284 1'HE IA-NDANl EMiIPIRE [CHAP.
members of the swarthier races of Southern Europe. Between
these extremes we find countless shades of brown, darker or
lighter, transparent or opaque, frequently tending towards
yellow, more rarely approaching a reddish tint, and occasionally
degenerating into a sort of greyish black. It would be a hope-
less task to register and classify these variations. Nor, if it
were done, should we be in a position to evolve order out of
the chaos of tints. For even in the individual, minute grada-
tions of colour are comparatively unstable, and are liable to be
affected not only by exposure to sun and wind, but by differ-
ences of temperature and humidity. Natives of Bengal have
stated that people of their race, one of the darkest in India,
become appreciably fairer when domiciled in Hindustan or the
Punjab, and the converse process may be observed in natives
of Northern India living in the damp heat of the Ganges delta.
IIair and Little variety is traceable in the character of the eyes and
eyes. hair. From one end of India to the other the hair of the great
mass of the population is black or dark brown, while among
the higher castes the latter colour is occasionally shot through
by something approaching a tawny shade. Straight hair seems
on the whole to predominate, but the wavy or curly character
appears in much the same proportion as among the races of
Europe. The Andamanese have woolly or frizzly hair, oval
in section and curling on itself so tightly that it seems to grow
in separate spiral tufts, while in fact it is quite evenly distri-
buted over the scalp. Although the terms woolly and frizzly
have been loosely applied to the wavy hair not uncommon
among the Dravidians, no good observer has as yet found
among any of the Indian races a head that could be correctly
described as woolly. The eyes are almost invariably dark
brown. Occasional instances of grey eyes are, however, found
among the Konkanasth Brahmans of Bombay; and the com-
bination of blue eyes, auburn hair, and reddish blonde
complexion is met with on the north-western frontier. On the
Malabar coast Mr. Thurston has noticed several instances of
pale blue and grey eyes combined with a dark complexion.
Definite When we turn to the definite, or anthropometric, characters,
physical we find ourselves upon firmer ground. In the early days of
characters.
Cranio- anthropology, it was natural that the attention of students
metry and should have been directed mainly to the examination of skulls.
anthropo- Craniometry seemed to offer a solution of the problems regard-
ing the origin and antiquity of the human race which then
divided the scientific world. Its precise method promised to
clear up the mystery of the prehistoric skulls discovered in the
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