CUSTOMS COMMON TO THE HILL TRIBES BORDER¬ 
ING ON ASSAM AND THOSE OF THE INDIAN 
ARCHIPELAGO. 
At the present day three hypotheses are entertained respecting 
the origin of the people of the Indian Archipelago. One is more 
properly a negation of all hypotheses, since it considers each tribe as 
having come into being in the country where it is found, like the 
indigenous plants and animals with which it is surrounded. This is 
Mr. Crawford's view'. However unsatisfactory w T e may find it, w'e 
must remember that we have no right to ascribe a foreign derivation, 
to any of these tribes until we have accumulated facts sufficient to 
counterbalance the fact which lies at the bottom of this opinion. 
At the same time it should be borne in mind that ethnography does 
not, from its nature, require nor admit of more evidence than we are 
in the habit of receiving as sufficient in analogous enquiries. A de¬ 
cided preponderance of probabilities in favour of one of several pos¬ 
sible solutions of a question is all that'w’e should in general hope for 
as the result of our researches. Another hypothesis refers the peo¬ 
pling of the Polynesian islands and the Archipelago to America. 
This view has been ably stated and maintained by Mr. Ellis. The 
third hypothesis derives the inhabitants of the Archipelago from 
the adjacent continent. This is so obviously the most natural one 
that it probably occurred to the first person to whom the question 
of the origin of the tribes of the Archipelago presented itself. The 
proximity of the continent, wdth the densely peopled plains of its great 
rivers flowing southward, and its mountain ranges and peninsulas 
thrown out to the borders of the Archipelago, all tending to impress 
a southerly direction on migrations, would of itself suggest the 
probability of a portion of its population gradually oozing out in¬ 
to the Archipelago. The volcanic band which forms the external 
boundary of the Archipelago almost touches one of the mountain 
chains of the continent, so that from its central region, where all 
the chains and rivers rise, to the remotest south and almost to the 
extreme east of the Archipelago, there are none but inconsiderable 
