ETHliOLOOr OF Till IS-DO-PACIFIC iSLiKDa. 163 



['xercised a effeat ethnic influence in it, while k fourth, vrilh claims 

 to at Ihfiit an eqtisilly nncwnt 6ecnpation of the N. W» ittoiintflid 

 bannttary of ihe Caucasus, has intimate linguistic effinilics ^Ith alt 

 these for raa Hons, 



In later historical tinirs the Scjlhic face hAa chiefly predorai- 

 ufttetl in the mvtli tLnd ocf'asionally in some portions of Irania 

 also. The present Scythic trihes appear to belong miialy to the 

 great horded of Tartar Irtvader^— Tiirks and Mongols — who, ui 

 comparitively recent agP3, have occupied the region k'ttv'eeii 

 Chiiia and the Caspian, intruding into Tibet and Irania, but th^ir 

 numbers and thtr extent and dui-atioh of fhe'ir Indian doraination 

 \Vere not such as to produce a marked irapresi-Jon on die Dravtrian 

 languages. In earher historical limes the Iranian race, civilisatlou 

 HJid linguistic formation appear to have been exclusively predomi- 

 nant over Irania, and this snpremacy must have endured for a 

 considerable perioJ, because it cmhraced an unbroken belt frorii 

 the Black Sea to the mouths of the Ganges j while its spread 

 over iJurope is an additional evidence of its havings tor tfic time, 

 prevailed over the Scylhic or Turanian hordes and thrown them 

 back on Upper Asia^ To ihis race the present Arian and Arian- 

 hed nations of India, ili« Aitghsins, the Beluchis, and the 

 .spread Persians or Tiijiks. mainly belong, although a Semitic 

 element is found in most. 



T!io history of the race in its Irano-Gangetic province evidently 

 involves at least two great diffusions. Of the oldest the languages 

 and nations of India preserve the only distinct record, with the 

 cieeption of the Sia Posh. From the position and character of 

 the latter and t!)e general distribution of the Indo-European lorm- 

 ation, it is probable that the Arian sub-formation preceded the 

 Persian in Eastern Irunia, and consequently that dialects akin 

 to the Sanskrit prevailed there at one era contemporaneously with 

 the older lanfrnaCTes of the land. 



The Arian formation partially transformed the phonotic and 

 idealogtc cluiracter of the prior Dravirian languages of northern 

 India and displaced the greater portion of their vocabularies, pro- 

 ducing the present hybrid tongues from Guzerathi on the west to 

 Bengali on the cast. Its influence on the Vindyan and Southern 

 branches began later, and although it has been continued since 



