There was prolonged commercial intercourse between the western and eastern parts of the Indian Ocean, from the Arabian Sea, Persian Gulf, Red Sea, and Africa, to the Mozambique channel on the west, to the Indo-Australian seas on the east. And when they were spreading over E. Africa, India, and the Indian Archipelago, there could have been no civilised Semitic, Iranian, Burmese, or Siamese races to hinder them. The strong Africanism observable in some of the lower South Indian castes is seemingly the remnant of an archaic formation of a more decided African character. India proper lies between two great Nero countries, that on the west being still mainly Negro, even in most of its improved races, and that on the east preserving the Negro basis so near India proper as the Andamans and Kidah. It is therefore highly probable that the African element in the population of the Western Penin sula has been transmitted from an archaic period, before the Semitic, Turanian, and Iranian races entered India, and when the Indian Ocean had Negro tribes along its northern as well as its eastern and western shores.
In the southern parts of the Western Peninsula, amongst the races speaking the Tamil language, are many who have African features in all their variety. The mixed Labbi and Moplalt races of the extreme south of the Peninsula may be of African and of Arabian descent. But the Sidi of .lanjirah are recent arrivals ; the Negroes of the Dandilli this of N. Canara are of unknown origin ; the African slaves of the Muliamtnadans of Baluchistan, Sind, the Dekhan, and Karnatic are classes regarding whose African and Arabian origin there are no differences of opinion ; also the fader of the Animallay Hills file their teeth to a point like some African tribes ; the Ai incopi of the Andaman Islands, time Semang of the Eastern Peninsula, the Negrito and Papuan races of Indonesia and Papuanesia are recognised branches of the Negro race ; while farther to the north, the Kisan or Nagesar, a broken tribe in the Jashpur highlands, have Negroid features ; and tho Bhuilmer of Palarnau and Jashpur reminded Colonel Dalton of the representations he had seen of time Andamanese.
The vernacular of a people can only be taken as a test of descent along with their physical characteristics. The languages of conquered races, and of such conquering races as become associated with a higher civilisation, are liable to disappear. There cannot be any doubt that physically the Tamil Pariah, the Iiimair of the Mahratta country, the Dher of the Dekhan, the Iloliar of time Canarese, the Paravan of the Malealam territory, and the Malls of Telingana, are of the same Dravidian stock, though they now speak five different tongues. Some broken tribes of Bengal speak a dialect of Ilindi ; but their physical characteristics, some of their customs, the remnants they have preserved of their primit ive paganism, and in some cases their traditions, lead to the conclusion that they are the residue of a people who, together with the Kolarian races, occupied India proper prior to the appearance of the first Aryan invaders. It is now known that
there are many Oraon villages in Chutia Nag pur in which the Oraon language is quite lost, but the inhabitants nevertheless speak two tongues, Munda and Hindi. The languages of the Hin duized aborigines of Chutia Nagpur appear to have followed their religion. All the tribes that have became Hindu in faith have lost their old language, and speak a rude dialect of Hindi. The Orson in Chutia Nagpur follow. the Munda pagan ism, and adopt the 3lunda languages ; while the Munda, Ilo, Santal, and other Kolarian tribes, who adhere to their ancient faith, have preserved their old language, or at all events a pre-Aryan tongue. Alaung Phra (Alompra) subdued time Mon or `raising race in 1757-58, from which time the Burmese strongly discouraged the Mon language ; and after time first war between the British and the Burmese in 1824-26, the Burmese forbade the Mon to be taught in the monasteries or else where. The result has been that in little more than a century, the language of a million people has become extinct. In 1870, there were not one hundred families in I'egu in which it was used as their vernacular tongue, though still spoken in Martaban and in Mamiam-yang by the descendants of immigrants who reappeared there when the British became supreme. But it is not merely time language that is disappearing,—tho Talaing people themselves are being absorbed by the more powerful Burmese race.
Ilistory.—No one of the races who were occupy ing India and South-Eastern Asia prior to the Muhammadan invasions, retain any strictly histor ical record of the routes by which they reached their present localities, or of the date of their respective advent. From the geographical dis tribution of the Kol and Dravidian languages, Mr. Ilislop formed the opinion that while the stream of Dravidian population, as evidenced by the Brahui in Baluchistan, entered India by the north-west, that of the Kol family seemed to have found admission by the north-east ; and as the one flowed south towards Cape Kumari (Comorin), and time other in the same direction towards Cfl110 Roumania, a part of each appears to have met and crossed in Central India. The Karen of Ultra India have a tradition of crossing a sea of sand, which is supposed to mean the desert of Gobi ; but they have no knowledge as to the date of their migration. That the Mongoloid races have made great efforts to reach more hospitable climates, is shown by the presence of many tribes wedged into the mountainous region on the frontiers of India. On both sides of the Indus, in Baluchistan, Lower Sind, in Nepal, Bhutan, and Sikkim, are many hundred tribes, some of almost similar origin, yet forming distinct nations and using dialects unin telligible to each other, thought of the same family of languages.