22 Tlie Ethnology of India. 



thiek^Upped expression of countenance lingers long. The Gond Kaja 

 of Nagpore is of a family for generations civilised and Mahommedan, 

 doubtless of very far from pure Aboriginal blood, and rather fair- 

 skinned, but even in him I noticed the thick lips as prominent as in 

 an African. Major Tickell seems to describe the ' Hos,' who are iden- 

 tical with ' Lurka Coles' and closely allied to Moondahs and Sontals 

 (one of the ugliest of races), as handsome ; but everything is compara- 

 tive / and I suspect that this beauty is of the same kind as that which 

 enthusiastic African travellers are constantly discovering in Negro 

 tribes. The Hos of the border land have probably much intermixed 

 with Ooriahs, and are less ugly than their congeners are always 

 described to be. 



Setting aside then the numerous half-breeds, borderers, and people 

 of imperfect type, I take it that the general physical type of all the 

 purest Aboriginal tribes, is that which is commonly known as Negrito. 

 They are small and slight, very black, face broad and flat, the thick 

 lips already mentioned very prominent, noses broad and nostrils wide, 

 beard scanty, hair very abundant and tangled, of a shock-headed 

 appearance, sometimes curly or even woolly. The peculiar Mongolian 

 or Chinese form of the eye is not conspicuous, and altogether the 

 features and the face are rather what we best know as African than 

 Mongolian. This description crops up everywhere in all the various 

 descriptions of Aboriginal tribes. I have not collected all these testi- 

 monies, but I will give one or two on which I can lay my hands. 

 Col. Dalton says, " The Jushpore Oraons are the ugliest of the race, 

 with foreheads ' villainous low,' flat noses and projecting maxillaries, 

 they approach the Negro in physiognomy." And again, " The Kaurs, 

 next to the Jushpore Oraons, are the ugliest race I have seen, dark, 

 coarse-featured, wide mouths and thick lips." In a note which he 

 was good enough to send in answer to some inquiries which I made, 

 he adds, " The Oraons have more of the African type of feature, and I 

 have seen amongst them woolly heads." An isolated tribe on the 

 East Coast, called ' Chenchwars,' are described in similar terms, and said 

 to be " just what you might suppose to result from the crossing of the 

 Malacca Aborigines with the common people of this country," the 

 Malacca Aborigines being very marked Negritos. The Savage Gonds 

 in the forests east of the Wyngunga seem to be of a similar type. So 



