ORANIOLOGY OF PEOPLE OF INDIA. 113 



megaseme, and the mean orbital index of the series came just within the megaseme 

 division, but four specimens were microseme. In the relative proportions of the length 

 and breadth of the palato-alveolar arch the mean index fell just within the brachy- 

 uranic division. As regards the cranial capacity, the mean of twenty-two men was 

 1277 c.c, and of ten women 1139 c.c. 



Seventy-six skulls ascribed to Veddahs have now been studied and described by 

 experienced craniologists. With very few exceptions they were elongated, with the 

 sides approaching the vertical, the sagittal line not keeled, or only slightly so ; rela- 

 tively narrow, and the length-breadth index was dolichocephalic, frequently hyper- 

 dolichocephalic. It is known that some of the skulls in which the index exceeded 75 

 or 76 were from natives who had lived on the coast, where the possibility of an 

 admixture of blood with other races is probable. The basi-bregmatic height in 

 almost every case exceeded the greatest breadth. 



The face was broad in relation to the height. The nose was platyrhine or mesorhine, 

 seldom leptorhine. The upper jaw was orthognathous. The orbit was variable in the 

 proportions of height and breadth, but tended to a relatively high vertical diameter. 

 The palato-alveolar arch was moderately elongated. The cranial capacity was low. 



If these characters be compared with those previously given, as found in the 

 Dravidian group, they will be found to correspond in many respects. In both the 

 crania were dolichocephalic in form and proportions ; in both the height as a rule 

 exceeded the breadth. The glabella and supra-orbital ridges did not strongly project, 

 the forehead was not specially retreating, and in many specimens approached the 

 vertical ; the occipital squama was usually convex, and projected behind the inion. 

 The face was low in relation to the breadth ; the nasion was seldom much depressed ; 

 the anterior nares were platyrhine or mesorhine, rarely leptorhine ; the upper jaw was 

 orthognathous, occasionally mesognathous, not prognathous ; the orbits varied in the 

 proportion of width and height ; the palato-alveolar arch also varied, though the index 

 seldom much exceeded 120, and the breadth was not greatly in excess of the length. 

 The cranial capacity was microcephalic in both Veddahs and Dravidian s, though the 

 former were, on the whole, of smaller capacity than the latter. It is difficult, therefore, 

 to lay down a series of characters in which the Veddah and Dravidian skulls differed 

 from each other. 



Andaman Islanders. Table X. 



I have stated on p. 101 that the possibility of the presence of a Negrito element in 

 the people of India has to be enquired into. Considerable attention has been given to 

 this subject by several ethnologists, and opinions both affirmative of and adverse to the 

 affinity between the black races of India and the Negritos have been expressed. Mr 

 O'Donnell in his Census Report has indeed used the term Negritic as if it were 

 synonymous with Dravidian, and has indicated (p. 264) a route along which he thinks a 



