June 2, 1910J 



NATURE 



401 



lassical Hindu •wTiters, claiming racial unity, are 1 castes may avoid him ; a Nayadi pollutes a Brahman 

 Aorthless, being- mainly in the interest of the ! by approaching within a distance of three hundred 



twice-born " and priestly class. Thirdly, that \ paces, and a priest can purify himself only by renew- 

 lere are five primary stocks out of which the ! ing his sacred thread, bathing, and consuming the 

 resent population has been formed — Negrito, pro- I five products of the sacred cow. Mr. Iyer, with some 



I regret, admits that this policy is naturally driving the 



I outcasts into the arms of the Christian missionary^ 



i conversion immediately elevating them in the social 



scale, and placing them on a level with their new 



bably derived from Malaysia ; Kolarian, Dravidian, 

 and Ar)-an, who arrived in the order named frc«n 

 beyond the northern mountain ranges ; lastly, the 

 Mongol, now mainly confined to the Himalayan 

 slopes. Fourthly, that three groups, Kolarian, Dravi- 

 dian, and Aryan, are represented by distinct linguistic 

 stocks, and that hence compound terms, like the 

 Indo-.-^r^an, Dravido-Munda, and Scytho-Dravidian 

 of Sir H. Risley, are meaningless, if not actually mis- 

 leading. It is needless to say that, perhaps with the 



brethren. It is clear that if Hindus desire to secure 

 Anglo-Indian sympathy, and retain these people 

 within their religious organisation, they must set their 

 own house in order, and must lose no time in joining 

 the new association, which has received the patronage 

 of .the Guicowar of Baroda, and aims at more con- 



exception of the second, these principles will be dis- \ siderate treatment of the depressed races, of which 

 puted by various Indian ethnologists. The fact is the present book gives a comprehensive description, 

 that the collections of physical measurements in India j 



itself, and still more from border lands, are at present 

 insufficient for a se^tament of these tangled problems. 

 Among the mar^QPkeresting topics discussed by 

 Mr. Iyer, perhaps the most valuable is his account of 

 the Oti black magic of the Parayans, by which the 



SHEFFIELD MEETING OF THE BRITISH 

 ASSOCIATION. 



AS announced already, the British Association will 

 meet this year in Sheffield under the presidency 



adept believes that he can acquire the power of trans- I of Dr. T. G. Bonney, F.R.S. Members of the asso- 

 ciation who have not seen the city 

 since the last meeting there thirty- 

 one years ago will find themselves 

 now quite at sea, so g^eat have been 

 the changes in streets, buildings, 

 growth, and, it may be added, 

 public spirit during that time. It 

 has now been found possible not 

 only to provide ample accommoda- 

 tion for the sectional work, but to 

 do so compactly, all the sections ex^ 

 cept one being within a few 

 minutes' walk from the reception 

 room. The reception, smoking, 

 writing, and general committee 

 rooms will be housed in the suite of 

 assembly rooms belonging to the 

 Cutlers' Company, which were used 

 in 1879 for the evening soirees. The 

 reception room of that date is now 

 allotted to Section E. The Cutlers' 

 Hall is also close to the tramway 

 centre, and so is easily accessible 

 from all parts of the cit}". 



The evening discourses are to be 

 given in the Victoria Hall, a place 

 easy to speak in and easy to hear 

 in. The Lord Mayor (Lord Fitzwilliam) will give a 

 soiree at the Town Hall, and the Chancellor of the 

 University- (the Duke of Norfolk) one at the Univer- 

 sit}\ The latter is to be associated with an evening 

 garden-part}- in the \\'eston Park, which surrounds 

 the UniversitA,-, to be given by the local committee. 

 .■\ series of garden-parties is being arranged, of which 

 one will be ijiven by Lord and Countess Fitzwilliam 

 at Wentworth. Among others, excursions are already 

 arranged to Chatsworth and Haddon, The Dukeries 

 tion by touch, the use of common food, and the like, j and Birchinlee. in the heart of the wild Peak country', 

 much more stringent than those which are in force ' where huge reservoirs are being constructed for the 

 among the northern races. For instance, the Kadars, j water supply of Sheffield. Derby, Nottingham, and 

 primitive dwellers in the forests, are contaminated by Leicester. The latter are a portion of the develop- 

 the touch of a Malayan, a cognate tribe. The edu- ment which is rapidly transforming the district round 

 cated Madrasi is prone to accuse the .\nglo-Indian of the Peak into a lake countn.-, the valleys running do\m 



from the higrh moors being dammed to form, in manv 

 cases, extremely picturesque sheets of water. 



The various committees engaged in making the 



arrangements are determined to make the meeting a 



success so far as they are concerned. The scientific 



success will depend on the association itself. A large 



road, has continually to call out so that the higher j attendance of members is expected, not onlj because 



NO. 2 1 18, VOL. 83] 



The Kanizans' Prayers before Piediv.tion. From " The Cochin Tribes and Castes.' 



formation into an animal, of causing and curing 

 disease, and so on. It is, however, unlikely that the 

 sorcerer, being here both priest and intercessor, 

 settles the relation of magic to religion. 



Much information is provided on the subject of the 

 social relations of these outcast tribes. Probably 

 owing to their protection from the inroads of foreign 

 invaders, the Hindus of South India, whose example 

 has been followed by the outcasts, surround them- 

 selves with a number of tabus in regard to the pollu- 



race insolence in restricting social intercourse with 

 him, while he himself, in his dealings with the lower 

 tribes, is much more restrictive. Thus even the pre- 

 sence of a Pulayan in a town or market is considered 

 a source of defilement, and "they are shunned as if 

 infected with plague"; the Valan, when on a public 



