1888.] on the Pijgnuj Races of Men. 275 



peopled some little islands — among otlicis, Bongas Island, or " Isla 

 de los Negros." 



As the islands of these eastern seas have become better known, 

 further discoveries of the existence of a small Negroid population have 

 been made in Formosa, in the interior of Borneo, Sandalwood Island 

 (Sumba), Xulla, Bourou, Ceram, Flores, Solor, Lomblem, Pantar, 

 Ombay, the eastern peninsula of Celebes, &c. In fact, Sumatra and 

 Java are the only large islands of this great area which contain no 

 traces of them except some doubtful cr< ss-breeds, and some remains of 

 an industry which appears not to have passed beyond the Age of Stone. 



The Sunda Islands form the sonthern limit of the Negrito area ; 

 Formosa, the last to the north, where the race has preserved all its 

 characters. But beyond this, as in Loo Choo, and even in the south- 

 cast portion of Japan, it reveals its former existence by the traces it 

 has left in the present population. That it has contributed considerably 

 to form the population of New Guinea is unquestionable. In many 

 parts of that great island, small round-headed tribes live more or less 

 distinct from the larger and longer-headed people who make up the 

 bulk of the population. 



But it is not only in the islands tbat the Negrito race dwell. 

 Traces of them are found also on the mainland of Asia, but 

 everywhere under the same conditions : in scattered tribes, occupying 

 the more inaccessible mountainous regions of countries otherwise 

 mainly inhabited by other races, and generally in a condition more or 

 less of degradation and barbarism, resulting from the oppression with 

 which they have been treated by their invading conquerers ; often 

 moreover, so much mixed that their original characters are scarcely 

 recognisable. The Semangs of the interior of Malacca in the Malay 

 peninsula, the Sakays from Perak, the Moys of Annam, all show traces 

 of Negrito blood. In India proper, especially among the lowest and 

 least civilised tribes, not only of the central and southern districts, 

 but almost to the foot of the Himalayas, in the Punjab, and even to 

 the west side of the Indus, according to Quatrefages, frizzly hair, negro 

 features, and small stature, are so common that a strong argument can 

 be based on them for the belief in a Negrito race forming the basis of 

 the whole pre- Aryan, or Dravidian as it is generally called, population 

 of the peninsula. The crossing that has taken place with other races 

 has doubtless greatly altered the physical characters of this people, 

 and the evidences of this alteration manifest themselves in many ways ; 

 sometimes the curliness of the hair is lost by the admixture with 

 straight-haired races, while the black complexion and small stature 

 remain ; sometimes the stature is increased, but the coloiu\ which 

 seems to be one of the most persistent of characteristics, remains. 



The localities in which the Negrito people are found in their greatest 

 purity, either in almost inaccessible islands, as on the Audamans, or 

 elsewhere in the mountainous ranges of the interior only ; and their 

 social condition and traditions, wherever they exist — all point to the 

 fact that they were the earliest inhabitants ; and that the Monoolian 



