ETHSOLOOT OP THE IKBO-PACIFIC ISLAlfJJS. 



171 



as its foreign afBnties of all kinds are, llic Bmvirian forma- 

 lion cannot be considered as a branch of any existing Asia- 

 tic or African one. It standi by iUaU like the adjacent Ira- 

 nian system, and represents the most ancient form of language 

 wliich can be recognized in India. Ifs exireme nnliquily in ihia 

 province is proved not only by llro nature of iis affinities to other 

 lanfTUBges of Asia and Africa, but in a still more striking manner 

 by ihoso with ihe most arcbuic formation of the Indo-Pacific 

 islands, now beal preserved in Australia, allbough even there 

 greatly modified. The prevalenl formation of Souihern India is 

 probably that modification of ibo I ndo- Australian type which 

 characteris'cd the language of the roost civilised and powerful 

 nation of India in the ara anterior to the intrusion of the Arianeand 

 abo, in all likelihood, to thut of the Turanian tribes of Uhraindia 

 and Tibet. The basis of the Australian h probably one of many 

 varit'tiea of the same formation which were formed at a much ear- 

 lier period when the Indo- A astral ian race spead over India, 

 Uhraindia and Asonesia. It may be conchided from the facts 

 mentioned in Chap. II lhat the Ausli-aliana have, in a great degree, 

 retained the pliysical cliaractm of ibis race, and the barbarism 

 which still distinguishes many other insnlar tribes, the Simang of 

 ihe Malay Peninsula, the Andaman islanders and some of the more 

 sequestered tribes and degraded castes of India (including Ceylon) 

 can leave tittle room for hesitation in adopting the opinion that the 

 Ultraindian and Indian race, whose migva lions gave the earliest 

 known population to the eastern ialunda;^ had not advanced beyond 

 the Australian grade of culture when these migratlonH conitnenced. 

 It may be doubted whether the Celtic or earlier diffusive branch 

 of the Irajnan stem had itself attained a higher grade when its 

 western movement began. Those trihes who were most remote 

 from the later Semilico-Af''icaD sources of civilisation, such as tha 

 insular Britons, continued to the age of the Roman invasion in a 

 state of barbarism in some respects more degraded than the 

 Australian, oi the lowest Dravirian or African. If the Dravirian 

 formation prevailed tn India at a period when its tribes were 

 similar to the Australian in character and civilisation, it must have 

 been a widely diffastve one before the rise even of iho Tatar nations. 

 This is consistent with the relutious of Dravirian to the Scythic 



