THE INDIANS.
Classification and General Considerations.—The Indians include, according to Lassen (see Alap), the Daradas or Darn's in the north-west on the south-eastern slopes of the Hindoo-Kush, and, west of them, the Kafirs (infidels—that is, not Mohammedans) or Sijak-Posk (that is," black coats," because they wear garments of black hides), who formerly lived in Candahar, and are said to have migrated thence in four tribes. Their languages, which are divided into different dialects, as they themselves are divided into different tribes, belong entirely to the Indian family; but in physique they are separated from the Indians as well as from their east ern neighbors the Afghans, for they are large, of fine build, with straight noses, often light skin, blue eyes, and blond hair. They have remained on their original grade of civilization. Their grain consists of wheat and barley, which the women, who live separate from the men, cultivate; and they have neither horses nor fowls. Their weapons are the dagger, the knife, and the bow and arrow, the bow serving as a jumping-stick in flight. They are a brave people, but their wars generally consist of raids and excursions for booty.
They bitterly hate the Mohammedans, who frequently abduct them into slavery. He only is considered a man who has slain a Mohammedan, and in testimony of his feat he wears a special feather and allows his hair to grow. Some tribes have quite a contrary custom, for they cut off a lock of hair for each slain enemy. Notwithstanding this bitter animosity, some of the tribes have been converted to Mohammedanism. The relig ion of the others is very simple, and appears to be like the ancient Indian religion in its main traits: they have priests, sacrifices of cows and goats, various ceremonies and feasts, and male and female idols of stone and wood. They also venerate the souls of their ancestors. They are of a harmless, frank, cheerful disposition, fond of music and dancing; they sing much, and have drums and a stringed instrument of one string.
The Gypsies also belong to the Indians, probably to a wandering Pa riah caste of Western India. They first appeared in South-eastern Europe in the beginning of the fourteenth century. They usually call them selves Rom or Romany, hut sometimes Sink, which latter is supposed to be a corruption of the Indian Sindh. Their various dialects retain marked Hindustani elements, although much influenced by the languages of the various countries in which their scattered bands find their homes. Plate
ioS 7) represents a Gypsy woman from Wallachia, and may be taken as presenting a favorable type of these wandering outcasts.
In India proper the Cashmerians, who speak a distinct and rather peculiar language, form the most northern division. Next follow the inhabitants of the Punjab, also with a distinct language, which, however, is more closely related to the main tongue, the Hindi. This latter is divided into many dialects; and from it, since the spread of Mohammed anism into India, the Hindustani, a form of the Hindi interspersed with Arabic elements, has developed. In the west of India we have as inde pendent languages the Shah/ on the lower Indus, the G lljerafre on the peninsula of Gujerat and in the neighboring regions, and the A/okra/i•e, which is widely even beyond the fifteenth degree of north lati tude; in the east, on the lower Ganges and Ilrahmapootra, the Benf,-alee ; and filially south of these the OnYa and some subordinate idioms which we omit. Of course these various languages correspond to the different tribes of the Indian population.
Physical descriptions of ancient writers still apply to the present Hindoos, who—especially the Brahmans—in their physical construction are exactly like the representations on old Indian sculpture. The Indians are of middle size, the average height being 163 centimetres (64 inches). The limbs are often delicate and slender (comp. /54 ioS, fic. 0, but there are also very vigorous tribes; as, for example, the RajPools in Rajpootaua (North-eastern Punjab and Aravulli Color.—The color of the skin ranges from a dark yellow to a bronze or soot-black. Some have attempted to account for the latter color by supposing an intermixture of the Indians with the Dravidians; but, though this explanation may be correct for single individuals and regions, it does not explain all cases. We saw that all the Dravidian nations are by no means black; only exposed tribes and individuals are dark; the more protected ones, especially the women, are lighter than the others, and dark individuals are seen among classes where there can scarcely be suspicion of intermixture. It will therefore probably be more correct to attribute the dark color to spontaneous and climatic influences. The latter explanation is partly confirmed by the existence of perfectly light Hindoo tribes among the low hills of the Himalayas.