Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/763

] extends over nearly the same area as the Melanochroi, with which race it is greatly intermixed. The Xanthochroi have fair skins, blue eyes, and light hair; the others have dark skins, eyes, and hair, and are of a slighter frame. Together they constitute what were once called the Caucasian races. The Melanochroi are not considered by Professor Huxley to be one of the primitive modifications of mankind, but rather to be the result of the admixture of the Xanthochroi with the Australioid type, next to be mentioned.

114. The third group is that of the Australioid type. Their hair is dark, generally soft, never woolly. The eyes and skin are dark, the beard often well developed, the nose broad and flat, the lips coarse, and jaws heavy. This race is believed to form the basis of the people of the Indian peninsula, and of some of the hill tribes of Central India, to whom the name Dravidian has been given, and by its admixture with the Melanochroic group to have given rise to the ordinary population of the Indian provinces. It is also probable that the Australioid family extends into South Arabia and Egypt.

115. The last group, the Negroid, is represented by the races to which has been given the name of Negrito, from the small size of some of them. They are closely akin to the negroes of South Africa, and possess the characteristic dark skins, woolly, but scanty beard and body hair, broad Hat noses, and projecting lips of the African; and are diffused over the Andaman Islands, a part of the Malay peninsula, the Philippines, Papua, and some of the neigh bouring islands. The Negritos appear to be derived from a mixture of the true Negro with the Australian type.

116. The distribution of the Mongolian group in Asia offers no particular difficulty. There is complete present, and probably previous long-existing, geographical continuity in the area over which they are found. There is also considerable similarity of climate and other conditions throughout the northern half of Asia which they occupy. The extension of modified forms of the Mongolian type over the whole American continent may be mentioned as a remarkable circumstance connected with this branch of the human race.

117. The Mongolians of the northern half of Asia are almost entirely nomadic, hunters and shepherds or herds men. The least advanced of these, but far the most peaceful, are those that occupy Siberia. Further south the best known tribes are the Manchus, the Mongols proper, the Moguls, and the Turks, all known under the name of Tartars, and to the ancients as Scythians, occupying from east to west the zone of Asia comprised between the 40th and 50th circles of N. lat. The Turks are Mahometans; their tribes extend up the Oxus to the borders of Afghani stan and Persia, and to the Caspian, and under the name of Kirghis into Russia, and their language is spoken over a large part of Western Asia. Their letters are those of Persia. The Manchus and Mongols are chiefly Buddhist, with letters derived from the ancient Syriac. The Manchus are now said to be gradually falling under the influence of Chinese civilisation, and to be losing their old nomadic habits, and even their peculiar language. The predatory habits of the Turkish, Mongolian, and Manchu popula tion of Northern Asia, and their irruptions into other parts of the continent and into Europe, have produced very remarkable results in the history of the world, to which further reference will be made hereafter.

118. The Chinese branch of the Mongolian family are a thoroughly settled people of agriculturists and traders. They are partially Buddhist, and have a peculiar monosyllabic, uninflected language, with writing consisting of symbols, which represent words, not letters.

119. The countries lying between India and the Mongolian area are occupied by populations chiefly of the Mongolian and Chinese type, having languages fundamentally monosyllabic, but using letters derived from India, and adopting their religion, which is almost everywhere Buddhist, from the Indians. Of these may be named the Tibetans, the Burmese, and the Siamese. Cochin-China is more nearly Chinese in all respects.

120. The Malays, who occupy the peninsula and most of the islands of the Archipelago called after them, are Mongols apparently modified by their very different climate, and by the maritime life forced upon them by the physical conditions of the region they inhabit. As they are now known to us, they have undergone a process of partial civilisation, first at the hands of the Brahminical Indians, from whom they borrowed a religion, and to some extent literature and an alphabet, and subsequently from inter course with the Arabs, which has led to the adoption of Mahometanism by most of them.

121. The name of Aryan has been given to the races speaking languages derived from, or akin to, the ancient form of Sanskrit, who now occupy the temperate zone extending from the Mediterranean, across the highlands of Asia Minor, Persia, and Afghanistan, to India. The races speaking the languages akin to the ancient Assyrian, which are now only represented by Arabic, have been called Semitic, and occupy the countries south-west of Persia, including Syria and Arabia, besides extending into North Africa. Though the languages of these races are very different they cannot be regarded as physically distinct, and they are both without doubt branches of the Melanochroi, modified by admixture with the neighbouring races, the Mongols, the Australioids, and the Xanthochroi.

122. The Aryans of India are probably the most settled and civilised of all Asiatic races. This type is found in its purest form in the north and north-west, while the mixed races and the population referred to the Australioid type predominate in the peninsula and Southern India. Among the hill tribes of Central India are some which appear to have a Mongolian origin, and to have come in from the north-east, such as the Koles and Bhils. The spoken languages of Northern India are very various, differing one from another in the sort of degree that English differs from German, though all are thoroughly Sanskritic in their vocables, but with an absence of Sanskrit grammar that has given rise to considerable discussion. The languages of the south are Dravidian, not Sanskritic. The letters of both classes of languages, which also vary considerably, are all modifications of the ancient Pali, and probably derived from the Dravidians, not from the Aryans. They are written from left to right, exception being made of Urdu or Hindustani, the mixed language of the Mahometan con querors of Northern India, the character used for writing which is the Persian. From the River Sutlej and the borders of the Sindhian desert, as far as Burmah and to Ceylon, the religion of the great bulk of the people of India is Hindu or Brahmiuical, though the Mahometans are often numerous, and in some places even in a majority. West of the Sutlej the population of Asia may be said to be wholly Mahometan, with the exception of certain relatively small areas in Asia Minor and Syria, where Christians predominate. The language of the Punjab docs not differ very materially from that of Upper India. West of the Indus the dialects approach more to Persian, which language meets Arabic and Turki west of the Tigris, and along the Turkoman desert and the Caspian. Through the whole of this tract the letters are used which are common to Persian, Arabic, and Turkish, written from right to left.

123. The presence of the Negroid type in isolated Asiatic areas, so far removed from the existing Negro region, appears to require for its explanation the former extension of dry land from Africa across the area now occupied by