17th Century Descriptions of Vietnam

Their breeding:
The manner of breeding and that are of the same family. The Cochin-Chineses is more or less the same with that of the Chineses, always punctually observing all niceties; we know these latter observe between superiors and inferiors, equals and the respect due to ancient person, ever preferring the eldest. The Cochin-Chineses have three sorts of seats: the first and meanest, is a mat upon the bare floor, on which persons of equal quality sit, as those that are of the same family. The next is, a low stool, covered with a very fine mat; The third is a couch about three quarters of a yard high, or which only the lords and governors of places sit, or persons dedicated to the divine service, and on this they always make our fathers sit.
The good nature and civility of the Cochin-Chineses, makes them so courteous to strangers, whom they allow to live according to their own laws, and to wear what clothes they please; so they praise their customs, and admire their doctrine, frankly preferring them before their own; quite contrary to the Chinese, who despise all but their own customs and doctrine.

Fashion of clothes:
It is in the general custom of the Cochin-Chinese to wear silk. To begin with the women; I think the modestest garb of all India; for even the hottest weather, they suffer no part of the body to be uncovered: they wear five to six petticoates over one another, all of several colours, the first reaches to the ground, which they trail along the ground with such gravity and state, that the tips of their toes are not seen; the second is half a span shorter than the first: the third shorter than that; and so one over another; so that all the several colors appear: and this is the women's habit from the waist downwards, for on their bodies they wear doublets checkered of several colours; over all they have a veil; but so thin, that though it covers them, yet it is transparent, and shews all their gaiety with modesty, and make a beauteous majestic appearance. Their hair is loose, spreading over their shoulders, so long that it reaches to the ground, and the longer the greater beauty. On their head they wear such a broad cap, that it covers all their face, so that they cannot see above four or five paces before them; and these caps are interwoven with silk and gold, according to the quality of the person. The women when met, are not obliged to any other return of civility, but to life up the brims of their caps, so much, as their face may be seen. The man, instead of breeches, swathe themselves with a whole peace of stuff, putting on over them five or six long and large gowns all of fine silk, and of several colors, with wide sleeves, like those of the monks of the order of St. Benedict, and these gowns, from the waist downwards, are all flushed curiously so that as a man moves he makes a shew of all those several colours together, and if any wind blows to lift them up, they look like peacocks with their fine feathers spread abroad.

Click here to view the original image of 800x722px.

All wear silk:
Cochin-China abounds in all other things necessary for the support of human life; and in the first place for clothing: there is such plenty of silk, that the peasants and mechanics generally wear it; so that I was often pleased to see men and women at their labour, carrying stone, earth, lime or the like, without the least fear of spoiling or tearing the rich clothes they had on. Nor will they wonder at it, who shall know, that the mulberry-trees, whose leaves feed the silk-worms, grown in vast plains, as hemp does among us, and run up as fast; so that in a few months the silk worms appear upon them, and feed in the open air, spinning their thread at the proper time, and winding their bottoms in such plenty, that the Cochin-Chineses have not only enough for their own uses, but they furnish Japan, and send it to the kingdom of Lais, whence it afterwards spreads as far as Tibet; this silk being not so fine and soft, but stronger and more substantial than that of China.

Hair and nails never cut:
Men let their hair grow as the women do, down to their heels, and wear the same sort of hats, or broad caps. Those who have any beard, and they are but few, never cut it; being in this like the Chineses, as they are in suffering the nails of their hands to grow, which the people of note never pare; this being a mark of distinction between them and the commonalty, who always keep them short, for the convenience of their trades; whereas the gentry have them so long, that they cannot grasp any small thing in their hands.

Their diet:
Their main diet is rice. The country abounds in flesh, fowl, and fruit of so many sorts; yet when they eat, they first fill their belly with rice, and then taste of other things, as it were for fashion-sake. They make more account of rice than we do of bread, and that it may not clog them, they eat it alone without any seasoning of salt, sugar, oil, or butter, but boiled in so much water as will keep it from burning to, so that the grain remains whole, only softened and moistened. For this very reason that the rice is not seasoned, it is the easier of digestion, and therefore they live upon rice, as they do in the east, commonly eat it at least four times a day, and a great quantity of it to. The Cochin-Chineses eat sitting cross-legged on the ground, with a round table before them breast-high, with moldings, or adorned with silver or gold, according to the people's wealth or quality. It is not very large; because the custom is for every man to have one to himself; so that at a feast, as many guests as there are, so many tables are provided, and the same is done when they dine privately; only sometimes man and wife, or father and son, will make a shift with the same table. They neither use knives nor forks; of the first they have no need, because everything is brought up from the kitchen cut into small bit; the place of the last is supplied by two little sticks, when they neatly and very readily take up any thing; nor they need any napkins, for they never foul their hands, nor touch anything with them.

Buildings:
The structures the Cochin-Chineses use of wood, are nothing inferior to those of any other part of the world; for without falsifying this country has the best timber in the universe, in the opinion of all that have been there to this time.

Incorruptible trees called Tin
Among the variety and multitude of their trees, there are two that most usually serve for building, and are so incorruptible, that they do not decay in the least, either underground, or under water; and they are so solid and heavy, that they do not swim upon the water, and a log of them serves instead as an anchor to a ship. One of them is black, but not so as ebony; the other is red, and both of them, when the bark is taken off are so smooth and slick, that they scare need any planing. These trees are called Tin; and they would not deviate much from the truth, who should say, they were that incorruptible wood, which Solomom made use of for building the temple for we know the scripture gives them a name much like this, calling them ligna thyina. The mountains of Cochin-China are full of these trees, all strait, of such prodigious height that they seem to touch the clouds, and so thick that two men cannot fathom them. Of this timber the Cochin-Chineses build their houses, every man being free to cut down as many as he pleases.

Tin tree