226 J. HORNELL ON 



(d) The fact that the outrigger canoes of Madagascar and East Africa are typi- 

 cally of the double form, and that the design of the float attachment is of a very 

 peculiar type, such as is elsewhere confined strictly at the present day to the nor- 

 thern coast of Java, make it appear probable that the colonists of Madagascar who 

 introduced this double form of outrigger came from this particular region in Malaysia. 



(e) A Malaysian wave of immigration via Ceylon appears to have followed the 

 Polynesian at a much later date, and after the advent of the Dravidians, bringing 

 coconut cultivation from the Malay Archipelago. The Shanars and Izhuvans (toddy- 

 tappers) of South India probably date their ancestry to these immigrants. 



(/) That the true Dravidians belong to the Mediterranean race. ' 



{g) That the Dravidians acquired many customs now considered typical of the 

 Mediterranean race while in the undivided race state, e.g. certain river boat forms 

 and particularly the quarter rudder ; also probably the use of the conch shell, though 

 this is common also to the Papuasian and Polynesian peoples. 



(/?) That before splitting off from the original stock, those of the Dravidians liv- 

 ing in Mesopotamia borrowed or invented the circular coracle, and the reed raft. 



(i) That some large portion of the race was subsequently forced by circumstances, 

 possibly the pressure of some Alpine or Mongoloid race from the north-west (Akkads) 

 or of Semitic people from the south or south-west, to pass eastwards, the Brahui 

 language marking their presence at one time in Baluchistan. 



(/) That on arrival in India from Baluchistan, they spread along the valleys of 

 the Indus and the Ganges, introducing the boat forms of the Nile and the Tigris as 

 they went, the former on the large perennial rivers, the latter on those which carry 

 little water in the dry season. 



{k) The Dravidians being inland or rather river people were clever irrigation 

 agriculturists ; to them it seems clear that we owe the eminence that India has had in 

 this art throughout the historic period. 



(/) Being river people, the early Dravidians would be glad to press the Polynesian 

 sea-fishermen into their service, and to learn this art from them. 



(w) The Polynesian element seems to have been entirely absorbed politically and 

 linguistically by the Dravidians, a result explicable by the fewness of their numbers, 

 their scattered condition, and their greater plasticity due to their hybrid origin 

 (? Caucasian x Mongolian x Papuasian). 



The Types and Distribution of the Outrigger Canoe Design. 



A recent extensive tour through Malaysia and the western fringe of Papuasia, has 

 enabled me to survey critically the extent and variation in form and detail shown by 

 the outrigger boat design in this extensive region. Such a survey so far as I know 

 has never before been adequately carried out ; I hope shortly to describe the results 

 attained, but for present purposes it will suffice if I state the outstanding conclusions 



' This particular deduction is not original ; Mr. F. J. Richards, I.C.vS., has recently marshalled many arguments and 

 facts in its favour. For these the reader is referred to his paper in last year's Proceedings of the Mythic Society of Banga- 

 lore. 



