Cham

“ My lady, it came to his ears in the city of the Grand Cham that all who entered the valley never got any older. There is no time in this city of Cathay, and people do as they please. It is a most pleasant spot. Many marvels Clavijo heard there—of the cameleopard and the taurelephus that gives most rare milk. But concerning this Clavijo can not know the truth. ”

“ For her soul was seared with hate against the Arabs, the Moslems, who had enslaved her, and there was in her the wish and hope that Cham Sheng, her, countryman, might wed Zobeid and, after the Caliph’s death, bring the dominion of Bagdad under the Mongols’ spurred heel. ”

“ The Cham are extremely fond of their children and spare no pains to keep them amused. Indeed, their affection goes the length of leaving them in complete ignorance of soap and water, an omission for which the babies are duly grateful. It is especially gratifying to the benevolent spirits if the mother smears her child's face with a mixture of flour and saffron, a substance the yellow colour of which meets with the particular approval of the deities whose own visages are of that colour if we are to credit tradition. ”

“ The master-merchant Soranzi is counting a myriad gold coins for the Tatar wazirs, as the pagans name their money-tenders; Rudolfo is departed with good grace and Gian to be escorted by Tatar children to the river.”
“And Clavijo?”
Bembo nodded toward the cage. “With the apes, who love him like a brother. This black giant was to cut off my head——”
“You will be safe with me. Come.” Michael smiled. “The Cham, as you call him, has given us some good sport. We will fly pigeons and when that is done, sleep. Then this night will you see a rare jest, my Bembo.” ”

“ Ham, as a Deity, was esteemed the [11] Sun: and his priests were styled Chamin, Chaminim, and Chamerim. His name is often found compounded with other terms, as in Cham El, Cham Ees, Cam Ait: and was in this manner conferred both on persons and places. From hence Camillus, Camilla, Camella Sacra, Comates, Camisium, [12] Camirus, Chemmis, with numberless other words, are derived. Chamma was the title of the hereditary [13] priestess of Diana: and the Puratheia, where the rites of fire were carried on, were called Chamina, and Chaminim, whence came the Caminus of the Latines. ”

“ And Ahmed leaping over the fallen man; Zemzem by his side, leaping parallel, like a small terrier by the side of a lean-flanked greyhound.
On the threshold of the palace was a wall of steel-bossed arm shields, topped by a wall of yellow, high-cheeked faces, a wall of glittering, oval-bladed lances: Cham Sheng’s picked Manchu bodyguard, here to fight for their master to their last drop of blood.
They were too many for one man to attack and defeat. ”

“ "Let's have another bottle of 'cham,'" said Captain Clutterbuck, when their dinner was nearly over. "'Cham' is the only thing to screw one up when one is down a peg." ”

“ Holdich ( Gates of India, 36) seems to have in mind a race re- sembling African negroes as the original of the “ Asiatic Aethiopi- ans” in Makran. But their descent should have been from the Persian Gulf. “Sir John Mandeville ” (chap, xxiv) gives a legend which in some ways seems nearer the truth :
“Noah had three sons, Shem, Cham and Japhet . . . Cham, for his cruelty, took the greater and the best part, toward the east, that is clept Asia, and Shem took Africa, and Japhet took Europe . . . Cham was the greatest and the most mighty, and of him came more generations than of the other. ”

“ I have mentioned that the nations of the east acknowledged originally but one Deity, the Sun: but when they came to give the titles of Orus, Osiris, and Cham, to some of the heads of their family; they too in time were looked up to as Gods, and severally worshipped as the Sun. This was practised by the Egyptians: but this nation being much addicted to refinement in their worship, made many subtile distinctions: and supposing that there were certain emanations of divinity, they affected to particularize each by some title; and to worship the Deity by his attributes. ”

“ Hence they have abolished Hanes: but the name Ain El Cham, of the same purport, they have suffered to remain.
I have before taken notice of an objection liable to be made from a supposition, that if Hanes signified the fountain of light, as I have presumed, it would have been differently expressed in the Hebrew. This is a strange fallacy; but yet very predominant. Without doubt those learned men, who have preceded in these researches, would have bid fair for noble discoveries, had they not been too limited, and biassed, in their notions. ”

“ So saying, the Stranger seized upon the rich man’s house, his cattle, his sheep, his lands, and all his possessions, and reduced the rich man to the position of a slave in his household.
Some months after, Cham-ba, now rich and prosperous, started off on a journey, and before going he asked Tse-ring to take charge of a bag of gold-dust for him, and to keep it until he returned. ”

“ It is to be observed that, contrary to the practice prevailing among most semi-barbarous peoples, the Cham allow young and middle-aged women to perform religious functions. The age of twenty is, in fact, the normal time for entering the sacerdotal caste. ”

“ The women had head-coverings, and decked themselves with beautifully wrought silver jewellery set with precious stones. The men excelled in making jewellery, gold and silver vases, furniture, and domestic utensils—and were honest, and hated theft above all things. They worshipped Hindoo gods, and offered up human sacrifices.
This small black race, the Cham or Siam, was of the Malay stock, doubtless darkened by interbreeding with the Negrito aborigines, and perhaps with Dravidian colonists from the Madras coast. ”

“ Its capital is Zug, while the manufacturing village of Baar, 2 m. N., had 4484 inhabitants, and the village of Cham, 3 m. N.W., had 3025 inhabitants. In both cases the environs of the villages are included, and this is even more the case with the wide-spreading parishes of Unter Aegeri with 2593 inhabitants, of Menzingen with 2495 inhabitants, and the great school for girls and female teachers, founded in 1844 by Father Theodosius Florentini, and of Ober Aegeri with 1891 inhabitants
In the higher regions of the canton the population is mainly engaged in pastoral pursuits and cattle-breeding. ”

“ There was here the banner of the White Tiger, the banner of the Red Tiger, of the Azure Dragon, of the Purple Light, of Sublime Union, and a hundred more; and, greater than all the other banners, carried by two gigantic, yellow-skinned priests, the banner of the Buddha of the Paradise of the West and the banner of the Buddha of the Light without Measure.
Thus the procession entered the grounds, while the Caliph’s herald announced the princely visitor:
“Cham Sheng, Prince of the Mongols, King of Ho Sho, Khan of the Golden Horde, Khan of the Silver Horde. ...” ”

“ Fount-in-the-Forest stood by her mistress’ side. She wondered, puzzled: who was this Prince of the Isles? Where had she seen him. ...?
Down in the garden Wong K’ai was whispering to his master that, as to this new suitor’s rank and titles, he would look into them presently; but in the meantime ... “Please, O Great Dragon! Remember the fortuneteller’s prophecy! Remember the Arab superstition! Whoever is first to touch the rose tree. ...”
“Yes, yes!” replied Cham Sheng.
He stepped forward; and while, horror-struck, Zobeid watched, he raised a thin, yellow hand to pluck one of the flowers. ”

“ Queer things happen in dropsy, and even such a pseudo-miracle as Johnson’s is not unknown. Once water-logged with dropsy, legs, belly, lungs and all, it would have seemed to require a miracle to get him emptied, and miracles seldom happen.
The really wonderful thing is, however, that a man of so gloomy a temperament as the Great Cham should have retained such comparative cheerfulness of spirits as he had even after an experience so depressing as an attack of aphasia. He must have been a remarkably brave old man, which is quite in accordance with his strongly masculine character. ”

“ Chamois skulls adorned with the black hooked horns may be seen among the most precious treasures of many a Swiss household, each one suggestive of some tale of wonderful bravery and endurance.
The chamois-hunters of Switzerland lead a strange life. None knows when he departs from his home in the morning with his gun, ammunition, and alpen-stock, if he will ever return from the mysterious misty heights towering before him far aloft in the clouds. ”

“ This indispensable talisman consists of a small cylinder of lead on which a priest has traced mystic characters with a sharp-pointed instrument.
Both sexes keep their hair long and, like the Annamites, twist it into a knot at the back. The men wear as head-dress either a large turban or sometimes merely a kerchief. Pockets are unknown, but two purses hung from a long girdle provide an excellent substitute.
In early times the Cham princes set up their royal residence and the seat of government in Phanrang. ”

“ We crossed a handsome bridge and broader stream before we caught sight of Chambéry, which lies embosomed in mountains; a bold and beautiful view, but not matching that of the Échelles. Behind the town, which lay before us, rises a line of fine frowning mountains—the Beauges; that which seems to hang over Chambéry, presenting at its summit a succession of seeming towers and ramparts like a mighty fortification. Far away to the left shone the lake of Bourget, on the road to Geneva. The valley is fertile, and the vines trained in arbours. ”

“ Chames is a little hamlet on the left bank of the Ardèche, where the rocks fall back and allow of slopes on which can grow olive trees, vines, plums, and almonds. The water is here still and seems transformed to a mirror, so that from the opposite side, that of the Castle of Ebbo, when the sun is full on the white cottages and gleaming limestone rocks, they as well as the fruit trees are reflected with intensity in the glassy surface. ”

“ CHAMBAL, a river of India, one of the principal tributaries of the Jumna. Rising amid the summits of the Vindhya mountains in Malwa, it flows north, and after being joined by the Chambla and Sipra, passes through the gorges of the Mokandarra hills. ”

“ Speaking of chamois-horn, if you expect to see in Switzerland—as you do in geographies—chamois perched upon every crag, preparatory to bounding from peak to peak, you will be grievously disappointed. Not a chamois will greet your eyes. ”

“ The province of Chamil, which abounds in all the necessaries of life, is situated in the wide country of Tangut, and is subject to the great khan. This province, of which the city of Chamil or Hami is the capital [1] , is bounded by two deserts; the great desert of Lop already mentioned, and another which is only three days journey across [2] . The inhabitants are idolaters, have a peculiar language, and appear to live only for amusement, devoting their whole time to singing, dancing, and sports, playing upon instruments of music, and reading and writing after their fashion. ”

“ Of greater historical interest are the Chams, who are to be found for the most part in southern Annam and in Cambodia, and who, judging from the numerous remains found there, appear to have been the masters of the coast region of Cochin-China and Annam till they succumbed before the pressure of the Khmers of Cambodia and the Annamese. They are taller, more muscular, and more supple than the Annamese. Their language is derived from Malay, and while some of the Chams are Mussulmans, the dominant religion is Brahmanism, and more especially the worship of Siva. ”

“ About six in the evening we arrived at the valley of Chamouni, and found lodgings in a small village called Prieuré. The valley of Chamouni is about six leagues in length, and an English mile in breadth. It is bounded on all sides by very high mountains. Between the intervals of these mountains, on one side of the valley, the vast bodies of snow and ice, which are called Glaciers, descend from mount Blanc, which is their source. ”

“ The skin of the chamois is very soft. It is made into a fine, soft leather. This leather is called shammy leather. Have you ever seen a piece of shammy leather? The flesh of the chamois is very good to eat.
The people in Switzerland use a great deal of milk and butter and cheese for their food. They also have potatoes and bread and fruit. They eat very little meat.
The Swiss houses are made of wood. Stones are often put on the roofs. The stones keep the shingles from being torn off by the wind. The Swiss are very neat and clean. ”

“ Chamba is a region of lofty mountains with some fertile valleys in the south and west. Only about one-nineteenth of the area is cultivated. The snowy range of the Mid-Himálaya separates the Ráví valley from that of the Chandrabhágá, and the great Zánskár chain with its outliers occupies the territory beyond the Chenáb, where the rainfall is extremely small and Tibetan conditions prevail. The State contains fine forests and excellent sport is to be got in its mountains. ”

“ If some one, indeed, had even whispered to you that there was a pirate ship coasting up and down the placid waters of the river and Watterson's Creek, flying its skull and crossbones in the very face of the solemn old town of Chamboro, you would have pooh-poohed the idea, and even inwardly chortled a bit, for if ever there was a sober and staid and sleepily respectable old town it was Chamboro. ”

“ Champé hastened to the camp, wrapt himself in his cloak, silently arrayed his horse, and began his adventurous journey. He knew that his first danger was from the pursuit of his own people; who, since the crime of Arnold, had been full of watchfulness, and suspicion.
"Lee sat in his tent, ruminating upon the danger, and magnanimity of Champé, and following in imagination the speed of his faithful war-horse. Half an hour since his departure had not elapsed, when suddenly the officer of the day stood before him. ”