1046 OF THE HUMAN FAMILY, AND THEIR MUTUAL RELATIONS. 



people, unlike their kindred in the North; in whom a long abode in the centre 

 of Europe has, in like manner, developed the more elevated characters, physical 

 and mental, of the European nations. 



1054. The nations inhabiting the South-eastern and Southern portion of 

 Asia, also, appear to have had their origin in the Mongolian or Central Asiatic 

 stock ; although their features and form of skull by no means exhibit its cha- 

 racteristic marks, but present such departures from it as are elsewhere observ- 

 able in races that are making advances in civilization. The conformity to the 

 Mongolian type is most decidedly shown by the nations (collectively termed 

 Seriform by Dr. Latham) which inhabit China, Thibet, the Indo-Chinese 

 peninsula, and the base of the Himalayan range; these are associated by certain 

 linguistic peculiarities which distinguish them from all other races; that pri- 

 mitive condition of human speech, in which there is a total absence of inflections 

 indicative of the relation of the principal words to one another, being appa- 

 rently preserved with less change in the tongues of these people than in those 

 of any other. The Chinese may be physically characterized as Mongolians 

 softened down; and in passing from China towards India, through the Burmese 

 empire, there is so gradual a transition towards the ordinary Hindoo type, that 

 no definite line of demarcation can be anywhere drawn. The inhabitants of the 

 great peninsula of Hindostan have been commonly ranked (as already remarked) 

 under the Caucasian race ; both on account of their physical conformity to 

 that type, and also because it has been considered that the basis of their lan- 

 guages is Sanskritic. It is certain, however, that this conclusion is incorrect 

 with regard to a very large proportion of the existing population of India ; and 

 there is strong reason to believe that no part of it bears any real relation of 

 affinity to the Indo-European group of nations, except such as may be derived 

 from a slight intermixture. Thus, the Tamulian, which is the dominant lan- 

 guage of Southern India, is undoubtedly not Sanskritic in its origin (although 

 containing an infusion of Sanskritic words), but more closely approximates to 

 the Seriform type ; and many of the hill tribes, in different parts of India, 

 speak peculiar dialects, which, though mutually unintelligible, appear referable 

 to the same stock. Now it is among this portion of the population of India 

 that the greatest departure presents itself from the Caucasian type of cranial 

 conformation, and the closest conformity to the Mongolian ; the cheek-bones 

 being more prominent, the hair coarse, scanty, and straight, and the nose flat- 

 tened ; sometimes, also, the lips are very thick, and the jaws project, showing 

 an approximation to the prognathous type. Now in the opinion of Dr. Latham 

 and Mr. Norris, the various dialects of Northern India (of which the Hindostani 

 is the most extensively spoken) are to be regarded as belonging, in virtue of 

 their fundamental nature, to the same group with those of High Asia, notwith- 

 standing the large infusion of Sanskritic words which they contain; this infu- 

 sion having been introduced at an early period by an invading branch of the Arian 

 stock, of whose advent there is historical evidence, and whose descendants the 

 ordinary Hindoo population have been supposed to be. According to this view, 

 then, the influence of the Arian invasion upon the language and population of 

 Northern India was very much akin to that of the Norman invasion upon those 

 of England; the number of individuals of the invading race being so small in 

 proportion to that of the indigenous population, as to be speedily merged in it, 

 not, however, without contributing to an elevation of its phvsical characters ; 

 and a large number of new words having been in like mariner introduced, 

 without any essential change in the type of the original language. And thus 

 the only distinct traces of the Arian stock are to be found in the Brahminical 

 caste, which preserves (though with great corruption) the original Brahminical 

 religion, and which keeps up the Sanskrit as its classical language; it is certain, 

 however, that this race is far from being of pure descent, having intermingled 



