476 



JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [Vol. IX. 



Nevertheless, I may say that the Tan j ore skulls approach 

 comparatively near the Tamils of Ceylon. In these I found 

 also no small individual differences, and in the index of 

 breadth, in fact, exactly the same, for the latter in the Tamil 

 skulls amounted to 72, 74*8, and 75*3. But for the rest so 

 many analogies present themselves between the two groups 

 that in spite of the aberrant pathological skulls of Tanjore 

 I consider it very probable that the people of Tanjore and 

 the present Tamils of Ceylon are connected together. 



But the kingdom of Choli, or Soli, was even in ancient 

 times a civilised state. Among its near neighbours early 

 appeared the wild mountain tribes of the Nilagiris, remnants 

 of which exist even to this day: as, for instance, the 

 Kurumbas (Curumbars, Kurubas). They were subjugated 

 by the kings of Chola, and are found at present only in sparse 

 numbers.* For a series of measurements and other in- 

 vestigations regarding these people we have to thank 

 Mr. F. Jagor,t and also for some account of the half -savage 

 Naya-Kurumbas living in the forests. Of the latter, 

 Mr. Jagor has brought with him a skeleton, which is in the 

 possession of the Berlin Anthropological Society. It belonged 

 to a woman, and is remarkable for its extraordinary smallness 

 and delicacy. It is 1,310 mm. in height, and of the skull we 



have the following indices : — 



Index of breadth ... ... 74*6 



Index of height ... ... 74*6 



Index of face ... ... 81*8 



Index of orbits ... ... 91*1 



Index of nose ... ... 63*8 



Index of palate ... ... 64*0 



It is therefore an orthodolichocephalic chamseprosopic 

 skull. Its capacity amounts to only 960 cub. cm., precisely 

 the same nannocephalic measure which Mr. Flower gave of 

 the smallest Vedda skull from Hunter's Museum, and which 



* James Wilkinson Breeks. An Account of the Primitive Tribes and 

 Monuments of the Nilagiris. London, 1873, p. 55. 

 f Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie, 1879, Bd. XI., s. 54 et. seq. 



