Identifier: handbooktoethnog00brit (find matches)
Title: Handbook to the ethnographical collections
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: British Museum. Dept. of British and Mediaeval Antiquities and Ethnography Joyce, Thomas Athol, 1878-1942 Dalton, O. M. (Ormonde Maddock), 1866-1945
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Publisher: (London) : Printed by order of the Trustees
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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o-Afghans, with more or lessstraight hair, and tlie short, dark Melano-Indians, or Dravidians,with hair which is often curly. The former race predominatesin the north-west and in the valley of the Ganges; the latter ismore numerous in the central and southern parts of the country,and to it the primitive tribes represented in the Collection belong. INDIA AND CEYLON 73 To its Kolariar, branch ))elong the Santal or Sonthal of WesternBengal; while the Khonds of Orissa are of the northern division.The southern division includes the Kurumba and Irula. who arejungle-tribes, and the Toda of the Nilgiri Hills, who are pastoral.It is natural that the influence of Central Asia should affect thepeoples of the north and east. Thus the tribes of the Himalayanregions, such as the Gurkha of Nepal and the Bhutia andLepcha of Sikkim, are related to the inhabitants of Tibet. Thetribes of Assam about tlie Middle Brahmaputra have affinities notonly with Tibet but also with Burma (see p. SI). The people of
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Fig. 60.—Apparatus for betel-chewing, Sinhalese, a. Mortar for poundingareca-nut. h. Box and sjiatula for lime. c. Knives for slicing areea-nut. Ceylon are partly of the Indo-Afghan race, but have beenmodified by contact with the more primitive Vedda (see below).Their ethnography is fairly represented in the Collection, as alsois that of the inhabitants of the Nicobar and Andaman Islands.Ceylon, the Taprobane and the Serendib of the ancients, wascolonized in the sixth century b.c. by Hindus from Bengal, whoafterwaids received the distinctive name of Sinhalese. Thecolonists found tlie island inhabited by snake-and-spirit worship-pers, who may be partially represented to-day by the Vedda, aI>rimitive people inha))iting the interior. During the earliercenturies of our era, wlien Buddhist art readied a high level inCeylon, there was a continuous Tamil innnigration from Southern 74 ASIA India. Tlie island has been subjected at different times toChinese, Mahiy and Arab influence; while

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