Indianized in religion, and organized in politics. Such are the Siamese
of Bankok. Others retain both their independenc