of the wildest Nilgherry declivities, come up annually to worship at one of the dolmens on the table-land above, in which they say one of their old gods resides.  Though they are regarded with fear and hatred as sorcerers by the agricultural B[)a]d[)a]gas of the table-land, one of them must, nevertheless, at sowing-time be called to guide the first plough for two or three yards, and go through a mystic pantomime of propitiation to the earth deity, without which the crop would certainly fail.  When so summoned, the Kurumba must pass the night by the dolmens alone, and I have seen one who had been called from his present dwelling for the morning ceremony, sitting after dark on the capstone of a dolmen, with heels and hams drawn together and chin on knees, looking like some huge ghostly fowl perched on the mysterious stone.”  Mr. Gomme has drawn attention to this and other similar customs in the interesting remarks which he makes upon the influence of conquered non-Aryan races upon their Aryan subduers.[B]

[Footnote A:  Jour.  Anthrop.  Inst., vii. 21.]

[Footnote B:  Ethnology and Folk-Lore, p. 46; The Village Community, p. 105.]

Farther south, in Ceylon, the Veddahs live, whom Bailey[A] considers to be identical with the hill-tribes of the mainland, though, if this be true, some at least must have undergone a large amount of crossing, judging from the wavy nature of their hair.  The author just quoted says, “The tallest Veddah I ever saw, a man so towering above his fellows that, till I measured him, I believed him to be not merely comparatively a tall man, was only five feet three inches in height.  The shortest man I have measured was four feet one inch.  I should say that of males the ordinary height is from four feet six inches to five feet one inch, and of females from four feet four inches to four feet eight inches.”

[Footnote A:  Trans.  Ethn.  Soc., ii. 278.]

In the east the Santals inhabit the basin of the Ganges, and in the west the Jats belong to the Punjab, and especially to the district of the Indus.  The Kols inhabit the delta of the Indus and the neighbourhood of Gujerat, and stretch almost across Central India into Behar and the eastern extremities of the Vindhya Mountains.  Other Dravidian tribes are the Oraons, Jouangs, Buihers, and Gounds.  All these races have a stature of about five feet, and, though much crossed, present more or less marked Negrito characteristics.  Passing farther west, the Brahouis of Beluchistan, a Dravidian race, who regard themselves as the aboriginal inhabitants, live side by side with the Belutchis.  Finally, in this direction, there seem to have been near Lake Zerrah, in Persia, Negrito tribes who are probably aboriginal, and may have formed the historic black guard of the ancient kings of Susiana.