From the time when the adjacent shores of the Indian Ocean began to be the seats of general commercial and maritime nations, the Peninsula must have been exposed to the regular influx of foreign traders and adventurers. From the antiquity of the Egyptian civilisation, it is pro bable that the earliest commercial visitors were Africans from Eastern Africa or Southern Arabia. It is certain that the subsequent Semitic navi gators of Arabia at an early date established that intercourse with India which they have main tained to the present day. The trade between India and the west appears to have been entirely in their hands for about 3000 years. During that period, the Arab navigators not only remained for some months in the Indian pOrts between the outward and home voyages, but Tarry settled in them as merchants ; and, under‘the name of Moormen in Ceylon, and as -Moplah and Labbai in the Peninsula, their descendants are active, thriving members of the communities.
Mr. Logan thinks that the influence of African and Arabic blood must have preceded that of the Aryan in the southern part of the Peninsula. In after ages, the Aryan ingredient in the Peninsular population became considerable, but it has not modified the native races in the same degree as it has done the Bengali. The languages are still essentially distinct, and the non-Aryan physical element remains strong. In Southern India are languages of one formation, which is broadly distinguished from the Aryan or Sanskrit on the one side, and from Tibetan and Ultra-Indian on the other. Physically, the population of Southern India is one of the most variable and mixed which any ancient archaic province displays, the number of varieties amongst the people being too great to allow of their being referred to a single race of pure blood. Some are exceedingly Iranian, more are Semitico-Iranian, some are Semitic, others Australian ; some remind us of Egyptians, while others again have Malayo-Poly nesian and even Semang and Papuan features. The strong Africanism of some of the lower South Indian castes is believed to be the remnant of an archaic formation of a more decided African character. In certain of the classes of Southern India in which the complexion is fairer, an Egyptian style of features is not unfrequently observable. In this, the nose is not indented at the root. It is long and slightly curved ; the eyes almond-shaped and slightly oblique, and the chin is short. In general, the physiognomy is more the Iranian than the East African and Egyptian. Where the Aryan or Semitic crossing is not striking, the person is generally rather small and slender, the legs in particular being very thin, compared with those of the Gangetic race. The
colour varies from black to different degrees of brown and yellowish-brown, in general contrast ing strongly with the Ultra-Indian and Indonesian races. There is a tendency-to certain peculiar physical traits, neither Ultra-Indian, Tibetan, nor Aryan, but seem to be East African. The typical East African head is removed both from the exaggerated prognathous form, prevalent amongst the Guinea Negroes, and the highly Semitic form characteristic of tribes that have been deeply crossed by Arab blood, and is in some respects intermediate between the Iranian and Turanian, while it has specialities of its own. The cheek-bones are often much more prominent than in the Iranian, and less so than in the typical Turanian, the projection being frequently anterior more than lateral. lips are full or turgid, and turned out, frequently with sharp edges. Slightly prognathous heads are not infrequent. In the South Indian population as a whole, the bridge of the nose is generally less prominent than in the Iranian, and much more so than in the Turanian. Even where the root of the nose, between the eyes, sinks in, the upper line as a whole is much more thrown out from the face than in the Turanian head, so as to render the point comparatively sharp and pro minent. The alm have an upward expansion, leaving the upper part of the septum exposed, and the elongated nares open and conspicuous. This is a Semitico-African trait. The Africo Papuan pyramidal nose, with a deep and sharp sinking in at the root, is common, particularly in some of the lower castes, in which the colour is nearly black. Mr. -Logan thinks it probable that at one period this lower and apparently the more normal southern type characterized the whole population of India. Even yet amongst the Viudhyans, some tribes are found who seem to approxigate to it, such as the little ill-favoured Miliaria11, the neighbours of the Ito, and the short and jet black Saura, who are spread for 200 miles from the hilly southern side of the basin of the Ganges along the eastern face of the ghats to the Codavery, who are much in person, in civilisation, akin to the Gangetic population. The Chensuar, who occupy the western portions of the continua tion of the ghats between the I'ennar and the Kistna, are described by Captain Newbold as being between a Teling and Jakun of the Malay Peninsula, and the Jakun of the Malay Peninsula is the most African and prognathous of the lank haired Indianesian tribes. The Chensuar live in beehive-shaped huts like the African, Nicobarian, and many of the ruder Asianesian tribes.