266 PRINCIPAL SIR W. TURNER ON 



face was mesopic ; the orbits, microseme in seven, mesoseme in one, and megaseme in 

 one, had a mean microseme or low index 81 ; the palato-maxillary arch ranged from 

 elongated dolichuranic to short and very wide hyperbrachyuranic proportions, and 

 the mean, 116, was brachyuranic. 



Owing to the difference in form between the skulls marked A, B, C and those of 

 dolichocephalic form and proportions, I applied for further information regarding the 

 cemetery and the persons buried in it. In reply Colonel Lee writes that sometimes 

 wandering beggars or bhairagis, who may die at Trichinopoly, are buried there, which 

 may account for the presence of a few specimens of a different type. Further, he says 

 that the only inhabitants of the city are the Dravidians and the Muhammadans ; many 

 of the latter are " pucka " Musalmans, others are Lubbais,* but they have separate 

 burial-grounds. 



As it is not possible to speak definitely of the race to which the three skulls possessing 

 brachycephalic characters belonged, I can do little more than record their appearance 

 and measurements. Obviously they were not Dravidians, and in all probability they 

 were importations from outside sources, though it can scarcely be said that their facial 

 characters associated them with the Mongoloid type. 



As in Part II. of these Memoirs I have described a number of skulls of undoubted 

 Dravidian tribes from the Central Provinces, and analysed their characters, a comparison 

 may now appropriately be made between them and the Tamil skulls from Southern India. 

 In both series the crania were elongated and dolichocephalic, an occasional skull having 

 an index in the lower term of the mesaticephalic group ; in both the nasal index was 

 platyrhine or mesorhine, a leptorhine index being exceptional ; in both the upper jaw 

 was orthognathic, in the Tamils no skull was prognathous, and in the previous Dravidian 

 series only one in thirty-six skulls had so high an index ; in both the prevailing orbital 

 index was low or microseme ; in the previous series the mean maxillo-facial index was 

 low or chamseprosopic, in the Tamils the mean index was somewhat higher and meso- 

 prosopic ; the palato-maxillary arch, though with a wide variation in each series, was in 

 the mean brachyuranic ; in both the cranial capacity was below the European average. 

 The cranial configuration in both series therefore closely corresponded, and testified to 

 their racial affinities. 



Pariahs. Table II. 



Europeans have long recognised in Southern India people known as Pariah, Pareiyas, 

 or Paraiyan, forming a low caste engaged in agriculture, domestic service, and various 

 menial occupations. In the recent Census of India (1901) their number is given as 

 2,258,61 1 ,t of whom upwards of two millions are in Madras, and the remainder live in 



* The Lubbai.s, variously spelt Labbeis, Lubbye, Lubbays, are people speaking Tamil, but Musalmans in 

 religion, who are believed to be the descendants of Arabs who have intermarried with Dravidian native women, 

 t Census of India, vol. 1. -A, by H. H. Risley and E. A. Gait ; part ii., Tables, pp. 303, 341. Calcutta, 1903. 



