Untrodden Fields of Anthropology: Observations on the esoteric manners and customs of semi-civilized peoples: being a record of thirty years' experience in Asia, Africa, America and Oceania (1900)
Chapter X focuses on Cambodia with paragraphs or pages on each of the following:
- - My sojourn in Cambodia.
- Anthropological characteristics of the Cambodian.
- The organs of generation of the Cambodians.
- Foreign races inhabiting Cambodia.
- Malays and Chams.
- Chinese.
- Portuguese.
- Annamites.
- Social condition of Cambodia.
- Decline of the country and of the Khmer race.
- Royal prerogatives before the French Protectorate.
- The Abbaioureach, and the Abbareach.
- The five Ministers.
- The Mandarin class.
- The oath of the Mandarins.
- The middle-classes.
- Free men.
- Slavery.
- Habitations.
- Costume.
- Food.
- Moral characteristics of the Cambodian.
- Curious customs attending the castration of animals.
- Bravery of the Cambodian.
- Hunting the elephant and rhinoceros.
- Religion.
- The Bonze and the Khmer Pope.
- The Somdach-Prea-Sam-Creach.
- The idle life of the Bonzes.
- The white elephant of Norodom.
- Cambodian Creeds.
- Religious festivals.
- Family festivals.
- Superstitions.
- The Feast of the Dead.
- The Festivals of Catsac and the Blessing of the Waters.
- Human sacrifices.
- Cambodian legislation and justice.
- Causes of the decadence of the Khmer race.
- The vulgar tongue and the sacred language.
Moral Characteristics of the Cambodians.
The people are mild-tempered, indolent, and very fond of amusement. They are passionately fond of boat races, which are often made the subject of heavy bets, games of ball, bowls, and kite-flying ; they also make crickets fight till they tear off each other's legs, or head ; they bet upon these insects like the English used to do on game cocks.
Chapter XI:Strange Custom used when Animals are gelded.
When a Cambodian has a buffalo, or domestic ox gelded, he makes the operation, says Pavie, the occasion of a certain solemnity. The master informs the animal of his intention in phrases something like this.
"It is not from any whim, or private pleasure of my own, that you have to suffer this disagreable operation. It was the custom of my ancestors, and you ought not therefore to bear me any ill-will, either in this life, or in any future life."
- - Sexual intercourse, its forms and perversions among the Cambodians.
- The lover as a water-carrier.
- Two Khmer proverbs.
- Marriage.
- Polygamy.
- The rank of the first wife.
- Adultery and its repression.
- Divorce.
- Various reasons for divorce.
- Reconciliation of divorced couples.
- Adoption.
- Mariners of the Khmer woman.
- The life of a young girl.
- King Norodom's harem.
- The royal corps de ballet.
- Singing and music.
- Manner of copulating.
- Perversions of the sexual passion amongst the Cambodians.
To leave a young girl alone with a young man, is like entrusting an elephant with the care of a plantation of sugar-canes.
And other random gems scattered throughout the book - like this one on Page 308 (citing Mémoire sur l'anthropologie du Cambodge, 1893):Never trust hens' eggs to a crow.
Maurel says, speaking of the Khmers in Cambodia, that the woman's mons veneris is generally shaved ; but "the women who seek the company of Europeans easily abandon the practice."