Chapter X: Races and Peoples of Asia (2)

The _Burmese_ or _Mramma_ made a descent on Indo-China perhaps at the same time as the Annamese, from their original country, which is supposed to be the mountains of the south-east of Thibet. To-day they occupy Upper Burma, Pegu, and Arakan. In the last-mentioned country they bear the name of _Mag_ or _Arakanese_, and differ a little from the true Burmese of Upper Burma, who are the purest representatives of the Burmese people. Like the Annamese, they have attained a certain degree of civilisation, mainly due to the influence of India. We find existing among them monogamy, the order of castes, and Buddhism of the south but slightly altered. The Mag are mesocephalic (ceph. ind. 81.8) and of short stature (1 m. 61).[447]

_The Thai._--The numerous peoples speaking different Thai dialects were the last arrivals in Indo-China. Their migrations may be followed from the first century /B.C./, when the _Pa-y_ tribes came from Sechuen into Western Yunnan to found there the kingdom of Luh-Tchao. Another kingdom, that of Muang-ling, was founded more to the south-west in Upper Burma, etc. The recent researches of Terrien de Lacouperie, Colquhoun, Baber, Hosie, Labarth, Billet, H. Hollet, Bourne, Deblenne, and of so many others besides, enable us to show the relations which existed between these various Thai peoples and to assign the limits with sufficient exactitude to their habitat, which extends from Kwei-chow to Cambodia, between the 14th and the 26th degrees of N. latitude.[448]

Four principal Thai peoples may be distinguished in this territory: the _Thos-Muong_ in the north-east (Tong King and China), the _Shans_ in the north-west (Upper Burma), the _Laotians_ in the south-east (French Laos), and the _Siamese_ in the south-west (Siam).

We put together, under the name of _Thos-Muong_, all the natives of Upper Tong King and the Tong King hinterland (except the mountain summits occupied by the _Mans_, allied probably to the Lo-lo), as well as the primitive inhabitants of Kwang-si, Southern Kwei-chow, and Eastern Yunnan, now driven back to the mountains. The Thos inhabiting Tong King to the east of the Red River (basin of the Claire River), are sub-brachycephalic (ceph. ind. 82.5), of lofty stature (1 m. 67),[449] having elongated face, straight non-Mongoloid eyes, and brownish complexion. They partly recall the Indonesians, and partly the still mysterious race to which the Lo-lo belong (p. 381). They are husbandmen, living in houses on piles, and wearing a very picturesque costume different from that of their ancient masters the Annamese. The _Muongs_ of Tong King to the west of the Red River (basin of the Black River), the _Pueun_ and the _Pu-Thai_ of Annamese Laos resemble them both in type and in language, which is a Thai dialect very much altered by Chinese and Annamese. The _Tu-jen_, the _Pe-miao_, the _Pa-i_, forming two-thirds of the population of Kwang-si, and found in the south of Kwei-chow and the north-west of Kwang-tung, as well as the _Pe-jen_ or _Minkia_ of Yunnan, are Thos slightly crossed with Chinese blood in the same way as the _Nongs_ of Tong King, the neighbours of the Thos. Most of these peoples have a special kind of writing, recalling that of the _Laotians_. The latter, as well as the _Shans_, differ somewhat from the Thos in regard to type, in which we may discern interminglings with the Indonesians, Malays, Mois, and Burmese. Among the Shans we must distinguish the _Khamti_ (Fig. 122), a very pure race, and the _Sing-po_ with the _Kackyen_ or _Katchin_, somewhat intermixed with the Burmese, both of them races of mountaineers of the northern parts of Upper Burma, between the Lu-Kiang (upper Salwen) and the Lohit-Brahmaputra. The upper valley of the latter river is inhabited by the _Assamese_ or _Ahoms_, cross-breeds between the Shans and Hindus, speaking a particular dialect of the Hindi language. The _Laotians_ are sub-brachycephalic (83.6) and of short stature (1 m. 59); those of the north tattoo their bodies like the Shans. They are husbandmen, shepherds, and hunters.[450]

It is perhaps among the _Siamese_ that the primitive Thai type has been most changed by intermixture with the Khmers, Kuis, Hindus, and Malays. In stature above the average (1 m. 61), very brachycephalic (ceph. ind. 85.5) with olive complexion, they have prominent cheek-bones, lozenge-shaped face, and short flattish nose. They are fervent votaries of southern Buddhism, and are the most civilised of the Thai. They have succeeded in preserving their relative independence and forming a state in which several reforms of European character have been attempted in recent times.

V. /The Population of India/ represents about a third of the inhabitants of Asia (287,223,431 inhabitants according to the census of 1891). It is sub-divided into a hundred tribes or distinct peoples, but this multiplicity of ethnic groups is rather apparent than real, and they may easily be incorporated into a small number of somatic races or linguistic families; these groups frequently represent castes alone.

_Caste_ is indeed an institution peculiar to India. Of ancient origin, this institution has developed very considerably, assuming the most varied forms. Springing from a Hindu or Brahman source, it penetrated little by little the other ethnic and religious groups of the peninsula, and one might say that it is the basis of the social organisation for four-fifths of the population of India, despite of the fact that its power is declining at the present day beneath the strong hand of British rule. About 2000 castes may be enumerated at the present day, but year by year new ones are being called into existence as a certain number disappear.[451]

(_Coll. Ind. Mus., London._)]

The names of these castes are derived either from hereditary occupations (tanners, husbandmen, etc.); from a geographical source (Pathani, etc.), or a genealogical one--from a supposed common ancestor; or, especially among the Dravidians, from objects or animals singled out as _totems_ (p. 247). The essential characteristics of all castes, persisting amid every change of form, are endogamy within themselves and the regulation forbidding them to come into contact one with another and partake of food together (Sénart). Endogamy within the limits of the caste implies, as a corollary, exogamy among the sections of the caste. The typical form of these sections is the “gotra,” an eponymous group reputed to be descended from a common ancestor, usually from a _rishi_, a priest or legendary saint.

Outside of this endogamic rule marriage is forbidden in all castes between relatives to the sixth degree on the paternal side and to the fourth degree on the maternal side. Caste has no religious character; men of different creeds may belong to it. It is ruled by a chief and a council (_panchâyet_), and has not limits as rigid as is commonly supposed; the way is smoothed by compromises and liberal interpretations of rules for rich and clever people to pass from a lower to a higher caste.

In this way or some other a man may rise from one caste to another: in Mirzapur many Ghonds and Korvars have become Rajputs, etc. (Crooke). Employment is by no means the criterion of caste, as is very often supposed. “Those who have seen Brahmans,” says Sénart, “girdled with the sacred cord, offer water to travellers in the railway stations of India, who have seen them drilling among the sepoys of the Anglo-Indian army, are prepared for surprises of this kind.”[452] And in conclusion the castes do not always agree with ethnic and somatic divisions.[453]

(_Phot. Thurston._)]

Side by side with caste another characteristic institution of the Cisgangetic Aryan or Aryanised peoples must be noted; it is the village (_grama_) with common proprietorship of the soil and family communities, on which I cannot dilate for want of space (see p. 247).

(_Phot. Thurston._)]

India was the cradle of two great religions which have become international, Brahmanism and Buddhism. This fact deserves to be borne in mind on account of the impress left on these two religions by the national Hindu character. The foundation of both is formed of those characteristically Hindu beliefs,--the ideas of metempsychosis, final deliverance, and the doctrine of the moral world, which form a contrast with the Semitic religions. Brahmanism is professed by about three-fourths (72 per cent.) of the inhabitants of India, while Buddhism and its derivative Jainism only number, apart from the island of Ceylon, three per cent. of the total population of the peninsula. The most widespread religion after Brahmanism is Islamism (20 per cent. of the whole population of India).

(_Coll. India Museum, London._)]

From the somatological point of view it may be affirmed to-day, after the excellent works of Risley, Crooke, Thurston, Sarasin, Schmidt, Jagor, Mantegazza, etc., that the variety of types found in the country is due to the crossing of two indigenous races, Indo-Afghan and Melano-Indian or Dravidian, with the admixture here and there of foreign elements: Turkish and Mongol in the north, Indonesian in the east, Arab and Assyroid in the west, and perhaps the Negritoid element in the centre. The Indo-Afghan race, of high stature, with light brown or tanned complexion, long face, wavy or straight hair, prominent and thin nose, dolichocephalic head, predominates in the north-west of India; the Melano-Indian or Dravidian race, also dolichocephalic but of short stature, with dark brown or black complexion, wavy or frizzy hair, is chiefly found in the south. In it two sub-races may be distinguished: a _platyrhinian_ one, with broad flat nose, rounded face, found in the mountainous regions of Western Bengal, Oudh and Orissa, also at several points of Rajputana and Gujarat, then in Southern India, and in the central provinces to the south of the rivers Narbada and Mahanadi. The other sub-race, _leptorhinian_, with narrow prominent nose, and elongated face may be noted in some particular groups, especially among the Nairs, the Telugus, and the Tamils.[454]

1. _Melano-Indians or Dravidians._--This group, at once somatological and linguistic, includes two sub-divisions, based on differences of language: the division of Kolarians, and that of Dravidians properly so called.

_a._ _Kolarians._[455]--The numerous tribes speaking the languages of the Kol family and belonging to the platyrhinian variety of the Melano-Indian race, more or less modified by interminglings, occupy the mountainous regions of Bengal and the provinces of the north-west. Certain of these tribes, of the purest type, like the _Juang_ or _Patua_ of Keunjhar and Dhenkanal (Orissa), are distinguished by very short stature (1 m. 57), zygomatic arches projecting outwards, and flat face, as well as by certain ethnic characters; they go nearly naked, live on the products of the chase and the fruits and roots gathered; they also practise a little primitive cultivation by burning the forests, etc. The _Kharia_ of Lohardaga (Chota Nagpur), who resemble the Juang in type, language, and tattooings (three lines above the nose, etc.), are partly civilised; some cultivate the ground with a plough, have a rudimentary social constitution, etc. The other Kols are, for the most part, still further advanced. Such are the _Santals_ or _Sonthals_ (Fig. 128) of Western Bengal, of Northern Orissa, and of Bhagalpur, who call themselves “Hor”; the _Munda_ or _Horo-hu_ of Chota Nagpur; the _Ho_ or _Lurka-Kols_ of the district of Singbhum (Bengal); lastly, the _Bhumij_ of Western Bengal, all probably sections of one and the same people, formerly much more numerous.[456] The Kols of the north-west provinces (height 1 m. 64; ceph. ind. 73.2, according to Risley and Crooke) are closely allied to the groups which I have just mentioned. The _Savaras_ or _Saoras_, scattered over Orissa, Chota Nagpur, Western Bengal, and as far as the province of Madras, speak a language which Cunningham, Cust, and Fr. Müller consider Kolarian, while, according to Dalton, it belongs to the Dravidian family properly so called. Physically, they resemble the Malé Dravidians, and exhibit the tolerably pure type of the platyrhinian sub-race of the Melano-Indians.[457] The same doubt exists in regard to the linguistic affinities of the _Bhils_ of Central India and the north-west provinces.

_b._ _Dravidians properly so called._--They may be divided into two groups, those of the north and those of the south.

_Dravidians of the North._--These are in the first place the _Malé_ (plural _Maler_) or _Asal Paharia_ of the Rajmahal hills (Bengal), probably one of the sections of the Savara people (see above);[458] the _Oraons_ (523,000 in 1891), several tribes of which are also found in the north-west of Chota Nagpur; lastly, the _Gonds_ (three millions) of the Mahadeo mountains and part of the central provinces situated farther south, between the rivers Indravati and Seleru, tributaries of the Godavari. To the east of the Gonds dwell the _Khands_ and the _Khonds_ (600,000), who have spread into Orissa.

All these tribes have scarcely got beyond the stage of hunters or primitive husbandmen, who set their forests on fire in order to sow among the ashes. In this respect the _Korwa_ of Sarguja, of Jashpur (Bengal), and Mirzapur (north-west province) resemble them, if they are not even more uncivilised. They are unacquainted with clothes of any kind, obtain fire by sawing one piece of wood with another, and have an animistic religion much less developed than that of the Gonds or Oraons.[459]

_Dravidians of the South._--To the south of the Godavari dwell five black, half-civilised peoples, having a particular form of writing, professing Brahmanism, and showing an intermingling of two varieties of the Melano-Indian race. Side by side with them, and among them, are found a number of small tribes more or less uncivilised and animistic, having somatic types of considerable variety.

The five half-civilised Dravidian peoples are the _Telingas_ or _Telugus_ of the Coromandel coast, of Nizam and Jarpur (some twenty millions); the _Kanaras_ of the Mysore table-land (about ten millions); the _Malayalim_ of the Malabar coast (nearly six millions); the _Tulus_ of Mangalore (350,000); lastly, the _Tamils_, occupying the rest of Southern India and the north of Ceylon (about fifteen millions).

As to the uncivilised tribes, some occupy the Anamalli hills (the _Kader_, the _Madavars_), others inhabit Travancore (_Pulaya_, _Paligars_, _Tir_, _Shanar_, etc.). Also to be noted are the _Choligha_, at the foot of the Mysore hills, the _Paniyans_ (Fig. 126) of Vaïnad or Vinad (Malabar coast), very short (1 m. 57), dolichocephalic (ceph. ind. on the liv. sub. 74), and very platyrhine (nas. ind. 95.1); lastly, the very interesting _tribes_ of the _Nilgiri hills_; the _Irulas_ (Fig. 127) and, above these, the _Kurumbas_ (Fig. 8), on the southern and northern slopes; the _Badagas_, the _Kotas_, and the _Todas_ on the plateau crowning these heights.[460]

The _Kurumbas_ and the _Irulas_ (58,503 in 1891) are of short stature (1 m. 58 and 1 m. 60), dolichocephalic (ceph. ind. on the liv. sub. 75.8), and platyrhine (nas. ind. 87 and 85). They are the half-savage tribes of the jungles.

As to the tribes of the plateau, they are distinguished according to their occupation and type. The _Badagas_ (29,613 in 1891) are husbandmen, the _Kotas_ (1,201) are artisans, and the _Todas_ (Figs. 7, 129, and 130) shepherds. The two former approximate to the other Dravidians in type; they are of average height (1 m. 64 and 1 m. 63), hyper-dolichocephalic (ceph. ind. on the liv. sub. 71.7 and 74.1), and mesorhine (nas. ind. 75.6). But the Todas present a particular type: high stature (1 m. 70), associated with dolichocephaly (ceph. ind. on the liv. sub. 73.1) and mesorhiny (nas. ind. 74.9), somewhat light tint of skin, and the pilous system very developed (Figs. 129 and 130). In short, they appear to belong to the Indo-Afghan race, with perhaps an admixture of the Assyroid race. Besides, a number of customs and manners (group marriage, aversion to milk, rude polytheism, etc.) differentiate them from the other populations of India. They are a very small tribe, which, however, increases from year to year (693 individuals in 1871, 736 in 1891).

(_Phot. Thurston._)]

2. The _Aryans of India_ form the greatest portion of the population to the north of the Nerbada and Mahanadi; they speak different dialects of the neo-Hindu language (ancient Bracha language, branch of the _Prakrit_ or corrupt vulgar Sanscrit). The following are the principal dialects: the _Hindi_, _Bengali_, _Punjabi_, _Kashmiri_, _Guzrati_, and _Sindi_. We distinguish several ethnic groups by these dialects, or the generic names designating aggregations of castes: _Brahmans_, _Rajputs_ (10-1/2 millions), _Jats_ and _Gujars_ (9 millions altogether), _Katis_ (42,000); or by their religion, as the _Sikhs_, renowned for their warlike disposition, and recognising, at least theoretically, no castes.[461]

The root-stock of all these populations is formed by the Indo-Afghan race. This race we find again in almost a pure state among the Sikhs (stature 1 m. 71, ceph. ind. in the liv. sub. 72.7, nas. ind. on the liv. sub. 68.8), and a little weakened among the Punjabi (height, 1 m. 68, ceph. ind. 74.9, nas. ind. 70.2). Among the Hindus of Behar, of the north-west provinces and Oudh, among the Mahratis between the river Tapti and Goa, the type is still more changed in consequence of interminglings with the Dravidians; the stature becomes shorter (1 m. 63 and 1 m. 64), the head rounder (ceph. ind. 75.7), the nose broader (nas. ind. 80.5 and 74), the complexion darker, etc.[462] With the Indo-Aryans are grouped, according to their type and language, the Kafirs or Siahposh of Kafiristan, and the _Dardi_ or _Dardu_, occupying the countries situated more to the east, between the Pamirs on the north, Kashmir on the south, Kafiristan to the west, and Baltistan to the east--that is to say, Chitral, Dardistan (Yassin, Hunza, Nagar), Gilghit, Chilas, Kohistan. The Dardis are divided into four castes or tribes (Biddulph); that of the _Chins_, forming the majority of the people, is distinguished by its short stature and its dark complexion, and recalls the Hindus of the north-west provinces (Ujfalvy); while another tribe, called _Yeshkhun_, speaks a language which, according to Biddulph, has affinities with the Turkish languages, and, according to Leitner, is a non-Aryan agglutinative language presenting analogies with Dravidian dialects. The Yeshkhuns inhabit Dardistan. Biddulph affirms that one may often encounter among them individuals with light and especially red hair. The forty-four Yeshkhuns and Chins measured by Ujfalvy were below the average height (1 m. 61), dolichocephalic (ceph. ind. 75.8), with black wavy hair, fine shaped nose, and rather dark skin; while nineteen “_Turki-Dardi_” of Hunza-Nagar and Yassin measured by Risley and Capus give a stature above the average (1 m. 69), and the cephalic index almost mesocephalic (77). They are thus closely allied to the _Chitrali_ (stature 1 m. 67, ceph. ind. 76.9 from six subjects only, measured by Risley).[463] Most of the Dardu tribes are endogamous; polygamy is general. In certain tribes there are to be found survivals of polyandry and of the matriarchate.[464]

(_Phot. lent by Deyrolle._)]

The _Baltis_, neighbours of the Dardus on the east, speaking a Thibetan dialect, and the _Pakhpuluk_ of the other side of the Kara-Korum (upper valley of the Karakash), speaking a Turkish tongue (Forsyth), are a mixture of Indo-Aryan and Turkish races. On the other hand, in the Himalayan region, the _Nepalese_ (the _Kulu-Lahuli_ and _Paharias_ on the west, the _Khas_, the _Mangars_ and other _Gurkhas_, Fig. 125, on the east), speaking a neo-Hindu language, have sprung from the intermingling of Indo-Afghan and Mongolic races (by the Thibetans). There are in India other peoples among whom linguistic or somatological affinities with the Indo-Aryans are found. Such are the _Nairs_ of Malabar, a conglomerate of various castes and tribes, well known by their marriage customs (p. 232), many of these tribes forming a contrast with the Dravidians by their fine type, their light complexion, their thin and prominent nose.[465]

(_Phot. Delisle._)]

(_Phot. Delisle._)]

The _Singhalese_ (Figs. 131 and 132) of the south of Ceylon speak a fundamentally Aryan language. They have certain traits in common with the Indo-Afghans and the Assyroids, but their type has been affected by the neighbourhood of a small mysterious tribe, that of the _Veddahs_ (Figs. 5, 6, and 133), driven back into the mountains of the south-west of Ceylon. This is the remnant of a very primitive population whose physical type approximates nearest to the platyrhine variety of the Dravidian race, at the same time presenting certain peculiarities. The Veddahs are monogamous; they live in caves or under shelters of boughs (p. 160), hiding themselves even from the Singhalese.[466]

(_Phot. Brothers Sarasin._)]

VI. /Peoples of Anterior Asia/.--The multitude of peoples, tribes, castes, colonies, and religious brotherhoods of Iran, Arabia, Syria, and Asia Minor, this crossing-place of ethnic migrations, are chiefly composed in various degrees of the three races--Indo-Afghan, Assyroid, and Arab, with the addition of some other foreign races, Turkish, Negro, Adriatic, Mongolic, etc.

From the linguistic point of view, this multitude may perhaps be reduced to two great groups: the Eranians or Iranians and the Semites, if we exclude some peoples whose linguistic affinities have not yet been established.

1. The _Iranians_ or _Eranians_ occupy the Iranian plateau and the adjoining regions, especially to the east. They speak different languages of the Eranian branch of the Aryan linguistic family. In physical composition the main characters are supplied by the Assyroid race (Fig. 22) with admixture of Turkish elements in Persia and Turkey, Indo-Afghan elements in Afghanistan, and Arab and Negroid elements in the south of Persia and Baluchistan.

Among Iranian peoples the first place, as regards number and the part played in history, belongs to the _Persians_. They may be divided into three geographical groups. If within the approximate limits of Persia of the present day a line be drawn running from Astrabad to Yezd and thence towards Kerman, we shall have on the east the habitat of the _Tajiks_, on the west that of the _Hajemis_ (between Teheran and Ispahan[467]), and that of the _Parsis_ or _Pharsis_ (between Ispahan and the Persian Gulf). The _Tajiks_, moreover, spread beyond the frontiers of Persia into Western Afghanistan, the north-west of Baluchistan, Afghan Turkestan and Russian Turkestan, as far as the Pamirs (_Galcha_), and perhaps even beyond. In fact, the _Polu_ and other “Turanians” of the northern slope of the Kuen Lun, while speaking a Turkish language, bear a physical resemblance to the Tajiks (Prjevalsky). Like the _Sartes_, settled inhabitants of Russian Turkestan, and the _Tats_ of the south-west shore of the Caspian, and the _Aderbaijani_ of the Caucasus, they are Persians more or less crossed with Turks, whose language they speak.

The _Tajiks_ are brachycephalic (ceph. ind. 84.9), above the average height (1 m. 69), and show traces of intermixture with the Turkish race,[468] while the _Hajemis_ (Fig. 22), and in some measure the _Parsis_, who are dolichocephalic (77.9), and of average height (1 m. 65), are of the Assyroid or Indo-Afghan type.

The _Parsis_ are not very numerous in Persia. Most of them emigrated into India after the destruction of the empire of the Sassanides (in 634); they form there an important and very rich community (89,900 individuals in 1891), having still preserved their ancient Zoroastrian religion. This community, if chiefly composed of bankers, has also many men of letters. The education of women in it is specially looked after, the first woman to obtain the diploma of Doctor in Medicine in India being a Parsi.[469] Physically they are of the mixed Indo-Assyroid type, the head sub-brachycephalic (ceph. ind. 82, according to Ujfalvy).

After the Persians come the Pathan Afghans[470] or _Pashtu_. They form the agricultural population of Afghanistan, and are divided into _Duranis_ (in the west and south of the country), _Ghilzis_ (in the east), and into several other less important tribes: the _Swatis_, the _Khostis_, the _Waziris_, the _Kakars_, etc. The Afghans of India and the Indo-Afghan frontier are divided into several tribes, of which the principal ones are the _Afridis_ near the Khyber pass and the Yusafzais near Peshawar.[471]

The _Baluchis_ or _Biloch_ of Baluchistan and Western India speak an Eranian dialect akin to Persian; physically they belong to the Indo-Afghan race, but mixed with the Arabs on the south and the Jats and the Hindus on the east, with the Turks on the north and the Negroes on the south-west. The _Mekrani_ of the coast of Baluchistan and partly of Persia are a mixture of Indo-Afghan, Assyroid, and Negro races (Fig. 134). The _Rinds_ (“Braves”) of the same coast of Mekran, who claim to be pure Baluchis, are only Arabs of the Kahtan tribe.[472] The nomadic _Brahuis_ of Eastern Baluchistan, especially those of the environs of Kelat, resemble the Iranians. It is said that their language has some affinities with the Dravidian dialect. In reality, the ethnic place of this population, predominant in Baluchistan, is yet to be determined.

(_Phot. Lapicque._)]

With the Iranian group it is customary to connect, especially from linguistic considerations, the Kurds, the Armenians, and the Ossets (p. 356). The first-mentioned people, influenced here and there by interminglings with the Turks, physically resemble the Hajemis: sub-dolichocephalic head, 78.5 when it is not deformed (p. 176), height above the average (1 m. 68), aquiline nose, etc. They occupy in a more or less compact mass the border-lands between Persia and Asia Minor; but they are found in isolated groups from the Turkmenian steppes (to the north of Persia) to the centre of Asia Minor (to the north-west of Lake Túz-gól). As to the _Armenians_ or _Hai_, they are found in a compact body only around Lake Van and Mount Ararat, the rest being scattered over all the towns of the south-west of Asia, the Caucasus, the south of Russia, and even Galicia and Transylvania. It is a very mixed and heterogeneous ethnic group as regards physical type. The stature varies from 1 m. 63 to 1 m. 69 according to different localities, but the cephalic index is nearly uniformly brachycephalic (85 to 87). The predominant features are however formed by the Indo-Afghan, Assyroid, and perhaps Turkish and Adriatic races. Their language differs appreciably from the other Eranian tongues.[473]

2. The _Semite_ linguistic group is represented by Arabs, Syrians, and Jews.

The _Arabs_ occupy, besides Arabia, a portion of Mesopotamia, the shores of the Red Sea, the eastern coast of the Persian Gulf, and the north of Africa. The pure type, characterised by dolichocephaly (ceph. ind. 70), prominence of the occiput, elongated face, aquiline nose, slim body, etc., is still preserved in the south of Arabia among the _Ariba Arabs_, among the mountaineers of Hadramaout and Yemen (country of the ancient _Himyarites_ or _Sabeans_), and among the _Bedouins_, descendants of the _Ismaelites_ of the interior of Central and Northern Arabia; but the tribes which have drawn nearer the coast or the valleys of Mesopotamia show signs of interminglings with populations of a predominant Assyroid or Turkish type, without taking into account, as at Haza and on the coast of Yemen, the Negro and Ethiopic influence. Typical nomads, having in the religion founded by Mahomet a national bond of union, the Arabs make their influence widely felt over the world. Traces of the Arab type are met with not only over the whole of Northern Africa (see p. 432), but also in Asia Minor, the Caucasus, Western Persia, in India; while numerous traces of the Arab language[474] and civilisation are found in Europe (Malta, Spain), in China, Central Asia, and in the Asiatic Archipelago. The _Melkits_ and the _Wahabits_ are two religious sects of Arabs.

The people of Syria and Palestine, known by the name of Syrians in the towns, of _Kufar_ in the country, is the product of the interminglings of Arabs with descendants of Phœnicians and with Jews. It also forms the basis of numerous ethnic groups connected solely by religion, and of constituent elements often very heterogeneous: such are the _Maronites_ of Western Lebanon, the _Nestorians_, the _Druzes_ of Hermon and Djebel Hauran (Kurdish elements), among whom woman occupies a higher position than among other Asiatics; the _Metouali_ (Shiah sect) of Tyre; the _Nazareans_ or _Ansarieh_, who perhaps represent, along with the _Takhtaji_ (Gypsy elements), the _Kizilbashes_ and the _Yezides_ or _Yezdi_ (Kurdish elements) of Mesopotamia, the remains of the primitive population of Asia Minor, akin, according to Luschan, to the Armenians.[475]

The _Jews_ are not very numerous (250,000) in Asia, and are found scattered in small groups throughout the world. Even in the country which was formerly a Jewish State, Palestine, they scarcely exceed 75,000 in number at the present day. They are found in compact groups only in the neighbourhood of Damascus, at Jerusalem, and at the foot of the mountain-chain of Safed.

It is well known that to-day the Jews are scattered over the whole earth. Their total number is estimated at eight millions, of which the half is in Russia and Rumania, a third in Germany and Austria, and a sixth in the rest of the world, even as far as Australia. The great majority of Jews are unacquainted with _Hebrew_, which is a dead language; they speak, according to the country they inhabit, particular kinds of jargon, the most common of which is the Judeo-German. Physically the Jews present two different types, one of which approximates to the Arab race (Fig. 21), the other to the Assyroid. Sometimes these types are modified by the addition of elements of the populations in the midst of which they dwell;[476] but, even in these cases, many traits, such as the convex nose, vivacity of eye, frequency of erythrism (p. 50), frizzy hair, thick under lip, inferiority of the thoracic perimeter, etc., show a remarkable persistence. The Arab type is common among the Spanish Jews who practise the Sefardi rite, among the native Jews of the Caucasus, very brachycephalic however (85.5 ceph. ind., according to Erckert and Chantre),[477] and among those of Palestine, while the Assyroid type dominates among the Jews of Asia Minor, Bosnia, and Germany. These last, like the Jews of Slav countries, practise the Askenazi rite. The Jews of Bosnia, called Spaniols, coming from Spain by Constantinople, are under average height (1 m. 63) and mesocephalic (ceph. ind. 80.1, Gluck); those of Galicia, Western Russia, and Russian Poland are shorter (1 m. 61 and 62) and sub-brachycephalic (ceph. ind. 82); those of England are of the same stature (1 m. 62), but mesocephalic (ceph. ind. 80).[478]

Along with the Jews we must put another people, also dispersed over nearly the whole earth, and of Asiatic origin, probably from India, to judge by the affinities of its language with the Hindu dialects--the _Gypsies_. They are found in India (_Banjars_, _Nats_, etc.), Persia and Russian Turkestan (_Luli_, _Mazang_, _Kara-Luli_, etc.), in Asia Minor (where are also found their congeners, the _Yuruks_); then in Syria (_Chingane_), in Egypt (_Phagari_, _Nuri_, etc.), and all over Europe, with the exception, it is said, of Sweden and Norway; they are found in considerable numbers in Rumania (200,000), Turkey, Hungary, and the south-west of Russia. In all they number nearly a million. The pure so-called “Black Gypsies” are of the Indo-Afghan race (stature 1 m. 72, ceph. ind. on the liv. sub. 76.8), but very often they have intermingled with the populations in the midst of which they dwell.[479]