ETHKOLOGT OF THE INDO-PACmC ISiilTDS. 



anj otber hai-monic Aaialic fornialions. In plionology, kicology 

 and i'Of>ts it is more closoly connected whh ScylUic than any olbfli- 

 fbrnialion, but as it 1ms affinities^ with remote N. E. Asiaiic anil 

 Willi Ati'ican Itingnagfs, it h associatt'tl willi a period of tliu 

 Soylliic development in wliieh the proper Tatar liordes had not 

 yel overspread middle Asia, and when the general civilisation of 

 llic world was |)(^rhnips not above the Australian level. 



To some respects the InJo-Australian fbrmalion, although more 

 akiti to the Scytliic tlnin to any oilier, goes hack (o an era prior 

 even to the events in wliieh the present Scvlhic development orit^i- 

 iiated. It eoiinecls itself also by some fundamental trails, ns well 

 us gloFsarially, with the non-Scythic alliancea of S. W. Asia, 

 particularly with the Caucaso-Semiiic. The pure phonology is 

 mom 'harsh and less harmonic than the Scylhic and African. The 

 distinction of sex in the pronouns is Iranian and Semilico-Lihyan^ 

 and the pronominal roots ihemsiclvcs have not been derived from a 

 diHiinctively Scylhic source- If the immediate mother tongues 

 both of ibc Indo-European and the Dmvirian formations origi- 

 nated in Irania, the lutier should natiindly have more intimate 

 affinities, whatever their a^e raay he, with the former, than the 

 remoter Tartarian iansjuageSj in other woj'ds it should be the most 

 Arlan of the inversive lanj^nages. In examining this point it must 

 he borne in inlnd tliiit the Southern being tlie most distant of the 

 Indian languages fmm Irania, would probably possess fewer tiaits 

 in common with the proper or later Arian tongues than those of 

 N. W. India. 



It may he concluded that the stock from which the ancient 

 Indo-Austi-alian tribea wore derived was not Seythie, at least in the 

 current sense of that term. Alt the ethnic facts favour the opinion 

 that the race wafi, in its era, an influential and diffusive one of 

 S. W. Asia, whence it extended itself into India as the Ariana 

 did at a later period in the history of the world. It is possible 

 tliat the protoplastic Indo-Australian race is older in India than 

 the linguislic formation, but there is no reason to think that this 

 is tha case. At all events it seems hopeless to attempt to ^rope 

 onr way back beyond the Australian era. The basis of all histo- 

 rical infLience must he the fact that the oldust race and linguistic 



