a 
: 
FEBRUARY 22, 1917] 
NATURE 
491 
and to inquire, as I did, of the experts whether this 
were so, and what the actual effect might be expected 
to be. D’Arcy W. THOmpson. 
February 1. i : 
__ Alpine Strain in the Bengali Pecple. 
In the concluding paragraph of a short notice of my 
book, “The Indo-Aryan Races,’’ part i., published in 
Nature, November 23, 1916, the reviewer writes :— 
“The author might with advantage return in his 
next venture to the original problem of the origin of 
the Bengalis. He should probably discard Risley’s 
theory of Mongoloid infusion in favour of some early 
entry of an Alpine strain. If he can establish this 
doctrine he would do useful service to Indian ethno- 
logy ” (p. 227). 
This is exactly what I have endeavoured to do in 
chap. ii., entitled ‘‘Indo-Aryans of the Outer 
Countries.” After giving my arguments for discarding 
Risley’s classification of the Gujratis, Marathas, and 
* Coorgs as Scytho-Dravidian in type, and the Bengalis 
and Oriyas as Mongolo-Dravidian, I trace the broad- 
headed elements among these peoples to one common 
source, the Homo alpinus of the Pamirs and Chinese 
‘Turkestan (pp. 65-71), and later on try to reconstruct 
the history of the gradual migration of the Alpine 
invaders from Central Asia over Gujarat, Deccan, 
Bihar, and Bengal (pp. 75-78). How far I have suc- 
ceeded in my attempts is for others to judge. I may 
take this opportunity of adducing fresh evidences relat- 
ing to the presence of Homo alpinus in Central Asia 
and of Alpine strain in the Bengali people. In his 
account of ‘ A Third Journey of Exploration in Central 
Asia, 1913-16” (from the Geographical Journal of 
August and September, 1916, p. 3 Sir Aurel Stein 
writes of the bodies of men and women dug out of 
graves in the ruins of the Lon-lan site :— 
““ It was a strange sensation to look down on figures 
which, but for the parched skin, seemed like those of 
men asleep, and to feel brought face to face with 
people who inhabited, and no doubt liked, this dreary 
Lop-nor region in the first centuries a.pD, The features 
of the heads closely recalled the Homo alpinus type, 
which, judging from my anthropometric records, 
worked up by Mr. T. A. Joyce, still supplies the preva- 
lent element in the racial constitution of the indigenous 
population of Chinese Turkestan, and is seen in its 
purest form in the Iranian-speaking tribes near the 
Pamirs,”’ 
During the last Christmas holidays, while excavat- 
ing an old monument near Balurghat, in the Dinajpur 
district in Bengal, I and my colleagues of the Varendra 
Research Society had an excellent opportunity of com- 
paring different ethnic types in Bengal. Every day 
there was a large gathering of men, including high- 
caste Hindus, Musulmans, Rajbamsis, Mundas, and 
Santals. The Rajbamsis of the locality are easily dis- 
‘tinguished from the rest by their Mongoloid physi- 
ognomy, and the Rajbamsis, Mundas, and Santals are 
all distinguished from the other Hindus and Musul- 
mans by scanty hair on the face. It is, therefore, not 
possible to explain the origin of the bulk of the Ben- 
galis from an admixture of Mongoloid invaders like 
the Rajbamsis of Varendra and the Mundas, Santals, 
and other allied tribes classed by Risley as Dravidian 
and myself as Nisada. Two other elements in the 
Indian population, the Hindusthani and the Dravidian 
of southern India, are both long-headed. So, to ex- 
plain the presence of broad-heads among the Bengalis, 
we may very well postulate an Alpine strain. The 
newly discovered Aryan languages of Turkestan will 
‘throw fresh light on the problem. 
RAMAPRASAD CHANDA. 
Varendra Research Society, Rajshahi, Bengal. 
NO. 2469, VOL. 98] 
SHAKESPEARE’S ENGLAND. 
““ C HAKESPEARE’S England” is a very re- 
markable book, and a credit to our time, 
It could have been produced in no other. Indeed, 
it could only have been produced within the last 
few years, so much is it the outcome of the 
research in ever so many directions which has 
been going on of late. It is sad, of course, that 
it should make its appearance in the middle of 
the great war, and yet there is something fine and 
fitting about this. It does not to-day jostle with 
a motley crowd of ephemeral, flimsy, and flashy 
tributes. And it has a solemn majesty and solidity 
which make it worth while, even at such a time, 
and in virtue of which it will survive even these 
heavy troubles. y 
As the first words of the preface justly say, 
the description of ‘““Shakespeare’s England ” was 
a task worth carrying through, even if Shakespeare 
had never lived. But it is also a contribution of 
great importance to the understanding of Shake- 
speare. If Shakespeare was in one sense “not of 
an age, but for all time,” in another he was most 
essentially of his age. He is emphatically Eliza- 
bethan. He could not have been what he was, or 
written as he did, either a very little earlier or a 
very little later; either in the days of Wyatt and 
Surrey, or in those of Milton and Marvell; either 
in the storm of the Reformation, or in the storm 
of the Civil War; either before the Tudor expan- 
sions, or after the Stuart disillusionments. 
To understand him we require to understand his 
age, and though even a complete knowledge of 
that marvellous time will not give us Shakespeare, 
yet it will greatly aid, condition, and correct our 
ideas of him. And these two remarkably ample 
and learned volumes tell us how full and exhaustive 
our knowledge must be. They form, perhaps, the 
greatest tribute ever paid to Shakespeare. They 
are wonderfully complete and, for what they give, 
wonderfully cheap. 
To produce them, the labour of a host of 
specialists has been laid under contribution. All 
the greater and lesser arts and sciences are dealt 
with in turn: Theology, Law, Medicine, Poetry, 
Music, Painting, Acting, Dancing. ‘The Court, 
the Camp, the Schools,” the Navy, the Army, 
Sport, Learning and Commerce, Heraldry and 
Coinage, Rogues and Vagabonds, Bulls and Bears 
(not of the Stock Exchange, it is true, but of the 
ring), Astronomy, Astrology, Alchemy—each has 
its chapter or its section. The illustrations, which 
are abundant, are excellently chosen and repro- 
duced, and are in themselves at once a delight and 
an illumination. Ex pede Herculem. One of 
these appears with this article. 
It is not possible within the compass of a brief 
review even to indicate or inventory half of the 
wealth to be found in this ample thesaurus. 
Readers of Nature will perhaps turn to what is 
said of the Sciences and of Medicine, of Agri- 
cuture and of Gardening. If Bacon had really 
1 “*Shakespeare’s England: An Account of the Life and Manners of his 
Age.” Vol. i., pp. xvili+ 546, Vol. ii, pp. x+ 610. (Oxford: At the 
Clarendon Press, 1916.) Price, two vols., 255. net. 
