If We Also Had To Express Proper Names
By Combining Monosyllabic Words Already Existing In English, We Should In
Fact Be Obliged To Write The Name Of The Macedonian Hero Much As Swift
Travestied It.
As an example we may give the Chinese name of Java,
Kwawa, which signifies "gourd-sound," and was given to that Island, we
are told, because the voice of its inhabitants is very like that of a dry
gourd rolled upon the ground!
It is usually stated that Tungking was
called Kiao-chi meaning "crossed-toes," because the people often exhibit
that malformation (which is a fact), but we may be certain that the
syllables were originally a phonetic representation of an indigenous name
which has no such meaning. As another example, less ridiculous but not
more true, Chin-tan, representing the Indian name of China,
Chinasthana, is explained to mean "Eastern-Dawn" (Aurore Orientale).
(Amyot, XIV. 101; Klapr. Mem. III. 268.)
The states of Laos are shut out from the sea in the manner indicated; they
abound in domestic elephants to an extraordinary extent; and the people do
tattoo themselves in various degrees, most of all (as M. Garnier tells me)
about Kiang Hung. The style of tattooing which the text describes is
quite that of the Burmese, in speaking of whom Polo has omitted to mention
the custom: "Every male Burman is tattooed in his boyhood from the middle
to his knees; in fact he has a pair of breeches tattooed on him.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 239 of 1350
Words from 64139 to 64388
of 370046
