558 MAN: PAST AND PRESENT. [CHAP. 



which they may have never ranged very far into the plains. 

 Even the KOLS or KOLARIANS', who formerly over- 



The Kols. . 



spread the plains of Bengal, are now restricted to 

 the hilly and jungly tracts between Upper and Lower Bengal, 

 the Chota Nagpore plateau, and generally from the Ganges to 

 about 18 N. lat. Their chief divisions are the Santals, Mundas, 

 Kharias, Korwas, Kurkus, Mehtos, Mal-Paharias 2 , and Savaras, 

 each speaking a distinct dialect of the common Kolarian speech, 

 which seems to show affinities with the Kiranti of Nepal, but none 

 with the Mon of Pegu, as has been suggested by Dr Mason and 

 others 3 . 



In features, says Dalton, the Kols show "much variety, and 

 I think in a great many families there is a considerable admixture 

 of Aryan blood. Many have high noses and oval faces, and 

 young girls are at times met with who have delicate and regular 

 features, finely-chiselled straight noses, and perfectly formed 

 mouths and chins. The eyes, however, are seldom so large, so 

 bright, and gazelle-like as those of pure Hindu maidens, and 

 I have met strongly marked Mongolian features. In colour they 

 vary greatly, the copper tints being about the most common 

 [though the Mir/apur Kols are very dark]. Eyes dark brown, 

 hair black, straight or wavy [as all over India]. Both men and 

 women are noticeable for their fine, erect carriage and long, free 

 stride 4 ." 



All this, taken in connection with the affinities of their speech 

 to some of the Nepalese idioms, points to a proto-Mongoloid 

 people, who arrived in remote times, intermingled with the black 

 aborigines, and afterwards crossed with Aryans. 



There remain the DRAVIDIANS, to whom the same remark may 

 apply, with this difference, that both the black and the Mongol 



1 The term Kol, which occurs as an element in a great many tribal names, 

 and was first introduced by Campbell in a collective sense (1866), is of unknown 

 origin, but probably connected with a root meaning "Man" (W. Crooke, 

 Tribes and Castes, III. p. 294). 



2 Bishop Caldwell, The Languages of India, 1875. At the census of 1891 

 about 3 millions were returned as of Kolarian speech. 



3 Capt. Forbes, Paper read at the Asiat. Soc. Nov. 1877. 



4 Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal, p. 190. 



