Kinematics of carbon stars in the outer regions of the SmallMagellanic Cloud

We present a radial velocity survey of a sample of the field population of carbon stars in the outer parts of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). This first set of results includes radial velocities for 71 carbon stars, with an individual precision of km/s. The mean heliocentric velocity of the stars (excluding one very high velocity star) is km/s with a velocity dispersion of km/s. These values drop to km/s and km/s respectively, if we exclude the stars belonging to the Outer Wing. The velocity distribution does not show the multiple peaks seen in some samples of Population I objects. The mass of the SMC as inferred from the above velocity dispersion (without the outer Wing stars) is .