Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 6.djvu/519

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457
SYRIAN CHRISTIAN
——— 30 Syrian Christians. 30 Syrian Christians. 40 Nayars.
——— Northerner. Southerner. 40 Nayars.
Stature 165.3 164.8 165.2
Cephalic length 18.7 18.9 18.7
Cephalic breadth 14.3 14.1 13.9
Cephalic index 76.3 74.8 74.4
Nasal height 4.9 4.9 4.9
Nasal breadth 3.5 3.5 3.5
Nasal index 72.3 71.6 71.1

It may be noted that, in his 'Letters from Malabar,' Canter Visscher, in the middle of the eighteenth century, writes that the St. Thomas' Christians "keep very strict genealogical records, and they will neither marry nor in any way intermingle with the new low-caste christians, being themselves mostly Castade Naiross, that is, nobility of the Nayar caste,in token of which they generally carry a sword in the hand, as a mark of dignity."

It is stated by E. Petersen and F. V. Luschan *[1] that "probably a single people originally occupied the greater part of Asia Minor. They are still represented as a compact group by the Armenians. The type resembles the Dissentis type of His and Riitimeyer; the head extremely short and high, stature moderate, skin dark, eyes dark, and hair dark and smooth. It extends through the S. half of Asia Minor, N.E. to the Caucasus, and E. to the Upper Euphrates. The Tachtadschy people,a hill people living without serious mixture with other peoples, give measurements closely like the Armenians." [The cephalic index of Armenians is given by E. Chantre †[2] as 85-86.]

  1. * Recherches Anthropologiques dans le Caucase, IV, 1887.
  2. † Reisen in Lykien, Melyas, und Kibyratis, II, 1889.