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The thanks of the Society were voted to the following gentlemen for donations to the library :-J. S. Brickwood, Esq.; Joseph Dickinson, Esq.; M. de Quatrefages; Geo. Tate, Esq.; the Asiatic Society of Bengal; and the Société d'Anthropologie de Paris.

The following papers were then read.

Notes on

some Ethnographical Casts, &c. By HERMANN VON SCHLAGINTWEIT, Esq. Corr. Mem. A.S.L.

A.-1. The Brahman is chiefly presented for showing his welldefined Aryan type in opposition to the following casts:

2. The Gond and Bhils, are decidedly the most savage and the most irregular in features; the upper part is somewhat Negro-like; the lower jaw decidedly more feeble.

3. The Santals are much more regular, and approaching the lower castes of Indians than any of the other aboriginal tribes.

4. The Bhot, chiefly shows the marked deviation of the Aryan; the mixed race between Bot-Yarkand is the latter mixed race; when examined in greater numbers it shows a much more decided tendency to approach the Turkistani types than to be a plain, arithmetical

mean.

B. The body shows a much greater number of qualities characteristic of tribes and castes than might be expected. One particularly striking is, the relative proportion of the ulna and the foot; with Hindoos, particularly the low caste ones, the ulna is longer than the foot; with the Tibetans (and in general with Europeans, ladies not excepted), it is, on an average, equally long. A remarkable fact is, that the Assyrians, in the splendid collections of sculptures by Layard and Rawlinson, are the only nation which, in its representations, at least, shows the foot considerably longer than the ulna; it might appear arbitrary and indifferent, if I had not found in the recent materials now put up in the British Museum that foreign prisoners have the proportion in the uniform type of other tribes. However, a quite positive confirmation must remain, depending upon the finding out of ancient Assyrian skeletons.

C.-Details of my mode of measuring, equally employed by my brothers, you may find in the Report of the Statistical Congress, which was held in London (1860, I believe, page 500 of the Report in folio).

E.—In the last publication of the Royal Asiatic Society there will be found communicated by my brother Emile a memoir in relation to the proportions of Buddhist idols which might furnish some data.

F. As one of the numerous details of a rather unexpected nature might be mentioned, the following result, in reference to the difference of sight with the right and left eye:

An ordinary optometer, such as the very good one of Doppler, in Vienna, was found to be of no use with people of so low a civilisation, as it required too high a sense for accuracy in accommodation, being an instrument somewhat similar to a telescope. But I found it very practical to take a veil, to put it at a distance of from four to six inches, viz., within the distance of accurate sight for "normal eyes;"

I then requested the person to be examined to look at any distant object, and asked, when he had well fixed it, closing myself alternately the one and the other of his two eyes, with which eye he did better see the veil, or less badly see the veil. As this question was unexpected also, prejudice could less interfere with the answer. Now, in a proportion of about six to four, the right eye was less farsighted, or, what may be considered as the same (as always confirmed when closely examined by a peculiar kind of reflecting instrument), the right eye was the more convex one of the two. As with these people writing and reading does interfere, whilst shooting rather would train the right eye to distant accommodation, the result is the more important. The explanation which appears to me to be the most plain, and, at the same time satisfactory, is, I think, that it coincides with the general stronger powers of muscles on the right half of our body, which coincides with the eye being made more convex, and not quite so far-sighted.

G.-These ethnographical observations are to form the object of vol. vii of our results of a scientific mission to India and High Asia, of which three volumes in 4to and one in 8vo have appeared till now, altogether with an Atlas of fifty-two plates, and that of the entire series of two hundred and seventy-five casts; besides the continental museums, one is in England, and three in India, whilst Mr. Trübner is preparing a new edition in successive groups for the public in general.

On the Domber. By JOHN SHORTT, M.D., F.A.S.L., Zillah Surgeon, Chingleput.

"Dommari" and "Dombari" are Teloogoo and Marathè words, corrupted from the Hindostanee "Doru," and applied to a certain low caste of natives supposed to be one of the aboriginal races of India. The corrupted word "Domber" is applied to a class of people who perform acrobatic feats, such as rope-dancing, tumbling, pole-climbing, &c., &c., not only the men, but even the women, being great experts in these feats, by which they gain a precarious livelihood. An itinerating camp of these people, usually consisting of about twenty persons, is to be met with in almost every district, a camp always keeping to one district, and never wandering to others.

The Domber are usually tall, and some of them tolerably well made, with a complexion varying from bamboo to copper colour, and in some merging into black. The Mongolian is the predominant type of countenance, evidenced by the somewhat pointed chin and absence of whiskers, large eyes, and prominent cheek-bones; with few exceptions their muscles are not more developed than those of other natives, though, from their habits and evident strength, one would naturally expect to find them a muscular race. A few of the women are tall and well made, with a bold expression of countenance; the best looking are brought up as prostitutes, but the men of the gang have nothing to say to them. They can cohabit with the men of other gangs, and with all others, except Mussulmans, Pariahs, Barbers, and Dhobies. The other women among them are married,

and from these prostitutes are distinguished by the name of "Vashee," or harlot; these latter are the women who tumble and dance.

Caste. They are recognised as the Domber caste all over Southern India.

Dress. They dress much in the same manner as other natives, the men frequently wear made trousers and jackets, and the women wear the usual sari with the cholee, or short jacket, and their dancing women, when about to perform, twist their clothes tightly round their legs like trousers; these women are usually better dressed, and wear more clothes than the others. The men make their own clothes, and the women their own jackets; both men and women seem to sew very well.

Örnaments. Like natives in general, the men were nose- ear- and finger-rings, armlets, &c.; the women wear ear- nose- finger- and toerings, necklaces, armlets, bracelets, and anklets. These usually

consist of silver, gold, or brass, the greater number of their ornaments being of the latter. They also make use of glass beads of different kinds and colours, and the women wear necklaces made of these.

Ceremonies. They appoint one of their caste, whose business it is to marry the others, but no particular ceremonies are performed; the bridegroom usually finds liquor for the gang. When a girl attains maturity, she is kept apart for five days, and when a woman is confined of a child she is kept apart for a week. On the first day they give her plain rice, and on the second chillie powder, and "currypillay," is mixed with the rice. They have no midwives among them. They bury their dead, but no particular ceremonies are observed. They have no religious feasts of their own, but join in all the native feasts.

Language. This is usually Teloogoo, but differs sometimes according to the district in which they itinerate.

Habits. The men and the prostitutes go out during the day, and exhibit their feats in rope-dancing, &c.; the latter ply their own trade after nightfall. Those who do not perform hunt the wild cat, jackal, guana, and other small animals, or fish; some make mats, and wooden hair combs for sale, and the women and children tend donkeys, pigs, &c., of which they usually have a large number, either for use or sale. They marry but one wife; other women may be taken into concubinage. Judging from the number of children among them, they seem to breed freely.

Feats. These are very similar to those performed by the street acrobats in England, and consists of tumbling head over heels, backwards and forwards, walking on stilts, walking, dancing, and sliding on the tight rope, climbing a pole, and twirling round on a pivot at its extremity, the abdomen resting on the pole, and the arms and legs free in the air; placing stones on the mouth, chest, and pelvis, and throwing up others to strike these in their fall. One man walks about with another standing erect on his shoulders or head. Three men stand erect one on the other; the men and women vie with each other in tumbling, &c.

Leaf of the Kaenigii Bergera.

Villages. As they are constantly itinerating from place to place : they have no fixed village. They generally encamp on the outskirts of a native village, and their stay in a place is indefinite, depending, in a great measure, on their gains. Their huts are portable, and consist of a few bamboos arched over, and covered with mats sewn together, and made of the palmyra leaflets; the centre of the hut is about five feet in height, and it covers a diameter of between five and six feet of ground; each contains a charpoy, or cot, about two feet from the ground; the frame is plaited over with ropes, on which two, three, or more people sleep. All their cooking operations are carried on outside. When they travel, their huts are easily taken down, tied together, and carried on donkeys, which are used as pack animals. Diseases. They are subject to the usual diseases of the district; none of their tribe are skilled in the use of herbs or other medicine; they do what they can in cases of sickness. They do not approve of vaccination, as they believe that it will bring down the anger of their deity on them.

Deities. They worship a female deity, whom they call "Polaree Amah," and whose blessing they constantly invoke in all their movements. They are, to a certain extent, superstitious about ghosts, evil spirits, good and bad days, &c.

I here give the heights, measurements, and weights of nine men and three women; unfortunately I could not get a larger number together.

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The PRESIDENT observed, that he knew of no anthropologist who wrote papers in a more scientific manner than Dr. Shortt; and although his communication was very brief and in a great measure technical, it was very valuable from its completeness. He then called on Mr. Pike to read the next paper.

On the Place of the Sciences of Mind and Language in the Science of Man. By LUKE OWEN PIKE, M.A., F.A.S.L.

AMONG the legion of sciences which are necessary to the formation of a Science of Man, there is one which has fascinated philosophers from the earliest dawn of philosophy, and which has advanced only one stage since its birth. So stationary has this unfortunate science been, that there are many who would have us abandon it in despair, and who argue that, where the most powerful intellects of the past have failed, no one can in future expect to succeed. And so deeply seated is this feeling, that by some persons a man who studies psychology is regarded in the same light as a man who believes in the possibility of perpetual motion. Hence it is difficult to say anything upon the subject without fearing that prejudice will put down all that is said either to arrogance or to folly.

Whether this prejudice be well founded or not, it is, I believe, generally admitted that, without a science of mind, a science of man is impossible. All arguments, therefore, for the abandonment of the study of psychology, apply with at least equal force to the abandonment of the study of anthropology; and from this I conclude that the existence of the Anthropological Society necessarily implies an attempt to solve the mysteries of mind.

The object of this paper is to show what I believe to be one or two of the causes of the arrested growth of psychology.

One of the principal causes seems certainly to be man's notion of his own dignity, which prevents him from comparing impartially his own mental endowments with those of the brutes. And this one cause has given rise to a host of prejudices, which in their turn act as so many new impediments to the progress of discovery. Man admits, with reluctance perhaps, that the other mammalia approach very near him in construction, and tolerates the science of comparative anatomy. But hint to him that there is a corresponding simi larity in the mental constitution of brutes, and he at once feels insulted. Comparative anatomy is bad enough, but comparative psychology is not to be thought of. And yet this sensitiveness is really uncalled for. There is no fear that comparative psychology will fail to exhibit the immense superiority of man to the brutes. It will, should it ever really become a science, show not only that man is above the brutes, but how far he is above them-and this, if I am not mistaken, in no vague terms, but in figures as intelligible as those which mark the difference between sulphurous acid and sulphuric acid. On this subject, I hope, if the Society will do me the honour to listen to me, to say more on a future occasion. For the present, my object is to clear the way by shewing that the difference between the minds of man and of the brute is a difference not of kind, but of degree. Unless this can be proved, comparative psychology, in the sense of a quantitative analysis of different mental phenomena, must of course be given up.

There is not, I believe, any à priori reason to suppose that there is a difference of kind between the brute intellect and the human intel

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