tering a system of retributive justice, through subjection to which, and through the practice of virtue during successive lives upon earth, the soul of man might attain to beatification.

The other sect hold, upon the other hand, that the Earth Goddess remains unconquered; that the God of Light could not, in opposition to her will, carry out his purpose with respect to man's temporal lot; and that man, therefore, owes his elevation from the state of physical suffering into which he fell through the reception of evil, to the direct exercise of her power to confer blessings, or to her permitting him to receive the good which flows from the God of Light, through the inferior gods, to all who worship them. With respect to man's destiny after death, they believe that the God of Light carried out his purpose. And they believe that the worship of the Earth Goddess by human sacrifice, is the indispensable condition on which these blessings have been granted, and their continuance may be hoped for; the virtue of the rite availing not only for those who practise it, but for all mankind.

ART. XIII.-Two Lectures on the Aboriginal Race of India, as distinguished from the Sanskritic or Hindu Race. By LIEUT.GENERAL BRIGGS, F.R.S.

[Delivered 8th May, and 19th June, 1852.]

THE subject on which I propose to address you possesses a certain degree of interest, if it be only for its novelty. We have heard, it is true, for a series of years, of races of Hill-people in different parts of India; and latterly the accounts of them have crowded in upon us from many directions. Some have called them aborigines, without troubling themselves about their origin; while others have considered them Hindus expelled from their caste for some misdemeanour; but no one seems to have entertained the idea that the numerous communities which have been found spread over the surface of India, were the inhabitants of the country before the Hindus, or that those communities had one common origin. This idea appears to have occurred to no one that I am aware of till about six years ago, when I had occasion to refer to several papers on this subject in the Transactions of this Society, and those of the more ancient Society in Calcutta. When I began to compare the various accounts one with another, I did not fail to perceive the very close general analogies of their customs and their institutions. This led to fuller inquiries into their physiological, and eventually, into their philological peculiarities, till at length I arrived at the conclusion that all these various tribes were of one and the same race; and I shall endeavour to lead you to coincide with my sentiments on this interesting question. My opinion has not been hastily arrived at. Independent of my own personal acquaintance with these people for a series of years and in most parts of India, it has derived strength from the descriptions of others,' who have had similar oppor

tunities of seeing them, and whose notices of them are scattered over many published works, in the pages of our own Journal, and in those of the several Societies in the East with which this is connected, and in official and other reports.

I have before stated that it is only five or six years since my attention was particularly drawn to the singular coincidence of the uniformity of habits of all the wild tribes of India, and I was induced to give several lectures on the subject before the Ethnological Society of London. These have not been published, so that the matter I shall bring before you will, to the members of this Society, be in a great measure new; and, condensed in its present shape, will afford a subject for two evening lectures.

In order to prevent misconception, I may as well state here that when I use the term Hindu I allude to the race termed by Blumenbach Caucasian; by Pritchard Iranian, the section of which that invaded India being called by their sacred writers and legislators Arian; and which race brought with it the language of which Sanskrit appears the most polished type.

The points I desire to establish are—

1. That the Hindus entered India from a foreign country, and that they found it pre-occupied by inhabitants.

2. That by slow degrees they possessed themselves of the whole of the soil, reducing to serfage those they could retain upon it.

3. That they brought with them the Sanskrit language, a tongue different from that of the aborigines.

4. That they introduced into the country municipal institutions.

5. That the aborigines differ in every respect from the Hindus. 6. Lastly. That the aborigines throughout India are derived from one common source.

In dealing with this subject I beg to call your attention to the fact, that we have before us a vast field to explore; that India, according to Campbell's Statistics, occupies an area exceeding that of Europe, if we exclude Russia, Norway, and Sweden; and that its population, as compared with the same part of Europe, does not fall

In India, as in Europe, there are great national divisions of dialects, each of which extends over a population of several millions. The inquiry I propose commences at an epoch beyond that of Indian recorded history; and when I take that of the entrance of the Israelites into Canaan, under Joshua, as a starting-point, I only avail myself of the feeble light which is afforded by the assumption that the Vedas were written in India about that time. How long before that period the Hindus had invaded the country must perhaps be hid from us for ever. That they found it pre-occupied by other inhabitants is distinctly stated in those works.

In the Introduction to the translation made by our learned Director, Professor Wilson, of the Rig Veda, we find him saying of the Hindus : "That they had extended themselves from a more northern site, or that they were a northern race, is rendered probable from the peculiar expression used on more than one occasion in soliciting long life, when the worshipper asks for a hundred winters-a boon not likely to be desired by the natives of a warm climate. They appear also to have been a fair-complexioned people, at least comparatively so, and foreign invaders of India, as it is said that Indra divided the fields among his white-complexioned friends, after destroying the indigenous barbarians." From the era of the Vedas, to the period when Kulluka wrote a commentary on the law of Menu, six centuries elapsed. The age of Menu is unknown. We find, however, that when that lawgiver wrote, the Hindus, according to his testi

tunities of seeing them, and whose notices of them are scattered over many published works, in the pages of our own Journal, and in those of the several Societies in the East with which this is connected, and in official and other reports.

I have before stated that it is only five or six years since my attention was particularly drawn to the singular coincidence of the uniformity of habits of all the wild tribes of India, and I was induced to give several lectures on the subject before the Ethnological Society of London. These have not been published, so that the matter I shall bring before you will, to the members of this Society, be in a great measure new; and, condensed in its present shape, will afford a subject for two evening lectures.

In order to prevent misconception, I may as well state here that when I use the term Hindu I allude to the race termed by Blumenbach Caucasian; by Pritchard Iranian, the section of which that invaded India being called by their sacred writers and legislators Arian; and which race brought with it the language of which Sanskrit appears the most polished type.

The points I desire to establish are

1. That the Hindus entered India from a foreign country, and that they found it pre-occupied by inhabitants.

2. That by slow degrees they possessed themselves of the whole of the soil, reducing to serfage those they could retain upon it.

3. That they brought with them the Sanskrit language, a tongue different from that of the aborigines.

4. That they introduced into the country municipal institutions.

5. That the aborigines differ in every respect from the Hindus.

6. Lastly. That the aborigines throughout India are derived from one common source.

In dealing with this subject I beg to call your attention to the fact, that we have before us a vast field to explore; that India, according to Campbell's Statistics, occupies an area exceeding that of Europe, if we exclude Russia, Norway, and Sweden; and that its population, as compared with the same part of Europe, does not fall