1849.] A Brief Note on Indian Ethnology. 239 



but to the statesman. The Tamulians are now, for the most part, 

 British subjects : they are counted by millions, extending from the 

 snows to the Cape (Comorin) ; and, lastly, they are as much superior 

 to the Arian Hindus in freedom from disqualifying prejudices, as they 

 are inferior to them in knowledge and all its train of appliances — a 

 fact of which the extensive and important uses now making of the K61 

 or Dhanger race, offer a valuable exemplification. Yes ! in every ex- 

 tensive jungly or hilly tract throughout the vast continent of India 

 there exist hundreds of thousands of human beings in a state not mate- 

 rially different from that of the Germans as described by Tacitus. Let 

 then the student of the progress of society, of the fate and fortunes 

 of the human race, instead of poring over a mere sketch of the past, 

 address himself to the task of preparing full and faithful portraits of 

 what is before his eyes ; and let the statesman profit by the labours 

 of the student ; for these primitive races are the ancient heritors of 

 the whole soil, from all the rich and open parts of which they were 

 wrongfully expelled by the usurping Hindus.* It is one great object 

 of this research to ascertain when, and under what circumstances 

 this dispersion of the ancient owners of the soil took place, at least 

 to demonstrate the fact, and to bring again together the dissevered 

 fragments of the body, by means of careful comparison of the langu- 

 ages, physical attributes, creed and customs of the several (assumed) 

 parts. It is another object, not less interesting, to exhibit the positive 

 condition, moral and material, of each of these societies, at once so 

 improveable and so needful of improvement, and whose archaic status, 

 polity and ideas offer such instructive pictures of the course of human 

 progression. Surely a subject so worthy, as this latter one, of the best 

 attention and ablest examination ought not to be treated superficially, 

 or as if we aimed merely to learn how far the aborigines have a com- 

 mon tie of descent. It is the great purpose of my copious and system- 

 atic vocabulary to display accurately the point of advancement which 

 the aborigines have reached in thought and in action. And the more 

 I see of these primitive races, the stronger becomes my conviction that 

 there is no medium of investigation yielding such copious and accurate 



* It can hardly be necessary for me to say that I do not entertain the idle 

 notion of now ejecting the Hindus and replacing the Aborigines, but that of drawing 

 well-informed heedfulness to the condition and claims of the latter. 



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