Identifier: cyclopediauniver1950ridp (find matches)
Title: Cyclopedia universal history : embracing the most complete and recent presentation of the subject in two principal parts or divisions of more than six thousand pages
Year: 1895 (1890s)
Authors: Ridpath, John Clark, 1840-1900
Subjects: World history Ethnology World history
Publisher: Boston : Balch Bros.
Contributing Library: UMass Amherst Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries

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re-riched with a sent extremes^ . of Hindu deTel- great store of m- opment.formation drawn from the oldand abandoned mines of theEast. The Hindus of to-dayare the same in personal ap-pearance as they were in thedays when they were describedby the invading Greeks. Thisview is more true of the Brah-mans than of the lower castes.The representations in the oldIndian sculpture preserve theidentical figure, the form, thefeatures, and much of the ap-parel of the modern descend-ant of the Old Aryans. TheHindus, then, are of middlesize. From this stature theBrahmans depart in one direc-tion and the Sudras in an-other. That is, the Brahmansare fully up to or beyond theaverage height, Avhile the Su-dras and other lower caste peo-ples are below that standard—much below it. Ethnogra-phers have estimated the aver-age height of the Hindus, considered asa race, at one hundred and sixty-threecentimeters, or sixty-four inches inEnglish measure. This, perhaps, is alittle above the average of the Japa-
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726 GREAT RACES OF MANKIND. The bodily organs of the Hindu aresymmetrical, but light. The limbs areBodily charao- often delicate, so slendermndus^ the^^ indeed as to suggest weak-coior. jiess according to the stal- wart Western criterion. As the travelerpasses from the plains into the hill-countries, however, he comes upon morevigorous tribes. In Rajputana, and otherdistricts similarly situated, the averageheight is greater and the bodily weightand strength are augmented. The com-plexion varies from almost white,through dark yellow, to bronze, or evento a sooty black. The last-named coloris always indicative of foreign admix-ture, the absorption of that Old Dravid-ian stock which contributed the abo-rigines. There is a general intensifica-tion of the skin pigment as we proceedfrom the north to the south, from themountain spurs to the burning coasts ofSouthern India. To the latter influence,that of climate, some ethnologists havebeen disposed to attribute the wholevariation of color. I

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