Castes and Tribes of Southern India/Chinese-Tamil Cross
Chinese-Tamil Cross. — Halting in the course of an anthropological expedition on the western side of the Nīlgiri plateau, I came across a small settlement of Chinese, who have squatted for some time on the slopes of the hills between Naduvatam and Gudalūr and developed, as the result of alliances with Tamil Pariah women, into a colony, earning a modest livelihood by cultivating vegetables and coffee.
The original Chinese who arrived on the Nīlgiris were convicts from the Straits Settlement, where there was no sufficient prison accommodation, who were confined in the Nīlgirl jail. It is recorded *[1] that, in 1868, twelve of the Chinamen "broke out during a very stormy night, and parties of armed police were sent out to scour the hills for them. They were at last arrested in Malabar a fortnight later. Some police weapons were found in their possession, and one of the parties of police had disappeared — an ominous circumstance. Search was made all over the country for the party, and at length their four bodies were found lying in the jungle at Walaghāt, half way down the Sispāra ghāt path, neatly laid out in a row with their severed heads carefully placed on their shoulders."
The measurements of a single family are recorded in the following table: —
| —— | —— | Cephalic length. | Cephalic breadth | Cephalic index. | Nasal height. | Nasal breadth | Nasal index. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tamil Paraiyan. | Mother of children. | 18.1 | 13.9 | 76.8 | 4.7 | 3.7 | 78.7 |
| Chinese | Father of children. | 18.6 | 14.6 | 78.5 | 5.3 | 3.8 | 71.7 |
| Chinese-Tamil ... | Girl, aged 18 | 17.6 | 14.1 | 80.1 | 4.7 | 3.2 | 68.1 |
| Chinese-Tamil ... | Boy, aged 10 | 18.1 | 14.3 | 79. | 4.6 | 3.3 | 71.7 |
| Chinese-Tamil ... | Boy, aged 9 | 17 | 14 | 82.4 | 4.4 | 3.3 | 72.7 |
| Chinese-Tamil ... | Boy, aged 5 | 17.1 | 13.7 | 80.1 | 4.1 | 2.8 | 68.3 |
The father was a typical Chinaman, whose only grievance was that, in the process of conversion to Christianity, he had been obliged to "cut him tail off." The mother was a typical dark-skinned Tamil Paraiyan. The colour of the children was more closely allied to the yellowish tint of the father than to that of the mother; and the semi- Mongol parentage was betrayed in the slant eyes, flat nose and (in one case) conspicuously prominent cheek-bones.
To have recorded the entire series of measurements of the children would have been useless for the purpose of comparison with those of the parents, and I selected from my repertoire the length and breadth of the head and nose, which plainly indicate the paternal influence on the external anatomy of the offspring. The figures given in the table bring out very clearly the great breadth, as compared with the length, of the heads of all the children, and the resultant high cephalic index. In other words, in one case a mesaticephalic (79), and, in the remaining three cases, a sub-brachycephalic head (8o.1; 8o.1; 82.4) has resulted from the union of a mesaticephalic Chinaman (78.5) with a sub-dolichocephalic Tamil Paraiyan (76.8). How great is the breadth of the head in the children may be emphasised by noting that the average head-breadth of the adult Tamil Paraiyan man is only 13.7 cm., whereas that of the three boys, aged ten, nine, and five only, was 14.3, 14, and 13.7 cm. respectively.
Quite as strongly marked is the effect of paternal influence on the character of the nose; the nasal index, in the case of each child (68.1; 71.772; 7; 68.3), bearing a much closer relation to that of the long-nosed father (71.7) than to the typical Paraiyan nasal index of the broad-nosed mother (78.7).
It will be interesting to note hereafter what is the future of the younger members of this quaint little colony, and to observe the physical characters, temperament, fecundity, and other points relating to the cross breed resulting from the blend of Chinese and Tamil.
- ↑ * Gazetteer of the Nilgiris.