Khanikoff has shown that these Tajiks constitute the primitive element in ancient Iran. To the true Persians of the west, as well as to the kindred Afghans in the east, both of dolicho type, the term is rarely applied. But almost everywhere the sedentary and agricultural aborigines are called Tajiks, and are spoken of as Parsiván, that is, Parsizabán[1318], "of Persian speech," or else Dihkán[1318], that is, "Peasants," all being mainly husbandmen "of Persian race and tongue[1319]." They form endless tribal, or at least social, groups, who keep somewhat aloof from their proto-Aryan conquerors, so that, in the east especially, the ethnic fusion is far from complete, the various sections of the community being still rather juxtaposed than fused in a single nationality. When to these primeval differences is added the tribal system still surviving in full vigour amongst the intruding Afghans themselves, we see how impossible it is yet to speak of an Afghan nation, but only of heterogeneous masses loosely held together by the paramount tribe—at present the Durani of Kabul.
The Tajiks are first mentioned by Herodotus, whose Dadikes[1320] are identified by Hammer and Khanikoff with them[1321]. They are now commonly divided into Lowland, and Highland or Hill Tajiks, of whom the former were always Parsiván, whereas the Hill Tajiks did not originally speak Persian at all, but, as many still do, an independent sister language called Galchic, current in the Pamir, Zerafshan and Sir-darya uplands, and holding a somewhat intermediate position between the Iranic and Indic branches.
The Galcha.
This term Galcha, although new to science, has long been applied to the Aryans of the Pamir valleys, being identified with the Calcienses populi of the lay Jesuit Benedict Goez, who crossed the Pamir in 1603, and describes them as "of light hair and beard like the Belgians." Meyendorff also calls those of Zerafshan "Eastern Persians, Galchi, Galchas." The word has been explained to mean "the hungry raven who has withdrawn to the mountains," probably in reference to those Lowland Tajiks who took refuge in the uplands from the predatory Turki hordes. But it is no doubt the Persian galcha, a peasant or clown, then a vagabond, etc., whence galchagi, rudeness.
As shown by J. Biddulph[1322], the tribes of Galchic speech range over both slopes of the Hindu-Kush, comprising the natives of Sarakol, Wakhan, Shignan, Munjan (with the Yidoks of the Upper Lud-kho or Chitral river), Sanglich, and Ishkashim. To these he is inclined to add the Pakhpus and the Shakshus of the Upper Yarkand-darya, as well as those of the Kocha valley, with whom must now be included the Zerafshan Galchas (Maghians, Kshtuts, Falghars, Machas and Fans), but not the Yagnobis. All these form also one ethnic group of Alpine type, with whom on linguistic grounds Biddulph also includes two other groups, the Khos of Chitral with the Siah Posh of Kafiristan, and the Shíns (Dards), Górs, Chilási and other small tribes of the Upper Indus and side valleys, all these apparently being long-heads of the blond Aryan type. Keeping this distinction in view, Biddulph's valuable treatise on the Hindu-Kush populations may be followed with safety. He traces the Galcha idioms generally to the old Baktrian (East Persia, so-called "Zend Avesta"), the Shín however leaning closely to Sanskrit, while Khowar, the speech of the Chitrali (Khos), is intermediate between Baktrian and Sanskrit. But differences prevail on these details, which will give occupation to philologists for some time to come.
Galcha and Tajik Types.
Speaking generally, all the Galchas of the northern slopes (most of Biddulph's first group) are physically connected with all the other Lowland and Hill Tajiks, with whom should also probably be included Elphinstone's[1323] southern Tajiks dwelling south of the Hindu-Kush (Kohistani, Berraki, Purmuli or Fermuli, Sirdehi, Sistani, and others scattered over Afghanistan and northern Baluchistan). Their type is pronouncedly Alpine, so much so that they have been spoken of by French anthropologists as "those belated Savoyards of Kohistan[1324]." De Ujfalvy, who has studied them carefully, describes them as tall, brown or bronzed and even white, with ruddy cheeks recalling the Englishman, black or chestnut hair, sometimes red and even light, smooth, wavy or curly, full beard, brown, ruddy or blond (he met two brothers near Penjakend with hair "blanc comme du lin"); brown, blue, or grey eyes, never oblique, long, shapely nose slightly curved, thin, straight lips, oval face, stout, vigorous frame, and round heads with cephalic index as high as 86.50. This description, which is confirmed by Bonvalot and other recent observers, applies to the Darwazi, Wakhi, Badakhshi, and in fact all the groups, so that we have beyond all doubt an eastern extension of the Alpine brachycephalic zone through Armenia and the Bakhtiari uplands to the Central Asiatic highlands, a conclusion confirmed by the explorations of M. A. Stein in Chinese Turkestan and the Pamirs (1900-8)[1325]. Indeed this Asiatic extension of the Alpine type inclines v. Luschan[1326] to regard the European branch as one offshoot, and the high and narrow ("Hittite") nosed type as another, or rather as a specialised group, of which the Armenians, Persians, Druses, and other sectarian groups of Syria and Asia Minor represent the purest examples. According to his summary of this complicated region "All Western Asia was originally inhabited by a homogeneous melanochroic race, with extreme hypsi-brachycephaly and with a 'Hittite' nose. About 4000 B.C. began a Semitic invasion from the south-east, probably from Arabia, by people looking like the modern Bedawy. Two thousand years later commenced a second invasion, this time from the north-west, by xanthrochroous and long-headed tribes like the modern Kurds, half savage, and in some way or other, perhaps, connected with the historic Harri, Amorites, Tamehu and Galatians[1327]."
Ethnic Relations in India.
But the eventful drama is not yet closed. Arrested perhaps for a time by the barrier of the Hindu-Kush and Sulimán ranges, proto-Aryan conquerors burst at last, probably through the Kabul river gorges, on to the plains of India, and thereby added another world to the Caucasic domain. Here they were brought face to face with new conditions, which gave rise to fresh changes and adaptations resulting in the present ethnical relations in the peninsula. There is good reason to think that in this region the leavening Aryan element never was numerous, while even on their first arrival the Aryan invaders found the land already somewhat thickly peopled by the aborigines[1328].
The marked linguistic and ethnical differences between Eastern and Western Hindustan have given rise to the theory of two separate streams of immigration, perhaps continued over many centuries[1329]. The earlier entered from the north-west, bringing their herds and families with them, whose descendants are the homogeneous and handsome populations of the Punjab and Rajputana. Later swarms entered by way of the difficult passes of Gilgit and Chitral, a route which made it impossible for their women to accompany them. "Here they came in contact with the Dravidians; here by the stress of that contact caste was evolved; here the Vedas were composed and the whole fantastic structure of orthodox ritual and usage was built up.... The men of the stronger race took to themselves women of the weaker, and from these unions was evolved the mixed type which we find in Hindustan and Bihar[1330]."