FIG. 130.—Group of Todas of Nilgiri Hills.
(Phot. lent by Deyrolle.)
The Baltis, neighbours of the Dardus on the east, speaking a Thibetan dialect, and the Pakhpuluk of the other side of the Kara-Korum (upper valley of the Karakash), speaking a Turkish tongue (Forsyth), are a mixture of Indo-Aryan and Turkish races. On the other hand, in the Himalayan region, the Nepalese (the Kulu-Lahuli and Paharias on the west, the Khas, the Mangars and other Gurkhas, Fig. [125], on the east), speaking a neo-Hindu language, have sprung from the intermingling of Indo-Afghan and Mongolic races (by the Thibetans). There are in India other peoples among whom linguistic or somatological affinities with the Indo-Aryans are found. Such are the Nairs of Malabar, a conglomerate of various castes and tribes, well known by their marriage customs (p. [232]), many of these tribes forming a contrast with the Dravidians by their fine type, their light complexion, their thin and prominent nose.[465]
FIG. 131.—Singhalese of Candy, Ceylon,
twenty-seven years old; ceph. ind. 72.4.
(Phot. Delisle.)
FIG. 132.—Same subject as Fig. [131], seen in profile.
(Phot. Delisle.)
The Singhalese (Figs. [131] and [132]) of the south of Ceylon speak a fundamentally Aryan language. They have certain traits in common with the Indo-Afghans and the Assyroids, but their type has been affected by the neighbourhood of a small mysterious tribe, that of the Veddahs (Figs. [5], [6], and [133]), driven back into the mountains of the south-west of Ceylon. This is the remnant of a very primitive population whose physical type approximates nearest to the platyrhine variety of the Dravidian race, at the same time presenting certain peculiarities. The Veddahs are monogamous; they live in caves or under shelters of boughs (p. [160]), hiding themselves even from the Singhalese.[466]