452 On the Aborigines of Nor-Eastern India, [May, 



even with the humblest tribe, we must soon find that we are dealing 

 with the history, and with a material portion of the history, of some 

 great mass of the human race. Thus, the latest investigators of the 

 general subject of human affinities include in the great Mongolian 

 family, not merely the high Asian Nomades, or the Turks, the Mongols 

 and the Tangus, but also (with daily increasing, though not yet con- 

 clusive, evidence) the Tibetans, the Chinese, the Indo-Chinese, and the 

 Tamulians. The Tamulians include the whole of the Aborigines of 

 India, whether civilized or uncivilized, from Cape Comorin to the 

 snows ; except the inhabitants of the great mountainous belt confining 

 the plains of India towards Tibet, China and Ava. These last are, in 

 the Nor- West, derived from the Tibetan stock ; and in the South-East, 

 from the Indo-Chinese stock; the 92° of East longitude, or the Dhansri 

 river of Assam, apparently forming the dividing line of the two races, 

 which are each vastly numerous and strikingly diversified, yet essen- 

 tially one, just as are the no less numerous and varied races of the 

 single Tamulian stock. Thus, we cannot take up the investigation of a 

 narrow and barren topic like that of the Kuki, the Chepang, or the 

 Gond tribe without presently finding ourselves engaged in unravelling 

 some, it may be, dark and intricate, but truly important, chapter of the 

 history of one of those large masses of human kind, the Indo-Chinese 

 the Tibetans, or the Tamulians. Nor can one prosecute this investi- 

 gation far without perceiving that our subject has yet ampler relations, 

 connecting itself by indissoluble yet varied links with those tremendous 

 warriors who planted their standards on the walls of Pekin and Dehli, 

 of Vienna and Moscow. Much of their fate and fortunes belongs to 

 history, but much more to pre-historic times, when vast bodies of these 

 so called Mongols poured themselves upon India, from the North and 

 from the East, both before, and subsequent to, the great immigration of 

 the Arian Hindus. Have you no curiosity to learn what may be learnt 

 anent these important, and for us British denizens of India, domestic, 

 events ? Or do you doubt the validity of any available media of proof? 

 If the latter, as is probable, be the ground of your objection to such 

 inquiries, I would say, in the first place, look steadfastly at any man of 

 an aboriginal race (an ubiquitarian Dhanger for instance) and say if a 

 Mongol origin is not palpably inscribed on his face ? Or, again, take 

 a score of \*ords of his language and compare them with their equi- 



