The Eihnology of India. 23 
in the papers with which I have been favoured from Bombay, I find 
that Major Keatinge, describing the three tribes of Gonds, Koors, and 
Bheels who meet about Asseerghur, says, “ All three tribes are very 
black, with a decidedly African expression when met in the centres of 
their country.” And Capt. Probyn, speaking of the more civilised 
Gonds who are now, he says, finer and fairer, still adds, ‘‘ with some- 
what African features,” Major Keatinge adds what illustrates that 
which I have already said, ‘‘ On the outskirts of their country, their 
features are much modified, showing plainly that they do not succeed 
in keeping their blood pure. The Chiefs have generally made it a 
point to get women of other castes into their households, and I have 
consequently observed that none of them have the national features.’’ 
In the South, the Chermars of Malabar are described as “‘ very di- 
minutive, with a very black complexion, with not unfrequently woolly 
hair.” And of some of the tribes of the Kodagherry hills it is said that 
** flattened noses, dark complexion and large white teeth filed into the 
form of a saw give them an African appearance.” The Nagadees are 
said to be ‘fin complexion invariably of the deepest black, their hair 
thick and curly, their features brutish, their forms diminutive,’’ 
That the type which I have described prevailed among the Aborigines 
generally in ancient times, is evident from the Purans, where they 
are described in extremely uncomplimentary terms as ‘ vile monstevs,’ 
‘allied to monkeys,’ ‘as black as crows,’ ‘ of flattened features and of 
dwarfish stature.’ Their long thick matted hair is also particularly 
mentioned. 
The ancient Greeks also describe the South-Indians as like Ethio- 
pians, and it is difficult to assign any other country to the Oriental 
Kthiopians of Herodotus. 
It may be stated,*as a physical peculiarity of the Aboriginal tribes, 
that most of them seem to have a remarkable power of resisting 
malaria, and thrive in the most malarious jungles where no other 
‘human beings-can live. This may, however, be the result of long 
habit; some tribes inhabiting healthy localities sicken easily enough 
elsewhere. i 
The languages of the Aborigines seem to have all this much in 
common, that they are of the structure described as Turanian. They 
are neither like the Monosyllabic Chinese on the one hand, nor on the 
