PART v.— THE IvIGHT SHED UPON EASTERN ETHNOLOGICAL 

 PROBLEMS BY INDIAN BOAT DESIGNS. 



I entered upon the present enquiry largely with a view to ascertain if any evi- 

 dence is forthcoming from this source upon the supposed trade connection between 

 Phoenicia and India in ancient days. I felt however that some connection would also 

 be found with the Malay Archipelago, as the significance of the outrigger canoes of 

 South India and Ceylon had early occurred to me. I was not however prepared to 

 find, as I have done, that no evidence whatever exists of any Phoenician trade 

 influence, and I was still more unprepared for the extreme weakness of the Malayan 

 connection coupled with the strength and importance of Polynesian affinities. These 

 latter are so strong that I cannot see how ordinary trade communications on the 

 extremely limited scale which ancient commerce alone permitted between places so far 

 apart could have brought about such close relationship, particularly when we note that 

 Indian history gives no hint of any commercial relations having existed between 

 India and the present-day users of the single outrigger in Oceanic lands, and that no 

 Austric language appears to be represented among Indian coast people. 



Some of the main conclusions I am forced to may appear startling and I do not 

 put them forward other than as part of certain working hypotheses which have in 

 their favour a number of important ethnological facts, some of which have been 

 enumerated whilst others will be mentioned later. It will however be convenient if 

 before doing so, I outline the hypotheses which I wish to put forward. Stated in 

 as few words as possible, I believe the evidence of boat design in India, taken to- 

 gether with that of several peculiar methods of fishing practised in certain Indian 

 localities and reinforced by various philological and ethnological data already known, 

 lead us to the following conclusions, viz. : — 



(a) The Pre-Dravidian coast population of Southern India was composed of vary- 

 ing blends of Negrito and proto-Polynesian stocks, the former the earlier. The 

 former appear to have contributed a considerable portion of the round-headed ele- 

 ment in the very dark races in hill and forest tracts. 



{b) The Polynesian section of the pre-Dravidian coastal population of India is 

 responsible for the introduction of the single outrigger form of canoes and boats, which 

 in Polynesia of the present day is the characteristic and predominant type of boat- 

 design. 



(c) From the universality of the double outrigger design among Malaysians 

 (Indonesians) and its absence among the outrigger-using races of Polynesia, Papuasia 

 and Australia, save exceptionally on those shores turned towards Malaysia, I judge 

 the double outrigger to be of Malaysian invention. 



