CRANIOLOGY OF PEOPLE OF INDIA. 295 



An inspection of the above table shows that a wide range of variation in all these indices 

 was found in the persons measured. The cephalic index in the Tibetans of Tibet ranged 

 from below 75 in two skulls to 80 and upwards, 88 - 9, in twenty specimens, i.e. from 

 definite dolichocephalic to hyperbrachy cephalic proportions. In the Tibetans of Bhutan 

 the range was equally great, but in the Tibetans of Sikkim no head was dolichocephalic. 

 In each of the three groups the mean index was brachycephalic, especially in the 

 Sikkim Tibetans, and the rounded form of head preponderated. The presence, however, 

 of a small proportion of heads either dolichocephalic or in the lower term of the 

 mesaticephalic group, leads one to think that the assistant who made the measurements 

 had in some cases included persons whose race characters had not been discriminated 

 with sufficient exactness, a conclusion which is also supported by the analysis of the 

 nasal indices,* which ranged from platyrhine, 85 and upwards, to leptorhine below 70, 

 and of the nasio-malar indices which proved the presence of a platyopic Mongolian 

 type as well as pro-opic faces approximating to the Caucasian form. 



Subsequently to the appearance of Mr Risley's tables, Lieut.-Col. Waddell published 

 some measurements made by himself of eight Tibetans from the lower Tsang-po.f The 

 mean stature was 5 feet 4^ inches, the mean cephalic index was 81 "3, and the mean 

 nasal index 82 - 2. The lowest cephalic index was 77*7, the highest 86'1 ; five were 

 above 80 and three in the upper term of the mesaticephalic group. The brachycephalic 

 and mesorhine character of these people therefore was distinct. 



Whilst there is no difficulty in associating the Tibetans generally with the Mon- 

 golian type of head and face, the affinities and derivation of the long-headed people of 

 the Kham province will require more consideration. The position of this province in 

 the east of Tibet brings it into relation with the ranges of mountains at the north of 

 Burma, in which arise the great rivers that flow south into the Bay of Bengal, as well 

 as with the Brahmaputra as it bends north and west to reach the north base of the 

 Himalayas and to join apparently the Tsang-po river in the province of Lhasa in Tibet. 

 This extensive range of country is occupied by people speaking closely connected 

 languages and dialects, which philologists name the Tibeto-Burman stock. 



Mr G. A. Grierson has contributed to the recently published Census of India an 

 important chapter on the Languages of India.| He regards the Tibeto-Burman stock as 

 a subfamily of the Indo-Chinese group, the original home of which was probably North- 

 western China, between the upper waters of the Yang-tse-Kiang and the Ho-ang-ho. 

 From the Tibeto-Burman stock of people one branch, he says, entered Tibet, offshoots 

 from which settled on the southern slopes of the Himalayas ; others followed the course 

 of the Brahmaputra as far south as the Garo Hills and Tipperah ; others occupied the 



* The division of the nasal index, computed from measurements during life, is as follows : leptorhine, 

 below 70 ; mesorhine, 70-85 ; platyrhine, 85 and upwards. In the skull itself the division is leptorhine below 48 ; 

 mesorhine, 48-53 ; platyrhine above 53. 



t " The Tribes of the Brahmaputra Valley," Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. lxix. part iii. 1900, 

 Calcutta, 1901. 



\ Census of India, 1901, vol. i. part 1, by H. H. Risley, CLE., and E. A. Gait, I.C.S., Calcutta, 1903. 



