much information from which the cultural and social anthropologist may draw inferences concerning early Dravidian culture. RALPH LINTON, in his work Tree of Culture, published posthumously, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1957. describes how Southern India was in a position to receive and transmit selectively cultural elements without outside pressure. The reading is from pages 487 to 488 and from pages 495 to 498.

IN SOUTHERN INDIA the record begins somewhat later. The oldest writings do not go back much before the beginning of the Christian era. However, this region was in frequent contact with other ancient civilizations. and there are numerous references to it in Greek literature from the first century on. There are also various Chinese references, less readily available to the Western scholar. Protected by sea, Southern India was not invaded in force until after the Muslim conquest of North India in the 9th century A.D. However, from at least the 7th or 8th century B.C. traders had come to the Southern Indian ports from the west. By the 2nd or 3rd century B.C. the trade with both East and West was flourishing, and Southern Indian ships were sailing to Arabia. the East African coast, Indonesia, and Southern China. Western contacts reached a peak around the beginning of the Christian era. The Romans had an insatiable appetite for Indian gems and spices, particularly pepper, and, since they had few products which the Indians would take in exchange, these imports were paid for in gold. Roman gold coins were regularly used as currency in much of Southern India; Roman and Greek, soldiers served Southern Indian kings as mercenaries; and two Roman colonies were actually established in Southern India, with a temple to Augustus at one of them. Other foreigners to settle in Southern India included Jews and Syrian Christians who arrived in the 1st century A,D., Persian Christians who came in the 4th: and Arabs, whose descendants still form an important element in the population of Malabar. There was also a considerable trade with China, which was still going on briskly in the time of Marco Polo.

By the dawn of their respective histories the three Indian regions had numerous cultural features in common, but there were also well-marked local differences. Northern and Southern India were sharply divided by language. The Indo-European-speaking peoples of the North had inherited more of the Aryan tradition. The Dravidian-speaking peoples of the South had retained numerous practices which were certainly non-Aryan. There were also well-marked differences within Northern India between the East and West. The West was open to raids. It formed the gateway by which new tribes had infiltrated the peninsula since before the dawn of history. Northeastern