Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 2.djvu/17

 THE HIMALAYAN TRIBES.

HE tribes to whom the following illustrations refer, and who inhabit various portions of the Sub-Himalayan range, are all closely affiliated, and all of Northern origin. The legends of the dominant races indicate then transit across the Himalayas, from thirty-five to forty-five generations back, say 1000 to 1300 years, of which estimates the remoter is thought the more probable, as "the transit was certainly made before the Tibetans had adopted from India the religion and literature of Buddliism in the seventh and eighth centuries of our era." The general description of the Himalayans, both of earher and later immigration, is as follows :—"Head and face very broad, usually widest between the cheek bones, sometimes as made between the angles of the jaws; forehead broad, but low, and somewhat receding; chin defective; mouth large and salient, but the teeth vertical, and the lips not tumid; gums, especially the upper, thickened remarkably; eyes wide apart, flush with the cheek, and more or less obliquely set in the head; nose pyramidal, sufficiently long and elevated, save at the base, where it is depressed so as often to let the eyes run together, coarsely formed and thick, especially towards the end, and furnished with large round nostrils. Hair of head copious and straight, of the face and body deficient. Stature rather low, but muscular and strong. Character phlegmatic, and slow in intellect and feeling, but goodhumoured, cheerful and tractable, though somewhat impatient of continuous toil. Polyandry yet exists partially, but is falling out of use. Female chastity is little heeded before marriage; and drunkenness and dirtiness are much more frequent than in the plains. Crime is much rarer, however, and truth more regarded, and the character on the whole, amiable. The customs and manners have nothing very remarkable, and their creed may best be described by negatives. Indifferency is the only, but hitherto effective, obstacle to indoctrination by Brahmanical, Buddhist, or Christian teachers, so that the Scotch phrase 'we cannot be fashed,' serves best to describe the prevalent feeling of the Himalayans on this, as on many other matters.

The whole population is intensely tribual, some races still bound together by