Central Asia, while others approximate the Malayan, and through
these the Polynesian forms. Indo-China may therefore he regarded
as the transitionary of debatable ground between Asia and Polynesia.
Concerning the skull-forms of the mysterious aboriginal tribes of
this region, who here and there “ crop out” above the prevailing
type (the perplexing representatives of an earlier and perhaps primitive
humanitarian epoch), I have nothing to say, being without the
necessary material. Among these relics of a former time may be
enumerated the savage Garo, or hill-tribes of South-west Assam,
with their Negro characteristics; the savage blacks of the Andam-
man Isles; and certain wild tribes dwelling'to the north of Ava, and
differing from the dominant population in language, religion, and
physical characters. These, in common with the Bheels and Govand
tribes of Guzerat, the Puharrees of Central, the Cohatars of Southern,
and the Jauts of Western India, all seem to be the remnants of a
once powerful and widely-spread people.
Very few, if any, people are more varied in their physical characters
than the great Indostanic Family. Conquest and amalgamation
have disguised and altered its primitive types in a remarkable degree.
Only here and there, in the mountainous regions, do we catch a glimpse
of these types, A portion of the aborigines appear to have been of a
dark or quite black complexion.
“ In general, the face is oval, the nose straight or slightly aquiline, the month small, the,
teeth vertical and well-formed, and the chin rounded and generally dimpled. The eyes are
black, bright, and expressive, the eyelashes long, and the brow thin and arched. The hair
is long, black, and glossy, and the beard very thin. The head of the Hindoo is small in
proportion to the body, elongated and narrow especially across the forehead, which is only
moderately elevated.” 164
The collection contains in all forty-three crania of the Indostanic
Race. Among these skulls, at least two types can be distinguished.
1st. The fair-skinned Ayras, a conquering race, speaking a Sanscrit
dialect, and occupying Ayra-Varta, which extends from the Vindya
to the Himalaya Mountains, and from the Bay of Bengal to the
Indian Ocean, and comprises the Mahrattas, and other once powerful
tribes, who have so boldly and obstinately resisted the English arms.
These tribes are of Persian origin. They migrated to India, according
to M. Guigniaut, as early as 3101 b , c. 2d. The Bengalee,
represented by thirty-five skulls. Dr. Morton considers these small-
statured, feeble-minded, and timid people as an aboriginal race upon
whom a foreign language has been imposed.
Of the eight Ayra skulls in the collection, six are of the Brahmin
164 Crania Americana, p. 32.
caste, and two are Thuggs. Fig. -Rig. 20.
20 — the skull of Sumboo-Sing,
hanged at Calcutta for murder ■—
very well represents this peculiar
type. In the Anthropologie of
R mile B lanch a r d, the reader will
find an interesting comparison
drawn between the Hindoo, Malay,
and Micronesian forms of the cranium.
I have already, in substance, expressed
the opinion that the cranium
of the Lapp, in point of con- , Hindu (1330).
formation, must be regarded as
constituting the connecting link between the types predominating
in the Boreal'Zone, and those encountered among the European or
Indo-Germanic races. I have also ventured the opinion that, through
the Osmanlis and the Khazan Tartars, the Mongolic form, character-'
izing the Asiatic realm, glided, by an easy transition, into the European.
But Asia graduates into Europe still more naturally, perhaps,
through the races constituting the widely-spread Finnic or Tchudic
family, which, at an epoch antedating the earliest records, occupied
the country extending from Norway to the Yennisei, north of the
55th degree of latitude in Asia, and the 60th in Europe. I have now
to state that, thrqpgh the Affghan skull, the Indostanic blends with
the Semitic form. Thus, then, it appears that, in pursuing our cranial
investigations, it is immaterial what route we take in. passing
from the Asiatic into the so-called European or Caucasian area.
Whether we journey from Hindustan through Afghanistan, seeking
the table-lands of bran; or, setting out from the heart of Mongolia,
traverse the Turkish region, and so enter Asia Minor; or, penetrate
from the North-East into Scandinavia, through the intervening Lapps
and Finns, we meet with the same result—a type which is, in general,
as unlike that of the great region just surveyed, as are the animal
and vegetable forms of these two countries.
The home of the so-called European, Caucasian, or White race,
comprehends Europe, Africa north' of the Saharan Desert, and South-
Western Asia. This extensive region may, for convenience of study,
be divided into four provinces, of which the first, extending from
Finnmark southward into the. heart of Europe, is occupied by the
Teutonic, Gothic, or Scythic family; the second comprises Western
and Southern Europe, and is inhabited by the Celtic family; the
third, located in Eastern Europe, contains the great Shlavic group;