settled agriculturalists of Yemen, Hadramaut and Oman, who trace their
descent from Shem, and the Northern Arabians (Bedouin[1189]), pastoral
tribes, who trace their descent from Ishmael. The two groups have even
been considered ethnologically distinct, but, as von Luschan points out,
"peninsular Arabia is the least-known land in the world, and large
regions of it are even now absolutely _terrae incognitae_, so great
caution is necessary in forming conclusions, from the measurements of a
few dozens of men, concerning the anthropology of a land more than five
times as great as France[1190]." His measurements of "the only real
Semites, the Bedawy," gave a cephalic index ranging from 68 to 78, while
the nose was short and fairly broad, very seldom of a "Jewish type."
Recently Seligman[1191] has shown that whereas the Semites of Northern
Arabia conform more or less to the type just mentioned those of Southern
Arabia are of low or median stature (1.62-1.65 m., 63-3/4-65 in.), and
are predominantly brachycephalic, the cephalic index ranging from 71 to
92, with an average of about 82.
Elsewhere--Iberia, Sicily, Malta[1192], Irania, Central Asia,
Malaysia--the Arab invaders have failed to preserve either their speech
or their racial individuality. In some places (Spain, Portugal, Sicily)
they have disappeared altogether, leaving nothing behind them beyond
some slight linguistic traces, and the monuments of their wonderful
architecture, crumbling Alhambras or stupendous mosques re-consecrated
as Christian temples. But in the eastern lands their influence is still
felt by multitudes, who profess Islam and use the Arabic script in
writing their Persian, Turki, or Malay languages, because some centuries
ago those regions were swept by a tornado of rude Bedouin fanatics, or
else visited by peaceful traders and missionaries from the Arabian
peninsula.
The monotheism proclaimed by these zealous preachers is often spoken of
as a special inheritance of the Semitic peoples, or at least already
possessed by them at such an early period in their life-history as to
seem inseparable from their very being. But it was not so. Before the
time of Allah or of Jahveh every hill-top had its tutelar deity; the
caves and rocks and the very atmosphere swarmed with "jins"; Assyrian
and Phoenician pantheons, with their Baals, and Molochs, and Astartes
and Adonais, were as thickly peopled as those of the Hellenes and
Hindus, and in this, as in all other natural systems of belief, the
monotheistic concept was gradually evolved by a slow process of
elimination. Nor was the process perfected by all the Semitic
peoples--Canaanites, Assyrians, Amorites, Phoenicians, and others having
always remained at the polytheistic stage--but only by the Hebrews and
the Arabs, the two more richly endowed members of the Semitic family.
Even here a reservation has to be made, for we now know that there was
really but one evolution, that of Jahveh, the adoption of the idea
embodied in Allah being historically traceable to the Jewish and
Christian systems. As Jastrow points out, the higher religious and
ethical movement began with Moses, who invested the national Jahveh with
ethical traits, thus paving the way for the wider conceptions of the
Prophets. "The point of departure in the Hebrew religion from that of
the Semitic in general did not come until the rise of a body of men who
set up a new ideal of divine government of the universe, and with it as
a necessary corollary a new standard of religious conduct. Throwing
aside the barriers of tribal limitations to the jurisdiction of a deity,
it was the Hebrew Prophets who first prominently and emphatically
brought forth the view of a divine power conceived in spiritual terms,
who, in presiding over the universe and in controlling the fates of
nations and individuals, acts from self-imposed laws of righteousness
tempered with mercy[1193]."
FOOTNOTES:
[1150] The divergent views of orientalists concerning Semitic
(linguistic) origins are summarised by W. Z. Ripley, _The Races of
Europe_, 1900, p. 375.
[1151] E. Meyer, _Geschichte des Altertums_, I. 2, 1909, Sec. 336. O.
Procksch, however, while regarding the origin of the Semites as an
unsolved problem, considers Arabia as their centre of dispersal rather
than their original home. As far as early Semitic migrations can be
traced he thinks they indicate a north to south direction, and he sees
no cause for disputing the Biblical account (_Gen._ ii. 10 ff.) deriving
the descendants of Shem "from the neighbourhood of Ararat, i.e.
Armenia, across the Taurus to the North Syrian plain." "Die Voelker
Altpalaestinas," _Das Land der Bibel_, I. 2, 1914, p. 11. Cf. also J. L.
Myres, _The Dawn of History_, 1911, p. 115.
[1152] For the discussion as to whether Semites or Sumerians were the
earlier occupants of Babylonia see p. 263 above.
[1153] Hugo Winckler, "Die Voelker Vorderasiens," _Der Alte Orient_, I.
1900, pp. 14-15 and _Auszug aus der Vorderasiatische Geschichte_, 1905,
p. 2.
[1154] Cf. A. C. Haddon, _Wanderings of Peoples_, 1911, p. 21.
[1155] J. L. Myres, _The Dawn of History_, 1911, pp. 118-9. For an
admirable description of the Semitic migrations see pp. 104-5, and for
the geographical aspect, see E. C. Semple, _Influences of Geographic
Environment: on the basis of Ratzel's System of Anthropo-Geography_,
1911, pp. 6-7 and under "Nomads" in the Index.
[1156] G. Elliot Smith, _The Ancient Egyptians_, 1911, p. 133.
[1157] C. H. W. Johns, _Ancient Babylonia_, 1913, pp. 18-19. For culture
see pp. 16-17.
[1158] O. Procksch, "Die Voelker Altpalaestinas," _Das Land der Bibel_, I.
2, 1914.
[1159] Cf. E. Meyer, "Sumerier und Semiten in Babylonien," _Abh. der
Koenigl. Preuss. Akad. der Wissenschaft_. 1906; L. W. King, _History of
Sumer and Akkad_, 1910, p. 40 ff.
[1160] In the Assyrians von Luschan detects traces of the
hyperbrachycephalic people of Asia Minor and Armenia, for they appear to
differ from the pure Semites especially in the shape of the nose. Meyer
regards this variation as possibly due to a prehistoric population, but,
he adds, studies of physical types both historically and
anthropologically are in their infancy. E. Meyer, _Geschichte des
Altertums_, I. 2, 1909, Sec. 330 A.
[1161] C. H. W. Johns, _Ancient Assyria_, 1912, p. 8.
[1162] _Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly Statements_, 1902 onwards.
See also L. B. Paton, Art. "Canaanites," in Hastings' _Encyclopaedia of
Religion and Ethics_.
[1163] Tell Ta'anek, 1904, _Denkschriften_, Vienna Academy, and "The
German Excavations at Jericho," _Pal. Expl. Fund Quart. St._ 1910.
[1164] _Tell el-Mutesellim_, 1908.
[1165] _Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly Statements_, 1902, p. 347
ff.
[1166] L. W. King, _History of Sumer and Akkad_, 1910, p. 55; C. H. W.
Johns, _Ancient Babylonia_, 1913, pp. 61-2; L. B. Paton, Art.
"Canaanites," Hastings' _Ency. of Religion and Ethics_, 1910; E. Meyer,
_Geschichte des Altertums_, I. 2, 1909, Sec.Sec. 396, 436; O. Procksch, "Die
Voelker Altpalaestinas," _Das Land der Bibel_, I. 2, 1914, p. 25 ff.; G.
Maspero, _The Struggle of the Nations, Egypt, Syria, and Assyria_, 1910.
[1167] [Greek: Phoinikes], probably meaning red, either on account of
their sun-burnt skin, or from the dye for which they were famous. For
the Phoenician physical type cf. W. Z. Ripley, _Races of Europe_, 1900,
pp. 287, 444.
[1168] In the Old Testament "Canaanite" and "Amorite" are usually
synonymous.
[1169] A. C. Haddon, _Wanderings of Peoples_, 1911, p. 22. For a general
account of Phoenician history see J. P. Mahaffy, in Hutchinson's
_History of the Nations_, 1914, p. 303 ff.
[1170] Cf. Morris Jastrow, _Hebrew and Babylonian Traditions_ (Haskell
Lectures), 1913.
[1171] See S. A. Cook, Art. "Jews," _Ency. Brit._ 1911; O. Procksch,
"Die Voelker Altpalaestinas," _Das Land der Bibel_, I. 2, 1914, p. 28 ff.
[1172] From Old French _Juis_, Lat. _Judaei_, _i.e._ Sons of Jehudah
(Judah). See my article, "Jews," in Cassell's _Storehouse of General
Information_, 1893, from which I take many of the following particulars.
[1173] W. M. Flinders Petrie attributes the variation to environment,
not miscegenation. "History and common observation lead us to the
equally legitimate conclusion that the country and not the race
determines the cranium." "Migrations," _Journ. Anthr. Inst._ XXXVI.
1906, p. 218. He is here criticising the excellent discussion of the
whole question in W. Z. Ripley's _The Races of Europe_, 1900, Chap. XIV.
"The Jews and Semites," pp. 368-400, with bibliography. Cf. also R. N.
Salaman, "Heredity and the Jews," _Journ. of Genetics_, I. p. 274.
[1174] F. von Luschan, "The Early Inhabitants of Western Asia," _Journ.
Roy. Anthr. Inst._ XLI. 1911, p. 226.
[1175] M. Fishberg, _The Jews_, 1911, p. 10.
[1176] As Heth, settled in Hebron (_Gen._ xxiii. 3) and the central
uplands (_Num._ xiii. 29) but also as a confederacy of tribes to the
north (1 _Kings_ x. 29, 2 _Kings_ vii. 6).
[1177] This identification is based on "the casts of Hittite profiles
made by Petrie from the Egyptian monuments. The profiles are peculiar,
unlike those of any other people represented by the Egyptian artists,
but they are identical with the profiles which occur among the Hittite
hieroglyphs" (A. H. Sayce, _Acad._, Sept. 1894, p. 259).
[1178] "Corpus insc. Hetticarum," _Zeitschr. d. d. morgenlaend.
Gesellsch._ 1900, 1902, 1906, etc.
[1179] "Die Hettiter," _Der Alte Orient_, I. 4, 1902, p. 14 n. The sign
in question, a bisected oval, is interpreted "god."
[1180] "Decipherment of the Hittite Inscriptions," _Soc. of Bibl.
Archaeology_, 1903, and "Hittite Inscriptions," _ib._ 1905, 1907.
[1181] _Orient. Literaturzeitung_, 1907, and _Orient-Gesellsch._ 1907.
See D. G. Hogarth, "Recent Hittite Research," _Journ. Roy. Anthr. Inst._
XXXVI. 1909, p. 408.
[1182] L. W. King, "The Hittites," Hutchinson's _History of the
Nations_, 1914, p. 263. For this type see the illustration of Hittite
divinities, Pl. XXXI. of F. von Luschan's paper referred to below. For
language see now C. J. S. Marstrander, "Caractere Indo-Europeen de la
langue Hittite," _Videnskapsselskapets Skrifter II Hist. filos. Klasse_,
1918, No. 2.
[1183] "The Early Inhabitants of Western Asia," _Journ. Roy. Anthr.
Inst._ XLI. 1911, p. 230. For this region see D. G. Hogarth, _The Nearer
East_, 1902, with ethnological map.
[1184] _Loc. cit._ p. 232.
[1185] F. von Luschan, _loc. cit._ p. 233.
[1186] _Loc. cit._ pp. 242-3.
[1187] Saba', Sheba of the Old Testament, where there are various
allusions to its wealth and trading importance from the time of Solomon
to that of Cyrus.
[1188] Ma'[=i]n of the inscriptions.
[1189] Arabic _badaw[=i]y_, a dweller in the desert.
[1190] _Loc. cit._ p. 235.
[1191] C. G. Seligman, "The physical characters of the Arabs," _Journ.
Roy. Anthr. Inst._ XLVII. 1917, p. 214 ff.
[1192] The rude Semitic dialect still current in this island appears to
be fundamentally Phoenician (Carthaginian), later affected by Arabic and
Italian influences. (M. Mizzi, _A Voice from Malta_, 1896, _passim_.)
[1193] M. Jastrow, _Hebrew and Babylonian Traditions_, 1910.
CHAPTER XV
THE CAUCASIC PEOPLES (_continued_)
THE PEOPLES OF ARYAN SPEECH--European Trade Routes--"Aryan"
Migrations--Indo-European Cradle--Indo-European Type--Date of
Indo-European Expansion--Origin of Nordic Peoples--The _Cimbri_
and _Teutoni_--_The Bastarnae_--_The Moeso-Goths_--Scandinavia--
Modification of the Nordic Type--THE CELTO-SLAVS: Their Ethnical
Position defined--Aberrant _Tyrolese_ Type--_Rhaetians_ and
_Etruscans_--Etruscan Origins--The Celts--Definitions--Celts
in Britain--The Picts--Brachycephals in Britain--Round Barrow
Type--Alpine Type--Ethnic Relations--Formation of the English
Nation--Ethnic Relations in Ireland--Scotland--and in Wales--Present
Constitution of the British Peoples--The English Language--_The
French Nation_--Constituent Elements--Mental Traits--_The Spaniards
and Portuguese_--Ethnic Relations in Italy--_Ligurian_, _Illyrian_,
and _Aryan Elements_--The Present _Italians_--Art and Ethics--_The
Rumanians_--Ethnic Relations in Greece--_The Hellenes_--Origins and
Migrations--The _Lithuanian_ Factor--_Aeolians_; _Dorians_;
_Ionians_--The Hellenic Legend--The Greek Language--THE SLAVS--
Origins and Migrations--_Sarmatians_ and _Budini_--_Wends_,
_Chekhs_, and _Poles_--The Southern Slavs--Migrations--_Serbs_,
_Croats_, _Bosnians_--_The Albanians_--_The Russians_--
Panslavism--Russian Origins--_Alans_ and _Ossets_--Aborigines
of the Caucasus--THE IRANIANS--Ethnic and Linguistic Relations--
_Persians_, _Tajiks_ and _Galcha_--_Afghans_--Lowland and Hill
Tajiks--The Galchic Linguistic Family--Galcha and Tajik Types--
_Homo Europaeus_ and _H. Alpinus_ in Central Asia--THE HINDUS--
Ethnic Relations in India--Classification of Types--_The Kols_--
_The Dravidians_--Dravidian and Aryan Languages--The Hindu
Castes--OCEANIA--_Indonesians_--_Micronesians_--_Eastern
Polynesians_--Origins, Types, and Divisions--Migrations--
Polynesian Culture.
As the result of recent researches there is an end of the theory that
bronze came in with the "Aryans," and it is from this standpoint that
the revelation of an independent Aegean culture in touch with Babylonia
and Egypt some four millenniums before the new era is of such momentous
import in determining the ethnical relations of the historical, _i.e._
the present European populations.
Some idea of cultured relations in prehistoric times may be obtained
from a review of the trade communications as indicated by archaeology
during the Bronze Age which lasted through the whole of the third
millennium down to the middle of the second. As we have seen, in the
Nile valley, in Mesopotamia and in the Aegean area, remains
characteristic of Bronze Age culture rest on a neolithic substratum, and
a transitional stage, when gold and copper were the only metals known,
often connects the two. From the time of this dawning of the Age of
Metals, the inhabitants of the Nile Valley, of Crete, of Cyprus and of
the mainland of Greece freely exchanged their products. Navigation was
already flourishing, and the sea united rather than divided the insular
and coastal populations. Gradually Egeo-Mykenaean civilisation extended
from Crete and the Greek lands to the west, influencing Sicily directly,
and leaving distinct traces in Southern Italy, Sardinia and the Iberian
peninsula, while Iberia in its turn contributed to the development of
Western Gaul and the British Isles. The knowledge of copper, and, soon
after, that of bronze, spread by the Atlantic route to Ireland, while
Central Europe was reached directly from the south. Thanks to the trade
in amber, always in demand by the Mediterranean populations, there was a
continuous trade route to Scandinavia, which thus had direct
communication with Southern Europe. As civilisation developed, the lands
of the north and west became exporters as well as importers, each
developing a distinct industry not always inferior to the more
precocious culture of the south[1194].
With trade communications thus stretching across Europe from south to
north, and from east to extreme west, it would seem not improbable that
movements of peoples were equally unrestricted, and this would account
for the appearance on the threshold of history of various peoples
formerly grouped together on account of their language, as "Aryan."
J. L. Myres, however, is inclined to attribute "the coming of the North"
to the same type of climatic impulse which induced the Semitic swarms
described above (p. 489). After referring to the earliest occurrence of
Indo-European names[1195], he continues "Before the time of the
Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt there had been a very extensive raid of
Indo-European-speaking folk by way of the Persian plateau, as far as the
Syrian coastland and the interior of Asia Minor." These raids coincide
with a new cultural feature of great significance. "It is of the first
importance to find that it is in the dark period which immediately
precedes the Eighteenth Dynasty revival--when Egypt was prostrate under
mysterious 'Shepherd Kings,' and Babylon under Kassite invaders equally
mysterious--that the civilized world first became acquainted with one of
the greatest blessings of civilisation, the domesticated horse. The
period of Arabian drought, which drove forth the 'Canaanite' emigrants,
may have had its counterpart on the northern steppe, to provoke the
migration of these horsemen." He adds, however, "our knowledge both of
the extent of these droughts and of the chronology of both these
migrations, is too vague for this to be taken as more than a provisional
basis for more exact enquiry[1196]."
The attempt has often been made to locate the original home of the
Indo-European people by an appeal to philology, and idyllic pictures
have been drawn up of the "Aryan family" consisting of the father the
protector, the mother the producer, and the children "whose name implied
that they kept everything clean and neat[1197]." They were regarded as
originally pastoral and later agricultural, ranging over a wide area
with Bactria for its centre. With advancing knowledge of what is
primitive in Indo-European this circumstantial picture crumbled to
pieces, and Feist[1198] reduces all inferences deducible from linguistic
palaeontology to the sole "argumentum ex silencio" (which he regards as
distinctly untrustworthy in itself), that the "Urheimat" was a country
in which in the middle of the third millennium B.C. such southern
animals as lion, elephant, and tiger, were unknown. It was commonly
assumed that the "Aryan cradle" was in Asia, and the suggestion of R. G.
Latham in 1851 that the original home was in Europe was scouted by one
of the most eminent writers on the subject--Victor Hehn--as lunacy
possible only to one who lived in a country of cranks[1197]. But
since this date, there has been a shifting of the "Urheimat" further and
further west. O. Schrader[1199] places it in South Russia, G.
Kossinna[1200] and H. Hirt[1201] support the claims of Germany, while K.
Penka and many others go still further north, deriving both language
and tall fair dolichocephalic speakers (proto-Teutons) from
Scandinavia[1202].
F. Kauffmann[1203], noting the contrast between the cultures associated
with pre-neolithic and with neolithic kitchen-middens, is prepared to
attribute the former to aboriginal inhabitants, Ligurians, and, further
north, Kvaens (Finns, Lapps), and the neolithic civilisation of Europe
to Indo-Europeans. "Thus the neolithic Indo-Europeans would already have
advanced as far as South Sweden in the Litorina period of the Baltic,
during the oak-period."
On the other hand the discovery of Tocharish has inclined E. Meyer[1204]
to reconsider an Asiatic origin, but the information as to this language
is too fragmentary to be conclusive on this point. After reviewing the
various theories Giles[1205] concludes "in the great plain which extends
across Europe north of the Alps and Carpathians and across Asia north of
the Hindu Kush there are few geographical obstacles to prevent the rapid
spread of peoples from any part of its area to any other, and, as we
have seen, the Celts and the Hungarians etc. have in the historical
period demonstrated the rapidity with which such migrations could be
made. Such migrations may possibly account for the appearance of a
people using a _centum_ language so far east as Turkestan[1206]."
More acrimonious than the discussion of the original home is the dispute
as to the original physical type of the Indo-European-speaking people.
It was almost a matter of faith with Germans that the language was
introduced by tall fair dolichocephals of Nordic type. On the other hand
the Gallic school sought to identify the Alpine race as the only and
original Aryans. The futility of the whole discussion is ably
demonstrated by W. Z. Ripley in his protest against the confusion of
language and race[1207]. Feist[1208] summarises our information as
follows. All that we can say about the physical type of the "Urvolk" is
that since the Indo-Europeans came from a northerly region[1209] (not
yet identified) it is surmised that they belonged to the light-skinned
people. The observation that mountain folk of Indo-Germanic speech in
southern areas, such as the Ossets of the Caucasus, the Kurds of the
uplands of Armenia and Irania, and the Tajiks of the western Pamirs not
infrequently exhibit fair hair or blue eyes supports this view.
Nevertheless, as he points out, brachycephals are not hereby excluded.
His own conclusion, which naturally results from a review of the whole
evidence, is that the "Urvolk" was not a pure race, but a mixture of
different types. Already in neolithic times races in Europe were no
longer pure, and in France "formed an almost inextricable medley" and
Feist assumes with E. de Michelis[1210] that the Indo-Europeans were a
conglomerate of peoples of different origins who in prehistoric times
were welded together into an ethnic unity, as the present English have
been formed from pre-Indo-European Caledonians (Picts and Scots), Celts,
Roman traders and soldiers and later Teutonic settlers[1211].
The evidence that Indo-Europeans were already in existence in
Mesopotamia, Syria and Irania about the middle of the second millennium
B.C. has already been mentioned. About the same time the Vedic hymns
bear witness to the appearance of the Aryans of Western India. The
formation of an Aryan group with a common language, religion and culture
is a process necessarily requiring considerable length of time, so that
their swarming off from the Indo-European parent group must be pushed
back to far into the third millennium. At this period there are
indications of the settling of the Greeks in the southern promontories
of the Balkan peninsula at latest about 2000 B.C., while Thracian and
Illyrian peoples may have filled the mainland, though the Dorians
occupied Epirus, Macedonia, and perhaps Southern Illyria. Indo-European
stocks were already in occupation of Central Italy. It would appear
therefore that the period of the Indo-European community, before the
migrations, must be placed at the end of the Stone Ages, at the time
when copper was first introduced. Thus it seems legitimate to infer
that the expansion of the Indo-Europeans began about 2500 B.C. and the
furthest advanced branches entered into the regions of the older
populations and cultures at latest after the beginning of the second
millennium[1212]. About 1000 B.C. we find three areas occupied by
Indo-European-speaking peoples, all widely separated from each other and
apparently independent. These are (1) the Aryan groups in Asia; (2) the
Balkan peninsula together with Central and Lower Italy, and the Mysians
and Phrygians of Asia Minor (possibly the Thracians had already advanced
across the Danube); and (3) Teutons, Celts and Letto-Slavs over the
greater part of Germany and Scandinavia, perhaps also already in Eastern
France and in Poland. The following centuries saw the advance of
Iranians to South Russia and further west, the pressing of the Phrygians
into Armenia, and lastly the Celtic migrations in Western Europe.
From the linguistic and botanical evidence brought forward by the Polish
botanist Rostafinski[1213] the ancestors of the Celts, Germans and
Balto-Slavs must have occupied a region north of the Carpathians, and
west of a line between Koenigsberg and Odessa (the beech and yew zone).
The Balto-Slavs subsequently lost the word for beech and transferred the
word for yew to the sallow and black alder (both with red wood) but
their possession of a word for hornbeam locates their original home in
Polesie--the marshland traversed by the Pripet but not south or east of
Kiev.
Although, owing to the absence of Teutonic inscriptions before the third
or fourth century A.D. it is difficult to trace the Nordic peoples with
any certainty during the Bronze or Early Iron Ages, yet the fairly
well-defined group of Bronze Age antiquities, covering the basin of the
Elbe, Mecklenburg, Holstein, Jutland, Southern Sweden and the islands of
the Belt have been conjectured with much probability to represent early
Teutonic civilisation. "Whether we are justified in speaking of a
Teutonic race in the anthropological sense is at least doubtful, for the
most striking characteristics of these peoples [as deduced from
prehistoric skeletons, descriptions of ancient writers and present day
statistics] occur also to a considerable extent among their eastern and
western neighbours, where they can hardly be ascribed altogether to
Teutonic admixture. The only result of anthropological investigation
which so far can be regarded as definitely established is that the old
Teutonic lands in Northern Germany, Denmark and Southern Sweden have
been inhabited by people of the same type since the neolithic age if not
earlier[1214]." This type is characterised by tall stature, long narrow
skull, light complexion with light hair and eyes[1215].
During the age of national migrations, from the fourth to the sixth
century, the territories of the Nordic peoples were vastly extended,
partly by conquest, and partly by arrangement with the Romans. But these
movements had begun before the new era, for we hear of the _Cimbri_
invading Illyricum, Gaul and Italy in the second century B.C. probably
from Jutland[1216], where they were apparently associated with the
_Teutoni_. Still earlier, in the third century B.C., the _Bastarnae_,
said by many ancient writers to have been Teutonic in origin, invaded
and settled between the Carpathians and the Black Sea. Already mentioned
doubtfully by Strabo as separating the Germani from the Scythians
(Tyragetes) about the Dniester and Dnieper, their movements may now be
followed by authentic documents from the Baltic to the Euxine.
Furtwaengler[1217] shows that the earliest known German figures are those
of the Adamklissi monument, in the Dobruja, commemorating the victory of
Crassus over the Bastarnae, Getae, and Thracians in 28 B.C. The
Bastarnae migrated before the Cimbri and Teutons through the Vistula
valley to the Lower Danube about 200 B.C. They had relations with the
Macedonians, and the successes of Mithridates over the Romans were due
to their aid. The account of their overthrow by Crassus in Dio Cassius
is in striking accord with the scenes on the Adamklissi monument. Here
they appear dressed only in a kind of trowsers, with long pointed
beards, and defiant but noble features. The same type recurs both on the
column of Trajan, who engaged them as auxiliaries in his Dacian wars,
and on the Arch of Marcus Aurelius, here however wearing a tunic, a sign
perhaps of later Roman influences. And thus after 2000 years are
answered Strabo's doubts by modern archaeology.
Much later there followed along the same beaten track between the Baltic
and Black Sea a section of the Goths, whom we find first settled in the
Baltic lands in proximity to the Finns. The exodus from this region can
scarcely have taken place before the second century of the new era, for
they are still unknown to Strabo, while Tacitus locates them on the
Baltic between the Elbe and the Vistula. Later Cassiodorus and others
bring them from Scandinavia to the Vistula, and up that river to the
Euxine and Lower Danube. Although often regarded as legendary[1218],
this migration is supported by archaeological evidence. In 1837 a gold
torque with a Gothic inscription was found at Petroassa in Wallachia,
and in 1858 an iron spear-head with a Gothic name in the same script,
which dates from the first Iron Age, turned up near Kovel in Volhynia.
The spear-head is identical with one found in 1865 at Muenchenberg in
Brandenburg, on which Wimmer remarks that "of 15 Runic inscriptions in
Germany the two earliest occur on iron pikes. There is no doubt that the
runes of the Kovel spear-head and of the ring came from Gothic
tribes[1219]." These Southern Goths, later called Moeso-Goths, because
they settled in Moesia (Bulgaria and Servia), had certain physical and
even moral characters of the Old Teutons, as seen in the Emperor
Maximinus, born in Thrace of a Goth by an Alan woman--very tall, strong,
handsome, with light hair and milk-white skin[1220], temperate in all
things and of great mental energy.
Before their absorption in the surrounding Bulgar and Slav populations
the Moeso-Goths were evangelised in the fourth century by their bishop
Ulfilas ("Wolf"), whose fragmentary translation of Scripture, preserved
in the _Codex Argenteus_ of Upsala, is the most precious monument of
early Teutonic speech extant.
To find the pure Nordic type at the present day we must seek for it in
Scandinavia, which possesses one of the most highly individualised
populations in Europe. The Osterdal, and the neighbourhood of Vaage in
Upper Gudbrandsdal in Norway, and the Dalarna district in Sweden contain
perhaps the purest Teutonic type in all Europe, the cephalic index
falling well below 78. But along the Norwegian coasts there is a strong
tendency to brachycephaly (the index rising to 82-3), combined with a
darkening of the hair and eye colour (the type occurs also in Denmark),
indicating an outlying lodgement of the Alpine race from Central Europe.
The anthropological history of Scandinavia, according to Ripley, is as
follows: "Norway has ... probably been peopled from two directions, one
element coming from Sweden and another from the south by way of Denmark.
The latter type, now found on the sea coast and especially along the
least attractive portion of it, has been closely hemmed in by the
Teutonic immigration from Sweden[1221]." Brachycephalic people already
occupied parts of Denmark in the Stone Age[1222], and, according to the
scanty information available, the present population is extremely mixed.
One-third of the children have light hair and light eyes, and tall
stature coincides in the main with fair colouring, but in Bornholm where
the cephalic index is 80 there is a taller dark type and a shorter light
type, the latter perhaps akin to the Eastern variety of the Alpine
race[1223].
The original Nordic type is by no means universally represented among
the present Germanic peoples. From the examination made some years ago
of 6,758,000 school children[1224], it would appear that about 31 per
cent. of living Germans may be classed as blonds, 14 as brunettes, and
55 as mixed; and further that of the blonds about 43 per cent. are
centred in North, 33 in Central and 24 in South Germany. The brunettes
increase, generally speaking, southwards, South Bavaria showing only
about 14 per cent. of blonds, and the same law holds good of the
long-heads and the round-heads respectively. To what cause is to be
attributed this profound modification of this branch of the Nordic type
in the direction of the south?
That the Teutons ranged in considerable numbers far beyond their
northern seats is proved by the spread of the German language to the
central highlands, and beyond them down the southern slopes, where a
rude High German dialect lingered on in the so-called "Seven Communes"
of the Veronese district far into the nineteenth century. But after
passing the Main, which appears to have long formed the ethnical divide
for Central Europe, they entered the zone of the brown Alpine
round-heads[1225], to whom they communicated their speech, but by whom
they were largely modified in physical appearance. The process has for
long ages been much the same everywhere--perennial streams of Teutonism
setting steadily from the north, all successively submerged in the great
ocean of dark round-headed humanity, which under many names has occupied
the central uplands and eastern plains since the Neolithic Age,
overflowing also in later times into the Balkan Peninsula.
This absorption of what is assumed to be the superior in the inferior
type, may be due to the conditions of the general movement--warlike
bands, accompanied by few women, appearing as conquerors in the midst of
the Alpines and merging with them in the great mass of brachycephalic
peoples. Or is the transformation to be explained by de Lapouge's
doctrine, that cranial forms are not so much a question of race as of
social conditions, and that, owing to the increasingly unfavourable
nature of these conditions, there is a general tendency for the superior
long-heads to be absorbed in the inferior round-heads[1226].
The fact that dolichocephaly is more prevalent in cities and
brachycephaly in rural areas has been interpreted in various ways. De
Lapouge[1227] contended that in France the restless and more
enterprising long-heads migrated from the rural districts in
disproportionate numbers to the towns, where they died out. For the
department of Aveyron he gives a table showing a steady rise of the
cephalic index from 71.4 in prehistoric times to 86.5 in 1899, and
attributes this to the dolichos gravitating chiefly to the large towns,
as O. Ammon has also shown for Baden. L. Laloy summed up the results
thus: France is being depopulated, and, what is worse, it is precisely
the best section of the inhabitants that disappears, the section most
productive in eminent men in all departments of learning, while the
ignorant and rude _pecus_ alone increase.
These views have met with favour even across the Atlantic, but are by no
means universally accepted. The ground seems cut from the whole theory
by A. Macalister, who read a paper at the Toronto Meeting of the British
Association, 1897, on "The Causes of Brachycephaly," showing that the
infantile and primitive skull is relatively long, and that there is a
gradual change, phylogenetic (racial) as well as ontogenetic
(individual) toward brachycephaly, which is certainly correlated with,
and is apparently produced by, cerebral activity and growth; in the
process of development in the individual and the race the frontal lobes
of the brain grow the more rapidly and tend to fill out and broaden the
skull[1228]. The tendency would thus have nothing to do with rustic and
urban life, nor would the round be necessarily, if at all, inferior to
the long head. Some of de Lapouge's generalisations are also traversed
by Livi[1229], Deniker[1230], Sergi[1231] and others, and the whole
question is admirably summarised by W. Z. Ripley[1232].
But whatever be the cause, the fact must be accepted that _Homo
Europaeus_ (the Nordics) becomes merged southwards in _Homo Alpinus_
whose names, as stated, are many. Broca and many continental writers use
the name _Kelt_ or _Slavo-Kelt_, which has led to much confusion. But it
merely means for them the great mass of brachycephalic peoples in
Central Europe, where, at various times, Celtic and Slavonic languages
have prevailed.
It is remarkable that in the Alpine region, especially Tyrol, where the
brachy element comes to a focus, there is a peculiar form of round-head
which has greatly puzzled de Lapouge, but may perhaps be accounted for
on the hypothesis of two brachy types here fused in one. To explain the
exceedingly round Tyrolese head, which shows affinities on the one hand
with the Swiss, on the other with the Illyrian and Albanian, that is,
with the normal Alpine, a Mongol strain has been suggested, but is
rightly rejected by Franz Tappeiner as inadmissible on many
grounds[1233]. De Ujfalvy[1234], a follower of de Lapouge, looks on the
hyperbrachy Tyrolese as descendants of the ancient Rhaetians or Rasenes,
whom so many regard as the parent stock of the Etruscans.
But Montelius (with most other modern ethnologists) rejects the land
route from the north, and brings the Etruscans by the sea route direct
from the Aegean and Lydia (Asia Minor). They are the Thessalian
Pelasgians whom Hellanikos of Lesbos brings to Campania, or the
Tyrrhenian Pelasgians transported by Antiklides from Asia Minor to
Etruria, and he is "quite sure that the archaeological facts in Central
and North Italy ... prove the truth of this tradition[1235]." Of course,
until the affinities of the Etruscan language are determined, from which
we are still as far off as ever[1236], Etruscan origins must remain
chiefly an archaeological question. Even the help afforded by the crania
from the Etruscan tombs is but slight, both long and round heads being
here found in the closest association. Sergi, who also brings the
Etruscans from the east, explains this by supposing that, being
Pelasgians, they were of the same dolicho Mediterranean stock as the
Italians (Ligurians) themselves, and differed only from the brachy
Umbrians of Aryan speech. Hence the skulls from the tombs are of two
types, the intruding Aryan, and the Mediterranean, the latter, whether
representing native Ligurians or intruding Etruscans, being
indistinguishable. "I can show," he says, "Etruscan crania, which differ
in no respect from the Italian [Ligurian], from the oldest graves, as I
can also show heads from the Etruscan graves which do not differ from
those still found in Aryan lands, whether Slav, Keltic, or
Germanic[1237]." Perhaps the difficulty is best explained by Feist's
suggestion that the Etruscans were merely a highly civilised warlike
aristocracy, spreading thinly over the conquered population by which
they were ultimately absorbed[1238].
The migrations of the Celts preceded those of the Teutonic peoples to
whom they were probably closely related in race as in language[1239]. At
the beginning of the historical period Celts are found in the west of
Germany in the region of the Rhine and the Weser. Possibly about 600
B.C. they occupied Gaul and parts of the Iberian peninsula, subsequently
crossing over into the British Isles. In Italy they came into conflict
with the rising power of Rome, and, after the battle of the Allia (390
B.C.) occupied Rome itself. Descents were also made into the Danube
valley and the Balkans, and later (280 B.C.) into Thessaly. At the
height of their power they extended from the north of Scotland to the
southern shores of Spain and Portugal, and from the northern coasts of
Germany to a little south of Senegaglia. To the west their boundary was
the Atlantic, to the east, the Black Sea[1240].
Unfortunately the indiscriminate use of the term Celt has led to much
confusion. For historians and geographers the Celts are the people in
the centre and west of Europe referred to by writers of antiquity under
the names of _Keltoi_, _Celtae_, _Galli_ and _Galatae_. But many
anthropologists, especially on the continent, regard Celts and Gauls as
representing two well-determined physical types, the former
brachycephalic, with short sturdy build and chestnut coloured hair
(Alpine type), and the latter dolichocephalic with tall stature, fair
complexion and light hair (Nordic type). Linguists, ignoring physical
characters, class as Celts those people who speak an Indo-European
language characterised in particular by the loss of p and by the
modifications undergone by mutation of initial consonants, while for
many archaeologists the Celts were the people responsible for the spread
of the civilisation of the Hallstatt and La Tene periods, that is of the
earlier and later Iron Age[1241].
It is not surprising therefore that it has been proposed to drop the
word Celt out of anthropological nomenclature, as having no ethnical
significance. But this, says Rice Holmes[1242], "is because writers on
ethnology have not kept their heads clear." And in particular one point
has been overlooked. "Just as the French are called after one conquering
people, the Franks; just as the English are called after one conquering
people, the Angles; so the heterogeneous Celtae of Transalpine Gaul were
called after one conquering people; and that people were the Celts, or
rather a branch of the Celts in the true sense of the word. The Celts,
in short, were the people who introduced the Celtic language into Gaul,
into Asia Minor, and into Britain; the people who included the victors
of the Allia, the conquerors of Gallia Celtica, and the conquerors of
Gallia Bel['g]ica; the people whom Polybius called indifferently Gauls
and Celts; the people who, as Pausanius said, were originally called
Celts and afterwards called Gauls. If certain ancient writers confounded
the tall fair Celts who spoke Celtic with the tall fair Germans who
spoke German the ancient writers who were better informed avoided such a
mistake.... Let us therefore restore to the word 'Celt' the ethnical
significance which of right belongs to it."
It is not certain at what date the Celtic tribes effected settlements in
Great Britain, but it is held by many that the earliest invasions were
not prior to the sixth or possibly even the fifth century. At the time
of the Roman conquest the Celts were divided into two linguistic groups,
_Goidelic_, represented at the present day by Irish, Manx and Scotch
Gaelic, and _Brythonic_, including Welsh, Cornish and Breton. These
groups must have been virtually identical save in two particulars. In
Brythonic the labial velar q became p (a change which apparently took
place before the time of Pytheas), whilst in Goidelic the sound remained
unaltered. q is retained in the earlier ogham inscriptions, but by the
end of the seventh century it had lost the labial element, appearing in
Old Irish as c. Thus O. Irish _cenn_, head, as in Kenmare, Kintyre,
Kinsale, equates with Brythonic _pen_, as in Penryn (Cornwall), Penrhyn
(Wales), Penkridge (Staffordshire), Penruddock, Penrith and many others.
The two groups are therefore distinguished as the Q Celts and the P
Celts[1243]. From the fact that Goidelic retained the q it has been
commonly assumed that the Goidels were separated from the main Celtic
stock at a time before the labialisation had taken place, but many
scholars maintain that the parent Goidelic was evolved in Ireland, and
was carried from that island to Man and Scotland in the early centuries
of our era[1244].
From an anthropological point of view, the Picts are if possible more
difficult to identify than the Celts. But the question is not between
tall fair long-heads and short dark round-heads, but between short dark
long-heads (neolithic aborigines) and Celts. The Pictish question is
summed up by Rice Holmes[1245] and the various theories have been more
recently reviewed by Windisch[1246] giving a valuable summary of earlier
writings. On the one hand it is maintained as "the most tenable
hypothesis that the Picts were non-Aryans, whom the first Celtic
migrations found already settled here ... descendants of the
Aborigines[1247]." Windisch[1248] at the other extreme, regards them as
late comers into North Britain, when Scotland was already occupied by
Brythonic tribes. But the geographical distribution of the Picts in
historical times suggests rather a people driven into mountainous
regions by successive conquerors, than the settlements of successful
invaders. Also it is not improbable that the language of the Bronze Age
lingered in these wilder districts, and this would account for the fact
that St Columba had to employ an interpreter in his relations with the
Picts; though this is explained by others on the assumption that Pictish
was Brythonic. The linguistic evidence is however extremely slight, only
a few words presumably Pictish having survived and these through Celtic
writers. "The one absolutely certain conclusion to which the student of
ethnology can come is that the name of the Picts has not been proved to
be of pre-Aryan origin[1249]." "For me," continues Rice Holmes (p. 417),
"the Picts were a mixed people comprising descendants of the neolithic
aborigines, of the Round Barrow Race, and of the Celtic invaders--a
mixed people who [or at least whose aristocracy] spoke a Celtic
dialect."
Before attempting a survey of the ethnology of Britain it is necessary
to ascertain what ethnic elements the area contained before the arrival
of the Celts. The neolithic inhabitants, the short, dark dolichocephals
of Mediterranean type have already been described (Ch. XIII.). Their
remains are associated with the characteristic forms of sepulchral
monuments the dolmens and the long barrows. But towards the end of the
Stone Age a brachycephalic race was already penetrating into the
islands. This appears to have been a peaceful infiltration, at any rate
in certain districts, where remains of the two types are found side by
side and there is evidence of racial intermixture. The brachycephals
introduced a new form of sepulture, making their burial mounds circular
instead of elongated, whence Thurnam's convenient formula, "long barrow,
long skull; round barrow, round skull." But the earlier view that there
was a definite transition from long heads, neolithic culture and long
barrows, to round heads, bronze culture and round barrows can no longer
be maintained. "It is often taken for granted that no round barrows were
erected in Britain before the close of the Neolithic Age, and that the
earliest of the brachycephalic invaders whose remains have been found in
them landed with bronze weapons in their hands[1250]." But there is
abundant evidence that the brachycephalic element preceded the knowledge
of metals, and a number of round barrows in Yorkshire and further north
show no trace of bronze.
Nevertheless the majority of the round barrows belong to the Bronze Age,
and the physical type of their builders is sufficiently well marked. The
stature is remarkably tall, attaining a height of 1.763 m. or over 5 ft.
9 ins. The skull is brachycephalic with an average index of about 80. It
is also characterised by great strength and ruggedness of outline, with
(often) a sloping forehead, prominent supraciliary ridges, and a certain
degree of prognathism.
According to Rolleston's description "The eyebrows must have given a
beetling and probably even formidable appearance to the upper part of
the face, whilst the boldly outstanding and heavy cheekbones must have
produced an impression of raw and rough strength. Overhung at its root,
the nose must have projected boldly forward." And Thurnam adds "the
prominence of the large incisor and canine teeth is so great as to give
an almost bestial expression to the skull[1251]."
Although this type is conveniently called the Round Barrow type, or even
the Round Barrow Race, the round barrows also contain remains of a
different racial character. The skull form shows a more extreme
brachycephaly, with an index of 84 or 85, and exhibits none of the
rugged features associated with the true Round Barrow type. On the
contrary, of the two typical groups, one from round barrows in
Glamorganshire, and the other from short cists in Aberdeenshire not one
of the skulls is prognathous, the supraciliary ridges are but slightly
developed, the cheek bones are not prominent, the face is both broad and
short and the lower jaw is small. But the greatest contrast is in the
height, which averages in the two groups, 1.664 m. and 1.6 m.
respectively, _i.e._ 5 ft. 5-3/4 ins. and 5 ft. 3 ins. All these
characters connect this type closely with the Alpine type on the
continent.
These round-headed peoples have been the subject of much discussion ably
summarised and criticised by Rice Holmes, whose conclusion perhaps best
represents the view now taken of their affinities and origins.
"The great mistake that has been made in discussing the question is the
not uncommon assumption that the brachycephalic immigrants who buried
their dead in round barrows arrived in Britain at one time, and came
from one place. Some of them certainly appeared before the end of the
Neolithic Age: others may have introduced bronze implements or
ornaments; others doubtless came, in successive hordes, during the
course of the Bronze Age. Some of those who belonged to the Grenelle
race [Alpine type], who certainly came from Eastern Europe and possibly
from Asia, and whose centre of dispersion was the Alpine region, may
have started from Gaul; others could have traced their origin to some
Rhenish tribe; and I am inclined to believe that those who belonged to
the characteristic rugged Round Barrow type crossed over, for the most
part, from Denmark or the out-lying islands[1252]."
After the passage of the Romans, who mingled little with the aborigines
and made, perhaps, but slight impression on the speech or type of the
British populations, a great transformation was effected in these
respects by the arrival of the historical Teutonic tribes. Hand in hand
with the Teutonic invasions went a lust for expansion on the part of the
peoples in Ireland. Settlements were effected by them in South Wales and
Anglesey, the Isle of Man and Argyll, probably also in North Devon and
Cornwall. For many generations the south and east of England were the
scenes of fierce struggles, during which the Romano-British civilisation
perished. Only in more inaccessible districts, such as the fen country,
may a British population have survived, though Celtic languages are not
yet dislodged from their mountain strongholds in Wales and Scotland, and
lingered for many centuries in Strathclyde and Cornwall. After the
strengthening of the Teutonic element by the arrival of the
Scandinavians and Normans, all very much of the same physical type, no
serious accessions were made to this composite ethnical group, which on
the east side ranged uninterruptedly from the Channel to the Grampians.
Later the expansion was continued northwards beyond the Grampians, and
westwards through Strathclyde to Ireland, while now the spread of
education and the development of the industries are already threatening
to absorb the last strongholds of Celtic speech in Wales, the Highlands,
and Ireland.
Thanks to its isolation in the extreme west, Ireland had been left
untouched by some of the above described ethnical movements. It is
doubtful whether Palaeolithic man ever reached this region, and but few
even of the round-heads ranged so far west during the Bronze Age[1253].
The land oscillations during post-Glacial times appear to have been
practically identical over an area including northern Ireland, the
southern half of Scotland, and northern England. There was a period of
depression followed by one of elevation. The Larne beach-deposits prove
that Neolithic man was in existence from almost the beginning of the
deposition of that series until after its conclusion. The estuarine
clays of Belfast Lough correspond to the depression, and the Neolithic
period extended from at least near the top of the lower estuarine clay
to the beach-deposit of yellow sand which overlies it, or possibly till
later. It is to this period of elevation that the Neolithic sites among
the sand dunes of North Ireland belong; those of Whitepark Bay and
Portstewart, for example, extend to the maximum elevation. A slight
movement of subsidence of about five feet in recent times has left the
surface as we now find it. The implements found in the Larne gravels
correspond to some extent with those of Danish kitchen-middens; this
was not a dwelling site but a quarry-shop or roughing-out place, the
serviceable flakes being taken away for further manipulation; it thus
belongs to the earliest phase of neolithic times. The sandhill sites
were occupied, continuously and occasionally, during neolithic times,
through the Bronze Age, and into the Iron and Christian periods[1254].
Nina F. Layard has recently studied the Larne raised beach and exposed a
new section. She states that "Taken as a whole the flints certainly do
not correspond at all closely either to the Palaeoliths or Neoliths so
far found in England.... Some are strongly reminiscent of well-known
drift type.... Again, there are shapes that bear a closer resemblance to
some of the earliest Neolithic types[1255]." She believes that, from
their rolled condition, they were derived from another source.
F. J. Bigger[1256] described some kitchen-middens at Portnafeadog, near
Roundstone, Connemara, which yielded stone hammers but no worked flints,
pottery or metal-ware. The chief interest of this paper is due to the
fact that it is the first record of the occurrence of vast quantities of
the shells of _Purpura lapillus_, all of which were broken in such a
manner that the animal could easily be extracted. There can be no doubt
that the purple dye was manufactured here in prehistoric times[1257]. W.
J. Knowles[1258] suggests from the close resemblance--in fact
identity--of a great number of neolithic objects in Ireland with
palaeolithic forms in France (Saint-Acheul, Moustier, Solutre, La
Madeleine types), that the Irish objects bridge over the gap between the
two ages, and were worked by tribes from the continent following the
migration of the reindeer northwards. These peoples may have continued
to make tools of palaeolithic types, while at the same time coming under
the influence of the neolithic culture gradually arriving from some
southern region. The astonishing development of this neolithic culture
in the remote island on the confines of the west, as illustrated in W.
C. Borlase's sumptuous volumes[1259], is a perpetual wonder, but is
rendered less inexplicable if we assume an immense duration of the New
Stone Age in the British Isles. The Irish dolmen-builders were
presumably of the same long-headed stock as those of Britain[1260], and
they were followed by Celtic-speaking Goidels who may have come directly
from the continent[1261], and there is evidence in Ptolemy and elsewhere
of the presence of Brythonic tribes from Gaul in the east. Since these
early historic times the intruders have been almost exclusively of
Teutonic race, and Viking invaders from Norway and Denmark founded the
earliest towns such as Dublin, Waterford and Limerick. Now all alike,
save for an almost insignificant and rapidly dwindling minority, have
assumed the speech of the English and Lowland Scotch intruders, who
began to arrive late in the 12th century, and are now chiefly massed in
Ulster, Leinster, and all the large towns. The rich and highly poetic
Irish language has a copious medieval literature of the utmost
importance to students of European origins.
In Scotland few ethnical changes or displacements have occurred since
the colonisation of portions of the west by Gaelic-speaking Scottic
tribes from Ireland, and the English (Angle) occupation of the Lothians.
The Grampians have during historic times formed the main ethnical divide
between the two elements, and brooklets which can be taken at a leap are
shown where the opposite banks have for hundreds of years been
respectively held by formerly hostile, but now friendly communities of
Gaelic and broad Scotch speech. Here the chief intruders have been
Scandinavians, whose descendants may still be recognised in Caithness,
the Hebrides, and the Orkney and Shetland groups. Faint echoes of the
old Norrena tongue are said still to linger amongst the sturdy
Shetlanders, whose assimilation to the dominant race began only after
their transfer from Norway to the Crown of Scotland.
Since 1901 the researches of Gray and Tocher[1262] on the pigmentation
of some 500,000 school children of Scotland have increased our
information as to racial distribution. The average percentage of boys
with fair hair is nearly 25 for the whole of the country, and when this
is compared with 82 in Schleswig Holstein "we are driven to the
conclusion that the pure Norse or Anglo-Saxon element in our population
is by no means predominant. There is evidently also a dark or brunette
element which is at least equal in amount and probably greater than that
of the Norse element" (p. 380). Pure blue eyes for the whole of Scotland
average 14.7 per cent., which may be compared with 42.9 in Prussia. The
greatest density for fair hair and eyes is to be found in the great
river valleys opening on to the German Ocean, and also in the Western
Isles. The Tweed, Forth, Tay and Don all show indications of settlements
of a blonde race "probably due to Anglo-Saxon invasions," but the
maximum is to be found at the mouth of the Spey. The high percentage
here and in the Hebrides and opposite coasts, the authors trace to
Viking invasions. The percentage of dark hair for boys and girls is 25.2
as compared with 1.3 in Prussian school children, the maximum density as
we should expect being in the west. Jet black hair (1.2%) has its
maximum density in the central highlands and wild west coast.
Beddoe[1263] commenting on Gray and Tocher's results calculates an even
higher percentage of black hair (over 2%) "either within or astride of
the Highland frontier. Except Paisley, there is not a single instance
south of the Forth, nor one between the Spey and the Firth of Tay.
Surely there is something 'racial' here." Beddoe's map, constructed from
Gray and Tocher's statistics, clearly indicates the distribution of
racial types.
The work carried on in Wales for a number of years by H. J. Fleure and
T. C. James[1264] has produced some extremely interesting results. The
chief types (based on measurements and observations of head, face, nose,
skin, hair and eye colour, stature, etc.) fall into the following
groups.
1. "The fundamental type is certainly the long-headed brunet of the
moorlands and their inland valleys. He is universally recognised as
belonging to the Mediterranean race of Sergi and as dating back in this
country to early Neolithic times." The cephalic index is about 78, with
high colouring, dark hair and eyes, and stature rather below the
average. A possible mixture of earlier stocks is shown in a
longer-headed type (c.i. about 75), with well-marked occiput, very dark
hair and eyes, swarthy complexion, and average stature (about 1690 mm. =
5 ft. 6-1/2 ins.). Occasionally in North Wales the occurrence of lank
black hair, a sallow complexion and prominent cheekbones suggests a
"Mongoloid" type; and a type with small stature, black, closely curled
hair and a rather broad nose has negroid reminiscences. The Plynlymon
moorlands contain a "nest" of extreme dolichocephaly and an unusually
high percentage of red hair.
2. Nordic-Alpine type, with cephalic index mainly between 76 and 81.
This group includes (_a_) a "local version of the Nordic type" occurring
at Newcastle Emlyn and in South and South-West Pembrokeshire with fair
hair and eyes, usually tall stature and great strength of brow, jaw and
chin; (_b_) a heavier variant on the Welsh border, often with cephalic
index above 80, and extremely tall stature; (_c_) the Borreby or
Beaker-Maker type, broad-headed and short-faced with darker
pigmentation, probably a cross between Alpine and Nordic, characteristic
of the long cleft from Corwen _via_ Bala to Tabyllyn and Towyn.
3. Dark bullet-headed short thick-set men of the general type denoted by
the term Alpine or more exactly perhaps by the term Cevenole are found,
though not commonly, in North Montgomeryshire valleys.
4. Powerfully built, often intensely dark, broad-headed, broad-faced,
strong and square jawed men are characteristic of the Ardudwy coast, the
South Glamorgan coast, Newquay district (Cardiganshire) and elsewhere.
The authors observe that Type 1 with its variations contributes
"considerable numbers to the ministries of the various churches,
possibly in part from inherent and racial leanings, but partly also
because these are the people of the moorlands. The idealism of such
people usually expresses itself in music, poetry, literature and
religion rather than in architecture, painting and plastic arts
generally. They rarely have a sufficiency of material resources for the
latter activities. These types also contribute a number of men to the
medical profession.... The successful commercial men, who have given the
Welsh their extraordinarily prominent place in British trade (shipping
firms for example) usually belong to types 2 or 4, rather than to 1, as
also do the majority of Welsh members of Parliament, though there are
exceptions of the first importance. The Nordic type is marked by
ingenuity and enterprise in striking out new lines. Type 2 (_c_) in
Wales is remarkable for governmental ability of the administrative kind
as well as for independence of thought and critical power" (p. 119).
We have now all the elements needed to unravel the ethnical tangle of
the present inhabitants of the British Isles. The astonishing prevalence
everywhere of the moderately dolicho heads is at once explained by the
absence of brachy immigrants except in the Bronze period, and these
could do no more than raise the cephalic index from about 70 or 72 to
the present mean of about 78. With the other perhaps less stable
characters the case is not always quite so simple. The brunettes,
representing the Mediterranean type, certainly increase, as we should
expect, from north-east to south-west, though even here there is a
considerable dark patch, due to local causes, in the home shires about
London[1265]. But the stature, almost everywhere a troublesome factor,
seems to wander somewhat lawlessly over the land.
Although a short stature more or less coincides with brunetteness in
England and Wales, and the observations in Ireland are too few to be
relied on, no such parallelism can be traced in Scotland. The west
(Inverness and Argyllshire), though as dark as South Wales, shows an
average stature of 1.73 m. to 1.74 m. (5 ft. 8 ins. to 5 ft. 8-1/2
ins.), which is higher than the average for the whole of Britain. And
South-west Scotland, where the type is fairly dark, contains the tallest
population in Europe, if not in the world. Ripley suggests either that
"some ethnic element of which no pure trace remains, served to increase
the stature of the western Highlanders without at the same time
conducing to blondness; or else some local influences of natural
selection or environment are responsible for it[1266]"; and he hints
also that the linguistic distinction between Gaels and Brythons may
have been associated with physical variation.
The English tongue need not detain us long. Its qualities, illustrated
in the noblest of all literatures, are patent to the world[1267], indeed
have earned for it from Jacob Grimm the title of _Welt-Sprache_, the
"World Speech." It belongs, as might be anticipated from the northern
origin of the Teutonic element in Britain, to the Low German division of
the Teutonic branch of the Aryan family. Despite extreme pressure from
Norman French, continued for over 200 years (1066-1300), it has remained
faithful to this connection in its inner structure, which reveals not a
trace of Neo-Latin influences. The phonetic system has undergone
profound changes, which can be only indirectly and to a small extent due
to French action. What English owes to French and Latin is a very large
number, many thousands, of words, some superadded to, some superseding
their Saxon equivalents, but altogether immensely increasing its wealth
of expression, while giving it a transitional position between the
somewhat sharply contrasted Germanic and Romance worlds.
Amongst the Romance peoples, that is, the French, Spaniards, Portuguese,
Italians, Rumanians, many Swiss and Belgians, who were entirely
assimilated in speech and largely in their civil institutions to their
Roman masters, the paramount position, a sort of international hegemony,
has been taken by the French nation since the decadence of Spain under
the feeble successors of Philip II. The constituent elements of these
Gallo-Romans, as they may be called, are much the same as those of the
British peoples, but differ in their distribution and relative
proportions. Thus the Iberians (Aquitani, Pictones, and later Vascones),
who may perhaps be identified with the neolithic long-heads[1268], do
not appear ever to have ranged much farther north than Brittany, and
were Aryanised in pre-Roman times by the P-speaking Celts everywhere
north of the Garonne. The prehistoric Teutons again, who had advanced
beyond the Rhine at an early period (Caesar says _antiquitus_) into the
present Belgium, were mainly confined to the northern provinces. Even
the historic Teutons (chiefly Franks and Burgundians) penetrated little
beyond the Seine in the north and the present Burgundy in the east,
while the Vandals, Visigoths and a few others passed rapidly through to
Iberia beyond the Pyrenees.
Thus the greater part of the land, say from the Seine-Marne basin to the
Mediterranean, continued to be held by the Romanised mass of Alpine type
throughout all the central and most of the southern provinces, and
elsewhere in the south by the Romanised long-headed Mediterranean type.
This great preponderance of the Romanised Alpine masses explains the
rapid absorption of the Teutonic intruders, who were all, except the
Fleming section of the Belgae, completely assimilated to the
Gallo-Romans before the close of the tenth century. It also explains the
perhaps still more remarkable fact that the Norsemen who settled (912)
under Rollo in Normandy were all practically Frenchmen when a few
generations later they followed their Duke William to the conquest of
Saxon England. Thus the only intractable groups have proved to be the
Basques[1269] and the Bretons, both of whom to this day retain their
speech in isolated corners of the country. With these exceptions the
whole of France, save the debateable area of Alsace-Lorraine, presents
in its speech a certain homogeneous character, the standard language
(_langue d'oil_[1270]) being current throughout all the northern and
central provinces, while it is steadily gaining upon the southern form
(_langue d'oc_[1270]) still surviving in the rural districts of
Limousin and Provence.
But pending a more thorough fusion of such tenacious elements as
Basques, Bretons, Auvergnats, and Savoyards, we can scarcely yet speak
of a common French type, but only of a common nationality. Tall stature,
long skulls, fair or light brown colour, grey or blue eyes, still
prevail, as might be expected, in the north, these being traits common
alike to the prehistoric Belgae, the Franks of the Merovingian and
Carlovingian empires, and Rollo's Norsemen. With these contrast the
southern peoples of short stature, olive-brown skin, round heads, dark
brown or black eyes and hair. The tendency towards uniformity has
proceeded far more rapidly in the urban than in the rural districts.
Hence the citizens of Paris, Lyons, Bordeaux, Marseilles and other large
towns, present fewer and less striking contrasts than the natives of the
old historical provinces, where are still distinguished the loquacious
and mendacious Gascon, the pliant and versatile Basque, the slow and
wary Norman, the dreamy and fanatical Breton, the quick and enterprising
Burgundian, and the bright, intelligent, more even-tempered native of
Touraine, a typical Frenchman occupying the heart of the land, and
holding, as it were, the balance between all the surrounding elements.
In Spain and Portugal we have again the same ethnological elements, but
also again in different proportions and differently distributed, with
others superadded--proto-Phoenicians and later Phoenicians
(Carthaginians), Romans, Visigoths, Vandals, and still later Berbers and
Arabs. Here the Celtic-speaking mixed peoples mingled in prehistoric
times with the long-headed Mediterraneans, an ethnical fusion known to
the ancients, who labelled it "Keltiberian[1271]." But, as in Britain,
the other intruders were mostly long-heads, with the striking result
that the Peninsula presents to-day exactly the same uniform cranial type
as the British Isles. Even the range (76 to 79) and the mean (78) of the
cephalic index are the same, rising in Spain to 80 only in the Basque
corner. As Ripley states, "the average cephalic index of 78 occurs
nowhere else so uniformly distributed in Europe" except in Norway, and
this uniformity "is the concomitant and index of two relatively pure,
albeit widely different, ethnic types--Mediterranean in Spain, Teutonic
in Norway[1272]."
In other respects the social, one might almost say the national, groups
are both more numerous and perhaps even more sharply discriminated in
the Peninsula than in France. Besides the Basques and Portuguese, the
latter with a considerable strain of negro blood[1273], we have such
very distinct populations as the haughty and punctilious Castilians, who
under an outward show of pride and honour, are capable of much meanness;
the sprightly and vainglorious Andalusians, who have been called the
Gascons of Spain, yet of graceful address and seductive manners; the
morose and impassive Murcians, indolent because fatalists; the gay
Valencians given to much dancing and revelry, but also to sudden fits of
murderous rage, holding life so cheap that they will hire themselves out
as assassins, and cut their bread with the blood-stained knife of their
last victim; the dull and superstitious Aragonese, also given to
bloodshed, and so obdurate that they are said to "drive nails in with
their heads"; lastly the Catalans, noisy and quarrelsome, but brave,
industrious, and enterprising, on the whole the best element in this
motley aggregate of unbalanced temperaments. The various aspects of
Spanish temperament are regarded by Havelock Ellis[1274] as
manifestations of an aboriginally primitive race, which, under the
stress of a peculiarly stimulating and yet hardening environment, has
retained through every stage of development an unusual degree of the
endowment of fresh youth, of elemental savagery, with which it started.
This explains the fine qualities of Spain and her defects, the splendid
initiative, and lack of sustained ability to carry it out, the
importance of the point of honour and the glorification of the primitive
virtue of valour.
In Italy the past and present relations, as elucidated especially by
Livi and Sergi, may be thus briefly stated. After the first Stone Age,
of which there are fewer indications than might be expected[1275], the
whole land was thickly settled by dark long-headed Mediterranean peoples
in neolithic times. These were later joined by Pelasgians of like type
from Greece, and by Illyrians of doubtful affinity from the Balkan
Peninsula. Indeed C. Penka[1276], who has so many paradoxical theories,
makes the Illyrians the first inhabitants of Italy, as shown by the
striking resemblance of the _terramara_ culture of Aemilia with that of
the Venetian and Laibach pile-dwellings. The recent finds in Bosnia
also[1277], besides the historically proved (?) migration of the Siculi
from Upper Italy to Sicily, and their Illyrian origin, all point in the
same direction. But the facts are differently interpreted by
Sergi[1278], who holds that the whole land was occupied by the
Mediterraneans, because we find even in Switzerland pile-dwellers of the
same type[1279].
Then came the peoples of Aryan speech, Celtic-speaking Alpines from the
north-west and Slavs from the north-east, who raised the cephalic index
in the north, where the brachy element, as already seen, still greatly
predominates but diminishes steadily southwards[1280]. They occupied the
whole of Umbria, which at first stretched across the peninsula from the
Adriatic to the Mediterranean, but was later encroached upon by the
intruding Etruscans on the west side. Then also some of these Umbrians,
migrating southwards to Latium beyond the Tiber, intermingled, says
Sergi, with the Italic (Ligurian) aborigines, and became the founders of
the Roman state[1281]. With the spread of the Roman arms the Latin
language, which Sergi claims to be a kind of Aryanised Ligurian, but
must be regarded as a true member of the Aryan family, was diffused
throughout the whole of the peninsula and islands, sweeping away all
traces not only of the original Ligurian and other Mediterranean
tongues, but also of Etruscan and its own sister languages, such as
Umbrian, Oscan, and Sabellian.
At the fall of the empire the land was overrun by Ostrogoths, Heruli,
and other Teutons, none of whom formed permanent settlements except the
Longobards, who gave their name to the present Lombardy, but were
themselves rapidly assimilated in speech and general culture to the
surrounding populations, whom we may now call Italians in the modern
sense of the term.
When it is remembered that the Aegean culture had spread to Italy at an
early date, that it was continued under Hellenic influences by Etruscans
and Umbrians, that Greek arts and letters were planted on Italian soil
(_Magna Graecia_) before the foundation of Rome, that all these
civilisations converged in Rome itself and were thence diffused
throughout the West, that the traditions of previous cultural epochs
never died out, acquired new life with the Renascence and were thus
perpetuated to the present day, it may be claimed for the gifted Italian
people that they have been for a longer period than any others under the
unbroken sway of general humanising influences.
These "Latin Peoples," as they are called because they all speak
languages of the Latin stock, are not confined to the West. To the
Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, with the less known and ruder
Walloon of Belgium and Romansch of Switzerland, Tyrol, and Friuli, must
be associated the _Rumanian_ current amongst some nine millions of
so-called "Daco-Rumanians" in Moldavia and Wallachia, _i.e._ the modern
kingdom of Rumania. The same Neo-Latin tongue is also spoken by the
_Tsintsars_ or _Kutzo-Vlacks_[1282] of the Mount Pindus districts in the
Balkan Peninsula, and by numerous Rumanians who have in later times
migrated into Hungary. They form a compact and vigorous nationality, who
claim direct descent from the Roman military colonists settled north of
the Lower Danube by Trajan after his conquest of the Dacians (107 A.D.).
But great difficulties attach to this theory, which is rejected by many
ethnologists, especially on the ground that, after Trajan's time, Dacia
was repeatedly swept clean by the Huns, the Finns, the Avars, Magyars
and other rude Mongolo-Turki hordes, besides many almost ruder Slavic
peoples during the many centuries when the eastern populations were in a
state of continual flux after the withdrawal of the Roman legionaries
from the Lower Danube. Besides, it is shown by Roesler[1283] and others
that under Aurelian (257 A.D.) Trajan's colonists withdrew bodily
southwards to and beyond the Hemus to the territory of the old Bessi
(Thracians), _i.e._ the district still occupied by the Macedo-Rumanians.
But in the 13th century, during the break-up of the Byzantine empire,
most of these fugitives were again driven north to their former seats
beyond the Danube, where they have ever since held their ground, and
constituted themselves a distinct and far from feeble branch of the
Neo-Latin community. The Pindus, therefore, rather than the Carpathians,
is to be taken as the last area of dispersion of these valiant and
intelligent descendants of the Daco-Romans. This seems the most rational
solution of what A. D. Xenopol calls "an historic enigma," although he
himself rejects Roesler's conclusions in favour of the old view so dear
to the national pride of the present Rumanian people[1284]. The
composite character of the Rumanian language--fundamentally Neo-Latin or
rather early Italian, with strong Illyrian (Albanian) and Slav
affinities--would almost imply that Dacia had never been Romanised under
the empire, and that in fact this region was _for the first time_
occupied by its present Romance speaking inhabitants in the 13th
century[1285]. The nomadic life of the Rumanians is in itself, as
Peisker points out[1286], a refutation of their descent from settled
Roman colonists, and indicates a Central Asiatic origin. The mounted
nomads grazed during the summer "on most of the mountains of the Balkan
peninsula, and took up their winter quarters on the sea-coasts among a
peasant population speaking a different language. Thence they gradually
spread, unnoticed by the chroniclers, along all the mountain ranges,
over all the Carpathians of Transylvania, North Hungary, and South
Galicia, to Moravia; towards the north-west from Montenegro onwards over
Herzegovina, Bosnia, Istria, as far as South Styria; towards the south
over Albania far into Greece.... And like the peasantry among which they
wintered (and winter) long enough, they became (and become) after a
transitory bilingualism, Greeks, Albanians, Servians, Bulgarians,
Ruthenians, Poles, Slovaks, Chekhs, Slovenes, Croatians ... a mobile
nomad stratum among a strange-tongued and more numerous peasant element,
and not till later did they gradually take to agriculture and themselves
become settled."
The Pelasgians and Minoan civilisation have been briefly discussed above
(Ch. XIII.). Later problems in Greek ethnology are still under dispute.
Sergi, who regards the proto-Aryans as round-headed barbarians of
Celtic, Slav, and Teutonic speech, makes no exception in favour of the
Hellenes. These also enter Greece not as civilisers, but rather as
destroyers of the flourishing Mykenaean culture developed here, as in
Italy, by the Mediterranean aborigines. But in course of time the
intruders become absorbed in the Pelasgic or eastern branch of the
Mediterraneans, and what we call Hellenism is really Pelasgianism
revived, and to some extent modified by the Aryan (Hellenic) element.
If it may be allowed that at their advent the Hellenes were less
civilised than the native Aegeans on whom they imposed their Aryan
speech, whence and when came they? By Penka[1287], for whom the Baltic
lands would be the original home not merely of the Germanic branch but
of all the Aryans, the Hellenic cradle is located in the Oder basin
between the Elbe and the Vistula. As the Doric, doubtless the last Greek
irruption into Hellas, is chronologically fixed at 1149 B.C., the
beginning of the Hellenic migrations may be dated back to the 13th
century. When the Hellenes migrated from Central Europe to Greece, the
period of the general ethnic dispersion was already closed, and the
migratory period which next followed began with the Hellenes, and was
continued by the Itali, Gauls, Germans, etc. The difficulties created
by this view are insurmountable. Thus we should have to suppose that
from this relatively contracted Aryan cradle countless tribes swarmed
over Europe since the 13th century B.C., speaking profoundly different
languages (Greek, Celtic, Latin, etc.), all differentiated since that
time on the shores of the Baltic. The proto-Aryans with their already
specialised tongues had reached the shores of the Mediterranean long
before that time and, according to Maspero[1288], were known to the
Egyptians of the 5th dynasty (3990-3804 B.C.) if not earlier. Allowing
that these may have rather been pre-Hellenes (Pelasgians), we still know
that the Achaeans had traditionally arrived about 1250 B.C. and they
were already speaking the language of Homer.
"The indications of archaeology and of legend agree marvellously well
with those of the Egyptian records," says H. R. Hall[1289], "in making
the Third Late Minoan period one of incessant disturbance.... The whole
basin of the Eastern Mediterranean seems to have been a seething turmoil
of migrations, expulsions, wars and piracies, started first by the
Mycenaean (Achaian) conquest of Crete, and then intensified by the
constant impulse of the Northern iron-users into Greece." Herodotus
speaks of the great invasion of the Thesprotian tribes from beyond
Pindus, which took place probably in the 13th century B.C.[1290] As a
result "an overwhelming Aryan and iron-using population was first
brought into Greece. The earlier Achaian (?) tribes of Aryans in
Thessaly, who had perhaps lived there from time immemorial, and had
probably already infiltrated southwards to form the mixed Ionian
population about the Isthmus, were scattered, only a small portion of
the nation remaining in its original home, while of the rest part
conquered the South and another part emigrated across the sea to the
Phrygian coast. Of this emigration to Asia the first event must have
been the war of Troy.... The Boeotian and Achaian invasion of the South
scattered the Minyae, Pelasgians, and Ionians. The remnant of the Minyae
emigrated to Lemnos, the Pelasgi and Ionians were concentrated in Attica
and another body of Ionians in the later Achaia, while the Southern
Achaeans pressed forward into the Peloponnese[1291]."
It is evident from the national traditions that the proto-Greeks did not
arrive _en bloc_, but rather at intervals in separate and often hostile
bands bearing different names. But all these groups--Achaeans, Danai,
Argians, Dolopes, Myrmidons, Leleges and many others, some of which were
also found in Asia Minor--retained a strong sense of their common
origin. The sentiment, which may be called racial rather than national,
received ultimate expression when to all of them was extended the
collective name of Hellenes (Sellenes originally), that is, descendants
of Deucalion's son Hellen, whose two sons Aeolus and Dorus, and grandson
Ion, were supposed to be the progenitors of the Aeolians, Dorians, and
Ionians. But such traditions are merely reminiscences of times when the
tribal groupings still prevailed, and it may be taken for granted that
the three main branches of the Hellenic stock did not spring from a
particular family that rose to power in comparatively recent times in
the Thessalian district of Phthiotis. Whatever truth may lie behind the
Hellenic legend, it is highly probable that, at the time when Hellen is
said to have flourished (about 1500 B.C.), the Aeolic-speaking
communities of Thessaly, Arcadia, Boeotia, the closely-allied
Dorians[1292] of Phocaea, Argos, and Laconia, and the Ionians of Attica,
had already been clearly specialised, had in fact formed special groups
before entering Greece. Later their dialects, after acquiring a certain
polish and leaving some imperishable records of the many-sided Greek
genius, were gradually merged in the literary Neo-Ionic or Attic, which
thus became the [Greek: koine dialektos], or current speech of the Greek
world.
Admirable alike for its manifold aptitudes and surprising vitality, the
language of Aeschylus, Thucydides, and the other great Athenians
outlived all the vicissitudes of the Byzantine empire, during which it
was for a time banished from Southern Greece, and even still survives,
although in a somewhat degraded form, in the Romaic or Neo-Hellenic
tongue of modern Hellas. Romaic, a name which recalls a time when the
Byzantines were known as "Romans" throughout the East, differs far less
from the classical standard than do any of the Romance tongues from
Latin. Since the restoration of Greek independence great efforts have
been made to revive the old language in all its purity, and some modern
writers now compose in a style differing little from that of the classic
period.
Yet the Hellenic race itself has almost perished on the mainland. Traces
of the old Greek type have been detected by Lenormant and others,
especially amongst the women of Patras and Missolonghi. But within
living memory Attica was still an Albanian land, and Fallmerayer has
conclusively shown that the Peloponnesus and adjacent districts had
become thoroughly Slavonised during the 6th and 7th centuries[1293].
"For many centuries," writes the careful Roesler, "the Greek peninsula
served as a colonial domain for the Slavs, receiving the overflow of
their population from the Sarmatian lowlands[1294]." Their presence is
betrayed in numerous geographical terms, such as _Varsova_ in Arcadia,
_Glogova_, _Tsilikhova_, etc. Nevertheless, since the revival of the
Hellenic sentiment there has been a steady flow of Greek immigration
from the Archipelago and Anatolia; and the Albanian, Slav, Italian,
Turkish, Rumanian, and Norman elements have in modern Greece already
become almost completely Hellenised, at least in speech. Of the old
dialects Doric alone appears to have survived in the Tsaconic of the
Laconian hills. The Greek language has, however, disappeared from
Southern Italy, Sicily, Syria, and the greater part of Egypt and Asia
Minor, where it was long dominant.
To understand the appearance of SLAVS in the Peloponnesus we must go
back to the Eurasian steppe, the probable cradle of these multitudinous
populations. Here they have often been confused with the ancient
Sarmatae, who already before the dawn of history were in possession of
the South Russian plains between the Scythians towards the east and the
proto-Germanic tribes before their migration to the Baltic lands. But
even at that time, before the close of the Neolithic Age, there must
have been interminglings, if not with the western Teutons, almost
certainly with the eastern Scythians, which helps to explain the
generally vague character of the references made by classical writers
both to the Sarmatians and the Scythians, who sometimes seem to be
indistinguishable from savage Mongol hordes, and at others are
represented as semi-cultured peoples, such as the Aryans of the Bronze
period might have been round about the district of Olbia and the other
early Miletian settlements on the northern shores of the Euxine.
Owing to these early crossings Andre Lefevre goes so far as to say that
"there is no Slav race[1295]," but only nations of divers more or less
pure types, more or less crossed, speaking dialects of the same
language, who later received the name of Slavs, borne by a prehistoric
tribe of _Sarmatians_, and meaning "renowned," "illustrious[1296]." Both
their language and mythologies, continues Lefevre, point to the vast
region near Irania as the primeval home of the Slav, as of the Celtic
and Germanic populations. The Sauromatae or Sarmatae of Herodotus[1297],
who had given their name to the mass of Slav or Slavonised peoples,
still dwelt north of the Caucasus and south of the _Budini_ between the
Caspian, the Don and Sea of Azov; "after crossing the Tanais (Don) we
are no longer in Scythia; we begin to enter the lands of the Sauromatae,
who, starting from the angle of the Palus Moeotis (Sea of Azov), occupy
a space of 15 days' march, where are neither trees, fruit-trees, nor
savages. Above the tract fallen to them the Budini occupy another
district, which is overgrown with all kinds of trees[1298]." Then
Herodotus seems to identify these Sarmatians with the Scythians, whence
all the subsequent doubts and confusion. Both spoke the same language,
of which seven distinct dialects are mentioned, yet a number of
personal names preserved by the Greeks have a certain Iranic look, so
that these Scythian tongues seem to have been really Aryan, forming a
transition between the Asiatic and the European branches of the family.
The probable explanation is that the Scythians[1299] were a horde which
came down from Upper Asia, conquered an Iranian-speaking people, and in
time adopted the speech of its subjects. E. H. Minns[1300] suggests that
the settled Scythians represent the remains of the Iranian population,
and the nomads the conquering peoples. These were displaced later by the
Sarmatians, and Scythia becomes merely a geographical term. Skulls dug
up in Scythic graves throw no light on racial affinities, some being
long, and some short, but in customs there is a close analogy with the
Mongols, though, as Minns points out, "the natural conditions of
steppe-ranging dictated the greater part of them."
Both Slav and Germanic tribes had probably in remote times penetrated up
the Danube and the Volga, while some of the former under the name of
_Wends_ (Venedi[1301]), appear to have reached the Carpathians and the
Baltic shores down the Vistula. The movement was continued far into
medieval times, when great overlappings took place, and when numerous
Slav tribes, some still known as Wends, others as _Sorbs_, _Croats_, or
_Chekhs_, ranged over Central Europe to Pomerania and beyond the Upper
Elbe to Suabia. Most of these have long been Teutonised, but a few of
the _Polabs_[1302] survive as Wends in Prussian and Saxon Lausatz, while
the Chekhs and _Slovaks_ still hold their ground in Bohemia and Moravia,
as the _Poles_ do in Posen and the Vistula valley, and the _Rusniaks_ or
_Ruthenes_ with the closely allied "Little Russians," in the
Carpathians, Galicia, and Ukrania.
It was from the Carpathian[1303] lands that came those _Yugo-Slavs_
("Southern Slavs") who, under the collective name of Sorbs (Serbs,
Servians), moved southwards beyond the Danube, and overran a great part
of the Balkan peninsula and nearly the whole of Greece in the 6th and
7th centuries. They were the Khorvats[1304] or Khrobats[1304] from
the upland valleys of the Oder and Vistula, whom, after his Persian
wars, Heraclius invited to settle in the wasted provinces south of the
Danube, hoping, as Nadir Shah did later with the Kurds in Khorasan, to
make them a northern bulwark of the empire against the incursions of the
Avars and other Mongolo-Turki hordes. Thus was formed the first
permanent settlement of the Yugo-Slavs in Croatia, Istria, Dalmatia,
Bosnia, and the Nerenta valley in 680, under the five brothers Klukas,
Lobol, Kosentses, Mukl, and Khrobat, with their sisters Tuga and Buga.
These were followed by the kindred Srp (Sorb) tribes from the Elbe, who
left their homes in Misnia and Lusatia, and received as their patrimony
the whole region between Macedonia and Epirus, Dardania, Upper Moesia,
the Dacia of Aurelian, and Illyria, _i.e._ Bosnia and Servia. The lower
Danube was at the same time occupied by the _Severenses_, "Seven
Nations," also Slavs, who reached to the foot of the Hemus beyond the
present Varna. Nothing could stem this great Slav inundation, which soon
overflowed into Macedonia (Rumelia), Thessaly, and Peloponnesus, so that
for a time nearly the whole of the Balkan lands, from the Danube to the
Mediterranean, became a Slav domain--parts of Illyria and Epirus
(Albania) with the Greek districts about Constantinople alone excepted.
Hellas, as above seen, has recovered itself, and the _Albanians_[1305],
direct descendants of the ancient Illyrians, still hold their ground and
keep alive the last echoes of the old Illyrian language, which was
almost certainly a proto-Aryan form of speech probably intermediate, as
above-mentioned, between the Italic and Hellenic branches. They even
retain the old tribal system, so that there are not only two main
sections, the northern _Ghegs_ and the southern _Toshks_, but each
section is divided into a number of minor groups[1306], such as the
Malliesors (Klementi, Pulati, Hoti, etc.) and Mirdites (Dibri, Fandi,
Matia, etc.) in the north, and the Toxides (whence Toshk) and the
Yapides (Lapides) in the south. The southerners are mainly Orthodox
Greeks, and in other respects half-Hellenised Epirotes, the northerners
partly Moslem and partly Roman Catholics of the Latin rite. From this
section came chiefly those Albanians who, after the death (1467) of
their valiant champion, George Castriota (_Scanderbeg_, "Alexander the
Great"), fled from Turkish oppression and formed numerous settlements,
especially in Calabria and Sicily, and still retain their national
traditions.
In their original homes, located by some between the Bug and the
Dnieper, the Slavs have not only recovered from the fierce Mongolo-Turki
and Finn tornadoes, by which the eastern steppes were repeatedly swept
for over 1500 years after the building of the Great Wall, but have in
recent historic times displayed a prodigious power of expansion second
only to that of the British peoples. The _Russians_ (Great, Little, and
White Russians), whose political empire now stretches continuously from
the Baltic to the Pacific, have already absorbed nearly all the Mongol
elements in East Europe, have founded compact settlements in Caucasia
and West Siberia, and have thrown off numerous pioneer groups of
colonists along all the highways of trade and migration, and down the
great fluvial arteries between the Ob and the Amur estuary. They number
collectively over 100 millions, with a domain of some nine million
square miles. The majority belong to Deniker's Eastern race[1307] (a
variety of the Alpine type), being blond, sub-brachycephalic and short,
1.64 m. (5 ft. 4-1/2 ins.). The Little Russians in the South on the
Black Mould belt are more brachycephalic and have darker colouring and
taller stature. The White Russians in the West between Poland and
Lithuania are the fairest of all.
We need not be detained by the controversy carried on between Sergi and
Zaborowski regarding a prehistoric spread of the Mediterranean race to
Russia[1308]. The skulls from several of the old Kurgans, identified by
Sergi with his Mediterranean type, have not been sufficiently determined
as to date or cultural periods to decide the question, while their
dolicho shape is common both to the Mediterraneans and to the
proto-Aryans of the North European type[1309]. To this stock the
proto-Slavs are affiliated by Zaborowski and many others[1310], although
the present Slavs are all distinctly round-headed. Ripley asks, almost
in despair, what is to be done with the present Slav element, and
decides to apply "the term _Homo Alpinus_ to this broad-headed group
wherever it occurs, whether on mountains or plains, in the west or in
the east[1311]."
We are beset by the same difficulties as we pass with the _Ossets_ of
the Caucasus into the Iranian and Indian domains of the proto-Aryan
peoples. These Ossets, who are the only aborigines of Aryan speech in
Caucasia, are by Zaborowski[1312] identified with the Alans, who are
already mentioned in the 1st century A.D. and were Scythians of Iranian
speech, blonds, mixed with Medes, and perhaps descendants of the
Massagetae. We know from history that the Goths and Alans became closely
united, and it may be from the Goths that the Osset descendants of the
Alans (some still call themselves Alans) learned to brew beer.
Elsewhere[1313] Zaborowski represents the Ossets as of European origin,
till lately for the most part blonds, though now showing many Scythian
traits. But they are not physically Iranians "despite the Iranian and
Asiatic origin of their language," as shown by Max Kowalewsky[1314]. On
the whole, therefore, the Ossets may be taken as originally blond
Europeans, closely blended with Scythians, and later with the other
modern Caucasus peoples, who are mostly brown brachys. But Ernest
Chantre[1315] allies these groups to their brown and brachy Tatar
neighbours, and denies that the Ossets are the last remnants of Germanic
immigrants into Caucasia.
We have therefore in the Caucasus a very curious and puzzling
phenomenon--several somewhat distinct groups of aborigines, mainly of de
Lapouge's Alpine type, but all except the Ossets speaking an amazing
number of non-Aryan stock languages. Philologists have been for some
time hard at work in this linguistic wilderness, the "Mountain of
Languages" of the early Arabo-Persian writers, without greatly reducing
the number of independent groups, while many idioms traceable to a
single stem still differ so profoundly from each other that they are
practically so many stocks. Of the really distinct families the more
important are:--the _Kartweli_ of the southern slopes, comprising the
historical Georgian, cultivated since the 5th century, the Mingrelian,
Imeritian, Laz of Lazistan, and many others; the _Cherkess_
(Circassian), the _Abkhasian_ and _Kabard_ of the Western and Central
Caucasus; the _Chechenz_ and _Lesghian_, the _Andi_, the _Ude_, the
_Kubachi_ and _Duodez_ of Daghestan, _i.e._ the Eastern Caucasus. Where
did this babel of tongues come from? We know that 2500 years ago the
relations were much the same as at present, because the Greeks speak of
scores of languages current in the port of Dioscurias in their time. If
therefore the aborigines are the "sweepings of the plains," they must
have been swept up long before the historic period. Did they bring their
different languages with them, or were these specialised in their new
upland homes? The consideration that an open environment makes for
uniformity, secluded upland valleys for diversity, seems greatly to
favour the latter assumption, which is further strengthened by the now
established fact that, although there are few traces of the Palaeolithic
epoch, the Caucasus was somewhat thickly inhabited in the New Stone Age.
Crossing into Irania we are at once confronted with totally different
conditions. For the ethnologist this region comprises, besides the
tableland between the Tigris and Indus, both slopes of the Hindu-Kush,
and the Pamir, with the uplands bounded south and north by the upper
courses of the Oxus and the Sir-darya. Overlooking later Mongolo-Turki
encroachments, a general survey will, I think, show that from the
earliest times the whole of this region has formed part of the Caucasic
domain; that the bulk of the indigenous populations must have belonged
to the dark, round-headed Alpine type; that these, still found in
compact masses in many places, were apparently conquered, but certainly
Aryanised in speech, in very remote prehistoric times by long-headed
blond Aryans of the IRANIC and GALCHIC branches, who arrived in large
numbers from the contiguous Eurasian steppe, mingled generally with the
brachy aborigines, but also kept aloof in several districts, where they
still survive with more or less modified proto-Aryan features. Thus we
are at once struck by the remarkable fact that absolute uniformity of
speech, always apart from late Mongol intrusions, has prevailed during
the historic period throughout Irania, which has been in this respect as
completely Aryanised as Europe itself; and further, that all current
Aryan tongues, with perhaps one trifling exception[1316], are members
either of the Iranic or the Galchic branch of the family. Both Iranic
and Galchic are thus rather linguistic than ethnic terms, and so true is
this that a philologist always knows what is meant by an Iranic
language, while the anthropologist is unable to define or form any clear
conception of an Iranian, who may be either of long-headed Nordic or
round-headed Alpine type. Here confusion may be avoided by reserving the
historic name of PERSIAN[1317] for the former, and comprising all the
Alpines under the also time-honoured though less known name of TAJIKS.
Khanikoff has shown that these Tajiks constitute the primitive element
in ancient Iran. To the true Persians of the west, as well as to the
kindred Afghans in the east, both of dolicho type, the term is rarely
applied. But almost everywhere the sedentary and agricultural aborigines
are called Tajiks, and are spoken of as _Parsivan_, that is,
_Parsizaban_[1318], "of Persian speech," or else _Dihkan_[1318], that
is, "Peasants," all being mainly husbandmen "of Persian race and
tongue[1319]." They form endless tribal, or at least social, groups, who
keep somewhat aloof from their proto-Aryan conquerors, so that, in the
east especially, the ethnic fusion is far from complete, the various
sections of the community being still rather juxtaposed than fused in a
single nationality. When to these primeval differences is added the
tribal system still surviving in full vigour amongst the intruding
Afghans themselves, we see how impossible it is yet to speak of an
Afghan nation, but only of heterogeneous masses loosely held together by
the paramount tribe--at present the _Durani_ of Kabul.
The Tajiks are first mentioned by Herodotus, whose _Dadikes_[1320] are
identified by Hammer and Khanikoff with them[1321]. They are now
commonly divided into Lowland, and Highland or Hill Tajiks, of whom the
former were always Parsivan, whereas the Hill Tajiks did not originally
speak Persian at all, but, as many still do, an independent sister
language called Galchic, current in the Pamir, Zerafshan and Sir-darya
uplands, and holding a somewhat intermediate position between the Iranic
and Indic branches.
This term Galcha, although new to science, has long been applied to the
Aryans of the Pamir valleys, being identified with the _Calcienses
populi_ of the lay Jesuit Benedict Goez, who crossed the Pamir in 1603,
and describes them as "of light hair and beard like the Belgians."
Meyendorff also calls those of Zerafshan "Eastern Persians, Galchi,
Galchas." The word has been explained to mean "the hungry raven who has
withdrawn to the mountains," probably in reference to those Lowland
Tajiks who took refuge in the uplands from the predatory Turki hordes.
But it is no doubt the Persian _galcha_, a peasant or clown, then a
vagabond, etc., whence _galchagi_, rudeness.
As shown by J. Biddulph[1322], the tribes of Galchic speech range over
both slopes of the Hindu-Kush, comprising the natives of Sarakol,
Wakhan, Shignan, Munjan (with the Yidoks of the Upper Lud-kho or Chitral
river), Sanglich, and Ishkashim. To these he is inclined to add the
Pakhpus and the Shakshus of the Upper Yarkand-darya, as well as those of
the Kocha valley, with whom must now be included the Zerafshan Galchas
(Maghians, Kshtuts, Falghars, Machas and Fans), but not the Yagnobis.
All these form also one ethnic group of Alpine type, with whom on
linguistic grounds Biddulph also includes two other groups, the Khos of
Chitral with the Siah Posh of Kafiristan, and the Shins (Dards), Gors,
Chilasi and other small tribes of the Upper Indus and side valleys, all
these apparently being long-heads of the blond Aryan type. Keeping this
distinction in view, Biddulph's valuable treatise on the Hindu-Kush
populations may be followed with safety. He traces the Galcha idioms
generally to the old Baktrian (East Persia, so-called "Zend Avesta"),
the Shin however leaning closely to Sanskrit, while Khowar, the speech
of the Chitrali (Khos), is intermediate between Baktrian and Sanskrit.
But differences prevail on these details, which will give occupation to
philologists for some time to come.
Speaking generally, all the Galchas of the northern slopes (most of
Biddulph's first group) are physically connected with all the other
Lowland and Hill Tajiks, with whom should also probably be included
Elphinstone's[1323] southern Tajiks dwelling south of the Hindu-Kush
(Kohistani, Berraki, Purmuli or Fermuli, Sirdehi, Sistani, and others
scattered over Afghanistan and northern Baluchistan). Their type is
pronouncedly Alpine, so much so that they have been spoken of by French
anthropologists as "those belated Savoyards of Kohistan[1324]." De
Ujfalvy, who has studied them carefully, describes them as tall, brown
or bronzed and even white, with ruddy cheeks recalling the Englishman,
black or chestnut hair, sometimes red and even light, smooth, wavy or
curly, full beard, brown, ruddy or blond (he met two brothers near
Penjakend with hair "blanc comme du lin"); brown, blue, or grey eyes,
never oblique, long, shapely nose slightly curved, thin, straight lips,
oval face, stout, vigorous frame, and round heads with cephalic index as
high as 86.50. This description, which is confirmed by Bonvalot and
other recent observers, applies to the Darwazi, Wakhi, Badakhshi, and in
fact all the groups, so that we have beyond all doubt an eastern
extension of the Alpine brachycephalic zone through Armenia and the
Bakhtiari uplands to the Central Asiatic highlands, a conclusion
confirmed by the explorations of M. A. Stein in Chinese Turkestan and
the Pamirs (1900-8)[1325]. Indeed this Asiatic extension of the Alpine
type inclines v. Luschan[1326] to regard the European branch as one
offshoot, and the high and narrow ("Hittite") nosed type as another, or
rather as a specialised group, of which the Armenians, Persians, Druses,
and other sectarian groups of Syria and Asia Minor represent the purest
examples. According to his summary of this complicated region "All
Western Asia was originally inhabited by a homogeneous melanochroic
race, with extreme hypsi-brachycephaly and with a 'Hittite' nose. About
4000 B.C. began a Semitic invasion from the south-east, probably from
Arabia, by people looking like the modern Bedawy. Two thousand years
later commenced a second invasion, this time from the north-west, by
xanthrochroous and long-headed tribes like the modern Kurds, half
savage, and in some way or other, perhaps, connected with the historic
Harri, Amorites, Tamehu and Galatians[1327]."
But the eventful drama is not yet closed. Arrested perhaps for a time by
the barrier of the Hindu-Kush and Suliman ranges, proto-Aryan conquerors
burst at last, probably through the Kabul river gorges, on to the plains
of India, and thereby added another world to the Caucasic domain. Here
they were brought face to face with new conditions, which gave rise to
fresh changes and adaptations resulting in the present ethnical
relations in the peninsula. There is good reason to think that in this
region the leavening Aryan element never was numerous, while even on
their first arrival the Aryan invaders found the land already somewhat
thickly peopled by the aborigines[1328].
The marked linguistic and ethnical differences between Eastern and
Western Hindustan have given rise to the theory of two separate streams
of immigration, perhaps continued over many centuries[1329]. The
earlier entered from the north-west, bringing their herds and families
with them, whose descendants are the homogeneous and handsome
populations of the Punjab and Rajputana. Later swarms entered by way of
the difficult passes of Gilgit and Chitral, a route which made it
impossible for their women to accompany them. "Here they came in contact
with the Dravidians; here by the stress of that contact caste was
evolved; here the Vedas were composed and the whole fantastic structure
of orthodox ritual and usage was built up.... The men of the stronger
race took to themselves women of the weaker, and from these unions was
evolved the mixed type which we find in Hindustan and Bihar[1330]."
An attempt to analyse the complicated ethnic elements contained in the
vast area of India was made by H. H. Risley[1331], who recognised seven
types, his classification being based on theories of origin.
1. The TURKO-IRANIAN type, including the _Baloch_, _Brahui_, and
_Afghans_ of Baluchistan and the North-West Frontier Provinces, all
Muhammadans, with broad head, long prominent nose, abundant hair, fair
complexion and tall stature.
2. INDO-ARYAN type in the Punjab, Rajputana and Kashmir, with its most
conspicuous members the _Rajputs_, _Khatri_ and _Jats_ in all but colour
closely resembling the European type and showing little difference
between upper and lower social strata. Their characteristics are tall
stature, fair complexion, plentiful hair on face, long head, and narrow
prominent nose.
3. ARYO-DRAVIDIAN or Hindustani type in the United Provinces, parts of
Rajputana, Bihar, and Ceylon, with lower stature, variable complexion,
longish head, and a nose index exactly corresponding to social station.
4. SCYTHO-DRAVIDIAN of Western India, including the _Maratha Brahmans_,
_Kunbi_, and _Coorgs_, of medium stature, fair complexion, broad head
with scanty hair on the face, and a fine nose.
5. DRAVIDIAN, generally regarded as representing the indigenous element.
The characteristics are fairly uniform from Ceylon to the Ganges valley
throughout Madras, Hyderabad, the Central Provinces, Central India and
Chota Nagpur, and the name is now used to include the mass of the
population unaffected by foreign (Aryan, Scythian, Mongoloid)
immigration. The _Nairs_ of Malabar and the _Santal_ of Chota Nagpur are
typical representatives. The stature is short, complexion very dark,
almost black, hair plentiful with a tendency to curl, head long and nose
very broad[1332].
6. MONGOLO-DRAVIDIAN or Bengali type of Bengal and Orissa, showing
fusion with Tibeto-Burman elements. The stature is medium, complexion
dark, and head conspicuously broad, nose variable.
7. MONGOLOID of the Himalayas, Nepal, Assam, and Burma, represented by
the _Kanet_ of Lahoul and Kulu, the _Lepcha_ of Darjiling, the _Limbu_,
_Murmi_ and _Gurung_ of Nepal, the _Bodo_ of Assam and the _Burmese_.
The stature is short, the complexion dark with a yellowish tinge, the
hair on the face scanty. The head is broad with characteristic flat face
and frequently oblique eyes.
This classification while more or less generally adopted in outline is
not allowed to pass unchallenged, especially with regard to the theories
of origin implied. Concerning the brachycephalic element of Western
India Risley's belief that it was the result of so-called "Scythian"
invasions is not supported by sufficient evidence. "The foreign element
is certainly Alpine, not Mongolian, and it may be due to a migration of
which the history has not been written[1333]." Ramaprasad Chanda[1334]
goes further and traces the broad-headed elements in both
"Scytho-Dravidians" (Gujaratis, Marathas and Coorgs) and
"Mongolo-Dravidians" (Bengalis and Oriyas) to one common source, "the
_Homo alpinus_ of the Pamirs and Chinese Turkestan," and attempts to
reconstruct the history of the migration of the Alpine invaders from
Central Asia over Gujarat, Deccan, Bihar and Bengal. His conclusions are
supported by the reports of Sir Aurel Stein of the _Homo Alpinus_ type
discovered in the region of Lob Nor, dating from the first centuries
A.D. This type "still supplies the prevalent element in the racial
constitution of the indigenous population of Chinese Turkestan, and is
seen in its purest form in the Iranian-speaking tribes near the
Pamirs[1335]."
But any scheme of classification must be merely tentative, subject to
modification as statistics of the vast area are gradually collected. And
W. Crooke[1336], while acknowledging the value of Risley's scheme[1337]
points out the need of caution in accepting measurements of skull and
nose forms applied to the mixed races and half-breeds which form the
majority of the people. "The race migrations are all prehistoric, and
the amalgamation of the races has continued for ages among a people to
whom moral restraints are irksome and unfamiliar. The existing castes
are quite a modern creation, dating only from the later Buddhist age."
"The present population thus represents the flotsam and jetsam collected
from many streams of ethnical movement, and any attempt to sort out the
existing races into a set of pigeon-holes, each representing a defined
type of race, is, in the present state of our knowledge,
impossible[1338]."
In features, says Dalton, the Kols[1339] show "much variety, and I think
in a great many families there is a considerable admixture of Aryan
blood. Many have high noses and oval faces, and young girls are at
times met with who have delicate and regular features, finely-chiselled
straight noses, and perfectly formed mouths and chins. The eyes,
however, are seldom so large, so bright, and gazelle-like as those of
pure Hindu maidens, and I have met strongly marked Mongolian features.
In colour they vary greatly, the copper tints being about the most
common [though the Mirzapur Kols are very dark]. Eyes dark brown, hair
black, straight or wavy [as all over India]. Both men and women are
noticeable for their fine, erect carriage and long, free stride[1340]."
The same variations are found among the Dravidians, where, as should be
expected, there are many aberrant groups showing divergences in all
directions, as amongst the _Kurumba_ and _Toda_ of the Nilgiris, the
former approximating to the Mongol, the latter to the Aryan standard. W.
Sikemeier, who lived amongst them for years, notes that "many of the
Kurumbas have decided Mongoloid face and stature, and appear to be the
aborigines of that region[1341]." The same correspondent adds that much
nonsense has been written about the Todas, who have become the trump
card of popular ethnographists. "Being ransacked by European visitors
they invent all kinds of traditions, which they found out their
questioners liked to get, and for which they were paid." Still the type
is remarkable and strikingly European, "well proportioned and stalwart,
with straight nose, regular features and perfect teeth," the chief
characteristic being the development of the hairy system, less however
than amongst the Ainu, whom they so closely resemble[1342]. From the
illustrations given in Thurston's valuable series one might be tempted
to infer that a group of proto-Aryans had reached this extreme limit of
their Asiatic domain, and although W. H. R. Rivers has cleared away the
mystery and established links between the Todas and tribes of Malabar
and Travancore, the problem of their origin is not yet entirely
solved[1343].
The Dravidians occupy the greater part of the Deccan, where they are
constituted in a few great nations--Telugus (Telingas), Tamils (numbers
of whom have crossed into Ceylon and occupied the northern and central
parts of that island, working in the coffee districts), Kanarese, and
the Malayalim of the west coast. These with some others were brought at
an early date under Aryan (Hindu) influences, but have preserved their
highly agglutinating Dravidian speech, which has no known affinities
elsewhere, unless perhaps with the language of the Brahuis, who are
regarded by many as belated Dravidians left behind in East Baluchistan.
But for this very old, but highly cultivated Dravidian language, which
is still spoken by about 54 millions between the Ganges and Ceylon, it
would no longer be possible to distinguish these southern Hindus from
those of Aryan speech who occupy all the rest of the peninsula together
with the southern slopes of the Hindu-Kush and parts of the western
Himalayas. Their main divisions are the Kashmiri, many of whom might be
called typical Aryans; the Punjabis with several sub-groups, amongst
which are the Sikhs, religious sectaries half Moslem half Hindu, also of
magnificent physique; the Gujaratis, Mahratis, Hindis, Bengalis,
Assamis, and Oraons of Orissa, all speaking Neo-Sanskritic idioms, which
collectively constitute the Indic branch of the Aryan family. Hindustani
or Urdu, a simplified form of Hindi current especially in the Doab, or
"Two waters," the region between the Ganges and Jumna above Allahabad,
has become a sort of _lingua franca_, the chief medium of intercourse
throughout the peninsula, and is understood by certainly over 100
millions, while all the population of Neo-Sanskritic speech numbered in
1898 considerably over 200 millions.
Classification derives little help from the consideration of caste,
whatever view be taken of the origin of this institution. The rather
obvious theory that it was introduced by the handful of Aryan conquerors
to prevent the submergence of the race in the great ocean of black or
dark aborigines, is now rejected by many investigators, who hold that
its origin is occupational, a question rather of social or industrial
pursuits becoming hereditary in family groups than of race distinctions
sanctioned by religion. They point out that the commentator's
interpretation of the _Pancha Ksitaya_, "Five Classes," as _Brahmans_
(priests), _Kshatriyas_ (fighters), _Vaisya_ (traders), _Sudra_
(peasants and craftsmen of all kinds), and _Nishada_ (savages or
outcasts) is recent, and conveys only the current sentiment of the age.
It never had any substantial base, and even in the comparatively late
Institutes of Manu "the rules of food, connubium and intercourse
between the various castes are very different from what we find at
present"; also that, far from being eternal and changeless, caste has
been subject to endless modifications throughout the whole range of
Hindu myth and history. Nor is it an institution peculiar to India,
while even here the stereotyped four or five divisions neither accord
with existing facts, nor correspond to so many distinct ethnical groups.
All this is perfectly true, and it is also true that for generations the
recognised castes, say, social pursuits, have been in a state of
constant flux, incessantly undergoing processes of segmentation, so that
their number is at present past counting. Nevertheless, the system may
have been, and probably was, first inspired by racial motives, an
instinctive sense of self-preservation, which expressed itself in an
informal way by local class distinctions which were afterwards
sanctioned by religion, but eventually broke down or degenerated into
the present relations under the outward pressure of imperious social
necessities[1344].
* * * * *
Beyond the mainland and Ceylon no Caucasic peoples of Aryan speech are
known to have ranged in neolithic or prehistoric times. But we have
already followed the migrations of a kindred[1345], though mixed race,
here called INDONESIANS, into Malaysia, the Philippines, Formosa, and
the Japanese Archipelago, which they must have occupied in the New Stone
Age. Here there occurs a great break, for they are not again met till we
reach Micronesia and the still more remote insular groups beyond
Melanesia. In Micronesia the relations are extremely confused, because,
as it seems, this group had already been occupied by the Papuans from
New Guinea before the arrival of the Indonesians, while after their
arrival they were followed at intervals by Malays perhaps from the
Philippines and Formosa, and still later by Japanese, if not also by
Chinese from the mainland. Hence the types are here as varied as the
colour, which appears, going eastwards, to shade off from the dark brown
of the Pelew and Caroline Islanders to the light brown of the Marshall
and Gilbert groups, where we already touch upon the skirts of the true
Indonesian domain[1346].
A line drawn athwart the Pacific from New Zealand through Fiji to Hawaii
will roughly cut off this domain from the rest of the Oceanic world,
where all to the west is Melanesian, Papuan or mixed, while all to the
right--_Maori_, some of the eastern _Fijians_, _Tongans_, _Samoans_,
_Tahitians_, _Marquesans_, _Hawaiians_ and _Easter Islanders_--is
grouped under the name POLYNESIAN, a type produced by a mixture of
Proto-Malayan and Indonesian. Dolichocephaly and mesaticephaly prevail
throughout the region, but there are brachycephalic centres in Tonga,
the Marquesas and Hawaiian Islands. The hair is mostly black and
straight, but also wavy, though never frizzly or even kinky. The colour
also is of a light brown compared to cinnamon or cafe-au-lait, and
sometimes approaching an almost white shade, while the tall stature
averages 1.72 m. (5 ft. 7-3/4 ins.).
Migrating at an unknown date eastwards from the East Indian
archipelago[1347], the first permanent settlements appear to have been
formed in Samoa, and more particularly in the island of _Savaii_,
originally _Savaiki_, which name under divers forms and still more
divers meanings accompanied all their subsequent migrations over the
Pacific waters. Thus we have in Tahiti _Havaii_[1348], the "universe,"
and the old capital of Raiatea; in Rarotonga _Avaiki_, "the land under
the wind"; in New Zealand _Hawaiki_, "the land whence came the Maori";
in the Marquesas _Havaiki_, "the lower regions of the dead," as in _to
fenua Havaiki_, "return to the land of thy forefathers," the words with
which the victims in human sacrifices were speeded to the other world;
lastly in _Hawaii_, the name of the chief island of the Sandwich group.
The Polynesians are cheerful, dignified, polite, imaginative and
intelligent, varying in temperament between the wild and energetic and
politically capable Maori to his indolent and politically sterile
kinsmen to the north, who have been unnerved by the unvarying
uniformity of temperature. Wherever possible, they are agriculturalists,
growing yams, sweet potatoes and taro. Coconuts, bread-fruit and bananas
form the staple food in many islands. Scantily endowed with fertile soil
and edible plants the Polynesians have gained command over the sea which
everywhere surrounds them, and have developed into the best seamen among
primitive races. Large sailing double canoes were formerly in use, and
single canoes with an outrigger are still made. Native costume for men
is made of bark cloth, and for women ample petticoats of split and
plaited leaves. Ornaments, with the exception of flowers, are sparingly
worn. The bow and arrow are unknown, short spears, clubs and slings are
used, but no shields. The arts of writing, pottery making, loom-weaving
and the use of metals were, with few exceptions, unknown, but
mat-making, basketry and the making of _tapa_ were carried to a high
pitch, and Polynesian bark-cloth is the finest in the world.
Throughout Polynesia the community is divided into nobles or chiefs,
freemen and slaves, which divisions are, by reason of _tabu_, as sharp
as those of caste. They fall into those which participate in the divine,
and those which are wholly excluded from it. Women have a high position,
and men do their fair share of work. Polygyny is universal, being
limited only by the wealth of the husband, or the numerical
preponderance of the men. Priests have considerable influence, there are
numerous gods, sometimes worshipped in the outward form of idols, and
ancestors are deified.
Polynesian culture has been analysed by W. H. R. Rivers[1349], and the
following briefly summarises his results. At first sight the culture
appears very simple, especially as regards language and social
structure, while there is a considerable degree of uniformity in
religious belief. Everywhere we find the same kind of higher being or
god and the resemblance extends even to the name, usually some form of
the word _atua_. In material culture also there are striking
similarities, though here the variations are more definite and obvious,
and the apparent uniformity is probably due to the attention given to
the customs of chiefs, overlooking the culture of the ordinary people
where more diversity is discoverable.
There is much that points to the twofold nature of Polynesian culture.
The evidence from the study of the ritual indicates the presence of two
peoples, an earlier who interred their dead in a sitting posture like
the dual people of Melanesia[1350], and a later, who became chiefs and
believed in the need for the preservation of the dead among the living.
All the evidence available, physical and cultural, points to the
conjecture that the early stratum of the population of Polynesia was
formed by an immigrant people who also found their way to Melanesia.
The later stream of settlers can be identified with the
kava-people[1350]. Kava was drunk especially by the chiefs, and the
accompanying ceremonial shows its connection with the higher ranks of
the people. The close association of the _Areoi_ (secret society) of
eastern Polynesia with the chiefs is further proof. Thus both in
Melanesia and in Polynesia the chiefs who preserved their dead are
identified with the founders of secret societies--organisations which
came into being through the desire of an immigrant people to practise
their religious rites in secret. Burial in the extended position occurs
in Tikopia, Tonga and Samoa--perhaps it may have been the custom of some
special group of the kava-people. Chiefs were placed in vaults
constructed of large stones--a feature unknown elsewhere in Oceania. It
is safe also to ascribe the human design which has undergone
conventionalisation in Polynesia to the kava-people. The geometric art
through which the conventionalisation was produced belonged to the
earlier inhabitants who interred their dead in the sitting position.
Money, if it exists at all, occupies a very unimportant place in the
culture of the people. There is no evidence of the use of any object in
Polynesia with the definite scale of values which is possessed by
several kinds of money in Melanesia. The Polynesians are largely
communistic, probably more so than the Melanesians, and afford one of
the best examples of communism in property with which we are acquainted.
This feature may be ascribed to the earlier settlers. The suggestion
that the kava-people never formed independent communities in Polynesia,
but were accepted at once as chiefs of those among whom they settled
would account for the absence of money (for which there was no need),
and the failure to disturb in any great measure the communism of the
earlier inhabitants. Communism in property was associated with sexual
communism. There is evidence that Polynesian chiefs rarely had more than
one wife, while the licentiousness which probably stood in a definite
relation to the communism of the people is said to have been more
pronounced among the lower strata of the community. Both communism and
licentiousness appear to have been much less marked in the Samoan and
Tongan islands, and here there is no evidence of interment in the
sitting position. These and other facts support the view that the
influence of the kava-people was greater here than in the more eastern
islands: probably it was greatest in Tikopia, which in many respects
differs from other parts of Polynesia.
Magic is altogether absent from the culture of Tikopia and it probably
took a relatively unimportant place throughout Polynesia. In Tikopia the
ghosts of dead ancestors and relatives as well as animals are _atua_ and
this connotation of the word appears to be general in other parts of
Polynesia. These may be regarded as the representatives of the ghosts
and spirits of Melanesia. The _vui_ of Melanesia may be represented by
the _tii_ of Tahiti, beings not greatly respected, who had to some
extent a local character. This comparison suggests that the ancestral
ghosts belong to the culture of the kava-people, and that the local
spirits are derived from the culture of the people who interred their
dead in the sitting position, from which people the dual people of
Melanesia derived their beliefs and practices.
To sum up. Polynesian culture is made up of at least two elements, an
earlier, associated with the practice of interring the dead in a sitting
position, communism, geometric art, local spirits and magical rites, and
a later, which practised preservation of the dead. These latter may be
identified with the kava-people while the earlier Polynesian stratum is
that which entered into the composition of the dual-people of Melanesia
at a still earlier date, and introduced the Austronesian language into
Oceania[1351].
FOOTNOTES:
[1194] Cf. J. Dechelette, _Manuel d'archeologie prehistorique_, Vol. II.
1910, p. 2, and for neolithic trade routes, _ib._ Vol. I. p. 626.
[1195] The Tell-el-Amarna correspondence contains names of chieftains in
Syria and Palestine about 1400 B.C., including the name of Tushratta,
king of Mitanni; the Boghaz Keui document with Iranian divine names, and
Babylonian records of Iranian names from the Persian highlands, are a
little later in date.
[1196] J. L. Myres, _The Dawn of History_, 1911, p. 200.
[1197] Cf. P. Giles, Art. "Indo-European Languages" in _Ency. Brit._
1911.
[1198] S. Feist, _Kultur, Ausbreitung und Herkunft der Indogermanen_,
1913, pp. 40 and 486-528.
[1199] O. Schrader, _Sprachvergleichung und Urgeschichte_, 3rd ed.
1906-7.
[1200] G. Kossinna, _Die Herkunft der Germanen_, 1911.
[1201] H. Hirt, _Die Indogermanen, ihre Verbreitung, ihre Urheimat und
ihre Kultur_, 1905-7.
[1202] S. Feist, _Kultur, Ausbreitung und Herkunft der Indogermanen_,
1913, pp. 40 and 486-528.
[1203] _Deutsche Altertumskunde_, I. 1913, p. 49.
[1204] See Note 3, p. 441 above.
[1205] Art. "Indo-European Languages," _Ency. Brit._ 1911, p. 500.
[1206] Centum (hard guttural) group is the name applied to the Western
and entirely European branches of the Indo-European family, as opposed
to the satem (sibilant) group, situated mainly in Asia.
[1207] _The Races of Europe_, 1900, p. 17 and chap. XVII. European
origins: Race and Language: The Aryan Question.
[1208] S. Feist, _Kultur, Ausbreitung und Herkunft der Indogermanen_,
1913, pp. 497, 501 ff.
[1209] Cf. T. Rice Holmes, _Caesar's Conquest of Gaul_, 1911, p. 273.
[1210] E. de Michelis, _L'origine degli Indo-Europei_, 1905.
[1211] Even Sweden, regarded as the home of the purest Nordic type,
already had a brachycephalic mixture in the Stone Age. See G. Retzius,
"The So-called North European Race of Mankind," _Journ. Roy. Anthrop.
Inst._ XXXIX. 1909, p. 304.
[1212] Cf. E. Meyer, _Geschichte des Altertums_, 1909, l. 2, Sec. 551.
[1213] For the working out of this hypothesis see T. Peisker, "The
Expansion of the Slavs," _Cambridge Medieval History_, Vol. II. 1913.
[1214] H. M. Chadwick, Art. "Teutonic Peoples" in _Ency. Brit._ 1911.
Cf. S. Feist, _Kultur, Ausbreitung und Herkunft der Indogermanen_, 1913,
p. 480.
[1215] See R. Much, Art. "Germanen," J. Hoops' _Reallexikon d. Germ.
Altertumskunde_, 1914.
[1216] H. M. Chadwick, _The Origin of the English Nation_, 1907, pp.
210-215. For a full account of the affinities of the _Cimbri_ and
_Teutoni_ see T. Rice Holmes, _Caesar's Conquest of Gaul_, 1911, pp.
546-553.
[1217] Paper read at the Meeting of the Ger. Anthrop. Soc., Spiers,
1896. Figures of Bastarnae from the Adamklissi monument and elsewhere
are reproduced in H. Hahne's _Das Vorgeschichtliche Europa: Kulturen und
Voelker_, 1910, figs. 144, 149. Cf. T. Peisker, "The Expansion of the
Slavs," _Camb. Med. Hist._ Vol. II. 1913, p. 430.
[1218] Cf. H. M. Chadwick, _The Origin of the English Nation_, 1907, pp.
174 and 219.
[1219] _Monuments runiques_ in _Mem. Soc. R. Ant. du Nord_, 1893.
[1220] "Lactea cutis" (Sidonius Apollinaris).
[1221] W. Z. Ripley, _The Races of Europe_, 1900, p. 205 ff. See also O.
Montelius, _Kulturgeschichte Schwedens_, 1906; G. Retzius and C. M.
Fuerst, _Anthropologica Suecica_, 1902.
[1222] Commonly called the Borreby type from skulls found at Borreby in
the island of Falster, which resemble Round Barrow skulls in Britain.
[1223] For Denmark consult _Meddelelser om Danmarks Antropologi_ udgivne
af den Antropologiske Komite, with English summaries, Bd. I. 1907-1911,
Bd. II. 1913.
[1224] The results were tabulated by Virchow and may be seen, without
going to German sources, in W. Z. Ripley's map, p. 222, of _The Races of
Europe_, 1900, where the whole question is fully dealt with.
[1225] See Ripley's Craniological chart in "Une carte de l'Indice
Cephalique en Europe," _L'Anthropologie_, VII. 1896, p. 513.
[1226] The case is stated in uncompromising language by Alfred Fouillee:
"Une autre loi, plus generalement admise, c'est que depuis les temps
prehistoriques, les brachycephales tendent a eliminer les
dolichocephales par l'invasion progressive des couches inferieures et
l'absorption des aristocraties dans les democraties, ou elles viennent
se noyer" (_Rev. des Deux Mondes_, March 15, 1895).
[1227] _Recherches Anthrop. sur le Probleme de la Depopulation_, in
_Rev. d'Economie politique_, IX. p. 1002; X. p. 132 (1895-6).
[1228] _Nature_, 1897, p. 487. Cf. also A. Thomson, "Consideration
of ... factors concerned in production of Man's Cranial Form," _Journ.
Anthr. Inst._ XXXIII. 1903, and A. Keith, "The Bronze Age Invaders of
Britain," _Journ. Roy. Anthr. Inst._ XLV. 1915.
[1229] Livi's results for Italy (_Antropometria Militare_) differ in
some respects from those of de Lapouge and Ammon for France and Baden.
Thus he finds that in the brachy districts the urban population is less
brachy than the rural, while in the dolicho districts the towns are more
brachy than the plains.
[1230] Dealing with some studies of the Lithuanian race, Deniker writes:
"Ainsi donc, contrairement aux idees de MM. de Lapouge et Ammon, en
Pologne, comme d'ailleurs en Italie, les classes les plus instruites,
dirigeantes, urbaines, sont plus brachy que les paysans"
(_L'Anthropologie_, 1896, p. 351). Similar contradictions occur in
connection with light and dark hair, eyes, etc.
[1231] "E qui non posso tralasciare di avvertire un errore assai diffuso
fra gli antropologi ... i quali vorrebbero ammettere una trasformazione
del cranio da dolicocefalo in brachicefalo" (_Arii e Italici_, p. 155).
[1232] W. Z. Ripley's _The Races of Europe_, 1900, p. 544 ff.
[1233] This specialist insists "dass von einer mongolischen Einwanderung
in Europa keine Rede mehr sein koenne" (_Der europaeische Mensch. u. die
Tiroler_, 1896). He is of course speaking of prehistoric times, not of
the late (historical) Mongol irruptions. Cf. T. Peisker, "The Expansion
of the Slavs," _Camb. Med. Hist._ Vol. II. 1913, p. 452, with reference
to mongoloid traits in Bavaria.
[1234] "Malgre les nombreuses invasions des populations germaniques, le
Tyrolien est reste, quant a sa conformation cranienne, le Rasene ou
Rhaetien des temps antiques--hyperbrachycephale" (_Les Aryens_, p. 7).
The mean index of the so-called Disentis type of Rhaetian skulls is
about 86 (His and Ruetimeyer, _Crania Helvetica_, p. 29 and Plate E. 1).
[1235] "The Tyrrhenians in Greece and Italy," in _Journ. Anthrop. Inst._
1897, p. 258. In this splendidly illustrated paper the date of the
immigration is referred to the 11th century B.C. on the ground that the
first Etruscan saeculum was considered as beginning about 1050 B.C.,
presumably the date of their arrival in Italy (p. 259). But Sergi thinks
they did not arrive till about the end of the 8th century (_Arii e
Italici_, p. 149).
[1236] See R. S. Conway, Art. Etruria: Language, _Ency. Brit._ 1911.
[1237] _Op. cit._ p. 151. By German he means the round-headed South
German.
[1238] S. Feist, _Kultur, Ausbreitung und Herkunft der Indogermanen_,
1913, p. 370.
[1239] S. Feist, _loc. cit._ p. 65. For cultural and linguistic
influence of Celts on Germans see pp. 480 ff. Evidence of Celtic names
in Germany is discussed by H. M. Chadwick "Some German River names,"
_Essays and Studies presented to William Ridgeway_, 1913.
[1240] H. d'Arbois de Jubainville, _Les Celtes depuis les Temps les plus
anciens jusqu'en l'an 100 avant notre ere_, 1904, p. 1.
[1241] G. Dottin, _Manuel pour servir a l'etude de l'Antiquite
Celtique_, 1915, p. 1.
[1242] T. Rice Holmes, Caesar's _Conquest of Gaul_, 1911, p. 321. W. Z.
Ripley, _The Races of Europe_, 1900, reviewing the "_Celtic Question_,
than which no greater stumbling-block in the way of our clear thinking
exists" (p. 124) comes to a different conclusion. He states that "the
term _Celt_, if used at all, belongs to the ... brachycephalic, darkish
population of the Alpine highlands," and he claims for this view
"complete unanimity of opinion among physical anthropologists" (p. 126).
His own view however is that "the linguists are best entitled to the
name _Celt_" while the broad-headed type commonly called Celtic by
continental writers "we shall ... everywhere ... call ... Alpine" (p.
128).
[1243] Cf. the similar dual treatment in Italic.
[1244] "No Gael [_i.e._ Q Celt] ever set his foot on British soil save
on a vessel that had put out from Ireland." Kuno Meyer, _Trans. Hon.
Soc. Cymmrodorion_, 1895-6, p. 69.
[1245] _Ancient Britain_, 1907, pp. 409-424.
[1246] _Das keltische Britannien_, 1912, pp. 28-37.
[1247] J. Rhys, _The Welsh People_, 1902, pp. 13-14.
[1248] _Das keltische Britannien_, 1912, pp. 28-37.
[1249] _Ancient Britain_, 1907, p. 414. The name of the Picts is
apparently Indo-European in form, and if the Celts were late comers into
Britain (see above) they may well have been preceded by invaders of
Indo-European speech.
[1250] T. Rice Holmes, _Ancient Britain_, 1907, p. 408. Cf. A. Keith,
"The Bronze Age Invaders of Britain," _Journ. Roy. Anthr. Inst._ XLV.
1915.
[1251] Quoted in T. Rice Holmes, _Ancient Britain_, 1907, pp. 426-427.
[1252] T. Rice Holmes, _Ancient Britain_, 1907, p. 443. See also John
Abercromby, _A Study of the Bronze Age Pottery of Great Britain and
Ireland and its associated Grave Goods_, 1912, tracing the distribution
and migration of pottery forms: and the following papers of H. J.
Fleure, "Archaeological Problems of the West Coast of Britain,"
_Archaeologia Cambrensis_, Oct. 1915; "The Early Distribution of
Population in South Britain," _ib._ April, 1916; "The Geographical
Distribution of Anthropological Types in Wales," _Journ. Roy. Anthr.
Inst._ XLVI. 1916, and "A Proposal for Local Surveys of the British
People," _Arch. Camb._ Jan. 1917.
[1253] W. Z. Ripley, _The Races of Europe_, 1900, p. 310; T. Rice
Holmes, _Ancient Britain_, 1907, p. 432.
[1254] G. Coffey and R. Lloyd Praeger, "The Antrim Raised Beach: a
Contribution to the Neolithic History of the North of Ireland," _Proc.
Roy. Irish Acad._ XXV. (c.) 1904. See also the valuable series of
"Reports on Prehistoric Remains from the Sandhills of the Coast of
Ireland," _P. R. I. A._ XVI.
[1255] _Man_, IX. 1909, NO. 54.
[1256] _Proc. Roy. Irish Acad._ (3), III. 1896, p. 727.
[1257] Cf. also J. Wilfred Jackson, "The Geographical Distribution of
the Shell-Purple Industry," _Mem. and Proc. Manchester Lit. and Phil.
Soc._ LX. No. 7, 1916.
[1258] _Survivals from the Palaeolithic Age among Irish Neolithic
Implements_, 1897.
[1259] _The Dolmens of Ireland_, 1897.
[1260] They need not, however, have come from Britain, and the allusions
in Irish literature to direct immigration from Spain, probable enough in
itself, are too numerous to be disregarded. Thus, Geoffrey of
Monmouth:--"Hibernia Basclensibus [to the Basques] incolenda datur"
(_Hist. Reg. Brit._ III. Sec. 12); and Giraldus Cambrensis:--"De Gurguntio
Brytonum Rege, qui Rasclenses [read Basclenses] in Hiberniam transmisit
et eandem ipsis habitandam concessit." I am indebted to Wentworth
Webster for these references (_Academy_, Oct. 19, 1895).
[1261] H. Zimmer, "Auf welchen Wege kamen die Goidelen vom Kontinent
nach Irland?" _Abh. d. K. preuss. Akad. d. Wiss._ 1912.
[1262] J. Gray, "Memoir on the Pigmentation Survey of Scotland," _Journ.
Roy. Anthr. Inst._ XXXVII. 1907.
[1263] "A Last Contribution to Scottish Ethnology," _Journ. Roy. Anthr.
Inst._ XXXVIII. 1908.
[1264] "The Geographical Distribution of Anthropological Types in
Wales," _Journ. Roy. Anthr. Inst._ XLVI. 1916.
[1265] For the explanation see W. Z. Ripley, _The Races of Europe_,
1900, p. 322 ff.
[1266] W. Z. Ripley, _loc. cit._ p. 329.
[1267] "The Frenchman, the German, the Italian, the Englishman, to each
of whom his own literature and the great traditions of his national life
are most dear and familiar, cannot help but feel that the vernacular in
which these are embodied and expressed is, and must be, superior to the
alien and awkward languages of his neighbours." L. Pearsall Smith, _The
English Language_, p. 54.
[1268] See above p. 455. T. Rice Holmes points out that the Aquitani
were already mixed in type. _Caesar's Conquest of Gaul_, 1911, p. 12.
[1269] See above p. 454.
[1270] That is, the languages whose affirmatives were the Latin pronouns
_hoc illud_ (_oil_) and _hoc_ (_oc_), the former being more contracted,
the latter more expanded, as we see in the very names of the respective
Northern and Southern bards: _Trouveres_ and _Troubadours_. It was
customary in medieval times to name languages in this way, Dante, for
instance, calling Italian _la lingua del si_, "the language of _yes_";
and, strange to say, the same usage prevails largely amongst the
Australian aborigines, who, however, use both the affirmative and the
negative particles, so that we have here _no_- as well as _yes_-tribes.
[1271] S. Feist points out that two physical types were recognised in
antiquity, one dark and one fair, and reference to red hair and fair
skin suggests Celtic infusion. _Kultur, Ausbreitung und Herkunft der
Indogermanen_, 1913, p. 365.
[1272] _Science Progress_, p. 159.
[1273] "The Portuguese are much mixed with Negroes more particularly in
the south and along the coast. The slave trade existed long before the
Negroes of Guinea were exported to the plantations of America. Damiao de
Goes estimated the number of blacks imported into Lisbon alone during
the 16th century at 10,000 or 12,000 per annum. If contemporary
eye-witnesses can be trusted, the number of blacks met with in the
streets of Lisbon equalled that of the whites. Not a house but had its
negro servants, and the wealthy owned entire gangs of them" (Reclus, I.
p. 471).
[1274] "The Spanish People," _Cont. Rev._ May, 1907, and _The Soul of
Spain_, 1908.
[1275] T. E. Peet, _Stone and Bronze Ages in Italy and Sicily_, 1909,
gives a full account of the archaeology.
[1276] "Zur Palaeoethnologie Mittel- u. Suedeuropas" in _Mitt. Wiener
Anthrop. Ges._ 1897, p. 18. It should here be noted that in his _History
of the Greek Language_ (1896) Kretschmer connects the inscriptions of
the Veneti in north Italy and of the Messapians in the south with the
Illyrian linguistic family, which he regards as Aryan intermediate
between the Greek and the Italic branches, the present Albanian being a
surviving member of it. In the same Illyrian family W. M. Lindsay would
also include the "Old Sabellian" of Picenum, "believed to be the oldest
inscriptions on Italian soil. The manifest identity of the name
_Aodatos_ and the word _meitimon_ with the Illyrian names [Greek:
Audata] and _Meitima_ is almost sufficient of itself to prove these
inscriptions to be Illyrian. Further the whole character of their
language, with its Greek and its Italic features, corresponds with what
we know and what we can safely infer about the Illyrian family of
languages" (_Academy_, Oct. 24, 1896). Cf. R. S. Conway, _The Italic
Dialects_, 1897.
[1277] R. Munro, _Bosnia, Herzegovina and Dalmatia_, 1900. See also W.
Ridgeway, _The Early Age of Greece_, 1901, ch. V., showing that remains
of the Iron Age in Bosnia are closely connected with Hallstatt and La
Tene cultures.
[1278] _Arii e Italici_, p. 158 sq.
[1279] "Liguri e Pelasgi furono i primi abitatori d'Italia; e Liguri
sembra siano stati quelli che occupavano la Valle del Po e costrussero
le palafitte, e Liguri forse anche i costruttori delle palafitte
svizzere: Mediterranei tutti" (_Ib._ p. 138).
[1280] Ripley's chart shows a range of from 87 in Piedmont to 76 and 77
in Calabria, Puglia, and Sardinia, and 75 and under in Corsica. _The
Races of Europe_, 1900, p. 251.
[1281] But cf. W. Ridgeway, _Who were the Romans?_ 1908.
[1282] The true name of these southern or Macedo-Rumanians, as pointed
out by Gustav Weigland (_Globus_, LXXI. p. 54), is _Aramani_ or
_Armani_, _i.e._ "Romans." _Tsintsar_, _Kutzo-Vlack_, etc. are mere
nicknames, by which they are known to their Macedonian (Bulgar and
Greek) neighbours. See also W. R. Morfill in _Academy_, July 1, 1893.
The Vlachs of Macedonia are described by E. Pears, _Turkey and its
People_, 1911, and a full account of the Balkan Vlachs is given by A. J.
B. Wace and M. S. Thompson, _The Nomads of the Balkans_, 1914.
[1283] _Romaenische Studien_, Leipzig, 1871.
[1284] _Les Roumains au Moyen Age, passim._ Hunfalvy, quoted by A. J.
Patterson (_Academy_, Sept. 7, 1895), also shows that "for a thousand
years there is no authentic mention of a Latin or Romance speaking
population north of the Danube."
[1285] This view is held by L. Rethy, also quoted by Patterson, and the
term _Vlack_ (_Welsch_, whence Wallachia) applied to the Rumanians by
all their Slav and Greek neighbours points in the same direction.
[1286] T. Peisker, "The Asiatic Background," _Camb. Med. Hist._ Vol. I.
1911, p. 356, and "The Expansion of the Slavs," _ib._ Vol. II. 1913, p.
440.
[1287] _Mitt. Wiener Anthrop. Ges._ 1897, p. 18.
[1288] _Dawn of Civilization_, p. 391.
[1289] _The Ancient History of the Near East_, 1913, p. 69.
[1290] Hall notes (p. 73) that "it is to the Thesprotian invasion, which
displaced the Achaians, that, in all probability, the general
introduction of iron into Greece is to be assigned. The invaders came
ultimately from the Danube region, where iron was probably first used in
Europe, whereas their kindred, the Achaians, had possibly already lived
in Thessaly in the Stone Age, and derived the knowledge of metal from
the Aegeans. The speedy victory of the new-comers over the older Aryan
inhabitants of Northern Greece may be ascribed to their possession of
iron weapons." Ridgeway, however, has little difficulty in proving that
the Achaeans themselves were tall fair Celts from Central Europe. _The
Early Age of Greece_, 1901, especially chap. IV., "Whence came the
Acheans?" The question is dealt with from a different point of view by
J. L. Myres, in _The Dawn of History_, 1911, chap. IX., "The Coming of
the North," tracing the invasion from the Eurasian steppes.
[1291] H. R. Hall, _loc. cit._ p. 68; cf. H. Peake, _Journ. Roy. Anth.
Inst._ 1916, p. 154.
[1292] C. H. Hawes, "Some Dorian Descendants," _Ann. Brit. School Ath._
No. XVI. 1909-10, proves that the Dorian or Illyrian (Alpine) type still
persists in South Greece and Crete.
[1293] _Geschichte der Halbinsel Morea, Stuttgart_, 1830. See also G.
Finlay's _Mediaeval Greece_, and the _Anthrop. Rev._ 1868, VI. p. 154.
[1294] _Romaenische Studien_, 1871.
[1295] _Bul. Soc. d'Anthrop._ 1896, p. 351 sq.
[1296] By a sort of grim irony the word has come to mean "slave" in the
West, owing to the multitudes of Slavs captured and enslaved during the
medieval border warfare. But the term is by many referred to the root
_slovo_, word, speech, implying a people of intelligible utterance, and
this is supported by the form _Slovene_ occurring in Nestor and still
borne by a southern Slav group. See T. Peisker, "The Expansion of the
Slavs," _Camb. Med. Hist._ Vol. II. 1913, p. 421 _n._ 2.
[1297] IV. 21.
[1298] These Budini are described as a large nation with "remarkably
blue eyes and red hair," on which account Zaborowski thinks they may
have been ancestors of the present Finns. But they may also very well
have been belated proto-Germani left behind by the body of the nation
_en route_ for their new Baltic homes.
[1299] Cf. p. 304.
[1300] _Scythians and Greeks_, 1909.
[1301] The meaning of Wend is uncertain. It has led to confusion with
the Armorican _Veneti_, the Paphlagonian _Enetae_, and the Adriatic
_Enetae-Venetae_, all non-Slav peoples. Shakhmatov regards it as a name
inherited by Slavs from their conquerors, the Celtic Venedi, who
occupied the Vistula region in the 3rd or 2nd centuries B.C. See T.
Peisker, "The Expansion of the Slavs," _Camb. Med. Hist._ Vol. II. 1913,
p. 421 _n._ 2.
[1302] That is, the Elbe Slaves, from _po_=by, near, and _Labe_=Elbe;
cf. _Pomor_ (Pomeranians), "by the Sea"; Borussia, Porussia, Prussia,
originally peopled by the _Pruczi_, a branch of the Lithuanians
Germanised in the 17th century.
[1303] _Carpath_, _Khrobat_, _Khorvat_ are all the same word, meaning
highlands, mountains, hence not strictly an ethnic term, although at
present so used by the _Crovats_ or _Croatians_, a considerable section
of the Yugo-Slavs south of the Danube.
[1304] See note 5, p. 537.
[1305] That is, "Highlanders" (root _alb_, _alp_, height, hill). From
_Albanites_ through the Byzantine _Arvanites_ comes the Turkish
_Arnaut_, while the national name _Skipetar_ has precisely the same
meaning (root _skip_, _scop_, as in [Greek: skopelos], scopulus, cliff,
crag).
[1306] There are about twenty of these _phis_ or _phar_ (phratries)
amongst the Ghegs, and the practice of exogamous marriage still survives
amongst the Mirdites south of the Drin, who, although Catholics, seek
their wives amongst the surrounding hostile Turkish and Muhammadan Gheg
populations.
[1307] J. Deniker, "Les Six Races composant la Population actuelle de
l'Europe," _Journ. Anthr. Inst._ XXXIV. 1904, pp. 182, 202.
[1308] _Bul. Soc. d'Anthrop._ VII. 1896.
[1309] Hence Virchow (Meeting Ger. Anthrop. Soc. 1897) declared that the
extent and duration of the Slav encroachments in German territory could
not be determined by the old skulls, because it is impossible to say
whether a given skull is Slav or not.
[1310] Especially Lubor Niederle, for whom the proto-Slavs are
unquestionably long-headed blonds like the Teutons, although he admits
that round skulls occur even of old date, and practically gives up the
attempt to account for the transition to the modern Slav.
[1311] "The Racial Geography of Europe," in _Popular Science Monthly_,
June, 1897.
[1312] _Bul. Soc. d'Anthrop._ 1896, p. 81 sq.
[1313] _Bul. Soc. d'Anthrop._ 1894, p. 36.
[1314] _Droit Coutumier Ossethien_, 1893.
[1315] Quoted by Ujfalvy, _Les Aryens_ etc. p. 11.
[1316] The _Yagnobi_ of the river of like name, an affluent of the
Zerafshan; yet even this shows lexical affinities with Iranic, while its
structure seems to connect it with Leitner's Kajuna and Biddulph's
Burish, a non-Aryan tongue current in Ghilghit, Yasin, Hunza and Nagar,
whose inhabitants are regarded by Biddulph as descendants of the
Yue-chi. The Yagnobi themselves, however, are distinctly Alpines,
somewhat short, very hirsute and brown, with broad face, large head, and
a Savoyard expression. They have the curious custom of never cutting but
always breaking their bread, the use of the knife being sure to raise
the price of flour.
[1317] F. v. Luschan points out that very little is known of the
anthropology of Persia. "In a land inhabited by about ten millions not
more than twenty or thirty men have been regularly measured and not one
skull has been studied." The old type preserved in the Parsi is
short-headed and dark. "The Early Inhabitants of Western Asia," _Journ.
Roy. Anthr. Inst._ XLI. 1911, p. 233.
[1318] _Dih, deh_, village. _Zaban_, tongue, language.
[1319] H. Walter, _From Indus to Tigris_, p. 16. Of course this
traveller refers only to the Tajiks of the plateau (Persia,
Afghanistan). Of the Galchic Tajiks he knew nothing; nor indeed is the
distinction even yet quite understood by European ethnologists.
[1320] III. 91.
[1321] Even Ptolemy's [Greek: pasichai] appear to be the same people,
[Greek: p] being an error for [Greek: t], so that [Greek: tasikai] would
be the nearest possible Greek transcription of _Tajik_.
[1322] _Tribes of the Hindoo-Koosh_, 1880, _passim._
[1323] _An Account of the Kingdom of Caubul_, 1815.
[1324] "Ces Savoyards attardes du Kohistan" (Ujfalvy, _Les Aryens_
etc.).
[1325] The anthropological data are dealt with by T. A. Joyce, "Notes on
the Physical Anthropology of Chinese Turkestan and the Pamirs," _Journ.
Roy. Anthr. Inst._ XLII. 1912. "The original inhabitant ... is that type
of man described by Lapouge as _Homo Alpinus_," p. 468.
[1326] F. v. Luschan, "The Early Inhabitants of Asia," _Journ. Roy.
Anthr. Inst._ XLI. 1911, p. 243.
[1327] For the evidence of the extension of this element in East Central
Asia see Ch. IX.
[1328] R. B. Foote, _Madras Government Museum_. _The Foote Collection of
Indian Prehistoric and Protohistoric Antiquities. Notes on their ages
and distribution_, 1916, is the most recent contribution to the
prehistoric period, but the conclusions are not universally accepted.
[1329] A. F. R. Hoernle, _A Grammar of Eastern Hindi compared with the
other Gaudian Languages_, 1880, first suggested (p. xxxi. ff.) the
distinction between the languages of the Midland and the Outer Band,
which has been corroborated by G. A. Grierson, _Languages of India_,
1903, p. 51; _Imperial Gazetteer of India_, 1907-8, Vol. I. pp. 357-8.
[1330] H. H. Risley, _The People of India_, 1908, p. 54. See also J. D.
Anderson, _The Peoples of India_, 1913, p. 27.
[1331] _Tribes and Castes of Bengal_ etc. 1892, _Indian Census Report_,
1901, and _Imperial Gazetteer_, Vol. I. ch. VI.
[1332] The jungle tribes of this group, such as the _Paniyan_, _Kurumba_
and _Irula_ are classed as PRE-DRAVIDIAN. See chap. XII.
[1333] A. C. Haddon, _Wanderings of Peoples_, 1911, p. 27.
[1334] _The Indo-Aryan Races_, 1916, pp. 65-71 and 75-78.