THE HUMAN SPECIES. Sil 



Jaitwar tribe, claiming to be descended from the mon- 

 key hero Hanuman, and pretending to have a prolon- 

 gation of the spine in proof of the fact, shows at 

 least that certain families, of whatever origin they 

 may be derived, still wish to pass for descendants of 

 aboriginal tribes. In the north-west of India, and east 

 of Persia, Shombho, Nishombho, Muhishan, Tarika, 

 Durga, and Ravan of Ceylon, are indigenous giants of 

 tradition, in all probability personifications of states, 

 and of repeated wars by Papua tribes against inva- 

 ders from the high mountains. The persevering na- 

 ture of the contest may be gathered from the circum- 

 stance, that although all were for many ages ruled by 

 chiefs of mixed origin, their final subjugation was not 

 accomplished till the Mahommedan conquest. 



In the usual dualism of mythology and history, we 

 find Rama, the son of Budh, and grandson of Meru, 

 child of the sun, abiding in his holy mountain, west of 

 Kaubul, probably Indo-Koosh.* Bali-Rama, the hero 

 son of Desaratha, or of a tribe so denominated, being 



learned scholar takes of the primaeval period. It is, how- 

 ever, a subject of regret, that not more Sanscrit documents 

 have been published, and that what is before the public 

 must be sought in many volumes, scattered through the 

 literature of Europe. 



* Mythologically, the holy mountain may be Dhawala- 

 giri, the highest mountain in the world, and in sight of the 

 northern border of Oude, in which case the Gogra, or more 

 likely the gorge of the Gunduk, in long. 88, may have been 

 the route followed from Thibet by Rama. The pass is still 

 frequented ; btit one was more certainly from the north- 

 and then, with a tribe from Balk, the march was 



