272 ANTHROPOLOGY xvn 



gradations of racial type indicated by the nasal index and certain 

 of the social data ascertained by independent inquiry. If we 

 take a series of castes in Bengal, Behar, or the North-Western 

 Provinces, and arrange them in the order of the average nasal 

 index, so that the caste with the finest nose shall be at the 

 top, and that with the coarsest at the bottom of the list, it 

 will be found that this order substantially corresponds with 

 the accepted order of social precedence. The casteless tribes 

 Kols, Korwas, Mundas, and the like who have not yet 

 entered the Brahmanical system occupy the lowest place in 

 both series. Then come the vermin-eating Musuhars, and the 

 leather-dressing Chamars. The fisher castes of Bauri, Bind, 

 and Kewat are a trifle higher in the scale ; the pastoral Goala, 

 the cultivating Kurmi, and a group of cognate castes from 

 whose hands a Brahman may take water follow in due order ; 

 and from them we pass to the trading Khatris, the land- 

 holding Babhans, and the upper crust of Hindu society. Thus, 

 it is scarcely a paradox to lay down as a law of the caste 

 organisation in Eastern India that a man's social status varies 

 in inverse ratio to the width of his nose." The results 

 already obtained by this method of observation have been so 

 important and interesting that it is greatly to be hoped that 

 the inquiry may be extended throughout the remainder of our 

 Indian Empire. 



But for want of time I might here refer to the valuable 

 work done in relation to the natives of the Andaman Islands, 

 a race in many respects of most exceptional interest, first by 

 Mr. E. H. Man, and more recently by Mr. M. V. Portman, and 

 for the same reason can scarcely glance at the great progress 

 that is being made in anthropological research in other 

 countries than our own. The numerous workers on this 

 subject in the United States of America are, with great 

 assistance from the Government, very properly devoting them- 

 selves to exploring, collecting, and publishing, in a systematic 

 and exhaustive manner, every fact that can still be discovered 

 relating to the history, language, and characters of the 

 aboriginal population of their own land. They have in this 

 a clear duty set before them, and they are doing it in splendid 

 style. I wish we could say that the same has been done 



