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



of the Aryan condition. When the light-skinned Aryans 

 from the Punjab invaded the land, later called Hindustan, 

 they found it already in the possession of numerous tribes of 

 " dark-skinned " people. In the Vedas these same tribes 

 are designated by the generic name of Dasyu or Dasa. A 

 greater part of them, in proportion as the conquerors 

 penetrated farther into the valley of the Ganges, were 

 forced back on both sides to the mountains, northward 

 into the Himalaya and southward into the Yindhya ; those 

 who remained behind were adopted as Sudras, thus becom- 

 ing a part of the Aryan organisation. Hence nothing stands 

 in the way of the assumption that the mountaineers in 

 general belong to the aboriginal tribes. But neither does 

 anything compel us to consider all these tribes of the 

 Dasyu as homopholic. Indeed, one has recently begun to 

 separate the Dravidian from the Kolarian* tribes, chiefly 

 on account of language. Should we, in the face of such an 

 important linguistic contrast, assume a physical similarity ? 

 In this matter the French anthropologists have advanced 

 most audaciously. M. Rousseletf speaks most positively of 

 an immigration of Thibetan tribes of the yellow race from 

 the east, and another of Turanians from the west, before the 

 Aryan invasion ; but he assumes, as anterior to both, a 

 population of Negritos. To the admixture of the latter with 

 yellow tribes he first of all ascribes the origin of the proto- 

 Brayidians, counting among these the Malers, the Konds, 

 perhaps the Gonds, and only when fresh troops of invaders 

 had again mixed with the proto-Dravidians, arose, in his 

 opinion, the Dravidas or Tamils. They brought the snake- 

 worship (Nagas) with them. On the other hand, from the 

 immigration of the Turanians arose in the plains the Jats, in 

 the mountains the Bhils, Minas, and Mhairs. He regards as 

 the last remains of the primitive black population the 

 scattered remnants of a small black people upon the high 



* Dalton. Zeitshcrift fiir Ethnologie, a. a. 0. S. 252. 

 t Rousselet, I. c, pp. 55, 279, pi. III. 



