1865.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 145 



pletely pure and savage state, both in the Malacca Peninsula and in the 

 Andaman Islands. The nearest part of India to the Andamans is the 

 Coromandel Coast, and over the nearest part of that Coast, in the 

 Eastern Grhats, I find an aboriginal tribe called Chenchwar described, 

 by an officer acquainted with Malacca, as " just what you might 

 suppose to result from the crossing of Malacca aborigines with the 

 common people of this country." This laat remark leads me to an 

 observation which has occurred to me both from all I have seen and 

 all I have read, viz. that the general form and type of the Aboriginal 

 races of the interior of Peninsular India seems, prima facie, to approach 

 very closely to that of the great Negrito race, which I have noticed, 

 and to suggest the idea, (which their geographical position renders 

 extremely likely) that they are in fact but branches of that race who 

 have been, like most of their congeners, surrounded and overwhelmed 

 by another advancing and superior race, and, where not absorbed or 

 intermixed, have been driven into the wildest hills and forests of the 

 interior. 



" These remarks have been, to a great degree, suggested to me by 

 the perusal of a most interesting paper by Col. Dalton, Commis- 

 sioner of Chota-Nagpore, and I deem it an especially fortunate circum- 

 stance towards the inquiry which I advocate, that the country which 

 is the main seat of the aboriginal tribes is administered by a man of 

 the greatest scientific ardour and interest in the matter. Col. Dalton's 

 paper tells us, I may say just enough to make us wish for more, and 

 it is evident from his observations that there is much yet unknown to 

 him in regard to which others may largely assist him. Especially we 

 may look for much to those Missionaries who have, with such admirable 

 devotion and success, tamed and converted large numbers of these 

 races. I will only read a short passage in which Col. Dalton describes 

 the appearance of one of these tribes. 



" ' The Jushpore Oraons are the ugliest of the race, and appear to me 

 utterly destitute of all ambition to rise into respectability of appear- 

 ance. With foreheads ' villainous low,' flat noses, and projecting 

 maxillaries, they approach the Negro in physiognomy' : — and . a 

 little lower down he describes them as ' dark and coarse -featured, 

 broad noses, wide mouths and thick lips.' 



