1867.] Proceedings of the Asidtic Society. 127 



Notes in reference to the question of the origin of the Aboriginal tribes oj 

 India. — By Emit Schlagintweit, corresponding member to the Asiatic 

 Society of Bengal, &c. 



The Hon'ble G . Campbell, in his so highly valuable motion respect- 

 ing the aboriginal tribes of India, argues the fact that, though some 

 resemblance is existing between the languages of the broken aborigin- 

 al tribes of India and the Tibetan* races, yet both groups are widely 

 differing from each other in bodily appearance. It cannot be denied, 

 that there exist many an expression in the aboriginal languages as well 

 as in the Dra vidian group which are very akin to Tibetan ; more import- 

 ant it would be to be able to point out some striking analogies in the 

 grammatical structure ; for such comparisons, however, the measures 

 recommended by Hon'ble G-. Campbell, must supply us with the ne- 

 cessary materials in future. Greater analogies still can be pointed 

 out between Tibetan and the languages of some of the tribes of the 

 Indo-Chinese Peninsula ; also here, however, the difference in the gene- 

 ral aspect rather seems to intimate, that from mutual contact ele- 

 ments, finally foreign, have crept into languages, the bearers of which 

 stand but in a very loose ethnological connection with the race from 

 whom they have borrowed.f When looking out for similarities in 

 manners, we find the Kakhyen tribe of northern Berma wearing the 

 sword in the same strange way, by means of a wooden ring to which 

 the sheath is fastened with ropes, as it is the custom amongst the 

 Lingphos in Assam. The Kakhyens, moreover, have hereditary 

 chiefs, and the high dignity of a ruler may even be held by a child, 

 should it happen the government devolves upon him in time of in- 



* I have adopted the spelling of" Tibetan" instead of " Thibetan" in con« 

 formity with Csoma Korasi, Foucaux, Hodgson, Jaeschke, Schiefner, Schmidt, 

 &c. The word Tibet has resulted from the combination of the two Tibetan 

 words Thnb and Phod both meaning "to be able." A king of the 7th century 

 is said to have at the first made use of this name ; at present, however Bhod- 

 qul, " territory of the Bhod," is the only name given by the inhabitants to the 

 country. For further names see my " Kings of Tibet," Munich, Royal Bavarian 

 Academy Index, s. v. 



f This becomes evident by the interesting papers of Capt. T. R. Logan, 

 " Ethnology of the Indian Pacific Islands," Journal of the Indian Archipelago, 

 1857, where numerous vocabularies are to be found ; the coincidence is most 

 remarkable in many instances ; and Capt. Logan by the detailed analysis 

 of these vast materials has to a great degree contributed to a better valuation 

 of the variations. See also Schiefuer Tibetische Studien, Melanges Asiatiques. 

 vol I ', St. Petersburg, 1851, and my « Kings of Tibet," p. 6. 



