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called Moi in Annam, and Pen-nong in Kambodia, and though it is probable that they belong to different branches of a single race, they are known among them- selves by more than a dozen distinctive names. They furnish one of the many riddles propounded by south- eastern Asia to the ethnologist. The Negrito, who is represented by the Semang and Pangan tribes of the Malay Peninsula, is not found in Indo-China, but on the other hand the hillmen of a brown race, corresponding to the Sâkai of Malaya, count many thousands of indi- viduals in Kambodia, Annam, Laos and the Shan States.

In their character these unhappy folk to the south of Luang Prabang, who from time immemorial have been the prey of their more civilised and therefore stronger neighbours, appear to be peaceable, gentle and timorous. Some of the more remote tribes, who dwell in the fast- nesses of the mountains and hold communication only spar- ingly with even the tamer aborigines, are reputed to be ferocious, but the same legend is current wherever such tribes exist, and its origin may perhaps be traced to a de- sire on the part of the slave-traders to enhance the value of their wares. That the aborigines look upon all other human beings as their enemics is likely enough, since time out of mind their children have been abducted and sold into slavery. That they will fight on occasion to pre- vent this is also possible, but none of these down-trodden races have any love of fighting for its own sake, and they always prefer flight to battle, after the manner of all other denizens of the jungle. Garnier, in writing of some of these poor creatures, mentions the horror with which he noted