LHOPA, a quarrelsome and cruel but not brave race of Eastern Tibet and Nepal. They have invariably black hair, which is cut close to the head. The eye is small, black, with long pointed corners, as though stretched and extended by artificial means. Their eyelashes are so thin as to be scarcely preceptible ; and the eyebrow is but slightly shaded. Below the eyes is the broadest part of the face, which is rather flat and narrow from the cheek-bones to the chin. Many are more than six feet high, and, taken altogether, they have a complexion not so dark by several shades as that of the European Portuguese. They make paper from the bark of a tree called dealt, steeped in a ley of wood-ashes, drained, beaten to a pulp, cleansed, and formed into sheets. This is done by spreading it over a frame of reeds. These the manufacturer dips into the water which con tains the pulp, until he has covered the surfaces. Then he raises them perpendicularly, and has nothing further to do beyond the drying and pressing. They are industrious agriculturists, and skilful in artificial irrigation. Lho-pa-to or Bhutan people aro Buddhists of the sect called in Tibet Bruk-pa (vulgarly Duk-pa), which they adopted in tho 17th century. The four valleys of Bhutan aro called Thet-yul, Thim-yul, Patro or Pato, and the middle district.
LI. The ancient Chinese philosopher Li or Licius flourished in tho latter half of the 5th cen tury B.C., or about 100 years after Confucius. Ilia writings seem to indicate a protest against the purely secular wisdom of the latter sage, and to represent those more religious and imaginative elements of the national thought which afterwards led to the diffusion of Buddhism. His theory of the universe appears substantially pantheistic, and offers considerable affinity to the Indian in its practical conclusions, though resting rather on an empirical than a metaphysical basis. Licius would also seem to have been considerably influenced by Lao-tsze ; the existence and efficacy of magic, at all events, appear to be taken for granted by him. On the whole, his writings may probably be taken as a fair example of the Chinese mind alike in its strength and weakness. Childish absurdity, as at least it appears to us, alternates with shrewd homely sagacity ; and in their inde pendence of foreign influence they afford an interesting proof of the tendency of the awakened intellect iu all ages and countries to occupy itself with the same problems, with a remarkable corre spondence in the results ultimately attained. His aphorisms are for the most part cast into the form of apologues or anecdotes, some quaint and ingenious, others at the first aspect puerile or extravagant. Licius is full of interesting in cidental illustrations of Chinese manners and customs, indicating the progress which civilisation had made in his time. Medicine, architecture,
and music seem to have attained a considerable degree of development,—the latter especially was almost as highly regarded as in contemporary Greece. True intellectual progress has been arrested in China since Licius' time, and the nation has even retrograded' in several respects.
LT, a Chinese copper. coin ; ten to a candareen. 10 li, 1 candareen; 100 li, 1 mas ; 1000 li, 1 tael ; 1 tael about 5s.
LI, a Chinese measure of length, about one sixth of a British mile, or 293 yards. • LI, a Chinese word of very extensive meaning, sometimes rendered reason, courtesy, propriety, good breeding. The saying is, Li and Wen (learning) make up the whole sum of human excel len cies.—Boinring.
LI. Many non-Aryan peoples of India take their tribal designations from the word for ' man ' in their respective dialects, and the term mi (man), with some prefixed or supposed syllable, supplies the basis of the race name to not less than forty ascertained tribes. Thus Du-mi, Ka-mi, Ku-mi, Anga-mi Naga, Mi-than Naga. And if we re cognise the non-Aryan phonetic displacements of m and 1 and of 1 and r, the list can be greatly increased. Thus, in the Sak, lu ; Toung, mni ; Murmi, ; Thaksya, mli ; and the root li affords the generic term Homo, man, to a whole series of tribal names. Thus Mali, the people of Rajmaltal ; Bala-li, Dhima-li, Santa-li, Bangs-li, meaning the people of Bala, Banga, and so forth. Li is thus often added to specific names for man to form names for aboriginal tribes. In Santali, Ii furnishes the nomenclature connected with the propagation of our species, such as lai, laih, etc., and appears in Ii dih, a child ; le-daka or lad ko, children; Khi li, a generation of men (ho-li), and the hitherto unexplained terms, Che-la, Che-li (= Khi-li = boll), for son and daughter, used by all the semi-aboriginal castes of Lower Bengal. The root ko, with the generic affix li, is met with in all periods of history, and in all India. The Mahabbarata and Vishnu Purana speak of Ko-li tribes in connection with Mikala, Dravida, Kirata, and others, and the Aitareya Brahmana speaks of the 'Coll as Dasya. Among a section of the non Aryan races of India, or aborigines, as Dr. Hunter styles them, the root ho, shortening in some to hu and ha, or interchanging into ko, ku, and ka, furnishes the specific word for man amongst the Kol tribes of Central India, and is one of the oldest and most widely spread roots for man. In the Sanskrit play the Mrichha kati, go-ho is man ; among the Kur, near Ellichpur, it is ho ko ; amongst the Siamese it is khon or kiln, which is the same form as it takes amongst Khond.—Dr. TV. TV. Bunter on the Non-Aryan Languages of India, p. 22.