A Philological Essay Concerning the Pygmies of the Ancients | Page 5

[Footnote C: _Problèmes Géographiques. Les Peuples Etrangers chez
les Historiens Chinois_. Extrait du T'oung-pao, vol. iv. No. 4. Leide,
E.J. Brill.]
Passing to the north-west of the Andamans, we find in India a problem
of considerable difficulty. That there were at one period numerous
Negrito tribes inhabiting that part of Asia is indubitable; that some of
them persist to this day in a state of approximate purity is no less true,
but the influence of crossing has here been most potent. Races of
lighter hue and taller stature have invaded the territory of the Negritos,
to a certain extent intermarried with them, and thus have originated the
various Dravidian tribes. These tribes, therefore, afford us a valuable
clue as to the position occupied in former days by their ancestors, the
Negritos.

In some of the early Indian legends, De Quatrefages thinks that he finds
traces of these prehistoric connections between the indigenous Negrito
tribes and their invaders. The account of the services rendered to Rama
by Hânuman and his monkey-people may, he thinks, easily be
explained by supposing the latter to be a Negrito tribe. Another tale
points to unions of a closer nature between the alien races. Bhimasena,
after having conquered and slain Hidimba, at first resisted the
solicitations of the sister of this monster, who, having become
enamoured of him, presented herself under the guise of a lovely woman.
But at the wish of his elder brother, Youdhichshira, the king of justice,
and with the consent of his mother, he yielded, and passed some time in
the dwelling of this Negrito or Dravidian Armida.
It will now be necessary to consider some of these races more or less
crossed with alien blood.
In the centre of India, amongst the Vindyah Mountains, live the
Djangals or Bandra-Lokhs, the latter name signifying man-monkey,
and thus associating itself with the tale of Rama, above alluded to. Like
most of the Dravidian tribes, they live in great misery, and show every
sign of their condition in their attenuated figures. One of this tribe
measured by Rousselet was five feet in height. It may here be remarked
that the stature of the Dravidian races exceeds that of the purer Negritos,
a fact due, no doubt, to the influence of crossing. Farther south, in the
Nilgherry Hills, and in the neighbourhood of the Todas and Badagas,
dwell the Kurumbas. and Irulas (children of darkness). Both are weak
and dwarfish, the latter especially so. They inhabit, says Walhouse,[A]
the most secluded, densely wooded fastnesses of the mountain slopes.
They are by popular tradition connected with the aboriginal builders of
the rude stone monuments of the district, though, according to the
above-mentioned authority, without any claim to such distinction. They,
however, worship at these cromlechs from time to time, and are
associated with them in another interesting manner. "The Kurumbas of
Nulli," says Walhouse, "one of the wildest Nilgherry declivities, come
up annually to worship at one of the dolmens on the table-land above,
in which they say one of their old gods resides. Though they are
regarded with fear and hatred as sorcerers by the agricultural
B[)a]d[)a]gas of the table-land, one of them must, nevertheless, at
sowing-time be called to guide the first plough for two or three yards,

and go through a mystic pantomime of propitiation to the earth deity,
without which the crop would certainly fail. When so summoned, the
Kurumba must pass the night by the dolmens alone, and I have seen
one who had been called from his present dwelling for the morning
ceremony, sitting after dark on the capstone of a dolmen, with heels
and hams drawn together and chin on knees, looking like some huge
ghostly fowl perched on the mysterious stone." Mr. Gomme has drawn
attention to this and other similar customs in the interesting remarks
which he makes upon the influence of conquered non-Aryan races upon
their Aryan subduers.[B]
[Footnote A: _Jour. Anthrop. Inst._, vii. 21.]
[Footnote B: Ethnology and Folk-Lore, p. 46; The Village Community,
p. 105.]
Farther south, in Ceylon, the Veddahs live, whom Bailey[A] considers
to be identical with the hill-tribes of the mainland, though, if this be
true, some at least must have undergone a large amount of crossing,
judging from the wavy nature of their hair. The author just quoted says,
"The tallest Veddah I ever saw, a man so towering above his fellows
that, till I measured him, I believed him to be not merely comparatively
a tall man, was only five feet three inches in height. The shortest man I
have measured was four feet one inch. I should say that of males the
ordinary height is from four feet six inches to five feet one inch, and of
females from four feet four inches to four feet eight inches."
[Footnote A: