MEI-KONG, a river, flows through the eastern side of Laos and Cambodia. It is called by the Chinese Lan-tsang or Lan-chiang. It rises about lat. 33° or 34° N., in the Konen Lim range, near Koko Nor. Its two branches have their confluence about lat. 30° N., north of Cha-m on-to or Kiam -do, and it then traverses the provinces of Chra-ya and Riang-ka before entering Yun-nan. It is the longest of all the Indo-Chinese rivers. Its course has been traced from its source in Eastern Tibet, where but a single narrow ridge separates it from that of the Kiusha-kiang or Yang-tze kiang, the two streams flowing for a long distance in parallel meridional valleys along the eastern range of the Tibetan plateau. In this peculiar feature of long parallel trenches and mountain ranges is to be sought the key to the little under stood geography of the great Siamese Peninsula system. It is said to be more than 2200 miles long. The Lusiad says— thro' Cambodia Meikon's river goes, Well named the Captain of the waters, while So many a summer tributary flows To spread its floods upon the sands, as Nile Inundates its green banks.' In the Irawadi and Mei-kong basins there are remnants of tribes strongly distinguished from the dominant races, and tending, with the evi dence of language, to show that the ethnic history of Ultra-India is very ancient, and has undergone repeated revolutions. One of the most remark
able is the Ka-Kyen. They are described as being in their appearance not Mongolian, and totally different from the surrounding Shan, Burmese, and Chinese races. The Moi or Ka moi, on the opposite side of the Mei-kong, are said to be black savages, with Negro features ; they occupy the broad expansion of the Annam chain towards Kamboja, and appear to extend north wards along these mountains, marching with the Lau on the westward. The Kambojans style them•Kha-men. They are the Ko-men of Leyden and the Kha-men of Gutzlaff. On the same side of the Mei-kong basin, but towards the sea, between lat. 11° and 12° N., a hill tribe, called Chong, preserve more of the ancient Australo Tamilian character than the surrounding tribes. In the Chong, the hair, instead of being stiff or harsh as in the Mongolian, Tibetan, and prevalent Ultra-Indian and Malaya-Polynesian races, is com paratively soft, the features are much more pro minent, and the heard is fuller.—Boicring's Siam, ii. p. 28 ; Logan, Journ. Ind. Arch.