850 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. 



a considerable proportion of the latter present less resemblance to the ancient 

 Egyptians than their Moslem neighbours, who have intermarried either with their 

 fellow-countrymen or with the less dissimilar Arabian or Berber peoples of the 

 same faith as themselves. 



2. Rajputs and Mahrattas. By W. Crooke, B.A, 



This paper was mainly devoted to a consideration of the views recently 

 enunciated by Sir H. Risley on the origin of the Rajputs and Mahrattas. 



The former are classed by him, on the evidence of authropometrj^, as ' Indo- 

 Aryans.' But historical and other evidence points to the conclusion that, so far 

 from being a distinct ethnical unit, the Rajputs form a status group, compounded 

 from varied elements. Thus, in the Ganges valley and along the central ranges 

 <if hills many Rajputs are promoted from the indigenous, so-called ' Dravidian,' 

 races. This fact is familiar to all ethnologists. More important and novel is the 

 evidence from epigraphy recently discovered, which shows that many of the 

 Rajputs in the Punjab and Rajputana are sprung from Scythian and Hun 

 invaders. These foreigners were a brachycephalic people; and the failure of 

 craniometry to detect this strain in the present population may be due either 

 to in::uthciunt investigation, or to the impossibility of classifying mixed races on 

 the basis of skull form. 



Next, it was shown that there is no historical justification for the assumed 

 Scythian entry into the Deccan and Southern India as far down as Coorg. The 

 presence in those regions of a brachycephalic strain, whatever may be its origin, 

 cannot be due to a Scythian or Hun invasion. 



The Mahrattas, again, do not constitute a stable ethnical unit. They are a 

 status group, the basis being the ' Dravidian ' or indigenous Kunbi tribe. The 

 higher classes, owing to their rise in social importance, have asserted and obtained 

 the right of conniibimn with the Rajputs. 



It was suggested that the influence of environment and sexual selection have 

 been to some extent overlooked in recent discussions on the ethnology of India; 

 and that these causes may possibly explain the uniformity which characterises the 

 p'lysical character of the people of the I'uojab. 



3. On a Collection of Dinka Laivs and Customs.^ 

 By E. Sidney Hartland. 



The Dinkas are one of the most important tribes of the Egyptian Sudan. 

 Captain Hugh D. E. O'SuUivan, a Government official, has recently compiled for 

 administrative purposes a collection of their laws and customs. This collection 

 is at present unprinted, and contains valuable anthropological material. The 

 Dinkas are a pastoral people, the economic basis of their society being the pos- 

 session of cattle. Their government is patriarchal, and they reckon descent only 

 in the male line. Reasons were given for thinking that this exclusively male 

 descent was preceded by exclusively female descent. Some curious details of 

 custom were discussed ; among others, the legal fiction (believed to be unique) 

 by which an heir is provided when the male line has died out. 



4. Four Weeks in New Britain. By Miss B. Pullen-Borry. 



Among the inhabitants of New Britain, two races stand out from the rest 

 as possessing isolated features. The Sultkas of the soutli coast, known as 

 'S/ntzkopfe from the artificial protuberance of the occiput, and the Bainings, only 

 discovered ton years ago, now considered to be the aboriginals of the island. 



' To be published in J. Jl. Anthrojiological Institute, 



