CRANIOLOGY OF PEOPLE OF INDIA. 109 



The stature is low; in the Veddahs of the central district, where the race is probably the 

 purest, the mean height of twenty-four men was 1533 mm. (5 feet J inch), of eleven 

 women 1433 mm. (4 feet 7 inches) ; that of twenty-four men from the coast district was 

 1588 mm. (5 feet 2 inches), of ten women 1494 mm. (4 feet 9 inches), whilst fourteen 

 men from the district of Wewatte were 1607 mm. (5 feet 2f inches) in height. In the 

 sea-coast and Wewatte districts there has probably been some intermixture with 

 Singhalese, Tamils, or even Indo-Arabians, which would affect both the stature and other 

 physical characters of the Veddahs. 



As regards the Dravidian Tamils of Ceylon, the Sarasins have also described their 

 external physical characters. They are a bigger people than the Veddahs ; the mean 

 stature of the men was 1653 mm. (5 feet 4 inches) and of the women 1545 mm. 

 (5 feet § inch). The pigmentation of the skin was deeper in the lower than the higher 

 castes. In about one-half the men examined the skin of the face" was a medium, rarely 

 a red-tinted, brown ; in the other half a brighter brown shading into yellow : in the 

 women a more opaque brown prevailed. The eyes were an opaque brown. The hair 

 was black and scarcely differed from the hair of the Veddahs, though it was perhaps 

 coarser and had a greater tendency to curl. The supra-orbital region was often well 

 developed in the men. The face was oval and proportionately higher and narrower 

 than in the Veddahs. The eyes were large and without an epikanthus. The nose had 

 a stronger bridge than in the Veddahs, and the alas were not so wide. The lips were 

 thick. The teeth were strongly developed, and the jaws were more projecting than in 

 the Veddahs. 



I have examined and measured nine Veddah crania which have not previously been 

 described. Three of these belonged to the Henderson Trust Collection, now in the 

 Edinburgh University Museum; they were presented in 1827 by the Rev. G. Lyon 

 and were probably the earliest examples of the race to reach this country. One was 

 presented to me about twenty years ago by the late Dr Kriekenbeck of Colombo ; the 

 man had died in jail ; the skull is metopic, a rare condition in dolichocephalic savages. 

 One from Batticaloa, in the east of Ceylon, was presented by H. Thwaites, Esq. In one 

 skull, No. 555 in the Indian Museum, the face was broken. Of the three others, two 

 have been for some years in the Museum of Trinity College, Dublin, and another, also 

 in Dublin, came from Batticaloa. I have to thank Professor Cunningham for per- 

 mission to examine them. The skulls were all adults ; to all appearance seven were 

 men and two probably women. 



When examined in the norma verticalis the crania were seen to be elongated 

 antero-posteriorly ; the side walls were almost vertical ; the vertex in some specimens 

 was roof-shaped, but not keeled in the sagittal region, and in others the vertex was 

 more flattened; the parietal eminences were distinct. The skull sloped gently 

 backwards as a rule into the occipital region, and the occipital point usually 

 projected definitely behind the inion ; there was no evidence of parieto-occipital 

 flattening. In three of the skulls the length-breadth index ranged from 66*5 to 



