48 The Ethnology of India. 



them, and are very good cultivators in their own simple way. They 

 are not particularly dark, and, in addition to the ordinary breadth and 

 flatness of face, have a good deal of the Chinese-looking form of eye ; 

 so that it is difficult from appearance to say, whether they really 

 belong to the Negrito, or to the Indo-Chinese stock. The fact is that 

 though no two races can be more unlike one another than the slim, 

 black, tangled-haired Negrito, and the stout, fair, lank haired Thibetan, 

 yet when we come to half-breeds, the difference may not be so great. 

 When the colour is softened or heightened, and the size increased or 

 decreased to that of the ordinary Hindoo, and the hair reduced to 

 civilised limits, there is the same appearance of breadth and flatness of 

 face, and these latter characteristics are more apparent at a glance than 

 any distinction between prognathous and pyramidal skulls. It would 

 seem too that the Chinese peculiarity of eye is caused by the broad 

 cheek bone common to both races, and perhaps it may be that 

 while the eye being sunk deeper in the Negro and Negrito, and more 

 covered by a more fleshy form of face its form is not so apparent, in 

 the half-breed it is brought out, and the skin tightened by the high 

 cheek-bone shows the Chinese-looking form of eye. I have noticed 

 some of the Ghatwals on the borders of Bengal and Behar, who looked 

 not unlike G-oorkas. Thus then it becomes difficult to distinguish 

 those tribes, on the northern and eastern frontiers, whose blood may be 

 supposed to have become a good deal mixed by long contact with 

 other races, and whose colour may have been softened by the cool, moist 

 and shady climate of the Northern Terai. 



I must also say that I think Hodgson has somewhat contributed to 

 mix up the two races in our ideas, for in his enthusiasm to establish a 

 connection between his Tamulians and the eastern races, he scarcely 

 attempts to distinguish them, and classes as Tamulians, Bodos, Dhimals, 

 (fee. of whose connection with the Aborigines of the South of India 

 there does not seem to be the slightest evidence in language, and 

 who in appearance are as different as can be. 



To return to the ' Tharoos ;' as I said their appearance might leave 

 doubt of their origin, and unfortunately they are not known to have any 

 language of their own. Those with whom we have come more imme- 

 diately in contact (including all those in eastern Rohilcund) certainly 

 now speak Hindee, but the tribe is so large and important, that it 



