146 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [Aug. 



" The few skulls which have been received must he examined scienti- 

 fically, and they are yet too few for any safe induction, but to my 

 unscientific eye, the skull of an Uraon Cole placed on the same shelf 

 as two Andaman skulls seemed so similar in the general bullet-headed 

 character that I have put them on the table. 



" Principally on slight philological grounds, the aborigines of 

 India have been usually glassed as Turanian or Mongolian, but the 

 highest authorities make clear, what mere appearance indicates at a 

 glance, that (excepting altogether the very different tribes of the 

 hills East of Bengal) the Peninsular aborigines have no immediate 

 connection whatever with Thibetans or Mongols. They are only 

 classed as Turanian in that very wide and uncertain sense which 

 includes Australians, Polynesians, and even the American Indians. 

 And Dr. Caldwell in his very exhaustive work on the languages of 

 Southern India, while he shows certain affinities to the Finnish and 

 other languages, also shows that the Dravidian languages bear in their 

 structure a marked affinity to those of Australia. Certainly so far 

 as the external appearance of the living races goes, there can be no 

 doubt of their Negrito resemblance. Col. Dalton, in some farther notes, 

 in answer to queries of mine which he has very kindly furnished, still 

 farther confirms his remarks just quoted by me. He seems to think the 

 Uraons peculiarly Negro-like, and says that they have sometimes woolly 

 hair. Every description of every practical observer, and my own 

 observations during several recent travels, all tend to show the same 

 general type in all the aboriginal tribes of the Peninsula. Many 

 of the descriptions seem absolutely identical with those given of the 

 Negritoes of other lands. But of course these mere popular remarks 

 must be confirmed by more accurate and more scientific observation. 

 The thick lip is the most marked characteristic of the aboriginal races 

 to the casual observer. 



" I have taken a good deal of trouble to look through all the Journals 

 of this Society, and of the London Society, and other sources of inform- 

 ation. But I cannot find that there exists any full information 

 whatever on any subject connected with these races. Dr. Caldwell 

 and others have probably told us nearly all that can he known regard." 

 ing the Southern tribes, but there the aborigines seem to have been 



