34 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



NOTES ON BHILS, BURMESE, AND BATTAKS. 



By Dr. R. W. SHUFELDT. 



ABOUT a year ago the distinguished anthropologist of the 

 -^-^ University of Zurich, Dr. Rudolph Martin, presented the 

 writer with a small but very valuable collection of photographs 

 of certain peoples of India and the East Indies. Some of these 

 are very rare, and, upon searching the ethnological works in the 

 Government libraries in Washington, I have been unable to find 

 examples of quite a number of them. 



For instance, we have scarcely any literature upon the history 

 of that truly interesting race of Indian peoples known as the 

 Bhils. Two of my photographs (Figs. 1 and 3) are devoted to a 

 Bhil beauty, the one giving her directly en face, and the other 

 en profile. This is the true scientific method of photographing a 

 subject of this kind, and it has been my experience among native 

 races that it can usually be done. It practically very much en- 

 hances the value of either 

 picture ; for characters and 

 objects of dress and orna- 

 ment, seen upon front view, 

 can often be only fully ex- 

 plained by the one taken 

 upon lateral aspect, and vice 

 versa. 



In this Bhil woman, for 

 example, the central fasten- 

 ing of the chain ornament 

 at the fore end of the hair- 

 parting is distinctly seen 

 when we regard her from in 

 front, whereas the very pe- 

 culiar perforated, circular 

 ornament of metal in the 

 wing of the nose is but part- 

 ly made out. Taken upon 

 side view, these conditions 

 are exactly reversed, and 

 with a lens of moderate 

 power one can easily study 

 in detail the several inter- 

 esting ornaments with which she has bedecked her head and neck. 

 Upon profile, too, we can appreciate the nature of her headdress 

 behind, which is quite out of the question when the subject, in 

 this case, is seen from in front. This is likewise the only method 



Fig. 1. A Bhil Beauty, India. 

 Seen upon front view. 



