Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 50.djvu/603

Rh of these extremes. In profile the posterior development of the negro skull should be compared with the bullet-shaped head of the Asiatic. It will appear that differences in length are as remarkable as in the breadth. The line of division of head forms passes east and west just south of the great continental backbone extending from the Alps to the Himalayas. Thus the primitive natives of India, the black men of the hill tribes, who are quite distinct from the Hindu invaders, form part of this southern long-headed group. The three southern centers of long-headedness may once have been part of a single continent which occupied the basin of the Indian Ocean. From the peculiar geographical localization about this latter center of the lemurs, a species allied to the monkeys, together with certain other mammals, some naturalists have advocated the theory that such a continent once united Africa and Australia. To this hypothetical land mass they have assigned the name Lemuria. It would be idle to discuss the theory in this place. Whether such a continent ever existed or not, the present geographical distribution of long-headedness points to a common derivation of the African, the Melanesian, and the Dravidian peoples of India. The phenomena of skin color and of hair only serve to strengthen the hypothesis.

The extremes in head form here presented between the north and the south of the eastern hemisphere constitute the mainstay of the theory that in these places we find the two primary elements of the human species. Other racial traits only help to confirm the deduction. The most sudden anthropo-geographical transition in the world is afforded by the Himalaya mountain ranges. Happily, we possess pretty detailed information for parts of this region, especially the Pamir. This "roof of the world" is of peculiar interest to us as the land to which Max Müller sought to trace the Aryan invaders of Europe by a study of the languages of that continent. It is clearly proved that this greatest mountain system in the world is at the same time the dividing line between the extreme types of mankind. It is really the