J)4 ETHNOLOGY OF 'Villi iNDO-PAClPrO ISLAND*, 



antjquity and appear to liave all ulonjj been in contact, so that 

 inhod fonnQtions imis£ always Imvti existed and been in the 

 course of proiltieiiori. The inilividuality both of Draviro-Aiis- 

 li alian and of Tibeto-Uhraimlian not only when com pared with 

 oacfi other, but with Chinese and the existing forms of Seyihic, is 

 fo tslrongly marked, as to claim for each nn independent existence 

 from the most remote periods of Scylluc and even of proto- 

 Seythie history. 



At the eainc time the Tii>etan languages have been from era to 

 era reccivtnjr new iinpressiond botli from Chinese and from tnoro 

 than one branch of Scylliic; and the easteraand noitiiern dialects 

 have been more exposed to these influcnces\han tlie western and 

 southern. The Tibetan htw^usgcs, thus perenially modified, have, 

 in ttirn, been carried into the Dnivinan province from era to era, 

 supplanting and modifv'ing the Dravinan languagca, so that — 

 leaving llm Arian and the direct Cliino-Uittaindian elements out 

 of view — India and TJItraindia now present 1st Dravirian lan- 

 guages, little if at all Tibelauiscd, but in wliich some Tibeto- 

 Uhrflindian element^} probalily exi^^it although difficult to dia- 

 criniinate (South Dravirian), 2nd Dravirian modifted by Tibetan 

 (Kol and, much more slightly, Male, Uraon, Gond), 3rd Tibetan 

 tj] diif'erent forms (Illiotiiin or western, Si-fan or eastern) and of 

 diftcrent eras and varii'ties in each form, with much blending 

 araonggt themselves, as well as with Mon-Anam and Chinese, 

 and wilh a variable but comparatively weak Dravirian element, 

 difficult to discriminate in most cases from that archaic community 

 of roofs to which we have adverted and from Tibetan having a 

 Scythic harmonic tendeucy. In the Gangctic languages for 

 example, an ag«jhilinutive and harmonic cliaracter may be either 

 Scythic through East Tibetan or Scythic though Dravirian. 

 The facts and general [>robabihtie3 'of every case must give the 

 decision, where decision is possible. 



The three existing branches of the Draviro-Asonesian fiimily^ 

 the l")rnvirian pioper, the Kol and the Australian— have each had 

 an independent development, and been exposed to widely d iff rent 

 infiuenceiJ, infernal and external, from a very remote period. The 

 Aastralian pronominal system is the most crude, redundant and 

 ,'igglonjcralivL, and the least flcxioiial. The systemSj both of 



