30 THR liTHNOLOGV OF SOUTH EASTERN ASIA. 



6'KCT. 3, Ethnic boundaries of the S, E> Asian races. 



The S, E. Asian races have the following ethnic boundaries. On 

 the N. E. the Chinese are bounded by the Korian and Tan^usian 

 tribes ; along the northern margin of the Tibetan and Chinese 

 wander ^Mongol tribes ; on the north west the Tibetan are inter- 

 mixed with Cashnierians am! are in contact, hut do not appear to 

 intermix, with the tribes on the eastern skirts of the Hindu-kusn,and 

 with the Turkish tribes on the north . Tim attractive land of "India 

 necessarily gives the south west and southern boundary a different 

 character from that of the north west and north. The Turanian 

 tribes to the south of the Ganges have become isolated, being cut 

 off from the Himalayan tribes by the Iranian a r^Mudo- Iranian 

 people who now occupy all the valley of the Ganges. The Vin- 

 dyau tribes, bounded on the north and east by Iranian and Indo- 

 Iranian races, are in contact on the west and south with Indo- 

 African tribes more or less transformed by $, W. Asian iufluences,- 

 Bhils, Karnatakas, Ka I in gas, &c. The Himalayan tribes are much 

 mixed with Iranian people in the west. Towards the east they 

 are purer and retain pre- A cyan languages and in some cases true 

 Turanian features. But many of these tribes, as well as those of 

 the Yindyas, have acquired softer and finer features. The Tura- 

 nian peoples of the Brahmaputra valley are intermixed with the 

 Aryan race of Bengal, but the majority retain a Turanian physiog- 

 nomy, although they have adopted the language of the prevailing 

 race. On all other sides the region is bounded by the ocean. 

 The Mergui Archipelago is haunted by a fishing tribe, the 

 Sitong, who are closely allied to the races of th* adjacent S. E. 

 Peninsula. The Andamans are inhabited by a Negro race, the 

 Nicobars by lank-haired Indonesians strongly tinctured with 

 Africanism in their superstitious and manneis, In the Malay 

 Peninsula rude S. E. Asian tribes are in contact with Negro tribes, 

 and all the principal plains and vallies towards the sea nave been 

 occupied by oflsetts of the great Malayu race of Sumatra* This 

 is the only instance of the Ultraindian tribes moving back in num* 

 bers from Asianeeia on the continent. Javanese influences are 

 observable in Johore and along the eastern shores of the Peninsula, 

 but they have not been powerful. The lower valley of the 

 Mekong has attracted some settlers from Indonesia and Japan, and 

 the latter have left traces of their having formerly frequented the 

 northern part of Anani, in some of the geogniphical names still 

 preserved (Ouke Sima, Bouan Sima> &c!) I have in a previous 

 paper described the general character of the ancient movements 

 of the Asiatic tribes into Asianesia and these will he more particu- 

 larly investigated as a branch of the insular ethnology. The 

 growth and civilisation of considerable communities of this race has 

 prevented the formation of new communities by immigrants from 

 the more civilised Asiatic races, who have occupied the lower 



