EX LIBRIS.
Bertram . JV.
A SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY
(Lowell Institute Lectures)
BY
WILLIAM 7. RIPLEY, PH.D.
ASSISTANT 1 KOFKSSOK OK SOCIOLOGY,
MAsSACIIl SKTTS INSTITUTE OF TKCHNOI.OGY ;
LECTUKKK ON ANTHKOl OI.OGY AT COI.TMHIA l. NIVKKSITY
IN I 111-: CITY OF NK\V YORK
ACCOMPANIED BY A SUPPLEMENTARY BIBLIOGRAPHY
OF THE ANTHROPOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY
OF EUROPE, PUBLISHED BY THE
PUBLIC LIBRARY OF THE CITY OF BOSTON
LONDON
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO.
(LIMITED)
IQOO
TO MY CHILDREN
PREFACE.
THIS work is the outgrowth of a course of lectures upon
" physical geography and anthropology " in the School of
Political Science at Columbia University in the city of Xew
York ; delivered before the Lowell Institute in the fall of
1896. It originally comprehended, in a study of aboriginal
societies and cultures, an analysis of the relation of primitive
man to his physical environment. Gradually, with a growing
appreciation of the unsuspected wealth of accumulated data,
it has expanded along lines of greater resistance, concentrating
attention, that is to say, upon Europe the continent of all
others wherein social phenomena have attained their highest
and most complex development. Containing little that may
be called original, strictly speaking, it represents merely an
honest effort to co-ordinate, illustrate, and interpret the vast
mass of original material product of years of patient investi
gation by observers in all parts of Europe concerning a
primary phase of human association : that of race or physical
relationship.
An earnest attempt has been made to bring this abundant
store of raw material into some sort of orderly arrangement,
and at the same time to render it accessible to future investi
gators along the same line. The supplementary bil biography
under separate cover has, it is hoped, materially contributed
to both of these results. The intimate relationship between
v i THE RACES OF EUROPE.
the main volume and the bibliographical list, as explained in
the preface to the latter, is too apparent to need further ex
planation. It will be noted at once that all citations accord
ing to author and date may be immediately identified in full,
by reference to the supplementary list of authorities at the
appropriate place.
To secure a graphical representation of facts by maps
which should conform to strictly scientific canons, was an
indispensable requisite in a geographical work of this kind.
By rare good fortune it has been possible to develop a chance
suggestion from my artist friend, Mr. Frank B. Masters, into
a definite and simple system of map construction, whereby
the work could be done by our own hands. The sacrifice of
artistic finish incident thereto, was deemed unimportant be
side the manifest advantage of a close adaptation of the maps
to the text, both being prepared in unison. To secure this
result a number of the maps have been entirely redrawn ; in
several cases they have been experimentally prepared even
to the engraving of the plates, three times over. Many of the
maps in this volume probably the majority are the handi
work of my wife, to whose constant material aid as well as
inspiration, reference has elsewhere been made. From these
all extraneous details have been purposely omitted. More
over, the various maps have been co-ordinated with one an
other, with the adoption of a common scheme for all. Thus,
for example, dark shades invariably denote the shorter stat
ures, and similar grades of tinting, so far as possible, desig
nate equal intensities of the phenomena in question. In the
maps of head form this co-ordination has been applied most
consistently. In respect of maps of stature and pigmentation,
the diverse anthropometric methods employed and the extraor
dinary range of variation, have rendered it a more difficult
matter to preserve a strict uniformity.
PREFACE. yii
In several cases in the reproduction of standard maps it
will be noticed that the graphical system has been consider
ably modified from the original. Sometimes, as in the map of
Limousin on page 83, the author s scheme has been simpli
fied ; in others, as in Broca s classical map of Brittany on
page 100, the number of degrees of shading has been greatly
increased, it is believed to good effect ; and oftentimes, as in
the map on page 143, an entire rearrangement of the graphical
representation has been made to conform to precise statistical
methods ; for it is a cardinal principle in graphic statistics that
the visual impression must, so far as possible, conform to the
represented facts. To denote one grade of variation of ten
per cent by a single tint, and to make the succeeding shade
designate a range three times as great, involves almost as
serious misrepresentation as an actual misstatement in the
text. At times, as in the evidently misleading scheme used
on Odin s map on page 525, where equal shades of tint are
used for widely different ranges of variation, the original
scheme has been left, because of difficulties in a proper re
arrangement from the published data.
Another detail upon these sketch maps will certainly at
tract attention viz., the apparent lack of system employed
in the lettering, French, German, Italian, or English orthogra
phy being alike employed. The rule unfortunately not in
variably observed has been to apply the spelling native to
each country in question wherever the map was a direct copy :
thus Bretagne for Brittany in maps of France, Roma instead
of Rome in Italy, and Sachsen, not Saxony, on maps of the
German Empire. When it is an original one, constructed
herein from statistical data for the first time, English trans
literations have been used. The purpose of this confessedly
awkward arrangement has been to permit of a possible adapta
tion of these selfsame maps to foreign translation. It is the
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
only possible international arrangement, that each country
should preserve its indigenous spelling. As for the legends
and titles, they lie outside the drawing proper, and necessarily
must correspond to the language of the text.*
It would be disingenuous not to confess pride in the col
lection of portrait types inclosed between these covers. This
is the more pardonable, inasmuch as a failure thus to recog
nise its value and completeness would be to reflect lesser credit
upon those to whose entirely disinterested efforts the collec
tion is really due. Without the earnest co-operation and never-
failing interest of the eminent authorities in all parts of Eu
rope, to whom specific reference is made at appropriate places
in the body of the text, as well as by name in the index list
of portraits, this work of scientific illustration of the dry
matter of the text would have been almost impossible. For
the proper selection of portrait types necessitates an intimate
knowledge of the people of each country, not possible to the
observant student but only to those who have lived and
worked among them often for months at a time. Words are
inadequate fully to express the deep measure of obligation
of which I am sensible for assistance along these lines.
Among all the European authorities to whom I am in
debted in various ways, there is no one to whom the obliga
tion is so great as to my friend Dr. John Beddoe, F. R. S.,
late president of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain.
From first to last, his interest in the work especially evi
denced by way of candid criticism upon all points of detail
* In this connection we may note a few errata indelibly fixed in the
engravings: viz., on page 170, for Basse Xavarra in France, read Basse
Navarre ; on page 169, for Medoc, read Medoc ; on page 189, for Bilboa
and Plamplona, read Bilbao and Pamplona respectively ; on page 225, it
should obviously be Schleswig ; and on page 517, Savoie ; at page 318
possibly Edinburgh ; and on the folding map at page 222, Tyrol should
be Tirol and Wiirtemburg should properly be Wiirtemberg.
PREFACE. i x
has been a constant source of inspiration. Without the sure
guidance of such criticism, many more errors than now re
main for future elimination, must surely have occurred.
The courtesy manifested by the officers and council of
the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain, in intrusting
the valuable albums of British photographs belonging to the
Society to my charge, merits the deepest gratitude. As an
act of international courtesy it is peculiarly worthy of note
at this time. Professor A. C. Haddon, of Cambridge Uni
versity, and Dr. C. R. Browne, of Dublin, Ireland, have also,
among English authorities, rendered important service. In
Germany, I have continually turned to Dr. Otto Ammon, of
Carlsruhe, for aid, and have not failed in any instance to find
a ready response.
A goodly share in the preparation of this volume has been
performed by my wife fully enough to warrant my own per
sonal desire that two names should appear upon the title-
page, instead of one. For a large part of the drawing of the
maps, much wearisome reading of proofs, interminable veri
fication of references and of bibliographical details have fallen
to her share of the work : and in addition, the invaluable serv
ice has been rendered of remorseless criticism in all matters
of style as well as of fact. The six years required for the com
pletion of the work by our joint labour must have been greatly
prolonged, and the final product would surely have been far
more imperfect, had it not been for her constant and de
voted aid.
W. Z. R.
BOSTON, April 23, iSgg.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION. ENVIRONMENT, RACE, AND EPOCH IN SOCIAL
EVOLUTION.
PAGK
History of the study of environment The pre-evolutionary period
England and the Continent contrasted Buckle s influence
Recent revival of interest among historians Scope and
character of geographical study as related to sociology.
Environment versus race Antagonistic explanations for
anthropological and social phenomena illustrated Distinc
tion between social and physical environment Direct and
indirect influence of milieu compared; the latter more im
portant in civilization Selection and specialization Progress
dependent upon such processes Limitation of environmental
influences by custom Moral and social factors . . . 1-14
CHAPTER II.
LANGUAGE, NATIONALITY, AND RACE.
Apparent contrast between eastern and western Europe only a dif
ference of degree Population seldom static Migration de
pendent primarily upon economic considerations; not tran
sient, though changing with modern industrialism.
Language and race The former often a political or his
torical product; the latter very rarely so Examples Lin
guistic geography of the Iberian peninsula (map); Castilian,
Catalan, and Portuguese Friction where political and lin
guistic boundaries not identical as in Alsace-Lorraine (map)
Celtic languages in the British Isles (map) Switzerland
linguistically described Burgundy Eastern Europe Lan
guage migratory Proof by study of place names.
Language and customs or culture independently migratory
xii THE RACES OF EUROPE.
PAGE
Languages often political or official, customs seldom so
Languages seldom coalesce, while borrowing in culture
common Race and customs or culture equally independent
of one another for similar reasons.
Migrations and conquests Historical data often unreliable
Conquest unevenly distributed Military and domestic con
quest contrasted Persistency of populations racially Race
often coincident with religion.
The anthropometric data for Europe Its character and
defects Conscripts and school children Males and females
All classes and districts represented 15-36
CHAPTER III.
THE HEAD FORM.
Measured by the cephalic index Definitions and methods Head
form and face correlated- Head form no criterion of intelli
gence Size unimportant Distribution of head form among
races (world map) Primary elements in the species Geo
graphical parallels between head forms, fauna and flora
Areas of characterization Artificial selection- " Conscious
ness of kind " Little operative in head form, though com
mon in facial features Cranial deformation Head form not
affected by environment Elimination of chance variation
Distribution of head form in Europe (map) Extreme human
types comprehended Two distinct varieties Geographical
parallels again Isolation versus competition . . . 37-57
CHAPTER IV.
BLONDS AND I5RUXETS.
Pigmentation a physiological process Distribution of skin colour
among races (world map) Environmental causes not clearly
indicated Colour of hair and eyes of Europeans more pecul
iar than their skin colour The available data ample but in
definite Comparison of methods of observation Reciprocal
relation of colour in hair and eyes Types versus traits Dis
tribution of brunetness in Europe (map) Blonds centred in
Scandinavia Persistency of brunet traits African blondness
problematical Racial aspects of pigmentation Walloons
British Isles Jews Less clear divisions than in head form
Environmental disturbance indicated Blondness of mountain
populations a concomitant of climate or poverty Pigmenta
tion thus inferior to head form as an index of race . . 58-77
CONTENTS. x iii
CHAPTER V.
Variations in the human species Geographical distribution (world
map) Direct influence of environment through food supply
Mountain peoples commonly stunted Selection at great
altitudes reverses this The peasantry of Limousin (map) and
of Landes in France Artificial selection Stature and health
or vigour In Finisterre (map) .Military selection After
effects of the Franco-Prussian War Selection shown by stat
ure among American immigrants Professional selection
Swiss results Differences between occupations and social
classes due to natural selection, followed by direct influence
of habits of life Social classes in the British Isles Depress
ing influences of industrialism General upward tendency due
to amelioration of conditions of life Influence of urban life
twofold, selective and direct Distribution of average stature
in Europe (map) Teutonic giantism Brittany (map) and the
Tyrol (map) .......... 78-102
CHAPTER VI.
THE THREE EUROPEAN RACES.
Trait, type, and race defined Two modes for the constitution of
types from traits The anthropological one described Asso
ciation of blondness and stature Difficulty of the problem
Analysis of seriation curves of stature Scientific definition of
race as an " ideal type " Further interpretation of seriation
curves of head form Pure and mixed populations contrasted
The second or geographical mode for constitution of types
from traits Heredity and race, with examples Final results
for Europe Three distinct types The Teutonic race de
scribed The second or Alpine type The name Celt History
of the Celtic controversy Difficulty in use of the term illus
trated The Mediterranean racial type Subvarieties and their
distribution .......... 103-130
CHAPTER VII.
FRANCE AND
France comprehends all three racial types Its physical geography
(map) Axes of fertility and areas of isolation Savoy. Au-
vergne, and Brittany Distribution of head form (map) The
Alpine type in isolation The Catiinns and the Morvan Bur
gundy Social versus racial hypotheses Distribution of bru-
xiv THE RACES OF EUROPE.
PAGE
netness and stature (maps) Normandy and Brittany Ten-
tonic invasions The Veneti Place names and ethnography
(maps).
Northern France historically as well as racially Teutonic
Not distinguishable from Belgium Flemings and Walloons
Physical geography of the Ardennes plateau (map) Head
form, colour, and stature in Belgium (maps) Aquitaine Its
physical geography Anomalous racial distribution Dolicho-
cephaly about Limoges and Perigueux (maps) The Lemovici
Teutonic, the Petrocorii Cro-Magnon The Limousin barrier
(map) The Cro-Magnon type, arch;eologically and in the life
Survival in Dordogne, due to geographical circumstances
The general situation described 131-179
CHAPTER VIII.
THE BASQUES.
Number and distribution Social and political institutions The
Basque language, agglutinative and psychologically primitive
in structure Early theories of origin based upon language
This language moving northward (maps) Cephalic index of
the Basques (map) Difference between French and Spanish
types of head form The Basque facial type peculiar to both
Its geographical distribution as related to language (map)
Threefold stratification of population in the Pyrenees Re
cent theories as to origin Historical data Collignon s hy
pothesis Artificial selection engendered by linguistic indi
viduality Stature and facial features Corroboration by local
customs of adornment ........ 180-204
CHAPTER IX.
THE TEUTONIC RACE: SCANDINAVIA AND GERMANY.
Head form in Norway (map) Peculiar population in the south
west, both brachycephalic and dark Stature in Norway and
Sweden (maps) The Alpine type surely settled along the
southwestern coast Anthropology of Denmark corroborates
it Sweden as a whole more homogeneous than Norway.
Germany Nationality, language, and religion no index of
race Racial division of the empire Physical geography
(map) The head form: Teutonic in the north, Alpine toward
the south Place of the Prussians De Quatrefages versus Vir-
chow Blonds and brunets (map) Teutonization of Fran-
conia Bavaria and Wurtemberg compared Stature (maps)
Austria and Salzburg Historic expansion of the Germans
CONTENTS. xv
The Rcilicngnibcr Franks and Romans The Black Forest
(maps) Environmental factors at work Alsace-Lorraine
(maps) The Vosges The Teutonic expansion an economic
movement Influence of customs of inheritance The great
Slavic expansion Traced by place names and village types
(diagrams and maps) Somatological results of Slavic inva
sions Thuringia and Saxony compared Parallels between
ethnic and physical phenomena .... 205-245
CHAPTER X.
THE MEDITERRANEAN RACE: ITALY, SPAIN, AND AFRICA.
Italy Its physical geography (map) The Po Valley and the
peninsula compared The Alpine type in Piedmont Stature
and blondness (maps) Teutonic racial survivals, especially in
Lombardy Germanic language spots Settc Comnni and I al-
d cs i Veneto The Mediterranean type in Liguria Garfag-
nana and Lucchese (map) Ethnic hypotheses The Ligurians
historically and physically Difficulty of the problem An
thropology versus philology Recent views Umbria and
Tuscany (map) The Etruscans (map) Two opposing views
Evidence of prehistoric archaeology Rome and Latinm
Calabria Foreign settlements, Albanians and Greeks Sar
dinia and Corsica compared Historical and ethnic data.
Spain Its isolation and uniformity of environment Cli
mate and topography The head form (map) Stature (map)
The Iberians, historically and physically considered Influ
ence of the Moors and Saracens.
Africa Oriental and Western divisions The Berber type
described The Libyan blonds Ethnic and historical hypothe
ses Indication of environmental influences 246-280
CHAPTER XI.
THE ALPINE RACK: SWITZERLAND, THE TYROL, AND THE NETHERLANDS.
Geographical circumstances Isolation versus competition Di
versity of languages and dialect The head form Burgumlians
and Helvetians Blonds and brunets (maps) Environmental
influences in the Bernese Oberland (map) Stratification of
population in the Tyrol (map).
The Netherlands Frisians. Franks. Hollanders, and Wal
loonsThe head form (map) The Neanderthal controversy
The Alpine race in Zeeland, Denmark, and the British
Isles 281-299
xv i THE RACES OF EUROPE.
CHAPTER XII.
THE BRITISH ISLES; IBERIAN ORIGINS (?).
PAGE
Insularity as an ethnic factor Ireland " a little behindhand " Rel
ative fertility and accessibility Parallel in social relations
Uniformity in head form (map) Prehistoric chronicle Cave
dwellers The Long Barrow epoch The Round Barrow type
"Long barrow, long skull; round barrow, broad skull "-
Modern survivals of type The Romans The Teutonic inva
sions Evidence of place names (map) The Anglo-Saxons
ubiquitous Two varieties of Danish invasion Norwegians
along the Scottish coast The Normans, last of the Teutonic
invaders.
Distribution of pigmentation (map) A brunet substratum
still extant in areas of isolation Relative brunetness as com
pared with continental countries Subvarieties The " light
Celtic " eye and the red-haired Scotch type Parallel between
Celtic languages and brunetness Peculiarities of Hertford
shire and Buckinghamshire Iberian origins, historically and
philologically considered Picts, Basques, and Silures The
witness of stature (map) Contradictions in Scotland Weight
and stature Facial features Old British compared with
Anglo-Saxon Temperament as a racial trait . . . 300-334
CHAPTER XIII.
RUSSIA AND THE SLAVS.
Political boundaries of Russia Monotony of environment de
scribed Its relative fertility Forest, black mould, and steppe
Distribution of population Languages: Great, White, and
Little Russians Letto-Lithuanians and Finns Uniformity of
Russian cephalic type (map) a product of environment Pe
culiarity of the Letto-Lithuanians Broad-headedness of the
southern Slavs The phenomena of brunetness The Baltic
Sea as a centre of blondness Distribution of stature (map)
Tallness of the Teutons and the southern Slavs Giantism
of the modern Illyrians Similarity in stature between Finns
and Teutons. Duality of physical type throughout eastern
Europe Priority of the dolichocephalic one Evidence from
the Kurgans Prehistoric distribution Which is the Slav?
Outline of the controversy.
The aboriginal peoples of Russia Finns, Turks, and Mon
gols Impossibility of linguistic classification Two types
physically considered Contrast between Mongols and Finns
CONTENTS. XVii
PAGE
Close similarity of the Finnic type to the Scandinavians
The Finnic branch of Teutonic racial descent Importance
of the theory in the anthropological history of Europe . 335-367
CHAPTER XIV.
THE JEWS AND SEMITES.
Social solidarity despite diversity of language and geographical
dispersion Is racial purity responsible for it? Number and
geographical distribution (map) Political and social prob
lems Concentration in cities Former centre in Franconia
Original centre of Jewish dispersion Relation of the Jews
to the Semites Course of Jewish migrations traced Pecul
iar deficiency in height among Jews Stature as evidence of
social oppression Its distribution in Poland (map) Parallel
between stature and prosperity in Warsaw (maps) Narrow-
chestedness of Jews Their surprising longevity and vitality
Its causes examined.
Traditional division of Ashkenazim and Sephardim Their
early physical type described Modern testimony as to the
head form of Jews and Semites Approximation of type to
that of surrounding peoples Impossibility of purity of de
scent Historical evidence as to intermixture The Jewish
facial features Strong brunetness The nose and eyes
Purity of facial type, despite cranial diversity Potency of arti
ficial selection Peculiar persistency among the women The
Jews a people, not a race Religion as a factor in selection
Parallel between Jews and Armenians .... 368-400
CHAPTER XV.
EASTERN EUROPE: THE GREEK, THE TURK, AND THE SLAV ; MAGYARS
AND ROUMANIANS.
Geography and topography of the Balkan peninsula Comparison
with Italy and Spain Political role of the Slavs Numerical
importance of the Greeks and Turks (map) Reasons for
Turkish political supremacy Mohammedans and Turks.
Greece Physical type of classical antiquity Racial immigra
tions from the north Evidence of Albanian and Slavic inter
mixture Characteristics of the modern Greeks Brunetness
and classical features. The Slavs Illyrians and Albanians
Bosnia and Servia Physical individuality of the western Bal
kan peoples Giantism, brachycephaly, and brunetness Evi
dences of environmental disturbance. The Osmanli Turks
2
xv iii THE RACES OF EUROPE.
FAT.F,
Their linguistic affinities Mongols and Finns Turkomans
Their Alpine characteristics The modern Turkish type not
Asiatic The Bulgarians Their Finnic origin Their geo
graphical extension into Thrace and Macedonia. The Rou
manians Their geographical distribution (map) Theories
as to their linguistic origin The Pindus Roumanians Phys
ical type of Bulgarians and Roumanians compared Peculiar
dolichocephaly of the lower Danubian Valley Its significance
in the anthropological history of Europe Superficiality of po
litical and national boundaries. The Hungarians Geograph
ical distribution (map) The political problem Origin of the
Magyars Linguistic affinity with the Finns Physical char
acteristics Head form and stature Difficulties in their identi
fication 4OI-435
CHAPTER XVI.
WESTERN ASIA: CAUCASIA, ASIA MINOR, PERSIA, AND INDIA.
Caucasia The Caucasian theory of European origins Its present
absurdity Linguistic heterogeneity of the region All types
of languages represented Influence of physical environment
producing " contiguous isolation " Variability of head form
(map) Cranial deformation prevalent Various types de
scribed Lesghians Circassians Ossetes Tatars.
Asia Minor and Mesopotamia Its central position and no
madic peoples render study difficult Distribution of lan
guages Duality of physical types Iranian and Armenoid
peoples Cranial deformation common The Kurds The Ar
menians Evidence of artificial selection among the latter
Their social solidarity and purity of physical type Religion
as a factor in selection Wide extension of the Armenoid type
Its primitive occurrence Its significance as a connecting
link between Europe and Asia.
Persia Absence of sharp segregation, as in Asia Minor
The environment described Three subvarieties The Semites
Azerbeidjian Tatars Turkomans Suzians.
India Importance of the Pamir as dividing racial types-
Hindoos and Galchas Affinities between Turkomans and the
Alpine race 436-452
CHAPTER XVII.
EUROPEAN ORIGINS: RACE AND LANGUAGE; THE ARYAN QUESTION.
The classical theory of an Aryan race Importance of distinguish
ing race, language, and culture Misconceptions due to their
CONTENTS.
confusion The Teutonic-Aryan school The Gallic-Aryan
theories.
Physical origins Proof of secondary character of European
races Evidences of hair texture (map) Lowest stratum of
European population, long-headed and dark Historical out
line of opinions Reversal of earlier theories of Lappish ori
gins The blond, long-headed, Teutonic type evolved by the
influences of climate and artificial selection Later appearance
of the brachycephalic Alpine race, submerging its predecessor
in many parts of Europe Its Asiatic derivation doubtful Dif
ficulties to be cleared up.
Linguistic origins Two modes of study Structure versus
root words The original Asiatic hypothesis Its philological
disproof Arguments based upon other primitive languages
of Africa and Asia The Finnic theory Attacks upon the
" Stammbaum " hypothesis Net results of all observation
The second mode of research based upon root words Its fun
damental defects Variant conclusions among authorities
Impossibility of geographical localization of the Aryan centre.
453-485
CHAPTER XVIII.
EUROPEAN ORIGINS (continued): RACE AND CULTURE.
The indigenous culture of western Europe described Recent
change of opinion respecting its origin Outline of th~ con
troversy The Hallstatt civilization in eastern Europe Its
Oriental affinities Situlce as illustrating its culture in detail
The bronze and iron ages Koban in the Caucasus Olympia
and Mycenae Human remains of the Hallstatt period Their
head form and racial affinities Bronze culture and incinera
tionDifficulties in the interpretation of data The Hallstatt-
ers probably of Mediterranean race Comparison with the
Umbrian people and those of the Lake Dwellings The early
civilizations in Italy Their dual origin Terramare and Pala-
fittcUmbrizns and Etruscans The cultural status of north
western Europe Scandinavia consistently backward in civili
zation because of its remoteness and isolation Extraneous
origin of its people and culture Its stone age unduly pro
tracted, attaining a wonderful development thereby The
bronze age Its chronological development Bearing of this
evidence upon the Aryan theories of the school of Penka
General summary of the question of European origins The
necessity of careful distinction of the phenomena and prin
ciples of race, language, and culture again emphasized . 486-512
xx THE RACES OF EUROPE.
CHAPTER XIX.
SOCIAL PROBLEMS: ENVIRONMENT versus RACE.
PAGE
Hereditary forces as distinct from environmental ones Impor
tance of the latter Examples of the climatic influences in
cotton manufacture The racial explanation peculiar to the
" anthropo-sociologists " Examination of the social geog
raphy of France as compared with the phenomena of race
Divorce and domestic organization, in how far Teutonic (map)
Suicide as a racial characteristic (map) Suicide in England
also (map) Correlative social phenomena, such as artistic
and literary fecundity (maps) Adequacy of purely environ
mental explanations The social geography of Italy examined
by the distribution of intellectuality, etc. Overwhelming im
portance of the social environment and density of population
Progressive and conservative societies compared The vital
criteria of civilization Further examination of the social
geography of France Statistics of " home families " (map)
Intricate nature of the problem Certain environmental factors
in evidence Comparison of Brittany and Normandy Polit
ical aptitudes and proclivities Radicals and conservatives in
France The election of 1885 (map) Potency of the influence
of isolation Isolation and competition fundamentally opposed
The modern phase is competition, especially in urban life.
513-536
CHAPTER XX.
MODERN SOCIAL PROBLEMS (continued): STRATIFICATION AND URBAN
SELECTION.
Mobility of population all over Europe Currents of internal mi
gration Powerful trend toward the cities Recent wonderful
development of urban centres Twofold attractions, economic
and social Depopulation of the country A process of selec
tion at work Hansen s " three population groups " Vital
versus psychic classes The comparative increase and distri
bution of each Peculiar long-headedness of urban populations
Ammon s law Universality of the phenomenon proved
Its claim to a purely racial explanation Is the Teutonic type
peculiarly an urban one? Or is the process one of social
selection alone? Temperament of the Alpine and Teutonic
types compared The phenomenon of re-emigration The
stature of urban populations Conflicting testimony, yet gen
eral deficiency in height indicated The phenomenon of segre-
CONTENTS. xxi
gation Differentiation of the tall from the short Social se
lection clearly proved in this respect Relative brunetness
of city populations almost universal Brunetness as an index
of vitality Urban immigrants compared with urban " per-
sistents " Pigmentation and force Further proof of the ef
ficiency of social selection in this regard Importance of the
problem for the future ........ 537-559
CHAPTER XXI.
ACCLIMATIZATION : THE GEOGRAPHICAL FUTURE OF THE EUROPEAN
RACES.
Threefold aspects of the problem of climatic adaptation Its bear
ing and significance as applied to tropical countries Factors
to be eliminated at the outset, such as change of habits of life,
immorality, the choice of food, profession, or occupation, and
finally race Racial predispositions to disease Consumption,
syphilis, and alcoholism The negro and Mongolian com
pared Effects of racial intermixture Vitality of half-breeds
Their lessened powers of resistance.
The physical elements of climate Heat alone not a seri
ous obstacle Humidity the important factor Heat and
dampness together Advantages of a variety of seasons
Benefits of altitude Relative value of parts of Africa.
Physiological effects of a change of climate Rise of bodily
temperature in relation to immunity from tropical diseases
True physiological adaptation a slow process The results of
hygiene and sanitation The effect of tropical climates upon
fecundity Inadequacy of proofs of sterility Comparative
aptitudes of European peoples The handicap of the Teutonic
race Comparison of opinions of authorities Racial accli
matization a slow process Two modes outlined for a prac
tical policy Relative value and advantages of each described.
560-589
Special Bibliography of Acclimatisation .... 589-590
Appendix A. The cephalic index 591-594
Appendix B. Blonds and brunets 594-595
Appendix C. Stature 595-596
Appendix D. Deniker s classification of the races of Europe
(map) . 597-6o6
Appendix E. Traits as combined into types .... 606-607
Appendix F ............ 608
General Index . 609-624
LIST OF PORTRAIT TYPES
WITH ANTHROPOMF.TRIC DATA AND INDICATION OF ORIGIN.
NOTE. Figures refer to the separate portraits as individually numbered, six on a
page.
HEAD.
LENGTH. BREADTH.
Number. Millimetres. Millimetres.
1. Original ; loaned by Prof. Kollmann, of Basle 205 140
2. Original ; loaned by Major Dr. Arbo, of Christiania ...
3. Original ; loaned by Dr. Ammon, of Carlsruhe ...
4. Original ; loaned by Dr. Janko, of Buda-Pesth 174 154
5. From Mantegazza and Sommier, 1880 b 182 171
6. Original ; loaned by Prof, de Lapouge, of Rennes ...
7-8. From de Ujfalvy, i878- 8o, by permission ...
9-10. From de Ujfalvy, i878- 8o, by permission ...
11-12. Original; from the Tashkend Album, by courtesy of
the Royal Geographical Society ...
13-14. Original ; loaned by Dr. Bertholon, of Tunis 196 135
15-16. Original ; loaned by Dr. Bertholon, of Tunis 2O2 146
17-18. From Verneau, in 1 Anthropologie, vi, 1895, p. 526 ...
19. Original ; loaned by Dr. Arbo, of Christiania
20. Original ; loaned by Dr. Arbo, of Christiania
21-22. Original ; loaned by Dr. Janko, of Buda-Pesth 179 158
23-24. Original ; loaned by Captain Dr. Livi, of Rome 187 145
On page 123. From Ranke, Beitrage, v, 1883, plate iv ... ...
On page 129. After Mahoudeau, 1893
25-26. Original ; loaned by Major Dr. Collignon
27-28. Original ; loaned by Major Dr. Collignon 177 160
29-30. Original ; loaned by Prof, de Lapouge, of Rennes
On page 142. From Hovelacque and Herve, 1894 b
31-32. Original ; loaned by Prof, de Lapouge, of Rennes
33-36. Original ; loaned by Prof, de Lapouge, of Rennes
37-40. Original ; loaned by Major Dr. Collignon
41-42. Original ; loaned by Dr. Bertholon, of Tunis 206 143
43-48. Original ; loaned by Major Dr. Collignon
50-52. From De Aranzadi, 1889 ...
53-54. Original ; loaned by Major Dr. Collignon
55-58. Original ; loaned by Major Dr. Arbo, of Christiania
59. From Mantegazza and Sommier, 1880 b 175 153
60. From Mantegazza and Sommier, 1880 b. . . 184 161
61-66. Original ; loaned by Major Dr. Arbo, of Christiania ...
xxiii
XXIV
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
HEAD.
LENGTH. BREADTH.
Millimetres. Millimetres.
Number.
67-68. Original ; loaned by Dr. Ammon, of Carlsruhe 200 151
69-70. Original ; loaned by Dr. Ammon, of Carlsruhe ...
71-72. Original ; loaned by Dr. Ammon, of Carlsruhe 179 155
73-74. Original ; loaned by Dr. Janko, of Buda-Pesth 182 155
75-76. Original ; loaned by Dr. Janko, of Budu-Pesth 174 154
77-78. Original ; loaned by Dr. Beddoc. . ...
79-80. Original ; loaned by Captain Dr. Livi, of Rome. . . . 195 178
81-82. Original ; loaned by Captain Dr. Livi, of Rome. . . . 188 157
83-84. Original ; loaned by Captain Dr. Livi, of Rome. . . . 193 147
85-86. Original ; loaned by Captain Dr. Livi, of Rome. . . . 189 156
87-88. Original ; loaned by Captain Dr. Livi, of Rome. . . . 187 158
89-90. Original ; loaned by Captain Dr. Livi, of Rome
On page 256. Original ; loaned by Captain Dr. Livi,
of Rome 182 155
91. Original ; loaned by Dr. Bertholon, of Tunis 193 152
92. Original ; loaned by Dr. Collignon (from his 1896 b) ... ...
93-94. Original ; loaned by Dr. Collignon 186 138
95-96. Loaned by Dr. Collignon. Original in his 1887 a
97-98. From Defregger s Aus Studienmappen deutscher
Meister. (Courtesy of Prof. Kollmann.)
99. Original ; loaned by Prof. Kollmann, of Basle
loo. Original ; loaned by Dr. Beddoc ...
101-102. Original ; loaned by Prof. Kollman, of Basle 205 140
On page 298. Original ; loaned by Dr. De Man, of
Middelburg, Holland
103-110. Original; loaned by the Anthropological Institute
of Great Britain and Ireland ...
III-H2. Original ; loaned by Prof. A. C. Haddon, of Cam
bridge University. Described in his 1897 :..
113. Original ; loaned by the Anthropological Institute ...
114. Original ; loaned by Dr. Beddoe 197 152
115-119. Original; loaned by the Anthropological Institute ...
120. Original ; loaned by Dr. Beddoc ...
121-126. Original ; loaned by the Anthropological Institute. . . . ...
127-128. Original ; loaned by Dr. Beddoe ...
129-131. Original ; loaned by the Anthropological Institute ...
132. Original ; loaned by Dr. Beddoe ...
133-134. Original ; loaned by Prof. A. C. Haddon (1893) 198 163
135-136. Original ; loaned by the Anthropological Institute
137. Original ; loaned by Dr. Beddoe
138. Original ; loaned by the Anthropological Institute
139-140. From Zograf, 1892 a 190 160
141-142. From Zograf, 1892 a . . 195 J 6o
143-144. From Zograf, 1892 a 182 156
145-146. Original ; loaned by Dr. Beddoe
LIST OF PORTRAIT TYPES. XXV
HEAD.
LENGTH. BREADTH.
Number. Millimetres. Millimetres.
147-148. Original ; taken for me by Mr. David L. Wing
149. Original ; taken for me by Mr. David L. Wing . . 187 157
150. Original ; taken for me by Mr. David L. Wing .... 202 152
151-152. From Szombathy ; Mitt. Anth. Ges., Wien, xvi, p. 25
153-154. From A. N. Kharuzin, 1889, plate v ...
155-156. From Sommier, 1889 ...
157-158. From A. N. Kharuzin, 1890 d ...
159-162. From Sommnr, 1886 and 1888
163-164. Loaned by Major Dr. Collignon. Original in his 1887 a ... ...
165-166. Original ; loaned by Dr. Bertholon, of Tunis 200 150
167-168. Original ; loaned by Dr. Bertholon, of Tunis 192 144
169-170. From de Ujfalvy, i878- 8o, by permission
171. Original ; loaned by Prof, de Lapouge, of Rennes ...
172. Original ; loaned by Dr. S. Weissenberg, of Eliza-
bethgrad. ...
173. Original; loaned by Major Dr. A. Weisbach, of ...
Sarajevo, Bosnia ...
174. Original ; loaned by Dr. Weissenberg
175-176. Original ; loaned by Dr. Achilles Rose, of New York ...
177-180 Original ; loaned by Dr. Janko, of Buda-Pesth
181-186. From F. Ritter von Luschan, 1889, by permission
187-188. From A. N. Kharuzin, 1890 d, by permission
189-192. From F. Ritter von Luschan, 1889, by permission
193-194. Original; loaned by Dr. Janko, of Buda-Pesth 182 162
195-196. Original ; loaned by Dr. Janko, of Buda-Pesth 174 158
197-198. Original ; loaned by Dr. Janko, of Buda-Pesth
190-210. From Chantre, i88s- 87, vol. iv, by permission
211-216. From F. Ritter von Luschan, 1889, by permission
217-218. From Chantre, 1895
219-220. From Danilof, 1894 180
221-222. From Danilof, 1894 194
LIST OF MAPS AND DIAGRAMS.
PAGE
Dialects and languages; Spain and southwestern France. Original 18
Place names; British Isles 23
Diagram of cephalic index; American college students ... 40
Cephalic index; world map. Original ...... 42
Head form; Europe. Original ...... facing 53
Colour of skin ; world map ........ 59
Relative frequency of brunet traits : Europe. Original ... 67
Stature of adult males; world map. Original 79
Stature in Limousin . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Stature and health in Finisterre (two maps) ..... 86
Average stature; Europe. Original facing 96
Stature in Lower Brittany . . . . . . . . . 100
Stature in Austrian Tyrol ......... 101
Diagram. Percentage distribution of stature ..... 108
Diagrams. Seriation of cephalic index . . . . . 115, 116
Physical geography of France 133
Cephalic index; France and Belgium ...... 138
Stature; France 143
Brunetness; France .......... 147
Average stature; France ......... 149
Cephalic index; Normandy and Brittany ...... 151
Place names; Normandy and Brittany 155
Geology and elevation; Belgium ....... 160
Blond type in Belgium ......... 161
Cephalic index; Belgium ......... 162
Cephalic index; southwestern France ...... 168
Key to the preceding map ......... 169
Stature; southwestern France and Spain . . . . . .170
Cephalic index; Basque provinces, France and Spain . . . 189
Detail; Basque-French boundary ....... 190
Relative frequency of Basque facial types in France . . . 194
xxv jii THE RACES OE EUROPE.
PAGE
Cephalic index; Norway 206
Stature; Norway 209
Stature: Sweden ..... ...... 210
Physical geography of Germany 216
Relative frequency of brunet types; Germany . . . facing 222
Stature; northwestern Germany ....... 225
Stature; Bavaria . . . . 22 7
Head form; Austria and Salzburg 228
Head form in Baden and Alsace-Lorraine 231
Head form and dialects in Wiirtemberg 233
Average stature; Baden and Alsace-Lorraine .... 236
Plan of Slavic long village 240
Plan of Slavic round village . . ... . 240
Plan of Germanic village . . . . 241
Settlements and village types; Germany . 242
Physical geography of Italy . . 248
Cephalic index; Italy .... 251
Relative frequency of brunet traits; Italy 253
Relative frequency of tall stature; Italy
Cephalic index; Liguria and vicinity . - 259
Umbrian period: Italy 2 ^4
Etruscan period; Italy 2 &>
Cephalic index; Spain . . 2 74
Average stature: Spain
Relative brunetness; Switzerland . 284
Average stature; Switzerland. Original . . . . - - 285
Blond type; Berne
Head form in the Austrian Tyrol. Original 291
Cephalic index; Netherlands. Original . 296
Physical geography of the British Isles . . 3 02
Cephalic index: British Isles. Original . 304
Place names; British Isles 3 : 3
Relative brunetness; British Isles .... 3 1 "
Average stature of adult males; British Isles . . 3 2 7
Cephalic index; eastern Europe. Original facing 340
Stature; Russia 34
Stature; Austria-Hungary 35
Head form; Finns and Mongols in Russia. Original facing 362
Geographical distribution of Jews
Stature; Poland 37
Average stature of Poles; Warsaw 3&O
LIST OF MAPS AND DIAr.KAMS. xx j x
PAGE
Average stature of Jews; Warsaw ....... 381
Social status; Warsaw ......... 381
Peoples of the Balkan Peninsula ..... facing 402
Peoples in Hungary and Transylvania ...... 429
Cephalic index; Caucasia. Original ...... 439
Texture of hair; world map ........ 459
Frequency of divorce; France. Original . . . . .51?
Intensity of suicide; France ........ 520
Intensity of suicide; England ........ 521
Distribution of awards of the Paris Salon; France .... 524
Relative frequency of men of letters by birthplace in France . . 525
Families inhabiting separate dwellings; France .... 531
Political representation in the Chamber of Deputies; France,
1885. Original 535
Deniker s races de 1 Europe 599
LIST OF PORTRAIT PAGES.
FACING PAGE
Series of head-form types ...... -39
Broad-headed Asiatic types ... ... 44. 45
Long-headed African types 44. 45
The three European races ..... . 122
French types 137, J 56
Cro-Magnon types 173
French Basques J 93
Spanish and French Basques ........ 200
Scandinavian types: Norwegians and Lapps . . . 209
Norwegian Teutonic types. 211
German types ........... 218
Austrians and Hungarians 228
Italian types 251, 270
North Africans: Berbers and Kabyles . > 278
Swiss and Tyrolese types 290
Shetland Island " Black-Breed " types 302
Old Britons 308, 309
Blond Anglo-Saxon types 308, 309
Welsh and Jutish types ......... 316
The three Scotch varieties ......... 325
Various British and Irish types ....... 330
Great Russians ........... 343
Blond Finno-Teutonic types ........ 346
Mongol types 358
Eastern Finns and Tatars 364
African Semitic types .......... 387
xxxii THE RACES OF EUROPE.
FACING PAGE
Jewish types
Greeks, Roumanians, and Bulgarians ... . . 410
Turks: Asia Minor . .418
Magyars: Hungary .
Caucasian mountaineers .
Caucasian types . . * 44O, 441
Armenoid types: Asia Minor
Iranian types: Persian, Kurd, and Tatar . 449
NOTE. Footnotes in this volume give, wherever possible, the pagina
tion according to the original publication. In cases of bibliographical
disagreement, page numbers have been taken from reprints separately
and independently paged.
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
CHAPTER I.
CORRIGEN DA.
Page 54, second footnote should read Bertholon, 1891.
Page 81, third footnote should be Zampa, 1886 a.
Page 81, third footnote should read Kopernicki, 1889, p. 50.
Page 85, third line from bottom, should read on page 86.
Page 106, third footnote should be Beddoe 1867- 69 a, reprint, p. 171.
Page 106, fifth footnote should read Oollignon, 1890 preprint, p. 15.
Page 124, footnote, should be Lagneau, 1873 c and 18?!i />.
Page 208, seventh line, should be spelled J0deren.
Page 358, second footnote should be 1895 B, p. 70.
Page 428, eighteenth line, should read, the Slavs were of fair com
plexion.
Page 433, tenth line, should be. portraits at page 364.
Pages 462 and 406. footnotes, should be spelled Schaa/hausen.
Pago 523. second line, should read, fJirir best friends, etc.
xxxii THE RACES OF EUROPE.
FACING PAGE
395
Jewish types
Greeks, Roumanians, and Bulgarians
. 418
Turks: Asia Minor
. 433
Magyars: Hungary .
. 440, 441
Caucasian mountaineers
. 440, 441
Caucasian types .
444
Armenoid types: Asia Minor .
Iranian types: Persian, Kurd, and Tatar .
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.
" HUMAN history," says Taine in the introduction to his
History of English Literature, " may be resolved into three
factors environment, race, and epoch." This epigrammatic
statement, while superficially comprehensive, is too simple to
be wholly true. In the first place, it does not distinguish be
tween the physical environment, which is determined inde
pendently of man s will, and that social environment which
he unconsciously makes for himself, and which in turn re
acts upon him and his successors in unsuspected ways. The
second factor, race, is even more indefinite to many minds.
Heredity and race may be oftentimes synonymous in respect
of physical characteristics: but they are far from being so
with reference to mental attributes. Race, properly speak
ing, is responsible only for those peculiarities, mental or
bodily, which are transmitted with constancy along the lines of
direct physical descent from father to son. Many mental traits,
aptitudes, or proclivities, on the other hand, which reappear
persistently in successive populations may be derived from an
entirely different source. They may have descended collater
ally, along the lines of purely mental suggestion by virtue of
mere social contact with preceding generations. Such char
acteristics may be derived by the individual from uncles,
neighbours, or fellow-countrymen, as well as from father and
mother alone. Such is the nature of tradition, a very distinct
2 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
factor in social life from race.* It is written in history, law,
and literature; it is no less potent, though unwritten, in na
tional consciousness, in custom and folklore. M. Taine s
third factor, epoch, what the Germans call the Zeitgeist
the spirit of the times, the fashion of the hour is perhaps
the most complex of all. A product of the social environ
ment, it is yet something more than this. There may be a
trace of tradition in it, a dash of race; to these being added
the novel impulses derived from immediate contact with one s
fellow-men. This means something different from slavish imi
tation of the past; it generally arises from a distinct desire
for self-assertion in opposition to it. Style in literature,
schools of art, fashions in dress, fads, parties in politics, panic
in the mob all alike spring from the imitative instinct in man.
If his imitation be of the past, we term it custom, conserva
tism, tradition ; if imitation of his present fellow-men re
ciprocal suggestion, or what Giddings terms " like-minded-
ness " it generates what we call the spirit of the times.
Human society is indeed an intricate maze of forces such
as these, working continually in and through each other. The
simplest of these influences is perhaps that of the physical
environment, the next being race. The task before us is to
disentangle these last two, so far as possible, from the com
plex of the rest, in all that concerns Europe; and to analy/e
them separately and apart, as if for the moment the others
were non-existent.
The history of the quasi-geographical study of environment
as a factor in human history and progress may roughly be
divided into three periods, conditioned by the rise and vary
ing fortunes of the evolutionary hypothesis. f This first of
these periods preceded the appearance of Darwin s Origin of
* Bertillon distinguishes this from the " mesologic " influences of
environment as "hereditary social forces" (De 1 Influence des Milieux,
Bull. Soc. d Anth., 1872, p. 711).
f For additional references and details, consult our Geography and
Sociology in Political Science Quarterly, x, 1895, pp. 036-655, with
bibliography.
INTRODUCTION. 3
Species. Its great representatives were Ritter, Guyot, and
Alexander von Humboldt. They completed the preliminary
work of classification and description in geography which
Agassiz, Owen, Prichard, and Dawson performed in other
kindred natural sciences. The results of all these system-
atists were subject to the same limitation namely, the lack
of a general co-ordinating principle. They perceived the
order of natural phenomena, but explained it all on the
teleological basis. Africa and Asia were practically unknown ;
no sciences of anthropology or sociology had accumulated
data ; and the speculations as to human affairs of these earlier
geographers, therefore, were necessarily of a very indefinite,
albeit praiseworthy, nature. From lack of proper material
they were constrained merely to outline general principles.
Whenever details were attempted, they were too often apt to
lead to discouraging absurdities. Price s ( 29) theory that the
black eyes of the Welsh peasantry were due to the prevalence
of smoke from their coal fires is a case in point. The only
other studies of a similar nature in this early period were those
of Quetelet and Bernard Cotta. These were, to be sure, defi
nite and specific ; they contained to,, some degree the ideas of
mass and average, but they were each limited to a narrow
field of investigation.
The literature produced in the period just noticed was
exclusively continental. The decade following 1859, which
we may call the probational period for the doctrine of evolu
tion, at first promised well for the extension of geographical
studies into the English field. Ritter s works were received
with great favour in translations, and Guyot s Lowell Lectures
awakened intense interest in America. No one thought of
the lurking danger for the teleological idea. But suddenly
" the gloomy and scandalous " theories of Thomas Buckle s
History of Civilization cast a deep shade over the field ; the
alarm awakened by the lectures of Vogt and the claims of
Darwin and Huxley as to man s origin became intensified;
and the sudden outburst all over Europe of interest in an
thropological studies excited new fears. Moreover, the
younger advocates of the doctrine of environmental influence
4 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
in human affairs insisted upon taking the apparently harmless
general principles of the founders of modern geography and
carrying them out into all details of social life. Long before
the proper data existed, Buckle, Crawfurd, Pellarin, and their
fellows tried in vain to imitate the precision of the older and
exact natural sciences. It must be confessed also that the
exaggerated claims of the economists and the generalizations
of the utilitarian philosophers also contributed in some de
gree to bring the study of physical environment as a factor
in social life into disrepute.
Uprooted in England, the new environmental hypotheses
found on the Continent a congenial soil, that had long been
prepared for their reception by Bodin, Montesquieu, and
Quetelet. Cuvier had not hesitated to trace the close rela
tion borne by philosophy and art to the underlying geological
formations. The French inclination to materialism offered
a favourable opportunity for the propagation of the environ
mental doctrines. They were kept alive in anthropology by
Bertillon pere and Perier; in literature by Taine ; and in the
study of religions by Renan. It appears to be true that where
the choice lies between heredity and environment, the French
almost always prefer the latter as the explanation for any
phenomenon. In Germany during this second period the
earlier work of Cotta and Kohl was continued by Peschel,
Kirchhoff, and Bastian, and in later days with especial bril
liancy by Ratzel.
The last decade has witnessed a marked revival of inter
est among English scholars in the study of the environmental
influences which play upon man individually and upon human
society at large. Buckle s errors have been forgiven. An
tagonism to the doctrine of evolution has passed away. A
new phase of geographical research in short, its purely human
aspects is now in high favour among historians and students
of social affairs. The apostles of the movement have been
the late historian Freeman and the eminent author of The
American Commonwealth.* Payne, in his History of the
* An interesting sketch of the geographical work of Mr. Freeman will
be found in the Geographical Journal, London, for June, 1892. The
INTRODUCTION.
5
New World called America, has shed a flood of new light upon
an old theme by the appeal to environmental factors. Justin
Winsor, in The Mississippi Basin, shows the geographical
idea logically developed " with such firm insistence and with
such happy results that he almost seems to have created a
science for which as yet we have no name which is capable
of development even to the predictive stage," to quote the
words of a reviewer. The movement has even invaded the
sacred precincts of biblical literature in Smith s Geography
of the Holy Land, which is in itself a wonderfully suggestive
commentary upon the influence of physical environment dur
ing the course of Jewish history.
The real significance of this tendency in historical writing
lies not in its novelty, for it merely revives an old idea ; but in
the fact that the initiative comes this time from the historians
rather than from the geographers or the economists. Geog
raphy has heretofore appeared in the guise of a suppliant for
recognition at court. The burden of proof in maintaining
the value of geographic science for the historian and sociolo
gist has therefore rested mainly in the past upon the geogra
phers and students of purely natural science. Notwithstand
ing all manner of discouragement, however, Wallace, Geikie,
Strachey, Mill, Keltie, and others have at last succeeded in
making their claims good, both in the English universities
and in the learned world outside as well. The tendency to
broaden the scope of economics and the new interest in soci
ology have together served as an encouragement. Cliffe-
Leslie and Roscher pointed the way; Meitzen, Ravenstein,
and Kirchhoff brought the use of statistics to its aid ; until
to-day geography stands ready to serve as an introduction, as
well as a corrective, to the scientific study of human society.
The geography that is attracting the attention of historians
province of geography in its relation to history is also discussed by him
in the Methods of Historical Study; and his uncompleted History of
Sicily shows the extreme development of the ideas found in his Historical
Geography of Europe. Despite this tendency, we find a late reviewer
(Nation, July 18, 1895, p. 50) declaring that "after all his everlasting
insistence on the great external facts of the history of the Western world,
[he] erred chiefly in going no further."
6 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
to-day is that which is defined by Conner as " the study of
the environment of man." It is the geography of Guyot and
Ritter, stimulated and enlightened by the sciences of anthro
pology, archaeology, sociology, and even statistics. No one
of these contributory branches of investigation antedates the
middle of this century. Call it " physiography," defined by
Huxley as the science of man in relation to the earth ; as dis
tinct from geography, the science of the earth in its relations
to man : " anthropo-geography," with Ratzel : or even " histo-
geography," as some one has proposed. These names all
convey the same general meaning. It is neither political,
commercial, administrative, nor economic geography ; it is
something more than the science of the distribution of races.
It overlaps and includes them all. It is not merely descriptive.
It is able to formulate definite laws and principles of its own.
In fact, geography in any of the familiar senses, is, after all,
only a single element in this new field of research. It repre
sents primarily the attempt to explain the growing convic
tion, so well expressed by Giddings, that " civilization is at
bottom an economic fact."
The scope and purpose of this new phase of geography
the study of physical environment in its influence upon man
are certain and well defined. It is a branch of economics,
with a direct bearing upon both history and sociology. " It
is the point of contact," observes Bryce,* " between the sci
ences of Nature taken all together and the branches of in
quiry which deal with man and his institutions. Geography
gathers up, so to speak, the results which the geologist, the
botanist, the zoologist,! and the meteorologist have obtained,
and presents them to the student of history, of economics, of
politics and, we might even add, of law, of philology, and
of architecture as an important part of the data from which
* Cf. The Relations of History and Geography, Contemporary Re
view, xlix, pp. 426-443 ; also, The Migrations of the Races of Men
considered Historically, ibid., Ixii, pp. 128-149, reprinted in Smithsonian
Reports, 1893, p 567.
f See Payne s masterly discussion, in his History of America, of the
influence of the zoological poverty of the Western hemisphere upon
Aztec civilization.
INTRODUCTION. 7
he must start, and of the materials to which he will have to
refer at many points in the progress of his researches." By
reason of its very comprehensiveness, this study of geogra
phy may be entitled, perhaps, merely a mode of sociological
investigation, allied to the graphical method in statistics.
Thus Schifrner exemplifies it in treating of the relations be
tween geography and jurisprudence.* " Every relation of
life," he says, " which exists upon the earth and which may
be plotted upon a map belongs, in one sense, to geography."
Mill s definition, that " geography is the science of distribu
tion," expresses the same idea. In this sense we have ap
plied it to all manner of social phenomena in our subsequent
chapters on Social Problems. Economic tendencies may be
illustrated by it.f In linguistics and ethnology there is no
limit to its suggestiveness.J In the analysis of political phe
nomena, in tracing the migrations of civilization in fact, in
almost every branch of science the value of this mode of
statistical or cartographical investigation is bound to become
more and more fully recognised.
In every science which deals with man we may discover
some trace of a division of opinion, similar to that which is
responsible for the great controversy in which the biologists
have recently been engaged. Two schools of investigators
almost everywhere appear. One of these attaches the great
est importance to race, to transmitted characteristics or hered
ity ; while the other regards this factor as subordinate to the
influences of environment. This antagonism is clearly marked
in the science of physical anthropology, and especially, for
example, in the discussions over the causes of variations in
stature among the different populations of the world. In the
early days, when race was an adequate explanation for every-
* Ueber die Wechsel-Beziehungen zwischen der geographischen und
der Rechts-Wissenschaft (Mitt. Geog. Gesell., Wien, 1874, pp. 100-113).
Schroeder s Erliiuterung zur Rechtskarte von Deutschland, Petermann
Geog. Mitt., xvi, 1870, Tafel 7.
t Ashley, Introduction to English Economic History, ii, p. 304.
t Gerland s Atlas der Volkerkunde, for example.
8 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
thing-, the problem was simple. But since the doctrine of
evolution has shaken faith in what Cliffe-Leslie * terms " the
vulgar theory of race," another competent explanation is to
be found in the mere influence of outward circumstances.
Too often, however, the choice between these two possible
causes of the phenomenon, or their relative importance when
both are recognised as effective, will vary, in absence of more
definite proof, with the personal bias of the observer. Thus
in France we find among the advocates of environmental
influence Villerme, Sanson, Bertillon, Durand de Gros,
Boudin, and De Quatrefages ; while Broca, Lagneau, and
Topinard as strenuously maintain the priority of racial factors.
Endless examples of such diversity of opinion might be given :
In Italy it is Pagliani and Sormani versus Cortese and Lom-
broso ; in Switzerland, Dunant versus Garret ; in Germany,
to a lesser degree perhaps, Ranke versus Virchow; and in
Russia, Zograf versus Anutchin and Erismann. Fortunately,
however, there is in anthropology a tendency among all the
later authorities Beddoe, Collignon, Livi, and others to
admit both causes as alike efficient according to circum
stances.
The predisposition of observers to take these opposing
views on the same or similar evidence in respect of social
phenomena, may be shown by a few illustrations chosen at
random. It appears at once in all discussions over the vari
ous forms of village community and of architectural types in
Europe. Thus Meitzen ( nr>) , as we shall see later, divides Ger
many into several sections, dominated respectively by what
he terms the German, the Celtic, the Roman, and the Slavic
type of village. In comparing these, the haphazard grouping
of dwellings in the Germanic village is~sh"arply contrasted with
the regular arrangement in the Slavic community, with its
houses about a central court or along a straight street : and
the regular division of the land into hides (Hufcnverfassung)
owned in severally, which characterizes the German type, is
as sharply differentiated from the holding of lands in com-
* Fortnightly Review, xvi, 1874, p. 736.
INTRODUCTION.
mon among the Slavs. Distinct from each in many respects
is the Celtic type, which rules in South Germany and Bohe
mia. Approaching the subject in this way, the statistician
may help in solving the vexed question of the origins of these
populations, provided the village types are the constant accom
paniment of certain racial types. But if these differences are
merely the result of local circumstances, all their ethnological
significance vanishes, and their study becomes of importance
merely for purposes of reform or administration. In a similar
investigation in France, the predilection for environmental
explanations has apparently led to this latter conclusion.*
Apply this method of reasoning to Germany. May not the
utter lack of variety in the quality of plots for cultivation in
the open plains inhabited by the Slavs, have led to habits of
communal ownership, which are perpetuated in a new land
through the selection of localities for habitation where such
customs may persist unchanged? May not even the laws of
inheritance be affected by the environment in the sandy sterile
regions, to the end that primogeniture, and not equal division
of the land among heirs, may be the only form of inheritance
which will survive? Is not emigration of all the children but
one a physical necessity? These are some of the questions
which the geologist Cotta would answer in the affirmative, f
and Baring-Gould acquiesces in his opinion. J The truth,
probably, is a mean between these extremes, but in the ab
sence of some recognised criterion our judgment will depend
to a great extent upon personal predilections. Precisely the
same conflict of opinion may prevent a final acceptance of
some of the theories of Gomme with regard to the early in
habitants of Great Britain ; for we may emphasize the ethnic
* Enquete sur les Conditions de 1 Habitation en France. Les Maisons
Types. Min. de 1 In. Pub., des Beaux-Arts et des Cultes, Paris, 1894.
Introduction by A. de Foville. Vide pp. 9-18, especially.
f- Deutschlands Boden, sein Geologischer Bau und dessen Einwirkung
auf das Leben des Menschen, Leipzig, 1858. In part ii, p. 63 ct scq., the
geological factor in the distribution of the village community in Germany
is fully discussed.
\ History of Germany, p. 74.
I0 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
element, as he is inclined to do, or we may prefer to inter
pret the form of the village more nearly in terms of environ
ment, as does the geologist Tapley.*
A distinction must be made at this point between social
and physical environment. This is especially important be
cause it is closely related to a further distinction between
the direct and the indirect effects of the milieu. Thus, that in
general under a system of peasant proprietorship, the size
of agricultural holdings should be larger on an infertile soil
than on rich bottom lands, is a direct result of environment ;
for the size of holdings tends to vary according to their ca
pacity for giving independent support to a household. But
the influence of environment is no less important, even though
less direct, when the infertile region produces social isola
tion, and thereby generates a conservative temperament which
resists all attempts at a subdivision of the patrimony, f The
result a holding above the average size is in each case the
same ; and the ultimate cause, although in the second instance
working indirectly, is physical environment.
The importance of emphasizing the distinction between
the direct and the indirect influence of environment lies in the
fact that with advance in culture it is the latter, subtler aspect
of the milieu which becomes progressively of greater impor
tance. All students would agree with Spencer that " feeble
unorganized societies are at the mercy of their surroundings " ;
or with Kidd, that " the progress of savage man, such as it
is, is born strictly of the conditions in which he lives." Na
ture sets the life lines for the savage in climate ; she deter
mines his movements, stimulates or restrains his advance in
culture by providing or withholding the materials necessary
for such advance. The science of primitive ethnology is a
* The Village Community in Great Britain, p. 133 et seq., and Jour-
Anth. Inst., iii, p. 32 et seq., especially p. 45. All of the references on
this subject are accompanied by diagrams, maps, or illustrations. The
peculiarities of land tenure in the south Midland and other counties may
likewise be the product of a double set of causes.
f This is the cause assigned by Cliffe-Leslie for certain peculiarities in
land tenure in parts of France. Fortnightly Review, xvi, p. 740.
INTRODUCTION. H
constant illustration of this fact even in the smallest details.*
It is only when we come to study peoples in more advanced
stages of culture that we find environment marking the line
of cleavage between two opposing views. One set of think
ers Ward, for example, in his Dynamic Sociology f affirms
that at a certain point natural selection seizes upon mind as
the dominant and vital factor in progress. Society passes
from the " natural " to the " artificial " stage. Based upon this
thesis, the study of environment, and even of race, becomes
more and more retrospective even, so to speak, archaeo
logical.
The opponents of this optimistic view take the ground that
civilization is merely a result of adaptation to environment,
physical as well as political. Once more to quote Mr. Bryce :
" The very multiplication of the means at his [man s] dis
posal for profiting by what Nature supplies, brings him into
ever closer and more complex relations with her. The vari
ety of her resources, differing in different regions, prescribes
the kind of industry for which each spot is fitted ; and the
competition of nations, growing always keener, forces each
to maintain itself in the struggle by using to the utmost
every facility for the production or for the transportation of
products." J
It would be easy to multiply examples of the effect of
progress in thus compelling specialization the utilization of
each advantage to the last degree thus illustrating the force
of environment even in the highest civilization. When the
vine was introduced into California the settlers tried to cul
tivate it in the north and in the south, along the rivers and
on the hillsides, near the coast and in the interior. The grape
rapidly took root and grew, but its very prosperity in some
* This is ingeniously worked out by Shaler in his Nature and Man in
North America.
\ Cf. Patten s Theory of Social Forces, in his discussion of race and
physical environment.
\ A new chapter on this subject added to the third edition of The
American Commonwealth, ii, p. 450. The same view is well expressed
by Strachey in Proc. Roy. Geog. Soc., xxi, p. 209 et seq.; by Geikie in
ibid., 1879, p. 442, and in Macmillan s Magazine for March, 1882.
12 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
places threatened its culture in others.* Some valleys soon
proved too hot to produce wine which would sell in com
petition with the best ; some soils were too heavy, others too
moist. Certain regions produced sherries, while others served
better for port wines. To insure success, the conditions had
to be most diligently investigated each year, and it was pre
cisely because all were successful that specialization was bound
to follow as a matter of course.
A similar example is the progressive differentiation in
agriculture taking place all over the United States to-day.
Once it was possible to point to the corn, cotton, wheat, and
rye belts, and to show a massing of each crop, regardless of
local circumstances. But, in virtue of the severe international
competition, these great aggregations of similar crops are
breaking up, and local specialization is the rule.f It is pre
cisely because nearly all Japan is favoured as a silk-producing
country that her best silk culture is forced to localize itself. J
Less than a quarter of a century ago a difference of an inch
in the length of the cotton staple was of slight importance ;
but in 1894, with improved manufactures, Egypt found a ready
market in the United States the home of cotton for thirty-
five million pounds of her product. The same principle holds
true of mechanical industry. When the manufacture of cot
ton was introduced into the United States it was indiscrimi
nately prosecuted wherever there were water power and
labour. At last it was perceived that climatic influences were
of great importance in the finer fabrics, and to-day there are
indications that the work of this grade is tending to localize
itself along the south shore of New England.* Here, again,
it is not any lack of ability to manufacture in the less favoured
spots, but the conspicuous advantages in the new localities,
that finally produce the new results. Each advance in skill
makes the influence of local peculiarities more keenly felt. In
short, we have here merely another illustration of the eco-
* Fortnightly Review, vol. liii, p. 401 et seq.
\ Publications Amer. Stat. Assoc., December, 1893, p. 492 et seq.
\ Jour. Royal Geog. Soc., xl, p. 340.
* New York Evening Post, March 30, 1895.
INTRODUCTION. !^
nomic advantages of division of labour. Viewed in this wise,
environment assumes a greater measure of importance with
each increment of progress and civilization. The fact seems
to us to be incontestable.
With all its possibilities, this study of physical environ
ment must at the outset clearly recognise its own limitations,
arising from the power of purely historical elements, of per
sonality, of religious enthusiasm, and of patriotism. By all
the laws of geographical probability, England s historical
influence on France ought to have been greatest in Nor
mandy, while in reality Aquitaine was the centre of English
continental activity. That Yorkshire and not Kent should
to-day exhibit the strongest infusion of Norman blood in
England is also a geographical anomaly. Again, take the
following case in connection with the distribution of popula
tion : In Brittany a primitive, non-absorbent rock formation
affords numerous natural reservoirs to hold the abundant
rains, and the population is scattered broadcast in little ham
lets. In the department of the Marne, on the other hand,
where a calcareous soil quickly absorbs the scanty rainfall,
the people are bunched about the springs and rivers. Ac
cordingly, the two districts differ widely in their percentages
of urban population and in all the social characteristics de
pendent thereon.* It would seem as if the relation of geo
logical and social conditions here discovered might be formu
lated into a general law, through which the course of settle
ment in a new country might be predicted. But the United
States promptly sets such a law at defiance. For here it is
on the primitive rock formations, in the area of plentiful rains,
that the New England village is at home. It is in the drier
areas of the West, and even on their clayey soils, that popu
lation is most widely scattered. Thus the force of custom and ,
tradition proves itself fully able to withstand for a time the
limitations of physical conditions.
Yet, even if it does not reach the grade of a predictive
science, the study of the milieu can not be neglected. One
* For illustrations in detail, see Levasseur, Bulletin de 1 Inst. Internat.
de Statistique, iii, liv. 3 (1888), p. 73.
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
4
of its aims will always be " to discover whether the historical
development of a people is in harmony with its environment,
and, if not, whether it is a plus or minus factor in progress."
Viewed in this light, geography derives a new significance
from the standpoint of human interests. It deserves a primary
place in all departments of research which have to do with
man or with his institutions. This we hope to be able to prove
in detail for the continent of Europe.
CHAPTER II.
LANGUAGE, NATIONALITY, AND RACE.
THE historian of The Norman Conquest of England was
very fond of contrasting the east and the west of Europe. He
maintained that the political unrest which underlies the East
ern question was partly due to the utter lack of physical
assimilation among the people of the Balkan states ; that, in
other words, nationality had no foundation in race. This was
undoubtedly true to some extent ; and yet even in the west
the formation of these boasted nationalities is so recent that
it accords but slightly with the lines of physical descent. All
over the continent there exist radical differences of blood be
tween the closest neighbours, so that the west is merely a
step in advance of the east after all. It is a trite observation
that all over Europe population has been laid down in differ
ent strata more or less horizontal. In the east of Europe this
stratification is recent and distinct. West of the Austro-Hun-
garian Empire the primitive layers have become metamor
phosed, to borrow a geological term, by the fusing heat of
nationality and the pressure of civilization. The population
of the east of Europe structurally is as different from that
of the west to the naked eye as, to complete our simile, sand
stone is from granite ; nevertheless, despite their apparent
homogeneity, on analysis we may still read the history of
these western nations by the aid of natural science from the
purely physical characteristics of their people alone.
To the ordinary observer a uniform layer of population is
spread over the continent as waters cover the earth. In real
ity, while apparently at rest, this great body of men reveals
15
l6 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
itself to-day in constant motion internally ; * for population is
as certain to follow social and economic opportunity as water
is to run down hill. Currents and counter-currents sweep
hither and thither, some rising and others falling, with now
and then a quiet pool or eddy where alone population is really
in a quiescent state. These movements are not transient.
Some, to be sure, may be of local and special origin, but
others are due to the operation of great natural causes. These
latter have been at work for centuries, determined by the un
changing economic character and the geography of the con
tinent. They are shifting suddenly now with modern indus
trial life, but they have persisted until the present through
generations. Proof of this antiquity we have; since, where
Nature has isolated little pools of population, we may still find
men with an unbroken ancestral lineage reaching back to a
time when the climate, the flora and fauna of Europe were
far different from those which prevail to-day. This may be
shown, not by historical documents, for these men antedate
all written history ; but by physical traits which are older than
institutions and outlast them all as well.
This varied population, as we see it to-day, is in its racial
composition the effect of a long train of circumstances, his
torical upon the surface, social it may be in part, but at bot
tom also geographical. From the study of this population as it
stands, and from the migrations even now going on within it,
we may analyze these permanent environmental influences
many of which have hitherto been neglected by students of
institutions which have been operative for centuries, and
which have persisted in spite of political events or else have
indirectly given rise to them. Progress in social life has not
been cataclysmic ; it has not taken place by kangaroo-leaps of
political or social reforms on paper ; but it has gone on slowly,
painfully perhaps, and almost imperceptibly, by the constant
pressure of slight but fixed forces. Our problem is to exam
ine certain of these fundamental mainsprings of movement,
* Ravenstein, 1885, for the British Isles, and Rauchberg, 1893, for
Austria-Hungary, give interesting graphical representations of these
undercurrents of migration at the present time.
LANGUAGE, NATIONALITY, AND RACE. \j
especially the influence of the physical environment ; and to
do it by means of the calipers, the measuring tape, and the
colour scale. Science proceeds best from the known present
to the remote past, in anthropology as in geology or astron
omy. The study of living men should precede that of the
dead. This shall be our method. Fixing our attention upon
the present population, we shall then be prepared to inter
pret the physical migrations and to some extent the social
movements which have been going on for generations in the
past.
Let us at the outset avoid the error of confusing . com-
munity of language with identity of race.* Nationality may
often follow linguistic boundaries, but race bears no necessary
relation whatever to them. Two essentials of political unity
are bound up in identity of language : namely, the necessity
of a free interchange of ideas by means of a common mental
circulating medium ; and, secondly, the possession of a fund
of common traditions in history or literature. The first is
largely a practical consideration ; the second forms the subtle
essence of nationality itself. For these reasons we shall find
language corresponding with political affiliations far more
often than with ethnic boundaries. Politics may indeed be
come a factor in the physical sense, especially when re-enforced
by language. It can not be denied that assimilation in blood
often depends upon identity of speech, or that political fron
tiers sometimes coincide with a racial differentiation of popu
lation. The canton of Schaffhausen lies north of the Rhine,
a deep inset into the grand duchy of Baden, yet its people,
though isolated from their Swiss countrymen across the river,
are intensely patriotic. In race as in political affairs they are
distinctly divided from their immediate German neighbours.
* A full discussion of this point is offered by Broca, 1862 c ; Sayce, 1875 ;
Freeman, 1879 , an d in the brilliant essay on Race and Tradition, in
Darmesteter, 1895. See also Taylor, 1890, p. 204. The first protest
against the indiscriminate use of the word "race" came from Edwards,
1829, in his letters to Thierry, author of the Histoire des Gaulois. It led
to the foundation of the first Societe d Ethnologie at Paris as a result.
4
18
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
Mentally holding to the Swiss people, they have unconsciously
preserved or generated during three hundred years of polit
ical union a physical individuality akin to them as well.* Thus
it is possible that a sense of nationality once aroused may
become an active factor through selection in the anthropo
logical sense. Nevertheless, this phenomenon requires more
time than most political history has at its disposition, so that
DIALECTS
AMt>
LANGUAGES
POLITICAL
^<^fc D OEI^
PLACE NAMES i
ALONE . . . .
PLACE NAMES
AND
in the main our proposition remains true. Despite the polit
ical hatred of the French for the German, no appreciable effect
in a physical sense has yet resulted, nor will it until the lapse
of generations.
* Kollmann, 1881 a, p. 18, finds the blonde types among them less than
half as frequent as in Baden. Schaffhausen affiliates with Switzerland
in stature also, as we shall show.
. LANGUAGE, NATIONALITY, AND RACE. IOx
Consideration of our linguistic map of the southwest of
Europe will serve to illustrate some of the potent political
influences which make for community of language without
thereby indicating any influence of race. The Iberian Penin
sula, now divided between two nationalities, the Spanish and
the Portuguese, is, as we shall subsequently show, in the main
homogeneous racially more so, in fact, than any other equally
large area of Europe. The only exception is in the case of
the Basques, whom we must consider by themselves. This
physically uniform population, exclusive of the Basque, makes
use to-day of three distinct languages, all Romance or Latin
in their origin, to be sure ; but so far differentiated from one
another as to be mutually unintelligible. It is said, for ex
ample, that the Castilian peasant can more readily under
stand Italian than the dialect of his neighbour and com
patriot, the Catalan. The gap between the Portuguese and
the Castilian or true Spanish is less deep and wide, perhaps ;
but the two are still very distinct and radically different from
the language spoken in the eastern provinces of Spain. The
Catalan speech is, as the related tints upon our map imply,
only a sub-variety of the Provencal or southern French lan
guage. The people of the eastern Balearic Islands speaking
this Catalan tongue differ from the French in language far
less than do the Corsicans, who are politically French, though
linguistically Italian.*
At first glance all this seems to belie our assertion that
unity of language is often an historical product of political
causes. For it may justly be objected that the Portuguese
type of language, although in general limited by the political
boundary along the east, has crossed the northern frontier
and now prevails throughout the Spanish provinces of Galicia ;
or again, that the French-Spanish political frontier has been
powerless to restrain the advance, far toward the Strait of
* Morel-Fatio is best on Catalan. Its limits in France are given by
Hovelacque, 1891. See also Tubino, 1877, p. 108. For the Basque,
Broca, 1875, is best; and for Langue d Oc., Tourtolon and Bringuier,
1876. Grobers s Grundriss gives many interesting details on Spanish and
Portuguese.
20 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
Gibraltar, of the Catalan speech, closely allied as we have
said, to the dialects of Provence in southern France ; that not
even the slight line of demarcation between these last two lies
along the Pyrenean political boundary, but considerably to
the north of it, so that Catalan is to-day spoken over nearly
a whole department in France; and, lastly, that the Basque
language, utterly removed from any affiliation with all the rest,
lies neither on one side nor the other of this same Pyrenean
frontier, but extends down both slopes of the mountain range,
an insert into the national domains of both France and Spain.
These objections are, however, the very basis of our conten
tion that language and nationality often stand in a definite
relation to one another: for, if we examine the history of
Spain and Portugal, we shall discover that historical causes
alone have determined this curious linguistic distribution.
The sole discoverable influence of language upon race appears
in the Iberian character of the Catalan corner of France. It
really seems as if intercourse around the eastern end of the
Pyrenees, facilitated by community of language, had produced
a distinctly Iberian type of population on French soil.*
The three great languages in the Iberian Peninsula Cas-
tilian or Spanish, Portuguese, and Catalan correspond re
spectively to the three political agencies which drove out the
Moorish invaders from the ninth century onward, from three
different directions and from distinct geographical centres.
The mountains of Galicia, in the extreme northwest, served
as the nucleus of the resistant power which afterward merged
itself in the Portuguese monarchy. Castile in the central
north was the asylum of the refugees, expelled from the south
by the Saracens, who afterward reasserted themselves in force
under the leadership of the kings of Castile. Aragon in the
northeast, whose people were mainly of Catalan speech, which
they had derived from the south of France, during their tem
porary forced sojourn in that country while the Moors were
in active control of Spain, was a base of supplies for the third
* Oloriz, 1894 a, p. 180. See also p. 165, infra. Schimmer, 1884, p. 8,
finds similar evidence of a reaction of language upon race in Austria-
Hungary.
LANGUAGE, NATIONALITY, AND RACE. 21
organized opposition to the invaders. Each of these political
units, as it reconquered territory from the Moors, imposed its
official speech upon the people, where it remains to-day. Were
the present Spanish nation old enough and sufficiently unified ;
were the component parts of it more firmly knitted together
by education, modern means of transport, and economic in
terests, this disunity of speech might disappear. Unfortu
nately, the character of the Iberian Peninsula is such arid,
infertile, and sparsely populated in the interior that these
languages socially and commercially turn their backs to one
another.* Of necessity, they do this also along the frontier
between Spain and Portugal. The eyes of each community
are directed not toward Madrid, but toward the sea ; for there
on the fertile littoral alone is there the economic possibility
of a population sufficiently dense for unification. Thus the
divergence of language is truly the expression of natural
causes working through political ones, which promise to per
petuate the differences for some time. The modern political
boundaries in the Iberian Peninsula are even less important
than the linguistic ones as a test of race. For, as Freeman
says, if in the fifteenth century Isabella of Castile had mar
ried the King of Portugal instead of the King of Aragon, the
peninsula would to-day be divided, not into Spain and Por
tugal ; but into two kingdoms of Spain and Aragon respect
ively, and Portugal as such would have disappeared from the
map. As for the Basques, they have been politically inde
pendent both of the French and the Spaniards until within
a few years, and have been enabled to preserve their unique
speech largely for this reason. But now that their political
autonomy has begun to disappear, the official Spanish is press
ing the Basque language so forcibly that it seems to be every
where on the retreat.
Friction is generally incident to a divergence of political
from linguistic boundaries. Especially is this the case where
a small minority of alien speech is rudely torn up by the roots
and transferred in its political allegiance. Alsace-Lorraine
* Fischer s map in Verb. Ges. fur Erdkunde, xx, 1893, map 3, brings
out this coast strip clearly.
22 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
exemplifies this contingency. Turn to our map on page 231,
and it will be seen that the frontier between France and Ger
many follows the bounds of speech approximately along the
west of southern Alsace. It departs widely from it all across
Lorraine, which is about equally divided in its language.
There can be little doubt that the acute unrest in this province
would be greatly relieved if the two frontiers, linguistic and
political, were the same. The natural boundary of nationality
would certainly seem to lie where the people are set apart
from one another in respect of this primary element of social
intercourse. This linguistic boundary has, moreover, per-
sisted in its present form for so many generations as to give
decided proof of its permanence. And yet, despite this per
sistence through many political changes, it has absolutely no
ethnic significance. The boundary of racial types bears no
relation to it in any way, as we shall see.
We have seen that community of language is often im
posed as a result of political unity. Thus it is, after all, rather
a by-product, so that it often fails even here to indicate na
tionality. Its irresponsibility in respect both of nationality
and of race is clearly indicated by the present linguistic status
of the British Isles.* As our map shows, the Keltic language
is now spoken in the remote and mountainous portions of
Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, as well as across the English
Channel in French Brittany. It is everywhere on the retreat
before the English language, as it has been ever since the
Norman Conquest. Are we to infer from this that in these
several places we have to do with vestiges of a so-called Keltic
race which possesses any physical traits in common? Far
from it ! For, although in a few places racial differences occur
somewhere near the linguistic frontiers, as in Wales and Brit
tany, they are all the more misleading elsewhere for that
reason. Within the narrow confines of this spoken Keltic
language are to be found populations characterized by all the
* For exact details and maps of the spoken languages, vide Raven-
stein, 1879. For France, Broca, 1868 a; Andree, 1879 b a d 1885 a; and Se-
billot, 1886, give maps and details. See our map on p. 100. Andree gives
the boundary in France in the twelfth century, showing the retreat clearly.
LANGUAGE, NATIONALITY, AND RACE.
extremes of the races of Europe. The dark-haired, round-
faced Breton peasant speaking the Kymric branch of the Keltic
tongue in France is, as we shall hope to demonstrate, physical
ly as far removed from the Welshman who uses the same
language, as from the tall and light-haired Norman neigh
bour at home who knows nothing of a Keltic speech at all.
nTEVTONlC VIU.A6E
NAMES ALTHOUGH
MANY KELTIC . .
NAMES oF NATURAL
FEATVR.E5 .
GAELIC SPEECH svr
1 TEUTONIC PLACE
NAMES . . . . -
The Welshman in turn is physically allied to the Irish and
distinct from many of the Gaelic-speaking Scotch, although
these last two speak even the same subtype of the Keltic
language. Such racial affinity as obtains between certain of
these people is in utter defiance of the bonds of speech. The
2 4 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
Breton should be more at home among his own folk in the
high Alps in respect of race, even although he could hold no
converse with the Swiss people in their own tongue.
A sense of nationality, " memories of the past and hopes
for the future," may indeed become highly developed in ab
sence of any community of language at all. -The Walloons
and Flemish are equally ardent Belgian patriots, despite their
linguistic differences.* Switzerland offers us an interesting
illustration of the same phenomenon. While the greater part
of the confederation is of German speech, as our map on page
284 shows, both Italian and French coexist peacefully along
side of it, to say nothing of the primitive Romansch, of which
we shall speak later, f There is no such linguistic repulsion in
Switzerland as between German and Czech in Bohemia, or
Italian and Slavonic in the Adriatic provinces of the Austrian
Empire. This exception to our law, that nationality and lan
guage are alike products of social contact, is not hard to ex
plain. Primarily, Swiss nationality exists despite linguistic
differences, because the three languages exist on terms of en
tire equality. The confederated form of government, with a
high degree of local autonomy in the cantons, leaves each
linguistic contingent in no fear of annihilation by its neigh
bour. The Italian in Ticino, moreover, is entirely isolated
by the Alpine chain ; the boundary of speech runs along the
mountain crests, so that geographical and political circum
stances alike insure its perpetuation free from disturbance.
The reason for the present boundary of French and German
is more difficult to explain. It runs often at right angles to
the topography, as where, for example, our map shows it cut
ting off the upper Rhone Valley in Valais. Historical factors,
as in Spain, must be invoked as a cause. The Burgundian
kingdom, radiating its influence from Geneva, undoubtedly
imposed its French speech upon the whole western highlands ;
and the present boundaries of the French language undoubt-
* See p. 162, infra.
f On languages in the Alps, see Charnock, 1873 ; Schneller, 1877 ;
Bresslau, 1881 ; Galanti, 1885; Bidermann, 1886; Zemmrich, 1894 a;
Andree, 1879 a and 1885 b, etc.
LANGUAGE, NATIONALITY, AND RACE. 25
edly are a heritage from this Burgundian rule.* The Swiss
nation is indeed an artificial one, as Freeman says ; it offers
an example of both political and linguistic adoptions of a
unique sort. One point is certain. Such racial differences
as exist in Switzerland are absolutely independent of all these
linguistic boundaries. We seek in vain for any eyidence of
physical differences along these lines. South of the Alps to-day
there are considerable communities still bearing the German
speech and customs, evidence of the Teutonic invasions of
historic times. These people have become so completely ab
sorbed that they are not distinguishable physically from their
Italian neighbours.! There are indeed spots in Italy where
German racial traits survive, but they -are quite remote from
these islets of Teutonic language, as *we shall see.
If we turn to the east of Europe, we encounter all sorts
of linguistic anomalies, beside which European ethnography
west of Vienna appears relatively simple. \ The Bulgarians
have entirely abandoned their original Finnic speech in favour
of__Slavic. The Roumanian language, Latin in its affinities,
is entirely a result of wholesale adoption : and a new process
of change of speech like that in Bulgaria threatens now to
oust this Roumanian and replace it also by a Slavic dialect.*
Magyar, the language of the Hungarians, spreading toward
the east, displaced by German, which is forcing its way in
from the northwest, is also on the move. Beneath all this
hurry-skurry of speech the racial lines remain as fixed as ever.
Lnnguugr. in short, as a grrut plii1< >1< >gi>t lias pin it, " i^ not
a test of race. It is a test of social contact." Waves of lan
guage have swept over Europe, leaving its racial foundations
as undisturbed as are the sands of the sea during a storm.
The linguistic status of the British Isles, above described,
shows us one of these waves the Keltic which is, to put it
somewhat flippantly, now upon its last lap on the shores of
the western ocean.
* The French language also extends far across the Italian frontier into
Piedmont, perhaps for the same reason. (Pulle, 1898, p. 66, and map ii.)
t Livi, 1896 a, p. 147, and 1886, p. 70 (reprint).
\ Topinard, 1886 c, is fine on this. See also chap, xv, infra.
* Xenopol, 1895.
2 6 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
We may discover how slippery speech is upon men s
tongues in yet another way namely, by observing it actually
on the move in a physically quiescent population, leaving a
trail behind to mark its passage. Language becomes truly
sedentary when a distinctive name is given by men to a place
of settlement ; it may be a clearing in the virgin wilderness or
a reconstructed village after a clearing away by conquest
of the former possessors. In either case the result is the same.
The name, be it Slavic, Keltic, or other, tends to remain as a
permanent witness that a people speaking such a tongue once
passed that way. A place name of this kind may and often
does outlive the spoken language in that locality. It remains
as a monument to mark the former confines of the speech,
since it can no more migrate than can the houses and barns
within the town. Of course, newcomers may adapt the old
name to the peculiar pronunciation of their own tongue, but
the savour of antiquity gives it a persistent power which is
very great. For this reason we find that after every migration
of a spoken language, there follows a trail of such place names
to indicate a former condition. Our maps, both of the British
Isles and of Spain, show this phenomenon very clearly. In
the one case, the Keltic speech has receded before the Teu
tonic influence, leaving a belt of its peculiar village names
behind. In the other, the Basque place names, far outside the
present limits of the spoken Basque, even as far as the Ebro
River, indicate no less clearly that the speech is on the move
toward the north, where no such intermediate zone exists.*
Similarly, all over Russia, Finnic place names still survive as
witness of a language and people submerged by the immigrant
Slavs, f
Then, after the village names have been replaced by the
newcomers, or else become so far mutilated as to lose their
identity, there still linger the names of rivers, mountains, bays,
headlands, and other natural features of the country. Hal
lowed by folklore or superstition, their outlandish sounds only
serve the more to insure them against disturbance. All over
* Broca, 1875, p. 43; Blade, 1869, p. 381. See also chap, viii, infra.
\ Smirnov, 1892, p. 105.
LANGUAGE, NATIONALITY, AND RACE. 2 /
England such names are not uncommon, pointing to a remote
past when the Keltic speech was omnipresent. Nay more,
not only from all over the British Isles, but from a large area
of the mainland of Europe as well, comes testimony of this
kind to a former wide expansion of this Keltic language. Such
geographical names represent the third and final stage of the
erosion of language prior to its utter disappearance. Never
theless, as we shall sho\v, the physical features of men outlive
even these, so inherent and deep rooted have they become.
It is indeed true, as Rhys ( 84) , himself a linguist, has aptly put
it, that " skulls are harder than consonants, and races lurk be
hind when languages slip away."
It appears that language rests even more lightly upon men
than do traditions and folk customs. We find that it disap
pears first under pressure, leaving these others along with
physical traits, perhaps, as survivors. There are several rea
sons for this mobility of speech. One is that languages rarely
coalesce.* They may borrow and mutilate, but they seldom
mix if very distinct in type. The superior, or perhaps official,
language simply crowds the other out by force. Organization
in this case counts for more than numbers. In this way the
language of the Isle de France has prevailed over the whole
country despite its once limited area, because it had an ag
gressive dynasty behind it. Panslavism in Russia at the pres
ent time, with the omnipotence of officialism, is, in a similar
way, crowding the native Finnic and Lithuanian languages
out of the Baltic provinces ; although less than ten per cent
of the inhabitants are Russians, f Language, moreover, re
quires for its maintenance unanimous consent, and not mere
majority rule ; for, so soon as the majority changes its speech,
the minority must acquiesce. Not so with folk tales or fire
side customs. People cling to these all the more pertina
ciously as they become rare. And still less so with physical
* Vide interesting discussion of this point in detail in A. H. Keane,
Ethnology, pp. 198 et seq. Taylor, 1890, p. 275, gives examples of diffi
culties in pronunciation which seem to be hereditary.
f Leroy-Beaulieu, i893~ 96, i, p. 70. See also on Little Russia, ibid., p.
120. On the Tatar adoptions of language by Finns, see p. 360 infra.
28 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
traits of race. Many of these last are not apparent to the eye.
They are sometimes unsuspected until they have well-nigh
disappeared. Men mingle their blood freely. They inter
marry, and a mixed type results. Thus, racially, organization
avails nothing against the force of numbers. In linguistic
affairs nothing succeeds like success ; but in physical an
thropology impetus counts for nothing.
It is impossible to measure race by the geographical dis
tribution of arts or customs ; for they also, like language,
migrate in complete independence of physical traits. With the
Keltic language spread the use of polished stone implements
and possibly the custom of incineration, but this did not by
any means imply a new race of men. The best opinion to-day
holds the Keltic culture and language to have represented
merely a dominant aristocracy, forming but a small proportion
of the population. It is not unlikely that this ruling class in
troduced new arts along with their speech, although it is still
not directly proved. At times a change of culture appears,
directly accompanied by a new physical type, as when bronze
was introduced into Britain,* or when the European races
brought the use of iron to America. More often are the ad
vents of a new culture and a physical type merely contem
poraneous. Such an event occurred when the domestication
of animals seemed roughly to coincide with the appearance in
Europe of a brachycephalic population from the east. No
one is competent to affirm, notwithstanding this fact, that the
new race actually introduced the culture, f Of course, con
tact is always implied in such migration of an art, although
a few stragglers may readily have been the cause of the spread
of the custom. This may not be true in respect to the migra
tion of religions, or in any similar case where determined
opposition has to be overcome and where conquest means
substitution ; but in simple arts of immediate obvious appli
cation, copying takes place naturally. The art spreads in di
rect proportion to its immediate value to the people concerned.
No missionaries are needed to introduce firearms among the
* Thurnam, 1863, p. 129 et seq.
\ Cf. Mortillet, 1879 a > P- 2 3 2 -
LANGUAGE, NATIONALITY, AND RACE. 29
aborigines. The art speedily outruns race. Moreover, cul
tures like languages seldom mix as men do. Parts may be
accepted here and there, but complete amalgamation seldom
results. The main effect of the contact of two distinct cul
tures is to produce stratification. The common people become
the conservators of the old ; the upper classes hold to the new.
It is a case of folklore and superstition versus progressive
ideas. Here, as in respect of language, arts and customs be
come reliable as a test of race only when found fixed in the
soil or in some other way prevented from migration.
Always be careful lest you attach too much importance to
the statements of historical and classical writers in their ac
counts of migrations and of conquests.* They wrote of men
organized in tribes ; it is our province to study them individ
ually in populations. We should beware of the travellers tales
of the ancients. Pliny describes a people of Africa with no
heads and with eyes and mouth in the breast a statement
which to the anthropologist appears to be open to the suspicion
of exaggeration. Even when conquest has undoubtedly taken
place, it does not imply a change of physical type in the region
affected. We are dealing with great masses of men near the
soil, to whom it matters little whether the emperor be Mace
donian, Roman, or Turk. Till comparatively recent times
the peasantry of Europe were as little affected by changes of
dynasty as the Chinese people have been touched by the re
cent war in the East. To them personally, victory or defeat
meant little except a change of tax-gatherers.
In this connection it should be borne in mind that conquest
often affected but a small area of each country namely, its
richest and most populous portions. The foreigner seldom
penetrated the outlying districts. He went, as did the Span
iards in South America, where gold was gathered in the great
cities. France, as we know, was affected very unevenly by
the Roman conquest. It was not the portion nearest to
Rome, but the richest though remote one, which yielded to
the Roman rule to the greatest extent. At all events, the
* Bertrand, 1873, is fine in criticism of these ; also Bertrand and
Reinach, 1894, chapter i.
jo THE RACES OF EUROPE.
Roman colonists in Gaul and Brittany have disappeared, to
leave no trace. The Vandals in Africa have left no sign
neither hide nor hair, in a literal sense.* Aquitaine was held
by the English for three centuries, but no anthropological
evidence of it remains to-day, f The Tatar rule in Russia and
the Saracen conquest of Spain were alike unproductive of
physical results, so far as we can discover. Both alike con
stituted what Bryce aptly terms merely a " top dressing " of
population. The Burgundian kingdom was changed merely
in respect of its rulers ; and spots in Italy like Benevento, ruled
by the Lombards for five hundred years, are, in respect of
physical characteristics, to-day precisely like all the region
round about them.J
The truth is that migrations or conquests to be physically
effective must be domestic and not military. Wheeler rightly
observes, speaking of the Eastern question, that " much that
has been called migration was movement not of peoples, but
power." Guizot s eighth lecture upon the History of Civiliza
tion in France contains some wholesome advice upon this
point. Colonization or infiltration, as the case may be, to be
physically effective must take place by wholesale, and it must
include men, women, and children. The Roman conquests
seldom proceeded thus, in sharp contrast to the people of the
East, who migrated in hordes, colonizing incidentally on the
way. The British Isles, anthropologically, were not affected
by the Roman invasion, nor until the Teutons came by thou
sands. There is nothing surprising in this. In anthropology,
as in jurisprudence, possession is nine points of the law.
Everything is on the side, physically speaking, of the native.
He has been acclimated, developing peculiarities proper to
his surroundings. He is free from the costly work of trans
porting helpless women and children. The immense major
ity of his fellows are like him in habits, tastes, and circum
stances. The invader, if he remains at all, dilutes his blood
by half as soon as he marries and settles, with the prospect
that it will be quartered in the next generation. He can not
* Broca, 1876. f Collignon, 1895, p. 71. \ Livi, 18963, p. 166.
LANGUAGE, NATIONALITY, AND RACE. 31
exterminate the vanquished as savages do, even if he would.
Xay more, it is not to his advantage to do so, for servile
labour is too valuable to sacrifice in that way. Self-interest
triumphs over race hatred. The conqueror may indeed kill
off a score or two of the leading men, and the chroniclers may
call it exterminating a tribe, but the probability is that all
the women and most of the men will be spared. In the sub
sequent process of acclimatization, moreover, the ranks of
the invading host are decimated. The newcomer struggles
against the combined distrust of most of his neighbours, as
well as with the migratory instinct which brought him there
in the first place. If he excels in intelligence, he may con
tinue to rule, but his line is doomed to extinction unless kept
alive by constant re-enforcements. It has been well said that
the greatest obstacle to the spread of man is man. Collignon
is right in his affirmation that "when a race is well seated
in a region, fixed to the soil by agriculture, acclimatized by
natural selection, and sufficiently dense, it opposes an enor
mous resistance to absorption by newcomers, whoever they
may be."
Population being thus persistent by reason of its inde
structibility, a peculiar province of our study will be to show
the relation which has arisen between the geography of a
country and the character of its people and its institutions.
Historians have not failed in the past to point out the ways in
which the migrations and conquests of nations have been
determined by mountain chains and rivers. They have too
often been content merely to show that the immediate direc
tion of the movement has been dependent upon topographical
features. We shall endeavour to go a step further in indi
cating the manner in which the real ethnic character of the
population of Europe has been determined by its environ
ment, not only directly, but indirectly as well, entirely apart
from political or historical events as such, and as a result of
social forces which are still at work. Thus, for example, we
shall show that the physical character of the population often
changes at the line which divides the hills from the plains.
The national boundary may run along the crest of the moun-
32 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
tain chain, while the ethnic lines skirt its base where the eco
nomic character of the country changes. In other cases, the
racial may be equally far from the political boundary, since
the river bed may delimit the state, while the racial divisions
follow the watershed.*
Modern political boundaries will, therefore, avail us but
little ; they are entirely a superficial product ; for, as we in
sist, nationality bears no constant or necessary relation what
ever to race. It is an artificial result of political causes to a
great extent. Political boundaries, moreover, may not even
be national ; they are too often merely governmental. From
the moment an individual is born into the world, he finds him
self exposed to a series of concentric influences which swing
in upon him with overwhelming force. The ties of family
lie nearest : the bonds and prejudices of caste follow close
upon ; then comes the circle of party affiliations and of je-
ligious denomination. Language encompasses all these about.
The element of nationality lying outside of them all, is as
largely the result of historical and social causes as any of the
others, with the sole exception of family perhaps. Race may
conceivably cut across almost all of these lines at right angles.
It underlies them all. It is, so to speak, the raw material
from which each of these social patterns is made up. It may
become an agent to determine their intensity and motive, as
the nature of the fibre determines the design woven in the
stuff. It may proceed in utter independence of them all,
being alone freed from the disturbing influences of human
will and choice. Race denotes what man is; all these other
details of social life represent what man docs. Race harmon
izes, at all events, less with the bounds of nationality than
with any other certainly less so than with those either of
social caste or religious affiliation. That nearly a half of
France, while peopled by ardent patriots, is as purely Teu
tonic racially as the half of Germany itself, is a sufficient ex
ample of the truth of our assertion. The best illustration of
the greater force of religious prejudices to give rise to a dis-
* Regnault, 1892, offers an interesting discussion of the relation of
topography and race.
LANGUAGE, NATIONALITY, AND RACE. 33
tinct physical type is afforded by the Jews. Social ostracism,
based upon differences of belief in great measure, has sufficed
to keep them truer to a single racial standard, perhaps, than
any other people of Europe. :|: Another example of religious
isolation, re-enforced by geographical seclusion, may be seen
among the followers of the mediaeval reformer, Juan Yaldes.
Persecuted for generations, driven high up into the Alps of
northwestern Italy, these people show to-day a notable differ
ence in physical type from all their neighbours.! The Hugue
not colony about La Rochelle, together with English influ
ence, seems also to have left its impress in the present blond-
ness of the department of Charente Inferieure.]: The Arme
nians also, constituting an island of Christianity surrounded
by alien beliefs, are, as we shall see, highly individualized phys
ically. Religious isolation is the cause beyond doubt.
Political geography is, for all these reasons, entirely dis
tinct from racial and social geography, as well in its princi
ples as in its results. Many years ago a course was delivered
before the Lowell Institute by M. Guyot, the great geogra
pher, subsequently published under the caption The Earth
and Man. It created a profound sensation at the time, as it
pointed out the intimate relation which exists between geog
raphy and history ; but it was of necessity extremely vague,
and its results were in the main unsatisfactory. Its value lay
mainly in its novel point of view. Since this time a com
pletely new r science dealing with man has arisen, capable of
as great precision as any of the other natural sciences. It
has humanized geography, so to speak, even as M. Guyot did
in his time and generation ; and it has enriched history and
sociology in a new and unexpected way.
We have no\v to .bring still other elements anthropology
and sociology into touch with these other two, to form a
combination possessed of singular suggestiveness. It affords
at once a means for the quantitative measurement of racial
* Renan, 1883, offers a brilliant discussion of this. See also our chapter
on the Jews, later.
f Mendini, 1890; Livi, 1896 a, p. 135.
\ Topinard, 1889 a, p. 522.
5
34
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
migrations and social movements ; and it yields a living pic
ture of the population the raw material in and through
which all history must of necessity work. Studying men as
merely physical types of the higher animals, we are able to
trace their movements as we do those of the lower species.
We may correlate these results with the physical geography
and the economic character of the environment; and then,
at last, superpose the social phenomena in their geographical
distribution. We attempt to discover relations either of cause
and effect, or at least of parallelism and similarity due to a
common cause which lies back of them all perhaps in human
nature itself. Science advances by the revelation of new rela
tionships between things. In the present case the hope of per
haps striking a spark, by knocking these divers sciences to
gether, has induced men to collect materials, often in ignorance
of the exact use to which they might be ultimately put. To
show the results which have already been achieved is the task
to which we have to address ourselves.
The observations upon which our conclusions for Europe
are to rest cover some twenty-five million or more individ
uals, a large fraction being school children, a goodly propor
tion, however, consisting of conscripts taken from the soil di
rectly to the recruiting commissions of the various European
armies. The labour involved in merely collecting, to say
nothing of tabulating, this mass of material is almost super
human ; and we can not too highly praise the scientific zeal
which has made possible our comfortable work of compar
ing this accumulated data. As an example of the difficulties
which have been encountered, let me quote from a personal
letter from Dr. Ammon, one of the pioneers in this work,
who measured thousands of recruits in the Black Forest of
Germany. " One naturally," he writes, " is reluctant to under
take a four or six weeks trip with the commission in winter,
with snow a metre deep, living in the meanest inns in the little
hamlets, and moving about every two to five days. The of
ficial inspectors must not be retarded in their work, as the
Ministry of War attaches that condition to their permission to
LANGUAGE, NATIONALITY, AND RACE. 35
view the recruits. Many of those rejected for service are
dismissed by the surgeons at a glance, but I must make meas
urements on all alike. Only when the doctor stops to make
an auscultation or to test the vision do I have a moment s
respite. They are sent to my room from the medical inspector
at the rate of two hundred in three hours, sometimes two
hundred and forty ; and on all these men I must make many
measurements, while rendering instant decision upon the
colour of the hair and eyes. The mental effort involved in
forming so many separate judgments in such quick succes
sion often brings me near fainting at the close of the session."
Of course, where observations are privately made, to ob
tain the consent of the owner of the characteristics is the main
obstacle to be overcome. To make the subject understand
what is wanted, is impossible ; for it would involve a full dis
cussion of the Keltic question or of the origin of the Aryans,
which, after the first one hundred cases, becomes tiresome.
The colour of the hair and eyes, of course, may be noted in
passing, and observers may station themselves on crowded
thoroughfares and easily collect a large mass of material. I
have myself found profit and entertainment on the Fall River
boats in running up some columns from my unsuspecting
fellow-passengers. But to make head measurements is an
other matter. Dr. Beddoe adopted an ingenious device which
I will describe in his own w r ords : " Whenever a likely little
squad of natives was encountered the two archaeologists got
up a dispute about the relative size and shape of their own
heads, which I was called in to settle with the calipers. The
unsuspecting Irishmen usually entered keenly into the de
bate, and before the little drama had been finished w r ere eagerly
betting on the sizes of their own heads, and begging to have
their wagers determined in the same manner."
The figures gathered in this way from the schools and the
armies have a peculiar value. They represent all classes of the
population, but more especially the peasantry in all the nooks
and corners of Europe wherever the long arm of the Polizci
Staat reaches. The only difficulty is that research upon adults
is almost entirely confined to the men ; observations upon
36 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
adult women are exceedingly scarce. Fortunately, such as
we have tends to agree with those taken upon males in all im
portant respects. We shall have to note but a few exceptions
to this law.* The upper classes are less fully represented often
times than the peasantry, since they attend private schools
or are better able to evade the military service by money pay
ment or by educational test. This simplifies the matter, since
it is the proletariat which alone clearly reflects the influence
of race or of environment. They are the ones we wish to
study. In this sense the observations upon these populations
may aid the sociologist or the historian ; for the greatest ob
stacle, heretofore, to the prosecution of the half-written his
tory of the common people has been the lack of proper raw
materials. There is a mine of information here which has
barely been opened to view on the surface.
* Cf. remarks at page 399 infra.
CHAPTER III.
THE HEAD FORM.
THE shape of the human head by which we mean the
general proportions of length, breadth, and height, irrespective
of the " bumps " of the phrenologist is one of the best avail
able tests of race known. Its value is, at the same time, but
imperfectly appreciated beyond the inner circle of professional
anthropology. Yet it is so simple a phenomenon, both in
principle and in practical application, that it may readily be
of use to the traveller and the not too superficial observer of
men. To be sure, widespread and constant peculiarities of
head form are less noticeable in America, because of the ex
treme variability of our population, compounded as it is of all
the races of Europe; they seem also to be less fundamental
among the American aborigines. But in the Old World the
observant traveller may with a little attention often detect
the racial affinity of a people by this means.
The form of the head is for all racial purposes best meas
ured by what is technically known as the cephalic index. This
is simply the breadth of the head above the ears expressed in
percentage of its length from forehead to back. Assuming
that this length is 100, the width is expressed as a fraction of
it. As the head becomes proportionately broader that is,
more fully rounded, viewed from the top down this cephalic
index increases. When it rises above 80, the head is called
brachycephalic ; when it falls below 75, the term dolicho
cephalic is applied to it. Indexes between 75 and 80 are char
acterized as mesocephalic. The accompanying photographs
illustrate the extent of these differences as they appear upon
the skull. They are especially notable in the view from the
37
38 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
top downward. These particular crania, with the indexes of
73 and 87 respectively, are, it may be observed, typical of the
general limits of variation which occur among the races of
Europe at the present time. In very rare instances the cephalic
index may run in individuals as low as 62, and it has been
Brachycephalic type. Index 87.
Zuid-Beveland, Holland.
Dolichocephalic type. Index 73.
Zeeland, Holland.
observed as high as 103 that is to say, the head being broader
than it is long. In our study, which is not of individuals
but of racial groups, the limits of variation are of course much
narrower.*
* See Appendix A for technical details.
Swiss, Basle. Index 64. index 75. NORWEGIAN, Aamot. 2.
Index 88.5. HUNGARIAN, Thorda. 4
.AIT, Scandinavia. Index 94. Index 96. FRENCH, Savoy.
{Illustrating the relation between the form efface and the proportions of head,
measured by the cephalic index. ,)
THE HEAD FORM.
39
A factor which is of great assistance in the rapid identifi
cation of racial types, is the correlation between the propor
tions of the head and the form of the face. In the majority
of cases, particularly in Europe, a relatively broad head is
accompanied by a rounded face, in which the breadth back
of the cheek bones is considerable as compared with the height
from forehead to chin. Anthropologists make use of this re
lation to measure the so-called facial index ; but a lack of
uniformity in the mode of taking measurements has so far
prevented extended observations fit for exact comparison.*
It is sufficient for our purposes to adopt the rule, long head,
oval face ; short head and round face. Our six living types on
the opposite page, arranged in an ascending series of cephalic
indices from 64 to 96, make this relation between the head
and face more clearly manifest. In proportion as the heads
become broader back of the temples, the face appears rela
tively shorter. We are here speaking, be it noted, of those
proportions dependent upon the bony structure of the head,
and not in any sense of the merely superficial fleshy parts. A
rounded face due to full cheeks should be carefully distin
guished from one in which the relative breadth is due either
to prominence of the cheek bones or to real breadth of the
head itself. It is the last of these alone which concerns us
here. Only a few examples of widespread disharmonism, as
it is called, between head and face are known. Among these
are the Greenland Eskimos, which resemble the Lapp shown
in our portrait in squareness of face, notwithstanding the fact
that they are almost the longest-headed race known. The
aborigines of Tasmania are also disharmonic to a like degree,
most other peoples of the earth showing an agreement be
tween the facial proportions and those of the head which is
sufficiently close to suggest a relation of cause and effect.
In Europe, where disharmonism is very infrequent among the
living populations, its prevalence in the prehistoric Cro-
Magnon race will afford us a means of identification of this
type wherever it persists to-day. At times disharmonism arises
* Topinard, Elements, p. 917. Weissenberg, 1897, gives a convenient
outline of the various systems.
40 THE RACES OF EUROFE.
in mixed types, the product of a cross between a broad and
a long headed race, wherein the one element contributes the
head form while the other persists rather in the facial pro
portions.* Such combinations are apt to occur among the
Swiss, lying as they do at the ethnic crossroads of the con
tinent. Several clear examples of it are shown among our
portraits at page 290.
An important point to be noted in this connection is that
this shape of the head seems to bear no direct relation to in
tellectual pow r er or intelligence. Posterior development of the
cranium does not imply a corresponding backwardness in
culture. The broad-headed races of the earth may not as a
whole be quite as deficient in civilization as some of the long
heads, notably the Australians and the African negroes. On
the other hand, the Chinese are conspicuously long-headed,
surrounded by the barbarian brachycephalic Mongol hordes;
and the Eskimos in many respects surpass the Indians in cul-
* Boas (Verb. Bed. Anth. Ges., 1895, p. 406) finds among Indian half-
breeds that the facial proportions of one or the other parent are more apt
to be transmitted entirely than that an intermediate form results.
THE HEAD FORM.
ture. Dozens of similar contrasts might be given. Europe
offers the best refutation of the statement that the proportions
of the head mean anything intellectually. The English, as
our map of Europe will show, are distinctly long-headed.
Measurements on the students at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology are fairly typical for the Anglo-Saxon peoples.
Out of a total of 486 men, four were characterized at one ex
treme by an index below 70 ; the upper limit was marked by
four men with an index of 87. The series of heads culminated
at an index of 77, possessed by 72 students. The diagram
herewith represents the percentage distribution of the several
indexes. It points to a clear type at a head form quite near
the lower limits of variation of the human races; those,
namely, of the African negroes and the Australian aborigines.
This example, together with a moment s consideration of our
world map of the cephalic index, will show how impossible
is any relation between the head form of a people and its
civilization or average intelligence. Comparisons have been
instituted in parts of Europe between the professional and un
cultured classes in the same community for the further elucida
tion of this fact. The differences in head form are as apt to
fall one way as another, depending upon the degree of racial
purity which exists in each class. Dr. Livi * finds that in north
ern Italy the professional classes are longer-headed than the
peasants; in the south the opposite rule prevails. The ex
planation is that in each case the upper classes are nearer a
mean type for the country, as a result of greater mobility and
ethnic intermixture. f In our study of the proportions of the
head, therefore, as a corollary of this principle, we are measur
ing merely race, and not intelligence in any sense. How
fortunate this circumstance is for our various purposes will
appear in due time.
* 1896 a, pp. 86-95.
f We have discussed this more fully in our 18960 and 1896 d. See
also Boas, 1896; Beddoe, 1894; Broca, 1872 b ; Niederle, 18963, p. 100,
etc. ; and the works of Ammon, Lapouge, Muffang, and other social
anthropologists. Venn, 1888, believes to have discovered a tendency
among his Cambridge students, but our own results belie it.
THE HEAD FORM.
43
Equally unimportant to the anthropologist is the absolute
size of the head. It is grievous to contemplate the waste of
energy when, during our civil war, over one million soldiers
had their heads measured in respect of this absolute size ; in
view of the fact that to-day anthropologists .deny any consid
erable significance attaching to this characteristic. Popularly,
a large head with beetling eyebrows suffices to establish a
man s intellectual credit ; but, like all other credit, it is en
tirely dependent upon what lies on deposit elsewhere. Neither
size nor weight of the brain seems to be of importance. The
long, narrow heads, as a rule, have a smaller capacity than
those in which the breadth is considerable ; but the excep
tions are so common that they disprove the rule. Among
the earliest men whose remains have been found in Europe,
there was no appreciable difference from the present living
populations. In many cases these prehistoric men even sur
passed the present population in the size of the head. The
peasant and the philosopher can not be distinguished in this
respect. For the same reason the striking difference between
the sexes, the head of the man being considerably larger than
that of the woman, means nothing more than avoirdupois;
or rather it seems merely to be correlated with the taller
stature and more massive frame of the human male.
Turning to the world map * on the opposite page, which
* This map is constructed primarily from data on living men, sufficient
in amount to eliminate the effect of chance. Among a host of other
authorities, special mention should be made of Drs. Boas, on North
America ; Soren-Hansen and Bessels, on the Eskimos ; von den Steinen,
Ehrenreich, Ten Kate, and Martin, on South America; Collignon,
Berenger-Feraud, Verneau, Passavant, Deniker, and Laloy, on Africa ;
Sommier and Mantegazza, on northern, Chantre and Ujfalvy, on western
Asia ; Risley, on India ; Lubbers, Ten Kate, Volz, Micklucho-Maclay,
and Maurel, on Indonesia and the western Pacific. For special details,
TV ,/, Balz, on Japan ; Man, on the Andamans ; Ivanovski and Yavorski,
on the Mongols, etc. For Africa and Australia the results are certain;
but scattered through a number of less extended investigations. Then
there is the more general work of Weisbach, Broca, Pruner Bey, and
others. All these have been checked or supplemented by the large col
lections of observations on the cranium. It will never cease to be a mat
ter of regret that observers like Hartmann, Fritsch, Finsch, the Sarasin
44
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
shows the geographical distribution of the several types of head
form which we have described, the first fact which impresses
itself is of the violent contrasts in the eastern hemisphere be
tween Europe-Asia and the two southern continents Africa and
Australia. A few pages further on in this chapter will be
found two sheets of portraits representing the differences be
tween these regions. The broad heads and square faces of
the Asiatic types are very different from the long oval of the
dolichocephalic negro, or of the Berber populations north of
the Sahara, which in head and face so strongly resemble them.
In profile the posterior development of the negro skull should
be compared with the bullet-shaped head of the Asiatic. It
will appear that differences in length are as remarkable as in
the breadth. With these contrasts in mind, turn to our world
map. The line of division of head forms passes east and west
just south of the great continental backbone extending from
the Alps to the Himalayas. Thus the primitive natives of
India, the black men of the hill tribes, who are quite distinct
from the Hindu invaders, form part of this southern long
headed group. The three southern centres of long-headedness
may once have been part of a single continent which occupied
the basin of the Indian Ocean. From the peculiar geograph
ical localization about this latter centre of the lemurs, a spe
cies allied to the monkeys, together with certain other mam
mals, some naturalists have advocated the theory that such
a continent once united Africa and Australia.* To this hypo
thetical land mass they have assigned the name Lemuria. It
would be idle to discuss the theory in this place. Whether
such a continent ever existed or not, the present geographical
distribution of long-headedness points to a common deriva
tion of the African and the Australian and Melanesian races,
between whom stand as a connecting link the Dravidian or
brothers, Stanley, and others, offer no material for work of this kind.
For the location of tribes, we have used Gerland s Atlas fur Volkerkunde.
It is to be hoped that Dr. Boas s map for North America, now ready for
publication, may not long be delayed ; our map has benefited from his
courteous correction.
* Ernst Haeckel, 1891, gives an interesting map with a restoration of
this continent as a centre of dispersion for mammals.
UZBEG, Ferghanah.
KIPTCHAK.
KARA-KIRGHKX.
BRACHYCEPHALIC ASIATIC TYPES.
BERBER, Tunis. Dark brunet. Index 69.
BERBER, Tunis. Dark brunet. Index 72
SKKKRK, Negro. Index 75.
DOLICHOCEPHALIC AFRICAN TYPES
THE HEAD FORM. 4 c
aboriginal inhabitants of India. The phenomena of skin
colour and of hair only serve to strengthen the hypothesis.
The extremes in head form here presented between the
north and the south of the eastern hemisphere constitute the
mainstay of the theory that in these places we find the two
primary elements of the human species. Other racial traits
help to confirm the deduction. The most sudden anthropo-
geographical transition in the world is afforded by the Hima
laya mountain ranges. Happily, we possess, from Ujfalvy *
and others, pretty detailed information for parts of this region,
especially the Pamir. This " roof of the world " is of peculiar
interest to us as the land to which Max Miiller sought to trace
the Aryan invaders of Europe by a study of the languages
of that continent. It is clearly proved that this greatest moun
tain system in the world is at the same time the dividing line
between the extreme types of mankind. It is really the human
equator of the earth. Such is as it should be. For while the
greatest extremes of environment are offered between the
steaming plains of the Ganges and the frigid deserts and
steppes of the north, at the same time direct intercourse be
tween the two regions has been rendered well-nigh impos
sible by the height of the mountain chain itself. In each
region a peculiar type has developed without interference
from the other. At either end of the Himalayas proper, where
the geographical barriers become less formidable, and espe
cially wherever we touch the sea, the extreme sharpness of
the human contrasts fails. The Chinese manifest a tendency
toward an intermediate type of head form. Japan shows it
even more clearly. From China south the Asiatic broad-
headedness becomes gradually attenuated among the Malays,
until it either runs abruptly up against the Melanesian dolicho
cephalic group or else vanishes among the islanders of the
Pacific. Evidence that in thus extending to the southeast,
the Malays have dispossessed or absorbed a more primitive
population is afforded by the remnants of the negritos. These
black people still exist in some purity in the inaccessible up-
Les Aryans au Nord et au Sud de 1 Hindou-Kouch. Paris, 1896.
4 6
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
lands of the large islands in Malaysia, and especially in the
Philippine Archipelago.
Compared with the extreme forms presented in the Old
World, the Americas appear to be quite homogeneous and
at the same time intermediate in type, especially if we except
the Eskimo ; for in the western hemisphere among the true
Indians the extreme variations of head form are comprised
between the cephalic indices of 85 in British Columbia and
Peru, and of 76 on the southeast coast of Brazil. Probably
nine tenths of the native tribes of America have average indices
between 79 and 83. Many American peoples among whom
customs of cranial deformation prevail, are able artificially to
raise their indices to 90 or even 95 ; but such monstrosities
should be excluded for the present, since we are studying
normal types of man alone. Translated into words, this means
that the American aborigines should all be classified together
as, in a sense, a secondary and more or less transitional racial
group.
With them we may place the great group of men which
inhabits the islands of the Pacific. These people manifest
even clearer than do the American Indians that they are an
intermediate type. They are, however, more unstable as a
race, especially lacking in homogeneity. They seem to be
compounded of the Asiatic and Melanesian primary racial
elements in varying proportions. It is the most discouraging
place in the world to measure types of head, because of their
extreme variability. We shall have occasion shortly to com
pare certain of their characteristics other than the head form
with those of the people of Europe. This we shall do in the
attempt to discover whether these Europeans are also a sec
ondary race, or whether they are entitled to a different place
in the human species. We shall then see that one can not
study Europe quite by itself without gaining thereby an en
tirely false idea of its human history.
Before proceeding to discuss the place which Europe occu
pies in our racial series, it may be interesting to point out
certain curious parallelisms between the geographical localiza
tion of the several types of head form and the natural dis-
THE HEAD FORM.
47
tribution of the flora and fauna of the earth.* Agassiz a half
century ago commented upon the similar areas of distribution
of mammals and of man. His observations are confirmed by
our data on the head form. Where, as in Africa and Aus
tralia, there is marked individuality in the lower forms of life,
there is also to be found an extreme type of the human spe
cies. Where, on the other hand, realms like the Oriental
one which covers southeastern Asia and the Malay Archipel
ago, have drawn upon the north and the south alike for both
their flora and fauna, several types of man have also immi
grated and crossed with one another. Often the dividing lines
between distinct realms for varieties of man, animal, and plant
coincide quite exactly. The Sahara Desert, once a sea, and
not the present Mediterranean, as we shall show, divides the
true negro from the European, as it does the Ethiopian zoo
logical and botanical realm from its neighbour. Thus do the
African Berbers in our portraits belong of right to the Euro
pean races, as we shall soon be able to prove. The facial re
semblance is enough to render such proof unnecessary. The
Andes, the Rocky Mountains, and the Himalayas, for a similar
reason divide types of all forms of life alike, including man.
Even that remarkable line which Alfred Russel Wallace so
vividly describes in his Island Life, which divides the truly
insular fauna and flora from those of the continent of Asia,
is duplicated among men near by. The sharp division line
for plants and animals between Bali and Lombok we have
shown upon the map. It is but a short distance farther east,
between Timor and Flores, where we suddenly pass from
the broad-headed, straight-haired Asiatic Malay to the long
headed and frizzled Melanesian savage to the group which
includes the Papuans of New Guinea and the Australian.!
Following out this study of man in his natural migrations
just as we study the lower animals, it can be shown that the
differences in geographical localization between the human
* Beddard, Lyddeker, Sclater, are best on geographical zoology. Hrin-
ton, 1890 a, p. 95, gives many references on this.
t A good ethnological map of this region is given in Ratzel, i894- g5,
vol. i.
4 8
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
and other forms of life are merely of degree. The whole mat
ter is reducible at bottom to terms of physical geography,
producing areas of characterization. Where great changes in
the environment occur, where oceans or mountain chains
divide, or where river systems unite geographical areas, we
discover corresponding effects upon the distribution of human
as of other animal types. This is not necessarily because the
environment has directly generated those peculiarities in each
instance ; certainly no such result can be shown in respect of
the head form. It is because the several varieties of man or
other mammals have been able to preserve their individuality
through geographical isolation from intermixture; or con
trariwise, as the case may be, have merged it in a conglom
erate whole compounded of all immigrant types alike. In
this sense man in his physical constitution is almost as much
a creature of environment as the lower orders of life. Even
in Europe he has not yet wholly cast off the leading strings
of physical circumstance, as it is our purpose ultimately to
show.
By this time it will have been observed that the differences
in respect of the head form become strongly noticeable only
when we compare the extremes of our racial series ; in other
words, that while the minor gradations may be real to the
calipers and tape, they are not striking at first glance to the
eye. Let us carefully note that in observing the proportions
of the head, we have absolutely nothing to do with those fea
tures by which in Europe w r e are accustomed to distinguish
nationalities. Nine times out of ten we recognise an Irish
man, a Swede, or an Italian by means of these lesser details.
They are in reality more often national or local than wholly
racial. Let us also rigidly eliminate the impressions derived
from mere facial expression. Such belongs rather to the
study of character than of race. It seldom becomes strongly
marked before middle life, while the more fundamental traits
are fully apparent much earlier. As a matter of fact, it is the
modesty of the head proportions not forcing themselves con
spicuously upon the observer s notice as do differences in the
colour of the skin, the facial features, or the bodily stature
THE HEAD FORM.
49
which forms the main basis of their claim to priority as a
test of race. Were this head form as strikingly prominent
as these other physical traits, it would tend to fall a prey to
the modifying factor of artificial selection : that is to say, it
would speedily become part and parcel among a people of a
general ideal, either of racial beauty or of economic fitness,
so that the selective choice thereby induced, would soon modify
the operation of purely natural causes.
However strenuously the biologists may deny validity to
the element of artificial selection among the lower animals,
it certainly plays a large part in influencing sexual choice
among primitive men and more subtly among us in civiliza-
tion. Jusl as soon as ;i social group recognises the possession
of certain physical traits peculiar to itself that is, as soon
as it evolves what Giddings has aptly termed a " conscious
ness of kind " its constant endeavour thenceforth is to afford
the fullest expression to that ideal. Thus, according to Balz,
the nobility in Japan are as much lighter in weight and more O
slender in build than their lower classes, as the Teutonic nobil
ity of Great Britain/isiabove the British average. The Japan
ese aristocracy in consequence might soon come to consider
its bodily peculiarities as a sign of high birth. That it would
thereafter love, choose, and marry unconsciously perhaps,
but no less effectively in conformity with that idea is be
yond peradventure. Is there any doubt that where, as in our
own Southern States, two races are socially divided from one
another, the superior would do all in his power to eliminate
any traces of physical similarity to the menial negroes ? Alight
not the Roman nose, light hair and eyes, and all those promi
nent traits which distinguished the master from the slave,
play an important part in constituting an ideal of beauty
which would become highly effective in the course of time?
So uncultured a people as the natives of Australia are pleased
to term the Europeans, in derision, " tomahawk-noses," re
garding our primary facial trait as absurd in its make-up.
Even among them the " consciousness of kind " can not be
denied as an important factor to be dealt with in the theory
of the formation of races.
50 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
Such an artificial selection as we have instanced is pecul
iarly liable to play havoc with facial features, for which reason
these latter are rendered quite unreliable for purposes of racial
identification. Because they are entirely superficial, they are
first noted by the traveller and used as a basis of classifica
tion. A case in point is offered by the eastern Eskimos, who
possess in marked degree not only the almond eye, so char
acteristic of the Mongolian peoples, but also the broad face,
high cheek bones, and other features common among the
people of Asia. Yet, notwithstanding this superficial resem
blance, inspection of our world map of the head form shows
that they stand at the farthest remove from the Asiatic type.
They are even longer-headed than most of the African negroes.
The same phenomenon confronts us in our analysis of the
aborigines of Russia. We shall find many of the dolicho
cephalic Finns, who are superficially Mongols in every facial
characteristic. They remain Finns nevertheless, although their
faces belie it. Equally erroneous is it to assume, because the
Asiatic physiognomy is quite common among all the aborigines
of the Americas, even to the tip of Cape Horn, that this con
stitutes a powerful argument for a derivation of the American
Indian from the Asiatic stock. We shall have occasion to
point out from time to time the occurrence of local facial types
in various parts of Europe. On the principle we have indi
cated above, these are highly interesting as indications of a
local sense of individuality; though they mean but little, so
far as racial origin and derivation are concerned.
Happily for us, racial differences in head form are too
slight to suggest any such social selection as has been sug
gested ; moreover, they are generally concealed by the head
dress, which assumes prominence in proportion as we re
turn toward barbarism. Obviously, a Psyche knot or savage
peruke suffices to conceal all slight natural differences of this
kind ; so that Nature is left free to follow her own bent with
out interference from man. The colour of skin peculiar to
a people may be heightened readily by the use of a little pig
ment. Such practices are not infrequent. To modify the
shape of the cranium itself, even supposing any peculiarity
THE HEAD FORM. 5!
were detected, is quite a different matter. It is far easier to
rest content with a modification of the headdress, which may
be rendered socially distinctive by the application of infinite
pains and expense. It is well known that in many parts of
the world the head is artificially deformed by compression
during infancy. This was notably the case in the Americas.
Such practices have obtained and prevail to-day in parts
of Europe.* Bodin tells us that the Belgae were accus
tomed to compress the head by artificial means. The people
about Toulouse in the Pyrenees are accustomed, even at the
present time, to distort the head by the application of band
ages during the formative period of life. This deformation
is sometimes so extreme as to equal the Flathead Indian mon
strosities which have been so often described. Fortunately,
these barbarous customs are rare among the civilized peoples
which it is our province to discuss. Their absence, however,
can not be ascribed to inability to modify the shape of the
head ; rather does it seem to be due to the lack of apprecia
tion that any racial differences exist, which may be exag
gerated for social effect or racial distinction. More important
to-day are the customs, such as the use of hard cradles, which
indirectly operate to modify the shape of the cranium. Our
portraits of Armenians and other peoples of Asia Minor at
page 4/J4 show the possible effect of such practices. These
deformations not being clearly intentional, can not be reckoned
as evidence of a selective process.
\Yestermarck f develops the interesting law that deforma-
tive practices generally tend to exaggerate the characteristics
peculiar to a people. It is true, indeed, that a flattening of
the occiput seems to be more prevalent among the naturally
* For a full account of such deformation, vide L Anthropologie, vol. iv,
pp. 11-27. The illustrations of such deformation, of the processes em
ployed, and of the effect upon the brain development, are worthy of note.
Other references concerning Europe are Lagneau, 1872, p. 618 ; Luschan,
1879 : Lenhossek, 1878 ; Perier, 1861, p. 26 ; Davis and Thurnam, 1865,
pp. 34, 42; Thurnam, 1863, p. 157; Bertholon, 1892, p. 42; Globus, lix,
p. 118, after Delisle in Bull. Soc. d Anth., 1886, p. 649. Anutchin, 1887
and 1892, on Russia, is particularly good.
f History of Human Marriage, second edition, p. 262.
52 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
brachycephalic aborigines of America and Asia. We have an
African example of a recognition of the opposite cephalic pe
culiarity. It seems highly suggestive. The naturally long
headed Ovambo shave all the head save at the top, it is said,
in order to bring their prominent occiputs into greater relief.
One can not deny the effectiveness of such a custom in the
case of our African portraits in this chapter. They certainly
exaggerate the natural long-headedness to a marked degree.
Such phenomena are, however, very rare ; cranial individuality
is very seldom subject to such modification, being in so far
free from disturbance by artificial selection.
Another equally important guarantee that the head form
is primarily the expression of racial differences alone lies in
its immunity from all disturbance from physical environment.
As will be shown subsequently, the colour of the hair and
eyes, and stature especially, are open to modification by local
circumstances ; so that racial peculiarities are often obscured
or entirely reversed by them. On the other hand, the gen
eral proportions of the head seem to be uninfluenced either
by climate, by food supply or economic status, or by habits
of life ; so that they stand as the clearest exponents which
we possess of the permanent hereditary differences within
the human species. Ranke, of Munich, most eminent of
German authorities, has long advocated a theory that there
is some natural relation between broad-headedness and a
mountainous habitat.* He was led to this view by the re
markable Alpine localization, which we shall speedily point
out, of the brachycephalic race of Europe. Our map of the
world, with other culminations of this type in the Himalayan
plateau of Asia, in the Rocky Mountains, and the Andes, may
seem to corroborate this view. Nevertheless, all attempts to
trace any connection in detail between the head form and the
habitat have utterly failed. For this reason we need not stop
to refute this theory by citing volumes of evidence to the
contrary, as we might. Our explanation for this peculiar
geographical phenomenon, which ascribes it to a racial se-
* Cf. Moschen, 1892, p. 125, for criticism of this. Beitrage zur Anthro-
pologie Bayerns, i, 1877, pp. 232-234 ; ii, 1879, P- 75-
THE DEFP JHAPE5 INDICATE
BROAD AND ROATivaj SHOKI HEAM
INDICATE THE
BREADTH OF LIVING HEADS
IN PFRCENTAQE OF THE
TOTAL LENGTH . . ,
THE HEAD FORM. 53
lective process alone, is fully competent to account for the
fact. The environment is still a factor for us of great mo
ment, but its action is merely indirect. In the present state
of our knowledge, then, we seem to be justified in ruling out
environment once and for all as a direct modifier of the shape
of the head.
Having disposed of both artificial selection and environ
ment as possible modifiers of the head form, nothing remains
to be eliminated except the element of chance variation.*
This last is readily counterbalanced by taking so many ob
servations that the fluctuations above and below the mean
neutralize one another. Variation due to chance alone is no
more liable to occur in the head than in any other part of
the body. Rigid scientific methods are the only safeguard
for providing against errors due to it. It is this necessity
of making the basis of observation so broad that all error
due to chance may be eliminated, which constitutes the main
argument for the study of heads in the life rather than of
skulls ; for the limit to the number of measurements is deter
mined by the perseverance and ingenuity of the observer alone,
and not by the size of the museum collection or of the burial
place. It should be added that our portraits have been espe
cially chosen with a view to the elimination of chance. They
will always, so far as possible, represent types and not indi
viduals, in the desire to have them stand as illustrations and
not merely pictures. This is a principle which is lamentably
neglected in many books on anthropology; to lose sight of
it is to prostitute science in the interest of popularity.
The most conspicuous feature of our map of cephalic index
for western Europe f is that here within a limited area all the
extremes of head form known to the human race are crowded
together. In other words, the so-called white race of Europe
is not physically a uniform and intermediate type in the propor
tions of the head between the brachycephalic Asiatics and the
long-headed negroes of Africa. A few years ago it \vas be-
* Ranke, 1897 b. See also chapter vi for further discussion,
f See Appendix A for technical details.
t4 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
lieved that this was true.* More recently, detailed research
has revealed hitherto unsuspected limits of variation. They
are roughly indicated by our portraits of living European
types at page 39. In the high Alps of northwestern Italy are
communes with an average index of 89, an extreme of round-
headedness not equalled anywhere else in the world save in
the Balkan Peninsula and in Asia Minor. This type of head
prevails all through the Alps, quite irrespective of political
frontiers. These superficial boundaries are indicated in white
lines upon the map to show their independence of racial limits.
There is no essential difference in head form between the
Bavarians and the Italian Piedmontese, or between the French
Savoyards and the Tyrolese.
From what has been said, it will appear that these Alpine
populations in purity exceed any known tribes of central Asia
in the breadth of their heads. Yet within three hundred miles
as the crow flies, in the island of Corsica, are communes with
an average cephalic index of 73. \ These mountaineers of in
land Corsica are thus as long-headed as any tribe of Aus
tralians, the wood Veddahs of Ceylon, or any African negroes
of which we have extended observations. A little way farther
to the north there are other populations in Scotland, Ireland,
and Scandinavia which are almost as widely different from
the Alpine peoples in the proportions of the head as are the
Corsicans. An example of extreme individual variation down
ward is shown in our Teutonic type at page 39, which has a
lower index than any recorded for the longest-headed primitive
races known. Nor is this all. Pass to northern Scandinavia,
and we find among the Lapps, again, one of the broadest-
* Sir W. H. Flower, in his classification of human types, asserted it as
late as 1885 ; it is reaffirmed in Flower and Lyddeker s great handbook
(1891) ; yet A. Retzius, as early as 1864, in his map of cephalic index,
practically represented the modern proved facts, which detailed research
has been slowly confirming ever since.
f Lapouge, 1897 c, describes, perhaps, the broadest-headed contingent
in Europe. Jaubert and Mahoudeau are best on Corsica. Bertholon,
1892, found an average below 74 for 358 Berbers in Khoumirie. Portugal,
as we shall see, is equally long-headed, according to data furnished by
Ferraz de Macedo. Cf. Closson, 1896 a, p. 176.
THE HEAD FORM.
55
headed peoples of the earth, of a type shown in our series
of portraits.
So remarkably sudden are these transitions that one is
tempted at first to regard them as the result of chance. Fur
ther examination is needed to show that it must be due to
law. Proof of this is offered by the map itself; for it indi
cates a uniform gradation of head form from several specific
centres of distribution outward. Consider Italy, for example,
where over three hundred thousand individuals, from every
little hamlet, have been measured in detail. The transition
from north to south is, as we shall see, perfectly consistent.
The people of the extreme south are like the Africans among
our portraits, at page 45 in respect of the head form; grad
ually the type changes until in Piedmont we reach an extreme
perfectly similar to that depicted on our other page of brachy-
cephalic Asiatic types. So it is all over the continent. Each
detailed research is a check on its neighbour. There is no
escape from the conclusion that we have to do with law.
Two distinct varieties of man, measured by the head form
alone, are to be found within the confines of this little conti
nent. One occupies the heart of western Europe as an out
post of the great racial type which covers all Asia and most
of eastern Europe as well. The other, to which we as Anglo-
Saxons owe allegiance, seems to hang upon the outskirts of
Europe, intrenched in purity in the islands and peninsulas
alone. Northern Africa, as we have already observed, is to
be classed with these. Furthermore, this long-headed type
appears to be aggregated about two distinct centres of dis
tribution in the north and south respectively. In the next
chapter we shall show that these two centres of long-headed-
ness are again divided from one another in respect of both
colour of hair and eyes and stature. From the final combina
tion of all these bodily characteristics we discover that in
reality in Europe we have to do with three physical types,
and not two. Thus we reject at once that old classification
in our geographies of all the peoples of Europe under a single
title of the white, the Indo-Germanic, Caucasian, or Aryan
race. Europe, instead of being a monotonous entity, is a
eg THE RACES OF EUROPE.
most variegated patchwork of physical types. Each has a
history of its own, to be worked out from a study of the living
men. Upon the combination of these racial types in varying
proportions one with another the superstructure of nation
ality has been raised.
Among other points illustrated by our map of Europe is
the phenomenon paralleled in general zoology, that the ex
treme or pure type is normally to be found in regions of
marked geographical individuality. Such areas of charac
terization occur, for example, in the Alpine valleys, in Corsica
and Sardinia, somewhat less so in Spain, Italy, and Scandi
navia. The British Isles, particularly Ireland, at least until
the full development of the art of navigation, afforded also a
good example of a similar area of characterization. Europe
has always been remarkable among continents by reason of
its " much-divided " geography. From Strabo to Montes
quieu political geographers have called attention to the ad
vantage which this subdivision has afforded to man. They
have pointed to the smooth outlines of the African continent,
for example; to its structural monotony, and to the lack of
geographical protection enjoyed by its social and political
groups. The principle which they invoked appears to hold
true in respect of race as well as of politics. Africa is as uni
form racially as Europe is heterogeneous.
Pure types physically are always to be found outside the
great geographical meeting .places. These, such as the gar
den of France, the valleys of the Po, the Rhine, and the
Danube, have always been areas of conflict. Competition,
the opposite of isolation, in these places is the rule; so that
progress which depends upon the stress of rivalry has fol
lowed as a. matter of course. There are places where too
much of this healthy competition has completely broken the
mould of nationality, as in Sicily, so ably pictured by Free
man. It is only within certain limits that struggle and con
flict make for an advance forward or upward. Ethnically,
however, this implies a variety of physical types in contact,
from which by natural selection the one best fitted for sur
vival may persist. This means ultimately the extinction of
THE HEAD FORM.
57
extreme types and the supersession of them by mediocrity.
In other words, applying these principles to the present case,
it implies the blending of the long and the narrow heads and
the substitution of one of medium breadth. The same causes,
then, which conduce socially and politically to progress have
as an ethnic result mediocrity of type. The individuality of the
single man is merged in that of the social group. In fine, con
trast of race is swallowed up in nationality. This process has
as yet only begun in western Europe. In the so-called upper
classes it has proceeded far, as we shall see. We shall, in due
course of time, have to trace social forces now at work which
insure its further prosecution not only among the leaders of
the people, but among the masses as well. The process will
be completed in that far-distant day when the conception of
common humanity shall replace the narrower one of nation
ality ; then there will be perhaps not two varieties of head
form in Europe, but a great common mean covering the whole
continent. The turning of swords into ploughshares will con
tribute greatly to this end. Modern industrial life with its
incident migrations of population does more to upset racial
purity than a hundred military campaigns or conquests. Did
it not at the same time invoke commercial rivalries and build
up national barriers against intercourse, we might hope to see
this amalgamation completed in a conceivable time.
CHAPTER IV.
BLONDS AND BRUNETS.
THE colour of the skin has been from the earliest times
regarded as a primary means of racial identification. The
ancient Egyptians were accustomed to distinguish the races
known to them by this means both upon their monuments
and in their inscriptions. Notwithstanding this long ac
quaintance, the phenomenon of pigmentation remains to-day
among the least understood departments of physical anthro
pology. One point alone seems to have been definitely
proved : however marked the contrasts in colour between the
several varieties of the human species may be, there is no cor
responding difference in anatomical structure discoverable.
Pigmentation arises from the deposition of colouring mat
ter in a special series of cells, which lie just between the trans
lucent outer skin or epidermis and the inner or true skin
known as the cutis. It was long supposed that these pigment
cells were peculiar to the dark-skinned races ; but investiga
tion has shown that the structure in all types is identical. The
differences in colour are clue, not to the presence or absence
of the cells themselves, but to variations in the amount of pig
ment therein deposited. In this respect, therefore, the negro
differs physiologically, rather than anatomically, from the Eu
ropean or the Asiatic. Yet this trait, although superficial so
to speak, is exceedingly persistent, even through considerable
racial intermixture. The familiar legal test in our Southern
States in the ante-bellum days for the determination of the legal
status of octoroons was to look for the bit of colour at the
base of the finger nails. Under the transparent outer skin
in this place the telltale pigmentation would remain, despite
a long-continued infusion of white blood.
58
6 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
In respect of the colour of the skin, we may roughly divide
the human species into four groups indicated upon our world
map. The jet or coal black colour is not very widespread.
It occurs in a narrow and more or less broken belt across
Africa just south of the Sahara Desert, with a few scattering
bits farther south on the same continent. Another centre
of dissemination of this characteristic, although widely sepa
rated from it, occurs in the islands southeast of Xew Guinea
in the Pacific Ocean, in the district which is known from this
dark colour of its populations as Melanesia. Next succeed
ing this type in depth of colour is the main body of negroes,
of Australians, and of the aborigines of India. This second
or brownish group in the above-named order shades off from
deep chocolate through coffee-colour down to olive and light
or reddish brown. The American Indians fall within this class,
because, while reddish in tinge, the skin has a strong brown
undertone. In the Americas we find the colour quite vari
able, ranging all the way from the dark Peruvians and the
Mexicans to the aborigines north of the United States. The
Polynesians are allied to this second group, characterized by
a red-brown skin. A third class, in which the skin is of a
yellow shade, covers most of Asia, the northern third of Africa,
and Brazil,* including a number of widely scattered peoples
such as the Lapps, the Eskimos, the Hottentots and P>ushmen
of South Africa, together with most of the people of Malaysia.
Among these the skin varies from a dull leather colour,
through a golden or buff to a muddy white. In all cases the
shading is in no wise continuous or regular. Africa contains
all three types of colour from the black Dinkas to the yellow
Hottentots. In Asia and the Americas all tints obtain except
the jet black. There are all grades of transitional shading.
Variations within the same tribe are not inconsiderable, so
that no really sharp line of demarcation anywhere occurs.
The fourth colour group which we have to study in this
paper is alone highly concentrated in the geographical sense.
It forms the so-called white race, although many of its mem-
* K. E. Ranke, Zeits. f. Eth., xxx, 1898, pp. 61-73.
BLONDS AND BRUNETS. 6l
bers are almost brown and often yellow in skin colour. As
we shall show, its real determinant characteristic is, para
doxically, not the skin at all but the pigmentation of the
hair and eyes. Nevertheless, so far as it may be used in classi
fication, the very light shades of skin are restricted to Europe,
including perhaps part of modern Africa north of the Sahara,
which geologically belongs to the northern continent. There
is a narrow belt of rather light-skinned peoples running off
to the southeast into Asia, including the Persians and some
high-caste Hindus. This offshoot vanishes in the Ganges
\ alley in the prevailing dark skin of the aboriginal inhabitants
of India. The only entirely isolated bit of very light skin
elsewhere occurs among the Ainos in northern Japan ; but
these people are so few in number and so abnormal in other
respects that we are warranted in dismissing them from fur
ther consideration in this place.
Anthropologists have endeavoured for a long time to find
the cause of these differences in the colour of the skin.* Some
have asserted that they were the direct effects of heat ; but
our map shows that the American stock, for example, is in no
wise affected by it. A consideration of all the races of the
earth in general shows no correspondence whatever of the
colour of the skin with the isothermal lines. The Chinese
are the same colour at Singapore as at Pekin and at Kam
chatka. Failing in this explanation, scientists have endeav
oured to connect pigmentation of the skin with humidity, or
with heat and humidity combined ; but in Africa, as we saw,
the only really black negroes are in the dry region near the
Sahara Desert ; while the Congo basin, one of the most humid
regions on the globe, is distinctly lighter in tint. Others have
attempted to prove that this colour, again, might be due to
the influence of the tropical sun, or perhaps to oxygenation
taking place under the stimulation of exposure to solar rays.
This has at first sight a measure of probability, since the colour
which appears in tanning or freckles is not to be distinguished
* Waitz : Anthropologie der Naturvolker, vol. i, p. 55 set/., contains
some interesting remarks on this subject. Topinard, Ranke. De Quatre-
fages, and all standard authorities devote much attention to it.
62 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
physiologically from the pigment which forms in the main
body of the skin of the darker races. The objection to this
hypothesis is that the covered portions of the body are equally
dark with the exposed ones : and that certain groups of men
whose lives are peculiarly sedentary, such as the Jews, who
have spent much of their time for centuries within doors, are
distinctly darker than other races whose occupations keep
them continually in the open air. This holds true whether
in the tropics or in the northern part of Europe. This local
coloration in tanning, moreover, due to the direct influence
of the sun is not hereditary, as far as we can determine. Sail
ors children are not darker than those of the merchant, even
after generations of men have followed the same profession.
Each of these theories seems to fail as a sole explanation.
The best working hypothesis is, nevertheless, that this colora
tion is due to the combined influences of a great number of
factors of environment working through physiological pro
cesses, none of which can be isolated from the others. One
point is certain, whatever the cause may be that this char
acteristic has been very slowly acquired, and has to-day be
come exceedingly persistent in the several races.
Study of the colour of the skin alone has nothing further
to interest us in this inquiry than the very general conclusions
we have just outlined. We are compelled to turn to an allied
characteristic namely, the pigmentation of the hair and eyes
for more specific results. There are three reasons which
compel us to take this action. In the first place, the colora
tion of the hair and eyes appears to be less directly open to
disturbance from environmental influences than is the skin ;
so that variations in shading may be at the same time more
easily and delicately measured. Secondly ; the colour or, if
you please, the absence of colour, in the hair and eyes is more
truly peculiar to the European race than is the lightness of
its skin. There are many peoples in Europe who are darker
skinned than certain tribes in Asia or the Americas ; but there
is none in which blondness of hair and eyes occurs to any con
siderable degree. It is in the flaxen hair and blue eye that
the peculiarly European type comes to its fullest physical
BLONDS AND BRUNETS. 63
expression. This at once reveals the third inducement for
us to focus our study upon these apparently subordinate traits.
Europe alone of all the continents is divided against itself.
We find blondness in all degrees of intensity scattered among
a host of much darker types. A peculiar advantage is herein
made manifest. Nowhere else in the world are two such dis
tinct varieties of man in such intimate contact with one an
other. From the precise determination of their geographical
distribution we may gain an insight into many interesting
racial events in the past.
The first general interest in the pigmentation of the hair
and eyes in Europe dates from 1865, although Dr. Beddoe
began nearly ten years earlier to collect data from all over the
continent. His untiring perseverance led him to take upward
of one hundred thousand personal observations in twenty-five
years.* During our own civil war about a million recruits
were examined by Gould ( ti!>) and Baxter (<7r>) , many being im
migrants from all parts of Europe. The extent of the work
which has been done since these first beginnings is indicated
by the following approximate table :
Number of Observations.
School children.
Adults.
Germany
6,758,000
Italy
Belgium
6o8,OOO
France. . .
225 oooi
Switzerland
4Q7.OOO
British Isles
Austria
2,304,000
General
CT OOO
Others
5O,OOO
Criminals etc. .
United States
I ,OOO OOO
Remainder of Europe. .
50,000
IO,2I7,OOO
1,639,000
It thus appears that the material is ample in amount. The
great difficulty in its interpretation lies in the diversity of the
systems which have been adopted by different observers. It
is not easy to give an adequate conception of the confusion
which prevails. Here are a few of the obstacles to be encoun-
* Mainly published in his monumental Races of Britain, London, and
Bristol, 1885.
6 4
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
tered. As the table indicates, the countries north of the Alps
have been mainly studied through their school children. In
the Latin half of Europe adults alone are included. It is a
matter of common observation that flaxen hair and blue eyes
are characteristic of childhood. As it has been proved that
from ten to twenty per cent of such blond children at maturity
develop darker hair or eyes, the fallacy of direct comparison
of these figures for the north and south of Europe becomes
apparent.* Secondly ; some observers, like Beddoe, rely pri
marily upon the colour of the hair ; others place greater reli
ance upon the tints of the iris, as in the case of the Anthropo-
metric Committee. It is, indeed, certain that brunetness is
not equally persistent in the two. Dark traits seem to re
appear with greater constancy in the hair, while a remote
blond cross more often leaves its traces in the eyes.f Thus
we have the characteristic blue eye in the dark-haired Breton
peasantry. The opposite combination that is to say, of dark
eyes with light hair is very uncommon, as the Anthropo-
metric Committee ( 8S) found in the British Isles. The norm :1
association resulting, as we shall see, from a blond cross with
a primitive dark race is of brownish hair and gray or bluish
eyes.]: In the third place, it is not easy to correct for the per
sonal equation of different observers. A seeming brunet in
Norway appears as quite blond in Italy because there is no
fixed standard by which to judge. The natural impulse is to
compare the individual wkh the general population round
about. The precision of measurements upon the head is
nowise attainable. Some observers take the colours as they
appear upon close examination, while the majority prefer to
record the general impression at a distance. And, finally, after
the observations have been taken in these different ways, some
* Consult Anthropometric Committee, 1883, p. 28 ; Virchow, 1886 b, p.
291 ; Zuckerkandl, 1889, p. 125 ; Livi, 1896 a, p. 67 ; Pfitzner, 1897, p. 477.
Kordier s observations in Isere, 1895, are particularly good for comparison.
f Topinard, 1889 a, pp. 515 and 523 ; 1889 c ; Collignon, 1890 a, p. 47 ; Vir
chow, 1886 b, p. 325. If the hair be light, one can generally be sure that the
eyes will be of a corresponding shade. Bassanovitch, 1891, p. 29, striking
ly confirms this rule for even so dark a population as the Bulgarian.
| Sf iren Hansen, iSSS, finds this true in Denmark also.
BLONDS AND BRUNETS. 65
authorities in their computations reject neutral tints which
are neither clearly blond nor brunet, and give the relative
proportions of the two types after this elimination. The re
sultant difficulty in drawing any close comparisons under such
circumstances can readily be appreciated.
The general rule is that eyes and hair vary together, both
being either lightish or dark, as if in correspondence.* Never
theless, such ideal combinations do not characterize a majority
of most European populations. Thus, in Germany, of six
million school children observed on a given day, not one half
of them showed the simple combination of dark eyes and dark
hair or of light eyes and light hair.f In the British Isles,
according to the Anthropometric Committee (>83) , it appears
that over twenty-five per cent of persons measured have fair
eyes and dark hair in other words, that the hair and the
eyes do not accompany one another in type. Of nearly five
hundred students at the Institute of Technology, sixty-five
per cent were of this mixed type. Even among the Jews,
Yirchow found less than forty per cent characterized by the
same tinge of hair and eyes. In parts of Russia the proportion
of pure types is scarcely above half; J in Denmark, less than
forty per cent were consistently pure.*
Under these trying circumstances, there are two principal
modes of determining the pigmentation of a given population.
One is to discover the proportion of so-called pure brunet
types that is to say, the percentage of individuals possessed
of both dark eyes and hair. The other system is to study brunet
traits without regard to their association in the same individual.
This latter method is no respecter of persons. The population
as a whole, and not the individual, is the unit. North of the
Alps they have mapped the pigmentation in the main by types ;
in France, Norway, Italy, and the British Isles they have chosen
* Ammon, 1899, p. 157, is fine on this. Among 6,800 recruits in Baden,
sixty-three percent of blue-eyed men had light hair, while eighty-four per
cent of dark-eyed men had brown or black hair. Cf. also Livi, 1896 a, p.
63 ; Weisbach, 1894, p. 237 ; Arbo, 1895 b, p. 58.
t Yirchow, 1886 b, p. 298.
| Talko-Hryncewicz, 1897 a, p. 278; Anutchin, 1893, p. 285.
* Soren Hansen, 1888.
66 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
to work by dissociated traits. Here again is a stumbling-block
in the way of comparisons. The absolute figures for the same
population gathered in these two ways will be widely differ
ent. Thus in Italy, while only about a quarter of the people
are pure brunet types, nearly half of all the eyes and hair in
the country are dark. That is to say, a large proportion of
brunet traits are to-day found scattered broadcast without
association one with another. In Europe, as a whole, upward
of one half of the population is of a mixed type in this respect.
In America the equilibrium is still further disturbed. Nor
should \ve expect it to be otherwise. Intermixture, migra
tion, the influences of environment, and chance variation have
been long at work in Europe. The result has been to reduce
the pure types, either of blond or brunet, to an absolute
minority. Fortunately for us, in despair at the prospect of
reducing such variant systems to a common base, the results
obtained all point in the same direction whichever mode of
study is employed. In those populations where there is the
greatest frequency of pure dark types, there also is generally
to be found the largest proportion of brunet traits lying
about loose, so to speak. And where there are the highest
percentages of these unattached traits, there is also the great
est prevalence of purely neutral tints, which are neither to
be classed as blond or brunet. So that, as we have said, in
whichever way the pigmentation is studied, the results in
general are parallel, certainly at least so far as the deductions
in this paper are concerned. Our map on the next page is in
deed constructed in conformity with this assumption.*
By reason of the difficulties above mentioned, this map is
intended to convey an idea of the relative brunetness of the
various parts of Europe by means of the shading rather than
by concrete percentages. It is, in fact, impossible to reduce
all the results to a common base for exact comparison. What
we have done is to patch together the maps for each country,
adopting a scheme of tinting for each which shall represent,
as nearly as may be, its relation to the rest. In the scale at
the left the shades on the same horizontal line are supposed
* See Appendix B.
RELATIVE f REQUENCY
OF
BRUNEI TRAITS.
20-25 percent
68 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
to represent approximately equal degrees of pigmentation.
The arrangement of the colours in separate groups, it will be
observed, corresponds to national systems of measurement.
Thus the five tints used in Germanic countries and the six in
Italy are separately grouped, and are each distinct from those
used for the coloration of France. It will be observed that
these separate national groups often overlap at each end. This
arrangement indicates, for example, that the darkest part of
Scandinavia contains about as many brunet traits as the
lightest portion of Germany, and that they are both lighter
than any part of Scotland ; or that the fourth zone of brtt-
netness in Germany contains about as high a proportion of
dark traits as the lightest part of France, and that they are
both about as dark areas as the middle zone in England.
As the diagram shows, central France is characterized by a
grade of brunetness somewhat intermediate between the
south of Austria and northern Italy. In other words, the
increase of pigmentation toward the south is somewhat more
gradual there than in the eastern Alps. To summarize the
whole system, equally dark tints along the same horizontal
line in the diagram indicate that in the areas thus equally
shaded there are about the same proportions of traits or types,
as the case may be, which are entitled to be called brunet.
In a rough way, the extremes in the distribution of the
blond and brunet varieties within the population of Europe
are as follows : At the northern limit we find that about one
third of the people are pure blonds, characterized by light
hair and blue eyes ; about one tenth are pure brunets ; the
remainder, over one half, being mixed with a tendency to
blondness.* On the other hand, in the south of Italy the pure
blonds have almost entirely disappeared. About one half
the population are pure brunets, with deep brown or black
hair, and eyes of a corresponding shade ; and the other half
is mixed, with a tendency to brunetness. f The half-and-half
line seems to lie about where it ought, not far from the
* Topinard, 18890, for Norway; Hultkrantz, 1897, for 699 Swedes
gives twenty-six per cent pure blonds,
f Livi, 18963, p. 60.
BLONDS AND BRUNETS. 69
Alps. Yet it does not follow the parallels of latitude. A circle,
described with Copenhagen as a centre, sweeping around near
Vienna, across the middle of Switzerland, thence up through
the British Isles, might serve roughly to indicate such a
boundary. North of it blondness prevails, although always
with an appreciable percentage of pure brunets. South of
it brunetness finally dominates quite exclusively. It should
not fail of note that toward the east there is a slight though
constant increase of brunetness along the same degrees of
latitude, and that the western portion of the British Isles is a
northern outpost of the brunet type.
Thus we see at a glance that there is a gradual though
constant increase in the proportion of dark eyes and hair
from north to south. Gould s data ( ti!l) on our recruits during
the civil war, for example, represents about sixteen per cent
of dark hair in Scandinavia, the proportion rising to about
seventy-five per cent among natives of Spain or Portugal.
There are none of those sharp contrasts which appeared upon
our maps showing the distribution of the long and broad heads
in Europe. On that map the extremes were separated by only
half a continent in either direction from the Alps ; whereas
in this case the change from dark to light covers the whole
extent of the continent. It is as if a blending wash had been
spread over the map of head form, toning down all its sharp
racial division lines. Some cause other than race has evi
dently exerted an influence upon all types of men alike, tend
ing to obliterate their physical differences. It is not a ques
tion of Celt, Slav, or Teuton. It lies deeper than these. The
Czechs in Bohemia are as much darker than the Poles to the
north of them, both being Slavic ; as the Bavarians exceed
the Prussians in the same respect, although the last two are
both Germans. It would be unwarranted to maintain that
any direct relation of climate to pigmentation has been proved.
The facts point, nevertheless, strongly in that direction. We
do not know in precisely what way the pigmental processes
are affected. Probably other environmental factors are equally
important with climate. To that point we shall return in a
few pages. We may rest assured at this writing that our map
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
for Europe corroborates in a general way testimony drawn
from other parts of the earth that some relation between the
two exists.
It seems to be true that brunetness holds its own more
persistently over the whole of Europe than the lighter char
acteristics. Probably one reason why this appears to be so,
is because the dark traits are more striking, and hence are
more apt to be observed. Yet, after making all due allowance
for this fact, the relative persistency, or perhaps we might say
penetrativeness, of the brunet traits seems to be indicated.
Our map shows that, while in Scandinavia seldom less than
one quarter of all the eyes and hair are dark, in the south
the blond traits often fall below ten per cent of the total.
Thus in Sardinia there are only about three per cent of all the
eyes and hair which are light. The same point is shown with
added force if we study the distribution of the pure blond
or brunet types, and not of these traits independently. In
the blondest part of Germany there are seldom less than seven
per cent of pure brunet children. Among adults this would
probably not represent less than fifteen per cent of pure bru-
nets, to say the least. As our table shows, in Scotland direct
observations on adults indicate nearly a quarter of the popu
lation to be pure brunets. On the other hand, the pure
Percentage of
PURE BRUNETS.
PURE BLONDS.
Children.
Adults.
Children.
Adults.
North Germany
7-1 1
12-15
15-25
22
23
27
27
31
18
25
49
57
96
33-44
25-32
18-24
II
20
50
48
34
40
36
18
3
o-5
26
23
BLONDS AND BRUNETS. 71
blonds become a negligible quantity long before we reach
the bottom of the table at the south. Thus, among two thou
sand and fifty natives of Tunis in North Africa, true Euro
peans as \ve must repeat, Collignon * found that, while blond
hair or eyes were noticeable at times, in no single case was
a pure blond with both light hair and eyes to be discovered.
Similarly, in Sardinia, less than one per cent of the popula
tion was found by Livi to be of this pure blond type.f Dr.
Ferraz de Macedo has courteously placed the results of an
examination of eighteen hundred Portuguese men and women
at our disposition. Less than two per cent of these were char
acterized by light hair of any shade ; about one fifth were
black-haired, the remainder being of various dark chestnut
tints. The interest and significance of this extreme rarity of
blondness in the south lie in its bearing upon the theory, pro
pounded by Brinton, that northern Africa was the centre of
dispersion of the blond invaders of Europe, who introduced a
large measure of its culture. J We shall return to this theory
at a later time. It is sufficient here to notice how completely
this blond type vanishes among the populations of the south
of Europe and northerr 1 Africa to-day. Such blonds do
occur; they are certainly not a negligible quantity in some
districts in Morocco. A portrait of one is given, through the
courtesy of Dr. Bertholon, of Tunis, in our series at page 278.
Each one in so dark a general population as here prevails,
however, is a host itself in the observer s mind. The true
status is revealed only when we consider men by hundreds
or even thousands, in which case the real infrequency of
blond traits becomes at once apparent.
Thus far we have been mainly concerned with the pig
mentation of the hair and eyes as a result of climatic or other
environmental influences. Let us now consider the racial
aspect of the question. Is there anything in our map which
might lead us to suspect that certain of these gradations of
* 1888, P . 3. f 1896 a, P . 60.
\ Keane, in his recent Ethnology, acquiesces in the same view.
72 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
pigmentation are due to purely hereditary causes? In other
words, do the long heads and the short heads differ trom one
another in respect of the colour of the hair and eyes, as well
as in cephalic index ? In the preceding chapter we took occa
sion to point out in a general way the remarkable localiza
tion of the round-headed element of the European population
in the Alps. The great central highland seemed indeed to
constitute a veritable focus of this peculiar physical type. In
this way it divided two similar centres of long-headedness
Teutonic in the north, Mediterranean in the south one from
another. This geographical characterization of the broad-
headed variety entitled it, in our opinion, to be called the
Alpine type, in distinction from the two others above men
tioned. It will now be our purpose to inquire whether or not
the physical traits of pigmentation stand in any definite and
permanent relation to the three types of head form we
have thus separated from one another in the geographical
sense.
Many peculiarities in our colour map point to the persist
ence of racial differences despite considerable similarity of
environment. Thus the Walloons in the southeastern half of
Belgium, with a strip of population down along the Franco-
German frontier, are certainly darker than the people all
about. Among these Walloons, as our map on page 161 shows,
brunet traits are upward of a third more frequent than
among the Flemish in northern Belgium. This is especially
marked by the prevalence of dark hair in the hilly country
south of Brussels. The British Isles offer another example of
local differences in this respect which can not be ascribed to
environment. Wales and Ireland, Cornwall and part of Scot
land, as we shall see, are appreciably brunet in comparison
with other regions near by. The contrast between Normandy
and Brittany in France is of even greater value to us in this
connection. Dark hair is more than twice as common in the
Breton cantons as it is along the English Channel in Xor-
mandy. These differences can not be due to the Gulf Stream
mildness of the western climate or to the physical environ
ment in any other way. In the other direction, among the
BLONDS AND BRUNETS.
73
Hungarians, we begin to scent an Asiatic influence in the dark
population of the southeast of Europe.
Perhaps the most conspicuous example of the racial fixity
of this trait of pigmentation is offered by the Jews. They
have preserved their Semitic brunetness through all adver
sities.* Socially ostracized and isolated, they have kept this
coloration despite all migrations and changes of climate.
In Germany to-day forty-two per cent of them are pure bru-
nets in a population containing only fourteen per cent of
the dark type on the average. They are thus darker by thirty
per cent than their Gentile neighbours. As one goes south
this difference tends to disappear. In Austria they are less
than ten per cent darker than the general population ; and
finally in the extreme south they are even lighter than the
populations about them. This is especially true of the red-
haired type common in the East. To discover such differ
ences requires minute examination. The reward has been
to prove that pigmentation in spite of climate is indeed a fixed
racial characteristic among the people of Europe. We are
therefore encouraged to hope that great racial groups of popu
lation may still yield us evidence of their relationship or lack
of it in respect of the colour of their hair and eyes, as well
as in the head form.
It must be confessed that ethnically the study of pigmenta
tion for Europe has heretofore yielded only very meagre and
somewhat contradictory results. Huxley s famous theory of
two constituent races, light and dark respectively, intermingled
all across middle Europe, seems alone at first glance to repre
sent adequately the facts for these traits. f It is only by
consideration of other physical characteristics notably the
head form that we see how complex it is in reality. Xo
clear-cut demarcation of blond or brunet types is anywhere
apparent. This we might indeed ascribe to intermixture were
it not for the sharp definition of the boundaries of head form.
A second reason for this apparent obliteration of racial char-
* Consult chapter xiv for details.
f 1870; his map is reproduced in Ranke s Mensch. It is adopted by
Flower and Lyddeker as a final classification.
74
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
act.eristics in the matter of pigmentation lies at hand appar
ently. We hope to be able to prove that, while the Alpine
racial type is intermediate in the colour of the hair and eyes
between the Teutonic populations on the north and the Medi
terranean at the south, at the same time this physical trait
is open to profound modification by the direct influences
of environment. We shall hope to prove directly what we
have already inferred from consideration of our general map
of Europe namely, that certain factors, either climate, eco
nomic status, or habits of life, are competent to produce ap
preciable changes in the colour of the hair and eyes.
Since, at this point, we are venturing forth upon an un
charted sea, it behooves us to move slowly. Two theses we
hope to prove respecting those portions of central Europe
which are characterized by the broad-headed Alpine type of
population. The first is that this racial element being the
most ancient, becomes relatively more frequent in the areas
of isolation, where natural conditions have been least dis
turbed by immigrants. In the byways, the primitive__inliab-
itant ; in the highways, the marauding intruder! This prin
ciple is as old as the hills. It is certainly true of languages
and customs, why not likewise of race? We shall be able to
establish its verity for all parts of Europe in due time. It
forms the groundwork of our socio-geographical theory. The
second thesis, no less important, is that this primitive Alpine
type of population normally tends to be darker in hair and
eyes than the blue-eyed, flaxen-haired, and long-headed Teu
tonic peoples on the north ; and that, on the other hand, by
its grayish hazel eyes and brownish hair, this broad-headed
type in the highlands of central Europe is to be distinguished
from its more thoroughly brunet neighbour at the south.
The geographical evidence afforded by our map of Europe
all gives tenability to this view that the Alpine type is inter
mediate in the colour of hair and eyes. It will serve as proof
provisionally at least. In a succeeding chapter we shall dis
cuss the matter of the association of separate traits into racial
types from another point of view. We shall run up against
some contradictory evidence, to be sure, but satisfactory dis-
BLONDS AND BRUNETS.
75
position may be made of this when it appears. In the mean
time we assume it to be geographically, if not indeed as yet
anthropologically, proved beyond question.
What deduction is to be made from these two theses we
have just outlined? The third side of our logical triangle
seems to be fixed. If the areas of isolation are essentially
Alpine by race, and if this ethnic type be truly intermediate
in pigmentation, the byways, nooks, and corners of central
Europe ought normally to be more brunet than the high
ways and open places all along the northern Teutonic border.
Contrariwise, toward the south the indigenous undisturbed
Alpine populations ought to be lighter than the heterogene
ous ones, infused with Mediterranean brunet blood, if we may
use the term. Since mountainous areas are less exposed to
racial contagion by virtue of their infertility and unattractive-
ness, as well as by their inaccessibility or remoteness from
dense centres of population, we may express our logical in
ference in another way. \Yhere the Teutonic and the Alpine
racial types are in contact geographically, the population of
mountainous or isolated areas ought normally to contain more
brunets than the people of the plains and river valleys, since
blond traits have had lesser chance of immigration. The op
posite rule should obtain south of the Alps. If we find this
relation to fail us, we shall be led to suspect environmental
disturbance of a serious kind. Fortunately for our conten
tion, we are able to prove that it does so fail in various parts
of Europe, notably in the Black Forest, the Vosges Moun
tains, and Switzerland. In all of these regions the popula
tions at considerable altitudes, who ought racially to be more
brunet than their neighbours, are in fact appreciably more
blond, and no other reason for this blondness than that it is
a direct result of physical circumstances is tenable.*
In order, before dismissing this subject, to make our point
clear, let us adduce one example in detail tending to prove
that in mountainous areas of isolation some cause is at work
which tends to disturb racial equilibrium in the colour of the
hair and eves. This is drawn from Livi s monumental treatise
* See pages 234 and 288 infra.
76 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
on the anthropology of Italy. In entire independence of my
own inferences, he arrived at an identical conclusion that
blondness somehow is favoured by a mountainous environ
ment. From a study of three hundred thousand recruits, he
found that fourteen out of the sixteen compartimcnti into which
Italy is divided conformed to this law. There was generally
from four to five per cent more blondness above the four-
hundred-metre line of elevation than below it.* The true sig
nificance of these figures is greater than at first appears, for
we have again to consider the contrasts in the light of racial
probability. In northern Italy the mountains ought to be
lighter than the plains, because the Alps are here as elsewhere
a stronghold of a racial type relatively blond as compared
with the Mediterranean brunets. Environment and race
here join hands to produce greater blondness in the moun
tains. It is in the south of Italy that the two work in opposi
tion, and here we turn for test of our law. In the south the
mountains should contain the Mediterranean brunet type in
relatively undisturbed purity; for the northern blonds are
more frequent in the attractive districts open to immigration.
Even here in many cases this racial probability is reversed or
equalized by some cause which works in opposition to race,
so that we find comfort at every turn.
The law which we have sought to prove is not radically
new. Many years ago Waitz asserted that mountaineers
tended to be lighter in colour of skin than the people of the
plains,f educing some interesting evidence to that effect from
the study of primitive peoples. Among a number of very
dark populations elsewhere, blonds occur in this way in ele-
* Antropometria Militare, p. 63 seq.\ also in 1896 b, p. 24. We have
discussed this in Publications of the American Statistical Association,
vol. v, pp. 38 and 101 scq. This law is shown by study of provinces also.
There are sixty-nine of these available for comparison. Twelve of these
contain no mountains ; thirty-two show manifestly greater blondness in
both hair and eyes ; fifteen show it partially ; in two, mountain and plain
are equal ; and in the remaining seven the law is reversed. Several of
these latter are explainable by local disturbances.
t 1859-1872, i, p. 49. Prichard hints at the same law, and Peschel
exemplifies it among primitive peoples
BLONDS AND BRUNETS. 77
vated regions. Thus the Amorites in Palestine, and especially
the numerous blonds in the Atlas Mountains in Morocco,
may conceivably be due to such causes.* It is not certain
that the true cause lies in the modifying influences of climate
alone. Much of the data which \ve have here collected does
not prove this. In fact, climatic changes can not be related
to some of the variations in blondness which have been out
lined. It seems as if some other factor had been at work.
Livi, for example, ascribes the blondness of his mountaineers
rather to the unfavourable economic environment, to the poor
food, unsanitary dwellings, and general poverty of such popu
lations. This explanation fits neatly into our social theory :
for we assert that the population of mountains is relatively
pure because there is no incentive for immigration of other
types. Thus a pure population implies poverty of environ
ment a poverty which may stand in direct relation to the
lack of pigmentation. It is yet too early to assert that this is
the main cause. For the present it will suffice to have proved
that appreciable differences in pigmentation exist, leaving the
cause for future discussion. Much interesting material drawn
from comparisons of urban with rural populations may help
to throw light upon it. Our main purpose here has been to
prove that pigmentation is a trait which is affected by environ
ment. If, as we hope to have shown, the shape of the head is
not open to such modification, we shall know where to turn
when conflict of evidence arises. We shall pin our faith to
that characteristic which pursues the even tenor of its racial
way, unmoved by outward circumstances.
* Sayce, 1888 a and 1888 b. Sergi, 18973, p. 296, after a masterly
analysis, expressly adopts this explanation for the African blonds.
Majer and Kopernicki, 1885, p. 45, find the mountaineers lighter if the
mixed types be excluded, but not otherwise.
CHAPTER V.
STATURE.
THE average stature of man, considered by racial groups
or social classes, appears, to lie between the limits of four feet
four inches and five feet ten inches ; giving, that is to say, a
range of about one foot and a half. The physical elasticity of
the species is not, however, as considerable as this makes it
appear. The great majority of the human race is found re
stricted within much narrower limits. As a matter of fact,
there are only three or four groups of really dwarfed men, less
than five feet tall. Our map of the world shows a consider
able area inhabited by the diminutive Bushmen in South
Africa. Another large body of dwarfs occurs in New Guinea.
The line of demarcation in the first case between the yel
lowish African Bushmen and the true negroes is very
sharp ; but in the East Indies the very tall and light Poly
nesians shade off almost imperceptibly in stature through
Melanesia into the stunted Papuans. Other scattering rep
resentatives of true dwarf races occur sporadically through
out the Congo region and in Malaysia, but their total number
is very small. On the w r hole, considerably more than ninety-
nine per cent of the human species is above the average height
of five feet and one inch ; so that we may still further narrow
our range of variation between that limit and five feet ten
inches. We thereby reduce our racial differences of stature
to about nine inches between extremes. These variations in
size, it will be observed, are less than those which occur among
the lower animals within the same species. Compare, for ex
ample, the dachshund, the St. Bernard, the Italian greyhound,
and the smallest lapdog, and remember that they are all as-
73
go THE RACES OF EUROPE.
cribed to the same species ; or that the Shetland pony and
the Percheron horse are likewise classified together. These
abnormities are, to be sure, partly the result of artificial selec
tion by man ; but the same variation holds to a considerable
extent among the wild animals.
The bodily height of a group of men is the resultant of a
number of factors, many of which are as purely artificial as
those concerned in the domestication of animals. These
causes are quite as truly social or economic as they are phys
ical or physiological. Among them we may count environ
ment, natural or artificial selection, and habits of life. Be
neath all of these, more fundamental than any, lies the influ
ence of race which concerns us ultimately. This is overlaid
and partially obscured by a fifth peculiarity manifested as
a result of the sportiveness of Nature, whereby a large number
of variations are due to chance, seemingly not caused by any
distinct influences whatever. By scientific analysis we may
eliminate this last factor, namely chance variation. The other
four causes besides race are more important and deserve con
sideration by themselves.
Among savages it is easy to localize the influence of en
vironment, as it acts directly through limitation of the food
supply. In general the extreme statures of the human species
are found either in regions where a naturally short race, like
the Bushmen of South Africa, are confined within a district
of great infertility like tlte Kalahari Desert ; or, on the other
hand, where a naturally tall race, like the Polynesians in the
Pacific Ocean, enjoys all the material bounties which Nature
has to bestow. It is probable that the prevalent shortness of
the Eskimo and other inhabitants of the arctic regions is
largely due to this factor. It is also likely that the miserable
people of Terra del Fuego are much shorter than the Pata-
gonians for the same reason. Scarcity or uncertainty of food
limits growth. \Yherever the life conditions in this respect
become changed, in that place the influence of environment
soon makes itself felt in the average stature of the inhabitants.
Thus the Hottentots, physically of the same race as the Bush
men, but inhabiting a more fertile region ; and, moreover,
STATURE. 8 1
possessed of a regular food supply in their flocks and herds,
are appreciably taller from these causes alone. All the abo
rigines of America seem to be subject to this same influence
of the fertility of their environment.* In the Mississippi Val
ley, for example, they are much taller than in the desert lands
of Arizona and Xe\v Mexico. f In the mountains on either
side of the Mississippi basin they are as a rule distinctly
shorter, although living the same life and belonging to the
same race. The Creeks and the Iroquois exceed the Pueblos
by several inches, probably because of the material bounty
of their environment ; and where we find a single tribe, such
as the Cherokees, inhabiting both the mountains and the
plains, we find a deficiency of stature in the mountains quite
marked by comparison.
Among civilized peoples likewise this direct influence of
environment acts through the food supply to afreet the stat
ure of any given group of men. Thus, in Europe, as among
the aborigines of America, it may be said that the populations
of mountainous districts are shorter, as a rule, than those
which enjoy the fertility of the plains and the river basins. Italy
has been most carefully studied in this respect, the law being
established clearly all along the Apennines. J The people in
the Vosges Mountains* and in the Black Forest || are charac
terized by relatively short stature, partly for the same reason.
Our map on page 236 brings this relation into strong relief. In
this case, however, we shall be able to show that purely ethnic
tendencies are also responsible in a measure for the phenome
non. Along the Carpathian chain a similar shortness of stature
of the mountaineers has been proved, especially in the growing
period of youth. A In the Austrian Alps the same rule holds
* D Orbigny, i, P- 95-
f Boas in Verb. Berl. Anth. Gesell., Sitzung, May 18, 1895, p. 375.
\ Lombroso, 1879; Zampa, 1881 and 1886, p. 191; Livi, 1883, and
especially 1896 a, pp. 39-47.
* Collignon, iSSr, p. 10 ; Brandt, 1898, p. 10.
| Ecker, 1876, and Ammon, 1890.
A Majer and Kopernicki, 1877, p. 21, and 1889, p. 50. Lebon, iSSi, p.
230, in the Podhalian mountaineers, finds an average stature as low
as 1.59 metres.
82 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
good.* Our map of Switzerland (page 285) brings out very
clearly the shortness of stature in the Bernese Oberland. Al
most every other Swiss administrative division overlaps both
valley and mountain in such a way as to render comparisons
impossible. The testimony, however, is not at all unanimous.
In the Bavarian Alps, Ranke f finds the mountaineers apprecia
bly taller than the peasantry in the plains. Along the north
ern slopes of the Pyrenees in France, the population in the
inner valleys is also well above the average for the plains of
Bearn.J We are able to explain a similar phenomenon all over
Thuringia,* through the later occupation of the valleys by
the relatively short Slavs, invaders from the east.
The influence of environment is, in any case, not at all as
simple as it w r ould appear. In addition to the direct effect
of this environment, a selective process is also at work. Only
thus can we account for the fact that while the populations
at moderate altitudes seem to be physically depressed by their
surroundings, those from regions of the greatest elevation
seem to be rather above the normal stature. | It seems per
missible, indeed, to assume with Ranke A that only those of
decided vigour are able to withstand the rigours and priva
tions in this latter case, leaving an abnormally tall, selected
population as a result. This may account for the high aver
age stature found by Garret ( 83) and Longuet ( S3) in Savoy,
* Weisbach, 1894, p. 234.
f 1881 ; see our map on p. 227, infra.
\ Chopinet, 1890; and Collignon, 1895, p. 92. The tallness of the
Basques we have discussed on p. 201.
* Reischel, 1889, pp. 138-142. In the British Isles the data of the
Anthropometric Committee (Final Report, 1883, p. 14) is too limited to
give force to its generalizations. Scheiber, 1881, p. 257, finds no differ
ences in Hungary, but the mountains are all too low there in any case.
Dunant found no such relation either in Geneva or Freiburg ; nor does
Bedot in Valais apparently.
|| Collignon, 1895, p. 93, and Livi, 18963, p. 39, confirm this for France
and Italy respectively. Majer and Kopernicki, 1877, p. 23, found adults
in the Carpathians taller than in the plains although shorter by six centi
metres at twenty years of age, this difference gradually diminishing with
growth.
A 1881, p. 14.
STATURE.
shown on our maps of France. Toldt (<91) finds a high propor
tion of very tall in the Tyrol also, perhaps for the same reason,
although here again we run afoul of racial complications of
importance.*
\Yherever the geology of a district has produced a soil
which yields with difficulty to cultivation, or where the cli
mate is unfavourable to prosperity, the influence is reflected
STATURE
LJ/v\6\A5l/\J
AFTER COLLIGNON
AVERAGE
METER5 FT -INS
164-5
!62-3
1 60-1
1-56-9
- 1.5
in the physical characteristics of the population, f All over
Europe we may locate such " misery spots," one of which
will, however, serve as an example. It is depicted in the
accompanying map.J This spot is likewise indicated in the
south central part of France upon our general map for Eu-
* Page 101.
f Durand de Gros, 1868, first suggested such an explanation. His
later work confirms it, especially with Lapouge, iSgy- gS (rep., p. 61).
Beddoe, 1867-7)93, discusses it (rep., p. 174).
$ From Collignon, 18945, pp. 26 et seq.
84 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
g page 96. In this district we find a general average
ure of five feet and two to three inches a low level not
uched in France save in a little spot to the south-
-: of this, where similar conditions prevail. Here in Limou
sin there is a barren range of low hills which lies along the
dividing line between the departments of Dordogne, Correze.
and Haute- Yienne. about half-way between Perigueux and
Limog-es. The water courses on our map show the location
hese uplands. They extend over an area about seventy-
five miles long and half as wide, wherein average human
misery is most profound. Dense ignorance prevails. There
is more illiteracy than in any other part of France. The con
trast in stature, even with the low average of all the surround
ing region, is clearly marked by the dark tint. There are
sporadic bits of equal diminutiveness elsewhere to the south
and west, but none are so extended or so extreme. Two thirds
of the men are below five feet three inches in height in B
the communes, and the women are three or more inches sb
er even than this. One man in ten is below four feet eleven
inches in stature. This is not due to race, for several racial
types are equally stunted in this way within the same area.
It is primarily due to generations of subjection to a harsh
climate, to a soil which is worthless for agriculture vady
diet of boiled chestnuts and stagnant water, and to unsanitary
dwellings in the deep, narrow, and damp valleys. Still
ther proof may be found to show that thes-. are not
stunted by any hereditary influence has been sh
that children born here, but who migrate ar>
where, are -normal in height: wl ere. but
who are subject to this environment du~ j
youth, are ] --.varied.*
There is a secor> "her
usin hills. It exten
\veen the Garonne River and
-itier. The c. The de-
- hes
* C
STATURE. 85
away south of Bordeaux. There is no natural drainage slope.
The subsoil is an impervious clay. In the rainy season, water
accumulates and forms stagnant marshes, covered with rank
vegetation. At other times the water dries away, and the
vegetation dies and rots. Malaria was long the curse of the
land, (iovernment works are to-day reclaiming much of it
for cultivation and health, but it will be generations before
the people recover from the physical degeneration of the past.
One may follow, as Chopinet " " has done, the boundary of
this unhealthful area by means of the degenerate physique of
the peasantry, especially marked in its stature. Influences
akin to these have undoubtedly been of great effect in many
other parts of Europe, especially in the south of Italy and Sar
dinia, where the largest area of short statures in Europe pre
vails to-day. Meisner is thus able to account for the rela
tively short population of Stade. in the sandy plains between
\ lamburg and Bremen.* The Jews in Lithuania are below the
Jewish average for the fertile l/kraine and Bessarabia for the
same reason.! even as the Great Russian falls below the Little
Russians in this respect, as we shall show subsequently.
Environment thus acts directly upon stature through the
food supply and economic prosperity. The second modify
ing influence lies in so-called artificial selection a cause which
is peculiarly potent in modern social life. The efficiency of
this force depends upon the intimate relation which exists be
tween bodily height and physical vigour. Other things being
equal, a goodly stature in a youth implies a surplus of energy
over and above the amount requisite merely to sustain life-t
Hence it follows that, more often than otherwise, a tall popu
lation implies a relatively healthy one. Our double map,
of the westernmost promontory of Brittany, opposite page Sf\
shows this most clearly. In the interior cantons, shorter on
the average by an inch than in the population along the sea-
* I>N). p. 115; t-vii, p. VJ,;. Sot- our map on p. I
+ ralko-Hryncewic.:. i^)-, pp. ^ and 50-00.
t Broca. - - KM, although Baxter and Erismann show it to be
not always true. Chopinet. Myrdacz. and others give many maps, both
ot stature and disease, which confirm the law regionally at all events.
86
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
coast, there is a corresponding increase of defective or degen
erate constitutional types. The character of the environment
is largely responsible for this. The barren, rocky table
land is strongly contrasted with the " ceinture doree " de
scribed by Gallouedec (>93) . The fishing industry is of great
material value to the coast population as well. The parallelism
between our two maps is broken in but three or four instances.
The map, in fact, illustrates the truth of our assertion far
better than words can express it.
This relation between stature and health is brought to
concrete expression in the armies of Europe through a rejec
tion of all recruits for service who fall below a certain mini-
2.9-38
>8-69
AFTER CHASiAGNE
mum standard of height, generally about five feet.* The re
sult of this is to preclude the possibility of marriage for all
the fully developed men, during their three years in barracks ;
while the undersized individuals, exempted from service on
this account, are left free to propagate the species meanwhile.
Is it not apparent that the effect of this artificial selection is
* Military selection of this kind is first mentioned by Villerme, 1829,
p. 385 ; the effect of the Napoleonic wars is discussed by Dufau, 1840, p.
169, and Tschouriloff, 1876, pp. 608 and 655. See also Lapouge, 1896 a,
pp. 207-242 ; Broca, Sur la pretendue degenerescence de la population
fransaise, Bull. Acad. de Med., Paris, xxxii, 1867, pp. 547-603 and 839-
862 ; and Bischoff, Ueber die Brauchbarkeit der in verschiedenen euro-
paischen Staaten veroffentlichen Resultate des Recruterings-Geschaftes,
Miinchen, 1867.
STATURE. 87
to put a distinct premium upon inferiority of stature, in so
far as future generations are concerned ? This enforced post
ponement of marriage for the normal man, not required of the
degenerate, is even more important than at first sight appears.
It implies not merely that the children of normal families are
born later in life that would not be of great moment in itself
it means far more than this. The majority of children are
more often born in the earlier half of married life, before the
age of thirty-five. Hence a postponement of matrimony
means not only later children but fewer children.* Herein
lies the great significance of the phenomenon for us. Stand
ing armies tend in this respect to overload succeeding gener
ations with inferior types of men. This selection is in opera
tion akin to the influence which Galton has invoked as a par
tial explanation for the mental darkness of the Middle Ages.
This he ascribes to the beliefs and customs by which all the
finer minds and spirits were withdrawn from the field of mat
rimony by the Church, leaving the entire future population to
the loins of the physically robust and adventurous portion of
the community. Mind spent itself in a single generation of
search for knowledge; physique, bereft of intellect, was left
to its own devices among the common people.
The intensity of this military selection, potent enough in
time of peace, is of course highly augmented during the prose
cution of a war. At such periods the normal men are not
only isolated for an indefinite period ; their ranks are perma
nently decimated by the mortality at the front. The selective
influence is doubly operative. Fortunately, we possess data
which appear to afford illustration of its effects. Detailed
investigation in various parts of France is bringing to light
certain curious after-effects of the late Franco-Prussian War.
We do not always fully realize what such an event means for
a nation, quite irrespective of the actual mortality and of the
direct economic expenditure. Every family in the land is af
fected by it ; and the future bears its full share with the con-
* Marriage at an average age of twenty years insures an increasing
population ; if postponed until the age of twenty-nine, population is
bound to decrease (Beddoe, 1893, p. 15, citing Galton, 1883).
88 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
temporaneous population. In France, for example, during
the year of the war, there were seventy-five thousand fewer
marriages than usual. In 1871 upon its conclusion, an un
precedented epidemic of them broke out, not equalled in ab
solute numbers since the veterans returned from the front in
1813, on the cessation of hostilities at that time.*
Two tendencies have been noted, from a comparison of
the generations of offspring severally conceived before, dur
ing, and after the war. This appeared in the conscripts who
came before the recruiting commissions in 1890^92, at which
time the children conceived in war times became, at the age
of twenty, liable for service. In the population during the
progress of the war the flower of French manhood, then in
the field, was without proportionate representation. There
must have been an undue preponderance, not only of stunted
men rejected from the army for deficiency of stature alone,
but of those otherwise physically unfitted for service. Hence
the population born at this time ought, if heredity means any
thing, to retain some traces of its relatively degenerate deriva
tion. This is indeed the case. In Dordogne this contingent
included nearly seven per cent more deficient statures than
the normal average. f Quite independently, in the distant de
partment of Herault, Lapouge discovered the same thing.
He found in some cantons a decrease of nearly an inch in
the average stature of this unfortunate generation, while ex
emptions for deficiency of^stature suddenly rose from six to
sixteen per cent. This selection is not, however, entirely
maleficent. A fortunate compensation is afforded in another
direction. For the generation conceived of the men returned
to their families at the close of the war has shown a dis
tinctly upward tendency almost as well marked. Those who
survived the perils and privations of service were presumably
in many cases the most active and rugged ; the weaker portion
having succumbed in the meanwhile, either to wounds or sick
ness. The result was that the generation conceived directly
after the war was as much above the average, especially
* De Lapouge, 1896 a, p. 233. f Collignon, 1894 b, p. 36.
$ 1 894 a, pp. 353 et seq.
STATURE. 89
evinced in general physique perhaps more than in stature, as
their predecessors, born of war times, were below the normal.
Another illustration of the operation of artificial selection
in determining the stature of any given group of men ap
pears in the physique of immigrants to the United States. In
the good old days when people emigrated from Europe be
cause they had seriously cast up an account and discovered
that they could better their condition in life by coming to
America ; that is, before the days when they came because
they were overpersuaded by steamship agents, eager for com
missions on the sale of tickets; or because of the desire of
their home governments to be rid of them in those days
investigation revealed that on the average the immigrants
were physically taller than the people from whom they
sprang.* This difference, in some instances, amounted to
upward of an inch upon the average. Among the Scotch, a
difference of nearly two inches was shown to exist by the
measurements taken during our civil war. These immigrants
were a picked lot of men picked, because it required all the
courage which physical vigour could give to pull up stakes
and start life anew. This law that natural emigrants, if I may
use the term, are taller than the stay-at-home average was
again exemplified during the civil war in another way. It
was found that recruits hailing from States other than those
in which they were born were generally taller than those who
had always remained in the places of their birth that is to
say, here again physical vigour and the adventurous migra
tory spirit seemed to stand in close relation to one another.
In times of peace, perhaps the most potent influence of this
form of artificial selection bears upon the differences in stature
which obtain between different occupations or professions.^
* Gould, 1869, pp. 126 and 179. Baxter, 1875, i, p. 16, holds age differ
ences largely accountable for it, however.
f The only authorities which classify statures by occupations are :
J. C. Majer, 1862, pp. 365-372, for Franconia ; Beddoe, i867- 9a, p. 150, and
Roberts, 1878, p. 104, for the British Isles ; J. Bertillon, 1886, p. 13, and
Needon, 1867 8, on Saxony ; Oloriz, 1896, pp. 47 and 61, for Madrid ; and
Livi, 1897 a, pp. 14 and 27, on Italy. Schweizerische Statistik, Tab. 10,
since 1887 are also very good. Lagneau, 1895, is fine on this also.
9 o
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
This is strikingly exemplified by the accompanying table,
based upon the examination of nearly two hundred thou
sand Swiss conscripts. An almost uninterrupted increase
in the proportion of the undersized, with a coincident de
crease in the relative numbers of the tall men, will be seen to
take place from the top of the table toward the bottom. While
nearly half the professional men and ecclesiastics are tall men ;
but about one tenth of the cobblers, tailors, and basket-weav
ers, at the opposite extreme, attain the moderate height of
1.7 metres (five feet seven inches). The table is a complete
demonstration of this law in itself. It needs no further de
scription.
Stature by Occupations. Switzerland, 1884-91.
(Schweizerische Statistik, 1894?)
PER CENT O
F STATURES.
OCCUPATION.
Under 156 cms.
(5 ft. 1.4 in.).
170 cms. and above
(5 ft. 7 in.).
Professions
Priests or ministers
47
Teachers
45
University students . .
35
Brewers
44
oA
Machinists
3
Blacksmiths
5
39
Merchants and clerks
5
Masons
3 1
Farm labourers
17
Spinners and weavers
Chemical industries
fl
Basket-weavers
Cobblers
23
Chimney-sweeps . .
1 ailors
Factory operatives in general
"2.A.
7
Two causes may be justly ascribed for this phenomenon
of differences in stature according to occupation. The first
one is, as we have said, that of an artificial selection. The
physically well-developed men seek certain trades or occu
pations in which their vigour and strength may stand them
in good stead; on the other hand, those who are by nature
weakly, and coincidently often deficient in stature, are com
pelled to make shift with some pursuit for which they are
STATURE. O!
fitted. Thus, workers in iron, porters, firemen, policemen,
are taller as a class than the average, because they are of
necessity recruited from the more robust portion of the popu
lation. In marked contrast to them tailors, shoemakers, and
weavers, in an occupation which entails slight demands upon
the physical powers, and which is open to all, however weakly
they may be, are appreciably shorter than the average. More
over, certain diseases fall upon this second class in a way
which tends still further to lower the average stature among
them. Thus, consumption is uncommonly prevalent in these
particularly sedentary industrial classes, and it is also more
common among tall youths. It seems, therefore, that this dis
ease weeds out, as if by choice, those who within this rela
tively stunted class rise above its average. As an extreme
example of this selective influence exercised in the choice of an
occupation we may instance grooms, who as a class are over
an inch shorter than the British population as a whole. This
is probably because men who are light in build and short in
stature find here an opening which is suited to their physique.
Their weight may nevertheless be often greater than the stat
ure implies, because of an increase which has taken place late
in life. The diminutiveness of chimney-sweeps, shown by our
table for Switzerland, is certainly a result of such a process of
selection. Sailors also are generally undersized. Gould (>6U) ,
noticing this among both negroes and whites during the civil
war. ascribed it, however, to the privations and exposure in
cident to a seafaring life, rather than to any selective process.
The final effects of this influence of artificial selection are
highly intensified by reason of the fact that, as soon as the
choice of occupation is once made, other forces come into
play which differentiate still further the stature of the several
classes. This is the last of our modifying influences in re
spect of stature : namely, the direct effect of habits of life or of
the nature of the employment* Thus, the weakly youth who
* Instructive parallels between physical development and morbidity
in the several occupations may be drawn. Consult our review of Wester-
gaard and Bertillon (Jour. Soc. de Stat., Paris, Oct. -Nov., 1892) in Pubs.
Amer. Stat. Ass., iii, iSg2-\)2>, pp. 241-44.
9
9 2
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
enters a sedentary occupation immediately becomes subjected
to unfavourable circumstances as a result of his choice. If he
chooses to take up the tailor s trade because he is physically
unfitted for other pursuits, all the influences of the trade tend
to degenerate his physique still further. Among these we
may count the cramped position in which he works, the long
hours, the unsanitary surroundings, etc. The physical de
generacy among bakers and metal-workers seems to be quite
constant; brewers and butchers, on the other hand, are more
often tall as a class. Perhaps the best example of all is offered
by the Jews, of whom we shall speak in detail later. An active
life conduces to growth and vigour, especially an active life
in the open air. Denied all these advantages, everything
operates to exaggerate the peculiarities which were due to
natural causes in the preceding generation alone. For the
choice of occupation is to a large extent in Europe a matter of
hereditary necessity ; as, for example, among the potters and
lead-miners in Great Britain.* This direct influence of the na
ture of the employment is probably the second principal cause
of the great differences in stature which we observe among the
several social classes in any community. A patent example
is offered by our data for the British Isles. At the head stand
the liberal professions, followed in order as our tables show,
by the farmers and the commercial group, then by the indus
trial open-air classes, and finally by those who are engaged
in indoor and sedentary occupations. The difference between
Average Stature in Inches (British
No. of ob
servations.
Age (males).
Professional
class.
Commercial
class.
INDUSTRIAL CLASS.
Open air.
Indoors.
3,498
592
1,886
15 years.
23 "
30-40
63.6
68.7
69.6
62.2
67.4
67.9
61.8
67.4
67.6
61 .3
66.4
66.8
* Anthropometric Committee, 1883, p. 20 ; and Beddoe, i867-*9 a, pp. 182
and 221.
f Anthropometric Committee, British Association, 1883, p. 38. Oloriz.
1896, p. 61, gives for Madrid the following heights in metres for these
four classes: 1.639, i-6n, 1.607, and 1.598 respectively.
STATURE.
93
Averages by Occupations (British Isles).*
No. of ob
servations.
Occupation.
Stature (inches).
Weight (pounds).
T7/1
Miscellaneous outdoor
67.6
142.0
242
Clerks
67.3
136. 7
8-2,1
Labourers
67.1
140.0
2OQ
Iron-workers
67.1
140.0
ns
Tailors and shoemakers
66.0
134. c
276
Miscellaneous indoor
66.7
132. S
IOI
Grooms
66.5
138.7
these last two namely, those who work in the open air and
those who are confined within doors amounts in Great Brit
ain to upward of one half an inch upon the average, if we con
sider masons, carpenters, and day labourers as typical of the
first class, and tailors and shoemakers of the second. In
Madrid, according to Oloriz s figures given in our footnote,
the fourth industrial class is more than an inch and a half
shorter than the first professional one. As our table shows,
the differences during the period of growth often amount to
upward of two inches, greater among girls than among boys.
As extreme examples of divergencies of this kind, we may
instance a difference of seven inches between boys of fourteen
in the well-to-do classes and those who are in the industrial
schools in Great Britain ; or the difference in average stature of
four inches and a half between extreme classes of English girls
at the age of ten years. Later in life this disparity becomes less,
as it appears that the influence of factory life is more often to
retard growth than to cause a complete cessation of it.f This
influence of industrialism must always be borne in mind in
comparing different districts in the same country. Derby and
Yorkshire are below the average for England, as our later
maps will demonstrate, probably for no other reason. \
* Beddoe, i867~ 9a, p. 150.
f Porter, 1894, p. 305, finds the children in St. Louis of the industrial
classes relatively defective in height at all ages after fourteen. Erismann,
1888, pp. 65-90, found the same true of factory operatives in Russia ; the
defectiveness of textile workers was especially marked. Riccardi, 1885,
p. 123 ; Uhlitzsch, 1892, p. 433 ; Anthropometric Committee, 1883, p. 38 ;
and Drs. Bowditch, Boas, and West all confirm this.
\ Favier, 1888, and Carlier, 1893, have analyzed such industrial dis
tricts in France with similar conclusions.
94 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
Interesting deductions might also be drawn from the rela
tion of the height to the weight in any class, by which we
may determine to some degree when and how these degener
ative influences become effective.* Thus clerks, as a class, are
above the average stature, but below it in weight. This fol
lows because these men are recruited from a social group
where the influences during the period of growth are favour
able. The normal stature was attained at this time. The un
favourable circumstances have come into play later through
the sedentary nature of the occupation, and the result is a
deficiency in weight. The case of grooms given above is ex
actly the reverse of this ; for they became grooms because they
were short, but have gained in weight afterward because the
occupation was favourable to health.
These differences in stature, indicative of even more pro
found differences in general physical development within the
community offer a cogent argument for the protection of our
people by means of well-ordered factory laws. The Anthropo-
metric Committee of the British Association for the Advance
ment of Science ( 83) declares, as a result of its detailed investi
gation, that the protection of youth by law in Great Britain
has resulted in the gain of a whole year s growth for the fac
tory children. In other words, a boy of nine years in 1873
was found to equal in weight and in stature one of ten years of
age in 1833. This is Nature s reward for the passage of laws
presumably better than the present so-called " beneficent "
statute in South Carolina which forbids upward of eleven
hours toil a day for children under the age of fourteen. In
every country where the subject has been investigated in
Germany, in Russia, in Austria, Switzerland, or Great Britain
the same influence is shown. Fortunately, the advance out
of barbarism is evidenced generally by a progressive increase
in the stature of the population as an accompaniment of the
amelioration of the lot of the masses. This is certainly going
on decade by decade, absolutely if not relatively. Evidence
from all over Europe is accumulating to show that the
* Livi, L indice ponderale, Atti Soc. Romana di Antrop., v, fasc. 2, 1896,
is good on this.
STATURE.
95
standard of physical development is steadily rising as a
whole.* There is no such change taking place among the
prosperous and well-to-do. It is the masses which are, so to
speak, catching up with the procession. It offers a conclu
sive argument in favour of the theory that the world moves
forward.
One of the factors akin to that of occupation which ap
pears to determine stature is the unfavourable influence of city
life. The general rule in Europe seems to be that the urban
type is physically degenerate. This would imply, of course,
not the type which migrates to the city on the attainment
of majority, or the type which enjoys an all-summer vacation
in the country, but the urban type which is born in the city
and which grows up in such environment, to enter a trade
which is also born of town life. The differences in stature
which are traceable to this influence of city life are consider
able. Glasgow^ and Edinburgh offer an extreme example
wherein the average stature of the poorer classes has been
found by Dr. Beddoe ( (i7) to be four inches less than the aver
age for the suburban districts. The people, at the same time,
are on the average thirty-six pounds lighter. On the other
hand, it must be confessed that this unfavourable influence
of city life is often obscured by the great social selection
which is at work in the determination of the physical type of
the population of great cities. While the course of the town
type by itself is downward, oftentimes the city attracts an
other class which is markedly superior, in the same way that
the immigrants of the United States have been distinguished
in this respect. The problems of urban populations are, how
ever, complicated by various other processes. Discussion of
* For France, earlier contentions of Broca and Boudin are confirmed
by detailed investigations ; as by Garret, 1882, and Longuet, 1885, for
Savoy ; Hovelacque, 1894 b for the Morvan, and 1896 a, with especial
clearness, for Provence ; Collignon, 1890 a, for C6tes-du-Nord ; and de
Lapouge, 1894 a, for Herault. The Anthropometric Committee, 1883, shows
increasing stature in Great Britain ; J. Bertillon, 1886, p. 12, represents it
as true in Holland ; while Arbo, 1895 a, asserts an average increase of
over half an inch in recent years in Norway. Hultkrantz, 1896 a, finds
the same true in Sweden.
p6 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
these we defer to a later chapter, where the entire subject will be
treated by itself at length.
It would be interesting to inquire in how far the relative
height of the sc.rcs is due to a similar selective process. Cer
tain it is that among us in civilization, women average from
three to four inches below men in stature, a disparity which
seems to be considerably less among primitive peoples. Brin-
ton * has invoked as a partial explanation, at least, for this,
the influence of the law of sexual division of labour which
obtains among us. This law commands, in theory, that the
men should perform the arduous physical labour of life, leav
ing the more sedentary portion of it to the women. If the
conscious choice of mates had followed this tendency, its effect
would certainly be unfavourable to the development of an in
creasing stature among women, while it might operate to bet
ter the endowment of men in that respect. It is impossible,
owing to the paucity of selected, data as to sexual differences,
to follow 7 this out. The only discoverable law seems to be
the one formulated by Weisbach, that sexual differences in
height are more marked in the taller races. Probably this
difference of stature between the sexes is partially due to some
other cause which stops growth in the woman earlier than in
the man. For the clearest evidence is offered by develop
mental anthropometry that the female of the human species is
born smaller ; grows more slowly after puberty ; and finally
attains her adult stature .about two years earlier than man.
The problem is too complex to follow out in this place. So
far as our present knowledge goes, the question has no ethnic
significance.
From the preceding array of facts it would appear that
stature is rather an irresponsible witness in the matter of
race. A physical trait so liable to disturbance by circum
stances outside the human body is correspondingly invali
dated as an indication of hereditary tendencies which lie with
in. We are compelled for this reason to assign the third place
* 1890 a, p. 37. Rolleston, 1884, ii, pp. 254 and 354, discusses this,
adducing most interesting archaeological evidence. Havelock Ellis s
Man and Woman offers a most convenient summary also.
AVERAGE JTATURE
EUROPE
STATURE.
97
to this characteristic in our series of racial tests, placing it
below the colour of the hair and eyes in the scale. This does
not mean that it is entirely worthless for our ethnic purposes.
There are many clear cases of differences of stature which can
be ascribed to no other cause ; but it bids us be cautious
about judging hastily. It commands us to be content with
nothing less than hundreds of observations, and to rigidly
eliminate all social factors. The best way to do this is to
take the broad view, by including so many individuals that
locally progressive and degenerative factors may counter
balance one another. Turning back to our map of the world,
it will at once appear that we can not divide the human
species into definite continental groups characterized by dis
tinct peculiarities of stature. The so-called yellow Mongolian
race comprises both tall and short peoples. The aborigines
of America are, as a rule, tall ; but in the Andes, the basin of
the Columbia River, and elsewhere they are quite undersized.
The only two racial groups which seem to be homogeneous
in stature are the true African negroes and the peoples of
Indonesia and the Pacific. In Africa the environment is quite
uniform. In the other cases racial peculiarities seem to be
deeply enough ingrained to overcome the disturbances due to
outward factors. The Malays are always and everywhere
rather short. The Polynesians are obstinately inclined to
ward tallness. With these exceptions, racial or hereditary
predispositions in stature seem to be absent. Let us turn to
the consideration of Europe by itself, and inquire if the same
rule holds here as well.
The light tints upon this map * indicate the tall popula
tions ; as the tint gradually darkens, the people become pro
gressively shorter. Here again we find that Europe com
prehends a very broad range of variations. The Scotch,
with an average height of five feet nine inches, stand on a
level with the tall Polynesians and Americans, both aboriginal
and modern white. At the other extreme, the south Italians,
Sicilians, and Sardinians range alongside the shortest of men,
* See Appendix, C.
98 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
if we except the abnormal dwarf races of Africa. From one
to the other of these limits there is a regular transition, which
again points indubitably to racial law. Two specific centres
of tall stature appear, if \ve include the minor but marked
tendency of the Dalmatians, Bosnians, and Montenegrins along
the Adriatic Sea. The principal one lies in the north, culmi
nating in the British Isles and Scandinavia. In Britain, eco
nomic prosperity undoubtedly is of importance, as the level
of material comfort is probably higher than on the Continent.
But even making allowance for this fact, it appears that the
Teutons as a race are responsible for the phenomenon. Our
map slightly exaggerates, perhaps, the physical superiority in
the north. Conscription in the southern countries of Europe
usually takes place at the age of twenty, so that our results
in this region do not represent fully matured statures. For
Scandinavia and the British Isles, the ages of men observed
were greater. Nevertheless this slight correction affects in
nowise the proposition that the Teutons are a race of great
height. Wherever they have penetrated, as in northern
France, down the Rhone Valley, or into Austria, the popula
tion shows its effects. The light area along the Adriatic, in
dicating a very tall population, is difficult to account for.
Deniker (>98) ascribes it to the presence of a gigantic Dinaric
race ; a point which we shall discuss later.
Central Europe is generally marked by medium height.
The people tend to be stocky rather than tall. The same
holds true as we turn to the Slavic countries in the east of Eu
rope. Across Austria and Russia there is a progressive al
though slight tendency in this direction. The explanation of
the extreme short stature of Sardinia and southern Italy is
more problematical. Our map points to a racial centre of
real diminutiveness, at an average of five feet and one or two
inches. Too protracted civilization, such as it was, is partly to
blame. It is undeniable that, as Lapouge and Fallot assert,
while the average height of the other populations of Mediter
ranean race is low, a goodly proportion of the people are of
fair stature. It is the presence of a heavy contingent of ab
normally stunted men which really depresses the average in
STATURE.
99
places below mediocrity.* This would seem to indicate phys
ical degeneracy, rather than a natural diminutiveness as the
cause. A notable difference of stature confronts us in Africa.
All along the coast from Morocco to Tunis the Berbers and
Arabs are finely developed men.f Nor is Spain below the
general standard for most of France or Switzerland. It is in
deed difficult to explain the variations in height which we
meet about the Mediterranean on any other theory than that
of environmental disturbance, although Livi and Deniker as
sert it to be purely a matter of race.J
We may demonstrate the innate tendency of the Teutonic
peoples toward tallness of stature more locally than by this
continental method. We may follow the trait from place to
place, as this migratory race has moved across the map.
Wherever these " greasy seven-foot giants," as Sidonius Apol-
linaris called them, have gone, they have implanted their stat
ure upon the people, where it has remained long persistent
thereafter. Perhaps the clearest detailed illustration of a per
sistency of this racial peculiarity is offered by the people
of Brittany. Many years ago observers began to note the
contrasts in the Armorican peninsula between the Bretons
and the other French peasantry, and especially the local dif
ferences between the people of the interior and those fringing
the seacoast. The regularity of the phenomenon is made mani
fest by the map on the next page. This is constructed from ob
servations on all the youth who came of age during a period
of ten years from i85o- 59. There can be no doubt of the
* The theory of a so-called "pygmy" race in Europe, even with the
support of such distinguished authorities as Kollmann, Sergi, and others,
seems to me entirely untenable. All populations contain a very few
dwarf types, as a normal result of variation or degeneracy, as Virchow
also asserts. To dignify them with the name of a race entirely miscon
ceives the meaning of the term ; nor does Sergi s hypothesis that these
dwarfs represent vestiges of immigrants from the pygmy races of central
Africa seem more probable. Consult Kollmann, in Jour. Anth. Inst.,
1895, p. 117; Sergi, 1895 a, p. 90: Niceforo, 1896.
f Collignon, 1887 a, p. 208; Bertholon, 1892, p. 10 ; at p. 13 a heavy
contingent of very short types seems to be present even in Africa.
\ 1896:1, p. 183. Cf. Appendix, D.
IOO
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
facts in the case. It has been tested in every way. Other
measurements, made twenty years later, are precisely parallel
in their results, as we have already seen (page 86 supra) in the
case of Finisterre.*
e
/ EASTERN BOUNDARY
\y 7 OF CELTIC SPEECH
O
PERCENT
UNDER
L5 6 METERS
<5 FT lms)
S 6-8
fa-10
\\Z-l4
1 14-1 7
STATVRE
LOWER
AFTER &ROCA
BRITTANY
(1850-59)
The average stature of the whole peninsula is low, being
only about five feet five inches ; yet in this " tocJic noire "
it descends more than a full inch below this. This appreciable
difference is not wholly due to environment, although the
facts cited for Finisterre show that it is of some effect. The
whole peninsula is rocky and barren. The only advantage
that the people on the coast enjoy is the support of the fish
eries. This is no insignificant factor, to be sure. Yet we
have direct proof beyond this that race is here in evidence.
This is afforded by other physical differences between the
population of the coast and that of the interior. The people
of the littoral are lighter in hair and eyes, and appreciably
* Broca, 1868 a ; and Chassagne, iSSi.
STATURE.
IOI
longer-headed ; in other words, they show traces of Teutonic
intermixture. In ancient times this whole coast was known
as the " litns Sa.vonicum" so fiercel} was it ravaged by these
northern barbarians. Then again in the fifth century, im
migrants from Britain, who in fact bestowed the name of
Brittany upon the country, came over in hordes, dispossessed
in England by the same Teutonic invaders. They were prob
ably Teutonic also ; for the invaders of Britain came so fast
that thev literallv crowded themselves out of the little island.
PERCENT
TALLER THAN x -y ^
1.69 METER5
NORTHERN
BOUNDARY OF v^
ROMAN5CH
PEP SOUTHERN
BOUNDARY OF
GERMAN.
SPEECH
(Approxi mau;
STATURE
AUSTRIAN TYROL
16384- OBSERVATIONS AHB. TOLDT 51
The result has been to infuse a new racial element into all the
border populations in Brittany, while the original physical
traits remain in undisturbed possession of the interior. The
Normans to the northeast are, on the other hand, quite purely
102 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
Teutonic, especially marked in their height. In this case en
vironment and race have joined hands in the final result, but
the latter seems to have been the senior partner in the affair.
One more detailed illustration of the persistence of stature
as a racial trait may be found in the people of the Austrian
Tyrol. The lower Inn Valley (uppermost in our map) was
the main channel of Teutonic immigration into a primitively
broad-headed Alpine country by race, as we shall later see.
From the south, up the Adige Valley by Trient came the sec
ond intrusive element in the long-headed brunet Mediterranean
peoples. This map at once enables us to endow each of these
types with its proper quota of stature ; for the environment
is quite uniform, considered as in this map by large districts
covering valley and mountain alike. Each area contains all
kinds of territory, so that we are working by topographical
averages, so to speak. Moreover, the whole population is
agricultural, with the exception of a few domestic industries in
the western half. Such differences as arise must be therefore
in large measure due to race. The regular transition from the
populations at the northeast with generally a majority of the
men taller than five feet six inches, to the Italian slopes where
less than one fifth attain this moderate height, is sufficient proof.
One of those rare examples of a parallelism of physical traits
and language is also afforded. Both tall stature and the Ger
man language seem to have penetrated the country from the
northeast, crossing the Alps as far as Bozen. Could demon
stration in mathematics be more certain that here in the Tyrol
we have a case of an increase of stature due to race alone ?
CHAPTER VI.
THE THREE EUROPEAN RACES.
IT may smack of heresy to assert, in face of the teaching
of all our text-books on geography and history, that there is
no single European or white race of men ; and yet that is the
plain truth of the matter. Science has advanced since Lin
naeus single type of Homo Enropccits dibits was made one of
the four great races of mankind.* No continental group of
human beings with greater diversities or extremes of physical
type exists. That fact accounts in itself for much of our ad
vance in culture. We have already shown in the preceding-
chapters that entire communities of the tallest and shortest
of men as well as the longest and broadest headed ones, are
here to be found within the confines of Europe. Even in
respect of the colour of the skin, hair, and eyes, responsible
more than all else for the misnomer " white race," the greatest
variations occur. f To be sure, the several types are to-day
all more or less blended together by the unifying influences of
civilization ; there are few sharp contrasts in Europe such as
* The progress of classification, chronologically, is indicated in our sup
plementary Bibliography, under the index title of Races. It is significant
of the slow infiltration of scientific knowledge into secondary literature
that the latest and perhaps best geographical text-book in America still
teaches the unity of the European or " Aryan" race. Zoological authori
ties also in English seem to be unaware of the present state of our infor
mation. Thus Flower and Lyddeker in their great work on the mammals
make absolutely no craniological distinctions. They have not advanced
a whit beyond the theory of the " oval head " of a half century ago.
On the latest and most elaborate classification, that by Deniker, con
sult our Appendix D.
t Huxley s (1870) celebrated classification into Melanochroi and Xan-
thochroi is based on this entirely.
103
I04 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
those between the Eskimo and the American Indian, or the
Malay and the Papuan in other parts of the world. We have
been deceived by this in the past. It is high time for us to
correct our ideas on the subject, especially in our school and
college teaching.
Instead of a single European type there is indubitable evi
dence of at least three distinct races, each possessed of a his
tory of its own, and each contributing something to the com
mon product, population, as we see it to-day. If this be
established it does away at one fell swoop with most of the
current mouthings about Aryans and pre- Aryans ; and espe
cially with such appellations as the " Caucasian " or the " Indq-
Germanic " race. Supposing for present peace that it be
allowed that the ancestors of some peoples of Europe may
once have been within sight of either the Caspian Sea or the
Himalayas, we have still left two thirds of our European races
and population out of account. As yet it is too early to
discuss the events in the history of these races ; that will claim
our attention at a later time. The present task before us is
to establish first of all that three such racial types exist in
Europe.
The sceptic is already prepared perhaps to admit that
what we have said about the several physical characteristics,
such as the shape of the head, stature, and the like, may all
be true. But he will continue to doubt that these offer evi
dence of distinct races because ordinary observation may de
tect such gross inconsistencies on every hand. Even in the
most secluded hamlet of the Alps, where population has re
mained undisturbed for thousands of years, he will be able
to point out blond-haired children whose parents were dark,
short sons of tall fathers, and the like. Diversities confront
us on every hand even in the mo3t retired corner of Europe.
What may we not anticipate in more favoured places, especially
in the large cities ?
Traits in themselves are all right, our objector will main
tain : but you must show that they are hereditary, persistent.
More than that, you must prove not alone the transmissibility
of a single trait by itself, you must also show that combina-
THE THREE EUROPEAN RACES. 105
tions of traits are so handed down from father to son. Three
stages in the development of our proof must be noted : first,
the distribution of separate traits; secondly, their association
into types; and, lastly, the hereditary character of these types
which alone justifies the term races* We have already taken
the first step: we are now essaying the second. It is highly
important that we should keep these distinct. Even among
professed anthropologists there is still much confusion of
thought upon the subject so much so, in fact, that some
have, it seems to us without warrant, abandoned the task in
despair. Let us beware the example of the monkey in the
fable. Seeking to withdraw a huge handful of racial nuts
from the jar of fact, we may find the neck of scientific possi
bility all too small. We may fail because we have grasped
too much at once. Let us examine.
There are two ways in which we may seek to assemble
our separate physical traits into types that is, to combine
characteristics into living personalities. The one is purely
anthropological, the other inferential and geographical in its
nature. The first of these is simple. Answer is sought to a
direct question. In a given population, are the blonds more
often tall than the brunets, or the reverse? Is the greater
proportion of the tall men at the same time distinctly longer-
headed or otherwise? and the like. If the answers to these
questions be constant and consistent, our work is accom
plished. Unfortunately, they are not always so, hence our
necessary recourse to the geographical proof: but they at
least indicate a slight trend, which we may follow up by the
other means.
Let it be boldly confessed at the outset that in the greater
number of cases no invariable association of traits in this
way occurs. This is especially true among the people of the
central part of Europe. The population of Switzerland, for
example, is persistently aberrant in this respect; it is every
thing anthropologically that it ought not to be. This should
not surprise us. In the first place, mountainous areas always
* Consult our Appendix D concerning Deniker s definition of races in
this connection.
I O 6 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
contain the " ethnological sweepings of the plains," as Canon
Taylor puts it. Especially is this true when the mountains
lie in the very heart of the continent, at a focus of racial im
migration. Moreover, the environment is competent to upset
all probabilities, as we hope to have shown. Suppose a bru-
net type from the south should come to Andermatt and settle.
If altitude, indeed, exerts an influence upon pigmentation, as
we have sought to prove ; or if its concomitant poverty in the
ante-tourist era should depress the stature ; racial equilib
rium is as good as vanished in t\vo or three generations.
It is therefore only where the environment is simple ; and
especially on the outskirts of the continent, where migration
and intermixture are more infrequent ; that any constant and
normal association of traits may be anticipated. Take a single
example from many. We have always been taught, since the
days of Tacitus, to regard the Teutonic peoples the Goths,
Lombards, and Saxons as tawny-haired, " large-limbed
giants." History is filled with observations to that effect from
the earliest times.* Our maps have already led us to infer
as much. Nevertheless, direct observations show that tall
stature and blondness are by no means constant companions
in the same person. In Scandinavia, Dr. Arbo asserts, I
think, that the tallest men are at the same time inclined to
be blond. In Italy, on the other edge of the continent, the
same combination is certainly prevalent. f Over in Russia,
once more on the outskirts of Europe, \ the tall men are again
said to be lighter complexioned as a rule. In the British
Isles,* in Holstein,|[ in parts of Brittany A and southern
France, in Savoy ,1 and in Wiirtemberg $ it is more often true
* Herve, 1897, gives many texts. Cf. also references in Taylor, 1890,
P- 108. f Livi, 1896 a, pp. 74, 76, 143.
\ Zograf, 1892 a, p. 173 ; though denied by Anutchin, 1893, p. 285, and
Eichholz, 1896, p. 40.
* Beddoe, i867- 69 a, p, 171 ; also Rolleston, 1884, i, p. 279. Not true
so often in Scotland.
I Meisner, 1889, p. 118 ; but contradictory, p. in ; also 1891, p. 323.
A Collignon, 18903, p. 15,
Q Lapouge, 1894 a, p. 498 ; i897- 9S, p. 314.
$ Garret, 1883, p. 106.
$ Von Holder, 1876, p. 6 ; Ecker, 1876, p. 259, agrees.
THE THREE EUROPEAN RACES.
107
than otherwise. But if we turn to other parts of Europe we
are completely foiled. The association in the same individual
of stature and blondness fails or is reversed in Bavaria,* in
Baden, f along the Adriatic,]; in Poland,* and in upper Austria
and Salzburg, as well as among the European recruits ob
served in America during our civil war. A It seems to be sig
nificant, however, that when the association fails, as in the
highlands of Austria ; where the environment is eliminated,
as in lower Austria, the tall men again become characteristic
ally more blond than the short ones. In this last case en
vironment is to blame ; in others, racial intermixture, or it
may be merely chance variation, is the cause.
In order to avoid disappointment, let us bear in mind that
in no other part of the world save modern America is such
an amalgamation of various peoples to be found as in Europe.
History, and archaeology long before history, show us a con
tinual picture of tribes appearing and disappearing, crossing
and recrossing in their migrations, assimilating, dividing, col
onizing, conquering, or being absorbed. It follows from this,
that, even if the environment were uniform, our pure types
must be exceedingly rare. Experience proves that the vast
majority of the population of this continent shows evidence of
crossing, so that in general we can not expect that more than
one third of the people will be marked by the simplest com
bination of traits. "We need not be surprised, therefore, that if
we next seek to add a third characteristic, say the shape of the
head, to a normal combination of hair and eyes, we find the
proportion of pure types combining all three traits in a fixed
measure to be very small indeed. Imagine a fourth trait,
stature, or a fifth, nose, to be added, and our proportion of
pure types becomes almost infinitesimal. We are thus reduced
* Ranke. Beitrage zur Anth. und Urg. Bayerns, v, 1883, pp. 195 seq. ;
and iSS6- S7, ii, P, 124.
f Ammon, 1890, p. 14; 1899, pp. 175-184. * Elkind, 1896.
\ Weisbach, 1884, p. 26. | Weisbach, 1895 b, p. 70.
A Baxter, 1875. i. PP- 23 and 38 ; with exception of the Germans,
however.
() In Appendix E, the association of the other primary physical traits
in individuals is discussed.
10
io8
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
to the extremity in w,hich my friend Dr. Ammon, of Baden,
found himself, when I wrote asking for photographs of a pure
Alpine type from the Black Forest. He has measured thou
sands of heads, and yet he answered that he really had not
been able to find a perfect specimen in all details. All his
round-headed men were either blond, or tall, or narrow-nosed,
or something else that they ought not to be.
Confronted by this situation, the tyro is here tempted to
turn back in despair. There is no justification for it. It is
not essential to our position, that we should actually be able to
Ii
: PERCENTACE DISTRIBUTION ~-
r STATUREL
\ " 1 1 1 II 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 11 5<10TLAND ::
-\r ::;::::::: ::
V i. _.,.--- (NORTHERN ITALY)
\~-~- \ / ::5::: ,
"i" "~i<<" ::::i: "
:?:: "?u"^ \ ::::::
.,,.,,
2 - -"
" " it" 1 * L.
: ~~ : /
1 SO METERS I.5S IAO I
6 1.70 175 1.80 1
13-1- INCHIS 15-
AWVtSFT.
isolate any considerable number, nor even a single one, of
our perfect racial types in the life. It matters not to us that
never more than a small majority of any given population
possesses even two physical characteristics in their proper
association ; that relatively few of these are able to add a
third to the combination ; and that almost no individuals show
a perfect union of all traits under one head, so to speak, while
contradictions and mixed types are everywhere present. Such
a condition of affairs need not disturb us if we understand
THE THREE EUROPEAN RACES.
109
ourselves aright. We should indeed e perplexed were it
otherwise.
Consider how complex the problem really is ! We say the
people of Scotland are on the average among the tallest in
Europe. True! But that does not exclude a considerable
number of medium and undersized persons from among
them. We may illustrate the actual condition best by means
of the accompanying diagram.* Three curves are plotted
therein for the stature of large groups of men chosen at ran
dom from each of three typical parts of Europe. The one
at the right is for the tall Scotch, the middle one for the
medium-sized northern Italians, and the one at the left for
Sardinians, the people of this island being among the shortest
in all Europe. The height of each curve at any given point
indicates the percentage within each group of men, which
possessed the stature marked at the base of that vertical line.
Thus eight per cent of the Ligurian men were five feet five
inches tall (1.65 metres), while nine per cent of the Sardin
ians were fully two inches shorter (1.60 metres). In either
case these several heights were the most common, although
in no instance is the proportion considerable at a given stat
ure. There is, however, for each country or group of men,
some point about which the physical trait clusters. Thus the
largest percentage of a given stature among the Scotch occurs
at about five feet nine inches and a half. Yet a very large
* The curve for the Scotch, taken from the Report of the Anthropo-
metric Committee of the British Association for the Advancement of Sci
ence for 1883, has been arbitrarily corrected to correspond to the metric
system employed by Dr. Livi in the other curves. A centimetre is
roughly equal to 0.4 of an inch. It is assumed that in consequence only
0.4 as many individuals will fall within each centimetre class as in the
groups of stature differing by inches. The ordinates in the Scotch dia
gram have therefore been reduced to 0.4 of their height in the original
curve.
The best technical discussion of such curves among anthropologists
will be found in Goldstein, 1883 ; Stieda, 1883 ; Ammon, 1893 and 1896 c ;
Livi, 1895 and 1896 a, pp. 22 et seq.; and in the works of Bowditch, Gallon,
etc. Emme, 1887, gives a pointed criticism of the possible fallacy in mere
averages. Dr. Boas has contributed excellent material, based upon the
American Indians for the most part.
IIO THE RACES OF EUROPE.
number of them, about five per cent, fall within the group of
five feet seven inches (1.70 metres) that is to say, no taller
than an equal percentage of the Ligurians and even in Sar
dinia there is an appreciable number of that stature. We
must understand, therefore, when we say that the Scotch are
a tall people or a long-headed or blond one; that we mean
thereby, not that all the people are peculiar in this respect even
to a slight degree, but merely that in this region there are
more specimens of these speciaj types than elsewhere. Still
it remains that the great mass of the people are merely neutral.
This is a more serious obstacle to overcome than direct con
tradictions. They merely whet the appetite. Our most diffi
cult problem is to separate the typical wheat from the non
committal straw ; to distinguish our racial types from the gen
eral mean or average which everywhere constitutes the over
whelming majority of the population.
We have now seen how limited are the racial results at
tainable by the first of our two means of identification that
is, the purely somatological one. It has appeared that only
in the most simple conditions are the several traits constant
and faithful to one another in their association in the same
persons. Nor are we justified in asking for more. Our three
racial types are not radically distinct seeds which, once planted
in the several parts of Europe, have there taken root ; and,
each preserving its peculiarities intact, have spread from those
centres outward until they have suddenly run up against one
another along a racial frontier. Such was the old-fashioned
view of races, in the days before the theory of evolution had
remodelled our ways of thinking when human races were held
to be distinct creations of a Divine will. We conceive of it
all quite differently. These types for us are all necessarily
offshoots from the same trunk. The problem is far more
complex to us for this reason. It is doubly dynamic. Up
building and demolition are taking place at the same time.
r>y our constitution of racial types we seek to simplify the
matter for a moment to lose sight of all the destructive
forces, and from obscure tendencies to derive ideal results.
We picture an anthropological goal which might have
THE THREE EUROPEAN RACES. Iir
been attained had the life conditions only been less compli
cated.
Are we in this more presumptuous than other natural
scientists? Is the geologist more certain of his deductions,
in his restoration of an ideal mountain chain from the de
nuded roots which alone bear witness to the fact to-day? In
this case all the superstructure has long since disappeared.
The restoration is no less scientific. It represents more clearly
than aught else, the rise and disappearance, the results and
future tendencies of great geological movements. We take
no more liberties with our racial types than the geologist
with his mountains ; nor do we mean more by our restora
tions. The parallel is instructive. The geologist is w r ell
aware that the uplifted folds as he depicts them never existed
in completeness at any given time. He knows full well that
erosion took place even as lateral pressure raised the con
torted strata ; that one may even have been the cause of the
other. If indeed denudation could have been postponed until
all the elevation of the strata had been accomplished, then the
restoration of the mountain chain would stand for a once real
but now vanished thing. This, the geologist is well aware, was
not thus and so. In precisely the same sense do we conceive of
our races. Far be it from us to assume that these three races
of ours ever, in the history of mankind, existed in absolute
purity or isolation from one another. As soon might the
branch grow separate and apart from the parent oak. Xo
sooner have environmental influences, peculiar habits of life,
and artificial selection commenced to generate distinct vari
eties of men from the common clay ; no sooner has heredity
set itself to perpetuating these ; than chance variation, migra
tion, intermixture, and changing environments, with a host
of minor dispersive factors, begin to efface this constructive
work. Racial upbuilding and demolition, as we have said,
have ever proceeded side by side. Never is the perfect type
in view, while yet it is always possible. " Race," says Topi-
nard ( T9) , " in the present state of things is an abstract con
ception, a notion of continuity in discontinuity, of unity in di
versity. It is the rehabilitation of a real but directlv unattain-
H2 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
able thing." In this sense alone do we maintain that there
are three ideal racial types in Europe to be distinguished from
one another. They have often dissolved in the common popu
lation ; each particular trait has gone its own way ; so that
at the present time rarely, if indeed ever, do we discover
a single individual corresponding to our racial type in every
detail. It exists for us nevertheless.
Thus convinced that the facts do not warrant us in ex
pecting too much of our anthropological means of isolating
racial types, we have recourse to a second or inferential mode
of analysis. In this we work by geographical areas rather than
by personalities. We discover, for example, that the north
of Europe constitutes a veritable centre of dispersion of long-
headedness. Quite independently, we discover that the same
region contains more blond traits than any other part of Eu
rope, and that a high average stature there prevails. The
inference is at once natural, that these three characteristics
combine to mark the prevalent type of the population. If
one journeyed through it, one might at first expect to find
the majority of the people to be long-headed and tall blonds ;
that the tallest individuals would be the most blond, the long
est-headed most tall, and so on. This is, as we have already
shown, too good and simple to be true, or even to be ex
pected. Racial combinations of traits, indeed, disappear in a
given population as sugar dissolves or rather as certain chem
ical salts are resolved into their constituent elements when
immersed in water, From the proportions of each element
discovered in the fluid, quite free from association, we are
often able to show that they once were united in the same
compound. In the same manner, finding these traits float
ing about loose, so to speak, in the same population, we pro
ceed to reconstitute types from them. We know that the
people approach this type more and more as we near the spe
cific centre of its distribution. The traits may refuse to go
otherwise than two by two, like the animals in the ark,
and they may change partners quite frequently: yet they
may still manifest distinct affinities one for another never
theless.
THE THREE EUROPEAN RACES. 113
The apparent inference is not always the just one, although
it tends to be. Suppose, for example, that one observer
should prove that sixty per cent of ten thousand natives of
Holland were blonds ; and another, studying the same ten
thousand individuals, should prove that a like proportion were
very tall would this of necessity mean that the Hollanders
were mainly tall blonds ? Not at all ! It might still be that
the two groups of traits merely overlapped at their edges.
In other words, the great majority of the blonds might still
be constituted from the shorter half of the population. Only
twenty per cent need necessarily be tall and blond at once,
even in this simple case where both observers studied the same
men from different points of view. How much more confus
ing, if each chanced to hit upon an entirely different set of ten
thousand men ! This, be it noted, is generally the case in
practice. Nevertheless, although there is always danger in
such inferences, we are fortunate in possessing so many paral
lel investigations that they check one another, and the tenden
cies all point in one direction.
These tendencies we may discover by means of curves
drawn as we have indicated above on page 108. By them
we may analyze each group in detail. Every turn of the
lines has a meaning. Thus, the most noticeable feature of
the Sardinian curve of statures is its narrowness and height ;
the Ligurian one is broader at the base, with sloping sides ;
and the Scotch one looks as if pressure had been applied at
the apex to flatten it out still farther. The interpretation is
clear. In Sardinia we have a relatively unified type. Nearly
all of the people are characterized by statures between five
feet one inch (1.56 metres) and five feet five inches (1.65
metres). They are homogeneous, in other words : and they
are homogeneous at the lower limit of human variation in
stature. The curve is steepest on the left side. This means
that the stature has been depressed to a point where neither
misery nor chance variation can stunt still further ; so that
suddenly from seven per cent of the men of a height of five
feet one inch and a half (more frequent than any given stat
ure in Scotland) we drop to two per cent at a half inch shorter
114
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
stature. A moment s consideration shows, moreover, that the
narrower the pyramid, the higher it must be. One hundred per
cent of the people must be accounted for somewhere. If they
are not evenly distributed, their aggregation near the middle of
the curve will elevate its apex, or its shoulders at least. Thus
a sharp pyramid generally denotes a homogeneous people. If
they were all precisely alike, a single vertical line one hundred
per cent high would result. On the other hand, a flattened
curve indicates the introduction of some disturbing factor,
be it an immigrant race, environment, or what not. In this
case the purity of the Sardinians is readily explicable. They
have lived in the greatest isolation, set apart in the Mediter
ranean. A curve drawn for the Irish shows the same phe
nomenon. Islands demographically tend in the main to one
or the other of two extremes. If unattractive, they offer ex
amples of the purest isolation, as in Corsica and Sardinia.
If inviting, or on the cross-paths of navigation, like Sicily,
their people speedily degenerate into mixed types. For if
incentive to immigration be offered, they are approachable
alike from all sides. The Scotch, as we have observed, are
more or less mixed in type, and unequally subjected to the
influences of environment ; so that their curve shows evidence
of heterogeneity. Scotland combines the isolation of the
Highlands with a great extent of seacoast. The result has
been that in including the population of both kinds of ter
ritory in a single curve we find great variability of stature
manifested.
It will repay us to analyze a few more seriation curves,
for they illustrate graphically and with clearness the complex
facts in the situation. These diagrams are based not upon
statures, but upon cephalic indices. The same principles ap
ply, however, in either case. The first one deals, as will be
noted, with a very large number of individuals. It illustrates
the difference in contour between a curve drawn for a
relatively simple population and one in which several dis
tinct types are coexistent. The narrowness and height of the
percentage pyramids for the two extremes of Italy, culmi
nating at indexes of 79 and 84 respectively, are nota-
THE THREE EUROPEAN RACES. : j 5
ble.* The two regions are severally quite homogeneous in
respect of the head form of their population; for the apex of
such curves rarely exceeds the limit of fourteen per cent reached
in these instances. The curve for all Italy, on the other hand,
is the resultant of compounding such seriations as these for
each district of the country. It becomes progressively lower
LOMBAB.PV
(36 ZOZ Ml
JlCILY
(3Z5Z6 MEN)
ALL. ITALY R
(Z94-Z71 MEN)
and broader with the inclusion of each differently character
ized population. It will be observed, however, that even this
curve for a highly complex people, preserves vestiges, in its
minor apexes, of the constituent types of which it is com
pounded. Thus its main body culminates at the broadened
head form of the Alpine race ; but a lesser apex on the left-
* The geographical distribution of these is shown upon our map on
page 251.
u6
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
hand side coincides with the cephalic index of the Mediter
ranean racial type; that which entirely dominated in the sim
ple curve for Sicily alone.
The second diagram contains examples of a number of
erratic curves. The Swiss one represents a stage of physical
heterogeneity far more pronounced than that of all Italy,
which we have just analyzed. Or rather, more truly, it is the
product of an intermixture upon terms of entire equality of
PURE/ JD MIXE.D POPULATION^
/ \
a number of types of head form. In Italy, as we have seen,
the broader head form so far outweighed the Mediterranean
one, that a single culminating point of maximum frequency
still remained, with a lesser one corresponding to the minority
partner. In this second diagram Bavaria represents about the
same condition as all Italy, with, however, the proportions of
the two constituent types reversed; for, being north of the Alps,
the culminating apex of greatest frequency lies toward the
THE THREE EUROPEAN RACES. 117
longer-headed side of the curve. Therein does the predomi
nant dolichocephaly of the Teutonic race make itself manifest.
Compared with these curves for Italy and Bavaria, the
Swiss seriation is seen to be devoid of any real apex at all.
It represents a population in no wise possessed of distinct
individuality so far as cephalic index is concerned. Broad
and long heads are about equally common. This corresponds,
of course, to the geographical probabilities for two reasons :
inasmuch as Switzerland not only lies at the centre of the
continent ; but also, owing to its rugged surface, comprises all
extremes of isolation and intermixture within its borders. A
state of heterogeneity absolutely unparalleled seems to be
indicated by still another of our curves that drawn for
the Greeks of Asia Minor. It culminates at the most wide
ly separated cephalic indexes viz., 75 and 88 respectively
known in the human species. The lower index corre
sponds to the primitive long-headed Greek stock ; the other
is probably a result of intermixture with Turks, Armenians,
and others. Or perhaps it is nearer the truth to say that the
only bond of unity in the entire series is that of language ; in
other words, that the broad-headed apex represents Turks,
Armenians, and others, still physically true to their original
pattern, yet who have chanced to adopt the speech of the
Greeks. Here again is the heterogeneous ethnic composition
of eastern Europe fully exemplified by a seriation curve of
cephalic index.
By the second geographical method which we have de
scribed we constitute our racial types as the archaeologist,
from a mass of broken fragments of pottery, restores the de
signs upon his shattered and incomplete vases. Upon a bit
of clay he discovers tracings of a portion of a conventionalized
human figure. A full third let us say the head of Thoth
or some other Egyptian deity is missing. The figure is in
complete to this extent. Near by is found upon another frag
ment, a representation of the head and half the body of another
figure. In this case it is the legs alone which lack. This
originally formed no part of the same vase with the first bit.
Il8 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
It is perhaps of entirely different size and colour. Never
theless, finding that the portions of the design upon the two
fragments bear marks of identity in motive or pattern, data
for the complete restoration of the figure of the god are at
hand. It matters not, that from the fragments in his posses
sion the archaeologist can reconstruct no single perfect form.
The pieces of clay will in no wise fit together. The designs,
notwithstanding, so complement one another that his mind
is set at rest. The affinity of the two portions is almost as
clearly defined as the disposition of certain chemical elements
to combine in fixed proportions ; for primitive religion or
ornament is not tolerant of variation.
We copy the procedure of the archaeologist precisely. In
one population, colour of hair and stature gravitate toward
certain definite combinations. Not far away, perhaps in an
other thousand men drawn from the same locality, the same
stature is found to manifest an affinity for certain types of head
form. It may require scores of observations to detect the
tendency, so slight has it become. In still another thousand
men perhaps a third combination is revealed. These all, how
ever, overlap at the edges. Granted that an assumption is
necessary. It is allowed to the archaeologist. Our conclu
sions are more certain than his, even as the laws of physical
combination are more immutable than those of mental asso
ciation. For it was mgrely mental conservatism which kept
the primitive designer of the vase from varying his patterns.
Here we have unchanging physical facts upon which to rely.
Of course, we should be glad to find all our physical traits
definitely associated in completeness in the same thousand re
cruits, were it not denied to us. The archaeologist \vould like
wise rejoice at the discovery of one perfect design upon a
single vase. Both of us lack entities; we must be contented
with affinities instead.
A final step in our constitution of races that is to say, of
hereditary types is to prove that they are persistent and
transmissible from one generation to the next.* Of direct
* Consult in general the works of Perier ; E. Schmidt, 1888 ; Virchow,
1896; Kollmann, 1898 ; and also Science, New York, 1892, pp. 155 ct scq.
THE THREE EUROPEAN RACES. ug
testimony upon this point so far as concerns normal physical
characteristics, we possess little that is authoritative ; although
the anthropological journals abound in examples of the in
heritance of monstrous peculiarities. Yon Holder * c!a:ms
to have followed certain traits in Esslingen down through
four generations. Yon Luschan f gives some interesting data
concerning the transmission of peculiarities of head form in
two collaterally related families, although his number of ob
servations is too limited to form a basis of generalization.
The same objection applies to Goenner s work ( 95) . An indica
tion of the possibilities of research along these lines, is offered
by a very recent study at Stockholm of some six hundred
women, and an equal number of their new-born infants. J Sev
eral traces of direct hereditary transmission appear statistically
to be indicated, especially in respect of the cephalic index.
The proportions of the mother s head seem even in these new
ly born children, often with abnormal or deformed crania at so
tender an age, to betray an appreciable tendency to reappear
in like form. One of the most valuable contributions by De
Candolle ( 84) concerns the inheritance of the colour of the iris.
He found, for example, that where both parents were brown-
eyed, eighty per cent of the children were characterized by an
iris of the same shade. The proportion of blue-eyed children
in the succeeding generation was as high as 93.6 per cent when
both parents were alike in this respect. When they differed,
one being blue-eyed the other having a brown iris, the shade
of the father s eyes seemed to be slightly more persistent (fifty-
three to fifty-six per cent), but great variability was mani
fested.* Some interesting calculations by Miss Fawcett (<98) on
the inheritance of the head form, according to Boas s observa
tions on American aborigines, are also in progress. Galton s
* 1876, p. 10.
t 1889, p. 211.
\ Johanssen and Westermark, 1897, p. 366. The infantile index, as a
whole (80.3), however, is far above the mean for the mothers (76.5), prob
ably in conformity with Boas s (1896) rule that frontal development with
growth tends to lower the index progressively.
* Pfitzner, 1897, p. 497, gives other data on pigmentation, based upon
the population of Alsace.
120 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
studies relating to the transmissibility of stature are also well
known to English readers. The difficulty in the prosecution
of extended investigations in this line, is that the lifetime of a
single observer is too brief to comprehend more than three
generations at most; and even where this is possible, the unre
liability of a comparison of the phenomena of childhood with
old age vitiates many of the conclusions. One law alone, to
which we have already made reference, seems to be verified.
It is this ; viz., that types, which are combinations of separate
traits, are rarely if ever stable in a single line through several
generations. The physical characteristics are transmitted in
independence of one another in nine cases out of ten. The
absolute necessity of studying men in large masses, in order
to counteract this tendency is by this fact rendered impera
tive.
Our proof of the transmissibility of many of the physical
peculiarities with which we have here to deal must of neces
sity be indirect. The science of prehistoric archaeology af
fords testimony of this kind plentifully. From all parts of
Europe comes evidence as to the physical characteristics of
the people from which the living one has sprung. Our vol
ume abounds in it. Viewed broadly that is to say, taking
whole populations as a unit the persistence of ethnic pe
culiarities through generations is beyond question. We know,
for example, that in the north of Europe, as far back as ar
chaeology can carry us. men of a type of head form identical
with the living population to-day were in a majority. Like
wise the lake dwellers in Switzerland in the stone age, little
more civilized than the natives of Africa, were true ancestors
of the present Alpine race. Even since the earliest period of
history made known to us in Egypt, there has been no appre
ciable change in the physical character of the population, as
Sergi * has proved. Prehistoric archaeology thus comes to
our aid, with cumulative proof that at all events traits are
hereditary in populations, even if not always plainly so in
families. In truth, we here enter upon a larger field of in
vestigation than the anthropological one. The whole topic
* 1897 a, p. 65.
Teutonic types. NORWAY. Pure blond.
21. Alpine type. AUSTRIAN. Blue eyes, brown hair. Index 88. 22.
23. Mediterranean type. PALERMO, Sicily. Pure brunet. Index 77. 24.
THE THREE EUROPEAN RACIAL TYPES.
THE THREE EUROPEAN RACES.
121
of heredity opens up before us, too immense to discuss in
this place. Suffice it to say that in the main no question is
entertained upon the subject, save in the special cases of arti
ficially acquired characteristics and the like. Even here, in
a few isolated cases, as among the Jews, our evidence upon
this contested question seems to be indubitable.*
After this tedious summary of methods, let us turn to re
sults. The table on this page shows the combinations of
traits into racial types which seem best to accord with the facts.
It speaks for itself.
European Racial Types.
Head.
Face.
Hair.
Eyes.
Stature. Nose.
Synonyms.
Used by.
j TEUTONIC.
Long.
Long.
Very
Blue.
Tall. Narrow ;
Dolicho-
Koll-
light.
aquiline.
lepto.
mann.
Reihen-
Ger
graber.
mans.
Germanic.
English.
Kymric.
French.
Nordic.
Deniker.
Homo-
Lapouge
Europasus.
2
ALPINE
Round.
Broad.
Light Hazel-
Medium, Variable ; Celto-
French.
(Celtic i.
chest
nut.
gray.
stocky.
rather Slavic,
broad ; Sarmatian
Von
heavy.
Holder.
Dissentis,
Germans
Arvernian. Beddoe.
Occidental Deniker.
Homo- Lapouge
Alpinus.
Lappanoid Pruner
Bey.
3 MEDITER
Long.
Long.
Dark
Dark.
Medium,
Rather
Iberian.
English.
RANEAN.
brown
slender.
broad. Ligurian.
Italians.
or bl k
Ibero- 1
Insular \
Atlanto- [
Deniker.
Med. J
The first of our races is perhaps the most characteristic.
It is entirely restricted to northwestern Europe, with a centre
of dispersion in Scandinavia. Each of the other types extends
beyond the confines of the continent, one into Asia, the other
into Africa. Lapouge s name of Homo Europccus is by no
means inapt for this reason. Our portraits, chosen as typical
by Dr. Arbo of the Norwegian army, show certain of the
393.
I22 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
physical peculiarities, especially the great length of the head,
the long oval face, and the straight aquiline nose. The face
is rather smooth in outline, the cheek bones not being promi
nent. The narrow nose seems to be a very constant trait, as
much so as the tendency to tall stature. This race is strongly
inclined to blondness. The eyes are blue or light gray, and
the hair flaxen, tawny, reddish, or sandy. The whole com
bination .accords exactly with the descriptions handed down
to us by the ancients. Such were the Goths, Danes,
Norsemen, Saxons, and their fellows of another place and
time. History is thus strictly corroborated by natural sci
ence.
A distinctive feature of the Teutonic race, which we have
not yet mentioned, is its prominent and narrow nose. This
is notable, in general, as a fact of common observation, but it
is very difficult of anthropometric proof.* The range of in
dividual variation in the fleshy parts seems to be very great,
even in the same race. There is some indication, moreover,
that the nasal bones are influenced by the structure of the
face.f The lack of any international agreement as to the sys
tem of measurement renders statistical comparisons doubly
difficult. Nevertheless, enough has been done to show that
from the north of Europe, as we go south, the nose betrays a
tendency to become flatter and more open at the wings. Espe
cially where the Alpine and Teutonic types are in contact do
we find the flatter nos<? of the broad-headed race noticeable. \
Arbo * has observed it in the southwestern corner of Norway.
Houze (<SS) proves it for Belgium in a comparison of Flemings
and Walloons ; it is certainly true in France that the Teutonic
elements are more leptorhin (narrow-nosed) than the Alpine. ||
The association of a tall stature with a narrow nose is so close
as to point to a law. Italy shows a regular increase in fre-
* In general consult Topinard, 1891 b ; Collignon, 1887 d ; and Hovorka,
" Die iiussere Nase," Wien, 1893.
f Collignon, 1883, p. 47 ; 1887 a, p. 237 ; Livi, 1896 a, p. 114.
\ Topinard, 1885, Elements, p. 305.
* 1897, p. 57-
I Collignon, 1883, p. 508; 1892 b, pp. 48 and 54; 1894 a, Calvados, p.
24; and 1894 b, Dordogne, p. 41.
THE THREE EUROPEAN RACES. 123
quency of the broad and flat nose from north to south; and
Collignoivs law of the association of the form of nose to stat
ure seems again to be confirmed.* From this point south,
even from the Mediterranean coast in Tunis toward the inte
rior, the broad and open form of nose, extremely developed
in the negro race, becomes more common. f Our Sardinian
portraits (page 251), compared with those of the various Teu
tonic types, will strongly accentuate this change. A distinct,
Alpine types, Bavaria.
though distant, affinity of the Mediterranean stock with the
negro is surely the only inference to be drawn from it.
Our second racial type is most persistently characterized
by the shape of the head. This is short and at the same time
broad. The roundness is accompanied by a broad face, the
chin full, and the nose rather heavy. These traits are all
shown more or less clearly in our portraits of the Austrian
German, and of the two Bavarian peasants. The side views
in the latter cases show the shortness of the head as con-
* Livi, 1896 a, pp. 104-112; with maps XIV, XV, in atlas; as also
Mori, 1897.
f Collignon, 1887 a, Tunis, pp. 229-232. Even here the tall blonds are
more leptorhin.
124
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
trasted with the Teutonic type above described. At the same
time the cranium is high, the forehead straight, sometimes al
most overhanging. It seems as if pressure had been applied
front and back, the skull having yielded in an upward direc
tion. This type is of medium height, decidedly inclined to
ward stockiness in build. Its whole aspect is rather of solid
ity than of agility. The colour of the hair and eyes is rather
neutral, at all events intermediate between the Teutonic and
Mediterranean races. There is a tendency toward grayish
eyes, while the hair is more often brown. In these respects,
however, there is great variability, and the transition to the
north and south is very gradual. Climate or other environ
mental influence has in these traits eliminated all sharp divi
sion lines. These peculiarities appear only when the type is
found in extreme isolation and purity.
\Yhat name shall we apply to this second race, character
ized primarily by its great breadth of head, and which has its
main centre of dissemination in the Alpine highlands of mid-
western Europe? The most common name applied to it is
that of Celtic. This seems without doubt most adequately to
harmonize the results contributed to our knowledge of the
subject by the various sciences of history, philology, archaeol
ogy, and physical anthropology. Nevertheless, a very grave
objection to its use pertains. To make this clear we must for
a moment examine historically the so-called Celtic question,
than which no greater stumbling-block in the way of our clear
thinking exists. It is imperative to make the matter definite
before we proceed.*
The leading ethnologists prior to 1860, reiving entirely
upon the texts of the classical writers, generally agreed in affili
ating the Celts of early history with the tall, blond peoples of
northern Europe. In other words, they interpreted literally
* In our complete Bibliography, see under "Celts," in the index, a
chronological outline of the discussion, containing full titles of all papers
by Broca, Bertrand, and others not specifically given here. Among the
best references will be found Bertrand and Reinach s masterly work of
1894; Lagneau, especially 1877 b; Topinard, article " Francais," in the
Xouveau Dictionnaire de Geographic ; Collignon s extended review (1893 b)
of Arbois de Jubainville s latest work. Von Holder, 1876, discusses it well.
THE THREE EUROPEAN RACES.
125
Caesar s well-known passage in the Commentaries, " All Gaul
is divided into three parts, one of which the Belgse inhabit, the
Aquitani another, those who in their own language are called
Celts, in ours Gauls, the third." This statement was inter
preted to mean that the Gauls and Celts were of the same race,
although of course we see to-day that Caesar was speaking not
necessarily of races at all, but of peoples or political units.
Moreover, ammunition for endless controversy was afforded
by the conflicting statements of other ancient historians, no
one of them in fact until Polybius, as Bertrand ( T3) has shown,
really, using the words Celts and Gauls with any discrimina
tion whatever.
A new phase of the matter was presented by Broca s cele
brated researches concerning the physical characteristics of
the French people in the decade following 1860, especially
those among the peasants in Brittany. Here \vere the only
Celtic-speaking people on the continent, and they were of a
brunet and short race. Then, in 1865, came the monumental
work of Davis and Thurnam, the Crania Britannica, with added
proof that a large part of the Celtic-speaking population of
the British Isles, particularly the Welsh, were equally short
and of dark complexion. Broca c 4b > and Beddoe < -6;3b > among
anthropologists at once grasped the situation ; they perceived
the inconvenience attendant upon the use of the term. Never
theless, the advocates of the old view of tall blond Celts still
counted eminent authority among their number, such as von
Baer, with His < (i4b > and Riitimeyer.
Proof of a widespread short and dark population through
central Europe, even in southern Germany, meanwhile accu
mulated rapidly at the hands of Ecker, von Holder, Welcker,
and others ; they, however, dodged the issue by applying new
names to this broad-headed, un-Teutonic population which
they discovered in the recesses of the Black Forest and the
Alps. These people they called Ligurian, Sarmatian, Slavic
or Sion types. Finally, however, the close parallel between
the area characterized by Celtic place-names, as analyzed
by Bacmeister or described as Celtic by the ancients, and that
occupied by this newly discovered physical type, forced an
I2 6 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
issue between the anthropologists on the one hand and the
philologists and old-fashioned ethnographers on the other.
The years 1873- 74 brought the matter to a head. It was
a battle of the giants indeed, marked especially by the brilliant
flashes between Bertrand and Arbois de Jubainville, Omalius
d Halloy and Lagneau, with Broca, master of them all, against
the field. The controversy extended over a number of years,
Henry Martin,* Rawlinson ( 77) , and others being involved;
they, with the ethnographers, still contending for the tall
blondness of the Celts of history. Whatever be the present
state of opinion among students of other cognate sciences ;
there is practically to-day a complete unanimity of opinion
among physical anthropologists, that the term Celt, if used at
all, belongs to the second of our three races viz, the brachy-
cephalic, darkish population of the Alpine highlands. Such
is the view of Broca, Bertrand, Topinard, Collignon, and all
the French authorities. It is accepted by the Germans, Yir-
chow (<95) , Kollmann,f and Ranke \ as well; by the English,
foremost among them Dr. Beddoe,* and by the most compe
tent Italians, j
Despite the agreement among anthropologists as to the
connotation of the term Celt, its use involves us in intermi
nable difficulty, so long as the word is applied separately to
a definite language. The philologers properly insist upon
calling all those who sp^ak the Celtic language, Celts. With
less reason the archaeologists follow them and insist upon as
signing the name Celt to all those who possessed the Celtic
culture ; while the physical anthropologists, finding the Celtic
language spoken by peoples of divers physical types, with
* 1878 ; and especially in Bull. Soc. d Anth., 1877, p. 483.
t 1877, P- 154-
\ Der Mensch, 1890, ii, pp. 261-268, is conclusive.
* See also Rudler, 1880, for a very good summary. Dissident alone is
Lapouge, L Anthropologie, iii, p, 748. Cf. Zampa, 1892, on Italy. Hoyos
Sainz and Aranzadi, 1894, p. 429, may be right in asserting the Celtic
invaders of Spain to be blond. They would certainly appear so, com
pared with the Iberians, while yet being dark alongside the Teutonic
peoples.
I Cf. Sergi, 1883 b, p. 139, and 1895 a, p. 93.
THE THREE EUROPEAN RACES. 127
equal propriety hold that the term Celt, if used at all, should
be applied to that physical group or type of men which in
cludes the greatest number of those who use the Celtic lan
guage. This manifestly would operate to the exclusion of those
who spoke Celtic, but who differed from the linguistic major
ity in physical characteristics. The practical result of all this
was, for example, that anthropologists called the tall and blond
people of northern France and Belgium, Gauls or Kymri ; and
the broad heads of middle and southwestern France, Celts ;
while Caesar, as we saw, insisted that the Celt and the Gaul
were identical. The anthropologists affirmed that the Celtic
language had slipped off the tongues of some, and that others
had adopted it at second hand. Their explanation held that
the blond Belgse had come into France from the north, bring
ing the Celtic speech, which those already there- speedily
adopted ; but that they remained as distinct in blood as before.
These anthropologists, therefore, insisted that the Belgae de
served a distinctive name, and they called them Gauls, since
they ruled in Gaul ; in distinction from the Celts, who, being
the earlier inhabitants, constituted the majority of the Celtic-
speaking people. This was a cross-division with the philolo
gists, who called the Belgae Celts, because they brought the
language ; reserving the name Gaul, as they said, for the na
tives of that country; but both philologists and anthropolo
gists alike differed from the historians, who held to Caesar s
view that the Gauls and the Celts were all one.
Still greater confusion arises if we attempt to discuss the
origin of the people of the British Isles, where this Celtic
question enters again. Thus the people of Ireland and Wales,
of Cornwall and the Scottish Highlands, together with the
Bretons in France, would all be Celtic for the linguist because
they all spoke the Celtic language. For the anthropologist,
as we shall see, the Breton is as far from the Welsh as in
some respects the Welsh are from the Scotch. And after all,
the best opinion to-day is entirely in accord with Belloguet s
original suggestion of thirty years ago, that the Celts of the
historians never, in fact, formed more than the ruling class
all through central Europe.
128 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
It is not for us to say the final word upon these moot
points. If we have shown what confusion may result from
the use of this term, Celt, or Kelt if you please, we are content.
Our own view is that the linguists are best entitled to the
name Celt: but that they should be utterly denied the use of
the word race. Then, if we can adopt a distinctive word for
the first stage of iron culture, such as that of Hallstatt, long
used by the Germans and recently adopted by Bertrand and
Reinach as applicable to the civilization most generally co
ordinated with the Celtic language, our terminology will be
adequate to the present state of knowledge. The word Alpine
seems best to fit this second racial type which we have isolated.
This name, proposed by Linnaeus, has been revived with profit
by De Lapouge. It seems to be free from many objections to
which others are open. Especially is it important to avoid
misunderstandings by the use of historical names, such as
Ligurian or Iberian.* In many respects Deniker s name of
Nordic would be better than Teuton, which we have applied to
our first type, for this reason. Geographical names are least
equivocal. We shall, therefore, everywhere call the broad-
headed type Alpine. It centres in that region. It everywhere
follows the elevated portions of western Europe. It is, there
fore, pre-eminently a mountain type, whether in France, Spain,
Italy, Germany, or Albania ; it becomes less pure in propor
tion as we go east from the Carpathians across the great
plains of European Russia. \ By the use of it we shall care
fully distinguish between language, culture, and physical type.
Thus the Celtic language and the Hallstatt culture may spread
over the Alpine race, or -rice rersa. As. in fact, each may mi
grate in independence of the others, so in our terminology we
may distinctly follow them apart from one another. No con
fusion of terms can result.
We now come to the last of our three races, which is gen
erally known as the Mediterranean or Iberian type. It pre
vails everywhere south of the Pyrenees, along the southern
* Cf. page 261, infra.
\ The significance of the term Slavic and of Celto-Slavic, applied to
this race, is discussed in our chapter on Russia.
THE THREE EUROPEAN RACES.
I2 9
coast of France and in southern Italy, including Sicily and
Sardinia. Once more we return to a type of head form almost
identical with the Teutonic. Our portraits (facing page 121)
exemplify this clearly, in the oval face and the prominent oc
ciput of this third type. The cephalic index drops from 87
and above in the Alps to about 75 all along the line. This
is the primary fact to be noted.* Coincidently, the col
our of the hair and eyes becomes very dark, almost black.
The figure is less amply proportioned : the people become light,
slender, and rather agile, t As
to the bodily height of this third
race two varieties are to-day
recognised: the group north of
the Mediterranean is exceeding
ly short, while the African Ber
bers are of goodly size.J Au
thorities are, however, divided
as to the significance of this.
It has been shown that while
the average height of the Sar
dinians, for example, is low, a
considerable number, and those
of the purest type in other re
spects, are of goodly stature.
( )ur seriation curve on page 108
illustrates this persistency of a
taller contingent very well. La-
pouge < 1)4a) 7 especially, discov
ers a marked tendency in south
ern France away from this excessive shortness. It may indeed
be that, as we have already suggested, too protracted civiliza
tion is responsible for this diminutiveness on the northern
Mediterranean Type, Corsica.
Index 72.3.
* A subdivision of this type, the Cro-Magnon, preserves the same head
form, as we shall show, but the face becomes much broader. Collignon
recognises these two as subvarieties of a common race.
f Collignon, 1883, p. 63.
^ Deniker calls them Ibero-Insular and Atlanto-Mediterranean, re
spectively. Consult our Appendix D on his system.
130
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
shore of the Mediterranean. At all events, despite this sub
division, the substantial unity of the southern dolichocephalic
group is recognised by all authorities.*
It would be interesting at this time to follow out the in
tellectual differences between these three races which we have
described. The future social complexion of Europe is largely
dependent upon them. The problem is too complicated to
treat briefly. In a later chapter, devoted expressly to modern
social problems, we shall return to it again. Our physical
analysis is now complete. The next task is to trace the origin
of nationalities from the combination of these elements.
* Sergi, 1895 a, best proves this fact and summarizes its characteristics.
CHAPTER VII.
FRANCE AND BELGIUM.
It is difficult to give satisfactory references on the anthropology of
France as a whole. It has seemed more expedient, owing to the richness
of the literature, to give specific authorities for each of the distinct quar
ters of the country, as they have been separately treated.
SEVERAL reasons combine to make France the most inter
esting country of Europe from the anthropological point of
view. More is known of it in detail than of any other part
of the continent save Italy. Its surface presents the greatest
diversity of climate, soil, and fertility, Its population, con
sequently, is exposed to the most varied influences of environ
ment. It alone among the other countries of central Europe
is neither cis- nor trans-Alpine. It is open to invasion from
all sides alike. Lying on the extreme west coast of Europe,
it is a place of last resort for all the westward-driven peoples
of the Old World. All these causes combine to render its
population the most heterogeneous to be found on the con
tinent. It comprises all three of the great ethnic types
described in our preceding chapter, while most countries are
content with two. Nay, more, it still includes a goodly living
representation of a prehistoric race which has disappeared al
most everywhere else in Europe.*
Thirty years ago observers began to perceive differences in
* It would be ungracious not to acknowledge publicly my great
indebtedness to the foremost authority upon the population of France,
Major Dr. R. Collignon, of the Ecole Superieure de Guerre, at Paris ; and
to Prof. G. V. de Lapouge, of the University of Rennes, in Brittany, as
well. Invaluable assistance in the preparation of this and the following
chapter has been rendered by each. No request, even the most exacting,
has failed of a generous response at their hands.
132
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
central France between the people of the mountains and of
the plains. As early as 1868 Durand de Gros noted that in
Aveyron, one of the southern departments lying along the
border of a mountainous area, the populations of the region
thereabout were strongly differentiated. On the calcareous
plains the people were taller, of light complexion, with blue
or grayish-blue eyes, and having fine teeth. In the upland
areas of a granitic formation, the people were stunted, dark
in complexion, with very poor teeth. These groups used dis
tinct dialects. The peasants differed in temperament : one
was as lively as the other was morose ; one was progressive,
the other was backward in culture and suspicious of innova
tions. This same observer noted that the cattle of the two
regions were unlike ; on the infertile soils they were smaller
and leaner, differing in bodily proportions as well. He natu
rally, therefore, offered the same explanation for the differ
ences of both men and cattle namely, that they were due to
the influences of environment. He asserted that the geology
of the districts had determined the quality of the food and its
quantity at the same time, thereby affecting both animal and
human life. When this theory was advanced, even the fact
that such differences existed, was scouted as impossible, to say
nothing of the explanation offered for them. As late as 1889
\ve find Freeh, a German geologist, in ignorance of the modern
advance of anthropology, strongly impressed by these same
contrasts of population, and likewise ascribing them to the
direct influence of environment as did the earlier discoverer.
These differences, then, surely exist even to the unpractised
eye. We must account for them ; but we do it in another
way. The various types of population are an outcome of their
physical environment. This has, however, worked not di
rectly but in a roundabout way. It has set in motion a species
of social or racial selection, now operative over most of Eu
rope. Since it is most clearly expressed in France, an addi
tional reason appears for according a primary place to this
country in our analysis.
Before we proceed to study the French people, we must
cast an eye over the geographical features of the country.
FRANCE AND BELGIUM.
133
These are depicted in the accompanying map, in which the
deeper tints show the location of the regions of elevation
above the sea level. At the same time the cross-hatched lines
mark the areas within which the physical environment is un-
propitious, at least as far as agriculture the mainstay of
economic life until recent times is concerned. These lines
PHYSKAL O GEOGRAPHY
FRANCE.
tlfvaXion above je&levrl
I o - 7.00 metcri
| l-5oo
!H over Soo
I Mountainous
r| Primitive ^eologiw.! formatxin
y^a with infertile soil
indicate the boundary of the regions of primitive geological
formation, those in which the granitic substrata are overlaid
by a thin and stony soil.
A glance is sufficient to convince us that France is not
everywhere a garden.* Two north and south axes of fertility
* Collijrnon, 1890 b, is suirgestive on this.
J34 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
divide it into three or four areas of isolation. These differ
in degree in a way which illustrates the action of social forces
with great clearness. Within these two axes of fertility lie
two thirds of all the cities of France with a population of
fifty thousand or over. The major one extends from Flanders
at the north to Bordeaux in the southwest. Shaped like an
hourglass, it is broadened about Paris and in Aquitaine, being
pinched at the waist between Auvergne and Brittany. The
seventy-five miles of open country which lie between Paris
and Orleans have rightly been termed by Kohl * " the Meso
potamia of France." This district is not only surpassingly
fertile; it is the strategic centre of the country as well. At
this point the elbow of the Loire comes nearest to the Seine
in all its course. An invader possessed of this vantage ground
would have nearly all of France that was worth having at his
feet. If the Huns under Attila, coming from the East in 451,
had captured Orleans, as Clovis did with his Frankish host at
a later time, the whole southwest of France would have been
laid open to them. The Saracens, approaching from the south
along this main axis of fertility had they been victorious at
Tours, could in the same way have swarmed over all the north
and the east, and the upper Rhone Valley would have been
within reach. The Normans in their turn, coming from the
northwest, must needs take Orleans before they could enter
the heart of the country. Finally, it was for the same reason
that the English fought for the same city in 1429, and the
Germans took it twice, in 1815 and again in 18/0. This dis
trict, then, between Paris and Orleans, is the key to the geo
graphical situation, because it lies at the middle point of this
backbone of fertility from north to south.
The second axis, lying along the river Rhone, is of some
what less importance as a centre of population because of its
extreme narrowness. Yet it is a highway of migration be
tween the north and the south of Europe, skirting the Alps;
and it is easily accessible to the people of the Seine basin by
the low plateau of Langres near the city of Dijon. This ren-
* 1874, p. 140 </ ,r<v/. His analysis of the geographical features of
France is very suites live also.
FRANCE AND BELGIUM. 135
ders it the main artery of communication from Paris to the
Mediterranean. Down its course Teutonic blood has flowed.
The culture of the south has spread into northern Europe
in the contrary direction.* Such is the normal exchange be
tween the two climates in human history, the world over.
The great fertility of the Rhone axis, moreover, is in strong
contrast to the character of the country upon either side.
Judged by its population, it merits the important position we
have here assigned to it.
The two axes of fertility above described set apart three
areas in France which exhibit the phenomena of social isola
tion in different degrees. East of the Rhone lies Savoy, ex
ceedingly mountainous, with a rigorous Alpine climate, and of
a geological formation yielding with difficulty to cultivation.
This region combines two safeguards against ethnic invasion.
In the first place, it is not economically attractive ; for the
colonist is unmoved by those charms which appeal to the
tourist to-day. We reiterate, the movement of peoples is
dependent upon the immediate prosperity of the country for
them. It matters not whether the invading hosts be colonists,
coming for permanent settlement, or barbarians in search of
booty ; the result is the same in either case. Savoy, there
fore, has seldom attracted the foreigner. It could not offer
him a livelihood if he came. In the second place, whenever
threatened with invasion, defence of the country was easy.
Permanent conquest is impossible in so mountainous a dis
trict. Combining both of these safeguards in an extreme de
gree, Savoy, therefore, offers some of the most remarkable
examples of social individuality in all France.
The second area of isolation lies between our two north
and south axes of fertility that is to say, between the Rhone
on the east and the ( laronne on the southwest. It centres in
the ancient province of Auvergne, known geographically as
the Massif Ccntralc. This comprises only a little less than
two thirds of France south of Dijon. In reality it is an out
post of the Alps cut off from Savoy by the narrow strip of the
* Cf. Montelius, 1891.
^6 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
Rhone Valley. Much of it is a plateau elevated above two
thousand feet, rising into mountains which touch three thou
sand feet in altitude. Its climate is unpropitious ; its soil is
sterile ; impossible for the vine, and in general even for wheat.
Rye or barley alone can be here successfully raised. At the
present time this region is almost entirely given over to graz
ing. It has vast possibilities for the extractive arts ; but
those meant nothing until the present century. For all these
reasons Auvergne presents a second degree of isolation. It
was until recently entirely devoid of economic attractiveness ;
but it is not rugged enough in general to be inaccessible or
completely defensible as is Savoy.
Brittany or Armorica, the third area of isolation, is per
haps somewhat less unattractive economically than Auvergne.
It is certainly less rugged. Extending in as far as the cities
of Angers and Alengon, it is saved from the extreme infer
tility of its primitive rock formation by the moisture of its cli
mate. Neither volcanic, as are many parts of Auvergne, nor
elevated seldom rising above fourteen hundred feet it cor
responds to our own Xew England. For the farmer, it is
more suited to the cultivation of Puritan religious propensities
than to products of a more material kind. It is the least ca
pable of defence of the three areas of isolation ; but it redeems
its reputation by its peninsular position. It is off the main
line. It is its remoteness from the pathways of invasion by
land which has been itS ethnic salvation.
In order to show the effect which this varied environment,
above described, has exerted upon the racial character of the
French people, we have arranged a series of three parallel
maps in the following pages, showing the exact distribution
of the main physical traits. For purposes of comparison cer
tain cities are located upon them all alike, including even the
map of physical geography as well. A cross in the core of
Auvergne in each case : the Rhine shown in the northeast ;
the location of Paris, Lyons, 1> el fort, etc., will enable the
reader to keep them in line at once. It should not fail of
notice, in passing, that maps like these are constructed from
averages for each department as a unit. These last are mere-
25. Teutonic type. COTENTIN, Normandy. Blond. Index 79. 26.
V
Alpine type, L ANDES. Brunei. Index 90.
LODEVE.
Index 76. MONTPELLIER. Brunet. 30.
Mediterranean types.
FRANCE.
FRANCE AND BELGIUM.
137
ly administrative districts, entirely arbitrary in outline, and
entirely in dissonance with the topography of the country.
The wonder is that, in view of this, the facts should still shine
out so clearly. Thus all the Rhone departments lie half up
among the mountains on the east. Their averages are there
fore representative neither of the mountains nor the valleys.
Between Dijon and Lyons the departments completely span
the narrow valley, entirely obliterating its local peculiarities.
Earlier in our work we have seen that the several physical
traits which betoken race vary considerably in their power of
resistance to environmental influences. This resistant power
is greatest in the head form ; less so in the pigmentation and
stature. As we are now studying races, let us turn to our most
competent witness first. This is a reversal of the chronologi
cal order in which knowledge of the anthropology of France
has progressed. Its peculiarities in the matter of stature were
the very first to be studied; the facts concerning that were
proved thirty years ago. Study of the head form has been the
latest of all to awaken- interest ; yet it has rendered definite
testimony of paramount importance. It will be remembered,
from our third chapter, that we measure the proportions of
the head by expressing the breadth in percentage of the length
from front to back. This is known as the cephalic index.
\Ye have also seen, thereafter, that a high index that is,
a broad head is the most permanent characteristic of the
so-called Alpine race of central Europe. This type is bounded
on the north by the long-headed and blond Teutons, on the
south by a similarly long-headed Mediterranean stock, which
is, however, markedly brunet. It is with all three of these
racial types that we have to do in France. Passing over all
technicalities, our map of cephalic index shows the location
of the Alpine racial type by its darker tints ; while, in pro
portion as the shades become lighter, the prevalence of long
and narrow heads increases.
The significance of these differences in head form to the
eye is manifested by the three portraits at hand. The northern
long-headed blond type, with its oval face and narrow chin,
is not unlike the Mediterranean one in respect of its cranial
138
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
conformation. Ours is, I am informed by Dr. Collignon,
a good type of the Norman peasant, with lightish though not
distinctly blond hair and eyes. The Alpine populations of
central France are exemplified by rather an extreme type in
CEPHALIC INDEX
FRANCE
AND BELOIVM
87 an" 88
ROUNDHEADS
AFTER COLUGNON AND tlouzE
16650 OBSERVATIONS
This
is map after Collignon, 96 a, is slightly modified from his earlier ones published
in go b, and also in Appendix to Bertrand and Reinach, 91. It is more authori
tative being based upon nearly twice the original number of observations. Latei
researches of his own in the southwest ; of Lapouge in Herault Aveyron and
Brittany ; Brandt in Alsace-Lorraine, Hovelacque and Herve, Labit and c ers,
confirm his results here shown.
our middle portrait, in which the head is almost globular, while
the face is correspondingly round. Such extremes are rare.
They indicate the tendency, however, with great distinctness.
The contrast between the middle type and those above and
FRANCE AND BELGIUM. J^Q
below it is well marked. Even with differences but half as
great as those between our portrait types, it is no wonder that
Durand de Gros and other observers should have insisted that
they were real and not the product of imagination.
Recalling the physical geography of the country, as we
have described it, the most patent feature of our map of ce
phalic index is a continuous belt of long-headedness, which
extends from Flanders to Bordeaux on the southwest. It
covers what we have termed the main axis of fertility of
France.* A second strip of long-headed population fringes
the fertile Mediterranean coast, with a tendency to spread up
the Rhone Valley. In fact, these two areas of long-headed
populations show a disposition to unite south of Lyons in a
narrow light strip. This divides the dark-coloured areas of Al
pine racial type into two wings. One of these centres in the
Alpine highlands, running up to the north ; the other, in Au-
vergne, extends away toward the Spanish frontier on the
southwest. At the present time let us note that this intrusive
strip of long heads cutting the Alpine belt in two, follows the
exact course of the canal which has long united the head
waters of the Loire with the Rhone. It is an old channel of
communication between Marseilles and Orleans. Foreigners,
immigrating along this highway, are the cause of the phe
nomenon beyond question.
The long-headed populations, therefore, seem to follow the
open country and the river valleys. The Alpine broad-headed
type, on the other hand, is always and everywhere aggregated
in the areas of isolation. Its relative purity, moreover, varies
in proportion to the degree of such isolation enjoyed, or en
dured if you please. In Savoy and Auvergne it is quite un
mixed ; j in Brittany only a few vestiges of it remain, as we
shall soon see. These few remnants are strictly confined with
in the inhospitable granitic areas, so that boundaries geograph
ical and physical correspond very closely. The spoken Celtic
* Atgier, 1895, finds an even lower index (So) in Indre and Vienna.
This would still more accentuate the contrasts here shown.
f Hovelacque, i877- 79, is good on Savoy ; Lapouge, iS97- 9S, on Au
vergne.
I4 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
tongue has also lingered here in Brittany for peculiar reasons,
which we shall soon discuss. The main one is the isolation
of the district, which has sheltered the Alpine race in the
same way. For it is now beyond question that the Breton.
the Auvergnat, and the Savoyard are all descendants of the
same stock. The facial resemblance between the Bretons and
the Auvergnats is said to be particularly noticeable.* In near
ly every case the Alpine race is found distributed, as Collignon
says, " by a mechanism, so to speak, necessary, and which by
the fatal law of the orographic condition of the soil ought
to be as it is." In the unattractive or inaccessible areas the
broad-headedness centres almost exclusively ; in the open, fer
tile plains the cephalic index falls as regularly as the eleva
tion. So closely is this law followed, that Collignon affirms
of the central plateau, that wherever one meets an important
river easily ascended, the cephalic index becomes lower and
brachycephaly diminishes.
The two-hundred-metre line of elevation above the sea
seems most nearly to correspond to the division line between
types. This contour on our map on page 133 is the bound
ary between the white and first shaded areas. Compare this
map with that of the cephalic index, following round the edge
of the Paris basin, and note the similarity between the two.
There is but one break in the correspondence along the east
ern side. This exception it is which really proves the law.
It is so typical that it vvill repay us to stop a moment and
examine. We have to do, just south of Paris, on our map of
cephalic index, with that long tongue of dark tint, that is of
relative broad-headedness, which reaches away over toward
Brittany. It nearly cuts the main axis of Teutonic racial
traits (light-tinted) in two. This is the department of Loiret,
whose capital is Orleans. It is divided from its Alpine base
of supplies by the long-headed department of Yonne on the
east. This latter district lies on the direct route from Paris
over to Dijon and the Rhone Valley. Teutonic peoples have
here penetrated toward the southeast, following as always
* Topinard, 1897, p. 100.
FRANCE AND BELGIUM. ! 4 !
the path of least resistance. Why, you will ask, is Loiret
about Orleans so much less Teutonic in type? The answer
would doubtless appear were the country mapped in detail.
The great forest of Orleans, a bit still being left at Fontaine-
bleau, used to cover this little upland between the Seine and
the Loire, east of Orleans. It was even until recently so thinly
settled that it was known as the Gatinais, or wilderness.* Its
insular position is for this reason not at all strange. The
Teutons have simply passed it by on either side. Those who
did not go up the Seine and Yonne followed the course of
the Loire. Here, then, is a parting of the ways down either
side of Auvergne.
Another one of the best local examples illustrating this law
that the Alpine stock is segregated in areas of isolation and of
economic disfavour is offered by the Morvan.f This manz ais
pays is a peninsula of the Auvergne plateau, a little southwest
of the city of Dijon. It is shown on our geographical map
(page 133). Here we find a little bit of wild and rugged coun
try, about forty miles long and half as wide, which rises abruptly
out of the fertile plains of Burgundy. Its mountains, which rise
three thousand feet, are heavily forested. The soil is sterile
and largely volcanic in character ; even the common grains
are cultivated with difficulty. The limit of cultivation, even
for potatoes or rye, is reached by tilling the soil one year
in seven. This little region contains at the present time" a
population of about thirty-five thousand less to-day than
fifty years ago. L T ntil the middle of the century there was
not even a passable road through it. It affords, therefore,
an exceedingly good illustration of the result of geographical
isolation in minute detail. Its population is as strongly con
trasted with that of the plains round about as is its topography.
The people, untouched by foreign influence to a considerable
* Cf. Gallouedec, 1892, p. 384, on the neighbouring Sologne, west of
Orleans, also. While its infertility has always been an unfavourable ele
ment, its proximity to Orleans, focus of all military disturbances, has
been even more decisive.
t Hovelacque and Herve, 1894 b, give an ideal anthropological study
of this interesting bit of country.
142 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
extent, have intermarried, so that the blood has been kept
quite pure. The region is socially interesting as one of the few
places in all France where the birth rate long resisted the de
pressing influences of civilization. For years it has been con
verted into a veritable foundling asylum for the city of Paris.
Its mothers, famous wet-nurses, have cared for innumerable
waifs besides their own offspring. This isolated people is
strongly Alpine, as our portraits show herewith, the boy on
the right being a peculiarly good type ; the other one has a
strain of Teutonic narrow-headedness from all appearances.
Beyond a doubt here is another little spot in which the Alpine
race has been able to persist by reason of isolation alone.*
T^pes in the Morvan.
The law which holds true for most of France, then, is that
the Alpine race is confined to the areas of isolation and eco
nomic unattractiveness. A patent exception to this appears
in Burgundy the fertile plains of the Saone, lying south of
Dijon. A strongly marked area of broad-headedness cuts
straight across the Saone Valley at this point. A most de
sirable country is strongly held by a broad-headed stock, al
though it is very close to the Teutonic immigration route up
* It should be noted that this relation does not appear upon our map
of head form, because this represents merely the averages for whole
departments. The Morvan happens to lie just at the meeting point of
three of these, so that its influence upon the map is entirely scattered.
FRANCE AND BELGIUM.
143
along the Rhine. Here we have a striking example of the re
version of a people to its early type after a complete military
conquest. It serves as an apt illustration of the impotency of
a conquering tribe to exterminate the original population.
The Burgundians, as we know, belonged to a blond and tall
3TATURL
FRANCE,
1831-60 AFTER BROCA 68 A
NOTE. Savoy, for which Broca had no data, owing to its recent annexation, appears
to occupy about the relative place here assigned to it. We have interpolated it
for unity in comparison, following Garret and Longuet s data. It will be ob
served that our statistical representation is entirely different from the one originally
employed by Broca. This present mode of grouping is the only one which
graphically corresponds to the facts in the case. For other details and maps con
sult Levasseur, 89, I, pp. 377-397.
race of Teutonic lineage, who came to the country from the
north in considerable numbers in the fifth century.* The
Romans welcomed them in Gaul, forcing the people to grant
them one half of their houses, two thirds of their cultivated
* Lagneau, 1874 a, is good on this. Boudin first proved its existence a
half century ago ; it was afterward confirmed by Broca.
144 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
land, and a third of their slaves. For about a thousand years
this district of Burgundy took its rule more or less from the
Teutonic invaders : and yet to-day it has largely reverted to
its primitive type of population. It is even more French
than the Auvergnats themselves. The common people have
virtually exterminated every trace of their conquerors. Even
their great height, for which the Burgundians have long been
celebrated, is probably more to be ascribed to the material
prosperity of the district than to a Teutonic strain. This
physical peculiarity of the people of this region appears clearly
upon both our maps of stature. The peasantry are among the
tallest in all France to-day. According to our first map, in the
region about Dijon short men under five feet one inch and a
half in height are less frequent than almost anywhere else
in the country. The same tallness appears, as we shall see,
among the western Swiss ; those who inhabit the ancient
Burgundian territory. This latter fact would lead us to sus
pect that race was certainly an important element in the mat
ter. The complexity of the problem is revealed when we
compare this Teutonic giantism of the people with their ex
treme Alpine broad-headedness. A curiously crossed type
has been evolved, found in Alsace-Lorraine as well. Here in
Burgundy the present currents of migration are quite strong.
Perhaps they may account for it in part. One factor con
tributing to the result we observe, is that the fertile country
of the Saone Valley is* open to constant immigration from
Switzerland and the surrounding mountains. The Rhine has
drawn off the Teutons in another direction, and political ha
treds have discouraged immigration from the northeast. The
result has been that the Alpine type has been strongly re-
enforced from nearly every side, while Teutonic elements have
been gradually eliminated. The tallness of stature once due
to them may nevertheless have persisted, because of the great
fertility of the district:*
* By reference to Deniker s map in our Appendix D, it will appear
that he attributes this curious cross of a tall stature with brachycephaly
to the presence of his so-called Adriatic or Dinaric race. This we have
discussed in describing his classification elsewhere.
FRANCE AND BELGIUM. I4 e
Another and perhaps even more potent explanation for
this localization of the Alpine type in Burgundy also lies at
hand. This fertile plain is the last rallying point of a people
repressed both from the north and the south. The general
rule, as Canon Taylor puts it, is that the " hills contain the
ethnological sweepings of the plains." This holds good only
until such time as the hills themselves become saturated with
population, if I may mix figures of speech. Applying this
principle to the present case, it appears as if the original Al
pine stock in Burgundy had been encroached upon from two
sides. The Teutons have overflowed from the north; the
Mediterranean race has pressed up the Rhone Valley from
the south. Before these two the broad-headed Alpine type
has, as usual, yielded step by step, until at last it has become
resistant, not by reason of any geographical isolation or ad
vantage, but merely because of its density and mass. It has
been squeezed into a compact body of broad-headedness, and
has persisted in that form to the present time. It has rested
here, because no further refuge existed. It is dammed up
in just the same way that the restless American borderers
have at last settled in force in Kansas. Being in the main
discouraged from further westward movement, they have at
last taken root.* In this way a primitive population may
conceivably preserve its ethnic purity, entirely apart from geo
graphical areas of isolation as such.
What is the meaning of this remarkable differentiation of
population all over France? Why should the Alpine race be so
hard-favoured in respect of its habitat? Is it because prosper
ity tends to make the head narrow ; or, in other words, because
the physical environment exerts a direct influence upon the
shape of the cranium ? Were the people of France once com
pletely homogeneous until differentiated by outward circum
stances? There is absolutely no proof of it. Nevertheless,
the coincidence remains to be explained. It holds good in
every part of Europe that we may have to examine in Swit-
* Perhaps the peculiar concentration of Russians about Moscow de
scribed by Zograf, 1892 a, may be a similar phenomenon of social ag
gregation.
146
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
zerland, the Tyrol, the Black Forest, and now here in great
detail for all France. Two theories offer a possible and com
petent explanation for it all. One is geographical, the other
social.
The first theory accounting for the sharp differences of
population between the favourable and unpropitious sections
of Europe, is that the population in the uplands, in the nooks
and corners, represents an older race, which has been eroded
by the modern immigration of a new people. In other words,
the Alpine race may once have occupied the land much more
exclusively, being the primitive possessor of the soil. From
the north have come the Teutonic tribes, from the south the
Mediterranean peoples, in France just as in other parts of
Europe. The phenomenon, according to this theory, is mere
ly one of ethnic stratification.
A second explanation, much more comprehensive in its
scope and pregnant with consequences for the future, is, as
we have said, sociological. The phenomenon may be the out
come of a process of social selection, which rests upon racial
or physical differences of temperament. This theory is ad
vanced by the so-called school of social anthropologists, whose
theories we shall have to consider in our later chapter on
Social Problems. Briefly stated, the explanation is this : In
some undefined way the long-headed type of head form is
generally associated with an energetic, adventurous tempera
ment, which impels fhe individual to migrate in search of
greater economic opportunities. The men thus physically
endowed are more apt to go forth to the great cities, to the
places where advancement in the scale of living is possible.
The result is a constant social selection, which draws this
type upward and onward, the broad-headed one being left in
greater purity thereby in the isolated regions. Those who ad
vocate this view do not make it necessarily a matter of racial
selection alone. It is more fundamental for them. It con
cerns all races and all types within races. This is too com
prehensive a topic to be discussed in this place. Personally,
I think that it may be, and indeed is, due to a great process of
racial rather than purely social selection. I do not think it yet
FRANCE AND BELGIUM.
proved to be other than this. The Alpine stock is more primi
tive, deeper seated in the land ; the Teutonic race has come
in afterward, overflowing toward the south, where litV offers
greater attractions for invasion. In so doing it has repelled
or exterminated the Alpine type, either by forcible conquest or
by intermixture, which racially leads to the same goal.
BRUNETNESS
FRANCE
AFTER TOPINARD
Zoo,ooo OBSERVATIONS
Before we proceed further let us examine the other phys
ical traits a moment. Our map of the distribution of brunet-
ness shows these several Alpine areas of isolation far less dis
tinctly than that of the cephalic index.* It points to the
* Topinard (1886 b, 1887, 1889 a, 1889 b, and 1893 a) is the authority
on this. Many maps showing the exact proportions of each trait, together
with their combinations in each department, are given. Pommerol, 1887 ;
148 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
disturbing influence of climate or of other environment. If
the law conducing to blondness in mountainous areas of in
fertility were to hold true here as it appears to do elsewhere,
this factor alone would obscure relations. Many of the popu
lations of the Alpine areas should, on racial grounds, be
darker than the Teutonic ones ; yet, being economically dis
favoured, on the other hand, they tend toward blondness.
The two influences of race and environment are here in oppo
sition ; to the manifest blurring of all sharp racial lines and
divisions. Despite this disturbing influence, the Auvergnat
area appears as a great wedge of pigmentation penetrating
the centre of France on the south. This is somewhat broken
up on the northern edge, because of the recent immigration
of a considerable mining population into this district which
has come from other parts of the country. The Rhone Val
ley appears as a route of migration of blondness toward the
south. Little more than these general features can be gath
ered from the map of colour, except that the progressive bru-
netness as we advance toward the south is everywhere in evi
dence. Were we to examine the several parts of France in
detail we should find competent explanations for many fea
tures which appear as anomalous as, for example, the ex
treme blondness upon the southwest coast of Brittany.
Comparing our map of stature on the next page with our
earlier one on page 143, it will appear that the facts in the case
are beyond controverty. Two authorities, working at an in
terval of twenty years apart and by entirely different statis
tical methods, arrive at identical conclusions. The relatively
tall stature all through the historically Tetitonized portion of
the country needs no further explanation ; it is indubitably a
matter of race. The tallness of the population of the Rhone
Valley is probably due to a double cause.* The Teutons fol
lowed it as a path of invasion, while relative fertility still fur-
Hordicr, 1895 ; and other local observers referred to in our other footnotes-
give more details concerning special localities.
* Cf. Hovelacque, 1896 a, on the recent augmentation of stature in
Provence. Lapouge, 18943, ascribes the relative tallness of Herault to
ethnic immigration down the Rhone.
FRANCE AND BELGIUM.
149
ther accentuated its contrast with the mountainous districts
on either side, as in the Garonne Valley as well. Our three
areas of isolation appear upon both our maps. Savoyards,
Bretons, and particularly Auvergnats are relatively much
shorter than the populations round about them. In this case
the process is again cumulative; for the infertile regions pro-
AVERAGE 5TATURE,
FRANCE.
All Conscripts 1858-67- After
J. Bertillon
5ize of Grde5 indicates
Relative Frequency of
TALL 0.679- 1.705 M}
5HOR1
(I.6Z5-I.651 M)
ductive of decreased bodily height at the same time tend to dis
courage immigration for the Teutonic race, which always car
ries a tall stature wherever it goes. The main axis of fertility
from Paris to Bordeaux, which was so clear upon our map of
cephalic index, does not appear for two reasons. The area
about Limoges and Perigueux, with the shortest population of
all, is the seat of a prehistoric people which we shall describe
150
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
shortly ; and north of it toward Orleans, local causes such as
the Sologne and the infertility of the Limousin hills, which we
examined in detail in our chapter on Stature, are in evidence.
Perhaps the fertility of Charente and Bordelais, contrariwise,
is responsible for the light shade that is to say, the tall stat
ure which we observe just north of the Garonne mouth on
our map.* As a whole, while less useful for detailed analysis,
owing to such disturbance by local causes, our stature maps
yet afford proof of the influence of racial causes to a marked
degree.
Brittany and Normandy are two of the most interesting re
gions in Europe to the traveller and the artist. The pleasing
landscapes and the quaint customs all serve to awaken inter
est. To the anthropologist as well the whole district pos
sesses a marked individuality of its own. Within it lie the two
racial extremes of the French people the old and the new
closely in contact with one another. Attention was first at
tracted to the region because of the persistence of the Celtic
spoken language, now vanished everywhere else on the main
land of Europe quite extinct, save as it clings for dear life
to the outskirts of the British Isles. Here again, we find an
ethnic struggle in process, which has been going on for cen
turies, unsuspected by the statesmen who were building a
nation upon these shifting sands of race. This struggle de
pends, as elsewhere i France, upon the topography of the
country. The case is so peculiar, however, that it will repay
us to consider it a little more in detail, f
The anthropological fate of Brittany, this last of our three
main areas of isolation, depends largely upon its peninsular
form. Its frontage of seacoast and its many harbours have
rendered it peculiarly liable to invasion from the sea ; while
at the same time it has been protected on the east by its re-
* Collignon, 1896 b, p. 166.
f On Brittany and Normandy an abundant literature exists : given in
our complete Bibliography, under those index-subjects most important,
are those of Broca, 1868 a ; Lagneau, 1875 b ; Chassagne, 1881 ; Collignon,
1890 a and 1894 a; Lapouge, 1895 a and 1896 b ; and Topinard, 1897.
FRANCE AND BELGIUM. 151
moteness from the economic and political centres and high
ways of France. This coincidence and not a greater purity
of blood has preserved its Celtic speech. Since the foreigners
have necessarily touched at separate points along its coast,
concerted attack upon the language has been rendered impos
sible. This fact of invasion from the sea has not divided its
people into the men of the mountain, distinct from those of
the plain a differentiation of population, by the way, as old as
the reforms of Solon and Cleisthenes. The contrast has arisen
between the seacoast and the interior. This differentiation is
LANNI
EASTERN LIMIT +i
OF
CELTIC SPEECH w
(APPROXIMATE)
NOTE. This map is compounded from Collignon s sketches in his 90 a and 94 a.
CEPHALIC INDEX
NORMANDY AMD BRITTANY
heightened by the relative infertility of the interior uplands,
compared with the " ccinturc dorcc " along parts of the coast.*
The people of the inland villages contain a goodly proportion
of the Alpine stock; although, as our maps show, it is more
attenuated than in either Savoy or Auvergne. To the eye
this Alpine lineage in the pure Breton appears in a roundness
of the face, a concave nose in profile, and broad nostrils.
Along the coast intermixture has narrowed the heads, light
ened the complexion, and, perhaps more than all, increased
* Gallouedec, 1893- 94.
152 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
the stature.* Our portraits illustrate this contrast, if we take
the Norman types as characteristic of the coast population.
Our Normans show plainly the elongated face and the high
and thin nose so peculiar to them. The varying degrees of
ethnic intermixture and their distribution will be seen from
an examination of our maps. Concerning those of stature at
pages 86 and 100 we have already spoken in detail. The dark
shading in both cases indicates the primitive population; the
lighter ones betray intermixture.
In view of the nature of these physical changes induced
by ethnic crossing along the seacoast, we must look to the
Teutonic race for the lineage of the invaders. They must,
on the whole, have been light and long-headed. History, in
this case, comes to our aid. The Saxon pirates skirted the
whole coast around to the mouth of the Loire. In fact, they
were so much in evidence that part of it was known to the
old geographers as the litns Sa.ronicnm. The largest colony
which has left permanent traces of its invasion in the character
of the present population although Caesar assured us that he
exterminated it utterly is located in Morbihan. This depart
ment on the south coast of the peninsula, as our map of rela
tive brunetness on page 147 showed, is one of the blondest in
all France. Its capital, Yannes, derives its name from the
Venetes, whose confederation occupied this area. Both Strabo
and Diodorus of Sicily asserted that these people belonged
to the Belgse (Teutonic* stock), although modern historians
of Gaul seem inclined to deny it. Our anthropological evi
dence is all upon the side of the ancient geographers, f It
should be observed, however, that there are certain indications
in the Breton peasantry of a blond cross at a very early pre
historic period. Nowhere is the Alpine race found in such
purity as in our other areas of isolation. The persistence of
the " frank blue Breton eye " is in itself a heritage from this
primitive blond ethnic element, dating perhaps, as Broca as
serts, from many centuries before the Christian era.
* Topinard, 1897, gives very good descriptions of these types,
f Lagneau, 18755, p. 627; Collignon, 1890 b, p. 221; and Beddoe,
1893, p. 31.
FRANCE AND BELGIUM.
153
From a different source, although due indirectly to these
same Teutonic barbarians, are derived the physical character
istics of the people in the north of Brittany near Dinan, in
the valley of the Ranee. Its location appears upon both of our
maps of Brittany (pages 100 and 151). This little district is very
distinct from the surrounding country. The landscape also is
peculiar in many respects. The cottages are like the English,
with hedgerows between the several plots of ground. All these
outward features corroborate the anthropological testimony
that this was a main settlement of the people who came over
from Cornwall in the fifth century, ousted by the Anglo-Saxons.
They, in fact, gave the name Brittany to the whole district.
They spoke the Celtic language in all probability, but were
absolutely distinct in race. They seem to have been largely
Teutonic. The Saxons soon followed up the path they laid
open, so that the characteristics of the present population are
probably combined of all three elements. At all events, to
day the people are taller, lighter, narrower-nosed, and longer-
headed than their neighbours.* A similar spot of narrow-
headedness appears upon our map at Lannion. The people
here are, however, of dark complexion, short in stature, char
acterized by broad and rather flat noses. Here is probably
an example of a still greater persistence in ethnic traits than
about Dinan ; for the facts indicate that here at Lannion, ante
dating even the Alpine race, is a bit of the prehistoric popula
tion which we shall shortly seek to identify and locate.
Normandy is to-day one of the blondest parts of France.
It is distinctly Teutonic in the head form of its people. In
fact, the contrast between Xormandy and Brittany is one of
the sharpest to be found in all France. The map of cephalic
index on page 151 shows the regularly increasing long-headed-
ness as we approach the mouth of the Seine. In the Norman
departments from thirty to thirty-five per cent of the hair
colour is dark; in the adjoining department of C6tes-du-Nord
in Brittany, the proportion of dark hair rises from forty to
* Collignon, 1892 b, p. 45 ; Taylor, 1863, p. 89. Meitzen, 1895, Atlas,
Anlage 66 b, shows the Teutonic forms of settlement in this part of
France.
154 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
sixty and in some cases even to seventy-five per cent.* In
stature the contrast is not quite as sharp, although the people
of the seacoast appear to be distinctly taller than those far in
land. The ordinary observer will be able to detect differences
in the facial features. Our page of portraits, as we have said,
illustrates this clearly. The Norman nose is high and thin ;
the nose of the Breton is broader, opening at the nostrils.
This difference is no less marked than the contrast in the
contour of the face and the general proportions of the
head.
Normandy, on the whole, is an example of a complete eth
nic conquest. At the same time while a new population has
come, the French language has remained unaffected, with the
exception of a spot near the city of Bayeux, where the Saxons
and Normans together combined to introduce a bit of the
Teutonic tongue. This conquest of Normandy has taken
place within historic times. It is probably part and parcel
of the same movement which Teutonized the British Isles ;
for it appears that the Normans were the only Teutonic in
vaders who can historically be traced to this region. Wher
ever they left the country untouched, the population ap
proaches the Alpine type, being darker, broader-headed, and
shorter in stature. This indicates that the tribes, such as the
Caletes (the city of Caux), the Lexovii (Lisieux), and the
Baiocasses (Bayeux) in Csesar s time were probably of this
latter type ; in other wflrds, that the district was Alpine in
population until the Normans came with Rollo in the tenth
century. Freeman f takes note of the marked tallness of the
modern population of Bayeux, ascribing it to the intensity of
the Norman occupation. The Romans appear to have allowed
the Saxons to settle at places along the seacoast, but they
had never penetrated deeply into the interior. The " Otlinga
Saxonica," the dotted area upon our map of place names, for
example, dates from the third century.
The correspondence between the map of Norman place
names and that of cephalic index is sufficiently close to attest
* Collignon, 1894 a, p. 20. See also Lagneau, 1865 ; and Beddoe, 1882 b.
f Norman Conquest, i, p. 119.
FRANCE AND BELGIUM.
155
to the value of each.* One of the common features of the
Teutonic village names is " ville," from " weiler," meaning an
abode ; not, as has been asserted, from " villa," of Romance
origin. This suffix appears, for example, in HacomnV/e, or
in a corrupted form in Hardivilliers. Another common end
ing of place names is bocnf, as in Marboeuf. Collignon has
traced a considerable number of such place names of Nor-
man origin, all of which point to the Cotentin that distinct
peninsula which juts out into the English Channel as a cen
tre of Norman dispersion. Certain it is that Cherbourg at
PLACE NAMELS
I! 5AXON BRITTANY AND NORMANDY
I NORMAN
ItHttftfli
CELTIC
its extremity shows the Norman element at its maximum
purity. Our Norman portraits are taken from this region as
being most typical. Probably this was a favourite base of
supplies, protected by its isolation and in close proximity to
the island of Jersey, which the Normans also held. The
Saxon colony near Caen was a factor also which determined
this location. The extension of the Normans to the west
* Canon Taylor, 1863, is best on this ; his map we have reproduced by
permission of the publishers. Collignon, 18943, p. 14, gives corrobora
tive testimony.
156 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
seems to have been stopped by the human dike set up by the
English and Saxons about Dinan, and by " Norman Switzer
land," the hilly region just east of it. Follow the similarity
between the boundary of long and narrow heads on our map
of cephalic index of Brittany, and the cross-hatched lines and
tints on the map of physical geography (pages 133 and 151).
Note how they both cut across diagonally from northwest
to southeast, parallel to the course of the Seine. Here the
economic attraction in favour of the invasion of Brittany
ceased, and at the same time the displaced natives found a
defensible position. Prevented from extension in this direc
tion, the Normans henceforth turned toward the Seine, where,
in fact, their influence is most apparent at the present time.
They also pushed to the south into Berri, occupying the pres
ent departments of Cher and Indre in force.* Probably the
wedge of relative blondness, appearing upon our map on page
147, which seems to penetrate nearly to Orleans, may be due to
this later Norman immigration. Paris and Orleans, the Mecca
of all invaders, toled them away, and Brittany was saved.
The northeastern third of France and half of Belgium are
to-day more Teutonic than the south of Germany. This is
clearly attested by the maps which show the distribution of
each of the physical characteristics of race, especially, as we
have seen, that of stature. It should not occasion surprise
when we remember the mcessant downpour of Teutonic tribes
during the whole historic period. It was a constant proces
sion of Goths from all points of the compass of Franks,
Burgundians, and others. France was entirely overrun by
the Franks, with the exception of Brittany, by the middle of
the sixth century. All through the middle ages this part of
Europe was not only ethnically Teutonic : it was German Jn^
language and customs as well. The very name of the country
is Teutonic. It has the same origin as Franconia in southern
Germany. In 813 the Council of Tours, away down south,
ordained that every bishop should preach both in the Romance
* Hovelacque and Herve, 1893. Collignon suggests that the low
index in Cher is also due to Norman influence.
TEUTONIC TYPES
J3-
DEUX-SEVRES. Index 87. Index
ALPINE TYPES.
35. Cephalic Index 67. MONTPELLIER.
MEDITERRANEAN TYPES.
FRANCE.
FRANCE AND BELGIUM.
157
and the Teutonic languages.* The Franks preserved their
German speech four hundred years after the conquest ; even
to-day after the cession of Alsace-Lorraine, a last vestige of
Teutonic language, the Flemish, still persists on French ter
ritory along the Belgian frontier. Charlemagne was a Ger
man ; his courtiers were all Germans ; he lived and governed
from outside the limits of modern France. The Abbe Sieyes
uttered an ethnological truism when, in the course of the
French Revolution, he cried out against the French aristoc
racy : " Let us send them back to their German marshes
whence they came ! " Even to-day the current of migration
between France and Germany sets strongly to the south, as
it has ever done, in virtue of economic laws deeper than na
tional prejudice or hostile legislation.!
Why is Belgium entitled to a separate national existence
among the states of modern Europe? Ireland and even
Wales have tenfold stronger claims to political independence
on the score both of race and religion. One half of this little
state is topographically like Holland ; the other is not to be
distinguished in climate, geography, or soil from Alsace-Lor
raine that shuttlecock among nations. Belgium is father to
no national speech. The Flemings can not hold common
converse with their fellow-countrymen, the Walloons ; for the
first speak a corrupted Dutch, the second an archaic French
language. Nor are the people more highly individualized in
the anthropological sense. In fact, in a study of races Bel
gium is not to be considered apart from either northern France
or southwestern Germany. It is closely allied to both. Of
course, even despite the lack of all these elements of national-
" Et ut easdem homilias quisque aperte transferre studeat in rusti-
cam Romanam linguam aut Theotiscam (German) . . . quo facilius cuncti
possint intelligere quaie dicuntur." Hardouin, p. 1026, article xvii. Cf.
Revue Mens. de 1 Ecole d Anth., x, 1898, pp. 301-322.
t Kitchen, History of France, i, pp. 118 et seq. Taylor, Words and
Places, 1893, p. 94, gives place names by map. See also Lagneau, 1874 b.
Levasseur, 1889, i, p. 393, as also Andree, 1879 b, give convenient map of
languages and dialects. Meitzen, 1895, i, pp. 516 and 532, with map in
Atlas 66 a, traces this German intrusion by the village types. Turquan
and Levasseur show the course of immigration.
158 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
ity, there is still a reason for the separate political existence
of the Belgians. There must have been, for the sense of na
tionality is very intense among them. There is no sign of its
abatement at the present time. It has made them a dominant
power in Africa and elsewhere abroad. Their nationality is
a geographical as well as an historical product. We shall
deal with that presently. In the meantime we must consider
the Belgians together with the whole population of northern
France. It is befitting to do so ; for Caesar informs us that
the Belgae in his time controlled the whole region.* Roman
Gaul, properly speaking, extended only as far north as the
Seine and the Marne. In Caesar s time the frontier of Bel
gium the land of the Belgae lay near Paris. Has its reces
sion to the north produced any appreciable change upon
the people? Certainly not in any physical sense, as we shall
attempt to point out.
The movement of population racially has been strongly
influenced by the geography of the country. Were it not for
the peculiar conformation of this part of Europe, there would
be no geographical excuse for the existence of Belgium as
a separate political entity, as \ve have said ; and northern
France would be far more thoroughly Teutonized than it is
to-day. In order to make this clear, we must recall the to
pography of the district for a moment, f From the Alps in
western Switzerland a spur of mountainous country of very
indifferent fertility, kncAvn as the Ardennes plateau, extends
far out to the northwest, its axis lying along the Franco-Ger
man frontier, as indicated upon our map at page 133. This
area is triangular in shape with its apex touching Switzer
land, the Rhine forming its eastern edge, and its base lying
east and west across Belgium a little north of Brussels. This
base is the geographical boundary between Flanders and the
rugged uplands. Near the southern point, this Ardennes
* The Celtic question, involving the ethnic affinities of the Belgae, is
discussed in Chapter VI. Henri Martin, Arbois de Jubainville, and Des-
jardins assert the Gauls to be Celts ; while Thierry, Bertillon, and Lagneau
as strenuously deny it.
f Auerbach, 1890.
FRANCE AND BELGIUM. 159
plateau rises into the Vosges Mountains. The major part of
it consists of an elevated table-land, of little use in agriculture.
Its uplands are heavily forested ; its valleys are deep and very
narrow. This plateau is divided from the main body of the
Alps by a low pass about twenty-five miles wide, known as
the Gap of Belfort. This has always formed the main path
way of communication between the valleys of the Seine, the
Rhone, and the Rhine, from the time of Attila to that of the
Emperor William I. It is the strategic key to central Eu
rope. The only other routes from France to Germany cut
straight across the rugged and difficult Ardennes plateau,
following the valleys either of the Meuse or the Moselle.
These valleys are both extremely fertile, but narrow and easy
of defence. Sedan commands the one and Metz the other.
This depression at Belfort has played quite a unique part in
the natural history of Europe as well as in its military cam
paigns. It is the only route by which southern flora and
fauna could penetrate to the north, since they could not trav
erse the Alpine highlands. The parallel is continued by the
constant counter-migration of southern culture over the same
way, evinced in archaeology and history. It is not surprising
that in anthropology this Gap of Belfort should be equally
important.*
The Ardennes plateau is the core of a considerable popu
lation, which is primarily of the Alpine racial type.f It is an
anthropological table-land of broad-headedness, surrounded
on every side except the south, where it touches the Alps, by
more dolichocephalic populations. Turn for a moment to
our map on page 231. Notice the core of brachycephalic
population in the Yosges and stretching out in two wings,
either side of Metz on the Moselle. Gradually over in Bel
gium on the northwest this disappears at the edge of the
plateau among the Flemings, as we shall see in a moment.
.Observe how it is eroded on the east along the Rhine Valley;
and toward Paris, beginning in Marne and Haute-Marne,
* Kohl, 1841, p. 140 ; Marshall, 1889, p. 256 ; and Montelius, 1891.
f Consult Collignon, 1881, 1883, 1886 b, 1890 b, and 1896 a ; also Hove-
lacque, 1896 b. For further references, see chapter on Germany.
i6o
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
toward the fertile plains of the Isle of France.* The Ger
manic tribes in their ceaseless wanderings are the cause of that
phenomenon beyond question. It is evident that for Teuton-
ism to enter France, it must pass through the Gap of Belfort,
around north through Flanders, or follow the valleys of the
Meuse or the Moselle. All three of these it has certainly done
in the anthropological sense. It has overflowed along each
of these channels, traversing the Alpine racial barrier. It has
done even more. Its influence is manifest even in the nooks
and byways. For the people of the whole region are well
GEOLOGY AND ELEVATION
BO BELOW loo METERS
HUB 100 - 300
200 -
xxx *NORTH -WEST BOUNDARY
OF PRIMITIVE ROCK.
FORMATIONS
above the average French in stature. They are quite Teu
tonic in this respect. This we shall again emphasize in speak
ing of Germany later. But the invaders have not been able
* This is shown in detail in the excellent study of the department of
Ardennes by Labit, 1898, whose maps show both the increasing brachy-
cephaly and the variations of stature along the edge of the plateau.
FRANCE AND BELGIUM.
161
to efface that most persistent trait of the primitive population
the broad, round head. Here, as in the Black Forest just
across the Rhine, this physical characteristic remains as a
witness of priority of title to the land.
In Belgium itself, lying on the northwestern edge of the
Ardennes plateau, the contrast between the upland and the
Figures indicate the Average
5ta.ture in cms. after Houze 87
35.40O observations
6LONDE TYPE
IN BELGIUM
After VdnderKtndere 79
6o6.698 Observations.
plain is so distinct, and it coincides so closely with the racial
boundary between the Flemings and the Walloons, that it
merits special attention.* Language here follows closely in
the footsteps of race. As our three maps of the country show
in detail, the Walloons in the uplands are broader-headed than
the Flemings. They are distinctly shorter in stature. Our
map shows how much more infrequent blond types are among
* Authorities upon Belgium are Houze, 1882, Ethnogenie de la Bel-
gique ; also his work of 1887 and 1888 ; Vanderkindere, 1879, Enquete
anthropologique sur la couleur en Belgique. Linguistic boundaries in
Belgium are mapped by Vandenhoven, 1844; Bockh, 1854; and Bramer,
1887.
1 62
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
them than among the Flemings. It is curious to notice this
Teutonism of Flanders and the Low Countries. It denotes
the utter extermination of all traces of the Spaniards, despite
their whilom political activities. Belgium is sharply divided,
therefore, into halves, following the topographical boundary
of the plateau exactly, except in the department of Hainaut,
where Walloons are found in the plains. The two halves of
Belgium thus indicated differ in politics, language, and in
many social customs. One, Flanders, is cultivated largely by
79
80 1
81 j
8ZJ
53J
CEPHALIC INDEX
739 Observation:) AfOr Houje 82.
** DOUNDARY OF WALLOON AND
FLEMISH DIALECTS
Correction for Crdm&I. Indites = 2, units.
tenant farmers, the other tilled by peasant proprietors. So
clearly drawn is the line of division that many interesting socio
logical problems may best be investigated here. These, for
the moment, we pass by. For us, at this time, the significance
of the division is, to put it in Dr. Beddoe s words (>72) , that
" the Walloons and their hilly, wooded country are a Belgic
cliff against which the tide of advancing Germanism has
beaten with small effect, while it has swept with comparatively
little resistance over the lowlands of Flanders and Alsace, and
FRANCE AND BELGIUM. jO^
penetrated into Normandy and Lorraine." Had it not been
for this geographical area of isolation, political boundaries
would have been very different from those of to-day. Belgium
is a piece-of-pie shaped stop-gap between France and Germany.
Being internationally neutralized in the military sense, it pro
tects the main line of communication over the plains of Flan
ders between its two powerful neighbours. This is, in the eyes
of the natural scientist, its main excuse for separate existence as
a political entity. The Franco-German hatred is nothing but a
family quarrel, after all, from our point of view. It is a reality,
nevertheless, for historians. The only country whose popula
tion is really homogeneous is the tiny duchy of Luxemburg
in the very centre of the plateau, scarcely more than a dot on
the map. It deserves its independence for a like reason with
Belgium. Were Alsace-Lorraine also a neutralized and sepa
rate kingdom, the prices of European government bonds
would be considerably higher than they are to-day.
Let us now return to France again. We have still to cover
the most interesting part of all in many ways. Csesar s third
division of Gaul from the Loire River southwest to the Pyre
nees was inhabited, as he tells us, by the^Acmitani. Strabo
adds that these people were akin to the TTSerTans of Spain, both
in customs and race. Detailed study, however, reveals a popu
lation far less homogeneous than these statements of the an
cients imply.*
A glance at our map of the physical geography of France,
on page 133, shows that this southwestern section is centred
in the broad, fertile valley of the Garonne. From Bordeaux
in every direction spreads one of the most productive regions
in France, favoured alike in soil and in climate. Ascending
the river valley, it narrows gradually until we reach a low
pass, leading over toward the Mediterranean. This little axis
of fertility, along which will run the projected canal to unite
the two seacoasts of France, divides the plateaus of Auvergne
from the highlands which lie along the Pyrenees. In this
* Authorities on this part of France are Lagneau, 1872 ; Castaing
1884; and especially Collignon, 18945, 1895, and 1896 a.
164 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
latter region fertility decreases as we approach the Spanish
frontier in proportion to the increase in altitude, although
most of the region is fairly capable of supporting a consider
able population. The only extensive area which is extreme
ly unfavourable in character is the seacoast department of
Landes, along the Bay of Biscay south of Bordeaux. This re
gion is a vast sandy plain, but little raised above the sea level.
It is a flat district underlaid by an impermeable clay subsoil,
which is, except in midsummer, a great fen covered with rank
marsh grasses. Without artificial drainage, it is unfit for cul
tivation, so that it remains to-day one of the most sparsely
populated sections of the country.* As a whole, then, the
southwest of France presents the extremes of economic at
tractiveness, at the same time being devoid of those geograph
ical barriers which elsewhere have strongly influenced the
movements of races.
The first impression conveyed by the general map of the
cephalic index for all France on page 138 in respect of this
particular region above described, is that here at last all cor
respondence between the nature of the country and the char
acter of the population ceases. A wedge of the broad-headed
Alpine stock centreing in the uplands of Auvergne pushes its
way toward the southwest to the base of the Pyrenees. This
Alpine offshoot extends uninterruptedly from the sterile pla
teau of Auvergne, straight across the fertile plains of the Ga
ronne and deep into the swamps and fens of Landes. While
the geographical trend of the country is from southeast to
northwest parallel to the Garonne, the population seems to be
striped at right angles to it namely, in the direction of the
Paris-Bordeaux axis of fertility. At the northwest appears
the lower edge of the broad-headedness of the area of Brit
tany ; then succeeds a belt of long heads from Paris to Bor
deaux, to the south of which comes the main feature a cen
tral strip of the Alpine type pushing its way to the extreme
southwest, as we have said. The middle portrait at page 137
is a good example of the last-named round-headed type, which
* Chopinet, 1897, well describes this region and its people.
FRANCE AND BELGIUM. ^5
forms the bulk of the population. We are confronted by a
racial distribution which appears to be utterly at variance with
all the laws which elsewhere in France determine the ethnic
character of its population.
One point is certain : either conditions have changed won
derfully since Strabo s time, or else the old geographer was
far from being a discriminating anthropologist, when he de
scribed the people of Aquitaine as uniformly Iberians, both
in race and in customs. A large element among them is as
far removed from the Spaniards in race as it is possible in
Europe to be. There is, as our map shows, a strip all along
the Mediterranean which is Iberically narrow-headed and oval-
faced, of a type illustrated in our portraits. Especially is this
true in the department of Pyrenees- Orientales, shown on our
map by the banded white area. This is the only part of
Erance where the Catalan language is spoken to-day, as we
took occasion to point out in our second chapter. This popu
lation in Roussillon, while truly Iberian in race, is Provencal
in language ; all the other peoples of Aquitaine differ from the
Spaniards in both respects.
As regards the physical characteristics other than the head
form, the population of Aquitaine is quite uniformly dark.
On the whole, the brunet type outnumbers the blonds. About
one seventh of the hair and eyes is light, whereas in Nor
mandy blondness is represented by about one third of the
traits.* In stature the general average is very low, well to
ward the shortest in Europe.
Turn back for a moment to the map of head form on page
138, and notice the curious light-tinted area in the heart of
this southwestern region. It seems to be confined to four de
partments, lying between Limoges on the northeast and Bor
deaux at the southwest. This peculiar little island of long-
headedness has for years been a puzzle to anthropologists. It
is a veritable outcrop of dolichocephaly close to the great body
of broad-headedness which centres in Auvergnc. f It lies, to
* Collignon, 1894 b, p. 20. Cf. map p. 147 supra.
f Atgier, 1895, finds a lower index than Collignon in Indre and Vienna,
as we have said. The transition thence to the brachycephaly of Brittany
on the north is quite sudden.
14
l66 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
be sure, at the southwestern extremity of that axis of fertility
from Paris to Bordeaux which we have already described.
In conformity with the law of differentiation of populations
which holds all through the north, a long-headed people is
found in the plains. The trouble here is that the people
are altogether too extreme in type. The general law is out-
proved by it. The remoteness of this spot from any other
great centre of long-headedness constitutes the main point
of interest. Such a trait ought to have been derived either
from the north or the south of Europe. Teutonic inter
mixture is not a competent explanation for two reasons. In
the first place, the heads are often more Teutonic in form
than those of the peoples of direct Germanic descent along the
Belgian frontier ; nay more, in some cantons the people outdo
the purest Scandinavians in this respect. This region is also
separated from all Teutonic centres across country by several
hundred miles of broader-headed peoples. That disposes of
the theory of colonization from the north across France.
Could the Teutons have come around by sea, then, follow
ing the litns Sa.roiiicinn already described? Obviously not
so ; for, as we shall see, the deepest pit of long-headedness
lies far inland, about the city of Perigueux. If this be due to
immigrants, they certainly could not have come in ships. Is
it possible, then, that the people of these departments could
have come from the south, an offshoot of the Mediterranean
type? If so, they must* have come over the Pyrenees or else
across the low pass down the course of the Garonne. In
either case a dike of brachycephaly must have been heaped
up behind them, cutting off all connection with any Spanish
base of racial supplies. And then, after all, we do not place
too much reliance in any case upon theories of such whole
sale bodily migration that populous departments among the
largest in France are completely settled in a moment. Hu
man beings in masses do not, as my friend Major Livermore
has put it, play leap-frog across the map in that way, save
under great provocation or temptation. We look for slow-
moving causes, not cataclysms, just as the geologists have
long: since learned to do.
FRANCE AND BELGIUM.
167
The reality of this peculiar island of long-headedness is
best shown by the map on the next page, in which the same re
gion is charted in great detail. The head form is here given
by cantons, small administrative divisions intermediate be
tween the department and the commune or township. The
location of the capital cities of Limoges and Perigueux, on
both maps, will enable the reader to orient himself at once.
The " key " shows the boundaries of the departments. It is
clear that a series of concentric circles of increasing long-
headedness that is, of light tints upon the map point to a
specific area where an extreme human type is prevalent.
History offers no clew to the situation. The country in
question, in Csesar s time, was occupied by a number of tribes
of whose racial affinity we know nothing. On the west dwelt
the Santones by the present city of Saintes (ancient Saintonge).
The city of Perigueux, which gave its name to the ancient
province of Perigord, marks the territory of the Petrocorii of
Roman times. The province of Limousin to the northeast
of it was the home of the Lemovici, with their capital at the
modern city of Limoges. Around the ancient city at Bor
deaux lay the Bituriges and their allies the Medulli (Medoc).*
Along the east lay the Arverni, whence the name Auvergne;
together with a number of minor tribes, such as the Cadurci,
giving name to the district of Quercy to-day. Unless the
population has shifted extensively, contrary to all ethnological
experience, the people whose physical origin is so puzzling
to us included the tribes of the Lemovici and especially the
Petrocorii. For these two covered the main body of narrow-
headedness shown upon our map, extending over two thirds
of the department of Dordogne, and up into Haute-Vienne
and Charente beyond the city of Angouleme. It appears as
if we had to do with two tribes whose racial origin was pro
foundly different from that of all their neighbours. The fron
tier on the southeast, between the Petrocorii and the Arverni,
seems to-day to have been the sharpest of all. In places there
is a sudden drop of over five units in cephalic index at the
* Collignon, 1894 b, p. 69 ; 1895, pp. 74 and 85.
i68
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
boundary lines. This means a change of type almost as great
as that indicated between our several portrait types at page
156. This is especially marked at the frontiers of the two
modern departments of Correze and Dordogne, as our " key "
map shows. This racial boundary finds no parallel in distinct
ness elsewhere in France, save between the Bretons and Xor-
mans. In this present case, the people are distinct because
the modern boundaries coincide exactly with the ancient eccle
siastical and political ones. For centuries the Arverni in Cor
reze have turned their backs upon the Petrocorii in Perigord
on fete days, market days, at the paying of taxes, or examina
tion of conscripts. This they did as serfs in the middle ages,
CEPHALIC INDEX
SOUTHWESTERN FRANCE
and they do it to-day as freemen when they go to the polls to
vote. Each has looked to its capital city for all social inspi
ration and support. The result has been an absence of inter-
FRANCE AND BELGIUM.
169
K. El
course, with its attendant consequences. Artificial selection
has sharpened the contrasts imposed in the first instance
by differences of physical descent. It is one of those rare
cases where political
boundaries are com
petent to perpetuate
and even to accen
tuate natural pecul
iarities due to race.
Let us now con
centrate our atten
tion upon these two
peoples clustering
about the modern
cities of Perigueux
J NEUTRAL
CRO-MAGNON [
TEUTONIC [
ALPINE I
DEPARTMENTAL BOUNDARIES
and Limoges re
spectively separa
ted alike from all
their neighbours by their long-headedness. Closer inspection
of the map reveals that each of these two cities is to-day the
kernel of a distinct subcentre of dolichocephaly; for two very
light-coloured areas surround each city, the two being separated
by a narrow strip of darker tint upon our map. Along this latter
line the cephalic index rises appreciably. Thus, for example,
while only 78 about Limoges, and 76 or 77 in Dordogne, it
rises on this boundary line to 80 and 81. In other words,
a bridge of relative broad-headedness cuts across the map,
setting apart the descendants of the Lemovici, at Limoges,
from those of their contemporaries, the Petrocorii, about Peri
gueux. This means that we have to do with two distinct
spots of long-headedness a small one about Limoges, and a
major one extending all about Perigueux and Angouleme.
There can be no doubt about this division. The boundary is
a purely natural one, and deserves a moment s attention.
This frontier between Limousin and Perigord lies along
the crest of the so-called " hills of Limousin," made famil
iar to us already in another connection. It marks the water
shed between the two great river systems of western France,
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
the Garonne and the Loire. Turn back for a moment to
our stature map of Limousin, on page 83, which indicates
the courses of these streams. Here is a true parting of the
STATURE
SOUTHWESTERN
FRANCE
SPAIN),
AVERAQE.
164- = 1 635 - 1.64-SJ
INCHES METERS
65.4 oner 1.6
L65 B!
16
waters ; for the Charente flows directly to the sea on the west ;
the affluents of the Loire run to the north ; and the Vezere,
part of the system of the Garonne, to the south. These hills
FRANCE AND BELGIUM.
171
of Limousin are the western outposts of the granitic area of
Auvergne ; and just here the country changes abruptly to a
calcareous formation along the south and west. The district
is accounted the very poorest in all France. Its soil is worth
less even for grazing; the water is bad and the climate harsh
and rigorous.
These hills of Limousin, as we pointed out in our
former discussion, are, so to speak, a veritable watershed
of stature as well.* The bridge of relative broad-headed-
ness we have described as lying along this line is but one
among several peculiarities. The people of these hills are
among the shortest in all Europe. Imagine a commu
nity whose members are so dwarfed and stunted by misery
that their average stature is only about five feet two inches !
Many cantons exist in which over thirty per cent of the men
are under five feet three inches tall ; and a few where two
thirds of them all are below this height, with nearly ten per
cent shorter than four feet eleven inches. About three men
in every eight were too diminutive for military service, as
Collignon measured them. With women shorter than this
by several inches, the result is frightful. Around this area
we find concentric circles of increasing stature as the river
courses are descended and the material prosperity of the people
becomes greater. Within it the regular diet of boiled chest
nuts and bad water, with a little rye or barley ; the miserable
huts unlighted by windows, huddled together in the deep and
damp valleys ; and the extreme poverty and ignorance, have
produced a population in which nearly a third of the men are
physically unfit for military service. This geographical bar
rier, potent enough to produce so degenerate a population,
lies, as we have said, exactly along the boundary between the
descendants of the Lemovici about Limoges and the Petro-
corii about Perigueux. To make it plain beyond question,
we have marked the stunted area upon our map of cephalic
index. The correspondence is exact. It also shows beyond
doubt that this short stature is a product of environment and
* Collignon, 18945, p. 26 et seq.; also 1896 a, p. 165.
172 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
not of race ; for our degenerate area overlies all types of head
form alike, whether Alpine or other.
Here, then, is an anthropological as well as a geographical
boundary, separating our long-headed tribes from one an
other. Without going into details, let it suffice to say that
complexions change as well. To the north and east about
Limoges the blond characteristics rise to an absolute ma
jority, especially among the women ; in the contrary direction
about Perigueux, the proportion of brunets increases consid
erably. In short, the general association of characteristics is
such as to prove that among the Lemovici there is a consid
erable infusion of Teutonic blood. They are the extreme van
guard of the Germanic invaders who have come in from the
northeast. That accounts at once for their long-headedness.
Similar to them are the populations west of Bordeaux in Me-
doc (vide key map). They also are remnants of the same
blond, tall, long-headed type ; but they have come around by
sea. They are part of the Saxon hordes which have touched
all along the coast of Brittany. These last people, settled in
the beautiful Medoc and Bordelais wine country, protected by
their peninsular position, are among the tallest peasantry of
the southwest. They are, without doubt, the legitimate de
scendants of the Medulli and of the Bituriges Vivisci of early
times. But between these two colonies of the Teutons, about
Limoges and in Medoc respectively, lies the one whose origin
we have not yet traced? The Petrocorii about Perigueux,
who are they? If they also are of Teutonic descent, why
are they not blond ? This they most certainly are not : for
a noticeable feature of the population of Dordogne is the
high proportion of black hair, rising in some cantons to
twenty-seven per cent.* This is very remarkable in itself,
as even in Italy and Spain really black hair is much less fre
quent. This characteristic for a time gave colour to the
theory that this great area of dolichocephaly was due to the
relics of the Saracen army of Abd-er-Rhaman, shattered by
Charles Martel at the battle of Tours. It is not improbable
* Collignon, 18945, p. 23.
DORDOGNE.
DORDOGNE
4 1 - BERBER, Tunis. Eyes and hair very dark. Index 69. 42.
CRO-MAGNON TYPES.
FRANCE AND BELGIUM.
173
that some Berber blood was thereby infused into the peas
antry ; but this explanation does not suffice to account for
other peculiarities, which a detailed investigation reveals.*
The most curious and significant trait of these long-headed
people in Dordogne remains to be mentioned. A harmonic
long and narrow head ought normally to be accompanied by
an elongated oval visage. In the Teutonic race especially, the
cheek bones are not prominent, so that an even smooth outline
of the face results. Inspection of our Norman faces, or of
any other Teutonic peoples \vill exemplify this. In the Dor
dogne population, on the other hand, the faces in many cases
are almost as broad as in the normal Alpine round-headed
type. In other words, they are strongly disharmonic. To
make this clear, compare the heads shown on the opposite page
of portraits.! Notice at once how the Cro-Magnon head is
developed posteriorly as compared with the Alpine type. This
is noticeable in nearly every case. Observe also how in the
front view the cranium narrows at the top like a sugar loaf,
at the very place where the Alpine type is most broad. Yet
despite this long head, the face is proportioned much more
like the broad-visaged Alpine type than after the model of
the true Mediterranean ones at page 156. These latter are
truly normal and harmonic dolichocephalic types. This Cro-
Magnon one is entirely different.
In our Dordogne peasant there are many other minor fea
tures which need not concern us here. The skull is very low-
vaulted ; the brow ridges are prominent ; the nose is well
formed, and less broad at the nostrils than in the Alpine type.
These, coupled with the prominent cheek bones and the pow
erful masseter muscles, give a peculiarly rugged cast to the
countenance. It is not, however, repellent ; but more often
open and kindly in appearance.^ The men are in no wise pe-
* G. Lagneau, 1867 a.
f For the French Cro-Magnon portraits I am indebted to Dr. Collignon
himself. These are the first, I think, ever published, either here or in
Europe. The African type is loaned by Dr. Bertholon, of Tunis. It is
described in his paper of 1891.
J Cf. Verneau s description in Bull. Soc. d anth., 1876, pp. 408-417.
174 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
culiar in stature. They are of medium height, rather stocky
than otherwise. In this latter respect they show the same
susceptibility to environment as all their neighbours ; they
are tall in fertile places and stunted in the less prosperous dis
tricts. Lying mainly south of the dwarfed areas of Limousin,
they are intermediate between its miserable people and their
taller neighbours in the vine country about Bordeaux. Let
it be clearly understood that they are not a degenerate type at
all. The peasants are keen and alert; often contrasting favour
ably with the rather heavy-minded Alpine type about them.
The people we have described above agree in physical char
acteristics with but one other type of men known to anthro
pologists. This is the celebrated Cro-Magnon race, long ago
identified by archaeologists as having inhabited the southwest
of Europe in prehistoric times.* As early as 1858 human re
mains began to be discovered by Lartet and others in this
region. Workmen on a railway in the valley of the Vezere,
shown on our map, unearthed near the little village of Les
Eyzies the complete skeletons of six individuals three men,
tw r o women, and a child. This was the celebrated cave of Cro-
Magnon. In the next few years many other similar archaeo
logical discoveries in the same neighbourhood were made. A
peasant in the upper Garonne Valley, near Saint-Gaudens,
found a large human bone in a rabbit hole. On excavating,
the remains of seventeen individuals were found buried to
gether in the cave of Aurignac. At Laugerie Basse, again
in the Vezere Valley, a rich find was made. In the cave of
Baumes-Chaudes, just across in Lozere, thirty-five human
crania with portions of skeletons were unearthed. These were
the classical discoveries. The evidence of their remains has
been completely verified since then from all over Europe.
In no district, however, are the relics of this type so plentiful
as here in Dordogne. Eight sepulchral caves have been dis-
* Authorities on this are E. and L. Lartet, 1861 ; and subsequently : De
Quatrefages and Hamy, 1882. pp. afietseq.; alsoVerneau, 1886, and Hamy,
1891, especially. Bertrand and Reinach, 1891, give a suggestive map
showing-the areas of greatest frequency of Cro-Magnon remains. Its cor
respondence with Collignon s map of cephalic index is very close. Con
sult also Salmon, 1895, and Herve, 18945.
FRANCE AND BELGIUM.
175
covered within as many miles of the village of Les Eyzies alone
in the Yezere Valley. Because of the geographical concen
tration of a peculiar type in this region, it has become known
by the name of the Cro-Magnon race, since in the cave of this
name the most perfect specimens were found.
The geographical evidence that here in Dordogne we have
to do with the real Cro-Magnon race, is fully sustained by
a comparison of the physical characteristics of the crania here
discovered in these caves in the valley of the Vezere, with the
peculiar living type we have above described. The original
Cro-Magnon race was extremely dolichocephalic ; as long
headed, in fact, as the modern African negroes or the Aus
tralians. The cranial indices varied from 70 to 73, correspond
ing to a cephalic index on the living head between 72 and 75.
This was and is the starting point for the theory that the
Mediterranean populations are an offshoot and development
from the African negro. The only other part of Europe
where so low an index has been located in the living popula
tion is in Corsica, where it descends almost to this level.* The
people of Dordogne do not to-day range quite as long-headed
as this, the average for the extreme commune of Champa-
gnac being 76. This difference need not concern us, how
ever, for within the whole population are a large proportion
with indexes far below this figure. Close proximity to the
very brachycephalic Alpine type, just over the line in Correze,
would account for a great deal larger difference even than
this. Probability of direct descent becomes almost certainty
when we add that the Cro-Magnon head was strongly dishar-
monic, and very low-skulled. The modern population does
not equal its progenitors in this last respect, but it approaches
it so distinctly as to show a former tendency in this direction.
The skull was elongated at the back in the same way a dis
tinguishing trait which appears prominently upon comparison
of the profile view of a modern Cro-Magnon type with that
of its Alpine neighbours, as we have already observed. The
brows were strongly developed, the eye orbits were low, the
* Cf. page 54 supra.
176
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
chin prominent. The noted anthropologist, De Quatrefages,
prophesied what one of these types ought to look like in the
flesh. I give his description in his own words, that its agree
ment with the facial type above represented may be noted :
" The eye depressed beneath the orbital vault; the nose straight
rather than arched, the lips somewhat thick, the maxillary (jaw
and cheek) bones strongly developed, the complexion very
brown, the hair very dark and growing low on the forehead a
whole which, without being attractive, w r as in no way repulsive."
The prehistoric antiquity of the Cro-Magnon type in this
region is attested in two distinct ways. In the first place, the
original people possessed no knowledge of the metals; they
were in the same stage of culture as, perhaps even lower than,
the American aborigines at the coming of Columbus. Their
implements were fashioned of stone or bone, although often
cunningly chipped and even polished. They were ignorant of
the arts, either of agriculture or the domestication of ani
mals, in both of which they were far below the culture of
the native tribes of Africa at the present day. Additional
proof of their antiquity was offered by the animal remains
found intermingled with the human bones. The climate must
have been very different from that of the present; for many
of the fauna then living in the region, such as the reindeer,
are now confined to the cold regions of northern Europe. To
be sure, the great mammals, such as the mammoth, mastodon,
the cave bear, and hyena* had already become extinct. They
were contemporaneous with the still more ancient and uncul
tured type of man, whose remains occur in a lower geological
stratum. This Cro-Magnon race is not of glacial antiquity,
yet the distribution of mammals was markedly different from
that of to-day. Thus of nineteen species found in the Cro-
Magnon cave, ten no longer existed in southern Europe.
They had migrated with the change of climate toward the
north. The men alone seem to have remained in or near
their early settlements, through all the changes of time and
the vicissitudes of history. It is perhaps the most striking
instance known of a persistency of population unchanged
through thousands of years.
FRANCE AND BELGIUM. 177
It should not be understood that this Cro-Magnon type
was originally restricted to this little region alone. Its geo
graphical extension was once very wide. The classical skull
of Engis, in Belgium, so well described by Huxley,* was of
this type. It has been located in places all the way from
Tagolsheim and Bollwiller in Alsace to the Atlantic on the
west. Ranke f asserts that it occurs to-day in the hills of
Thuringia, and was a prevalent type there in the past. Its
extension to the south and west was equally wide. According
to Verneau, it was the type common among the extinct
Guanches of the Canary [stands. Collignon ( 87 * ) and Ber-
tholon "" have identified it in northern Africa. Our third
Cro-Magnon portrait is representative of it among the Berbers.
From all these places it has now disappeared more or less com
pletely. Only in two or three other localities does it still form
an appreciable element in the living population. There is one
outcrop of it in a small spot in Landes, farther to the south
west ; and another away up north, in that peculiar population
at Lannion J which we mentioned in our description of Brit
tany, with a promise to return to it. So primitive is the popu
lation here, in fact, that nearly a third of the population to-day
is of this type. On the island of Oleron off the west coast
there seems to be a third survival.* A very ancient type has
also been described by Virchow || in the islands of northern
Holland, which is quite likely of similar descent.
In all these cases of survival above mentioned, geograph
ical isolation readily accounts for the phenomenon. Is that
also a competent explanation for this clearest case of all in
our population in Dordogne? Why should these peasants
be of such direct prehistoric descent as to put every ruling
house in Europe to shame? Has the population persisted
simply by virtue of numbers, this having been the main centre
of its dispersion in prehistoric times ? Or is it because of pe
culiarly favourable circumstances of environment? It certain-
* 1863 and 1897. f Der Mensch, 1887, ii, p. 446.
\ See maps, pp. 100 and 151 supra.
* Collignon, 1890 a, p. 58 ; and 1895, p. 95.
|| 1876 a.
178 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
ly is not due to isolation alone ; for this region has been over
run with all sorts of invaders, during historic times at least,
from the Romans to the Saracens and the English. Nor is
it due to economic unattractiveness ; for, be it firmly fixed
in mind, the Cro-Magnon type is not localized in the sterile
Limousin hills, with their miserable stunted population. It
is found to-day just to the southwest of them in a fairly open,
fertile country, especially in the vicinity of Bordeaux. These
peasants are not degenerate ; they are, in fact, of goodly height,
as indeed they should be to conform to the Cro-Magnon
type. In order to determine the particular cause of this
persistence of an ancient race, we must broaden our hori
zon once more, after this detailed analysis of Dordogne, and
consider the whole southwest from the Mediterranean to Brit
tany as a unit. It is not impossible that the explanation for
the peculiar anomalies in the distribution of the Alpine stock
hereabouts may at the same time offer a clew to the problem
of the Cro-Magnon type beside it.
The main question before us, postponed until the conclu
sion of our study of the Dordogne population, is this : Why
has the Alpine race in the southwest of France, in direct op
position to the rule for all the rest of Gaul, spread itself out
in such a peculiar way clear across the Garonne Valley and
up to the Pyrenees ? It lies at right angles with the river val
ley instead of along it. In other words, why is not the Alpine
type isolated in the unattractive area of Auvergne instead of
overflowing the fertile plains of Aquitaine? The answer is, I
think, simple. Here in this uttermost part of France is a last
outlet for expansion of the Alpine race, repressed on every
side by an aggressive alien population. It has merely ex
panded along the line of least resistance. The Alpine type in
Auvergne, increasing in numbers faster than the meagre means
of support offered by Nature, has by force of numbers pushed
its way irresistibly out across Aquitaine, crowding its former
possessors to one side. Certainly this is true in the Pyrenees.
For here at the base of the mountains the population changes
suddenly, as we shall see in our next chapter on the Basques.
On the other side at the north lies, as we have just seen, a
FRANCE AND BELGIUM. 179
second primitive population, less changed from the prehis
toric type than any other in Europe. This Cro-Magnon race
has been preserved apparently by the dike of the Limousin
hills with their miserable population ; for these hills have cut
across the Paris-Bordeaux axis of fertility and have stopped
the Teutonic race at the city of Limoges from expanding far
ther in this direction that is to say, economic attraction hav
ing come to an end, immigration ceased with it. The in
trusive Teutonic race has therefore been debarred from this
main avenue of approach by land into Aquitaine. The com
petition has been narrowed down to the Alpine and Cro-
Magnon types alone. Hence the former, overflowing its
source in Auvergne, has spread in a generally southwestern
direction with slight opposition. It could not extend itself
to the south; for the Mediterranean type was strongly in
trenched along the seacoast, and was in fact pushing its way
over the low pass into Aquitaine from that direction. The
case is not dissimilar to that of Burgundy. In both instances
a bridge of Alpine broad-headedness cuts straight across a
river valley open to a narrow-headed invasion at both ends.
It is not improbable that in both, this bridge is a last remnant
of broad-headedness which would have covered the whole val
ley had it not been invaded from both sides by other com
petitors.
Enough has been said to show the complexity of the racial
relations hereabouts. We have identified the oldest living
race in this part of the world. The most primitive language
in Europe the Basque is spoken near by. It will form the
subject of the next chapter.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE BASQUES.
THE Basques, or Euskaldnnak, as they call themselves, on
account of the primitive character of their institutions, but
more particularly because of the archaic features of their lan
guage, have long attracted the attention of ethnologists. Few
writers on European travel have been able to keep their hands
off this interesting people. Owing to the difficulty of ob
taining information from the original Basque sources, a wide
range of speculation has been offered for cultivation. Interest
for a long time mainly centred in the language ; the physical
characteristics were largely neglected. The last ten years
have, however, witnessed a remarkable change in this respect.
A series of brilliant investigations has been offered to science,
based almost entirely upon the study of the living population.
As a consequence, this people has within a decade emerged
from the hazy domain of romance into the clear light of scien
tific knowledge. Muchyet remains to be accomplished ; but
enough is definitely known to warrant many conclusions both
as to their physical origin and ethnic affinities.*
* The best modern authorities on the Basques are R. Collignon,
Anthropologie du sud-ouest de la France, Mem. Soc. d Anth., serie iii, i,
1895, fasc. 4 ; De Aranzadi y Unamuno, El pueblo Euskalduna, San Sebas
tian 1889 ; Hoyos Sainz and De Aranzadi, Un avance a la antropologia de
Espana, Madrid, 1892 ; Oloriz y Aguilera, Distribucion geografica del indice
cefalico en Espana, Madrid, 1894 ; Broca, Sur 1 origine et la repartition de
la langue Basque, Revue d Anth., serie i, iv, 1875. De Aranzadi has also
published a most interesting criticism of Collignon s work in the Basque
journal, Euskal-Erria, vol. xxxv, 1896, entitled Consideraciones acerca de
la raza Basca. For ethnography the older standard work is by T. F.
Blade, Etude sur 1 origine des Basques, Paris, 1869. The works of Wcb-
180
THE BASQUES. iSl
Thirty years ago estimates of the number of people speak
ing the Basque language or Enskara ran all the way from
four to seven hundred thousand. Probability pointed to about
a round half million, which has perhaps become six hundred
thousand to-day; although large numbers have emigrated of
recent years to South America, and the rate of increase in
France, at least, is very slow. About four fifths of these are
found in the Spanish provinces of Vizcaya (Biscay), Xavarra,
Guipuzcoa, and Alava, at the western extreme of the Pyrenean
frontier and along the coast. (See map, page 170.) The re
mainder occupy the southwestern third of the department of
Basses-Pyrenees over the mountains in France. The whole
territory covered is merely a spot on the European map. It
is by quality, therefore, and not in virtue either of numbers or
territorial extension, that these people merit our attention.
In the preceding chapter we aimed to identify the oldest liv
ing population in Europe a direct heritage from prehistoric
times. We found it to lie about the city of Perigueux in the
department of Dordogne, east of Bordeaux. Here, less than
two hundred miles to the southwest, is probably the most primi
tive spoken language on the continent. Is there any connec
tion discoverable between the two? Whence did they come?
Why are they thus separated? Which of the two has mi
grated? Or have they each persisted in entire independence
of the other? Or were they never united at all? Such are
some of the pertinent questions which we have to answer.
These people derive a romantic interest from the persist
ence with which, both in France and Spain, they have main
tained until the last decade their peculiar political organi
zation, despite all attempts of the French and Spanish sover
eigns through centuries to reduce them to submission.* Their
ster, Dawkins, Monteiro, and others are of course superseded by the recent
and brilliant studies above outlined.
To my constant friend Dr. Collignon I am obliged for the portrait
types of French Basques reproduced in this chapter.
* Herbert, 1848, pp. 316-322 ; Blade, 1869, p. 419 et seq.\ Louis-Lande,
1878, p. 297 ; and more recently, W. T. Strong, The Fueros of northern
Spain, in Political Science Quarterly, New York, viii, 1893, pp. 3i7~334-
X 82 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
political institutions were ideally democratic, worthy of the
enthusiasm bestowed by the late Mr. Freeman upon the Swiss
folk-moot. In Yizcaya, for example, sovereignty was vested
in a biennial assembly of chosen deputies, who sat on stone
benches in the open air under an ancestral oak tree in the
village of Guernica. This tree was the emblem of their liber
ties. A scion of the parent oak was always kept growing near
bv, in case the old tree should die. These Basques acknowl
edged no political sovereign ; they insisted upon complete per
sonal independence for every man ; they were all absolutely
equal before their own law ; they upheld one another in exer
cising the right of self-defence against any outside authority,
ecclesiastical, political, or other; they were entitled to bear
arms at all times by law anywhere in Spain ; they were free
from all taxation save for their own local needs, and from all
foreign military service: and in virtue of this liberty they were
accorded throughout Spain the rank and privileges of hidalgos
or noblemen.
Along with these political privileges many of their social
customs were equally unique.* On the authority of Strabo,
it was long asserted that the custom of the couradc existed
among them a practice common among primitive peoples,
whereby on the birth of a child the father took to his bed as
if in the pains of labour. This statement has never been
substantiated in modern times ; although the observance, found
sporadically all over the earth, probably did at one time exist
in parts of Europe. Diodorus Siculus asserted that it was
practised in Corsica at the beginning of the Christian era.
There is no likelier spot for it to have survived in Europe
than here in the Pyrenees ; but it must be confessed that no
direct proof of its existence can be found to-day, guide books
to the contrary notwithstanding.! The domestic institutions
are remarkably primitive and well preserved. Every man s
house is indeed his castle. As Herbert puts it in his classical
* Cordier, iSGS- Gg ; Blade, 1869, 419-444, also 525. Demolins, 1897,
and Dumont, 1892, are particularly good on their present demography,
economic institutions, etc.
f Cf. Hovelacque, Etudes de Linguistique, 1878, pp. 197 ef seq.
THE BASQUES. 183
Review of the Political State of the Basque Provinces, speak
ing of Yizcaya : " Xo magistrate can violate that sanctuary ;
no execution can be put into it, nor can arms or horse be
seized; he can not be arrested for debt or subjected to im
prisonment without a previous summons to appear under the
old oak of Guernica." The ties of blood are persistently up
held among all the Basques. Communal ownership within
the family is frequently practised. The women enjoy equal
rights before the law in manv places. Customs varv from
o * -*
place to place, to be sure, and primitive characteristics are not
always confined to the Basques alone. They are, however,
well represented, on the whole. In some places the eldest
daughter takes precedence over all the sons in inheritance,
a possible relic of the matriarchal family which has disappeared
elsewhere in Europe. Demolins ( 07) gives a detailed analysis
of one of these communal families, presided over by the eldest
daughter. It would lead us astray to enlarge upon these
social peculiarities in this place. It will be enough in passing
to mention the once-noted mystery plays, the folklore, the
dances, the week consisting of but three days (as Webster as
serts), and a host of other facts, each capable of inviting atten
tion from the ethnological point of view. Many of these,
according to Dumont ( " J2) , have now become things of the past,
owing to the persistent opposition of the clergy, to whom the
people are entirely subservient. Their dislike of town life is
even to-day proverbial.* The only detail which it will repay
us to elaborate is the language. To that we turn for a moment.
To the ordinary observer many peculiarities in the Basque
language are at once apparent : .r. y. and z seem to be unduly
prominent to play leading parts, in fact. There are more
consonants alone, to say nothing of the vowels and double
characters, than there are letters in our entire alphabet. For
the linguist the differences from the European languages are
of profound significance. The Basque conforms in its struc
ture to but two other languages in all Europe, each of which
is akin to the linguistic families of Asia and aboriginal Amer-
* Jour. Anth. Inst., ii, 1872, p. 157.
1 84
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
ica. It is formally like the Magyar or Hungarian; but this
we know to be an immigrant from the east within historic
times. It is also fashioned after the model of the speech of
the Finns in Russia. These people are likewise quite foreign
to western Europe ; they are akin to tribes which connect them
with the Asiatic hordes. The Basque alone of the trio is mys
terious as to its origin ; for it constitutes a linguistic island,
surrounded completely by the normal population and lan
guages of Europe.
In place of inflection, the Basque makes use largely of the
so-called principle of agglutination.* The different meanings
are expressed by the compounding of several words into one,
a device not unknown, to be sure, in Aryan tongues ; but in
the Basque this is carried much further. The verb habitually
includes all pronouns, adverbs, and other allied parts of speech.
The noun comprehends the prepositions and adjectives in a
like manner. As an example of the terrific complexity pos
sible as a result, Blade gives fifty forms in the third person
singular of the present indicative of the regular verb to give
alone. Another classical example of the effect of such agglu
tination occurs in the Basque word meaning " the lower field
of the high hill of Azpicuelta," which runs .
Aspilcndagaraycosaroyarcnbcrccolarrca.
This simple phrase is an even match for the Cherokee word
instanced by Whitney :
" Winitawtigeginaliskawlungtanawneletisesti"
meaning " they will by this time have come to the end of
their (favourable) declaration to you and me." Sayce \ gives
a similar example of agglutination from the Eskimo :
" Aglekkigiartorasuarnipok"
whose significance is " he goes hastily away and exerts him-
* On language consult Pruner Bey, 1867 ; Gerland, 1888, in Grober s
Grundriss ; Blade, 1869, pp. 237 et seq. ; and the recent researches of Van
Eys, Vinson, Von der Gabelentz, and others. Titles of these will be
found in our extended Bibliography.
f Contemporary Review, April, 1876, p. 722.
THE BASQUES. 185
self to write." This agglutinative characteristic, common to
primitive languages the world over, justifies the proverb
among the French peasants that the devil studied the Basque
language seven years and learned only two words. The prob
lem is not rendered easier by the fact that very little Basque
literature exists in the written form ; that the pronunciation
is peculiar ; and that the language, being a spoken one, there
by varies from village to village. There are in the neighbour
hood of twenty-five distinct dialects in all. No wonder a cer
tain traveller is said to have given up the study of it in despair,
claiming that its words were all " written Solomon and pro
nounced Nebuchadnezzar."
Several features of this curious language psychologically
denote a crudeness of intellectual power. The principle of
abstraction or generalization is but slightly developed. The
words have not become movable " type " or symbols, as the
late Mr. Romanes expressed it. They are sounds for the ex
pression of concrete ideas. Each word is intended for one
specific object or concept. Thus there is said to be a lack of
such simple generalized words as " tree " or " animal." There
are complete vocabularies for each species of either, but none
for the concept of tree or animal in the abstract. They can
not express " sister " in general ; it must be " sister of the
man " or " sister of the woman." This is an unfailing char
acteristic of all undeveloped languages. It is paralleled by
Spencer s instance of the Cherokee Indians, who have thirteen
distinct words to signify the washing of as many different
parts of the body, but none for the simple idea of " washing "
by itself. The primitive mind finds it difficult to conceive of
the act or attribute absolved from all connection with the ma
terial objects concerned. Perhaps this is why the verb in the
Basque has to include so many other parts of speech. The
Arabic language is similarly primitive. It has words for yel
low, red, green, and other tints, but no term exists to express
the idea of " colour," apart from the substance of the thing
on which, so to speak, the colour lies.
A second primitive psychological characteristic of the
Basque is found in the order of the words. These follow the
1 86 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
natural sequence of ideas more closely than in European lan
guages. The importance of the idea determines precedence.
Thus, instead of saying " of the man," the Basque puts it
" man, the, of." Nouns are derived from one another in this
manner. From burn, head, comes bnruk, " head-for-the," or
bonnet. Many of the words thus contain traces of their deri
vation, which have long since vanished from the Aryan.
Sayce gives some good examples. Thus orzanz, thunder,
comes from orz, cloud, and azanz, noise. The word for month
is illabctc, derived from illargi-betc, meaning " moon-full."
And the word for moon is again divisible into il, death, and
argi, light. In this manner we can trace the process of reason
ing which induced the combination in many more cases than
in our own languages. We have still some, like tzi ilight; or
hidalgo, which in Spanish signifies " son-of-somebody," a no
bleman ; but these are the exception.
Probably the most primitive element in the Basque is the
verb, or the relative lack of it.* It was long asserted that no
such part of speech existed in it at all. This, strictly speaking,
is not true. Most of the verbs are, however, really nouns :
" to give " is in fact treated as if it were " donation " or the
" act of giving." It is then declined quite like a noun, or
varied to suit the circumstances. This is indeed truly primi
tive. Romanes has devoted much time to proving that the
verb requires the highest power of abstraction of all our parts
of speech. Certain it is that it is defective in most primitive
languages, from the Chinese up. Its crudity in the Basque
is undeniable evidence of high antiquity.
The archaic features of these Basque dialects in the days
when language and race were synonymous terms led to all
sorts of queer theories as to their origin and antiquity. Blade
describes these in great detail. Flavius Josephus set a pace
in identifying the people as descendants of Tubal-Cain and
his nephew Tarsis. In the middle ages they were traced to
nearly all the biblical heroes. Such hypotheses, when com
parative philology developed as a science, gave way to a num-
* Vinson, iSys- gs, is an authority.
THE BASQUES. 187
her of others, connecting the Basques with every outlandish
language and bankrupt people under the sun. Vogt ( 63) and
De Charency ;7) connected them directly with the American
Indians, because of the similarity in the structure of their lan
guage. Then De Charency (<S9) changed his mind and derived
them from Asiatic sources. Sir William Betham ( 42) made
them kin to the extinct Etruscans, a view r to which Retzius
subscribed. Bory de Saint-Vincent proved that they were the
sole survivors of the sunken continent of Atlantis ; of the type
of the now extinct Guanches of the Canary Islands. Avezac
said they were Sicani ; Molon that they were Turanian.*
Max Miiller gives some evidence of similarity to the Lapps,
the Finns, and the Bulgarians. Others said the ancient Egyp
tians were related to them. We have no space to mention
more. Little by little opinion crystallized, especially among
the historians, about the thesis originally upheld by Wilhelm
von Humboldt, ( I7) that the Basque was a survival of the an
cient Celt-Iberian language of Spain ; and that these people
were the last remnants of the ancient inhabitants of that penin
sula. Pictet was the only linguistic dissident from this view,
holding that the Basques were of even greater antiquity ;
being in fact the prehistoric race type of Europe, antedating
the Aryan influx altogether. More recently we have Fita s (>93)
identification of the Basques with the Picts, a theory apparent
ly not repugnant to such distinguished authority as Rhys (>92) ;
together with Bertholon s ( 9G) sustained attempt to trace a re
lationship to the ancient Phoenicians. As for affinity to the
Hamitic or Berber languages of northern Africa, von der
Gabelentz (<93) proves it, while Keane ( 96) as strenuously de
nies the possibility.! So much, then, for the conclusions of
the philologists. Not very satisfactory, to be sure !
It will be observed that all these theories rested upon the
assumption that racial derivation could be traced by means
of language. A prime difficulty soon presented itself. Some
thirty years ago the Basque language was found by Broca (>75)
* Nicolucci, 1888, p. 4; Issel, 1892, ii, p. 76.
f Cf. Boyd Dawkins s (1874 b) attempt to prove Berber, Basque, and
Breton affinity ; with Webster s criticism, 1875.
188 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
to be drifting toward the north, despite the apparent immo
bility of the people themselves. It seemed to be losing ground
rapidly in Spain, with no indication of doing so, rather the re
verse, in France. Nor was this apparently a new development.
Everything denoted that it had been going on for many years.
The mode of proof is interesting as Broca used it. There are
two independent sources of evidence. In the first instance
the place names all over Navarra as far south as the Ebro
River are of Basque origin. The language, as our map at page
j:8|show r s, does not to-day extend nearly as far. This indi
cates that the Basque speech prevailed when the villages, the
mountains, and the rivers were named. No such zone of place
names lies outside the speech line in France, save in one can
ton, just over the Pyrenees. There the Basque place names
extend out as far as the broad white line upon our larger and
more detailed map on the next page. The inward bend of the
curve of present speech at this place points to a retrogression
of language. Everywhere else in France the division line of
place names coincides very closely with that of speech.
No less important proof that Basque is losing ground in
Spain but holding its own in France is at hand. Notice on
the map that the Spanish language is to-day in vise consider
ably within the Basque limit. In other words, there is an in
termediate zone in Spain where both languages are understood
and spoken by the peasants. This zone varies considerably in
width. By the city of Pamplona there is a deep recess cut
in the Basque. Castilian being the official language, and
Pamplona the capital of the province, the people in its vicinity
have been compelled to adopt this language. They have for
gotten their native Basque tongue entirely. At Bilbao, also
an official city, the Spanish is actively forcing its way in ; al
though the Basque language has more persistently held its
own along this side. All along the frontier in Spain the
Basque is on the retreat, much of the movement having taken
place since the sixteenth century. In France, on the other
hand, the Basque tongue holds its own. The line of demarca
tion between the Basque and the Bearnais-French patois is
clean and clear cut. There is no evidence of an invasion of
THE BASQUES.
189
territory by the outsider. This is equally true in respect of
customs and folklore ; so that the Basque frontier can be de
tected all along the line from village to village. The present
CEPHALIC INDEX.
5A5QUE PROVINCES
FRANCE AND SPAIN
LONG HEAD5
77
AFTER. DE ARANZADI X BRocA ?5,
COLUGNON 95, AND OLORJZ^ 94-.
OUTER- LIMIT OF BASQUE .SPEECH
5PANI5H- FRENCH FRONTIER,
NOTE Collignon, 1897, and Chopinet, 1898, give additional data for the departments
of Gers and Landes respectively, with maps in each case.
boundary is of such a form that it denotes a complete equality
of the two rival tongues. It has remained immovable for
many generations.
IOrO THE RACES OF EUROPE.
The clearness of this frontier in France is interestingly
illustrated by a bit of detail on the accompanying map. It
concerns that loop which is roughly indicated upon the larger
map just east of Bayonne. Here at the village of La Bastide-
Clairence for generations has been a little tongue of Bearnais-
French penetrating deeply into Basque territory. The name
of this town indicates a fortress, and another " Bastide " oc
curs in the tongue farther north. Broca inclines to the view
that here was a bit of territory in which the French patois was
DETAIL. Basque-French boundary. (From Broca, 75.)
so strongly intrenched that it held its own against the advanc
ing Basque. It may have been a reconquest, to be sure. For
us, the sharpness of frontier is the only point of concern, in
contrast with the one in Spain. It is an undoubted instance
of linguistic invasion toward the north.
Another difficulty, no less insuperable than the fact that
their language was on the move in a quiescent population,
lay in the way of the old assumptions that the Basques were
pure and undefilecl descendants of some very ancient people.
THE BASQUES. Io ,i
Study of the head form precipitates us at once into it.* Xo
sooner did physical anthropologists take up the matter of
Basque origins than they ran up against a pair of bars. Study
of the cephalic index yielded highly discordant results. Those
who, like Broca ( o;!) and Virchow, measured heads or skulls
of the Basques in Spain discovered a dolichocephalic type,
with an index ranging about 79 on the living head. Equal
ly positive were those like Pruner Bey ( 67) , who investi
gated the head form on the French slopes of the Pyrenees,
that the Basque was broad-headed. The indexes obtained in
this latter case clustered about 83. The difference of four
units and over was too great to ascribe to chance vari
ation or to defective measurement. The champions of the
broad heads, such as Retzius and Pruner Bey, affirmed an
Asiatic origin ; while their opponents, following Broca, as ve
hemently claimed that, whatever the Basques might be, they
certainly were not Mongolian. They generally asserted an
African origin for them. The often acrimonious discussion
has been settled finally by proof that both sets of observers
were right, after all. Strange as it may seem, the people on
the two opposite slopes of the Pyrenees, both alike speaking
the same peculiar language distinct from all others in Europe,
were radically different in respect of this most fundamental
racial characteristic. Xo proof of this, beyond a glance at our
map of cephalic index, on page 189, is necessary. From pre
ceding chapters the broad heads in France, denoted by the dark
tints, will be recognised as the extreme vanguard of the Alpine
race of central Europe. Spain, on the other hand, is a strong
hold of the long-headed Mediterranean type.f Here we have
the point of contact between the two.
Bearing in mind now that the crest of the Pyrenees runs
along the political frontier, it seems as if, on the whole, the
line of division between broad-headed and long-headed types
* Collignon, 1895, p. 13, for France ; Oloriz, 1894, pp. 167-175, with
map, for Spain.
f Aranzadi, while contesting many of Collignon s theses, shows in his
curve of seriation, 1889, p. 17, two constituent elements even among the
Spanish Basques.
192
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
lay at the northern base rather than along the summits of the
mountains. This is indeed true. Apparent exceptions prove
the rule ; for where, in the heart of the Basque territory, the
broad heads seem to penetrate to the Spanish frontier, there
is the ancient pass of Roncesvalles, celebrated in history and
literature. The broad-headed type would naturally have in
vaded here if at all. Everywhere else the long-headed type
seems to prevail, not only on the Spanish slopes, but clear over
to the foothills of the Pyrenees on the other side in France.
This the reader may roughly verify for himself by considera
tion of the five-hundred-metre contour line shown upon the
map at page 194. Assuming that this marks the lower edge
of the mountains, our proposition will at once be demonstrated.
If these facts be all true, what has become of our Basque
physical type? Where are our philological theories of purity
of racial representation ? If the Basques are indeed an un
mixed race, there must be one of these two types which is
spurious. At first the anthropologists sought thus to reject one
or the other, French or Spanish, for this reason. Then they
laid aside their differences ; they abandoned entirely the old
theory of purity of descent. The Basque became for them the
final complex product of a long series of ethnic crosses. Each
of the conflicting characteristics was traced to some people,
wherever found it mattered not. The type was compounded
by a formula, as a druggist puts up a prescription. Blade
wrote in the light of such views. Canon Taylor, in his Origin
of the Aryans, holds that the broad-headed French Basque is
only a variation of the Alpine type which, as we have seen, pre
vails in all the southwest of France, with a dash of Lapp
blood. For him the Spanish Basque was, on the other hand.
a sub-type of the long-faced Iberian or Spanish narrow head.
The result of the crossing of the two was to produce a pe
culiarity of physical feature which we shall shortly describe-
namely, a broad head and a long, narrow face. Aranzadi.*
himself a Basque, assigns an equally mixed origin to his peo
ple. His view is that the Basque is Iberian at bottom, crossed
* 1889, p. 42.
FRENCH BASQUE, Basses-Pyrenees
FRENCH BASQUE, Basses-Pyrenees.
46.
47-
HAKMONK TYPKS. Inner Pyrenees.
BASQUES.
48.
THE BASQUES. 193
with the Finn or Lapp, and finally touched by the Teuton.
All these views resemble Kenan s celebrated formula, cited by
Dr. Beddoe for a Breton, " a Celt, mixed with a Gascon and
crossed with a Lapp."
Is there, after all, a Basque physical type corresponding to
the Basque language? Enough has already been said to cast
a shadow of doubt upon the assumption. Can it be that all
which has been written about the Basque race is unwarranted
by the facts ? Examine our Basque portraits collected from
both slopes of the Pyrenees. They appear in two series in
this chapter. At once a peculiar characteristic is apparent in
nearly every case. The face is very wide at the temples, so
full as to appear almost swollen in this region.* At the same
time the chin is very long, pointed, and narrow, ^nd the nose
is high, long, and thin. The outline of the visage becomes
almost triangular for this reason. This, with the eyes placed
somewhat close together, or at least appearing so from the
breadth of the temples, gives a countenance of peculiar cast.
It resembles, perhaps, more than anything else the features of
so-called infant prodigies, in which the frontal lobes of the
brain have become over-developed. This resemblance is only
superficial. These people are notably hardy and athletic.
" To run and jump like a Basque " has become a proverb in
France. The facial contrast appears especially strong when
we compare this Basque type with that of its neighbours. The
people all about, in the plain of Beam, are distinctly Alpine in
racial type; they have very well-developed chins and regular
oval features, in many cases becoming almost squarish, so
heavily built is the lower jaw. A Basque may generally be
detected instantly by this feature alone. The head is poised
in a noticeable way, inclining forward, as if to balance the
lack of chin by the weight of forehead. The carriage is al
ways erect, a little stiff perhaps. This may be because bur
dens are habitually carried upon the head. On the whole,
the aspect is a pleasant one, despite its peculiarities, the glance
* Collignon, 1895, p. 37; Aranzadi, 1889, p. 33; 1894 a, p. 518; 1896,
p. 70.
16
194
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
being direct and straightforward, the whole bearing agree
able yet resolute.
The peculiar triangular facial type we have described-
characteristic both of Spanish long-headed or French brachy-
cephalic Basques has been mapped by Dr. Collignon for the
north slope of the Pyrenees with great care. \Ye have re
produced his map on this page. It is very suggestive. It
shows a distinct centre of distribution of the facial Basque
wherein over half the population are characterized by it. Con-
RELATIVE FREQUENCY
OF
BASQUE FACIAL TYPES
IN FRANCE
APTW. COLL13NON 95
centric circles of diminishing frequency lie about it, vanishing
finally in the plains of Beam and Gascogne. The most notice
able feature is the close correspondence of this distribution of
a physical type with the linguistic boundary. It is exact, save
in one canton, Aramitz, at the eastern end southeast of Mau-
leon.* Here it will be remembered was the one spot in France
where there was evidence in the place names of a retrogression
of the Basque speech before the French. The light-dotted line
* On the local type here, cf. Collignon, 1895, p. 86.
THE BASQUES. ig$
shows the former boundary. It is the one French-speaking
canton, with nearly a quarter of the population of the Basque
facial type. The exception proves the rule. Some relation
between language and racial type is proved beyond a doubt.
Another significant fact is illustrated by this map. It ap
pears that instead of being refugees isolated in the recesses
of the Pyrenees, the Basque physical type is really most fre
quent in the foothills and open plains along the base of the
mountains. In order to emphasize this point we have indi
cated the lay of the land upon our map by means of the five-
hundred-metre contour line of elevation above the sea. It
shows that in the Basque country the mountains are much nar
rower than farther to the east. The Pyrenees, in fact, dwindle
away in height down to the seacoast. The only canton in the
mountains proper with upward of half the population of the
Basque facial type lies at the famous pass of Roncesvalles. At
this point the contour line sweeps far south, well toward the
frontier. Of the three cantons with the maximum frequency
of triangular faces among conscripts, Dr. Collignon found two
and a half to be outside the mountains proper. The area of
their extension is shaped like a fan, spreading out toward the
plain of Beam. The two wings of the fan are the cantons
which form the core of the ethnic group. This region, Basse-
Navarre, has always enjoyed a considerable political autonomy.
Quite probably the ethnic segregation is due in part to this
cause, as well as to the peculiarities of language. This fact
that the Basques are not an ethnic remnant barely holding their
own in the fastnesses of the Pyrenees, as is generally affirmed ;
but that they have politically and ethnically asserted themselves
in the open fertile country, reverses their status entirely. It
confirms an impression afforded by a study of their language,
that however it may be in Spain, these people are a positive
factor in the population of France.
In reality we have here in the department of Basses-Pyre
nees a complex ethnological phenomenon, the Basques con
stituting the middle one of three distinct strata of population
lying on the north slope of the Pyrenees. Our map of cephalic
index, on page 189, serves to illustrate this. The plains of
196
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
Beam are occupied by the extreme western outpost of the
broad-headed, round-faced Alpine type of central Europe. Por
traits characteristic of these are given in the preceding chapter.
Then come the Basques proper, with their broad heads and tri
angular faces. These lie mainly along the foothills, although at
Roncesvalles extending back into the mountains proper. Be
hind them, in the recesses of the Pyrenees, is the third layer of
population. These mountaineers are distinctly and harmoni
cally dolichocephalic that is to say, being long-headed they
are equally long- and narrow-faced. Conscripts with this
characteristically narrow head, the long and smoothly oval
face, are depicted in the lowest pair of portraits at page 193.
These last people are really Mediterranean in type, over-
fhnvs from the true Iberian stock, which forms the bulk of
the Spanish population. Their ethnic segregation has prob
ably been preserved in the innermost valleys of the Pyrenees
because of the political independence of the people during
many generations. These three groups of population above
described of course merge into one another imperceptibly ; but
on analysis their differentiation has now been clearly estab
lished.
How has it come to pass that our Basques are thus left
interposed between two neighbouring populations so entirely
distinct in respect of these important racial traits? Is it per
missible to suppose that the intermediate zone in which the
triangular face occurs most commonly is really peopled by a
simple cross between the two ethnic types on either side?
This would be similar to Canon Taylor s supposition that a
brachycephalic parent stock determined the head form of the
Basques, while the narrow lower face and chin was a heritage
from a dolichocephalic long-visaged ancestry. Such dishar-
monic crania arise sometimes from crossing of the two types
of head form, especially in Switzerland where the Teutonic
and Alpine races come into contact with one another. An
objection to this theory of secondary origin by intermixture
is close at hand. It is fatal to the assumption. It is an im
portant fact that the Basques are relatively broader-headed than
even the neighbouring peasantry of Beam, and of course even
THE BASQUES. 197
more so than the long-headed Spanish population across the
Pyrenees. Turning back to our map on page 189 this will
appear. Of course, the Basques are not more extreme in this
respect than the pure Alpine type ; we mean that they rise in
cephalic index above their immediate and adulterated Al
pine neighbours in the plains of Beam.* This implies, of
course, that they are at the same time far broader-headed than
the Spanish Basques over the mountains. Thus we dispose at
once of the explanation offered both by Canon Taylor and De
Quatrefages for the broad-headedness of the French over the
Spanish Basque. Taylor accounted for this marked difference
between the people of the two opposite slopes of the Pyrenees
on the supposition that in invading Beam from Spain the
Basques intermarried with the broad-headed Alpine stock there
prevailing, and so deviated from their parent type. This fact
that we have mentioned, that in France in their greatest
purity the Basques are broader-headed than the Bearnais about
them, proves beyond question that they are brachycephalic by
birth and not by intermixture with their French neighbours.
In Spain, on the other hand, the facial Basque, if we may use
the term, is slightly broader-headed than his purely Spanish
neighbour. Surrounded thus on all sides by people with
longer and narrower heads, we are forced to the conclusion
that this people is by nature of a broad-headed type. An
important corollary is that the pure Basque is to-day found
in France and not in Spain, although they both speak the
same language. This exactly reverses Taylor s theory. It is
the Spanish Basque which is a cross-type in other words,
narrower-headed by four units than the French Basque be
cause of intermixture with the dolichocephalic Spaniards.
Those who are found here in Spain are probably stragglers ;
they have merged their physical identity in that of their Span
ish neighbours. Their political autonomy on this south side
of the mountains being less marked, the power of ethnic re
sistance vanished quickly as well.
Having disposed of the explanation of origin by inter-
* Cf. Aranzadi, 1896, pp. 34-36.
198 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
mixture, the only hypothesis tenable is that these Basques are
immigrants that they are an intrusive people. Dr. Collision s
explanation is so simple and agrees so well both with history
and with anthropological facts that we give it as nearly as
possible in his own words.* During the Roman imperial
rule a number of petty Iberian tribes, by virtue of the same
tenacity which enables their descendants to enjoy political
autonomy to this day, had preserved a similar independence
south of the Pyrenees. Such were the Vardules, Caristes,
Autrigons, and the Vascons (Basque by no means physically
identical with the Gascons, although derived from the same
root word). These last occupied the upper course of the Ebro
that is to say, modern Navarra in Spain? ~ Tlie~ barBanan
invasions ravished all Gaul with fire and sword. The Visi
goths, controlling for a time the two slopes of the Pyrenees,
were finally expelled from Aquitaine by the Franks, greater
barbarians even than they. It is readily conceivable that these
Visigoths about this time began to covet the rich territory of
the Vascons over in Spain, especially the environs of Pam
plona, which were of great strategic importance. History
furnishes no details of the conflict, except that the Vascons
were completely subjugated and partly driven into the Pyre
nees. Here they speedily found their way over into Beam
in France, meeting no opposition since the country there had
mainly been depopulated^ by constant wars. This occupation
by the Vascons, according to Gregory of Tours, took place in
the year 587 that is to say, some time after the fall of the
Roman Empire. f The invasion was accelerated later through
the pressure exerted by the Spaniards, fleeing before the Sara
cen conquerors in the south. Remnants of all the Spanish
peoples took refuge at this time in the north. Impelled by
this pressure from behind, the Vascons were driven out of the
Pyrenees and still farther north into France, retaining their
political autonomy under Prankish rule. Here they remained
* Collignon, 1895, pp. 50 ct se<j. ; better in 18940; also Aranzadi, 1896,
p. 131, who denies his conclusions.
t For historical material, consult Blade, 1869, p. 42 ; and Hroca, 1875,
p. 27, as well as Collignon, op. cit.
THE BASQUES. 199
undisturbed by the Saracens, save by the single army of Abd-
er-Rahman. Hence on this northern side of the Pyrenees
they have preserved their customs and physical characteristics
intact, while in Spain intermixture has disturbed the racial type
to a greater degree. The language alone has been better pre
served south of the mountains because it was firmly fixed there
before the Spanish refugees came in such numbers. Of our
three layers of present population the dolichocephalic type in
the fastnesses of the Pyrenees to-day represents the primitive
possessors of Aquitaine. Here, driven to cover by the ad
vancing wave of the Alpine stock on the north long before the
fall of Rome, they have remained protected from disturbance
by the later invaders from the south. The Yascons or Basques
have simply passed through their territory, with eyes fixed
upon the fertile plains of Aquitaine beyond. They spread
out in two wings as soon as they were out of the mountains,
as we have seen. In the course of time they have intermar
ried with the primitive population of the Pyrenees ; and the
latter have adopted the Basque language and customs : for
they were penned in by them all along the base of the moun
tains and had no other option. This community of language
and customs could not fail to encourage intermarriage ; to the
final end that to-day even in the mountains the Basque is con
siderably crossed, as our map shows. In the plains, on the
other hand, the line of demarcation of blood is as sharp as that
of speech. Purity of type on this side was made possible by
the political independence which Basse-Xavarre has always
enjoyed.
\Ye have still to inquire as to the physical origin of this
curious people. We have traced them back to Spain. Whence
did they come into this country in the first place? Are they
of African descent, following Broca s theory, or are they off
shoots from Mongolian stock as Primer Bey would have it?
Or must we class them with the lost tribes of Israel? We
already know the physical type of the prehistoric Cro-Magnon
race. Let us compare it with our Vascons and test the theory
of descent from it. The Masque head is disharmonic that is,
it is broad, while the face is extraordinarilv narrow. This
200 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
is in contravention of the general law that the face and the
head usually participate alike in the relative proportions of
breadth and length. Thus, as our portraits have shown,
the broad-headed Alpine stock in Beam has a round, short
face; while the dolichocephalic population of the Pyrenees,
lying behind the Basque, has a correspondingly long, oval
visage. The Cro-Magnon race offers the only other example
of a widespread disharmonic head in Europe. Are our Basques
derived from this pure ethnic source? Curiously enough,
these two cases of disharmonism so near to one another cross
at right angles. In the Basque the head is broad and the
face narrow ; in the Cro-Magnon it is the head which is nar
row while the face is broad. In view of this flat contradiction,
the hypothesis of the Basque as a direct and pure descendant
of the most primitive prehistoric population of Europe becomes
completely untenable. Thus we dispose of one possible source
for this people. \Ye have already rejected the theories based
upon intermixture. The broad head of our Basque with its
narrow face is explained by De Aranzadi,* himself a Basque, by
the supposition of an admixture of Lapp blood to give the
broad head with Iberian or Berber blood for the narrow face.
Modern research is, however, inimical to such hasty assump
tions of migration across continents and over seas : for the
inertia of simple societies is immense. Causes of variation
nearer at home are regarded as more probable and potent, and
there is none more powerful than social selection.
The difficulty of placing the Basque is solved by Col-
lignon in a novel and yet simple way which has won favour
already among anthropologists. It is of great significance for
the student of sociology. His explanation for the Basque type
is that it is a sub-species of the Mediterranean stock evolved
by long-continued and complete isolation, and in-and-in breed
ing primarily engendered by peculiarity of language. The
effects of heredity, aided perhaps by artificial selection, have
generated local peculiarities and have developed them to an
extreme. The objection to this derivation of the Basque from
* Briefly stated in his 1894 a.
-
50. Zamudio,
Guipuzcoa.
Tolosa, Guipuzc oa.
SPANISH BASQUES.
FRENCH BASQUE, Basses- I ynJnee
BASQUES.
THE BASQUES. 2OI
the Mediterranean stock which at once arises is that the latter
is essentially dolichocephalic, while the Basques, as we have
shown, are relatively broad-headed. It appears, however, that
the Basque is broad-headed in the main pretty far forward near
the temples. The cranium itself at its middle point is of only
medium width and the length is merely normal. The propor
tions, in fact, excluding the frontal region, are very much like
those of the Mediterranean stock in Spain across the Pyre
nees. They approach much nearer to them, in fact, than to
the Alpine or broad-headed stock. It is thus only by its ab
normal width at the temples that the cranium of the Basques
may be classed as broad-headed.* Collignon regards the type,
therefore, as more or less a variation of the Mediterranean va
riety, accentuated in the isolation which this tribe has always
enjoyed. It approaches in stature and in general proportions
much nearer also to the Mediterranean than to the Alpine stock
in France.
That the Basque facial type that which is recognised as
the essential characteristic of the people, both in France and
Spain is a result of artificial selection, is rendered probable
by another bit of evidence. The Basques, especially in France
where the type is least disturbed by ethnic intermixture as we
have seen, are distinguishable from their Bearnais neighbours
by reason of their relatively greater bodily height. f This ap
pears upon our map of stature on page 170. The lighter tints
denoting taller statures are quite closely confined within the
linguistic boundary. This is not due to any favourable influ
ence of environment ; for the Basque foothills are rather below
the average in fertility. The case is not analogous to that of
the tall populations of Gironde, farther to the north, light
tinted upon the map. They, as we took occasion to point out
* On true and false brachycephaly of this kind elsewhere, consult
Lapouge, 1891 b; and Lapouge-Durand, iS97- 98 (rep.), p. 16 ; as also
Ujfalvy, 1896 a, pp. 84 and 398.
f The same superiority of stature, as compared with the rest of Spain,
appears on the map at p. 170. Olorix in Xavarra made no distinction be
tween Spanish and Basques ; else perhaps the northern half of that prov
ince would have been revealed as equal to Guipuzcoa or Vi/.caya in
stature.
2O2 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
in the preceding chapter, are above the average either in Dor-
dogne on the north or in Landes on the south. The con
trasted tints show this clearly. These differences are in great
measure due to the surpassing fertility of the valley of the
Garonne as compared with the sterile country upon either
flank. Xo such material explanation is applicable to the
Basque stature. Some other cause must be adduced. Ought
not artificial selection, if indeed it once became operative in a
given ethnic group, to work in this direction? Goodly stat
ure is earth-wide regarded as a type of beauty. We know that
the Basques are proud of this trait. May they not have evolved
it, or at least perpetuated it, by sexual choice perhaps ? This,
of course, is merely supposition on our part, but it seems to
be worthy of mention.
The development of a facial type peculiar to certain locali
ties is by no means a rare phenomenon. We shall have occa
sion to call attention to it later in other portions of Europe,
particularly where isolation prevails. The form of the nose,
the proportions of the face, nay, at times the expression, seem
to be localized and strongly characteristic. Thus among the
Finnic peoples in Russia, however much they may differ in
head form, a characteristic physiognomy remains.* It is
easy to conceive of artificial selection in an isolated society
whereby choice should be exercised in accordance with cer
tain standards of beauty.which had become generally accepted
in that locality. It is merely an illustration of what Giddings,
in his Principles of Sociology, aptly terms a recognition of
" consciousness of kind " ; or, as Dr. Beddoe puts it, of " fash
ion operating through conjugal selection." f An example
of the effect of selection of this kind in producing strongly
individual types is offered by the Jews. They as a race vary
greatly in the proportions of the head, and in colour of eyes
and hair to a lesser degree. Nevertheless, despite all variations
in these characteristics, the prominent facial features remain
always the same.J The first, being inconspicuous traits, are
allowed to run their natural course; the latter are seized upon
* Beddoe, 1893, p. 40.
f Beddoe, 1893, p. 12, discusses this. \ Vide p. 49 supra.
THE BASQUES. 2O3
and accentuated through the operation of sexual preference
for that which has become generally recognised either as beau
tiful or ethnically individual.
In the attempt to justify this interesting sociological ex
planation for the peculiarities of the Basques, causing them to
differ from their parent Mediterranean stock, several corrobo
rative facts have come to light. In the first place the people
themselves are fully conscious of their peculiarities. Col-
lignon gives an interesting illustration of this in the ease with
which a Basque is recognised at a glance.* Certain customs
among the peasants seem to imply a recognition of their facial
individuality. These all tend to accentuate the peculiarities
which have now apparently become hereditary among them.
The chin is almost invariably shaven in the adults, with the
effect of exaggerating its long and pointed formation. f More
conclusive still, it is said that in early manhood side whiskers
are often grown upon the broadest part of the cheeks. This
would obviously serve still more to exaggerate the peculiar
form which the face naturally possesses. A neighbouring peo
ple, the Andalusians, differ in their way of adorning the face
in such wise as to heighten the contrast between themselves
and the Basques. Among them chin whiskers are grown,
which serve to broaden their already rounded chins and to
distinguish them markedly from the pointed-chinned Basques.
All this fits in perfectly with much of the evidence brought
forward by Westermarck, in his History of Human Marriage,
serving to show that the fashions in adornment which prevail
among various peoples are largely determined by the physical
characteristics which they naturally possess. Thus the North
American aborigines, having a skin somewhat tinged with a
reddish hue, ornament themselves almost entirely with red
pigment, heightening still more their natural characteristics.
Among the negroes a similar fact has been observed, in each
case the attempt being to outdo nature.
Is it not permissible to suppose that here the same process
has been at work gradually remoulding the physical type?
* i><HC, p. 281. j. Aranxadi, 1896, pp. 70, 101.
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
A far-reaching and bold hypothesis this, to be sure. It would
have less probability in its favour did we not observe in modern
society many phenomena of fashion and custom closely akin
to it in their immediate effects. We have but to suppose a fash
ion arising by chance, or perhaps suggested by some casual
variation in a local hero or prominent family. This fashion we
may conceive to crystallize into customary observance, until
finally through generations it becomes veritably bred in the
bone and part of the flesh of an entire community. A primary
requisite is isolation material, social, political, linguistic, and
at last ethnic. Xo other population in Europe ever enjoyed
all of these more than the Basques. If such a phenomenon
could ever come to pass, no more favourable place to seek its
realization could be found than here in this uttermost part of
Europe.
CHAPTER IX.
THE TEUTONIC RACE: SCANDINAVIA AND GERMANY.*
SCANDINAVIA, by reason of its geographical remoteness
from the rest of Europe, and also because of its rigorous cli
mate and the infertility of its soil, contains naturally one of
the most highly individualized populations in Europe. AYe
have already seen that it is the home of the Teutonic race in its
maximum purity. Representatives of this type in its several
varieties are given in the accompanying portrait pages. It
will be observed that the head form, in every case where our
subjects have been measured, is of the long and narrow type
already made familiar to us in the earlier chapters. The
cephalic index falls, as a rule, well below 78. This degree of
long-headedness, however, judging by our map of cephalic in
dex on the next page, is almost entirely confined to the interior
of the country. It is especially marked in the long, narrow val
ley of the Glommen, known as Osterdal, and also about Vaage
in the upper Gudbrandsdal.f These two regions, according to
our map, are the purest Teutonic districts in Norway, which
means by implication, perhaps, in all Europe. Our two por
trait types from this region, Vaage and Hedalen, are clear
examples of this tall, oval-faced, straight-nosed, and clear
blond variety. It is not without interest, especially in its bear
ing upon our future contention J that the Scandinavian peo-
* To Major Dr. C. O. E. Arbo, of Christiania, I am deeply indebted for
assistance both in the matter of personal notes and of photographs in all
that concerns Norway. From Sweden science has much to hope from the
extensive investigations now proceeding under the personal direction of
Prof. Hultkrantz, of Stockholm. Full lists of the literature are given in
cur Bibliography.
f Arbo, 1891, especially pp. 4, 28.
t Page 364.
205
2O6
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
pies are of the same race as the Lithuanians and Finns across
the Baltic on the east, to note that the blondness of these
purest Teutons very often assumes a reddish cast. In one
place, Aamlid, Arbo found the remarkable proportion of nine
teen per cent of red hair, for example, a frequency unequalled
CEPHALIC INDEX
elsewhere in Europe, either in Finland or Lithuania. Among
the Scotch, notable for this rufous characteristic, the propor
tion Is seldom above half of this.* It seems as if Topinard s
law that the rufous shades are but varieties of the blond type
* Arbo, 1891, pp. 28, 36 ; 1898, pp. 10 and 28. Bedcloe, 1885, pp. 151-156-
THE TEUTONIC RACE: SCANDINAVIA AND GERMANY.
207
were again verified in Norway, as it apparently has also been in
Germany * and Italy, f
The most striking feature of our map, perhaps, is that all
along the seacoast, with the exception of the neighbourhood of
Cergen and of the southeastern coast, a strong tendency to very
prevalent broad-headedness appears. This is especially marked,
even far inland in the southwest angle of the coast by Stavan-
ger. From this town south for quite a distance the character of
the coast differs entirely from the fiord-like and deeply indented
shore-line on either side. There are no mountains here break
ing away abruptly down to the sea. The coast is low and sandy,
especially noticeable being the absence of those protected
waters, highly favourable to coastal navigation, so character
istic of Scandinavia as a whole. This district, J0deren, is
sparsely populated, deriving no economic advantages either
from fishing in the sea, or from mining industry or farming on
land. It has, nevertheless, been populated since a very early
period. Evidence of settlement in both the stone and the
bronze age is abundant.^ In this region, despite the purely
Teutonic character of the main body of Norway, a popula
tion of decidedly Alpine affinities occurs. Arbo finds, as our
map shows, an average index often as high as 83. In iso
lated places it rises to an extreme of brachycephaly, in fact
scarcely exceeded by central Europe.* Nor is this a recent
phenomenon. Earth | has investigated crania from about the
thirteenth century, finding the same broad-headed folk to be
present. Among our portraits several of these types appear,
especially good being the round-faced ones from J^deren.
This brachycephalic coast population in Norway is ap
preciably darker than the pure Teutonic ones which, as we
have said, occur in the interior. Oftentimes the children may
* Topinard, 1893 a ; Virchovv, 1886 b, p. 337. f Livi, 1896 a, p. 73.
% Arbo, 1887, p. 263 ; 1894, pp. 167-178.
* 1895 b, p. 12 ; 1894, p. 168.
I 1896, p. 79, finds a curve of cranial index with two maxima, one at
75 and one at 80, measured horizontally. It is very different for his
curve for T0nsberg which is clearly Teutonic, culminating at 73 with
almost no indices above So.
17
2o8 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
still be light, even tow-haired ; but with advancing years dis
tinctly brunet tendencies are revealed, especially in the hair.*
In the colour of the eyes the differences from place to place
are far less noticeable. Thus, while in the purest Teutonic
populations in northern Osterdal and Gudbrandsdal about
sixty per cent of the hair was light, with less than twenty per
cent of really dark or black hair; in Joderen, Arbo found the
blond and the really dark hair to be about equally represented,
with forty per cent of each, the remainder being neutral in
colour, f More than this has been proved. Not only are the
broad-headed coast districts darker as a whole; in them the
brachycephalic individuals actually tend to be darker than the
other types, as Arbo has clearly shown. J Finally, while, as
our map of stature indicates, the population of this south
western corner of Norway is not distinctively shorter than the
remainder of the country, nevertheless, in this region the
broadest-headed types incline to shortness of stature.* In
temperament these people, un-Teutonic in all of the ways we
have described, are also peculiar. They seem to be more emo
tional, loquacious, and susceptible to leadership, in contradis
tinction to the stolid, reserved, and independent Teutons.] |
We may profitably consider the stature of Scandinavia as a
whole. Fortunately for comparisons with the rest of Europe,
each of the two common methods of showing the distribution
of this trait have been ^adopted for Norway and Sweden re
spectively. On the other hand, direct comparison of one with
the other is rendered impossible. All that we know with cer
tainty, is that the general average for the two countries is about
the same viz., 5 feet 6.7 inches (1.695 metres). This is, as
we have already shown, considerably below the level for the
British Isles, but it is superior to that of any other portion of
Europe. Little direct relation of the local variations to the
environment occur. In Norway, for example, while the dis
trict west of Vaage shows by its dark tint a relatively short
* On pigmentation in general, consult Topinard, 1889 c.
f 1891, pp. 16 and 48 ; 1895 b, p. 49 ; 1898, p. 20.
\ 1898, p. 68. * Arbo, 1895 a, p. 506 ; 1895 b, p. Si
ll Arbo, 1891, p. 49; 1894, p. 173-
VAAGE. Index 75. Index 76. HEDALEN.
DEREN. TEUTONIC TYPES. NORWEGIAN. 58.
59. Stature 1.46 m. Index 87.5. Index 87.5. Stature 1.43 m. 60.
LAPPS.
SCANDINAVIA.
AAMOT. Index 77. Index 76. TRYSIL.
63. SHNDKE FKOX. Index 78.
65- NORWAY. JHDEREN. 66.
NORWAY.
THE TEUTONIC RACE : SCANDINAVIA AND GERMANY. 209
population, the highlands east of it, especially those in the
upper Osterdal, do not seem to be depressed by their rugged
environment. Nevertheless, it should be noted that this re
gion is the habitat of the purest Teutonic population in the
STATURE
N9RWAY.
106.446 OBSERVATIONS
AFTTR ABBO ?5a
country, measured both by blondness and head form. It ought
to excel, on racial grounds alone, many other districts, espe
cially along the coast, where populations with intermixture of
a shorter type prevail. Perhaps, indeed, the rigorous environ-
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
ment may have been competent to hold these purest Teutons
down in stature to the level of their neighbours.* The dark
shade, denoting a short-statured population on the eastern
frontier, next to Sweden, seems to be of peculiar origin. The
people of Trysil are not only abnormally short for Scandinavia ;
they seem to be quite dark, often being characterized in fea
tures by a Mongolian cast.f This appears in our subject
from this valley, whose portrait is surely of such a type. Who
shall say that this bit of long-headed but broad-faced and dark
population is not again an outcrop of that Cro-Magnon type,
so nearly extinct elsewhere in Europe save in southern France ?
As for Sweden, the depression of stature north of Jemtland
and Helsinge where tallness culminates, may be due to either
of two causes, as Hultkrantz ( 97) suggests. Intermixture with
the Lapps would inevitably tend to depress the average height,
and the poverty of the environment would have a tendency in
the same direction.
What explanation can be offered for the curiously un-
Teutonic population which seems to fringe the coast of Nor
way, especially centreing in the southwest ? It is an untenable
hypothesis, as, in fact, Nilsson found it, to ascribe this to the
persistence of a substratum of Lapps from the stone age.
These people, to be sure, are characterized by all the traits
noted in the southwest of Norway, and this, moreover, to an
extraordinary degree. They are almost dwarfed in stature;
they are dark-haired and" swarthy; and, as our two portraits
illustrate, they are broad-headed to an extreme. Their squat
faces prove this, even in absence of anthropometric data; no
contrast could be more striking than that between the Lapps
and the Teutons. The difficulty, however, in holding them
responsible for the cross of physical traits in the southwest is
a very positive one, albeit, mainly, geographical in character.
The Lapps lie at the remotest distance from this district ; there
is no evidence in place names or otherwise that they ever oc
cupied the country even as far south as Vaage.J Arbo, re
alizing the impossibility of this hypothesis, has not apparently
* Arbo, 1895 a, p. 511. t Arbo, 1891, p. 14.
\ Arbo, 1895 a, p. 512 ; Dueben, 1876.
THE TEUTONIC RACE: SCANDINAVIA AND GERMANY. 2 II
hit upon the explanation which seems to us to be perfectly
simple. It is this : that here in the southwest of Norway we
have an outlying lodgment of the Alpine racial type from cen
tral Europe. This view is greatly strengthened by virtue of
J,
32.367 O&SERVATlONJ
AFTf R. HULTKRANTZ.
the fact that Denmark, just across the Skager Rack, so far as
our indefinite knowledge goes, seems to be peopled by a type
not unlike that of J0deren. The peninsula is far less purely
212 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
Teutonic than Schleswig-Holstein, as we shall see,* this being
especially true of the islands off the coast, f The name Borreby
denotes a distinctly brachycephalic stone-age type, which was
long characteristic of this region. The modern peasantry have
somewhat recovered from this foreign infiltration, and have
seemingly reverted to their aboriginal Teutonism, judging by
the head form.J Perhaps this Alpine settlement in Denmark is
only a part of the expansion which, as we shall see, exerted for
a time a profound influence upon the British Isles as well.*
The same Round Barrow people may likewise be responsible
for the strong representation of the type in the Faroe Islanders
at the present time.|| Nor does our chain of evidence connect
ing the Alpine element in Scandinavia with its congeners in
middle Europe stop here. We shall be able to prove later that
Holland also has been a stepping-stone of the Alpine race in its
extension to the northwest; so that we may thus trace the type
throughout its entire migration toward the north.
The anthropological history of Scandinavia would then be
something like this : Norway has, as Undset suggests, prob
ably been peopled from two directions, one element coming
from Sweden and another from the south by way of Denmark.
This latter type, now found on the seacoast, and especially
along the least attractive portion of it, has been closely hemmed
in by the Teutonic immigration from Sweden. This being so,
we are tempted to look to the interior of the peninsula, as at
Vaage and over in Sweden in the celebrated Dalarna district
just south of Jemtland on our map, for the Teutonic race in its
purest essence. A Thus we are led to expect Sweden as a
* Beddoe (1885, pp. 16 and 233, and 1867-690) gives an index of 80.5
for the Danes. Deniker, 1897, p. 197, holds it to be lower than this. Cf.
Ranke, Beitrage, iii, 1880, p. 165.
f Virchow, 1870, pp. 64-71. Soren-Hansen, 1888, gives data on bru-
netness.
\ Ranke, 1897 a, p. 54; Dueben, 1876.
* Beddoe, 1885, p. 16. I Arbo, 1893.
A Johanssen and Westermarck, 1897, found an index of 76.5 for 654
women in Stockholm. Thirty-nine Swedes from the lumber camps of
Michigan averaged 76.9. Hultkrantz finds no averages above 79, most of
them being 77 or 78. Dueben, 1876, confirms it.
THE TEUTONIC RACE: SCANDINAVIA AND GERMANY. 213
whole to be more homogeneous racially than Norway, al
though, perhaps, further investigation may demonstrate that
Gottland has been infected from Denmark as the coast of J0-
deren in Norway has been. Everything leads us to look to
ward the Baltic Sea as a centre of dispersion for this Teutonic
race ; for we shall find it represented along the opposite coast
in Finland and Lithuania to a marked degree as well.
Germania ! A word entirely foreign to the Teutonic speech
of northern Europe. Deutschland, then, the country of the
Deutsch not Dutch, for they are really Netherlanders. What
do these words mean? What territories, what peoples do
they comprehend? The Austrians speak as pure German as
the Prussians ; yet the defeat of Koniggratz, barely a genera
tion ago, left them outside of Germany. On the other hand,
the Polish peasants of eastern Prussia, with their purely Slavic
language, are accounted Germans in good standing to-day.*
Ambiguous linguistically, do these words, German or
Deutsch, imply any temperamental or religious unity? This
can not be, for the main participants in the Thirty Years
War
" Fighting for conciliation,
And hating each other for the love of God "
were Germans. Historians are accustomed to identify the di
vision line of belief in this conflict with that of racial origin.
They are pleased to make the independent, liberty-loving spirit
of the Teutonic race responsible for the Protestant Reforma
tion. Let us not be too sure about that. Such bold generali
zations are often misleading. Racial boundaries are not so
simple in outline. The Prussians and the Prussian Saxons
Martin Luther was one were anything but pure Teutons
racially; this did not prevent them from siding with Prince
Christian and Gustavus Adolphus. And then there were the
Bohemians who began the revolt, and the Swiss Calvinists,
and the rebels of the Peasants War in Wurtemberg! None
* Von Fircks, 1893, gives the latest linguistic map of this region.
Langhans, 1895, maps the whole Empire.
214 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
of these were ethnically Teutons. Let us beware of such as
criptions of a monopoly of virtue or intellect to any given race,
however comforting they may be to us who are of Teutonic
descent. Modern Germany, to be sure, is half Catholic and
half Protestant, but the division \vas not of ethnic origin in
any sense. Thus the word German is even more nondescript
religiously than linguistically. In short, it applies to-day to
an entirely artificial concept nationality the product of
time and place. Religious, linguistic, and in large measure
political differences have merged themselves in a sympa
thetic unity. Thus has the original meaning of the word
Deutsch a people or nation come to its truest expression
at last.
The fact is that nationality need not of necessity imply any
greater uniformity of ethnic origin than of either linguistic or
religious affiliations. Such we shall soon see is the case in
Italy, as in France. Especially clear are the two distinct racial
elements in the former case. And in Germany, on the northern
slopes of the main European watershed, we are confronted
with a great nation, whose constituent parts are equally di
vergent in physical origin. With the shifting of scene, new
actors participate, although the plot is ever the same. It is not
a question of the Alpine and Mediterranean races, as in Italy.
The Alpine element remains, but the Teuton replaces the other.
Briefly stated, the situation is this: Northwestern Germany
Hanover, Schleswig-Holstein, Westphalia is distinctly allied
to the physical type of the Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes.
All the remainder of the Empire no, not even excluding
Prussia, east of the Elbe is less Teutonic in type; until finally
in the essentially Alpine broad-headed populations of Baden,
Wiirtemberg,and Bavaria in the south the Teutonic race passes
from view. The only difference, then, between Germany and
France in respect of race is that the northern country has a
little more Teutonic blood in it. As for that portion of the
Empire which was two generations ago politically distinct from
Prussia, the South German Confederation, it is in no wise
racially distinguishable from central France. Thus has polit
ical history perverted ethnology ; and, notwithstanding, each
THE TEUTONIC RACE : SCANDINAVIA AND GERMANY.
215
nation is probably the better for the blend, however loath it
may be to acknowledge it.*
First, and always, as to the physical geography of the coun
try: everything ethnically depends upon that. It is depicted
upon the map on the next page, which represents elevation
above sea level by means of darkening tints, the mountainous
regions being generally designated by the broad bands of shad
ing. Draw a line from Breslau, or, since that lies just off our
map, let us say from Dresden to the city of Hanover, and thence
to Cologne (Koln). Such a line roughly divides the uplands
* It is to be regretted that so many of the authorities on Germany have
relied upon craniometric investigations rather than study of the living
population. Even more grievous is the paucity of evidence regarding
the northeastern third of the empire. With the exception of Baden, Ba
varia, and Wiirtemberg, less is known of the German Empire than of any
other part of Europe far less even than of Spain or Scandinavia. In our
supplementary Bibliography we have indexed all authorities, where they
may be found in extenso. In this place we may merely mention the larger
standard works arranged chronologically : H. Welcker, Kraniologische
Mittheilungen, Archiv f. Anth., i, pp. 89-160, 1866. A. Ecker, Crania
Germanise meridionalis occidentalis, Freiburg i. B., 1865. H. von Holder,
Zusammenstellung der in Wiirttemberg vorkommenden Schadelformen,
Stuttgart, 1876. R. Virchovv, Beitrage zur physischen Anthropologie der
Deutschen, u. s. w., Abh. kon. Akad. Wiss., Berlin, 1876; and also Ge-
sammtbericht liber die Erhebungen iiber die Farbe der Schulkinder in
Deutschland, Archiv f. Anth., xvi, pp. 275-475, 1886. J. Gildemeister,
Ein Beitrag zur Kenntniss nordwest deutscher Schadelformen, Archiv f.
Anth., xi, pp. 26-63, 1879. J. Ranke, Beitrage zur physischen Anthro
pologie der Bayern, Mlinchen, i883- g2. Ranke, also in Der Mensch, Leip
zig, i886- 87, iii PP- 254-269, gives the completes! short summary of the
anthropology of Germany extant. O. Ammon, Natlirliche Auslese beim
Menschen, Jena, 1893, and especially his superb Anthropologie der
Badener, 1899 one of the most complete regional monographs extant.
Equally important, although not restricted to Germany alone, are
the papers by Prof. J. Kollmann, especially his Schadel aus alten
Grabstatten Bayerns, in Beit, zur Anth. Bayerns, Miinchen, i, 1877, pp.
151-221. Certain technical points concerning these writers we have dis
cussed in L Anthropologie, Paris, vii, 1896, pp. 519 seq. For ethnographic
details the older work of Zeuss (vide bibliography) is now supplanted
by that of K. Miillenhof, which may confidently be relied upon. Howorth,
in Jour. Anth. Inst., London, vi and vii, is also good. For a convenient
resume u{ our knowledge, both ethnographic and anthropological, consult
also Herve, 1897.
2l6
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
from the plains. To the north stretches away the open, flat,
sandy expanse of Hanover, Oldenberg, Pomerania, Branden
burg, and Prussia. This vast extent of country is mainly below
one hundred metres in elevation above the sea. South of our
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY;
F GERMANY
ELEVATION
ABOVE
SEA LEVEL
division line the land rises more or less abruptly to a region
upward of a thousand feet in altitude. In Bavaria, Wurtem-
berg, and Bohemia lie extensive table-lands fully five hundred
feet higher even than this, giving place finally to the high
THE TEUTONIC RACE: SCANDINAVIA AND GERMANY. 217
Alps. The transition from north to south is particularly em
phasized along our artificial division line by the fringe of
mountains which lie along it, including the Riesen and Erzge-
birge bounding Bohemia, the heavily wooded mountains of
Thiiringen, and farther west the Harz, the Waldgebirge, and
the Westerwald by Cologne. On this side the highlands across
the narrow gully of the Rhine River have already been de
scribed in speaking of the Ardennes uplands in France and
Belgium. Their extension in Germany is known as the Rhen
ish plateau.
For the sake of unity of treatment, preserving the general
form of argument adopted for other countries of Europe,
let us consider the head form of the people first. At once
we perceive a progressive broadening of the heads that is,
an increase of cephalic index as we travel outward from
the northwestern corner of the empire in the vicinity of Den
mark.* Thus we pass from a head form identical with that of
the Scandinavians, to one in the south in no wise distinguish
able from the Swiss, the Austrian, and other Alpine types in
France and northern Italy. Our three accompanying portraits
on the next page will serve to illustrate this gradual change
of physical type.f The first is a pure blond Teuton, blue-
eyed, fair-haired, with the characteristically long head and nar
row, oval face of his race. The features are clear cut, the nose
finely moulded. Such is the model common in the upper
classes all over Germany. Among the peasants it becomes
more and more frequent as w r e approach the Danish peninsula. J
* In L Anthropologie, vii, 1896, pp. 513-525, we have given detailed
citation of all authorities, with their data. Ranke, Der Mensch, ii, p. 264,
is best among Germans.
f For these photographs I am indebted to my very good friend Dr.
Otto Ammon, of Karlsruhe i. B., whose work we have noted elsewhere.
\ Von Holder, 1876, p. 15. On this region consult Gildemeister, 1879;
Meisner, 1883 et seq. ; Virchovv, 1872 b ; Sasse, 1876 a, etc. Virchow s
great work, 1876 a (also 1872 b), attempting to prove the existence of a
low-skulled dolichocephalic Frisian population in this region, antedating
the true Teutonic long-headed Franks, has not apparently been confirmed
by later observers. Consult especially, von Holder, 1880, and A. Sasse,
1879, and our chapter on the Netherlands.
2I g THE RACES OF EUROPE.
Here in these northwestern provinces it predominates, but
gives place slowly to a mixed and broader-headed type as we
pass eastward into Prussia. The intermediate type of head
form prevalent in regions of ethnic intermixture is depicted in
our middle portrait. In this particular case the eyes were still
blue, but the hair was brown. This variety occurs all along the
division line between upland and plain, which we traced a few
moments ago. It appears that it is indigenous in Thuringen,
the Hesses, and, in fact, all. the isolated bits of highland down
to the Baltic plain. Oftentimes the result of intermixture is a
disharmonism, in which the broad Alpine head is conjoined
with the longish face of the Teuton; less often the reverse.
This is quite common in Bavaria and the Alpine highlands, as
our portraits from these regions will show. Mixed types of
this kind occurring everywhere in the south prove that the
Teutonic invaders were finally outnumbered by the indigenous
Alpine inhabitants. The pure, unmixed Alpine race finds its
expression in the plateaus of Bavaria and Wiirtemberg, in the
Schwarzwald, the Rauhe Alp, and parts of the Thuringerwald.
Such is our third type, with its rounded face and skull fore
shortened from front to back.* Our representative here pho
tographed was dark brown both in hair and eyes, nose rather
irregular, less finely moulded perhaps ; certainly considerably
broader at the nostrils than in the Teutons. At the same time
the stature was short, only five feet one inch and a half, with
a correspondingly stocky figure. The facts speak for them
selves. There can be no doubt of two distinct races of men.
It is especially important to emphasize the fact that the
heads broaden not only from the neighbourhood of Denmark
southward but toward the east as well. This raises what was
once a most delicate question. What is the place of the Prus
sians among the other peoples of modern Germany ? The po
litical supremacy of the house of Hohenzollern in the Diet of
* Whether there is a universal tendency in the south toward a rela
tively high-vaulted crania seems doubtful. Virchow, 1876 a, p. 53 et seq.,
emphasizes the low flat skulls in Frisia ; while Ranke proves the exist
ence of high heads with steep foreheads in Bavaria. (Beitrage, ii, 1879,
p. 53 ; iii, iSSo, p. 172 ; v, 1883, p. 60.)
Teutonic type. Hair light, eyes blue.
Stature 1.72 m. (5 ft. 7.7 in.). Ceph. Index 75
Mixed type. Hair brown, eyes blue.
Stature 1.62 m. fs ft. 3.8 in.). Ceph. Index 83
Alpine type. Eyes and hair dark brown.
Stature 1.59 m. (5 ft. 2.6 in.). Ceph. Index 86.
GERMANY.
THE TEUTONIC RACE: SCANDINAVIA AND GERMANY. 319
the Empire; and the whilom rivalry and jealousy of the other
states, made it once a matter of some concern to determine this
point. Happily for us, such questions have no terrors to-day.
We have already seen how securely nationality may rest upon
heterogeneity of physical descent. Be that as it may, it seems
to be certain that the peasantry of Prussia is far from being
purely Teutonic in physical type. We should expect this to be
the case, of course, in those eastern provinces, Posen and Sile
sia, which still retain their Slavic languages as evidence of for
mer political independence. These ought normally to be allied
to Russia and eastern Europe, as we have already observed.
But as to Brandenburg the provinces about Berlin. How
about them? Do they also betray signs of an intermixture
with the broad-headed Alpine race, of which the Slavs are part ?
It seems to be so indeed. Germany on the east shades off im
perceptibly into Silesia and the Polish provinces of Russia.
Little by little the heads broaden to an index rising 83.
Whether this is a product of historic expansion we may dis
cuss later. For the present we may accept it as a fact.*
The race question in Germany came to the front some years
ago under rather peculiar circumstances. Shortly after the
close of the Franco-Prussian War, while the sting of defeat was
still smarting in France, De Quatrefages, an eminent anthro
pologist at Paris, promulgated the theory, afterward published
in a brochure entitled The Prussian Race, that the dominant
people in Germany were not Teutons at all, but were directly
descended from the Finns. Being nothing but Finns, they
were to be classed with the Lapps and other peoples of west
ern Russia. As a consequence they were alien to Germany
barbarians, ruling by the sword alone. The political effect
of such a theory, emanating from so high an authority, may
well be imagined. Coming at a time of profound national hu
miliation in France, when bitter jealousies were still rife among
the Germans, the book created a profound sensation. It must
be confessed that the tone of the work was by no means judi-
* Virchow admits it himself, Alte Berliner Schadel, 1880 b, p. 234. Cf.
Bernstein on stature also ; Lagneau, 1871, gives ethnology ; confirmed by
Howorth.
220 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
cial, although it was respectably scientific in its outward form.
Thus the chapter in it describing the bombardment of the
Musee d Histoire Naturelle, of which De Quatrefages was the
director, intended to prove the anti-civilized proclivities of the
hated conquerors, could not in the nature of things be entirely
dispassionate. The Parisian press, as may be imagined, was
not slow to take advantage of such an opportunity. Articles
of De Quatrefages in the Revue des Deux Mondes were every
where quoted, with such additions as seemed fitting under the
circumstances. The affair promised to become an interna
tional incident.
A champion of the Prussians was not hard to find. Pro
fessor Yirchow of Berlin set himself at work to disprove the
theory which thus damned the dominant people of the Empire.
The controversy, half political and half scientific, waxed hot
at times, both disputants being held victorious by their own
people.* One great benefit flowed indirectly from it all, how
ever. The German Government was induced to authorize the
official census of the colour of hair and eyes of the six million
school children of the Empire which we have so often men
tioned in these pages. One of the resultant maps we have
reproduced in this chapter. It established beyond question
the differences in pigmentation between the north and south
of Germany. At the same time it showed the similarity in
blondness between all the peoples along the Baltic. The Ho-
henzollern territory was as Teutonic in this respect as the
Hanoverian. Thus far had the Prussians vindicated their eth
nic reputation. It is profoundly to be regretted that the in
vestigation was not extended by a comprehensive census either
of stature or of the head form of adults, similar to those con
ducted in other countries. Such a project was, in fact, side
tracked in favour of the census of school children. Whether
politically inspired, or whether considered derogatory to the
noble profession of arms, the Prussian army is forbidden for
all scientific investigations of this kind, despite the efforts of
* Under the dates of iS7i- 72, the articles by the two principal dis
putants will be found in our Bibliography. Cf. Hunfalvy, 1872,
also.
THE TEUTONIC RACE: SCANDINAVIA AND GERMANY. 2 2I
Yirchow and other eminent authorities in that direction ; so
that knowledge of this most important region is to-day almost
entirely lacking. *
To an American the apparent unwillingness of some of the
Germans boldly to own up to the radical ethnic differences
which exist between the north and south of the Empire is in
comprehensible. It seems to be not improbable that the Teu
tonic blond race has so persistently been apotheosized by the
( .iermans themselves as the original Aryan civilizer of Europe,
that to acknowledge any other racial descent has come to be
considered as a confession of humble origin. Or, more likely
still, this prejudice in favour of Teutonism is an unconscious re
flection from the shining fact that this type is widely prevalent
among the aristocracy all over Europe. Whether Aryan or
not, it certainly predominates in the ruling classes to-day. At
all events, the attempt is constantly being made to prove that
the ethnic contrasts between north and south are the product
of environmental influences, and not a heritage from widely
different ancestry. This is not an impossibility in respect of
pigmentation; but it can not be pushed too far. Thus Ranke
of Munich, most eminent authority, has striven for years to ac
count for the broad-headedness of the Bavarian population by
making it a product of the elevated and often mountainous
character of the country. This being proved, it would follow
that the Bavarians still were ethnically Teutonic, merely fallen
from dolichocephalic grace by reason of change of outward cir
cumstances. This theory seems to be completely incapable of
proof; for, as Ranke himself has shown, f the effect of the mal
nutrition generally incident to an abode at considerable alti
tudes is entirely in the opposite direction. Among poorly nour
ished children in factory towns, for example, the immediate
effect is to cause an arrest of development about the temples,
exactly where the broad-headed Alpine race is so well en-
* Virchow, 1876 a, p. 10. Reischel, 1889, is positively the only observer
working on the living population in all of Prussia.
t Beitrage zur Anth. Bayerns, i, 1877, pp. 232 seq., and 285 ; also ibid.,
". 1*79, P- 75 ; iii, iSSo, p. 149. H. Ranke, 1885, p. no, asserts the Bajo-
vars to have been originally brachycephalic.
222 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
dowed. It is strange to us in America to find how important
such matters may become by reason of a social differentiation
between races. Another patent example is offered in Russia.
The late Professor Zograf of Moscow, than whom none stood
higher as an anthropologist in Russia, confronted by the same
division of ethnic types as Germany contains, has positively
identified the blond long-headed one as the original Slav.*
This may or may not be true ; it may be gratifying to have it
so. To us the evidence apparently points the other way. In
Russia, however, no other conclusion than this is likely to be
generally popular. Pan-Slavism prevails there \vith a venge
ance.
After this excursus, let us come back to statistics and exam
ine the evidence from the study of blonds and brunets among
the school children. Our double-page map, as will be ob
served, includes not only the German Empire but Switzerland,
Belgium, and Austria, down to the Adriatic as well exclu
sive, however, of Hungary. Censuses \vere taken in all these
countries in quick succession, f The system employed was
identical in all, save in Belgium; and even here the definition
of brunets was the same, although the term blond was made
more comprehensive. For this reason the results are strictly
comparable so far as our map is concerned. A great defect in
all such investigations on children, as we have already stated,
lies in the tendency to # darkening of hair and eyes with
growth. This is probably intensified in the more southern
countries, so that our shading probably fails to indicate the
full extent of the progressive brunetness in this direction.
North of the Alps, however, we may accept its evidence, pro
visionally, at all events.
One or two points on this map deserve mention, after not
ing the general contrast between northern and southern Ger
many. Observe how sharp the transition from light to dark
becomes, all around the mountainous boundaries of Bohemia.
Here we pass suddenly from Germanic into foreign territory ;
*Cf. p. 355-
I Virchow s report on Germany, 1886 b ; for Austria, Schimmer, 1884;
for Switzerland, Kollmann, 1883 ; and for Belgium, Vanderkindere, 1879.
THE TEUTONIC RACE : SCANDINAVIA AND GERMANY. 223
for the Bohemian Czechs are truly Slavic in origin as in
speech.* One wonders if it is purely chance that so accentu
ated a brunet spot occurs about Prague. That is the capital
city, the nucleus of the nation. As for the German-speaking
Austrians, they are in no wise distinguishable in pigmentation
from the Slovaks, Slovenes, Czechs, or other Slavic neigh
bours all about them. The second point which we would em
phasize is the striking way in which blondness seems to have
trickled down, so to speak, through Wiirtemberg, and even
as far as the Swiss frontier, f We have already called attention
to this in a preceding chapter. It will bear repetition here. The
Rhine Valley bears no relation to it. At first sight, the in
filtration seems to have taken place directly across country.
Closer inspection shows that it coincides with other evidence
derived from the study of the head form in the same district.
Especially noteworthy are the peculiarities of Franconia
(Franken), the southern edge of which appears as the light-
dotted area on our map on page 233. This Franconian long
headed district extends over nearly the whole basin of the Alain
River well into Bavaria, and, as our map shows, up along the
Neckar. It constitues by far the clearest case of wholesale
Teutonic colonization south of the Baltic plain. This is proba
bly the cause of the wedge of blondness upon our large map.
Historians tell us the Franks were Teutons, and here is where
they first settled. Their further extension into Switzerland
will be a matter for discussion hereafter.
It is interesting to observe how this Teutonization of Fran
conia, manifested in our map of brunet traits, tallies with geo
graphical probability. J Here is just where we should be led
to expect a settlement in any case. Turn back for a moment
to our map of physical geography (page 216). As the invaders
pushed southward, they would naturally avoid the infertile
uplands bordering Bohemia, and on the west the difficult,
* Schimmer, 1884, pp. viii, xi, and xix.
f Virchow, 1886 b, p. 317.
\ J. Ranke, Beitrage, iii, 1880, p. 144 to 148, proves by the cephalic
index that the Main Valley was a centre of dolichocephaly. The contrast
of the fertile valley with the Spessart, for example, is of great interest.
224 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
heavily forested Rhenish plateau. Each of these wings of the
German upland are of a primitive geological formation, agri
culturally unpropitious, especially as compared with Thuringia
rugged, but well watered and kindly, as it is. Suppose our
Teutonic tribes to ascend the "\Yeser and its affluents, the
Ful da and Werra, or perhaps the narrow gully of the Rhine
to Mainz. There would be little to tempt them to turn back
to the wooded country, either of Hesse or Thuringia. What
was more natural, however, than that sedimentation should
take place on reaching the fertile valley of the Main? Its
basin, light dotted on our map, with that of the Neckar just
south of it, forms as a consequence the great Teutonic colony
in the Alpine highlands. Corroborative testimony of place
names also exists. Canon Taylor,* for example, states that- this
district is a hotbed of Teutonic, mainly Saxon, village and local
names. It closely resembles parts of England in this respect.
Further wholesale colonization to the south seems to have been
discouraged by the forbidding Rauhe Alp or Swabian Jura.
The Teutonic characteristics have heaped up all along its
northern edge, as our map on page 233 shows ; but the moun
tains themselves remain strongholds of the broad-headed type.
A considerable colony of dolichocephaly lies on the other side
of them, seemingly bearing some relation to the Allgauer dia
lect. Beyond this all is Alpine in type. Allemanni and Hel-
vetii have left no trace of Jheir Teutonism in the living popula
tion. Mewed in the light of these geographical facts, the con
trast in brunetness between Wurtemberg and Bavaria is readily
explained. The fluvial portals of the Bavarian plateau open
to the east, not the north. \Ye know that the Boii (Bohemians)
and the Bajovars or ancient Bavarians came from this side,
following up the course of the Danube. Their names are Kel
tic, their physical characteristics seem to have been so as well.f
One more physical trait remains for consideration before we
pass from the present living population to discuss certain great
historic events in Germany which have left their imprint upon
* 1864 (ed. 1890), pp. 99-102.
f Vide H. Ranke, Zur Craniologie der Kelten, 1885, pp. 109-121; J.
Ranke, in Beitrii^e y.ur Anth. Bayerns, iii, 1880, pp. I49.r<v/.; and Pic, 1893.
THE TEUTONIC RACE : SCANDINAVIA AND GERMANY.
225
the people. We refer to stature. The patent fact is, of course,
that the areas of blondness and of dolichocephaly are also
centres of remarkably tall stature. Our three portrait types
illustrated this relation in the individual combinations clearly.
The first grenadier was five feet nine inches in height (i-75
metres); the mixed type was shorter by about five inches (1.62
metres), while the conscript from the recesses of the Black
Forest in Baden stood but five feet two inches in his stockings
(1.59 metres). This last case is a bit extreme; averages seldom
5TATU RE
N9RTH-WE5TERN GERMANY
38.oooi OBSERVATIONS. AHEH, MKSNE*. 9t p ER CEN T TALLER
THAN 1.69 METERS
(5 Ft -6.5 INS.)
Wow 30
30-35
35-40
40-45
fall in Germany below five feet five inches. Local variations
are common, as elsewhere ; crowded city life depresses the
average, prosperity raises it ; but underneath it all the racial
characteristic, so inherent in the " sesquipedal " Teutons,
makes itself felt wherever they have penetrated the territory
of the short and sturdy Alpine race. An idea of the contrast
between north and south Germany is afforded by considera
tion of our various maps of stature on the accompanying pages.
As will be seen, difficulty arises in direct comparison, owing to
226 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
the two systems of calculation one of averages, the other of
proportions above a given height. Our tints are adopted, how
ever, to give a rough idea of the relations by means of the
shading alone, dark tints always denoting the shorter popu
lation.* The most Teutonic quarter of Germany, Schleswig,
averages about five feet six and a half inches (1.69 metres),
while the Bavarians as a whole are fully two inches shorter
(1.63 metres). The Rhine, on the other hand, a pathway for
Teutonic invasions, has generated a considerably taller popu
lation in the southwest, noticeably in Alsace- Lorraine, f Baden
seems to be appreciably shorter, as our map shows. Notwith
standing the superiority in height of the purest Teutonic Ger
mans,, they still exhibit the phenomenon to a less degree than
the real Scandinavians whom we have examined. Fortunately,
for Sweden and Norway, respectively, we have data suitable
for comparison with both systems of our German maps. Nor
way averages an inch or more above even these very tallest
Germans ; Sweden contains a far higher proportion of abnor
mally tall men also ; even as high as sixty per cent, as we have
seen, while in Bavaria and Baden the proportion descends even
lower than ten per cent.J
A few particulars in the distribution of this trait should
be noted in passing. The law that a mountainous environ
ment tends to depress the average stature seems to be ex
emplified in the Vosges.* On the other hand, in contraven
tion of this law that the severity of climate and poverty
* It would appear that from 20 to 30 per cent of statures above 1.69 m.
(170 m. and above) corresponds to an average of about 1.63 metres ;
10 to 19 per cent, represents an average of 1.61 metres ; and 30 to 39 per
cent, to an average of 1.66 metres.
f Reischel, 1889, finds a stature about Erfurt of about 1.66 metres ;
not far from the average for Alsace-Lorraine (166.6). Kirchhoff, 1892,
gives data about Halle. See also Sick, 1857, on Wiirtemberg ; and Engel,
1856, on Saxony. Ranke s (Beitrage, v, 1883, p. 196) average of 1.676 me
tres for 256 men seems to be above that indicated by his map.
\ Comparisons may be continued internationally, by turning to our
maps of Italy (page 255) and the Tyrol (page 101), both constructed on
the same system of proportions above 1.69 metres ; that is to say, of 1.70
metres and above. Brandt, 1898, gives parallel maps on both systems for
Alsace-Lorraine.
THE TEUTONIC RACE: SCANDINAVIA AND GERMANY. 2 2/
of environment in mountainous districts exert a depress
ing influence upon stature, the Alps and the Bohmerwald
in Bavaria, contain a population distinctly above the general
average in the great plateau about Ingolstadt. This is all the
more extraordinary, since these mountaineers are Alpinely
STATURE
BAVARIA
PER CENT
TAUERTOW
1.69 METERS
(5 FT 65 INS)
1^30-39
V R
broad-headed and relatively brunet to an extreme. It would
be a highly discouraging combination did we not remember
that the great Bavarian plateau is itself of considerable altitude.
Even then one is led to suspect, with Ranke,* that some process
* 1881, p. 14.
228
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
of selection has been at work to compass such a result. For if
we turn to the Schwarzwald in Baden again, we there find that
our law holds good. Wolfach, from which our portrait type
was taken, exemplifies it completely. Here, on the high pla
teau known as Die Baar, the average stature falls below five
feet four inches, the lowest recorded, I believe, in the Empire.
Austria proper, with the province of Salzburg, constitutes
an isolated outpost of Teutonic racial traits, surrounded on
three sides by populations of alien speech and of very different
physical characteristics.* We shall speak of them later, in con
nection with the Slavic people among whom they reside ;f
CEPHALIC
INDEX
FORfA
3ALZBVRQ
AFTER. WEISDACH 9
but it is not without significance at this point to notice the
physical resemblances between the Bavarians and the Austrian
Germans. Both alike are Germanized members of the Alpine
race. Both betray their mixed origin in the same fashion.
To the Alpine race they owe their prevalent broad-headedness,
while they have derived their relative superiority in stature
over the Slavs and Hungarians, as well as their blondness, from
a Teutonic strain. The same tendency to a disharmonic type
* Weisbach, 1892, 1894, 1895 b. Consult also Auerbach, 1898 ; Peter-
mann and Zuckerkandl.
t Page 349.
73-
AUSTRIAN. Blue eyes, chestnut hair. Index 85.
HUNGARIAN. Blue eyes, brown hair. Index
MORLACHIAN, Bressa.
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY.
THE TEUTONIC RACE : SCANDINAVIA AND GERMANY. 229
of head and face, as among the Bavarians, is also apparent.*
Such a union of a long face with a broad and round head is
illustrated by our portraits herewith (cf. also page 290). A truly
harmonic head is shown in the case of the Hungarian type, with
which the Austrian may profitably be compared as respects
the facial proportions. In pigmentation, the attenuated Teu
tonic strain is to-day most apparent in the lightness of the eyes,
the hair being far more often of a dark shade. Vienna seems,
judging by our little map, to have served as a focus about
which the immigrant Teutonism has clustered. It is also curi
ous to note how the immediate valley of the Danube denotes
the area of Germanic intensity of occupation. The head form
increases rapidly in breadth on leaving the river. The influ
ence of the Bohemian and Moravian brachycephaly is clearly
manifest on our map. In the other direction, south of the Dan
ube, the increase is less sudden. It is also important to notice
that this Teutonism is not only local; it is quite recent and
superficial. Archaeology reveals the presence of an earlier
population, distinctly allied to another race in its characteris
tics, f This region was the seat of the very important early
Hallstatt civilization, of which we shall have more to say. At
present it is sufficient to emphasize the fact that the kingdom
of Austria to-day is merely an outpost of Teutonic racial occu
pation, betraying a strong tendency toward the Alpine type.
TW T O great events in the history of northern Europe have
profound significance for the anthropologist. The first is the
marvellous expansion of the Germans, about the time of the
fall of Rome ; the second is the corresponding immigration of
Slavic hordes from the east. Both of these were potent enough
to leave results persistent to this day.
We know nothing of the German tribes until about loo
B. c. Suddenly they loom up in the north, aggressive foes of
the Romans. For some time they were held in check by the
stubborn resistance of the legions; until finally, when the re
straining hand of Rome was withdrawn, they spread all over
* Beitrage zur Anth., Bayerns, v, 1883, p. 200.
f Vide p. 498 infra.
230
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
western Europe in the fourth and fifth centuries of our era.
Such are the well-known historic facts. Let us see what archae
ology may add to them.* The first investigators of ancient
burial grounds in southern Germany unearthed two distinct
types of skulls. The round-headed variety was quite like that
of the modern peasantry roundabout. The other dolichoceph
alic^ type was less frequent, but strongly marked in places.
An additional feature of these latter was noted at once. They
were generally found in burial places of a peculiar kind. An
easterly sloping hill was especially preferred, on which the skel
etons lay with feet toward the rising sun probably a matter of
religious importance. The bodies were also regularly disposed
in long rows, side by side, a circumstance which led Ecker to
term them Reihcngrdbcr, or row-graves. Other archaeologists,
notably Lindenschmidt, by a study of the personal effects in
the graves, succeeded in identifying these people with the tall,
blond Teutonic invaders from the north. Such graves are
found all through Germany as far north as Thiiringia. They
bear witness that Teutonic blood infiltrated through the whole
population. The relative intensity of intermixture varied
greatly, however, from place to place. Our map on page 233
shows in a broad way its geographical distribution in Wiir-
temberg and Baden, so far as it can be measured by the head
form. Rcihcngraber and cephalic index corroborate one an
other. The most considerable occupation seems to have been,
as we have said, in Franconia. We have already adduced some
geographical reasons for the settlement in this place. Still an
other one remains to be noted. The Prankish race spot seems
to lie just outside the great wall, the Limes Romanus, which
the Emperor Tiberius and his successors built to hold the bar
barians in check. Von Holder has indicated the relation be
tween the long-headed Teutonic areas and this ancient political
boundary. Our map on page 233 is adapted from his.f The
* Von Holder, 1876, p. 26; and 1880; Virchow, 1876 a, pp. 48 et seq.;
Ranke, Beitrage, v, 1883, pp. 215-247. Bulle, 1897, gives reproductions
of early representations of these types.
f From Ammon s data we have roughly extended the area of brachy-
cephaly, on this map, over into Baden. Von Holder s original map
THE TEUTONIC RACE: SCANDINAVIA AND GERMANY. 231
modern limits of the Prankish dialect also coincide with it
in great part. Here, just outside the Roman walls, the Bur-
gundians, Helvetians, and Franks undoubtedly were massed
for a long time.
The Black Forest in southwestern Germany affords us so
good an opportunity for the comparison of relatively pure and
mixed populations that a word more may be said respecting
BOUNPAF-Y OF
IjfPOUTKAU
r *T FRONTIER
^y
HEAD FORM
**
E>ADEN and ALSACE-LORRAINE
AMMONS DATA, 8854- RE
, 700 CRANIA*,
N ^ DATA 86 b AND
it. This mountainous, heavily wooded district, shown on our
map herewith, lies close by the upper courses of the two prin
cipal rivers of Europe, which have both formed great channels
of racial migration. The Rhine encircles it on the west and
south, and an important affluent of the same river bounds it on
stopped at the frontier. The whole extent of the Roman wall in Germany
is shown upon our subsequent map (on page 242) of village types, by
means of a similar heavy black line. Its relation there to the Germanic
village type can not fail to be observed.
19
232
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
the east ; for the Xeckar drains the fertile plains of Wiirtem-
berg, or Swabia, which lie about Stuttgart. This capital city,
it should be observed, lies not far from the point of that blond
Teutonic wedge which, we have already shown, penetrates
central Europe from the north. The Danube also takes its
source in the southeastern part of the Forest, and has there
fore opened up still another route of racial immigration from
this quarter.*
There is every evidence that here in the Black Forest is an
other mountainous area of isolation containing a people which
is distinctly Alpine in type of head form as compared with the
mixed populations of the fertile plains and valleys round about
it. For example, the cephalic index in Wolfach in its centre is
above 86, three units and more above the average for the Rhine
Valley communes. f This difference is appreciable to the eye;
it may be approximately shown by the three portraits in our
series at page 218. Our pure Alpine type, in fact, is a native
of Ober-Wolfach, where, as the black tint on our map indi
cates, extreme brachycephaly is prevalent. Judged by this
standard, there is every indication that the innermost recesses
of the Black Forest contain the broad-headed Alpine type in
comparative purity.
For Wurtemberg and the Neckar Valley we have no mod
ern researches upon living men to offer as evidence. In place
of them we possess the results of which we have spoken above,
obtained upward of thirty years ago from a study of the crania
of modern populations. At that time von Holder discovered
the existence of two distinct types of head form in the popula
tion of Swabia, and he found them severally clustering about
the two areas outlined upon his map on the next page. In the
northern one, lying mainly beyond and north of the old Roman
* Authorities upon this region are, primarily, Ecker, 1865, 1866, and
1876 ; and Ammon, 1890, 1893, and 1894. A comprehensive work by Am-
mon, based upon extensive observations, is now in press (1899).
f This relation is obscured on our map because the administrative
divisions nearly all extend from the river deep into the Forest, thus
obliterating all local differences. The innermost recesses, moreover, with
the exception of Wolfach, all lie across in Wiirtemberg ; in Xcuenburg,
Calw, and Freudenstadt, for example, all shown upon our map.
THE TEUTONIC RACE : SCANDINAVIA AND GERMANY.
233
wall, he found traces of a long-headed population, deemed
by him typical of the barbarians of Germany. Within the
Limes Rouianns were mixed populations infused with Roman
characteristics, but pointing to an isolated centre of broad-
HEAD -FORM AND DIALECTS
w WURTEMBURG.
AFTER VON HOLDER 76.
Plain white, the absence of shading on this map denotes an intermediate type of head
form incident upon intermixture,
headedness. This is shown by the dark-shaded areas. It
will be observed at once that his results for Wiirtemberg and
those of Ammon in Baden are a check upon one another, de
spite the fact that the two researches were made over thirty
234
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
years apart one upon skulls, the other upon living men. That
in this Black Forest area of isolation we have to do with an
island of the Alpine type is also rendered more probable by the
relative shortness of its people.* This third physical trait
helps, therefore, to confirm us in our deduction.
A curious point here deserves mention. This population of
the inner Black Forest being Alpine, ought normally to be
darker in the colour of the hair and eyes than the Teutonic
peoples round about. Nevertheless, the evidence all goes to
show that, instead of being darker, it really manifests a distinct
tendency toward blondness. Here, again, we are able to draw
proof from two separate sources which serve as a check upon
one another. Virchow f showed that a considerable part of
the "Alpine area" in Wiirtemberg contained an abnormal num
ber of blond children. For example, forty-two hundred chil
dren in this Alpine area comprised but fifteen per cent of blond
types, as compared with an average of nearly twenty-five per
cent in the Rhine and Neckar Valleys. For Baden, however,
the blondness of the upland interior region does not appear
upon his map. Fortunately, we possess detailed results for this
region of even greater value, since Dr. Ammon has studied the
adult population. He asserts that there is a regularly increas
ing blondness toward the centre of the Forest.J Why did this
not appear among the thousands of school children in Baden
studied by Yirchow? To venture a rash hypothesis, may it
not have been because the influences of environment had not
had time to produce their effects so strongly in childhood, and
that they appeared in accentuated form at a later period of life ?
At all events, it would appear that this surprising reversal of
racial probability pointed to a disturbing influence of environ-
* Compare our map showing Wolfach, on page 236.
f 1886 b, pp. 404 and 428. It clearly appears on our map of relative
brunetness at page 222.
% For example, Wolfach, in the southern part of the "Alpine area,"
with the broadest heads in Baden, contains thirty-three per cent of blonds
among adults. (Ammon, 1899, Tafel xii.) In this commune sixty-four per
cent of the cephalic indices were above 85. Curiously, however, Obern-
dorf, near by, has fewer blonds than any other part of southern Ger
many. (Virchow, 1886 b, p. 307.)
THE TEUTONIC RACE: SCANDINAVIA AND GERMANY. 235
inent. \Ye have already taken occasion to note the effect of a
mountainous or infertile habitat in the production of relative
blondness. Perhaps we have another such case here in the
Schwarzwald.
Before we take leave of this most interesting quarter of Ger
many, let us cross the Rhine and consider briefly the popula
tions of Alsace-Lorraine.* This lies on the debatable land be
tween German and French influence. Geographically it ex
tends from the Rhine up on to the eastern side of the Ardennes
plateau, of which we have treated in speaking of France
and Belgium. Turning back to our map of head form on
page 231, we observe at once how Alsace in particular is
bounded on the west by the Yosges area of extreme brachy-
cephaly. Here is a solid mass of Alpine population protected
again in this instance against Teutonic submergence by the
rugged nature of its territory. Investigation is bound to show
a prevalent broad-headedness immediately on leaving the nar
row river plain of the Rhine. At all the points throughout
Alsace where Blind has examined crania in large numbers and
these towns are shown on our map by distinctive tints within
the small white circles this fact has been established beyond
question. At the same time the Teutonic influence, spread
ing from the Rhine, has been powerfully exerted in the matter
of stature. Our map on the next page seems at first sight to
indicate a much taller population in Alsace than in Baden. The
main cause of the contrast is merely technical. Brandt s figures
are for the soldiery only, after rejection of all the undersized
men; while in Baden the averages are for all the recruits, with
out distinction. This would superficially make the Alsatians
seem far taller than the general population really is. Neverthe
less, there can be no doubt of an appreciable superiority of
stature west of the Rhine, and no other explanation than that
* Schwalbe, of Strassburg, has recently inaugurated a brilliant series
of monographs upon this region. Blind s data on the cranial index are
embodied in our map on page 231; that of Brandt on the stature is
reproduced on page 236. On Lorraine, Collignon, 1886 b, is best. The
ground tints for Alsace are adopted from this latter authority ; Blind s
local observations are shown separately within small white circles.
236
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
of Teutonism can readily be invoked for it. Apparently, also,
where, as in the inner valleys of the Yosges Mountains, the
immigrant race is less strongly represented, the stature de
creases as a consequence. The dark shades on this part of
the map are highly significant for this reason. Brandt * has
AVERAGE STATURE
t>ADEN
NOTE. The apparent superiority of stature west of the Rhine seems to be due to the
fact that Brandt s data is for the accepted recruits only, excluding all the under
sized ; while Ammon s figures for Baden include the entire male population.
also shown, as an interesting corollary, that, as a rule, the
German-speaking communes exceed the French in height,
with very few exceptions. Thus do we in a slight degree detect
* 1898, p. 21.
THE TEUTONIC RACE : SCANDINAVIA AND GERMANY. 237
the relation between the language and the physical traits of a
people.
The Teutons, in invading the territory of the indigenous
Alpine population, only succeeded in displacing the aborigines
in part. They followed up the rivers, and took possession of the
open plains ; but everywhere else left the natives in relative
purity. This accounts in some measure for tlu- ^i\-;it dirtYr-
entiation between people of mountain and plain all over this
part of Europe, to which we have constantly adverted. It en
dows the whole event with the character of a great social move
ment, rather than of a sudden military occupation. \Ye can
not too fully guard against the hasty assumption that this
Teutonic expansion was entirely a forcible dispossession of
one people by another. It may have been so on the surface ;
but its results are too universal to be ascribed to that alone.*
A revolution of opinion is taking place among anthropologists
and historians as well, to-day, similar to that which was stimu
lated in geology many years ago by Sir Charles Lyell. That
is to say, conceptions of terrific cataclysms, human or geologi
cal, producing great results suddenly, are being supplanted
by theories of slow-moving causes, working about us to-day,
which, acting constantly, almost imperceptibly, in the aggre
gate are no less mighty in their results. In pursuance of this
change of view, students look to-day to present social slow-
working movements for the main explanation of the great
racial migrations in the past.
"We can not resist the conclusion that the Teutonic expan
sion must be ascribed in part to the relative infertility of the
north of Europe ; possibly to differences in birth rates, and
the like. Population outran the means of support. For a
long while its overflow was dammed back by the Roman Em
pire, until it finally broke over all barriers. It is conceivable
that some such contrast as is now apparent between the F rench
and Germans may have been operative then. The Germans
are to-day constantly emigrating into northern France all
over the world, in fact and why? Simply because popula-
* Guizot, in his History of Civilization in France, lecture viii, offers
an interesting discussion of this.
238 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
tion is increasing very rapidly ; while in France it is practically
at a standstill. Another effective force in inducing emigration
from the north may have been differences in social customs
indirectly due to environmental influences. Thus Baring-
Gould * has called attention to the contrast in customs of in
heritance which once obtained between the peasants of north
ern and southern Germany. In the sandy, infertile Baltic
plain the land is held in severally, inheritance taking place in
the direct line. The oldest son, sometimes the youngest, re
mains on the patrimony, while all the other children go forth
into the world to make their way alone. Primogeniture pre
vails, in short. In the fertile parts of Wurtemberg, on the
other hand, where the village community long persisted, all
the children share alike on the death of the father. Each one
is a constituent element in the agrarian social body, for which
reason no emigration of the younger generation takes place.
The underlying reason for this difference may have been that
in the north the soil was already saturated with population,
so to speak. The farms were too poor to support more than
a single family, a condition absent in the south. The net re
sult of such customs after a few generations would be to induce
a constant Teutonic emigration from the north. Military ex
peditions may have been merely its superficial manifestation.
It would, of course, be unwarranted to suggest that any one of
these factors alone could cause the great historic expansion.
Nevertheless, it is far from improbable that they were con
tributory in some degree.
When all the Teutonic tribes broke over bounds and went
campaigning and colonizing in Gaul and the Roman Empire,
a second great racial wave swept over Germany from the east.
Perhaps the Huns and other Asiatic savages may have started
it ; at all events, the Slavic hordes all over the northeast began
to move. Here we have another case of a widespread social
phenomenon, military on the surface, but involving too many
people to be limited to such forcible occupation. There is
abundant evidence that these Slavs did not always drive out
* History of Germany, p. 78.
THE TEUTONIC RACE: SCANDINAVIA AND GERMANY. 239
the earlier population. They often merely filled up the waste
lands, more or less peaceably, thus infiltrating through the
whole country without necessarily involving bloodshed.
There are several ways in which we may trace the extent of
this Slavic invasion before we seek to apply our criteria of
physical characteristics. Historically, we know that the Slavs
were finally checked by Karl the Great, in the ninth century,
at the so-called Limes Sorabicus. This fortified frontier is
shown on our map on page 242, bounding the area ruled in
large squares diagonally. The Slavic settlements may also
be traced by means of place names. Those ending in its are
very common in Saxony ; zig also, as in Leipzig, " city of lime
trees"; a in Jena; dam in Potsdam all these cities were
named by Slavs. Indications of this kind abound, showing
that the immigrant hordes penetrated almost to the Rhine.
To the northwest they occupied Oldenburg. As Taylor says,
Slavic dialects were spoken at Kiel, Lubeck, Magdeburg,
Halle, Berlin, Leipzig, Dresden, Salzburg, and Vienna.*
It seems impossible that the movements of a people should
be traced merely by the study of the way in which they laid
out their villages ; yet August Meitzen, the eminent statis
tician, has just issued a great four-volume work, in which
this has been done with conspicuous success. f It appears that
the Slavic peoples in allotting land almost always followed
either one of two plans. Sometimes they disposed the houses
regularly along a single straight street, the church near the
centre, with small rectangular plots of garden behind each
dwelling. Outside this all land was held in common. Such
a village is that of Trebnitz, whose ground plan is shown in
our first cut on the next page.^ In other cases it was customary
to lay out the settlement in a circular form, constituting what
is known as the Slavic round village. In such case there is
but one opening to the common in the centre, and the hold-
* Consult Lagneau, 1871 ; Virchovv, 1878 c ; Bidermann, 1888 ; Reischel,
1889, p. 143 ; Haupt, 1890.
f 1895. Seebohm gives a good outline in Economic Journal, vii, p. 71 ;
as also criticism by Ashley in Political Science Quarterly, xiii, p. 150.
| Ibid., i, p. 52.
240
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
ings in severalty extend outward in triangular sectors. Be
yond these, in turn, lie the common pasture and woodlands.
Slavic Long Village. Trebnitz, Prussian Saxony.
Our second diagram represents one of these village types.
Contrast either of these simple and systematic settlements with
the one plotted in our third map. This Germanic village is
Slavic Round Village. Witzeetze, Hanover.
utterly irregular. The houses face in every direction, and
stivrts and lanes cross and recross in delightfully hop-scotch
THE TEUTONIC RACE: SCANDINAVIA AND GERMANY.
2 4 I
fashion.* Xor is the agrarian organization of this Germanic
village by any means simple. Divided into small plots or
" hides," so called, a certain number of each kind are, or were
once, assigned by lot in rotation to the heads of households.
These " hides " were scattered all about the village, so that a
peasant might be cultivating twenty or more parcels of land
at one time. The organization was highly complex, includ
ing ordinances as to the kind of crops to be raised, and other
similar matters of detail. \Ye shall not attempt even to outline
such a " Hufenverfassung " ; for us it must suffice to note the
complexity of the type, as opposed to the Slavic form.
Germanic Village. Geusa, Prussian Saxony.
Our large map on the next page shows the geographical
distribution of these several village types. The circumscribed
area of the original Germanic settlements is rather remarkable.
It shows how far the Slavs penetrated in number sufficient thus
to transform the landscape. It will be observed that on this
map the small squares and triangles denote the areas into
which the German tribes transplanted their peculiar institu
tions. That they were temporarily held in check by the Ro
mans appears from the correspondence between the Roman
* Ibid., i, p. 47.
SETTLEMENTS AND
VILLAGE TYPES
GERMANY.
D D D GERMAN VILLAGER CONQUESTS
TYPE /"** CAESAR* TIME
.V. ROUND VILLAGES
THE TEUTONIC RACE : SCANDINAVIA AND GERMANY. 243
wall, shown by a heavy black line on the map, and the southern
boundary of the Germanic villages. Of course, when they
spread abroad, a considerable change in the agrarian organi
zation was induced by the fact that the emigrants went as a
conquering class. The institutions became less democratic,
rather approaching the feudal or manorial type ; but they all
preserved sufficient peculiarities to manifest their origin. Such
hybrid village types, covering all northern France and eastern
England, are as good proof of Teutonization as we could ask.*
It will be observed that all the village types we have so far
illustrated are closely concentrated and compact. A remark
ably sudden change in this respect takes place w r est of the
original Germanic village area. The whole economic character
of the country changes within a few miles. It is of great his
toric importance. Our map shows the transition to occur
strictly along the course of the Weser River. A large dis
trict is here occupied by the Celtic house, so called. The small
circles denote that there are no closely built villages at all in
the region so marked. Each house stands entirely by itself,
in the middle of its farm, generally in no definite relation to
the highroads. These latter connect market places and
churches perhaps, about which are sometimes dwellings for
the schoolmaster, the minister, or storekeeper ; but the peas
antry, the agricultural population, is scattered entirely broad
cast. This resembles the distribution of our American farm
ers dwellings in the Western States. We have no time to dis
cuss the origin of these peculiarities. The opinion prevails
that they stand in some relation to the clan organization of the
Kelts, who are said to have once occupied this territory. The
nearest prototype is, as our map show s, in the high Alps.
It is high time to take up once more the main thread of
our argument how far did the Slavic invasion, which so pro
foundly influenced the agrarian institutions, the place names,
and the speech, affect the physical type of the people of Ger
many? We may subdivide the Slavic-speaking nations of
eastern Europe, as we shall prove subsequently, into two
* Vide map in Meit/en s Atlas to volume iii, Anlage 66 a.
244
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
groups, which, however, differ from one another and from the
pure Alpine race only in degree. The northern Slavs include
the Russians, Poles, Slovaks, Czechs, and Wends ; the south-
ern is composed of the Serbs, Croatians, Slovenes, and l>ul-
garians. Both of these are broad-headed, the southern group
being rather taller and considerably darker than the one which
surrounds German v. All the modern Slavic peoples of north
ern Europe approximate to the Alpine type ; from which it fol
lows that intermixture of them with the Teutons ought nor
mally to produce shorter stature, darker hair and eyes, and,
most persistently of all, an increased breadth of head. The
district where these changes have been most clearly induced
is in the region of Saxony, especially about Halle. A notice
able contrast is apparent between this district and the pro
tected hills of Thuringia. The peasants in the plain of the
Saale are appreciably shorter in stature and broader-headed
than their neighbours. All over Thuringia the rule is that
the population on the hills is taller, contrary to environmental
influences, than that of the valleys. The explanation is that
a short immigrant type has ousted the primitive and taller
Teutons.* This Slavic invasion penetrated Bavaria from the
northeast, the intruders apparently taking possession of the
upland districts, which had been thinly peopled before. So
well marked was this that the region south of Baireuth was
long known as Slavonia.f The same people also seem to have
been in evidence in \Yurtemberg. In places, as at Regens-
burg and Berlin, we may trace the Slavic intrusion in the dif
ferent strata of crania in the burial places.* The general ex
tent ot this Slavonization of Germany is indicated upon our
large double-page map of brunet types. The wedge of colour
which seems to follow down the Oder and over nearly to Hoi-
stein is undoubtedly of such origin, j Because of this historic
movement Saxony, Brandenburg, and Mecklenburg are less
* Reischel, 1889, especially pp. 138, 143 , Kirchhoff, 1892.
\ Ranke, Beitrage, iii, 1880, p. 155.
j: Yon Holder, 1876, pp. 15 and 27.
* Von Holder, 1882; Virchow, iSSoa.
|| Meisner, 1891, p. 320 ; Virchow, 1878 b.
SAXONS. Individual portraits and composite.
Loaned from the collection of Dr. H. P. Uowditch.
WENDS, Saxony. Individual portraits and composite.
From the collection of Dr. H. P. Bowditch.
T1LK TEUTONIC RACE: SCANDINAVIA AND GERMANY. 245
purely Teutonic to-day than they once were in respect of pig
mentation. The whole east is, as we have already seen, broader-
headed, shading off imperceptibly into the countries where pure
Slavic languages are in daily use. Thus the contrast in cus
toms and traditions between the eastern and western Germans,
which historians since Caesar have commented upon, seems
to have an ethnic basis of fact upon which to rest. Moreover,
a hitherto unsuspected difference between the Germans of the
north and of the south has been revealed, sufficient to account
for many historical facts of importance.
CHAPTER X.
THE MEDITERRANEAN RACE : ITALY, SPAIN, AND AFRICA.
THE anthropology of Italy has a very pertinent interest for
the historian, especially in so far as it throws light upon the
confusing statements of the ancients. Pure natural science,
the morphology of the genus Homo, is now prepared to render
important service in the interpretation of the body of histori
cal materials which has long been accumulating. Happily,
the Italian Government has assisted in the good work, with
the result that our data for that country are extremely rich
and authentic.* The anthropological problems presented are
not as complicated as in France, for a reason we have already
noted namely, that in Italy, lying as it does entirely south of
the great Alpine chain, we have to do practically with two in-
* The best authority upon the living population is Dr. Ridolfo Livi,
Capitano Medico in the Ministero della Guerra at Rome. To him I am
personally indebted for invaiuable assistance. His admirable Antropo-
metria Militare, Rome, 1896, with its superb atlas, must long stand as
a model for other investigators. Titles of his other scattered monographs
will be found in our Bibliography, as well as full details concerning the
following references, which are of especial value : G. Nicolucci, Antro-
pologia dell Italia nell evo antico e nel moderno, 1888 ; G. Sergi, Liguri
e Celti nella valle del Po, 1883, giving a succinct account of the several
strata of population ; Arii e Italici, 1898, of which a most convenient
summary is given by Sergi himself in the Monist, 1897 b ; R. Zampa, Sulla
etnografi a dell Italia, Atti dell Accademia pontificia de Nuovi Lincei,
Rome, xliv, session May 17, 1891, pp. 173-18 ; and Crania Italica vetera,
1891. Many details concerning primitive ethnology will be found in
Fligier, i88ia; and Pulle, 1898. Full references to the other works of
these authors, as well as of Calori.Lotnbroso, Helbig, Virchow, and others,
will also be found in the Bibliography. Broca, 1874 b, in reviewing
Nicolucci s work, gives a good summary of conclusions at that time,
before the more recent methods of research were adopted.
246
MEDITERRANEAN RACE: ITALY, SPAIN, AND AFRICA. 247
stead of all three of the European racial types. In other words,
the northern Teutonic blond race is debarred by the Alps.
It does appear in a few places, as we shall take occasion
to point out; but its influence is comparatively small. This
leaves us, therefore, with only two rivals for supremacy viz.,
the broad-headed Alpine type of central Europe and the true
Mediterranean race in the south.
A second reason, no less potent than the first, for the sim
plicity of the ethnic problems presented in Italy, is, of course,
its peninsular structure. All the outlying parts of Europe
enjoy a similar isolation. The population of Spain is even
more unified than the Italian. The former, as we shall see,
is probably the most homogeneous in Europe, being almost
entirely recruited from the Mediterranean long-headed stock.
So entirely similar, in fact, are all the peoples which have in
vaded or, we had better say, populated the Iberian Peninsula,
that we are unable to distinguish them anthropologically one
from another. The Spaniards are akin to the Berbers in
Morocco, Algiers, and Tunis. The division line of races lies
sharply defined along the Pyrenees. In Italy a corresponding
transition, anthropologically, from Europe to Africa takes
place more gradually, perhaps, but no less surely. It divides
the Italian nation into two equal parts, of entirely different
racial descent.
Geographically, Italy is constituted of two distinct parts.
The basin of the Po, between the Apennines and the Alps, is
one of the best defined areas of characterization in Europe.
The only place in all the periphery where its boundary is in
distinct is on the southeast, from Bologna to Pesaro. Here,
for a short distance, one of the little rivers which comes to
the sea by Rimini, just north of Pesaro, is the artificial bound
ary.* It was the Rubicon of the ancients, the frontier chosen
by the Emperor Augustus between Italy proper and Cisalpine
Gaul. The second half of the kingdom, no less definitely
characterized, lies south of this line in the peninsular portion.
Here is where the true Italian language in purity begins, in
* Zampa, 1891 b, p. 177.
248
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
contradistinction to the Gallo-Italian in the north, as Bion-
delli (<53) long ago proved.* The boundaries of this half are
clearly marked on the north along the crest of the Apennines,
a\vay across to the frontier of France ; for the modern prov-
ELEVAT10N
ABOVE SEA LEVEL
METERS
o-ioo[
D
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY
r ITALY.
inces of Liguria (see map) belong in flora and fauna, and, as
we shall show, in the character of their population, to the
southern half of the country. It is this leg of the peninsula
* Grober, 1888, p. 489 ; and Pulle, 1898, pp. 65-89, with maps.
MEDITERRANEAN RACE : ITALY, SPAIN, AND AFRICA. 349
below the knee which alone was called Italy by the ancient
geographers ; or, to be more precise, merely the portion south
of Rome. Only by slow degrees was the term extended to
cover the basin of the Po. The present political unity of all
Italy, real though it be, is of course only a recent and, in a
sense, an artificial product. It should not obscure our vision
as to the ethnic realities of the case.
The topography and location of these two halves of the
kingdom of Italy which we have outlined, have been of pro
found significance for their human history. In the main dis
tinct politically, the ethnic fate of their several populations
has been widely different.* In the Po Valley, the " cockpit
of Europe," as Freeman termed it, every influence has been
directed toward intermixture. Inviting in the extreme, espe
cially as compared with the transalpine countries, it has been
incessantly invaded from three points of the compass. The
peninsula, on the other hand, has been much freer from ethnic
interference; especially in the early clays when navigation
across seas was a hazardous proceeding. Only in the extreme
south do we have occasion to note racial invasions along the
coast. The absence of protected waters and especially of good
harbours, all along the middle portion of the peninsula, has not
invited a landing from foreigners. Open water ways have not
enabled them to press far inland, even if they disembarked.
These simple geographical facts explain much in the anthro
pological sense. They meant little after the full development
of water transportation, because thereafter travel by sea was
far simpler than by land. Our vision must, however, pierce
the obscurity of early times before the great human invention
of navigation had been perfected.
In order to give a summary view of the physical charac
teristics of the present population which constitutes the two
halves of Italy above described, we have reproduced upon the
following pages the three most important maps in Livi s great
atlas. Based as they are upon detailed measurements made
upon nearly three hundred thousand conscripts, they can not
* Cf. Livi, 18945.
250
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
fail to inspire confidence in the evidence they have to present.
Especially is this true since their testimony is a perfect cor-
roboration of the scattered researches of many observers since
the classical work of Calori and Nicolucci thirty years ago.
Researches at that time made upon crania collected from the
cemeteries and crypts began to indicate a profound difference
in head form between the populations of north and south.
Then later, when Zampa, Lombroso, Pagliani, and Riccardi *
took up the study of the living peoples, they revealed equally
radical differences in the pigmentation and stature. It re
mained for Livi to present these new data, uniformly collected
from every commune in the kingdom, to set all possible doubts
at rest. It should be observed that our maps are all uni
formly divided by white boundary lines into compartiincnti, so
called. These administrative districts correspond to the an
cient historical divisions of the kingdom. Their names are all
given upon our preceding map of physical geography. Being
similar through the whole series, they facilitate comparisons
between smaller districts in detail.
The basin of the Po is peopled by an ethnic type which is
manifestly broad-headed. This Alpine racial characteristic is
intensified all along the northern frontier. In proportion as
one penetrates the mountains this phenomenon becomes more
marked. It culminates in Piedmont along the frontier of
France. Here, as we have already shown in our general map
of Europe, is the purest representation of the Alpine race on
the continent. It is identical with that of the Savoyards over
the frontier not alone in physical type, but also over a con
siderable area in language as well; for Provencal French is
spoken well over into this district in Italy, f Comparison of
our portrait types, obtained through the courtesy of Dr. Livi,
will emphasize this fact. Our first page exhibits the transition
from north to south, which appears upon our map of cephalic
index, as it appeals to the eye. The progressive narrowing of
the face, coupled with the regular increase in the length of the
head from front to back, can not fail to attract attention. The
* For a complete list of their works consult our Bibliography,
f Pulle, 1898, pp. 66 and 95, with map.
PIEDMONT. Eyes and hair light br
Ji. ISLAXD OF ISCHIA. Eyes and hair dark brown. Index 83.6. 82.
83-
SASSARI, Sardinia. Deep brunet. Index 76.2.
ITALY.
MEDITERRANEAN RACE: ITALY, SPAIN, AND AFRICA. 251
phenomenon is precisely similar to that which was illustrated
in our first page of German portraits at pages 218 and 219; ex
cept that in this case dolichocephaly increases toward the south,
not as in Germany toward the north. The upper portrait is de-
Q.
WHITE LINES ARE
BOUNDARIES OF
COMPARTIMENTI
BROAD HEADS
I
66
85
LONG. HEADS
CEPHALIC INDEX
ITALY.
^94^71 O65IRWT10NS
AFTER. LIVI. 96
scribed to me as peculiarly representative of a common type
throughout Piedmont, although perhaps in this case the face is
a trifle longer than is usual in the harmonic Alpine race.
252
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
This Alpine type in northern Italy is the most blond and
the tallest in the kingdom. The upper types on both our por
trait pages represent fairly the situation. The hair is not sel
dom of a lightish brown, with eyes of a corresponding shade.
This, of course, does not imply that these are really a blond
and tall people. Compared with those of our own parentage
in northern Europe, these Italians still appear to be quite
brunet ; hair and eyes may be best described on the average
as light chestnut. Standing in a normal company of Pied-
montese, an Englishman could look straight across over their
heads. For they average three to five inches less in bodily
stature than we in England or America ; yet, for Italy, they are
certainly one of its tallest types. The traits we have mentioned
disappear in exact proportion to the accessibility of the popu
lation to intermixture. The whole immediate valley of the
Po, therefore, shows a distinct attenuation of each detail. We
may in general distinguish such ethnic intermixture from
either of two directions : from the north it has come by the
influx of Teutonic tribes across the mountain passes ; from the
south by several channels of communication across or around
the Apennines from the peninsula. For example, the transi
tion from Alpine broad heads in Emilia to the longer-headed
population over in Tuscany near Florence is rather sharp, be
cause the mountains here are quite high and impassable, save
at a few points. On theeast, however, by Pesaro, where nat
ural barriers fail, the northern element has penetrated farther
to the south. It has overflowed into Umbria, Tuscany, and
Marche, being there once more in possession of a congenial
mountainous habitat. The same geographical isolation which,
as Symonds asserts, fostered the pietism of Assisi, has enabled
this northern type to hold its own against aggression from
the south.
It is interesting to note the prevalence of the brachycephalic
Alpine race in the mountainous parts of northern Italy; for
nowhere else in the peninsula proper is there any evidence of
that differentiation of the populations of the plains from those
of the mountains which we have noted in other parts of Eu
rope. Nor is a reason for the general absence of the phe-
MEDITERRANEAN RACE: ITALY, SPAIN, AND AFRICA. 253
nomenon hard to find. If it be, indeed, an economic and so
cial phenomenon, dependent upon differences in the economic
possibilities of any given areas, there is little reason for its ap
pearance elsewhere in Italy; since the Apennines do not form
RELATIVE FREQUENCY
BRUNEI TRAITS
(MIXED BRUNEI TYPE.)
After Livi 96
98060 ObMrvition*
PERCENT
regions of economic unattractiveness, as their geology is fa
vourable to agriculture, and their soil and climate are kind. In
many places they are even more favourable habitats than the
254 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
plains, by reason of a more plentiful rainfall. It is indeed to
day accepted as a law by the archaeologists that throughout
central and southern Italy orderly settlement has first taken
place in the mountains, extending gradually thence down into
the plains. The reason for this seems to be found in the
greater salubrity of the upland climate, and also in the larger
measure of security afforded in the mountains.* The first of
these considerations is certainly potent enough to-day, ren
dering the mountains more often preferable to the plains as a
place of habitation. The absence of anthropological contrasts
coincident with a similar absence of economic differences is
thus a point in favour of our general hypothesis.
Are there any vestiges in the population of northern Italy
of that vast army of Teutonic invaders which all through the
historic period and probably since a very early time has poured
over the Alps and out into the rich valley of the Po? Where
are those gigantic, tawny-haired, " fiercely blue-eyed " bar
barians, described by the ancient writers, who came from the
far country north of the mountains ? Even of late there have
been many of them Cimbri, Goths, Ostrogoths, Visigoths,
Saxons, Lombards. Historians are inclined to overrate their
numerical importance as an element in the present popula
tion. On the other hand, many anthropologists, Yirchow,f
for example, have asserted that these barbarian invaders have
completely disappeared irom sight in the present population.
Truth lies intermediate between the two. It is, of course,
probable that ancient writers exaggerated the numbers in the
immigrant hordes. Modern scholars estimate their numbers
to be relatively small. Thus Zampa ( 92) holds the invasion
of the Lombards to have been the most considerable nu
merically, although their forces did not probably exceed sixty
thousand, followed perhaps by twenty thousand Saxons.
Eighty thousand immigrants in the most thickly settled area
in ancient Europe surely would not have diluted the popula
tion very greatly. We can not expect too much evidence in
this direction consequently, although there certainly is some.
* Von Duhn, 1896, p. 126.
f 1871 a. Steub maintains that the Lombard influence was insignificant.
MEDITERRANEAN RACE: ITALY, SPAIN, AND AFRICA. 255
The relative purity of the Piedmont Alpine type compared with
that of Veneto is probably to be ascribed to its greater inac
cessibility to these Teutons. Wherever any of the historic
passes debouch upon the plain of the Po there we find some
54 RELATIVE o ^FREQUENCY
TALL STATURE
PERCENT
TALLER THAN
1.69 MTER>
(sn-uiie}, ^
Over 2.9.6J " -.
26.6-29.6 1=)
23 6- 26.6 [ ]
Z0.6-23.6i
T UNI S>
disturbance of the normal relations of physical traits one to
another; as, for example, at Como, near Verona, and at the
mouth of the Brenner in Veneto. The clearest indubitable
case of Teutonic intermixture is in the population of Lorn-
256 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
bardy about Milan. Here, it will be observed on our maps, is
a distinct increase of stature ; the people are at the same time
relatively blond.* The extreme broad-headedness of Pied
mont and Veneto is moderated. Everything points to an
appreciable Teutonic blend. This is as it should be. Every
invading host would naturally gravitate toward Milan. It is
at the focus of all roads ever the mountains. Ratzel f has
contrasted the influence exerted by the trend of the valleys on
the different slopes of the Alps. Whereas in France they all
diverge, spraying the invaders upon the quiescent population ;
San Giacomo di Lusiana (Sette Comuni), Province of Vicenza. Blond. Index, 85.2.
in Italy all streams seem to concentrate upon Lombardy. The
ethnic consequences are apparent there, perhaps for this reason.
With the exception of Lombardy, the blood of the Teu
tonic invaders in Italy seems to have been diluted to extinc
tion. Notwithstanding this, it is curious to note that the Ger
man language still survives in a number of isolated communi
ties in the back waters of the streams of immigration. Up
* Livi, 1896 a, p. 141 ; 1894 b, p. 156. .
f Anthropo-Geographie, i, pp. 191-198. Cf. also Lentheric, 1896, pp.
208 and 380, on the passes known and used by the ancients. They seem
to have been mainly the Brenner, by Turin across into Savoy, and along
the Corniche road. On Teutonic place names in Italy, see Taylor, Words
and Places, p. 98.
MEDITERRANEAN RACE: ITALY, SPAIN, AND AFRICA. 257
in the side valleys along the main highways over the Alps
are still to be found German customs and folklore as well.
Dr. Livi tells us that the peasants are not to be distinguished
physically to-day from their true Italian-speaking neighbours.*
Ranke,f however, makes the interesting observation concern
ing the people of the Scttc Comnni, that the women still ex
hibit distinctive German traits, especially in relative blondness.
And Dr. Beddoe likewise writes me that, according to his own
view, Teutonic characteristics in facial features rather than
in head form are quite noticeable in places. In this connection
the accompanying portrait from one of the Scttc Comuni can
not fail to be of interest. Its Germanic appearance is strongly
noticeable; even although, as should be observed, this individ
ual retained no trace of Teutonic descent in his accentuated
breadth of head. Of this man Dr. Livi, to whom I am indebted
for the portrait, writes me that it is " a very good Venetian
type." This seems at first sight improbable, even making
allowance for the law that atavism is more characteristic of the
female, since the Teutonic invasions more often brought war
riors alone, who intermarried with the native women.
The southern Alps are also places of refuge for many
other curious membra disjecta-. Mendini ( 00) , for example, has
studied in Piedmont with some detail, a little community
of the Valdesi, descendants of the followers of Juan Valdes,
the mediaeval reformer. Here they have persisted in their /)
heretical beliefs despite five hundred years of persecution and
ostracism. In this case mutual repulsion seems to have pro
duced real physical results, as the people of these villages seem
to differ quite appreciably from the Catholic population in
many important respects.
A word must be added before we pass to the discussion of
middle Italy, as to the people of the provinces of Veneto. In
many respects they seem not to be dissimilar physically from
the Lombards or Piedmontese. The only trait by which they
may be distinguished is in relative tallness. The light shad-
* Livi, 1896 a, pp. 137 and 146; Pulle, 1898, p. 83; Tappeiner, 1883;
Galanti, 1885.
f Beitrage zur Anth. Bayerns, ii, 1879, p. 76.
258 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
ing upon our map of stature on page 255 surely denotes this.
A greater average height prevails than even in the Teutonized
parts of Lombardy, although no Teutonic invasions even over
the Brenner Pass can historically be held accountable for it.
Here, again, the data of physical anthropology serve to cor
roborate the ancient chroniclers and the historians. The Ve-
neti have been generally accepted as of Illyrian derivation.*
This explains the phenomenon, then ; for around east of the
Adriatic we have found a secondary centre of giantism, espe
cially marked all along the Dalmatian coast, in Bosnia and Al
bania. The present tallness of the Venetians directly points to
a relationship with this part of Europe.
The ethnic transition from the Alpine race in the Po val
ley to the Mediterranean race in Italy proper is particularly
sharp along the crest of the Apennines from the French fron
tier to Florence. The population of modern Liguria, the
long, narrow strip of country between the mountains and the
Gulf of Genoa, is distinctly allied to the south in all respects.
Especially does the Mediterranean long-headedness of this
region appear upon both of our maps of cephalic index. It
is curious to note how the sharpness of the ethnic boundary
is softened where the physical barriers against intercourse be
tween north and south are modified. Thus north of Genoa
there is a decided break in the distinct racial frontier of the
province ; for just here is, as our topographical map of the
country indicates, a broad opening in the mountains leading
over to the north. The pass is easily traversed by rail to-day.
Over it many invasions in either direction have served to con
found the populations upon either side.
The individuality of the modern Ligurians culminates in
one of the most puzzling ethnic patches in Italy, viz., the people
of the district about Lucca, in the northwest corner of Tus
cany. Consideration of our maps will show the strong relief
with which these people stand forth from their neighbours.
These peasants of Garfagnana and Lucchese seem to set all
* Arbois de Jubainville, 1889, p. 305 ; Von Duhn, 1896, p. 131 ; Pigorini,
1892, Sergi, 1897 b, p. 175; Pulle, 1898, p. 19. Moschen is perhaps the
best authority on the anthropology of this region. Cf. also Tedeschi, 1897.
MEDITERRANEAN RACE: ITALY, SPAIN, AND AFRICA. 259
ethnic probabilities at naught. They are as tall as the Vene
tians or any of the northern populations of Italy, yet in head
form they are closely allied to the people of the extreme south.
They are among the longest-headed in all the kingdom. They
seem also to be considerably more brunet than any of their
neighbours.* Xor are these peculiarities of modern origin,
CEPHALIC INDEX,
LIQURIA AND VICINITY
AFTER- Lwi.
LONG HEADS
certainly not their stature, at all events ; for Strabo tells us
that the Romans were accustomed to recruit their legions here
because of the massive physique of the people.
In order to make the reality of this curious patch more
apparent, we have reproduced in our small map on this page
a bit of the country in detail. It shows how suddenly the head
* Livi, 1896 a, p. 153.
2 6o THE RACES OF EUROPE.
form changes at the crest of the Apennines as we pass from
the Po valley to the coast strip of Liguria. As we leave the
river and rise slowly across Emilia toward the mountain range
the heads gradually become less purely Alpine ; and then sud
denly as we cross the watershed we step into an entirely dif
ferent population. On the southern edge this little spot of
Mediterranean long-headedness terminates with almost equal
sharpness, although geographical features remain quite uni
form. This eliminates environment as an explanation for the
phenomenon ; we must seek the cause elsewhere.
All sorts of explanations for the peculiarities of this ethnic
spot about Lucca have been presented. Lpmbroso,* who first
discovered its tall stature, inclines to the belief that here is
a last relic of the ancient and long-extinct Etruscan people
penned in between some of the highest mountains in Italy
and the sea. He holds that they were here driven to cover
in this corner of Tuscany by the developed Roman power in the
south. Dr. Beddoe gives another explanation which is in
teresting, f He believes this population to be the result of
artificial colonization. Livy tells us that the Romans at one
time, in pursuance of a long-settled policy, transported forty
thousand Ligurians (?) to Samnium, filling their places with
others from the south. If this artificial transplanting had been
effected a sufficient number of times ; if the Liguria of Livy
had surely been this modern one instead of a more extended
Alpine ancient one ; and thirdly, if we could thus account for
the tallness of stature, certainly not of southern origin, we
might place more reliance upon this ingenious hypothesis. As
it is, we can not think it far-reaching enough. To us it seems
more likely that we have to do rather with a population highly
individualized by geographical isolation. Much of the region
is very fertile ; it is densely populated ; it is closely bounded
by mountain and sea. It is an ideal spot for the perpetuation
of primitive physical characteristics. Why may they not be
found here, exhibiting merely a clearer persistency of many
of the traits common all along the coast strip of the Gulf of
* 1878, p. 123 ; Rosa, 1882. f l8 93, PP- 31 and 85.
MEDITERRANEAN RACE: ITALY, SPAIN, AND AFRICA. 2 6l
Genoa? The people of the island of Elba off the coast are
quite similar. Insularity explains their peculiar physical traits.
\Yliy not environmental isolation about Lucca as well?
"Who were the Ligurians of the ancients, and where do we
find their descendants to-day ? This question has been scarce
ly less productive of controversy than that concerning the
derivation and affinities of the Celts believed to be their im
mediate successors historically. Arbois de Jubainville * as
sures us on the authority of the classical historians, that the
Ligurians, some seven hundred years before Christ, occupied
a large part of southwestern Europe, perhaps from the Po
valley to Spain, and well toward northern Gaul.f Such ex
tended domination, if, improbable as it seems, it ever existed
in fact, became narrowed down at the early Roman period
to the territory bounded by the Rhone on the west, the Medi
terranean on the south, and the Po basin on the east. This
geographical localization, it will be observed, at once com
plicates any attempt on the part of the physical anthropologist
to identify this historic people with any living type to-day.
For the area bounding upon the Mediterranean, comprised be
tween the Rhone and the upper valley of the Po, has been
just shown to contain two radically different populations.
Throughout precisely this part of the Alps, on the one hand,
extends our brachycephalic type in its maximum purity even
for all western Europe. We proved this for Savoy and its
vicinity in treating of France ; and now we see it also to be true
in Piedmont. Nevertheless, all around the Gulf of Genoa,
along the Corniche road, closely hedged in by the mountains
on the north, extends a narrow belt of population exhibiting all
the physical characteristics, as we have seen, of our dolicho
cephalic Mediterranean race. Which of these two popula
tions, both comprised within the ancient territory of that name,
is entitled, then, to the name Ligurian ? The Italian Govern
ment has settled the matter administratively, at least, by as
signing the name Liguria to the littoral strip. For the modern
* 1890, pp. 153-161 ; and in his great work, i88g-g4, ii, pp. 205-215.
f Bertrand and Reinach, 1891, pp. 233-253, with map, discuss this
fully. Cf. also Pulle, 1898, pp. 5-12 ; and Jacques, 1887, p. 222.
262
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
geographers these coast people are then Ligurians ; but the
word is used in a very different sense from that of the classical
historians.
Anthropologists have long contended over the identifica
tion of this primitive people. The first disposition, a quarter
of a century ago, was to assign the name unhesitatingly to the
broad-headed population characteristic of the mountains ; at
that time, in fact, the existence of an entirely different coast
population was not even suspected. Nicolucci,* Calori,f and
all the older anthropologists asserted, therefore, that the Li
gurians were brachycephalic, allied racially to the Celts in
France, and that their lineal descendants still occupy the Mari
time Alps in force. So clear did this seem that von Holder,^
in his great work on the anthropology of southern Germany,
adopted the name Ligurian for the broad-headed type preva
lent in that region and throughout central Europe.* On the
other hand, the later Italians without exception have rejected
this opinion, and agree with remarkable unanimity in identify
ing the present living dolichocephalic Ligurians with their
historic predecessors. | The reason for this is plain. All over
northern Italy a long-headed population has been proved to
underlie the modern Alpine one. A Broad-headedness has in
fact become more than two and a half times as prevalent as
in the Neolithic period. The dolichocephalic coast strip of
*
* 1864; recently enunciated in iSSS, pp. 4-10.
f i86S and 1873.
\ 1867, and 1876, p. 7.
* This opinion was shared byrnjostJEn^lish__authQrities, following
Davis, 1871. Cf. RollestonVScientific Papers and Addresses, 1884, ii,
p. 232; Canon Taylor, 1890, p. 115. Quatrefages and Hamy, in their
Crania Ethnica, 1882, adopt it. Lapouge (1889 a) and Oloriz (1894 a, P-
227) are the only later writers who adhere to this opinion.
|| Livi, 1886, pp. 265 and 273; 1896 a, pp. 138 and 153; Sergi, 1883 b,
pp. 125 and 132 ct seq. ; 1895 a, pp. 66 et seq. ; Issel, 1892, ii, p. 331; Cas-
telfranco, 1889, pp. 593 et seq. ; Zampa, 1891 a and 1891 b. Ranke agrees
in this view among Germans, Der Mensch., 1886, ii, p. 531 ; Collignon
among the French, 1890 a, p. 13 ; and Dawkins among English, 1880,
p. 328. Cf. also von Duhn, 1896, p. 132.
A Zampa, 1891 a, p. 77, and 1891 b, p. 175 ; Nicolucci, 1888, p. 2 ; Sergi,
1883 b, pp. 118 ct seq.
MEDITERRANEAN RACE : ITALY, SPAIN, AND AFRICA. 263
modern Liguria is regarded, therefore, as merely a remnant of
a once more widely extended race. The broad-headed type
throughout the Alps, according to this view, represents not the
Ligurians, but the Celts, who, as we know, succeeded them in
central Europe. The true descendants of the ancient Liguri
ans inhabit the modern provinces of the same name.* The
purest representatives of these people may still be found in the
tall, dark, and exceedingly dolichocephalic population of the
district about Lucca, whose peculiarities we have been at such
pains to describe, f
The transition from an Alpine type of population in the Po
.basin to the purely Mediterranean race in the south does not
occur at or even near the Rubicon, which marks, as we have
said, the limits of the Italian language in purity. Turn again
to our map of cephalic index on page 251 and observe how the
brachycephaly of the north extends over and down into Um-
bria, into Marche by Pesaro, and over much of Tuscany.
Every indication in that dark-tinted area upon our map sug
gests an intrusive wedge of the Alpine racial type of popula
tion with its point directed toward Rome.t Bearing in mind
what we have already affirmed in speaking of the population
of the Po valley namely, that the entire peninsula was once
peopled by a primitive long-headed (Ligurian) type, underly
ing the modern one it appears that we must account for the
characteristics of the present Umbrians on the supposition of
an overflow of population from the north sufficient in magni
tude to transform the entire character of the people by inter
mixture. Who could these immigrants have been ? It is ap
parent at once what their physical characteristics were. They
were certainly of a racial origin akin to that of the Celtic
broad-headed type throughout central Europe. With whom,
* Arbois de Jubainville, 1890, p. 153, positively asserts that the ancient
Ligurians have never been disturbed in modern Liguria, even by the
Gauls.
t Pieroni, 1892. Such seems to be the view both of Sergi (1883 b, p.
136) and Livi (1896 a, p. 150).
| Livi, 1896 a, p. 156 ; Zampa, 1888, with map, at p. 183, finds a
brachycephaly even more marked than does Livi. Cf. Calori, 1873, p. 156.
264
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
however, may they be identified historically? That is the
question at issue. They could not have been Gallic ; for these
traits have persisted since long before the era of the Roman
wars. Two solutions have been proposed. Sergi * and Zam-
pa f have most ably championed the claim of the ancient Um-
brians, asserting from archaeological evidence that this people
were of northern extraction, akin to that of the Celts. They
maintain that these Umbrians were of the first wave of the
Aryan invasion up along the Danube, of which the Celts were
only a succeeding por
tion. J Their early oc
cupation of the penin
sula is indicated by
the little map on this
page, which w ? e have
reproduced from Ser-
gi s recent brilliant
work. The correspond
ence between the Um-
brian area marked with
small crosses and the
dark tints of broad-
headedness upon our
cephalic map is highly
Umbrian period. significant.
This view just stated is in opposition to that of the older
school of anthropologists, represented by Calori * and Nico-
lucci.|| They believed the Umbrians to have been the in
digenous inhabitants of Italy, closely related to the Oscians
and Vituli (Itali) of classical antiquity. It will be seen at
once, however, that the theory of an Umbrian immigration
need in no wise disturb the serenity of the historians; for this
* 1898 a, pp. 75, 83, and 144. This represents a conversion from his
earlier view expressed in 1883 b, p. 126.
f Zampa, 1888, p. 193 ; and 1889, p. 128.
\ Consult our chapter on European Origins for further details.
* 1873, p. 14.
| 1888, p. 10, where he clearly restates his first theory, propounded a
generation earlier.
, 98<v.
MEDITERRANEAN RACE: ITALY, SPAIN, AND AFRICA. 265
immigration certainly antedated by many centuries the begin
nings of recorded history and of Roman civilization. To this
older school the intrusive element, responsible for the acknowl
edged broad-headedness of Umbria, was not readily explained.
Archaeological research still left in doubt the character of
the only other possibly extraneous people in Italy the Etrus
cans. Moreover, the territory assigned by archaeology to the
Etruscans is quite distinct from that of the Umbrians, lying
to the west of it in the modern provinces of Tuscany and Roma.
So much has this long-suffering people the Etruscans en
dured at the hands of ethnographers that we must treat of them
a moment in more detail.
All that we know historically of the Etruscans is that at
a very early period * they invaded the territory of the Um
brians, who certainly preceded them in the peninsula. Their
advent was characterized by a highly evolved culture, from
which that of the Romans developed. For the Etruscans were
the real founders of the Eternal City. We know less of their
language than of many other details of their existence only
enough to be assured that it was of an exceedingly primitive
type. It was constructed upon as fundamentally different a
system from the Aryan as is the Basque, described in a preced
ing chapter. It seems to have been, like the Basque, allied
to the great family of languages which includes the Lapps,
Finns, and Hungarians in modern Europe, and the aborigines
of Asia and America. These unfortunate similarities led to
all sorts of queer theories as to the racial origin of the people ;
as wild, many of them, as those invented for the Basques. f
It never occurred to any one to differentiate race, language,
and culture one from another, distinct as each of the trio may
be in our eyes to-day. If a philologist found similarity in
linguistic structure to the Lapp, he immediately jumped to the
conclusion that the Etruscans were Lapps, and Lapland the
* iioo B. c., according to Montelius, most authorities placing it con
siderably later. Zampa, 1892, p. 280, places it at 1200-1300 B. c. Varro
states the invasion to have taken place in 1044 B. c. Sergi, 1898 a, p. 149,
says 800 B. c.
f Calori, 1873, p. 29, gives a good summary of the various hypotheses.
1
2 66 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
primitive seat of their civilization. Thus Taylor,* in his early
work, asserts an Asiatic origin akin to the Finns. Then Pauli
and Deecke for a time independently traced them to the same
Turanian source, f At last, when the Etruscan civilization
began to be investigated in detail, authorities fell into either
one of two groups. They both agree that the culture itself
was of foreign origin. The Germans, with the sole exception
of Pauli, Cuno, and von Duhn, are unanimous in the asser
tion that it is an immigrant from the Danube Valley and north
ern Europe. J Much of their testimony is derived from a sup
posed trade between the north and south of Europe at a very
early period described by Genthe and Lindenschmidt. These
authorities regard the Etruscan as an offshoot pj_the_sa-called
Hallstatt civilization, which flourished at a very early period
in this part of the continent. In a later chapter on the origins
of culture we shall have occasion to speak of this relation more
in detail. This school of writers declares the people racially to
be of Rhgetian or Alpine origin. Dennis tells us that the
blond types among the Tuscan peasants are locally believed
to be representatives of these Raseni.
The second school of archaeologists is disposed to derive the
Etruscan civilization from the southeast generally Lydiajri
Asia Minor. The relation of the Etruscan to the Greek is by
them held to be very close.* Much evidence is favourable to
* 1874, p- 30.
f Deecke abandoned in 1882 his earlier theory of Finnic origin, to
which Pauli still adheres, while Corssen advocated the theory of Indo-
Germanic affinity. Consult Fligier, 1882 a.
\ Von Czoernig, Hoernes, Hochstetter (for a time), Koch, Miillenhoff,
Niebuhr, Mommsen, Seemann, Steub, and Virchow (1871 a), together with
the Roman school of archaeologists, represented by Helbig and Pigorini.
Von Duhn, 1896, p. 140, clearly rejects these hypotheses in favour of an
Ionian derivation. Scholl, 1891, p. 37, discusses fully the relationship to
the Rhaetians.
* The Italians, especially of the Bologna school, range on this side;
thus Nicolucci, 1869 and 1888 ; Brizo, 1885 ; Sergi, 1883 and 1895 a ; Lom-
broso ; and Zampa, 1891 b ; Arbois de Jubainville, 1889, i, p. 134; Mon-
telius, 1897 ; Lefevre, 1891 and 1896 a ; A. J. Evans, and Hochstetter in his
later work agree. Brinton, 1889 and 1890 c, advocates a Libyan origin ;
Dawkins, 1880, p. 333, an Iberian affinity. Cf. Bertrand and Reinach,
18943, pp. 63 and 79. Nicolucci, 1888, p. 37, gives many other theories.
MEDITERRANEAN RACE : ITALY, SPAIN, AND AFRICA. 267
either side. To us it seems that Deecke * is more nearly cor
rect than either, as such a division of eminent authority at once
implies. He holds it to be probable that both centres of civ
ilization contributed to the common product. In his opinion
the Etruscans were crossed of the Tyrrhenians from Asia
Minor and the Raseni from the Alps. Many of these views, it
will be noted, making no distinction between physical type
and culture, reason almost entirely from data of the latter
kind. It is now time for us to examine the purely physical
data at our disposition. Even supposing their culture to
have been an immigrant from abroad, that need not imply a
foreign ethnic derivation for the people themselves. Two
classes of testimony are open to us, one consisting of the
living population of Etruria, the other of crania from Etrus
can tombs.
Inspection of our maps, in so far as they concern Etruria,
convinces one that if the Etruscans were of entirely extra-
Italian origin, their descendants have at the present time com
pletely merged their identity in that of their neighbours, the
Umbrians ; for no sudden transitions are anywhere apparent,
either in respect of head form, stature, or pigmentation. On
the whole, the trend of testimony appears to favour the German
theory that the population of Tuscany must have made a
descent upon Italy from the north; and that it was derived
from the same source as the Rhaetians, racial ancestors of the
modern Swiss and other Alpine peoples, f Thus it will be ob
served that Tuscany, like Umbria, allies itself in head form to
the north rather than the south. The difficulty is that the
Etruscans really overlaid the Umbrians, as our second map
from Sergi s work on the next page represents. It is impossible
to separate the two elements in the modern population. Per
haps even Helbig is right in his contention that Umbrians and
Etruscans were really one and the same. All that we can as
sert is that the modern Tuscans are strongly infused with
* Introduction to K. O. Miiller, 1877.
t Riitimeyer and His, 18643, p. 30, seem to be doubtful on this; but
not till 1868 did Calori fully prove the prevalent brachycephaly of the
modern Tuscans.
268
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
broad-headedness. Greek or Semitic racial intermixture would
certainly have produced the opposite result from this ; for, as we
shall see, both of these are alike purely Mediterranean in phys
ical type. To resolve the difficulty of both an Umbrian and an
Etruscan intermixture throughout the same region we must
turn to our second witness, that of crania from the ancient
tombs.
Archaeological research during the last few years has fully
confirmed the first discoveries of a quarter century ago that the
crania from the Etruscan tombs betray a very mixed people.
This explains the variety of theories of ethnic origin, based
upon the earliest investigations. Retzius (?4;t) , for example,
had no difficulty in proving a common origin with the Lapps,
Basques, and Rhsetians
from a few broad-
headed crania in his
possession ; and von
Baer ( 00) as readily
proved the opposite
of a relation to the
dolichocephalic races.*
Nicolucci ( G9) first es
tablished the fact of a
great heterogeneity of
cranial types in these
tombs ; confirmed by
Zannetti ( 71) ,who found
about one quarter of
the heads to be brachy-
Etruscan period.
cephalic, the remainder being allied to the elongated oval type
indigenous to the peninsula. This relative proportion of the
two is to-day confirmed by the best authority, f It indicates a
population at this early period more purely Italian than that
* Lombroso, 1878, and Rosa, 1882, in their attempt to identify the
Garfagnana population about Lucca with the Etruscans, represent this
f Calori, 1873, pp. 65 seq.\ Sergi, 1883 b, p. 139; 1897 b, p. 169; 1898 a,
pp. 108-114; Nicolucci, 1888, pp. 42-46; Zampa, 1891 ; pp. 48-56.
MEDITERRANEAN RACE: ITALY, SPAIN, AND AFRICA. 269
of modern Tuscany,* although the broad-headedness even
to-day is less accentuated in Etruria proper than in Umbria,
according to our map. Which of these two cranial forms un
earthed in their tombs, one Mediterranean, one Alpine, repre
sents the Etruscans proper, and which the population subjugated
by them? To us it appears as if here, in the case of the Etrus
cans as of the Teutonic immigrants, there were reason to sus
pect that the ethnic importance of the invasion has been im
mensely overrated by historians and philologists. It seems
quite probable that the Etruscan culture and language may
have been determined by the decided impetus of a compact
conquering class; and that the peasantry or lower orders of
population remained relatively undisturbed, f If this be indeed
so, one might expect that the minority representation of broad-
headed Alpine types, which we have mentioned, was proof of
a northern derivation of this ruling class. But then, again,
there are those antecedent Umbrians to be considered. It is
a difficult problem at best. Perhaps, and indeed it seems most
probable, Sergi \ is right in asserting that the Etruscans were
really compounded of two ethnic elements, one from the north
bringing the Hallstatt civilization of the Danube Valley, the
other Mediterranean both by race and by culture. The sudden
outburst of a notable civilization may have been the result of
the meeting of these two streams of human life at this point
midway of the peninsula.
The Tiber River really marks the boundary between com
petitive Italy and isolated Italy, so to speak. Rome arose at
this point, where Latium, protected by this river, repressed the
successive invasions from the north.* It is curious to note
that the present population of the city is precisely similar to its
predecessor in classical times, so far as archaeology can dis
cover. The peninsula south of this point has little of special
* Nicolucci, 1888, pp. 12-17 : Calori, 1873, P- I 5 I -
f Livi, 1886, p. 273; 1896 a, p. 156. Nicolucci, 1869, agrees.
\ 1898 a, pp. 113-125.
* Von Duhn, 1896, p. 127. On Roman crania, consult Maggiorani ;
Nicolucci, 1875 ; Sergi, 1895 d ; Moschen, 1893 a. On Pompeiian crania,
Nicolucci, 1882.
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
interest to offer. From the Alpine type of population in the
north the transition to a purely Mediterranean one is at last
fully accomplished. The peasantry is strongly brunet with
few exceptions; almost abnormally short-statured; and as uni
versally dolichocephalic as the Spaniards or the Berbers in
Africa. Especially is this true in the mountains of Calabria,
where geographical isolation is at an extreme. On the other
hand, all along the seacoast we find evidence of colonization
from across the water. It is curious to contrast the north and
south of the peninsula in this respect. North of Rome the
immigrant populations all lie inland, while the aboriginal Li-
gurian is closely confined to the seacoast. In the south, on the
other hand, the conditions are exactly reversed. Apulia from
the heel of the peninsula north, being adjacent to the western
coast of the Balkan Peninsula, contains a number of such
foreign colonies from over seas. Some of these are of especial
interest as hailing from the extremely broad-headed country
east of the Adriatic. So persistently have these Albanians
kept by themselves, that after four centuries of settlement they
are still characterized by a cephalic index higher by four units
than the pure long-headed Italians about them.* Many Greek
colonists have settled along these same coasts. Greek dialects
are still spoken at a number of places. They, however, being
of the same ethnic Mediterranean stock as the natives, are not
physically distinguishable" from them.f Perhaps the strongly
accentuated broad-headedness in Salerno, just south of Naples
along the coast, may be due to a similar colonization from
abroad. Our portrait type for this district on the opposite page
is certainly very different in head form from the purely Medi
terranean Sardinian types, to which the normal south Italians
tend. And our recruit from Salerno justly represents the
people of his district. Colonization by sea rather than land
would seem to be most probable.
In conclusion, let us for a moment compare the two
islands of Sicily and Sardinia in respect of their popula-
* Zampa, 1886 a ; and 1886 b, p. 636; Pulle, 1898, p. 86; Livi, 1896 a,
pp. 167-177.
f Nicolucci, 1865 ; Zampa, 1886 a.
BERGAMO, Lombardy. Blondish. Index 82.5.
SALERNO, Campania. Index 84.5.
CAMPIDANO D OKISTANO, Sardinia. Index 69
ITALY.
MEDITERRANEAN RACE: ITALY, SPAIN, AND AFRICA. 2 /I
tions.* With the latter we may rightly class Corsica, although it
belongs to France politically. Our maps corroborate the his
torical evidence with surprising clearness. In the first place, the
fertility and general climate of Sicily are in marked contrast to
the volcanic, often unpropitious geological formations of the
other islands. In respect of topography as well, the differences
between the two are very great. Sardinia is as rugged as the
Corsican nubble north of it. In accessibility and strategic
importance Sicily is alike remarkable. Commanding both
straits at the waist of the Mediterranean, it has been, as Free
man in his masterly description puts it, " the meeting place of
the nations." Tempting, therefore, and accessible, this island
has been incessantly overrun by invaders from all over Eu
rope Sicani, Siculi, Fenicii, Greeks, and Romans, followed
by Albanians, Vandals, Goths, Saracens, Normans, and at last
by the French and Spaniards. Is it any wonder that its peo
ple are less pure in physical type than the Sardinians or even
the Calabrians on the mainland near by? Especially is this
noticeable on its southern coasts, always more open to coloni
zation than on the northern edge. Nor is it surprising, as
Freeman rightly adds, that " for the very reason that Sicily has
found dwelling places for so many nations, a Sicilian nation
there never has been."
Sardinia and Corsica, on the other hand, are two of the
most primitive and isolated spots on the European map; for
they are islands a little off the main line. Feudal institutions
of the middle ages still prevail to a large extent. The old
wooden plough of the Romans is still in common use to-day.
This geographical isolation is peculiarly marked in the interior
and all along the eastern coasts, where almost no harbours are
to be found. Here in Sardinia stature descends to the very
lowest level in all Europe, almost in the world. Livi assures us
that it is entirely a matter of race, a conclusion from which we
have already taken exception in our chapter on Stature. To
us it means, rather, that population has always gone out from
* Authorities on these are indexed in our supplementary Bibliography.
On Sicily, Morselli, 1873, an ^ Sergi, 1895, are best ; on Sardinia, Zannetti,
1878 ; Gillebert d Hercourt, Niceforo, and Onnis. Cf. Livi, 1896 a, pp. 177
et seq.
2/2 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
the island and never in, thus leaving to-day nothing but the
dregs, so to speak. At all events, whether a result of unfavour
able environment or not, this trait is very widespread to-day.
It seems to have become truly hereditary. It extends over
fertile and barren tracts alike. In other details also there is
the greatest uniformity all over the island a uniformity at an
extreme of human variation be it noted : for this population is
entirely free from all intermixture with the Alpine race so
prevalent in the north. It betrays a number of strongly Afri
can characteristics, which are often apparent in the facial fea
tures. The flattened nose, with open nostrils, thick lips, and
retreating foreheads are all notable in a remarkable series of
portraits, which Dr. Livi courteously placed at our disposition.
These details, with the long and narrow face, are represented
in our two portraits reproduced in this chapter. Imagine the
black hair and eyes, with a stature scarcely above five feet, and
a very tin-European appearance is presented.
We have now seen how gradual is the transition from one
half of Italy to the other. The surprising fact in it all, is that
there should be as much uniformity as our maps indicate.
Despite all the overturns, the tips and downs of three thousand
years of recorded history and an unknown age precedent to it,
it is wonderful to observe how thoroughly all foreign ethnic
elements have been melted down into the general population.
The political unification of all Italy; the rapid extension of
means of communication; and, above all, the growth of great
city populations constantly recruited from the rural districts;
will speedily blot out all remaining trace of local differences
of origin. Not so with the profound contrasts between the
extremes of north and south. These must ever stand as wit-
ness to differences of physical origin as wide apart as Asia is
from Africa. This is a question which we defer to a subse
quent chapter, in which we shall seek to explain the wider
significance of the phenomenon both physically and in respect
of the origins of European civilization.
" Beyond the Pyrenees begins Africa." Once that natural
barrier is crossed, the Mediterranean racial type in all its purity
MEDITERRANEAN RACE : ITALY, SPAIN, AND AFRICA. 273
confronts us. The human phenomenon is entirely parallel
with the sudden transition to the flora and fauna of the south.*
The Iberian populations, thus isolated from the rest of Europe,
are allied in all important anthropological respects with the
peoples inhabiting Africa north of the Sahara from the Red
Sea to the Atlantic. These peoples are characterized, as we
have seen, by a predominant long-headedness, in this respect
quite like the Teutonic type in Scandinavia; by an accentuated
darkness of hair and eyes; and by a medium stature inclining
to short. The oval facial characteristics of this group have
been already illustrated in our portraits in this chapter. A
large area of such conspicuous purity of physical type as here
exists over a vast extent of territory is rarely to be found.
The Iberian Peninsula itself is little differentiated geograph
ically. It consists of a high plateau, too cold in winter for the
Mediterranean flora and fauna, and too arid in summer for
those of the middle temperate zone. As a consequence its hu
man activities and its population are in the main necessarily
located in the coastal strip along the seaboard. Of natural
barriers or defensible positions in the form of mountains or im
portant rivers there are none, save in the northwest, where in
Galicia and Asturias a rugged and lofty region occurs. As a
consequence of this geographical structure, the peninsula as a
whole has been neither attractive to the colonist nor the in
vader. It has, it is true, formed the natural highway from
Africa to Europe, and has been overrun at all times by ex
traneous peoples. These invasions have almost ahvays been
ephemeral in character, disappearing to leave little except
ruins along the way. Thus the population still remains quite
true to its original pattern ; nearer, indeed, to the aboriginal
European racial type than that of any other civilized land on
the continent.
The homogeneity of the Iberian Peninsula is well expressed
by our map of the head form on the next page.f A variation of
* Peschel, 1880, i, p. 33, aptly describes the geographical contrasts
on the two Pyrenean slopes.
f Dr. F. Oloriz, Distribution geografica del indice cefalico en Espafia,
Madrid, 1894 ; La talla humana en Espafia, Madrid, 1896 ; Hoyos Sainz
274
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
cephalic index, imperceptible to the eye, of scarcely four units
from the most dolichocephalic type in Europe is at once appar
ent.* Only where the topography changes, in the northwest
ern corner, is there any considerable increase of broad-headed-
ness, shown by our darker shading, f This brachycephaly
closely follows the mountainous areas in many places. It is
not a transitory phenomenon. Crania from the earliest times
CEPHALIC INDEX
SPAIN.
AFTER OLOKZ. 9*
6368 OBSERVATIONS.
LONGEST HEAOS
betoken the same tendency.]: On the other side of the penin
sula, the Catalan strip of coast about Valencia exhibits the
opposite extreme. Portugal also is equally dolichocephalic,
and De Aranzadi, Un avance a la antropologia de Espana, Madrid, 1892 ;
and Vorlaufige Mittheilungen zur Anthropologie von Spanien, Archiv
fiir Anth., xxii, pp. 425-433. For Portugal, I have manuscript data most
courteously offered by Dr. Ferraz de Macedo, of Lisbon. On ethnology,
Lagneau, 1875, is best. See also index to our Bibliography.
* Oloriz, 18943, p. 72.
f O16riz shows this strikingly by diagram at p. 83. Cf. also p. 163.
\ Ibid., p. 259. Cf. Jacques, 1887, on the prehistoric archaeology also.
MEDITERRANEAN RACE : ITALY, SPAIN, AND AFRICA.
2/5
as our map at page 53, in which Dr. Ferraz de Macedo s data
for that country have been incorporated, exhibits. In discuss
ing the linguistic geography of the peninsula (page 18) we
took occasion to note that the political separation of Portugal
from Spain is in no degree fundamental. Now, in respect of
this physical characteristic of the head form, we are able to
verify the same truth.
The first glance at our map of average stature would seem
to indicate a variability strongly in contrast with the homo
geneity of the people, so notable in the head form. This is
largely due to the over-emphasized contrast of shading on
our map. For the legend shows that in reality the extreme
difference, according to provinces, is less than two inches. Its
Below l.^
(5FT 36 UC)
distribution geographically has no great significance. Com
paring this map with that of languages, on page 18, we observe
perhaps that the Catalans as a whole are somewhat taller, while
276
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
the northwestern provinces are rather more diminutive, with
the exception of those in the Basque country. As for Portu
gal, the data exhibited on our map at page 97 show it to be
quite homogeneous in character with its larger neighbour.
Taking the evidence as a whole, it would seem that a slight in
dication of the comparative prosperity of the coastal regions
all about the peninsula was apparent in a somewhat taller popu
lation. The interior plateau, especially between Caceres and
Madrid, represents perhaps the aridity and barrenness of the
environment.
It is pertinent at this point to ask for an ethnological ex
planation of the physical phenomena which w y e have described.
All authorities agree as to the primitive Iberians being the
primary possessors of the soil. Whether the Ligurians ever
penetrated as far as this, beyond the Pyrenees, is certainly mat
ter for doubt.* Following the Ligurians came the Celts at a
very early period, pretty certainly overrunning a large part of
the peninsula, f To them does the still noticeable brachy-
cephaly along the northern coast seem to be most likely at
tributable.;!: The people of this region apparently betray many
mental characteristics also, more or less peculiar to the Celts
elsewhere in Europe. Tubino * comments upon their reserve,
amounting almost to moroseness, as compared with the lively
peasants in Murcia and Tarragona. As for the later inunda
tion of Saracens and Mors, there is a profound difficulty in
the identification of their descendants, owing to their simi
larity to the natives in all important respects. Canon Taylor
has shown their extension by means of a study of place names. ||
They seem to have been in evidence everywhere except in the
extreme north and northwest. But intermixture with them
would not have modified either the head form or the stature in
any degree. Aranzadi believes the very prevalent " honey-
brown " eyes of the southwest quarter of Spain, near Granada,
* Jacques, 1887, denies Lagneau s assertion to this effect. Oloriz,
18943, p. 264, discusses these questions. See also page 262 supra.
f Arbois de Jubainville, iS93-V)4 ; Minguez, 1887.
\ Hoyos Sainz and Aranzadi, 1892, p. 34.
* 1877, p. 105. II Words and Places, p. 68.
MEDITERRANEAN RACE : ITALY, SPAIN, AND AFRICA. 277
to be due perhaps to strong Moorish influence.* And the
effect of a Moorish cross is also apparent in producing- a
broader and more African nose, according to the same author
ity. Beyond this the permanent influence of the foreigner
has been slight. The varied experiences of Portugal with the
English and French invasions, seems to have left no perma
nent effects, f In fine, we may conclude that the present popu
lation is closely typical of that of the earliest prehistoric period.
It is cranially not distinguishable either from the prehistoric
Long Barrow type in the British Isles, or from that which pre
vailed throughout France anterior to its present broad-headed
population of Celtic derivation.
We must describe the modern African population of Ha-
mitic speech very briefly.]; It falls into two great divisions
the Oriental and the Western. In the first are included the en
tire population of northeastern Africa from the Red Sea,
throughout the Soudan, Abyssinia, the Nile Valley, and across
the Sahara Desert as far as Tunis. The second or western
group is the only one to-day in contact or close affinity with
Kurope, although both groups are a unit in physical charac
teristics.* All through them we have to distinguish in turn
two elements the nomadic Arabs and the sedentary or local
population. It is the latter alone which concerns us in this
place. Of the Arabs we shall have to speak in treating of
the Jews and Semites. This sedentary population is compre
hended in all the northwestern region under the generic name
of Berbers, whence our geographical term Barbary States.
The physical traits of these Berbers are at once apparent by
* Archiv fiir Anth., xxii, 1894, p. 431, with maps showing- the dis
tribution of the eye colour.
f Da Silva Amada, Ethnogenie du Portugal, 1880.
\ The best resume of our knowledge of these peoples is by $ergi,
Africa: Antropologia della Stirpe Camitica, Torino, 1897. Among the
original authorities are Collignon, 1887 a and 1888 ; Bertholon, 1891 and
1897 ; Paulitschke and R. Hartmann (q. ?.).
* Cf. Sergi, 18973, p. 259, on their fundamental unity of cranial type
since the earliest Egyptian times. Carette is best on ethnographical
classification.
278
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
reason of their isolation from all admixture with the other
ethnic types of Europe. The distinctively long, narrow face
appears in most of our subjects, although the broad-faced, dis-
harmonic Cro-Magnon type is quite generally represented
(pages 45 and 173). In many cases the slightly concave nose
in profile is characteristic, suggesting the negro. This fre
quently occurs among the Sardinians also. The hair of these
people is the most African trait about them. Among all the
Hamites from Abyssinia to Morocco it varies from the Euro
pean wavy form to a crispy or curly variety. This may with
certainty be ascribed to intermixture with the negro tribes
south of the Sahara. Our Moor from Senegal, on the oppo
site portrait page, offers an illustration of this variety of hair.
Upon the soft and wavy-haired European stock has surely
been ingrafted a negro cross. By this characteristic alone
may some of the Berbers be distinguished from Europeans, for
the blackness of their hair and eyes is scarcely less accentuated
than that of the Spanish and south Italians. Especially is this
Europeanism true of the coast populations, the Riff Berbers
in Morocco, for example, being decidedly European in ap
pearance.* While local variations of type are common there
can be no doubt of the entire unity and purity of this whole
group.f An additional token of ethnic similarity among these
people is that beards among the men are uniformly rare, and
that the bodily habit is tfery seldom heavy. The slender and
agile frame may be regarded as a distinctively Mediterranean
trait.
The entire population of Africa and Europe north of the
Sahara and south of the Alps and Pyrenees is overwhelmingly
of a pure brunet type, as we have already shown. J Neverthe
less, an appreciable element of blondness appears in Morocco,
and especially in the Atlas Mountains. Tissot,* in fact, asserts
that in some districts one third of the population is of this
blond type. This, judging from the testimony of others, is an
* Sergi, 1897 a, p. 336. f Op. fit., pp. 312-316.
\ Page 71 supra.
* 1876, p. 390; Harris, 1897, p. 66; Gillebert d Hercourt, 1868, p. 10 ;
Andree, 1878, p. 337.
Blond KABYLE. Index 78.7. Index 76.5. MOOR, Senegal. 92.
KABYLE, Tunis. Eyes blue, light hair. Index 73.
94-
BERBER, Tunis. Eyes and .hair black. Index 70.
NORTH AFRICA.
96.
MEDITERRANEAN RACE: ITALY, SPAIN, AND AFRICA. 279
exaggeration, yet the existence of such blondness about Mo
rocco can not be denied. It seems to become less frequent
in western Tunis, finally becoming practically negligible as one
goes east.* Our series of portraits herewith, courteously
loaned by Dr. Bertholon of Tunis, shows two of these blond
Kabyles.
Several explanations for this curious phenomenon of blond-
ness in Africa have been presented. Brinton, and after him
Keane, have, because of this appreciable blond element in
northwestern Africa, attempted to make this region the original
centre from which the blondness of Europe has emanated.
This interesting hypothesis, seemingly based upon an attempt
to reconcile the early origin of civilization in Africa with the
Indo-Germanic Aryan theory, is controverted by all the facts
concerning the relative brunetness of Europe, which we have
heretofore outlined. Much more probable does it appear that
this blondness is rather an immigrant offshoot from the north
than a vestige of a primitive and overflowing source of it in
Africa. Several attempts at historical explanations have been
made, especially that the Vandals introduced this blondness
during the historic period. f This theory was then rejected in
favour of the view that it represented an immigrant which en
tered .Africa from the north at a much earlier time, its path be
ing marked by the occurrence of the dolmens all over France
and Spain. t Its localization in the vicinity of the straits of Gib
raltar certainly seemed to favour some such view of northern
derivation, although the direct proof of its connection with any
specific culture is problematical* Perhaps these blonds were
dolmen builders ; they may have been of the same stock as
the extinct Guanches of the Canary archipelago, or even of a
Libyan origin, according to P>rinton.|| \Ye will not venture
to decide the matter. It would seem, from a recent study of the
* Collignon, 1887 a, p. 234, and 1888 ; Bertholon, 1892, pp. 14-4!
I Broca, 1876, refuted this.
\ Faidherbe, 1854; and in Bull. Soc. d Anth., 1869, p. 532; 1870, p. 48,
and 1873, p. 602 ; Topinard, 1873, l &74, and 1881.
* Verneau, 1886, p. 24.
I 1890 a, p. 116. Arbois de Jubainville insists on an Iberian affinity of
these Libyans.
28O THE RACES OF EUROPE.
physical facts, that two separate centres of such blondness are
distinguishable. The principal one is located in the fastnesses
of the Atlas Mountains in the interior, while another exists
along the Mediterranean coast among the Riff Berbers.* It is
said that two fifths of these latter people are of blondish type.
As for the coastal blonds, they might easily be accounted for
on the ground of immigration, but such an explanation is ob
viously impossible for the Atlas group. Sergi f offers a sug
gestion, which had already occurred to me, which seems plau
sible enough. Why may not this blondness in the Atlas Moun
tains, surely indigenous to Africa, be of an environmental ori
gin ? In our chapter on Blonds and Brunets we have spoken
at length of such influences. The case is parallel to that of
the light-haired and blue-eyed Amorites of the mountains in
Palestine, \ who since the earliest Egyptian monuments have
been thus represented as a blond people. Perhaps in their
case as well they are merely the local product of environ
mental causes ; if not, one theory of immigration is as good
as another so far as conclusive proof is concerned.
* Quedenfeldt, xxi, pp. 115 and 190. His denial of the Atlas blond-
ness is controverted by all other observers. Collignon, 1888, finds a
similar blondness along the coast of Tunis.
t !897 a, p. 296. His treatment of these blonds is admirable at pp.
284-296.
J Sayce, 1888 a.
CHAPTER XL
THE ALPINE RACE: SWITZERLAND, THE TYROL, AND THE
NETHERLANDS.
THE Alpine highlands of central Europe Switzerland and
the Tyrol while perfectly well determined in the main fea
tures of their racial constitution, abound in curious and inter
esting anthropological contrasts and contradictions.* This is
not alone due to their central geographical position, for that
by itself would long ago have entirely destroyed any ethnic
individuality which this little district might have possessed.
The constant passage to and fro across it of migrant peoples
from north, south, east, and west would have been fatal to
purity of physical type. Its dominant race has been preserved
for us by the rugged configuration of its surface alone. The
mountains offer us superb illustrations of the effect of geo
graphical isolation upon man ; this we have all been taught to
note in its social and political phenomena. And it is this two
fold aspect of Switzerland and the Tyrol geographically which
also enables us to account for their physical contrasts. We
expect and we find almost absolute purity of type; but we are
not surprised to discover also radical contradictions on every
side.
The influence of the topography and central situation of this
mountainous region is well exemplified in the prevailing speech
of the people to-day. The three great languages Erench,
* Prof. J. Kollmann, of Basel, is the best living authority on Switzer
land. His most important contributions are those of 1881 a, i88i- 83,
1882 0,1885 a . whose titles are given in our Bibliography. His courtesy in
obtaining photographs and other material merits the sincerest grati
tude. A second authority, classical although now obsolete, is Riitimeyer
and His, Crania Helvetica, Basel, 1864. Consult also the works of Drs.
Bedot, Studer, and others herein cited.
281
282 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
German, and Italian come together along most irregular
boundaries. These are shown upon our maps at pages 101 and
284. Then, besides these, subdivided by the way into thirty-
five dialects of German, sixteen of French, and eight of Italian;
there are five varieties of the Romansch in the Grisons and
Tyrol. And all this, too, as Taylor * says, in a country but
twice the size of Wales. The Romansch is really a degenerate
and primitive Romance or Latin language. Under the sev
eral names of Ladino or Friaoulian it still persists in the most
isolated regions of Italy and Austria. Everywhere it is gradu
ally receding before the official languages, which are pressing
upon it from every direction.
The head form throughout the Alps, as our general map
of Europe has proved, is in general at an extreme of broad-
headedness of the human species. Switzerland and the Tyrol,
according to this test, must be adjudged overwhelmingly of
the Alpine racial type. Von Baer s discovery of this in 1860
established one of the first landmarks in the anthropological
history of Europe ; it has been confirmed by all observers
since that time.f Great local variations, however, occur.
Switzerland, especially the northern German-speaking half, is
far less pure than either the Tyrol or Savoy. Even Bavaria
seems to be of purer type.J A Teutonic long-headedness has
interpenetrated the entire middle region, seemingly having en
tered by the Rhine and the valley of the Aar. This will ap
pear likewise from consideration of the other physical traits.
Whether the first Teutons were the Helvetians, who conquered
or drove the broad-headed Rhsetians before them, is a matter
for historical identification.** The anthropologists incline to the
* Words and Places, p. 34.
f His and Riitimeyer, 1864 ; Kollmann, 1885 a ; Beddoe, 1885, p. 81 ;
Scholl, 1891 ; Bedot, 1895 ; and Pitard, 1898, are best on Switzerland.
Their results, so far as they give averages at all, are shown on our map
of stature at page 285. Kollmann s results, among the best, do not,
unfortunately, give averages.
\ A comparison of the two seriation curves on page 116 will prove this
at once. On Savoy see Hovelacque, iSyy- ycj, and Longuet.
* Riitimeyer and His, 1864, at p. 32, and Scholl, 1891, at p. 32, discuss
historical probabilities. On the Ligurians and Etruscans, with their
affinities, consult our chapter on Italy.
THE ALPINE RACE: SWITZERLAND. 283
opinion that the ancient Rhsetians, whose language still persists
in the Romansch, were so far influenced by Celtic-speaking
invaders as for a time to adopt their speech and culture.
Throughout all this time they remained faithful to what Riiti-
meyer and His called the " Dissentis " type, because of its prev
alence in the upper Rhine Valley. It conforms to our notion
of the Alpine race. These people were the lineal descendants of
the Lake Dwellers, who settled the Alps in the early stone age.*
Their racial equilibrium was upset at a comparatively late pe
riod by the advent of the Helvetians, Burgundians, and other
Teutonic tribes. These people came as conquerors from the
north. It is significant that their physical type prevails even
to-day more noticeably in the upper classes. f A result of the
ethnic intermixture has been in many cases to produce a dis-
harmonic head, with the brachycephalic cranium conjoined to
a rather longish and narrow face. This type is exemplified
in our two portraits from the Tyrol at pages 290 and 291. A
fine pure Alpine head and face is illustrated by our type from
Dissentis. The possibilities of pure Teutonic descent appear
in the type from Basel.
The Teutonic racial influence invading Switzerland along
its principal water course is clearly manifested by our map on
the next page. Kollmann s researches proved the existence
of a relatively blond zone across the middle, setting aside the
Romansch-Italian and the French-speaking sections on the
east and west as relatively brunet districts.^ His results as to
pure brunet types were confused by the widespread prevalence
of an intermediate or neutral coloured eye among the Swiss.
Beddoe, by charting the hair colour, alone seems to reach far
more definite conclusions.* There can be little doubt that the
more primitive substratum of the Alpine type has been rele-
* Studer and Bannwarth, 1894, p. 13. Sergi, 1898 a, pp. 61-68, in his
attempt to prove the lake dwellers to be of Mediterranean descent, is, I
think, in error.
f His, 1864, p. 870.
| Our map at page 222 shows his distribution of brunet types. His
report, 1881 a, contains all original data.
* At Beddoe, 1885, pp. 75-85, is perhaps the best brief summary of
Swiss anthropology anywhere available.
284
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
THE ALPINE RACE: SWITZERLAND.
285
gated to the southeast and southwest by a wave of advancing
blondness from the north. The extreme blondness of Geneva,
ancient capital of the Burgundian kingdom, may be of recent
origin from this people. Whether the gray iris, which is the
2 86 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
most common shade among the peasantry, associated with a
brownish colour of hair, is indeed a distinctive Alpine trait ; or
whether it is merely a result of the intermixture of blond and
brunet varieties, is still matter of dispute. In any case, it is a
marked peculiarity of the population all through the Alpine
highlands.
Our map of stature in Switzerland, in which, as always,
dark tints denote the populations of shorter bodily height,
brings to light another of those curious contradictions in which
this little country abounds. While its eastern and western ex
tremes, as we have just shown, are in respect of the colour of
hair and eyes divided by an intrusive wedge of relative blond-
ness; now in stature this blondest girdle appears to be com
posed of the relatively shortest-statured population. To be
sure, the differences are not great, but they are perfectly well
proved by these data, here mapped for the first time. Con
firmatory testimony comes from comparison with the statures
of the surrounding countries.* Geneva, Yaud, Neufchatel, the
Bernese Jura, and, we may add. Savoy also, surely lie within the
influence of a specific centre of tall stature which covers the
Burgundian or northeastern corner of France. On the other
hand, the canton of Graubiinden marks the outermost concen
tric circle of a second core of tallness which culminates along
the Adriatic Sea. This influence is equally apparent in north
eastern Italy. It endows "the Tyrolese, whose peculiarities of
stature we have described upon page 101, with a marked su
periority over the Swiss in this respect, f
* See maps on pages 149, 227, and 236. Livi, 1883, gives a map of
stature in Italy by averages which invites comparison. Garret (1883)
gives the average for 13,199 Savoyards of 1.649 metres. Lorenz and
Bedot both confirm these data exactly for the Orisons and Valais.
f Schweizerische Statistik, 1892, p. 38, gives parallel data on the pro
portions of statures above 1.69 metres, by cantons, strictly comparable
with our map of the Tyrol. Roughly speaking, a population with 30 per
cent of statures superior to 1.69 metres seems to correspond to an average
height of 1.66 metres; 20 to 25 per cent to an average of 1.63 metres;
and 8 to 10 per cent to an average of 1.60 metres. Lorenz, 1895, confirms
this. Even allowing for a difference in the age of recruits of two years,
the Tyrol remains superior.
THE ALPINE RACE: SWITZERLAND. 287
All this is indeed very confusing. It seems to confound
all attempts at an ethnic explanation. The variations are
slight, to be sure, but they are all contrary to racial probability.
\\ e are forced again to take refuge in purely environmental
explanations. The law that areas of extreme elevation or in
fertility are unfavourable to the development of stature has
already been discussed. We must invoke it here. Especially
does it seem to fit the situation in the canton of Berne. Three
zones of decreasing stature from the Jura to the Oberland are
shown on our map. In this latter case the most widespread
area of stunted population in Switzerland must, it seems to
us, be due to the unfavourable influence of the habitat. If the
Oberland were indeed, as Studer presumes because of its rela
tive blondness, an area of late Teutonic colonization, it surely
would be of greater average stature than it here appears. One
other centre of relative shortness is clear in the Appenzells
and Glarus. To test it I have traced it through a number
of years of recruits. It appears in each contingent. Chalu-
meau s ( n " > map brings it into strong relief. Perhaps here
again some local influence has been in play. A field for an
thropological research of great interest in this quarter of the
country is as yet almost untouched. Detailed analyses are,
however, needed. Cantonal averages show very little, for
they include all extremes of environment at once.
Another example of the competency of environment to con
fuse the phenomena of race is offered by a detailed study of
the school children in the canton of Berne by Dr. Studer ( 80) .
We have just examined the distribution of stature in this re
gion, noting the depressing effect of the high Alps in this re
spect. Topographically this canton extends over three regions
quite distinct in character. A middle strip along the valley of
the Aar as far as the city of Berne consists of an elevated, not
infertile table-land, with a rolling, hilly surface. This be
comes gradually more rugged, until it terminates in the high
mountains of the Bernese Oberland south of Interlaken. Here
in this chain we have the most elevated portion of Switzerland ;
and, we may add. one of the most unpropitious for agricul
ture or industry. The peasantry hereabouts must live upon the
288
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
tourist or not at all. The northern third of Berne covers the
Jura Mountains, quite high, but of such geological formation
that the soil yields not ungraciously to agriculture. Thus
from the economic point of view we may divide the canton into
two parts, setting aside the southern third the Oberland
as decidedly inferior to the rest. The people of this region in
the ante-tourist era could not but be unfavourably affected by
their material environment.
Our map shows that this economic contrast is duplicated
in the anthropological sense by an appreciable increase of
blondness within the Oberland, which becomes more marked
as the fastnesses of the mountains are approached. North
of the city of Berne there are from seven to eleven per cent of
pure blonds ; in the Oberland sometimes upward of three times
THE ALPINE RACE : THE TYROL. 289
as many. Is it possible that this blondness in the mountains
may be due to race? If so, it must be Teutonic. \Ye have
just seen that Switzerland is cut in halves at this point by an
intrusive strip of such Teutonic blondness. Dr. Studer ex
plained the phenomenon on the assumption that this blondness
migrating to the south along the Rhine, and then up the Aar,
had heaped itself up, so to speak, against this great geograph
ical barrier, by a colonization of lands hitherto unoccupied by
the native inhabitants. This supposition might be tenable
were not the evidence from all parts of Europe flatly opposed
to it. There is nothing to show that the law of segregation
of the Alpine type in the areas of isolation does not hold here
as in the Tyrol, in western Switzerland, and all over the con
tinent. Central Switzerland was historically overrun by the
Helvetians, as we have said, who have been identified as Teu
tonic by race. The Rhaetians were the more primitive Alpine
type. Every principle of human nature and ethnology opposes
the supposition that these conquering Helvetians would be
content to leave the darker Rhsetians in full possession of the
fertile plain of the Aar while they betook themselves to the
barren valleys of the Oberland. Everywhere else in Europe
the nile is, " To the conquerors belong the plains, to the van
quished the hills." The blondness of the Oberland must there
fore be regarded as racially anomalous. Another explanation
for it must be found in the influence of environment. It is, in
our opinion, traceable most probably to the effect upon the pig
mental processes of the mountainous and infertile territory of
these high Alps. In an earlier chapter * the evidence upon
this point for Italy seemed to be quite clear. Further examples
will be mentioned later.
The broad-headed type not only forms the bulk of the pop
ulation all through the Alps ; it is so much more primitive than
all others that it lies closer to the soil. The racial character of
the population varies in direct relation with the physical geog
raphy of the country. The Tyrol is the most favoured spot in
which to study the succession of the long and the broad heads
290 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
respectively.* It is the geographical centre of the continent. It
holds strategically the great highway of communication the
Brenner Pass between the north and the south of Europe.
As our map on the next page shows, it is also the crest of the
great European watershed. From it flow the Inn River and
the Drave into the Danube, thence to the Baltic Sea on the
east; the Adige is an affluent of the Po, running due south
to the Adriatic; and on the west the branches of the Rhine
carry its waters into the Atlantic. Each of these great river
systems has marked a line of human immigration and has di
rected racial movement to this spot. By the Danube the Slavs
have come, and by Innsbruck over the Brenner, the Teutons
have passed across into the valley of the Adige and thence
directly into the plain of Italy. Back over the same route have
flowed many phases of Mediterranean culture into the north
from the time of the Phoenicians to the present. The Tyrol,
for these reasons, is the one spot in Europe in which racial
competition has come to a focus. The population is exceed
ingly mixed. I have seen men of the purest Italian type
speaking the German tongue; and at Botzen blond Teutons
who made use of good Italian. Despite this circumstance of
racial intermixture, there are within the Tyrol at the same time
a number of areas of isolation which possess very marked in
dividuality. We thus have the sharpest contrasts between
mixed and pure populations. The Oetzthal Alps, in the very
centre of the country, are as inaccessible as any part of Eu
rope. So rugged is this latter district that the dialects differ
from valley to valley, and the customs and social institutions
as well.f
We have already discussed the variations of stature in this
region (page 101). We have shown how sharp is the transi
tion from a tall population north of the Alps to the stunted
r/sumi
* The literature upon the Tyrol is especially rich. The best
of the detailed researches of Holl, Tappeiner, Rabl-Riickhard, Zucker-
kandl and others will be found in Toldt, Zur Somatologie der Tiroler,
Sitzungsb. Anth. Ges. Wien, xxiv, 1894, pp. 77-85- Our map is con
structed from his data. On languages consult Bidermann, Schneller, at
others.
f Tappeiner, 1878, p. 56, gives interesting examples.
TYROL.
99.
APPENZELL,
Brachycephalic disharmonic.
OBER-RHEIXTIIAL,
Pure Dissentis type.
BASEL, Teutonic type. Cephalic Index 64.
SWITZERLAND AND TYROL.
THE ALPINE RACE: THE TYROL.
291
people of Italian speech in the valley of the Adige. A similar
tendency toward brunetness is perfectly certain. The northern
half of the country is distinctly German in its colouring, while
the south becomes suddenly Italian."
Turning now to the anthropological map of this region,
based upon a measurement of over twelve thousand skulls, it
HEAD FORM
IN THE-
AUSTRIAN TYROL
DARIC SHADES INDICATE BROAD-
HEADED POPULATIONS-
will be found that in nearly every case the broad heads become
numerous in direct proportion to the increase in altitude.
In other words, the broad open valleys leading out toward the
great river systems of Europe are relatively dolichocephalic;
while the side branches in the Oetzthal Alps, isolated from for
eign influences, show a marked preponderance of round-head-
* Moschen, 1892, with map ; Tappeiner, 1878, p. 288.
2Q2 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
edness. Thus in the Stanzerthal and the valley of the Schnals,
indicated upon our map by the solid black tint, are two of the
broadest-headed spots in the world. In the first almost sev
enty per cent, in the second over ninety per cent of the cranial
indices were above 85.* These both lie, it will be observed,
well off the main line of travel, either by the Inn Valley or over
the Brenner. At their outlets they contain many heads of
medium breadth, but these become less frequent as we pene
trate the highlands. Like them are nearly all the side valleys
in this part of the Alps. So closely, indeed, does this physical
trait follow the topography that Ranke of Munich, as we have
already said, has endeavoured to connect broad-headedness and
altitude as cause and effect. For us the true explanation of
this phenomenon is entirely racial, f It is a product of genu
ine social selection. The two great branches of narrow-head-
edness, the blond Teuton at the north and the Mediterranean
at the south with its dark eyes and hair, have invaded the Alps
all the way from France to the Balkan states. At the time of
their coming a broad-headed population, as it would appear,
occupied the whole mountain chain. The result is that to-day
its main peculiarity has become attenuated exactly in propor
tion to the degree to which it has been exposed to racial inter
mixture with the new-comers.
Here is an example, then, of purely human stratification.
The Alpine type has been overlaid by the new-comers, or else-
has been gradually driven up and back into the areas of isola
tion. Those who remained along the great routes of travel
have been swamped in a flood of foreign intermixture. The
only exceptions to the rule we have observed of a primitive
broad-headed layer of population isolated in the uplands are
offered by the two valleys of the Ziller in the northeast and of
the Isel and Kalserthals just across the main chain of the Alps
by Linz. In these places Roll (<84) has proved that the con
verse of our proposition is true, since, as one ascends the val
leys the broad heads become less frequent. No explanation for
this has been offered ; but I have a suspicion that it points to
* Rabl-Riickhard, 1879, p. 210.
f Moschen, 1892, p. 125, discusses this.
THE ALPINE RACE: THE NETHERLANDS.
293
still a third layer of population. The Slavic peoples immi
grating within the historic period are all very broad-headed.
It is not impossible that this racial element which has overlaid
the Teutons in parts of eastern Europe may have followed them
into these valleys. Certain it is that Slavic skulls begin to
occur in this region. * It may have happened in this way :
\Yhen the long-headed Teutons came, they drove the primi
tive Alpine population into the side valleys. Then, when the
Slavs followed the Teutons, these latter types drifted up and
back as well, merging with the original broad-headed stock to
produce an intermediate type of head form. This would ob
viously be less broad than the new Slavic type in relative purity
along the main channels of immigration.
The evidence from the Tyrol that in the Alps the broad
heads lie nearest the soil is sustained by similar testimony from
the other end of the same mountain chain. Bedot and Pitard
have studied in some detail the population of the Yalais the
valley of the upper Rhone in western Switzerland. Their re
sults appear on our map at page 285. Here, precisely as in
the Tyrol, the side valleys are distinctly broader-headed than
that of the Rhone itself. Wherever the foreigner has come he
has lowered the cephalic index. Thus, for example, in the open
valley of the Rhone the average index is but 82, while in the
Gorge du Trient, leading over toward Savoy, it rises 87. Few
of the villages investigated are as isolated to-day as those in
the Oetztal valleys of the Tyrol ; but in proportion as they
lie off the main track the index rises appreciably. The evi
dence is indubitable that the broad-headed type is the oldest
and most primitive all through the Alps.
The Netherlands are generally conceded to be Teutonic,
just as Belgium is regarded as Gallic or French in its affinities.
Religious differences seem to confirm the deduction. Histo
rians Motley, for example assume the boundary between the
Catholic and Protestant Low Countries to be dependent in
large measure upon differences of physical descent. Nothing
* Zuckerkandl, 1884, p. 124.
294
THE RACES OF EUROFE.
could be more erroneous. We have already seen in Belgium,
that the transition from an Alpine to a Teutonic population is
entirely accomplished in passing from the Walloons to the
Flemings.* In the Netherlands similar contrasts of population
exist, although it is more difficult to correlate them exactly with
the geographical character of the country. Nevertheless, the
anthropology of this little nation is of exceeding interest, be
cause it offers a clew to the problem of the origin of the curi
ously tin-Teutonic populations which we have shown to exist
in Denmark and southwestern Norway.
Linguistically, the Netherlands to-day is at bottom entirely
Teutonic, but it is dialectically divided into several distinct
parts, f The Frisian language, which since the very earliest
times has occupied its present territory, is of interest as being
perhaps nearest to modern Saxon English and Lowland Scotch
of all the continental languages. It is spoken principally in the
province of Friesland (see map on page 296), in the hook of
Noord-Holland, and on the islands along the coast, even as far
north as the southern boundary of Denmark. J The language is
slowly giving way before the aggressive Low German speech.
The Saxon has crowded it out of Groningen and most of
Drenthe, where it once prevailed. Frankish is crowding it
back south of the Zuider Zee. Throughout Zeeland and south
Holland a mixed Friso-Frankish language is spoken, which
approaches the Flemish tcfward the Belgian frontier. Finally,
in Lirnburg and parts of Noord-Brabant we come upon the
Walloon linguistic influence, as an added element. Thus it
will be seen that, despite the small size of this country, the
greatest diversity of speech prevails. One is led to expect that
conditions giving rise to such variety of language ought to be
competent also to perpetuate racial peculiarities of importance.
Such is indeed the case, although, curiously enough, such phys
ical differences are quite independent of language in their dis
tribution.
* Page 162 supra.
\ For maps and data consult Kuyper, 1883, and especially Winkler,
1891. Lubach, 18633, p. 424, with map, treats of it fully also.
\ Hansen, 1892, maps it in Schleswig.
THE ALPINE RACE: THE NETHERLANDS. 295
Very few anthropometric observations upon the living
Dutch have been made; but research upon the cranial charac
teristics of the people has been ardently prosecuted for more
than a generation.* The material is difficult to handle, since
it has never been systematically co-ordinated. We have made
an attempt to do this in our map on the next page, which repre
sents as accurately as may be the present state of our knowl
edge concerning the head form of the people. It shows, as
we might expect, that the greater portion of the country is en
tirely Teutonic in respect of this characteristic. The people
are predominantly long-headed, oval-faced, tallish, and blond.
These latter traits are expressed with great purity, especially
in Friesland and the neighbouring provinces.! It is curious to
note also, as Lubach observes, that while the townspeople seem
to be slightly different from the peasantry, betraying greater
intermixture, few traces of any diversity between the upper
and lower classes exist. This he asserts to be a result of the
political homogeneity of the people and the absence of any
hereditary ruling class of foreign origin or descent. Little by
little, as we go south from Friesland, the people become darker-
complexioned, the most noticeable change being in the shorter
stature and more stocky habit. This we might expect, indeed,
from what we know of the Walloons, who are of Alpine racial
descent.
* The standard authority upon the Netherlands is the late Dr. A. Sasse,
of Zaandam. To his son, Dr. J. Sasse, who is ably continuing his
father s investigations, I am indebted for much assistance. Dr. De Man,
of Middelburg, is also an authority upon the especially interesting dis
trict of Zeeland. He has courteously placed much original matter at my
disposition. In addition to these, Drs. Folmer, De Pauw, and Jacques
have contributed to our knowledge of the country. Lists of their work
will be found in our supplementary Bibliography. The best comprehen
sive works are D. Lubach, De Bevoners van Nederland, Haarlem, 1863 ;
A. Sasse, Ethnologic van Nederland, Tijd. Aardrijkskundig Genootschap,
1879, pp. 323-331, with map; J. Sasse, Over Zeeusche Schedels, Academ-
isch Proefschrift, Amsterdam, 1891 ; and the later reports of Dr. A. Sasse
as chairman of the Commissie voor de Ethnologic van Nederland in Ned.
Tijd. voor Geneeskunde, especially 1893 and 1896.
f Lubach, 1863 a, pp. 420 ct setj., gives the best general description of
the population. Beddoe, 1885, pp. 38-43, gives a good summary also.
296
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
Yirchow injected an element of interest into the ethnology
of the Netherlands in 1876 by an attempt to prove craniologi-
CEPHALiC INDEA
NETHERLANDS,
ABOUT 000 OBSERVATIONS
79 and 80
81 62.
8364-
85 66
87-68
SMALL
CROSSES
INDICATE
PLACE WHERE.
OBSERVATIONS
WERE TAKEN-.
Data for this map are corrected from the original skull measurements by adding two
units, to make them comparable with other maps based upon study of living
heads.
cally that the Frisians were in reality not Teutons at all, but
were of a more primitive or Neanderthaloid derivation.* His
* Beitrage zur physischen Anthropologie der Deutschen, mit besonderer
Berucksichtigung der Friesen, Abh. K. Akad. Wiss., Berlin, aus dem
THE ALPINE RACE: THE NETHERLANDS. 297
conclusions were based upon studies of a few crania from the
islands of Urk and Marken, in the Zuider Zee. The Frisian
skull, according to Yirchow, was not only peculiar but atavistic
by reason of its peculiarly low vault and flat, retreating fore
head. In this respect it seemed to approach the ancient type
of the so-called Neanderthal race.* He did not deny that in
other respects the general proportions, especially as measured
by the cranial index, were quite similar to those of the other
Teutonic peoples. Subsequent investigation has, I think it
may be fairly said, entirely shaken confidence in Virchow s in
ferences. When measured according to normal and well-ac
cepted methods and in sufficient numbers to eliminate chance
variation, the northern Dutch seem to be in their head form, as
also in all their other physical characteristics, distinctly and
purely Teutonic.
Having vindicated the right of the northern and eastern
Dutch to the title of Teutons, we come to a different problem
in the case of the people of the provinces of Holland and Zee-
land. As our map shows, a sudden and violent rise of cephalic
index betrays the presence of a large population of Alpine or
broad-headed affinity. Even here all along the seacoast the
Teutonic characteristics seem to have persisted, probably due
to roving bands from the north, similar to those which have
settled all along the Htns Sa.miiiciim in France. But on the
inner islands, especially in Xord and Zuid Beveland, there is
every indication of a broad-headed Alpine colony of consider
able size. This is shown by the dark tints upon our map. An
extreme brachycephaly has been proved here by Dr. De Alan,
who has most courteously sent me many photographs of crania
from the region. We have already made use of two of these,
at page 38, as illustrative of the limits of type variation with
in the continent of Europe. f The long-headed one is from
Jahre 1876. Its conclusions are ably contested by Dr. A. Sasse, 1879,
and especially by Von Holder, 1880 ; and J. Sasse, 1896, furnishes a good
review of the controversy.
* Op. at., pp. 31, 75-109, 236, and 356.
f In addition to his other papers, those of 1865 and 1893 are especially
important. Consult on the finds at Saaftingen also ; Kemna, 1877 ; J.
Sasse, 1891, pp. 45-54; and De Pauw, 1885.
298
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
the seacoast, where Teutonic characteristics prevail; the other
globular one is from a village in the middle of the brachy-
cephalic area, submerged in the sixteenth century. These are
each typical ; the contrast is too marked to need further com
ment. There can be no longer any doubt that in these islands
a settlement of the Alpine invaders took place at an early time.
Whether they actually antedated the Teutons, as Dr. J. Sasse
supposes,* or not, is matter for question. Miillenhof states
that the Celts occupied the Rhine delta as early as 400 B. c. ; f
perhaps these broad-headed Zeelanders are a heritage of their
occupation. De Man Ki) certainly holds the brachycephaly
Alpine type, Zeeland. Index, 86.
Teutonic type. Blond.
to represent an immigrant type more recent than the long
headed population on the coast. At all events, Lubach, nearly
forty years ago, long before any precise measurements were
taken, commented upon the brunetness, the stocky build, and
the round visage of the peasants of this district. In each of
these respects they have been proved to differ from the Fries-
landers farther north, who, as we have said, are Teutonic by
descent. Quite often the type is disharmonic, arising from a
cross of the two races, as in the case of the peasant illustrated
in our portrait herewith. The black hair of this man and his
1891, p. 84.
f Virchow, 18763, p. 364.
THE ALPINE TYPE : THE NETHERLANDS. 299
accentuated brachycephaly are in strong contrast with his
elongated Teutonic face. The nearest blood relatives of these
south Hollanders are the Walloons in Belgium * and the origi
nal broad-headed element in the Danish population. From
which of these colonies the Round-Barrow type invading the
British Isles came we may never determine; we only know that
the Alpine race touched the western ocean at this spot, and
has here persisted in remarkable purity to this day. It seems
as if a race had here found refuge in this secluded spot against
the aggression of the Teutonic type, just as the Walloons are
sheltered in the wooded uplands of the Ardennes plateau in
Belgium a little farther south.
* From Vanderkindere s data on the school children in Belgium, a
tendency toward brunetness, more marked than usual in Flanders,
becomes apparent in the direction of Zeeland. An Alpine racial occupa
tion of this region would account for it.
CHAPTER XII.
THE BRITISH ISLES.
THE ethnic history of the British Isles turns upon two sig
nificant geographical facts, which have rendered their popula
tions decidedly unique among the other states of western Eu
rope.* The first of these is their insular position, midway off the
coast between the north and south of the continent. That nar
row silver streak between Calais and Dover which has insured
the political security and material prosperity of England in
* For invaluable assistance I am deeply indebted to Dr. John Beddoe,
F. R. S., late President of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain,
of Bradford-on-Avon, Wilts, not only for the loan of rare material for the
illustration of this particular chapter, but for kindly criticism and interest
throughout our whole series. To ex-President E. W. Brabrook, C. K.,
of the Anthropological Institute, London, also, I would acknowledge
most gratefully my obligation. Recognition should be made of the
courtesy of Mr. J. A. Webster, secretary, as well. The complete collec
tion of photographs of the Institute has not only been opened to us ;
a large part of it has even been subjected to the perils of transportation
to America for our benefit. From these sources all of our portraits are
derived.
Authorities comprehensively treating the anthropology of the British
Isles are very few. Pre-eminent is Dr. John Beddoe s Races of Britain,
Bristol and London, 1885 ; and his Stature and Bulk of Man in the
British Isles, in Memoirs of the Anthropological Society of -London, iii,
1869. A full list of his other valuable papers will be found in our Bibli
ography. The monumental work of Davis and Thurnam, Crania Bri-
tannica, two volumes, London, 1865, covers the whole subject of past and
present populations. An essay, On Some Fixed Points in British Ethnol
ogy, by the late T. H. Huxley, in the Contemporary Review for 1871, is a
convenient summary, with no attention to the evidence of craniology,
however. Finally, the reports of the Anthropometric Committee of the
British Association for the Advancement of Science, especially its last
one in 1883, should not be omitted. Many other papers of local impor
tance are named in our Bibliography above mentioned.
300
THE BRITISH ISLES. 30!
later times, has always profoundly affected her racial history.
A partial bar against invasion by land, the fatal step once
taken, it has immediately become an obstacle in the way of
retreat. Invasion thus led inevitably to assimilation. Pro
tected sufficiently against disturbance to assure that homo
geneity of type which is attendant upon close contact, the
islands at the same time could never suffer from the stagna
tion which utter isolation implies.
We are still further assured of the truth of this geographi
cal generalization on comparison of the racial history of Eng
land with that of Ireland; for we thereby have opportunity
to observe the effects of different degrees of such insularity.
In the latter case, it has become a bit too pronounced to be
a favourable element in the situation. Disregarding her mod
ern political history for we are dealing with races and not
nations it is indeed true, as Dr. Beddoe says, that Ireland
" has always been a little behindhand." Ethnic invasions, if
they took place at all, came late and with spent energy; most
of them, as we shall see, whether of culture or of physical types,
even if they succeeded in reaching England, failed to reach
the Irish shores at all. These laws apply to all forms of life
alike. Thus the same geographical isolation which excluded
the snakes of the mainland from Ireland we are speaking
seriously of an established zoological fact and not a myth-
was responsible for the absence of the peculiar race of men
who brought the culture of bronze and other arts into Eng
land in prehistoric times. It also accounts for the relative
scarcity of the Teutonic invaders afterward. As we may grade
both the flora and fauna of the islands in variety of species
from the continent westward, so also may we distinguish
them anthropologically. In flora, Ireland has but two thirds of
the species indigenous to England and Scotland ; for the same
reason her human population contains much less variety of
human type.* Among the Irish peasantry there are no such
contrasts as those we shall show to exist between the highland
and the lowland Scotch, or between the Englishman in Corn
wall and in Yorkshire.
* Sir A. Geikie, in Macmillan s Magazine, March, 1882, pp. 367 et seq.
302
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
A second geographical peculiarity of the British Isles has
not been devoid of importance for us. The eastern island con
tains both extremes of fertility and accessibility. Ireland is
far more uniform. Another point for us to note also is that
ELEVATION ABOVE
SEA LEVEL,
METtRi.
BELOW 150
150-300
OVER 300
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY
the backbone of the larger island lies along the west coast.
Both England and Scotland certainly present their best sides
to the continent; all the \vay from Caithness to Kent either
the most fertile lands, or the mouths of rivers leading to them,
OLD BLACK BREED" TYPE.
105.
OLD BLACK BREED " TYPE
104.
107.
A TEUTONIC BLACK BREED CROSS.
SHETLAND ISLANDS.
108
THE BRITISH ISLES. 303
lie on the east. The same thing is partially true of Ireland,
although more in respect of geology than topography, which
latter is alone shown upon our map. The result, of course,
is the accentuation of the contrasts between the populations
of the east and west sides in either case. The best lands are
at the same time nearest the mainland. All incentive to fur
ther invasion beyond a certain point ceases at once. The sig
nificance of this will appear in due time. We may realize its
importance in advance, however, by supposing the situation
reversed, with the goal of all invasions on the farther side of
each island. Is there a doubt that Wales, the western Scot
tish Highlands, and farther Ireland would have been far more
thoroughly infused with foreign blood than they are in reality
to-day? It makes a great difference whether a district is on
the hither or the hinter side of Canaan.
These truths, which we have here to apply to ethnic facts,
hold good in social relations as well. Either extreme of hetero
geneity or isolation is unfavourable to progress. This we may
prove by applying the same laws to another country which in
many respects is similar to the British Isles. Japan stands in
much the same relation to Asia that Britain does to Europe.
Like the British, her population is to-day quite well assimi
lated, although compounded of several ethnic types different
from those of the mainland. Here again it is a modest degree
of isolation which has left her to digest in comparative quiet
the Mongol, the Malay, and the Polynesian elements in her
population ; and yet it is undoubtedly the very variety of these
elements which makes the Japanese so apt in the ways of
civilization.
The most remarkable trait of the population of the British
Isles is its head form; and especially the uniformity in this re
spect which is everywhere manifested. The prevailing type
is that of the long and narrow cranium, accompanied by an
oval rather than broad or round face. This cephalic uniformity
throughout Britain makes the task of illustrating types by
means of portraits peculiarly difficult; for distinctions of race
are reduced mainly to matters of feature and relative blondness,
instead of the more fundamental characteristics. In this con-
24
304
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
nection, by the way, it should always be borne in mind that
when we speak of broad or oval faces we refer to the propor
tions of the bony framework alone. We must look below the
flesh, behind beard or whiskers, or else endless confusion will
result. Full cheeks need not imply a broad face as we mean
it. The width behind the malar bones is the crucial test.
CEPHALIC INDEX.
BRITISH \5LIS,
ABOUT I2OO OD5ERWT10N5
Measured by the cephalic index that is, the extreme
breadth of the head expressed in percentage of its length
from front to back the uniformity in cranial type all through
the British Isles is so perfect that it can not be represented
by shaded maps as we have heretofore been accustomed to do.
THE BRITISH ISLES.
305
Wherever heads have been measured, whether in the Aran
Islands off the west coast of Ireland, the Hebrides and Scot
tish Highlands, Wales and Cornwall, or the counties about
London, the results all agree within a few units. These figures,
noted upon the localities where they were taken, are shown
upon our little sketch map on page 304. It will be observed
at once that the indexes all lie between 77 and 79, with the
possible exception of the middle and western parts of Scot
land, where they fall to 76.*
What do these dry statistics mean? In the first place, they
indicate an invariability of cranial type even more noticeable
than in Spain or Scandinavia. Compared with the results else
where in central Europe, they are remarkable. On the conti
nent near by, the range of variation of averages of cephalic
index in a given country is never less than ten points ; in Italy
and France it runs from 75 to 88. Oftentimes within a few
miles it will drop five or six units suddenly. Here in the British
Isles it is practically uniform from end to end. Highland and
lowland, city or country, peasant or philosopher, all are prac
tically alike in respect of this fundamental racial characteristic.
Our second deduction from the data concerning the cephalic
index is that here we have to do with a living population in
which the round-headed Alpine race of central Europe is totally
lacking; an ethnic element which, as we have already shown
in our preceding chapters, constitutes a full half of the present
population of every state of middle western Europe that is
to say, of France, Belgium, Italy, and Germany. We have
already proved that this Alpine race is distinctively a denizen of
mountainous regions; we christened it Alpine for that reason.
It clings to the upland areas of isolation with a persistency
which even the upheavals of the nineteenth century can not
shake. Almost everywhere it appears to have yielded the sea-
coasts to its aggressive rivals, the Teutonic long-headed race
* Beddoe, 1885, pp. 231-233; 1893, p. 104, and 1894, is authority on
England, primarily ; Haddon and Browne are best on Ireland ; Beddoe,
1887 a, on the Isle of Man ; Gray, 1895 b, gives an average of 77 for 169
Scots on the east coast in Aberdeen. Cf. also Horton-Smith, 1896;
MacLean, 1866; Venn, 1888, etc. Muffang, 1899, is fine.
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
in the north and the dolichocephalic Mediterranean one on
the south. This curious absence of the broad-headed Alpine
race in the British Isles therefore is merely another illustra
tion of its essentially continental character.
Before we proceed to consider the other physical traits
of the living population, we must draw in a background by
a hasty summary of the facts which the science of archaeology
has to offer concerning the prehistoric human types in the
islands. In the first place, it is certain that the earliest in
habitants were decidedly long-headed, even more so than any
Europeans of to-day; far more so than the present British.
The evidence concerning this most primitive stratum is care
fully presented by Boyd Dawkins (>80) in his Early Man in
Britain. These men. whose remains have been unearthed in
caves, and whose implements have been discovered in the river
drift of the late Glacial epoch, were decidedly dolichocephalic.
Both in the stage of culture attained and in head form they
were so like the Eskimo of North America that Xilsson more
than a half century ago suggested a common derivation for
both. Boyd Dawkins lends his support to the same hypothe
sis, assuming that as the ice sheet withdrew to the north, these
primitive folk followed it : just as we know to a certainty that
the mammoth, mastodon, and other species of animals have
done.* A former connection of Europe with Greenland would
have made this migration "an easy matter. Whether this inter
esting supposition be true or not. we know that the earliest
type of man in Britain was as long-headed as either the African
negro or the Eskimo that is to say, presenting a more ex
treme type in this respect than any living European people
to-day.
The second population to be distinguished in these islands
was characterized by a considerably higher culture; but it
was quite similar to the preceding one. although somewhat
less extreme in physical type, so far as we can judge by the
head form. This epoch, from the peculiarities of its mode of
interment, is known as the Long-Barrow period. f The human
* 1880, p. 233 ; consult also his 1874 a and 1874 b.
f The best authorities upon this and the succeeding type are Canon
THE BRITISH ISLES. 307
remains are found, often in considerable numbers, generally
in more or less rudely constructed stone chambers covered
with earth. These mounds, egg-shaped in plan, often several
hundred feet long, are quite uniform in type. The bodies are
found at the broader and higher end of the tumulus, which
is more often toward the east, possibly a matter of religion,
the entrance being upon this same end. These people were
still in the pure stone age of culture; neither pottery nor metals
seem to have been known. But a distinct advance is indicated
by the skilfully fashioned stone implements. Such long bar
rows occur most frequently in the southwest of England, in
the counties of Wilts and Gloucestershire, and especially in the
bleak uplands of the Coteswold Hills ; but they are also found
much farther north as well. The people of this period were,
as we have said, like their predecessors extremely long
headed. The cephalic index in the life was as low as 72, sev
eral units below any average in Europe to-day, save perhaps
in parts of Corsica. It is worthy of note also that a remark
able purity of type in this respect was manifested; positively
no broad crania with indexes above 80 have ever been found.
These long-barrow men were also rather undersized, about
five feet five inches that is to say, an inch shorter than any
English average to-day. Rolleston claims never to have
found human remains characterized by a stature above five
feet six inches. Beddoe ( 89) concedes it to have been a popu
lation shorter than any now living in Britain. The full sig
nificance of this important point will appear shortly. Finally,
the evidence seems to bear out the conclusion that thus far
we have to do with but one race type, which had, however,
slowly acquired a low stage of culture by self-education.
This neolithic, or stone age, primitive type is still repre-
Greenwell s British Barrows, with its anthropological notes by Dr. Rolles
ton, 1877, at pages 627-718 ; the Crania Britannica above mentioned, but
more especially the essays by Dr. Thurnam in Memoirs of the Anthro
pological Society of London, vol. i, pp. 120-168, 458-519, and vol. iii, pp.
41-75. Consult also Rolleston in Jour. Anth. Inst., London, v, pp.
120-172; Garson, 1883, and in Nature, November 15 and 22, 1894. The
older authorities are Sir Daniel Wilson, 1851, pp. 160-189 ; Bateman, 1861 :
also Laing and Huxley, 1866, especially pp. 100-120.
3 o8
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
sented in the present population, according to the testimony
of those best fitted to judge. One of these neolithic types,
judging by the combination of diminutiveness of stature, bru-
netness, and accentuated dolichocephaly, is represented by
our number 137 at page 330. Dr. Beddoe writes me that it is
not confined to Devonshire, but is " common enough in other
parts of England."
The next event in the prehistoric history of the British Isles
pardon the bull, it conveys our meaning is of profound
significance. Often directly superposed upon the relics of the
Long-Barrow period, and in other ways indicating a succession
to it in time, occur the remains of an entirely different racial
type. This stratum represents the so-called Round- Harrow
period, from the circumstance that the burial mounds are no
longer ovoid or elongated in ground plan, but quite circular
or bell-shaped. The culture is greatly superior to that of its
predecessor. Pottery, well ornamented, occurs in abundance;
and the metals are known. Bronze implements are very com
mon, and even a few traces of iron appear. Now the dead are
often buried in urns, showing that incineration must have
been practised. More remarkable than this advance in culture,
and more directly concerning our present inquiry, the people
were as broad-headed as the modern peasants of middle
France. The cephalic index was fully ten points on the aver
age above that of the loflg-barrow men, averaging about 83
in the life. The former type has not entirely disappeared, but
it is in a decided minority. So persistent is the difference that
Dr. Thurnam s well-known axiom, "long-barrow, long skull:
round-barrow, round head," is accepted as an ethnic law. It
is impossible to emphasize too strongly the radical change in
human type which is hereby implied. The contrast is every
whit as marked as that between a modern Alpine peasant and
a south Italian or Scandinavian. The new population differed
in still another important respect from the underlying one.
This is known from scores of detailed measurements of skele
tons. The average stature was fully three inches greater,
rising five feet eight inches. The Round-Barrow population,
therefore, attained a bodily height more respectable as com-
log
iRONZE AGE, Cumberland.
BARLEY, Hertfordshire.
113 Black hair and eyes. Eyes gray, hair dark brown. 114.
CORNWALL. Index 77 .x.
OLD BRITISH TYPES.
YORKSHIRE
!
119. SCOTTISH LOWLANDS. Index 77. SUSSEX.
BLOND ANGLO-SAXON TYPES.
THE BRITISH ISLES.
309
pared with the present living one than its stunted prede
cessor. Dr. Beddoe has selected our portrait Nos. 109 and
no as representing this almost extinct broad-headed type
of the bronze age. It is said to be not uncommon in the re
moter parts of Cumberland. Harrison * describes it best in
the life. It is above the average in height, strong-jawed, some
times fair in complexion, though more often dark. The head
is broad and short, the face strongly developed at the cheek
bones, " frowning or beetle-browed," the development of the
brow ridges being especially noticeable in contrast with the
smooth, almost feminine softness of the Saxon forehead. Our
old British type from Barley, Herts (Xo. in), would seem
to conform pretty well to this type. It is most prevalent
among the remnants of the now well-nigh extinct yeomanry
class. Another equally good example of this primitive old
British type is shown in our " old black-breed " man from
the Shetland Islands, shown at pages 302 and 303. These
people are to-day nearly extinct in the islands, I am informed
by Dr. Beddoe, being crowded out, as we shall see, by the Scan
dinavian invaders. The effect of a cross with the Norsemen is
clearly evident in our Xos. 107 and 108. On the mainland,
this " old black breed " is still numerous in west Caithness and
east Sutherland.
The generally accepted view among anthropologists to-day,
is that the Round-Barrow men came over from the mainland,
bringing with them a culture derived from the East. We can
never know with certainty whether they were Celtic immi
grants from Brittany, where, as we have already shown, a
similar physical type prevails to-day such is Thurnam s view :
or whether they were the vanguard of the invaders from Den
mark, where a round-headed type was for a time well repre
sented an opinion to which Dr. Rolleston inclines. This
latter hypothesis is strengthened by study of the modern popu
lations, both of Xorway and the Danish peninsula. For ex
ample, turn for a moment to our map on page 206, showing
the head form in Scandinavia to-dav. Xotice how the tints
1882, p. 246; Beddoe, 1885, p. 15.
-> I0 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
darken that is to say, the heads broaden in the southwest
corner of Norway. The same thing is true just across the
Skager Rack in Denmark proper, where the round-headed
type is still more frequent than immediately to the south in
Schleswig-Holstein and Hanover. This neighbourhood was
once a distinct subcentre of distribution of this type. It might
readily have come over to England from here, as the Jutes,
Angles, and Saxons did a few centuries later. Differing in
these details as to their precise geographical origin, all au
thorities are nevertheless agreed that the round-barrow men
came from the continent somewhere. Any other derivation
would have been an impossibility. We also know that this
Alpine immigrant type overran all England and part of Scot
land. It never reached Ireland because of its remoteness;
with the result that greater homogeneity of type prevails, while
at the same time the island was deprived of a powerful stimu
lus to advance in culture. This is the first indication of the
geographical handicap under which Erin has always laboured.
Finally, we have to note that this broad-headed invasion of
the Round-Barrow period is the only case where such an ethnic
element ever crossed the English Channel in numbers suffi
cient to affect the physical type of the aborigines. Even here
its influence was but transitory; the energy of the invasion
speedily dissipated; for at the opening of the historic period,
judged by the sepulchral. remains, the earlier types had con
siderably absorbed the newcomers.
The disappearance of the round-barrow men is the last
event of the prehistoric period which we are able to distin
guish. Coming, therefore, to the time of recorded history,
we find that every influence was directed toward the complete
submergence of this extraneous broad-headed type ; for a great
immigration from the northern mainland set in, which, after
six hundred years of almost uninterrupted flow, completely
changed the complexion of the islands we speak literally
as well as figuratively. The Teutonic invasions from (ier-
many, Denmark, and Scandinavia are the final episodes in our
chronicle. They bring us down to the present time. They
offer us a brilliant example of a great ethnic conquest as well
THE BRITISH ISLES. 31!
as of a military or political occupation. The Romans * came
in considerable numbers; they walled cities and built roads;
they introduced new arts and customs; but when they aban
doned the islands they left them racially as they were before.
For they appear to have formed a ruling caste, holding itself
aloof in the main from intermarriage with the natives. Xot
even a heritage of Latin place names remains to any consider
able degree. Kent and Essex were of all the counties perhaps
the most thoroughly Romanized ; and yet the names of towns,,
rivers, and hills were scarcely affected. The people manifest
no physical traits which we are justified in ascribing to them.
The Teutonic invasions, however, were of a different char
acter. The invaders, coming perhaps in hopes of booty, yet
finding a country more agreeable for residence than their
barren northern land, cast in their lot with the natives, in many
districts forming the great majority of the population. We
find their descendants all over Britain to-day.
These Teutonic invaders were all alike in physical type,
roughly speaking. We can scarcely distinguish a Swede from
a Dane to-day, or either from a native of Schleswig-Holstein
or Friesland, the home of the Jutes, Angles, and Saxons. They
are all described to us by chroniclers, and our modern research
corroborates the testimony, as tall, tawny-haired, fiercely blue-
eyed barbarians. Evidence there is indeed that the Alpine
broad-headed race once effected a lodgment in southwest Nor
way, as we have already said. Our map of that country on
page 206 shows a persistence greatly attenuated of that trait
all along the coast. Archaeology shows it to have invaded
Jutland also in early times; but it seems to be of secondary
importance there to-day. The Danes are somewhat broader-
headed than the Hanoverians perhaps; but in all other re
spects they are tall and blond Teutons.
Since we can not follow these invaders over Britain by
means of their head form, they being all alike and entirely
similar to the already prevailing type in the British Isles pre
vious to their advent, we must have recourse to a contributory
* On the Romans consult the Crania Britannica, pp. 175 et seq., and
Beddoe, 1885, pp. 30-37.
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
kind of evidence. We have at times made use of the testi
mony of place names heretofore; but it is nowhere else in
Europe so clear or convincing as in this particular case. We
may trace with some surety, each current of the great Teu
tonic inundation by means of them. Then, having done this
and completed our historical treatment of the subject, we may
once more take up the main thread of our argument by return
ing to the study of the living population. We shall thus have
the key to the situation well in hand. The distribution of
colour of hair and eyes and of stature will have a real signifi
cance.
Our map on the next page, adapted from Canon Taylor s
exceedingly valuable little book entitled Words and Places,
will serve as the mainstay of our summary. In choosing our
shading for it, we had one object in mind, which we can not
forbear from stating at the outset. The three shades denoting
the Teutonic place names are quite similar in intensity, and
sharply marked off from the Celtic areas, which we have made
black. This is as it should be; for the whole matter involves
a contrast of the three with the one which we know to be far
more primitive and deep-seated. The witness of spoken lan
guage, to which we shall come shortly, would suffice to con
firm this, even had we no history to which to turn. Our map
shows at a glance, an island where once all the names of natu
ral features of the landscsrpe and of towns as well were Celtic.
This primitive layer of names has been rolled back by pressure
from the direction of the mainland. It is a unit opposed to
the combined aggression of the Germanic tongues.*
The Jutes, Angles, and Saxons set the Teutonic ball a-roll-
ing. They came from the northern coast of Germany, from
the marshes and low-lying country of Friesland. These bar
barians seem to have followed close upon the heels of the re
tiring Romans, making their appearance about the year 400
of our era. The whole island lay open to them, and they made
haste to overrun the best of it. They avoided the fens and
forests, to which the natives withdrew. Within two hundred
* Consult Beddoe, 1885, p. 66, for criticisms of evidence derived from
place names.
PLACE NAME5
BRITISH I5LE5.
AFTER TAYLOR 93 ly Termission.
NORWEGIAN
DANISH
SAXON
CELTIC
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
years their influence had extended even to the uttermost parts
of Ireland, over the whole of which, as our map shows, Saxon
village names sporadically occur.* From their widespread dis
tribution it would seem, as Taylor suggests, that the invaders
often avoided the settled places and founded entirely new set
tlements in virgin territory. The main centre of their occupa
tion was in the southeast and middle of England, where, from
their first landings in Kent and Essex, they transformed the
entire country. Scotland also, south of Edinburgh, was in
fused with Saxon blood if we may judge from our map. This
district, from the river Tees to the Eorth, is in fact, as Taylor f
says, as purely English as any part of the island. The Lothians
were reputed English soil until the eleventh century. Scot
land begins racially, not at the political boundary of the river
Tweed and Solway Firth, but at the base of the Grampian
Hills. \ The correspondence between our maps of physical
geography and of Celtic place names in Scotland shows un
doubtedly a relation of cause and effect.
This first inoculation with Teutonic blood was an unwill
ing one. We have every evidence that the struggle was bitter
to the end. The tale of Saint Guthlac, a devout Saxon, shows
it. Disturbed in his meditations one night by a great uproar
outside his hermit hut, he engaged himself in prayer for
preservation until the morning. The chronicler tells us that
he was much relieved at* daybreak by the discovery that the
midnight marauders were only dci ils, and not Welshmen.* So
strong was race antipathy that the laws forbade a Briton
from drinking from a cup touched by a Saxon till it had been
scoured with sand or ashes.] | Two hundred years of such a
* Canon Taylor has personally offered one criticism of our map which
is worthy of note. The Saxon spots throughout Ireland seldom represent
but a single village name. They were of necessity made somewhat too
large relatively, for purposes of identification. The island is really far
more exclusively Celtic than this map makes it appear.
f Op. cit., p. 112. \ Cf. A. Geikie, 1887, p. 397.
* Beddoe, 1885, p. 53.
|| Davis and Thurnam give many other interesting examples. Gomme,
in his Village Community in Britain, p. 240, gives testimony to the same
effect from quite different sources.
THE BRITISH ISLES.
315
struggle could not but modify the purity of the native stock,
as we shall be able to prove. It is probable, indeed, that more
than half the blood in the island was by this time Saxon.
About the year 850 came the second instalment of the
Teutonic invasion at the hands of the Danes.* They put an
end to the inroads of their Saxon predecessors by attacking
them in the rear. Two contrasted kinds of expeditions seem
to have been despatched against the island. Those which
besieged London and skirted the southern coasts were mainly
piratical; few names indicating any permanent settlement
occur. These Danes were in search of booty alone. Farther
north, especially in Lincolnshire and its vicinity, the charac
ter of the names betokens intentional colonization, and a very
intensive one at that. Thus, nearly a quarter of all the village
names in Lincolnshire terminate in " by," as Whitby, Derby,
and the like. The Saxon equivalent for this Danish word for
village is " ham " or " ton," as Buckingham and Huntington.
The line of demarcation of Danish settlement on the south is
very sharp. The fens deterred them from extending in this
direction, for the marshes were long a stronghold of the Brit
ons, as we have seen. From the Wash north over Yorkshire
to the Tees they occupied and settled the country effectively.!
Three hundred years were necessary to accomplish this result.
The Norwegians, coming next, mainly confined their at
tention to the northern and western coasts of Scotland, shun
ning their vigorous competitors to the south. They attacked
the island from the back side. The fringe of Norse place names
upon our map is very striking. These Teutons rarely pene
trated far inland in Scotland, especially along this west coast.
For here the country is nigged ; the only means of communica
tion is by sea ; so that the isolated colonies of " baysmen "
were speedily absorbed. They dislodged the Gaelic speech
in eastern Caithness entirely, so that the country has been
Teutonic for upward of one thousand years. Pure Norse was
spoken for a long time both in northern Ireland and Scotland.];
* Taylor, op. cit., pp. 103-122 ; Beddoe, 1885, pp. 86-92.
f Vide Beddoe, 1837, on Yorkshire.
\ Noreen, 1890, p. 369.
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
On the islands the Shetlands, Orkneys, and Hebrides the
case was much the same. Here the aborigines were often en
tirely replaced by a purely Scandinavian population. Such a
family with strongly accentuated Norwegian peculiarities is
depicted on this page. Its contrast with the aboriginal dark
population, the " old black breed," needs no comment. Our
Xo. 138 at page 330 is
another good example
of a pure blond Scan
dinavian from this dis
trict. One reason for the
Teutonization of these
islands, which should be
noted, is that they were
really wintering stations
and bases of supplies for
the expeditions along the
coasts of Scotland, Ire
land, and Wales during
the summer season. The
only other district where
Norse settlements occur
in frequency is, as our
map shows, in Lanca
shire and the lake dis
trict. This may also have
been a centre whence
expeditions all about
the western coasts took
place, planting little sta
tions where opportunity offered. One of the most important
of these was in Pembrokeshire, that strip of coast which, as
Laws ( SS) has shown in detail, has been the seat of so many
foreign occupations.
The Normans,* last of the Germanic series, came to the
islands after thev had become so infiltrated with Teutonic
Scandinavian types. Lewis, Hebrides Islands.
* Davis and Thurnam, 1865, pp. 193 et scq. ; Beddoe, 1885, pp. 110-135.
iH
JUTISH TYPES, Kent.
BRUNET WELSH TYPE, Cardiganshire
124.
BRUNET WELSH TYPE, Montgomeryshire. I2 6.
THE BRITISH ISLES. 317
settlements that but few traces of them separately can be de
tected. They did not come as they entered Normandy, as
colonizers; but as political conquerors, a few thousand per
haps, forming a ruling class just as the Franks invaded south
Germany or Burgundy. Their influence is most strongly
shown in York and parts of Lancashire and Durham. Much
of the land here they laid entirely waste; what they did with
the native owners we can only surmise. At a later time a
gradual influx of Norman blood made itself felt in the south
and east of England, so that Dr. Beddoe concludes that by
the time of Edward I perhaps a fifth of the population was
of Xorman descent more or less indirectly.
The Teutonic immigration had now run its course. The
islands were saturated. Let us see what the anthropological
effect has been, by returning once more to the consideration
of physical characteristics alone.
We are now prepared to show why it is that in head form
the population of the British Isles to-day is so homogeneous.
The average cephalic index of 78 occurs nowhere else so uni
formly distributed in Europe, nor does it anywhere else descend
to so low a level, save at the two extremes of the continent
in Scandinavia and Spain. We have already shown that in
these two outlying members of Europe we have to do with
relatively homogeneous populations in this respect. Other
facts, already recited, prove that this uniformity of head form
is the concomitant and index of two relatively pure, albeit
widely different, ethnic types Mediterranean in Spain, Teu
tonic in Scandinavia. Purity of descent in each case that is
to say, freedom from ethnic intermixture is the direct and
inevitable outcome of peninsular isolation. It is now proper
to ask and this is the crucial question, to whose elucidation
all of our argument thus far has been contributory whether
we may make the same assumption of racial purity concern
ing the British populations. We have a case of insularity
even more pronounced than in Spain or Scandinavia ; we have
cephalic uniformity. The interest of our problem intensifies
at this juncture. If relatively pure, have we to do here in
Britain with the type of the Teuton or of the Iberian race?
THE RACES OE EUROPE.
We arc generally known as Teutonic by descent. Or is there
some complex product here made up of both ethnic elements,.
RELATIVE BRUNETNE55
BRITISH I5LE5-
AFTER BEDDOE 85
13086 OBSERVATIONS
INDEX OF NIGRESCENCE
(DARK* 2 BLACK HAIRED
-FAIR AND RED HAIRED)
EASTERN LIMIT
GAELIC CELTIC
SPEECH-
BOUNDARY OF
GAELIC CELTIC SPEECH
CORRECTlON.-Gaelic is spoken only in the western half of Caithness. The linguistic
boundary should be continued across this county on our map.
THE BRITISH ISLES.
319
in which case the apparent homogeneity revealed by the head
form is entirely specious and misleading? As our mainstay in
such matters, cephalic index, fails us utterly, since both north
and south are precisely alike in this respect, we must rely upon
the other, albeit less stable, physical traits. To these we turn
next in order.
A glance at the accompanying map of relative brunetness
suffices to show a curious increase of pigmentation from north
east to southwest, measured by the prevailing colour of the
hair.* The map is almost the exact counterpart of our pre
ceding one of place names. From our previous chapters we
might have been led to expect such an increase from north
to south; for that is the rule in every continental country we
have studied. The phenomenon we found to be largely a
matter of race; but that physical environment, notably cli
mate, played an important part. Moreover, we proved that in
elevated districts some factor conduced to increase the blond-
ness, so that mountains more often contained a fairer popula
tion than the plains roundabout. Here is a surprising contra
diction of that law, if law it be; for the Grampian Hills in
Scotland, wild and mountainous Wales, and the hills of Con-
nemara and Kerry in western Ireland, contain the heaviest
contingent of brunet traits in the island. The gradation from
east to west is in itself a flat denial of any climatic influence,
for the only change in that direction is in the relative humidity
induced by the Gulf Stream.
The darkest part of the population of these islands consti
tutes the northern outpost of that degree of pigmentation in
Europe. Western Ireland, Cornwall, and Argyleshire in Scot-
* This map is constructed upon a system adopted by Dr. Beddoe as an
index of pigmentation. It differs from others mainly in assigning
especial importance to black hair as a measure of brunetness, on the
assumption that a head of black hair betrays twice the tendency to
melanosity of a dark brown one. Without accepting this argument as
valid, the map in question seems to accord best with others constructed
by the measurement of pure light and dark types on the German system.
Dr. Reddoe regards this one as best illustrating the facts in the case. The
maps of the Anthropometric Committee, 1883, working with the colour of
hair and eyes combined, seem to be highly inconclusive.
320
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
land are about as dark, roughly speaking, as a strip across
Europe a little farther south, say from Xormandy to Vienna.
Even in these most brunet areas pure dark types are not very
frequent. No such extremes occur as Italy and southern
France present. The prevailing combination is of dark hair
and grayish or hazel eyes. Such is particularly the case among
the western Irish and southern Welsh.* So striking is the
brunetness in the latter case that we find an early writer in
this century, the Rev. T. Price, (>29) ascribing the prevalence
of black hair in Glamorganshire to the common use of coal
as fuel. Such absurd hypotheses aside, we may be certain
of the strongly accentuated brunetness of the peasantry here
abouts. All our Welsh types are decidedly dark in this way.
The opposite extreme of blondness corresponds, as nearly
as we can judge, to the continental populations in the lati
tude of Cologne. Light hair and brown or blue eyes be
come common. Perhaps the lightest part of Britain is in Lin
colnshire Dr. Beddoe states that the people here remind him
strongly of the peasantry about Antwerp. f Portraits of a
number of these blond Anglo-Saxon types appear in our series
at page 308. None of these men are quite as fair as the pure
Teutonic race in Scandinavia, although isolated examples in
deed occur. We shall probably not be far wrong in the state
ment that the extremes in the British Isles are about as far
separated from one another as Berlin is from Vienna. In the
darkest regions pure brunet types are more frequent than the
blond by about fifteen per cent. In the eastern and northern
counties, on the other hand, the blonds are in the majority
by an excess of about five per cent. Everywhere, however,
all possible crossings of characteristics appear, proving that
the population is well on the road toward homogeneity.
Blondness in some districts often takes the peculiar form
* The recent work of Haddon and Browne, published in the Proceed
ings of the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, since 1893, on the western
Irish, is our best recent authority on this people. Thus in the Aran
Islands (1893, p. 784) while among the men only five per cent of fair hair
occurred, almost ninety per cent of the eyes were classed as light.
f Davis and Thurnam, 1865, p. 218 ; Beddoe, 1885, p. 252.
THE BRITISH ISLES. 321
of freckled skin and red hair. We in America are familiar
with two types of Irish, for example; one thus constituted,
while the other is more often compounded of the black or dark
brown hair and steel-blue iris. This is known to the older
anthropologists as the " light Celtic eye." It seems, from
everyday observation, as if this latter variety were far more
common among the women in our immigrants from Ireland.
A similar contrast is remarkable in Scotland. Here, in fact,
in some districts red-headedness is more frequent than almost
anywhere else in the world, rising sometimes as high as eleven
per cent.* In our chapter on Scandinavia we have undertaken
to prove that this phenomenon is merely a variation of blond-
ness, f At all events, investigation shows that red hair is most
frequent in the lightest parts of the continent. In Scotland
the same rule applies, so that the contrasts between east and
west still hold good. The Camerons and Erasers are as dark
as the Campbells are inclined to red-headedness. J As for the
Balliols and Sinclairs, we expect them to be light, as their
Xorman names imply.
Seeking for the clew to this curious distribution of brunet-
ness in the British Isles, we may make use for a moment of
the testimony of language. The Celtic speech is represented
to-day by Gaelic or Goidelic, which is in common use in parts
of Scotland and Ireland; and secondly by Kymric or Bry-
thonic, which is spoken in Wales. It was also spoken in Corn
wall until near the close of the last century, when it passed
into tradition. On our map of brunetness \ve have roughly
indicated the present boundaries of these two branches of the
Celtic-spoken language. It will be noted at once that the
darkest populations form the nucleus of each of the Celtic
language areas which now remain, especially when we recall
what we have just remarked about Cornwall. Leaving aside
for the moment the question whether this in any sense implies
that the original Celts were a dark people, let us be assured
that the local persistence of the Celtic speech is nothing more
* Gray, 1895 a and 1895 b, finds in Aberdeen from five to seven per
cent of this type.
f See page 206 supra. \ Reddoe, 1867, p. 158.
322
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
nor less than a phenomenon of isolation to-day. The aggres
sive English language has been crowding its predecessor to
the wall in every direction.* This has been proved beyond
all possible doubt. In the nooks and corners, the swamps and
hills, where the railroad and the newspaper are less important
factors in everyday life, there we find a more primitive stratum
of language. Is it not justifiable for us, from the observed
parallel between speech and brunetness, to assume also that
of the two the darkest type in the British Isles is the older?
The women generally, conformably to a law of which we shall
speak later, seem to be more persistent in their brunetness
than the men.f This corroborates our view. Thus Gray,J
among three thousand Scotch agricultural labourers in Aber-
deenshire, found dark hair ten per cent more frequent among
the women, while dark eyes occurred well-nigh twice as often.
A hasty examination of Dr. Beddoe s tables indicates the
same tendency all over the islands where the sexes are distin
guished.* Pfitzner || observed the same phenomenon in Al
sace, where, as in Britain, a dark population has been overrun
by a Teutonic one. So striking was the contrast here that he
even ascribes it to a real sexual peculiarity.
One detail of our map confirms us in this opinion that a
primitive dark population in these islands, now mainly of
Celtic speech, has been overlaid by a lighter one. Notice the
strongly marked island df brunetness just north of London.
Two counties, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire, are as
dark as Wales, and others north of them are nearly as unique.
All investigation goes to show that this brunet outcrop is a
reality. It is entirely severed from the main centre of dark
eyes and hair in the west, by an intermediate zone as light as
Sussex, Essex, or Hampshire (Hants). Our stature map on
page 327 makes the people in this vicinity very much shorter
than those about. This again betokens a British lineage. The
explanation is simple. We have already shown that the south
* Ravenstein has mapped it in detail for different decades in the Jour
nal of the Royal Statistical Society, London, vol. xlii, 1879, pp. 579-646.
t Cf. page 399 infra. \ 1895 b, p. 21.
* 1885, especially p. 186, | 1896, pp. 487-498.
THE BRITISH ISLES. 323
Saxons entered England by the back door. They spread in
land from the southern coast, prevented from following up
the Thames by the presence of London. On the other side
the same invaders pushed south from the Wash and the Hum-
ber. These two currents joined along the light intrusive zone.
Our dark spot is the eddy of native traits, persistent because
less overrun by the blond Teutons. The fens on the north,
London on the south, with dense forests in early times, left
this population relatively at peace. History teaches us this.
Xatural science corroborates it strikingly. The fen district
particularly was long a refuge of the old British peoples, who
made it a secure base of operations against the invaders.* In
a later chapter, considering purely social phenomena, we shall
show that peculiarities in suicide, land tenure, habits of the
people, and other details of these counties, are likewise the con
comitants of this same relative isolation. The fact is all the
more striking because the district lies so close to the largest
city of Europe. Another locality where there is reason to sus
pect that Teutonic intermixture was less intensive is in the
region west of Lincoln, mainly in the counties of Notts and
Derby. f Especially the northwestern corner of Derbyshire,
lying in the Pennine hills. Taylor tells us the name is from
the German " thier," a beast, so wild was the region. Never
theless, the people seem to be quite light-haired, although they
are very much shorter than the purely Teutonic people in Lin
colnshire. Inspection of our several maps will make this clear.
The variation of brunetness in Britain shown by our map
is not a modern phenomenon, nor is its discovery even of
recent date. So early do we find attention called by the chroni
clers to this contrast between northeast and southwest, that,
while of course largely a result of the Teutonic invasions of
historic times, we can not believe that it should be entirely
ascribed to them. They have in all likelihood merely accen
tuated a condition already existing. This we assume from the
testimony of Latin writers. J In fact Tacitus statements, the
* Beddoe, 1867, p. 77 ; 1885, p. 53.
f Davis and Thurnam, 1865, p. 212 ; Beddoe, 1885, p. 253.
Huxley, 1871, is good on this.
324 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
mainstay of the hypothesis of an Iberian substratum of popu
lation in Britain, prove that long before the advent of the
Saxons several distinct physical types coexisted in Roman
Britain. One of these, he tells us in the eleventh chapter of
his Agricola, was the Caledonian, "red-haired and tall"; the
other, that of the Silures in southern Wales, with " dark com
plexion and curly hair." He also notes the similarity in ap
pearance between the southern Britons and the Gauls; and
suggests a Germanic origin for the Caledonians, an Iberian
one for the Welsh, and a Gallic one for the English. This
is positively all that he said upon the subject, never having
been in the country. Then Jornandes, an early Italian com
mentator, added fuel to the flame by amending Tacitus words
concerning the Silures of Wales, giving them not only " dark
complexions," but " black, curly hair." Such were the humble
beginnings of the Iberian hypothesis; notwithstanding which
it has passed current for generations as if founded upon the
broadest array of facts. What if we should conclude that the
assumption is correct in the light of modern research! It is
no justification for the positiveness with which the law has
been laid down by hosts of secondary writers. By such a tenu
ous historical thread hangs many another ethnic generaliza
tion. May the day come when the science of anthropology
assumes its due prominence in the eyes of historians, and ren
ders the final judgment in such disputed cases of physical
descent!
Many attempts have been made at a philological corrobora-
tion of this Iberian hypothesis, classical in origin, as we have
shown. We are told that even the word Britain is of such
derivation by as eminent an authority as Canon Taylor. More
recently, Rhys asserts that the word Brython merely meant
the " cloth-clad " people, as distinct from the aborigines, who
wore skins.* A play upon the words Iberia and Hibernia may
have given rise to -the time-honoured Irish myths of such
proud descent. f It is curious to note, moreover, as Elton sug-
* Words and Places, second edition, p. 159; Rhys, 1884, pp. 210-214,
226.
f H. Martin. 1878, and Sir W. R. Wilde in Trans. Brit. Ass. Adv.
Science, 1874, p. 121. Elton, 1890, pp. 133-154, after an able summary "f
Braemar. REDDISH BLOND TYPES. Lochaber. 128.
Edinburgh. SHORT DARK BRUNET TYPES. Argyleshire. 130.
Moray.
TALL DARK TYPES.
SCOTLAND.
Inverness
THE BRITISH ISLES.
325
gests, that the short, dark-haired Irish type, to which alone
the physical anthropologist allows such ethnic derivation
to-day, is the very one the despised Firbolg to whom the
native historians positively denied it. Such are the accidents
by which science controverts mythical history. The principal
net result of philological investigation on this question, was to
lead to the well-known and widely accepted opinion of a
Basque substratum in the British Isles. The Iberian hypothe
sis of Tacitus was narrowed down to this. The argument was
simple. In certain words were discovered traces of a primi
tive non-inflectional origin. The Basque speech to-day is the
only agglutinative one in western Europe. Wilhelm von
Humboldt long ago proved to his own satisfaction that Basque
is the modern representative of the ancient Iberian language.
Hence it was assumed as a matter of course that Tacitus
Silures must have been of Basque affinities. Thus nearly all
writers on British ethnology are led to discover this pre-Celtic
element in the islands. Even Dr. Becldoe regards a Basque-
like physiognomy in parts of southern Wales as significant
of possible relationship* The linguistic identification was
rendered particularly plausible anthropologically because the
Basques, as \ve have already shown, contain two radically dis
tinct physical types. We know to-day that they are a people
and not a race. Hence in the past, writers could find almost
any type of head form necessary to prove their philological
theses. Recent expert linguistic testimony on the subject still
discovers some slight Iberian elements in the islands, par
ticularly in the now extinct dialects of the Picts; but the evi
dence is very inadequate, f Even were it more positive and
definite, it would carry little weight with us in any case; for,
as we must ever contend, language means often worse than
nothing as to physical descent. Summing up the last two
this linguistic and mythical testimony, finds " hardly any affirmative evi
dence in its favour." Boyd Dawkins, 1880, pp. 330 et sey., agrees. Davis
and Thurnam, p. 52, were doubtful about it; as also Rolleston, 1877.
* 1885, p. 26.
f Rhys, 1892; Fita, 1893; Beddoe, 1893, p. 101 ; Academy, September
26, 1891.
26
326
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
paragraphs, then, we conclude that the sole evidence worth
considering, of an Iberian or Mediterranean substratum in the
British Isles is that derived from physical characteristics and
geographical probabilities.
Professor Rhys, the best living authority, assents to this,
being content " to leave the question of origin mainly to those
who study skins and skulls." * Skulls are indeed Mediterranean
in their dolichocephaly, but they are unfortunately just as
much Teutonic. The difficulty is, as we have said, that all
head forms in Britain to-day are similar. Skins including
therewith, of course, hair and eyes supply the necessary proof;
they suffice to render the Iberian theory highly probable. This,
it should be observed, by no means implies any Basque affini
ties, for this little people is in no wise typical of any great
racial group. The theory is far broader than that. Neither is
Britain in any wise peculiar in this respect. All Europe, as
we shall hope to prove, contains the same primitive Mediter
ranean substratum. It would be anomalous if in Britain any
other condition prevailed.! This substratum is quite widely
diffused, but it seems to be most clearly represented in the
southern Welsh, the western (Firbolg) Irish, and possibly in
the short and dark remnants throughout Scotland.
Thus far all has been plain sailing. It seems as if the case
were clear. An Iberian brunet, long-headed substratum, still
persistent in the western, outposts of the islands, dating from
the neolithic long-barrow period, or even earlier; and a Teu
tonic blond one, similar in head form, in all the eastern dis
tricts overrun from the continent, seem to be indicated. Xow
we have to undertake the addition of a third physical trait-
stature to the others, and the complexity of the problem
appears. Our map on the opposite page shows that the Brit
ish Isles contain variations in average of upward of four inches.
Scotland, as we have shown elsewhere, contains positively the
tallest population in Europe, and almost in the entire world.
* 1884, p. 217. In his iSgo- Qi, xviii, p. 143. however, he reaffirms his
belief in a neolithic " Ibero-Pictish " population.
t Sergi, 1895 a, pp. 78-84, discusses this. Cf. the map in his appendix ;
as also A. J. Evans, 1896.
THE BRITISH ISLES.
327
Even the average of five feet six inches and over in Wales and
southwest England is not low; for this is greater than any
on the continent south of the Alps. Broadly viewed, the facts
AVERAGE 5TATURE
ADULT MALE 5
BRITISH ISLL5
Anthropometnc G>miniUa
E>. A.A.5.-18&3.
8585 Observations
INCHES
FIVE FEET (fpr<*unate)
an<L
THE TEUTONIC RACE : SCANDINAVIA AND GERMANY. 229
of head and face, as among the Bavarians, is also apparent.*
Such a union of a long face with a broad and round head is
illustrated by our portraits herewith (cf. also page 290). A truly
harmonic head is shown in the case of the Hungarian type, with
which the Austrian may profitably be compared as respects
the facial proportions. In pigmentation, the attenuated Teu
tonic strain is to-day most apparent in the lightness of the eyes,
the hair being far more often of a dark shade. Vienna seems,
judging by our little map, to have served as a focus about
which the immigrant Teutonism has clustered. It is also curi
ous to note how the immediate valley of the Danube denotes
the area of Germanic intensity of occupation. The head form
increases rapidly in breadth on leaving the river. The influ
ence of the Bohemian and Moravian brachycephaly is clearly
manifest on our map. In the other direction, south of the Dan
ube, the increase is less sudden. It is also important to notice
that this Teutonism is not only local; it is quite recent and
superficial. Archaeology reveals the presence of an earlier
population, distinctly allied to another race in its characteris
tics, f This region was the seat of the very important early
Hallstatt civilization, of which we shall have more to say. At
present it is sufficient to emphasize the fact that the kingdom
of Austria to-day is merely an outpost of Teutonic racial occu
pation, betraying a strong tendency toward the Alpine type.
Two great events in the history of northern Europe have
profound significance for the anthropologist. The first is the
marvellous expansion of the Germans, about the time of the
fall of Rome ; the second is the corresponding immigration of
Slavic hordes from the east. Both of these were potent enough
to leave results persistent to this day.
We know nothing of the German tribes until about 100
B. c. Suddenly they loom up in the north, aggressive foes of
the Romans. For some time they were held in check by the
stubborn resistance of the legions; until finally, when the re
straining hand of Rome was withdrawn, they spread all over
* Beitrage zur Anth., Bayerns, v, 1883, p. 200.
f Vide p. 498 infra.
330
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
counties, Lincoln, Norfolk, Suffolk, and the Anglian Scotch
border counties are somewhat heavier. On the whole, the
Scotch exceed the English by at least ten pounds, and the
Irish by as much more. This is the normal relation. Tall
people are generally heavy by reason of their stature. When
ever it is otherwise we are led to suspect some disturbing
influence. The difficulty is that in the matter of weight en
vironment is so predominant a factor that the characteristic
is of little value in our ethnographic inquiry. An abundance
of good food will speedily raise an Irishman from his normal
class into that of the naturally heavy Scotchman, and rice
versa. There is consequently little to claim our attention fur
ther respecting this trait. It is merely corroborative of the
evidence of stature.
Enough portraits have now been presented to admit of a
few hasty generalizations concerning the facial features pecul
iar to Britain. To be sure, all sorts of difficulties beset us at
once. It is unfair to compare different ages, for example. The
youthful countenance is less scarred by time. Nor, again, is
it just to draw comparisons from different stations in life. In
the same race the exposed farm labourer will differ from the
well-fed and groomed country gentleman. Strongly marked
racial differences between social classes exist all over the
islands. The aristocracy everywhere tends toward the blond
and tall type, as we should expect. We may, however, draw
a few inferences from the data at our disposal, which seem to
be well grounded in fact.*
The most characteristic facial feature of the old British
populations, be they Scotch, Irish, Welsh, " old black breed,"
or bronze age, as compared with the Anglo-Saxon, is irregu
larity and ruggedness. The mouth is large, the upper lip
broad, the cheek bones prominent. In the bronze-age type, as
we have seen, the nose is large and prominent. In most of
the other earlier types it is oftener merely broad at the nostrils,
sometimes snubbed, as in our younger black-breed Shetlander
* On this Harrison, 1882 and 1883, is best in accurate description of
facial types. Vide also Mackintosh, 1866; MacLean, 1866 and 1890; Davis
and Thurnam, 1865, p. 206 et seq. ; and in the appendix to Beddoe, 1885.
INISHMAAN, Ireland. Index 82.3
IRISH TYPES.
137-
NEOLITHIC, Devon.
Small dark type.
SCANDINAVIAN TYPE. 138.
Hebrides.
THE BRITISH ISLES.
331
at page 302; not often very delicately formed. Perhaps we
may best classify them under what Bishop Whately, in his
Notes on Noses, terms the " anti-cogitative " type.* Most
peculiar and persistent of all in these old British faces, how
ever, is the " overhanging pent-house brows," so noticeable in
the Gael.f The eyes are deep-set beneath brow ridges in
which the bony prominence is strikingly developed. This
endows the face oftentimes with a certain ruggedness and
strength which is gratifying to the eye. In the Scotch also,
according to MacLean, other peculiarities of the face are the
straightness of the brows, seen in our Nos. 128, 131, and
132 especially, as well as the great length of the lower jaw.
The three main physical types in Scotland are well repre
sented by our portraits at page 324. The upper pair, raw-
boned and red-headed, is familiar enough, as also the equally
tall, heavily built but dark type illustrated in our Moray and
Inverness subjects. The middle pair, the little dark men, are
representative of probably the oldest element of all in Scotland.
This corresponds closely to the Silures of Wales, or the small,
dark Firbolgs west of the Shannon in Ireland. The curly hair,
shown in both our examples, is, I am informed by Dr. Beddoe,
very common among men of this type.
Nothing could be more convincing to the student of physi
ognomy than the contrast between many of these faces which
we have just described, and those of the typical Anglo-Saxons
at page 308. Of course by reason of their blondness, often
really florid, and the portliness of their figures, we immediately
recognise them as Teutonic. With equal certainty may we
point to the smooth regularity of their faces, noticeably the
absence of the heavy, bony, brow ridges. The face is smooth,
almost soft in its regularity. No. 115 is, I am informed by
Dr. Beddoe, " an extremely good typical specimen; he abounds
in Yorkshire." Nos. 117 and 118 are characteristic of the
* Mackintosh, 1886, p. 14.
f Cf. Barnard Davis, 1867, p. 70, cited by Beddoe, 1870: "The most
distinctive features of the western Irish are seen to be derived from
the strongly marked superciliary ridges, extending across the nose,
making a horizontal line, upon which the eyebrows are placed and over
hanging the eyes and face."
332
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
British squire. The two young men represent the Englishman
rather of the upper class. In many of these cases the finer
mould of the features makes us suspect that they are not so
much a matter of racial as of social or aristocratic selection,
which is so constantly operative in these respects.
One more facial type needs to be mentioned. It is com
monest in Kent and in the Isle of Wight. It is generally
ascribed to a Jutish ancestry.* Our two upper portraits at
page 316 represent this adequately enough. These people are
darkish in complexion. The principal peculiarity is their con
vexity of profile from chin to forehead. The lips are rather
thick; the nose is difficult to describe, unless we can agree
to call it Jewish. Whether we may, indeed, accept it as
Jutish, for we are accustomed to regard the Jutes as near rela
tives of the Anglo-Saxons, is matter of question. It is cer
tainly a noticeable type in the south and east of England,
where Jutish settlements were common.
A by no means negligible factor in the discussion as to the
ethnic origin of the most primitive stratum of the populations
of the British Isles is temperament. To treat of disposition
thus as a racial characteristic is indeed to trench upon dan
gerous ground. Nevertheless, remembering how potent en
vironment, social or material, may readily become in such
matters, even the most superficial observer can not fail to
notice the profound contrast which exists between the tem-
, perament of the Celtic-speaking and the Teutonic strains in
these islands. These present almost the extremes of human
development in such matters. They come to expression in
every phase of religion or politics ; they can no more mix than
water and oil. The Irish and Welsh are as different from the
stolid Englishman as indeed the Italian differs from the
Swede. f Far be it from us to beg the question by implying
necessarily any identity of origin by this comparison; yet we
can not fail to call attention to these facts. There is some
deep-founded reason for the utter irreconcilability of the Teu-
* Harrison, 1883.
t Read Frances Power Cobbe.The Celt of Wales and the Celt of Ireland,
Cornhill Magazine, xxxvi, 1877, pp. 661-678.
THE BRITISH ISLES.
333
tons and the so-called Celts. Our most staid and respectable
commentators, the authors of the Crania Britannica, never
weary of calling attention to it. Imagine an Englishman
choosing one of their many examples of Celtic characteristics
describing the emotional tumult of a marriage celebration in
Cornwall by declaring that he " had never see sic a wedding
before, it was just like a vuneral "!
The Welsh disposition or temperament is less familiar to
us in America than the Irish; it is the exact counterpart of
it. The keynote of this disposition lies in emotion. As vehe
ment in speech as the Alpine Celt in Switzerland, France, or
Germany is taciturn; as buoyant and lively in spirits as the
Teutonic Englishman is reserved; the feelings rise quickly
to expression, giving the power of eloquence or its degen
erate prototype loquacity. This mental type is keen in percep
tion, not eminent for reasoning qualities; "a quick genius,"
as Matthew Arnold puts it, " checkmated for want of strenu-
ousness or else patience." As easily depressed as elated, this
temperament often leads, as Barnard Davis says, to " a tumult
followed by a state of collapse." Apt to fall into difficulty by
reason of impetuousness, it is readily extricated through quick
resourcefulness. In decision, leaning to the side of sentiment
rather than reason, " always ready," in the words of Henri
Martin, " to react against the despotism of fact." Compare
such an emotional constitution with the heavy-minded, lum
bering but substantial English type. The Teutonic character
is perhaps most strongly expressed in the Yorkshireman; I
may quote Dr. Beddoe s words in this connection. It in
cludes " the shrewdness, the truthfulness without candour, the
perseverance, energy, and industry of the lowland Scotch, but
little of their frugality, or of the theological instinct common
to the Welsh and Scotch, or of the imaginative genius or more
brilliant qualities which light up the Scottish character. The
sound judgment, the spirit of fair play, the love of comfort,
order, and cleanliness, and the fondness for heavy feeding, are
shared with the Saxon Englishman; but some of them are
still more strongly marked in the Yorkshireman, as is also
the bluff independence a very fine quality when it does not
334 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
degenerate into selfish rudeness." Bearing all these traits in
mind, one realizes the possible " clashing of a quick percep
tion with a Germanic instinct for going steadily along close
to the ground." Ascribe it all to a difference of diet, if you
please, as the late Mr. Buckle might have done; derive the
emotional temperament from potatoes, and the stolid one from
beef; or invent any other excuse you please, the contrast is a
real one. It points vaguely in the direction of a Mediterranean
blend in the Welsh and Irish, even to a lesser degree in the
Highland Scotch. More we dare not affirm.
CHAPTER XIII.
RUSSIA AND THE SLAVS.*
ON the east, the west, and the north, the boundaries of the
Russian Empire are drawn with finality. Its territory ends
where the land ends. The quarter of this empire which is
comprised in Europe is defined with equal clearness on three
sides and a half. Only along the line of contact with west
ern Europe is debatable territory to be found. Even here a
natural frontier runs for a long way on the crest of the Car
pathian Mountains. To be sure, Galicia, for the moment, owes
political allegiance to Austria-Hungary; but the Ruthenians,
who constitute the major part of her population, are nowise
distinguishable from the Russians, as we shall soon see. This
leaves merely the two extremes of the Baltic-Black Sea frontier
in question. The indefiniteness of the southern end of this
line, from the Carpathians down, is one cause of that Russian
itch for the control of the Bosporus which no number of in
ternational conventions can assuage. The Danube could never
form a real boundary; a great river like that is rather a uni-
* To a number of eminent anthropologists I am especially indebted for
assistance in the collection of original Slavic materials used as the basis
of this chapter. Among these should be especially mentioned with grate
ful recognition of their invaluable aid : Prof. D. N. Anutschin, president
of the Society of Friends of Natural Science, Ethnology, and Anthropology
in the Imperial University at Moscow ; Prof. A. Taranetzki, of the Im
perial Military Medical Academy, president of the Anthropological
Society at St. Petersburg ; Prof. Lubor Niederle, of Prague ; Dr. Adam
Zakrewski, chief of the Statistical Bureau at Warsaw ; Dr. Talko-Hrynce-
wicz, now in Transbaikal, Siberia ; Dr. Wl. Olechnowicz, of Lublin ; Dr.
H. Matiegka, of Prague; and Prof. N. N. Kharuzin, of St. Petersburg.
In the translation of the Slavic monographs I have been aided by Robert
Sprague Hall, Esq., of the Suffolk bar, and Dr. Leo Wiener, of Harvard
University.
335
336 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
fying factor in the life of nations than otherwise. Hence the
great problems of the Balkan Peninsula. From the Car
pathians north to the Baltic Sea, likewise, no geographical line
of demarcation can be traced with surety. No water shed
worthy of the name between the Dnieper and Vistula exists,
although the waters of the one run east and the other west
not far from the present boundary of Poland and Russia. The
former country possesses no sharply defined area of character
ization. The State of Texas has as clear a topographical title
to independent political life. The partition of Poland was in
a measure a direct result of geographical circumstances; and
these have condemned this unhappy country, despite the de
voted patriotism of her people, to a nondescript political ex
istence in the future. By language the Poles are affiliated with
Russia, not Germany; but in religion they are Occidental
rather than Byzantine. Thus Poland stands to-day, padded
with millions of politically inert Jews, as a buffer between
Russia and Teutonism. It is a case not unlike that of Alsace-
Lorraine. In both instances the absolute inflexibility of phys
ical environment as a factor in political life is exemplified.
From the Carpathian Mountains, where, as we have said,
Russia naturally begins, a vast plain stretches away north and
east to the Arctic Ocean and to the confines of Asia; an ex
panse of territory in Europe eleven times as large as France.*
It is not limited to Europe alone. Precisely the same forma
tion, save for a slight interruption at the Ural Mountains,
extends on across Asia, clear to the Pacific Ocean. European
Russia, only one quarter the size of Siberia, is, however, the
only part of immediate interest to us here. Nowhere in all its
vast expanse is there an elevation worthy the name mountain.
Even the most rugged portion, the Valdai Hills in southern
Novgorod, are barely one thousand feet high; they are more
like a table-land than a geological uplift. Across this bound
less plain, the last part of Europe to emerge from the sea, slug
gishly meander some of the longest rivers on the globe. Some
conception of the flatness of the country may be gained from
* Leroy-Beaulieu, i88i- 8g, gives a superb description of the country.
Its simple geology is shown by map in Petermann, xli, 1895, No. 6.
RUSSIA AND THE SLAVS.
337
the statement that the projected new canal to connect the
Baltic and Black Seas can be made available for navigation
by the largest vessels from end to end by the construction of
only two locks.
Whatever its local character, be it great peat swamps or
barren steppe, the impression of the country is ever the same.
Monotony in immensity; an endless uniformity of geograph
ical environment, hardly to be equalled in any country inhab
ited by European peoples. Thus is the geographical environ
ment of the Russian people determined in its first important
respect. Their territory offers no obstacle whatever to ex
pansion in any direction; the great rivers, navigable for thou
sands of miles, are, in fact, a distinct invitation to such migra
tions. On the other hand, this plain surface and the great
rivers offer the same advantages to the foreigner as to the
native; there is a complete absence of those natural barriers
behind which a people may seek shelter from the incursions
of others. The only natural protection which the region offers
is in its dense forests and swamps. These, however, unlike
mountains, offer no variety of conditions or natural products;
they afford no stimulation to advance in culture; they retard
civilization in the act of protecting it; they are better fitted
to afford refuge to an exiled people than to encourage progress
in a nascent one.
The second factor in determining a geographical area of
characterization is its relative fertility. As we have observed
before, this invites or discourages the movement of popula
tions, in armies or in peaceful migration, just as much as the
configuration of the surface makes this an easy or difficult
matter. Judged by this second criterion, the territory of Eu
ropean Russia varies considerably. Leroy-Beaulieu divides
it into three strips from north to south. The half lying north
of a line from Kiev to Kazan (see map facing page 348), consti
tuting the forest zone, is light soiled; it varies from heavy
forest on the southern edge to the stunted growth of the arctic
plains. South of the forest belt south of a line, that is, from
Kiev to Kazan lies the prairie country. This is the flattest
of all; over a territory several times the size of France, a hill
338 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
of three hundred and fifty feet elevation is unknown. This
prairie or woodless strip is of surpassing fertility the so-called
Black Mould belt, just south of the forests, rivalling the basin
of the Mississippi in its natural richness of soil. From this
the country gradually becomes less and less fertile with the
decreasing rainfall, as we go south. This brings us at last to
the third region, that of the barren steppes, or saline deserts,
which centre about the Caspian Sea. These are found also less
extensively north of the Crimean Peninsula, as far west as
the lower Dnieper. Their major part lies south and east of
the Don River. As Leroy-Beaulieu observes, the real boundary
between Europe and Asia, viewed not cartographically but
in respect of culture and anthropology, lies not at the Ural
River and Mountains at all, where most of our geographies
place it. Sedentary, civilized, racial Europe, roughly speak
ing, ends at a line, shown on our map, up the Don from its
mouth to the knee of the Volga, thence up the latter and away
to the northeast. This brings us to Asia, with its terrific ex
tremes of continental climate, with its barren steppes, its slit-
eyed Mongols, and its nomadic and imperfect culture.
Over this great territory population is very unevenly scat
tered. It conforms strictly in its density to the possibilities
for support offered by the environment. The forest zone, with
its thin soil and long winters, is well-nigh saturated with a
population of fifteen to^ the square mile. Across the Black
Mould strip population rises to a respectable European figure
of sixty or even sometimes seventy-five to the square mile.
An area about twice the size of France offers every advantage
for the pursuit of agriculture. From this it falls to the figure
of about two to the mile in the great Caspian depression,
once the bed of an inland sea. The great aggregation of popu
lation is, of course, about the historic centres, Moscow and
Kiev. The latter is the expression of matchless advantages
of soil and climate, while Moscow is rather the centre of an
industrial population. Its commercial advantages are no less
marked, lying as it does just between the head waters of the
western rivers and the great water way to Kazan and the east
down the course of the Volga. Novgorod, former centre of
RUSSIA AND THE SLAVS.
339
Russian civilization when fugitive in the forests of the north,
at the time of the Mongol invasions, now is of little relative
importance; and St. Petersburg, surrounded by Finnic swamps,
is of course merely the artificial creation of an absolute mon
arch. With great rapidity the population is retracing its steps
in this century, expanding toward the east and south. It is
moving away from Europe. The marshes and swamps which
lie all along the Baltic Sea and the German frontier offer no
inducement in that direction. Western Russia is indeed but
scantily populated for the same reason. This fact, together
with the intermission of Poland, has isolated the Russians as
a people. A population about twice that of the United States
has been left to evolve its individuality in complete separation
from the rest of Europe. From the Carpathians to the Ural
chain on the east, and to the Caucasus on the south, this vigor
ous branch of the European races has expanded. It surely
lags behind the rest of Europe in culture, as it has always
done. But the fate of the Slav, lying on the outskirts of cul
tural or little Europe, has always been to bear the brunt of
the barbarian Asiatic onslaughts. Such a task of guarding
the " marches " of Europe, has not been borne without leav
ing a distinct impress upon the entire civilization of the coun
try. The task before us is to inquire as to the original physical
nature of this great nation; and then to investigate as to whether
effects, analogous to those upon culture, have been produced
by the peculiar geographical location and experience of Russia
in the past.
A word must be said, before we proceed to the physical
anthropology of Russia, as to the languages which are spoken
there. The true Russians form about one half the population
of the European portion of the country; the rest are Letto-
Lithuanians, of whom we shall speak in a moment, Poles,
Jews, Finns, and Mongols, with a sprinkling of Germans.
The true Russians are divided into three groups of very
unequal size.* These are said to differ not only in language,
* Rittich, 1878 b, has mapped their distribution in minute detail. His
final work of 1885 is a model of cartographical completeness. Talko-
Hryncewicz, 1893 and 1894, gives detailed maps of linguistic boundaries
also. Velytchko, 1897, is the most recent.
27
340
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
but in temperament as well. About fifty of the seventy-
odd millions of them, known as Great Russians, occupy the
entire centre, north, and east of the country. These are the
" Muscovites," their historic centre being in the ancient capi
tal city of Moscow. Next in numbers come the people of
Little Russia, or Ukraine, who, as our maps designate, in
habit the governments of the southwest, up against Galicia.
They in turn centre politically in Kiev, covering a wedge-
shaped territory, with its point lying to the east in Khar
kov and Voronesh. The Cossacks, who extend down around
the Sea of Azof into the Kuban, are linguistically Little
Russians also. The third group, known as the White Rus
sians, only four million souls in number, is found in the four
governments shown on our map, extending from Poland up
and around Lithuania. The White Russian territory is flat,
swampy, and heavily forested, in strong contrast to the fertile,
open Black Mould belt of Little Russia. In topography and in
the meagreness of its soil, White Russia is akin to the sandy
Baltic provinces from Lithuania north. Linguistically, the
White and Great Russians are closely allied; the dialect of the
Little Russians is considerably differentiated from them both.
This is probably due to the Tatar invasions from the east
across middle Russia. In face of these the Great Russians
withdrew toward Moscow; the White Russians took refuge
in their inhospitable swamps and forests; while the popula
tion of the Ukraine was left to itself at the south. We shall
not attempt to discuss the question as to which of these repre
sents the purest Russian. Bearing in mind the constant migra
tion of the Great Russians across Mongolian and Finnic terri
tory, and the inviting character of the Ukraine ; one is disposed
at once to adjudge with Leroy-Beaulieu that, of the three
tribes, the White Russian in his forests and swamps, far re
moved from Oriental barbarian influences, " is certainly the
one whose blood is purest." Whether this is borne out by
purely anthropological testimony we shall see later.
Entirely distinct from the Slavs in language is the Letto-
Lithuanian people, which, to the number of three million or
more, occupies the territory between the White Russians and
CEPHALIC INDEX
EASTERN EUROPE
RUSSIA AND THE SLAVS.
341
the Baltic Sea extending down into northern Prussia.* Their
speech, in the comparative isolation of this inhospitable region
an isolation which made them the last people in Europe
to accept Christianity is the most archaic member of the
great Aryan or inflectional family. Standing between Slavic
and Teutonic, it is more primitive than either. Three tribes
or peoples of them coexist here: Letts, Jmouds or Samo-
gitians, and Lithuanians proper, as shown on our map. Con
tact with the Finnic-speaking peoples north of them Esths,
Livs, Tchouds, and Vods has modified the purity of the
Lettic speech considerably.! These Finns, in turn, speak a
language like that of the Magyars in Hungary, and the
Basques, which is not European at all. It is similar in struc
ture to the primitive languages of Asia and of the aborigines
of America. It represents a transitional stage of linguistic
evolution, through which the Aryan family has probably
passed in earlier times. But the language of the Letto-Lithu-
anians, while primitive in many respects, bears no relation
structurally to the Finnic ; it is as properly Aryan as the speech
of the Slavs.
The perfect monotony and uniformity of environment of
the Russian people is most clearly expressed anthropologically
in their head form. Our results are shown graphically, it is be
lieved for the first time, by the accompanying map of cephalic
index.! Bearing in mind that the Poles and Letto-Lithua-
* Miischner and Virchovv, 1891, have studied these Prussians.
f The Livonian speech is now extinct. Stieda, Correspondenzblatt,
1878, p. 126, states that in 1846 only twenty-two people still spoke it.
t Our data for this map may be found mainly in the original and
excellent compilation of Niederle, 1896 a, pp. 54-57. Additional material
of great value, especially from unpublished sources, is given in Deniker,
1897 and 1898 a ; while his announced work, in extenso (1898 b), promises
to give the most notable results. It will be a contribution unsurpassed
in comprehensiveness. We had, prior to the knowledge of these, inde
pendently collected data from the original sources, published in L An-
thropologie, vii, 1896, pp. 513-525 ; but these later authorities agree so
perfectly with our own observations, that reference to them is sufficient.
We can only add certain unpublished data on the Magyars from Dr.
Janko, of Buda-Pesth ; Talko-Hryncewicz s (1897) recent observations in
Podolia ; Vorob ef on the population of Riazan ; N. N. Kharuzin on Esth-
342
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
nians along the Baltic Sea are not Russians properly, and
excluding, of course, the Tatars of the Crimea, a moment s
consideration of our map shows at once a great similarity
of head form prevailing all over Europe from the Carpathian
^Mountains east and north. The cephalic index oscillates but
two or three points about a centre of 82. This is about the
head form of the northwestern French ; appreciably broader,
that is to say, than the standard for the Anglo-Saxon peoples.
In places the breadth of head in Russia increases, especially
among the Polesians isolated in the marshes of Pinsk and
along the swamps of the Pripet River. These people are sup
posed to be infused with Polish blood, which may account
for it,* as the southeastern Poles are known to be quite bra-
chycephalic. At other times, as in southern Smolensk, the
index falls to 80. f Our widest range of variation in Russia
is about five units. Compare this with our former results
land, 1894, etc. In addition, in all that concerns Bohemia and its vicinity,
we have had the benefit through the courtesy of Dr. Matiegka, of Prague,
of unpublished maps, for comparison with our own.
On the whole, owing especially to the zeal of the younger school of
Slavic anthropologists by which we mean those who work from simple
measurements on a large number of people rather than detailed descrip
tions of a few skulls in the laboratory during the last five years, the main
facts are perfectly well established. It remains to settle many points of
detail, especially among the Hungarians and southern Slavs, but it is not
likely that serious modification of the scheme will be necessary in Russia,
at all events. Anutchin, Zograf, Talko-Hryncewicz, and their fellows
have laid a solid foundation for future investigators.
* Talko-Hryncewicz, 1894, p. 159, on the anomalous position of the Pole
sians. Rittich, 1878 b, divides them dialectically between White and Little
Russians. Talko-Hryncewicz, 1893, p. 133, and 1894, p. 172, gives his
observations on head form. The seriation points to a strong brachy-
cephaly.
The student of Slavic ethnology should carefully distinguish these
Polesians from a number of other peoples of similar name. Thus there
are also, besides the true Poles, the Podolians in the south Russian gov
ernment of that name ; the Podlachians, inhabiting a small district in the
government of Grodno on the Polish frontier ; and, finally, the Podhalians
in the Carpathian Mountains. These last are best described by Lebon,
1881.
f Deniker asserts an index of So.S in southern Volhynia and of 86 in
southern Kiev ; but I am unable to confirm it by adequate data.
139-
VLADIMIR GOVERNMENT. Cephalic Index 84.2.
VLADIMIR GOVERNMENT. Cephalic Index 82.
143-
VLADIMIR GOVERNMENT. Cephalic Index 85.7
GREAT RUSSIAN TYPES.
RUSSIA AND THE SLAVS.
343
for western Europe. In France, less than half the size of this
portion of the Russian territory covered by our map, the ce
phalic index runs from 78 to 88. In Germany the limits are
about the same; while in Italy, only one eighteenth the size
of European Russia, the head form changes from an index of
75 in Sardinia to one of 89 in the Alps of Piedmont. These are
almost the extremes of long- and broad-headedness presented
by the human species; the Russian type is about midway be
tween the two.
One cause of this unparalleled extension of a uniform type,
measured by the proportions of the head a variability, not
withstanding the size of the country, only about one third of
that in the restricted countries of western Europe is not far
to seek. It lies in the monotony of the Russian territory,
which we have emphasized above. Once more are we con
fronted with an example of the close relation which exists
between man and the soil on which he lives. A variety of
human types is the natural accompaniment of diversity in
physical environment. Intermixture and comparative purity
of race may coexist side by side. Switzerland and the Tyrol
offer us violent contrasts of this sort. Russia, devoid of all
obstacles in the way of fusion, presents a great mean or aver
age type, about halfway between the two limits of variation
of which the European races elsewhere can boast. But pass
beyond the foothills of the Caucasus, and behold the change?
A Babel of languages no less than sixty-eight dialects, in
fact and half as many physical types, of all complexions, all
head forms, and all sizes. Truly it seems to be a law that
mountains are generators of physical individuality, while the
plains are fatal to it.
The population of Russia is not alone made up of Rus
sians. In a preceding paragraph we have expressly excluded
the population of the Baltic provinces. For the Letto-Lithu-
anians are not Slavs, as we have already observed, and
of course the Finnic peoples, Esths, Tchouds, and Vods, are
still more distinct. Our map at once brings the peculiar head
form of these groups into strong relief. All along the frontier
of Germany, and away up to Finland, a strong tendency to
344
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
long-headedness is manifested. This contrast is exemplified
in our portraits distributed through this chapter. A narrow
head generally is accompanied by a rather long and narrow
face; our Mongol types, with their very round bullet heads,
are characteristically broad and squarish-faced. This is par
tially due to the prominence of the cheek bones. It is this
latter characteristic of our American aborigines which gives
them their peculiar Mongol aspect. I have observed the
very broad face to be one of the most persistent traits in the
cross-breeds. Dr. Boas has proved it statistically. Even
a trace of Indian blood will often cause this peculiarity. Xow,
the Russians express their relative broad-headedness, as com
pared with the Letto- Lithuanians, in the relatively squarish
form of their faces.* Our portraits make this difference ap
parent at once.
The head form and facial proportions of the purest of the
Letto- Lithuanians, it will be observed, approximate quite
closely to our Anglo-Saxon model. The Russians impress the
English traveller as being quite squarish-faced and heavy-
featured for this reason. The British Isles, as we have shown,
manifest a cephalic index of about 78. This is, as one would
expect, the type of the primitive Anglo-Saxons. It appears
all through northern and western Germany. Its main centre
of dispersion is in the Scandinavian Peninsula, just across
the narrow inland sea. The query at once suggests itself as
to the origin of this similar long-headedness on the Baltic
coast in Russia. If the eastern Prussians have been proved
to be Slavonized Teutons in type, why not assume with equal
surety that the western Poles are Slavs, Teutonized away from
their original characteristics? Action and reaction in anthro
pology, as in physics, must always be equal and opposite in
effect. Only thus can we account for the increased long-
headedness in parts of Poland. And if it be Teutonic influ
ence in this province, where shall we draw the line as we follow
* Talko-Hryncewicz, 1893, p. 169. Majer and Kopernicki, 1885, p. 59,
show the round broad face of the Poles in Galicia, as compared with the
Ruthenians. The Carpathian mountaineers seem to be anomalously
lonir-faced. (Kopernicki, 1889, p. 49; and Lebon, 1881, p. 233.)
RUSSIA AND THE SLAVS. 345
up the Baltic coast, over one language after another? Is there
a Teutonic cross in the Lithuanians? If so, why not in Letts
as well? And how about Esths and Tchouds? We shall see.
South and west of the Carpathian Mountains a second great
division of the Slavs exists^. This includes the Poles, Czechs,
Slovaks. Moravians; and j-divided from them by the intrusive
Magyars, who speak a Finnic language -the Slovenes, Serbo-
Croatians, and Bosnians in the south. This congeries of scat
tered Slavic nationalities seem to be, for some reason, politi
cally adrift in Europe.* The Bulgars and Roumanians belong
to a still different class. For the former, while Slavic in
speech, is quite distinct in physical derivation; and the Rou
manians, in origin probably allied to the Slavs, speak a cor
rupted Romance language. Matters are indeed becoming
mixed as we approach the Balkan Peninsula. This entire
group of southwestern Slavs is characterized by a very preva
lent broad-headedness, much more marked than among the
Russians, as Weisbach has been proving for twenty-five years. f
Their brachycephaly is directly conjoined to that of the Alpine
highlands in the Tyrol, where we pass beyond the limits of
Slavdom, and enter the territory once occupied by the Celts.
Our map of head form points to a general broad-headedness
over all the present Austro-Hungarian Empire, from which a
spur seems to extend over into Little Russia, becoming lost in
an expanse of longer-headedness in the plains beyond. All the
mountainous regions are still characterized by brachycephaly;
it is a repetition of the law which holds good all over western
Europe. This brachycephaly is tempered only in those dis
tricts like Austria, where we know both from language and
history that the Teutonic influence has been strong. Other
physical traits will corroborate this deduction shortly. Yet
these Austrian Germans are to-day only distantly related to
the blond Scandinavian Germans along the Baltic. They re
semble the Bavarians and Swabians, who are, as we know, a
cross between the blond Teutonic race and a thick-set, broad-
headed Alpine one. Leaving aside for the moment the long-
* Cf. page 411, supra.
f Our Bibliography gives a complete list of all his papers.
346
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
headed strip on the Black Sea, which will demand special con
sideration, we can not resist the final inference that all this
part of Europe, now inhabited by the southern Slavs, is fun
damentally Alpine in racial type; although eroded in places
by Teutonic influences from the north, and disturbed by the
volcanic irruption of the Finnic Magyars and the Turkish
Bulgarians.
The word Russian is undoubtedly derived from a root
meaning red. Our adjective rufous, and the name Ruthenian,
applied to the inhabitants of Galicia, bear the same significa
tion. The name is aptly applied: for the Russians, wherever
found, are characterized by a distinct tendency toward what
we would term a reddish blondness. Yantchuk, in the gov
ernment of Minsk, in White Russia, found almost half his
peasants to have hair of this shade.* It is not a real red. It
might be called either a light chestnut, a dark flaxen, or an
auburn tint. This shade of hair, combined with what Talko-
Hryncewicz terms a " beer-coloured " eye, is the centre from
which variation up or down occurs. This range of variation
is very considerable. It seems to conform to the general
law for all Europe, to which we have already called attention
in our chapter on the subject. Brunetness increases regularly
from north to south. In Russia the population also manifests
a distinct tendency toward darker hair and eyes from west
to east. The Baltic Sea is the centre of distribution for blond-
ness, here as in Germany. The relations are well illustrated
by the following table; statistics offer merely a scientific con
firmation of the facts of common observation.
Percentage of types (hair,
eyes, and skin
combined).
47 6.
Letto-
Lithua-
nians.
p6i.
White
Russians.
252.
Podolians.
2.6lQ.
Little
Russians.
188.
Ruthenian
moun
taineers.
22,682.
Great
Russians.
Blond
67
57
ce
T T.
28
4O
Mixed
28
TI
2Q
46
72
.10
Brunet
5
II
18
2O
4O
2O
These figures show that the Letto- Lithuanians are the
lightest people in the group. They are characterized most
1890 b, col. 69.
LITHUANIAN
WEST COAST FINN. Index 78.
Index 84. WEST COAST FINNS. Index 75.2.
FINNO-TEUTONIC TYPES (BLONDS).
150.
RUSSIA AND THE SLAVS. 347
frequently by a blue eye, and light hair which rivals the Swed
ish and Norwegian in its purity.* Two thirds of these Baltic
peoples appear as pure blonds. The Poles are nearly as light,
apparently. Majer and Kopernicki,! in fact, found more blond
types among adults even than Virchow did among his Ger
man school children; and this, too, despite the fact that the
blondness of the latter would surely decrease with growth.
Next to the Poles and Letto- Lithuanians come the White
Russians and the people of Podolia (see map facing page 340),
with still a majority of blond types. The Great Russians are
somewhat darker, but even they are appreciably lighter in
complexion than the Little Russians in the southern govern
ments. The latter the Ukrainians are still blue or lightish
in eye, but betray a strong predisposition for dark-brown hair.
This latter is here as common as the light brown. J The " beer-
coloured " eye, in most frequent combination with really dark
hair, brings us to the culmination of brunetness among the
Galicians in the Carpathian Mountains. These Gorali, as our
table indicates, in contrast with the Letto-Lithuanians, show
the clear brunet at last outweighing the blond. The name
" black Russians," applied to these mountaineers to distin
guish them from the Ruthenians, or " red Russians," of the
plains of Galicia, appears to be deserved. They seem to con-
* Talko-Hryncewicz is the only observer who has consistently applied
a uniform system of observation to various localities. This table, ar
ranged from his works of 1893, p. 112 ; 1894, p. 168 ; and 1897, p. 279,
presents the best summary of his conclusions. He has covered Lithuania,
White and Little Russia; adding results from Majer and Kopernicki,
1877, p. 112, and 1885, p. 43, and Kopernicki, 1889, as to the Ruthenians
and Poles in Galicia. We add, although not strictly comparable, Zograf s
(1892 a, p. 165) results on the Great Russians. More definite comparisons,
yielding, however, entirely parallel results, may be drawn from the colour
of the hair alone. Thus we may include the Poles and even the southern
Slavs as far as Bulgaria. To the tables in Talko-Hryncewicz s papers
may then be directly added Weisbach s observations over a large field.
Niederle, 1896 a, pp. 60 et seq., has done this most satisfactorily.
f 1877, pp. 90 and 112, and 1885, p. 34. Elkind s results (1896, col.
261) also show a marked blondness along the Vistula, though not quite so
pronounced as in Galicia. Cf. also Schimmer, 1884, p. ix.
\ Tschubinsky, 1878, p. 364, confirms these results.
348 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
tain twice as many clear brunet types as the Ukrainians, who
are in Russia accounted dark. Lebon ( 81) has proved that
the Podhalians in these mountains are a local variety, being
considerably lighter. He found nearly one third of them
blond, while seventy per cent of them had light eyes. El-
kind * found one third of the Poles along the Vistula to have
blue eyes and dark-red hair. The light type is less frequent,
however, than in Galicia, as Talko-Hryncewicz f proved. Be
neath all these variations, however, underlies the rufous, or
rather auburn, tendency of which we have spoken. It dis
tinguishes the Russian blondness from that of all other Euro
peans. We shall seek a cause for it when we come to con
sider the Finns and other pre-Slavic inhabitants of the country.
In this connection we can not resist calling attention to
the bearing of this testimony upon Poesche s (>78) celebrated
theory that the original centre of dispersion of the blond
Aryans (?) lay in the great Rokitno swamps about Pinsk and
along the Pripet in White Russia. We have seen that these
people are indeed blond. Mainof J it was whose testimony to
this effect gave Poesche his cue. Since we have proved how
much less blond these White Russians are than their neigh
bours toward the Baltic, it would seem as if we had effectually
disposed of Poesche s theory at the same time.
In stature the Russians are of medium height, but they
betray the same susceptibility to the influences of environment
as other Europeans. Our map herewith illustrates this clearly.
This investigation of upward of two million recruits, by the
eminent anthropologist Anutchin, shows a considerable varia
tion according to the fertility of the country. Thus in the
northern half, above Moscow and Kazan, the adult males are
two inches shorter than in the Ukraine about Kiev, which lies
in the heart of the Black Mould belt. The difference between
White and Little Russians is due to the same cause. Other
influences besides physical environment are, however, at work,
beyond question. This is especially the case in Poland. This
unhappy country is the adopted fatherland of millions of Jews.
* 1896, col. 261. f 1890, p. 29.
| Cong. int. des sciences geographiques, Paris, 1878, p. 269.
A RCTI c OCEAN
RU551A- " ^m
2.OI7OOO AFTER. ^\ - - - /)
OBSERVATIONS. ANUTCHIN 8? I- 1 - ) ^ 2S
Z ,iW
m
< 1
RUSSIA AND THE SLAVS.
349
There are almost more here than in all the rest of Europe
put together. These Jews are one of the most stunted peoples
in Europe. In how far this is the result of centuries of op
pression, and in what degree it is an inherent ethnic trait, we
need not stop to consider. It is an indisputably proved fact.
The presence of this horde of Jews, often outnumbering the
native Poles especially in the towns, is largely accountable
for the short stature shown by our map. This does not exon
erate the Poles by any means from the charge of relative
diminutiveness.* The degree in which they are surpassed by
their Slavic neighbours on the other side is shown by our
map on page 350. Comparisons are facilitated by the uni
formity of tints upon the two maps. Yet even here in Austria-
Hungary the shortness of the Poles and Ruthenians, which
together form the population of Galicia, may be partly at
tributable to the large contingent of Jews.
The clearest example of stature as an unmitigated ethnic
trait, hereditary and persistent, is shown in the eastern half
of Austria-Hungary (map on next page). Notice the light
ness of shading among all the Germans (Deutsche) in Aus
tria, in the Tyrol, and in the northwestern corner of Bohemia
(Bohmen). These are just the districts where Teutonic infil
tration from the north has been historically proved since early
times. We have already mentioned it in our study of the head
form. The German-speaking Austrians, then, are by nature
and not by acquisition, an inch or two taller than many of
the Slavic peoples subject to their political domination. It is
the same phenomenon already so familiar to us in the case of
the relatively gigantic Burgundian peasantry in France to-day;
in the tallness of the people of Lombardy; and, above all, in
the Tetttonizecl eastern half of the British Isles. This latter
example comes directly home to us, because we in America
owe a large measure of our surpassing stature to the same
ethnic cause. Never has a physical trait shown so surprising
a persistency as in the height of these Teutonic peoples.
Just here a difficulty confronts us one which no anthro
pologist has satisfactorily explained. Our second map shows
* Talko-Hryncewicz, 1895, p. 264. See our chapter on Jews.
350
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
a very tall population among the southern Slavs, the Slovenes,
Serbo-Croatians, and Bosnians, contrasted with the short
Poles, Ruthenians, and Slovaks in the northeast. This can
not historically be traced to a Teutonic ancestry. Anthropo
logically it is even less probable, because these southern Slavs
are all very dark in hair and eye, being in this respect as in
head form the polar extreme from the Teutons of the north.
A distinct subcentre of giantism, inexplicable but established
5TATURE.
AUSTRIA HUNGARY.
AFTER
VON GOEHLERT 8l
NOTE. Cf. Appendix F.
beyond all doubt, exists just east of the Adriatic Sea. Its in
fluence radiates through the Slovenes over into northeastern
Italy. We find indication of it in the Rhsetian parts of Swit
zerland. Deniker, in his recent classification of the anthropo
logical types of Europe, carries it even further, under the defi
nite name of the Adriatic or Dinaric race.* Who can affirm
* 1898 a, with map. We emphasized the same fact in our general
stature map of Europe ; see page 97 supra.
RUSSIA AND THE SLAVS. 35
that the tallness of the Tyrolese, who in their mountainous
habitat, despite the depressing influence of their environment,
surpass the Swiss, the Bavarians, the Austrians, and the Ital
ians, may not possibly be due to a double ethnic source? At
just this point in the Tyrol the Teutonic wave of tall stature
from the north and the Adriatic one from the south come
together. Thus, an exception to the law that, other things
equal, the populations of mountains are unfavourably affected
in stature by their environment may possibly be explained.
Turning back to our map of stature in Russia, facing page
348, we observe a distinctly lighter shading that is to say, a
taller stature along the coast of the Baltic Sea. This is merged
in the mediocre stature of the Great Russians, a little east of
Novgorod. Although unfortunately our map does not give
the data for Finland, we know that a similar superiority of
stature extends all across this province. All the Finns in this
part of Russia are very tall. G. Retzius ( TO) , Bonsdorff,*
Hjelt (>T2) , Elisyeef ( 87) , and all observers agree in this.f An
average height not a whit less than that of the pure Scandi
navians in Norway and Sweden is proved. It lessens toward
the north in contact with the Lapps, most stunted of men,
at an average of only five feet for adult males. It decreases
on the east among the Karelian Finns, falling rapidly to the
Russian average. Bear in mind that in no other part of north
ern Europe, save in Scandinavia just across the Baltic Sea,
is an average stature anywhere near that of the Finns to be
found: that a cross with the Swedes in consequence is inade
quate as an explanation for this tallness; that wherever there
is contact with the Slav precisely as in Austria-Hungary,
where, as we have seen, an ethnic trait ran up against Slav
dom the bodily height falls to mediocrity: and draw the only
inference possible both from geography and physical anthro
pology. We shall deal with the philologists later.
Summarizing our results thus far, we find two physical
* Cited by Topinard, Elements, p. 494.
t On the Esths, Grube, 1878 ; A. N. Kharuzin, 1894. Waldhauer, 1879.
on the Livs; Waeber, 1879, on the Letts. Kollmann, i88i- 83, gives a
-fine resume oi this work.
28
352
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
types more or less clearly coexisting in the Russian people,
and throughout all the Slavs, too, for that matter. One is tall,
blondish, and long-headed; the other is brachycephalic, darker-
complexioned, and of medium height. The relative propor
tions of each vary greatly from one region to another. Among
Lithuanians and Poles, the former is more noticeable; in the
Ukraine the other type becomes more frequent; the Great
Russians stand between the two; while among the southern
Slavs the blond, long-headed variety entirely disappears.*
Xot only do the relative proportions of these component types
vary from one region to another. Distinct differences in the
several social strata of the same locality appear. The tall
dolichocephalic blonds are more characteristic of the upper
classes as a rule, so far as the matter has been examined.!
Our results for western Europe are entirely harmonious with
this tendency. And, thirdly, it is curious to note that the rela
tive proportions of these two ethnic types have changed en
tirely since prehistoric times. This point is of so great signifi
cance that we must examine it a bit more in detail.
Nowhere else in Europe is the complete submergence of
an old race by an intrusive one more clear than in the Slavic
portion of Europe. Bogdanof, founder of Russian archae
ology, devoted his entire life to proof of this fact in his own
country. J The first indications of this submerged aboriginal
population were given, by crania from tumuli, which are
scattered all over Russia from the Carpathians almost to the
Ural chain, and even beyond in Siberia. These Kiirgans. so
called, are merely large mounds of earth from twenty to fifty
feet high, sometimes single, sometimes arranged in series for
* Zograf, 1892 a, p. 173, describes these. Lebon, iSSi, p. 233, finds the
same two types in Podhalia.
f Olechnowicz, 1893, 1895 a, and 1897, has obtained some highly inter
esting results among the petite noblesse in Poland. Talko-Hryncewicz,
1897 b, confirms it.
\ The facts yielded by his first investigation in 1867 have been con
firmed by every observation since. We are fortunate in that a complete
summary of his life work was given by himself at the International Con
gress of Anthropology at Moscow in 1892. Titles of all his monographs
will be found in our Bibliography.
RUSSIA AND THE SLAVS. 353
miles. They are not unlike the simpler relics of our own
mound builders. The dead level of the country makes them
in the open prairies often of great service to herdsmen in
tending their flocks. These tumuli were found for the most
part to date from the stone age; no implements or ornaments
of metal were unearthed in them. The absence of weapons
or utensils of war in them also denoted a peaceable folk.*
The population must have been considerable, for these tumuli
are simply innumerable. The men of this Kurgan period
betrayed a notable homogeneity of type, even more uni
form than that of the modern living population. The crania
were almost invariably of a pure, long-headed variety; the
cephalic indexes ranging as low as or lower than that of the
purest living Teutonic peoples to-day. Remembering that the
modern Russians are well up among the moderately broad-
headed Europeans, it will be seen what this discovery implied.
Nothing else was known save that this extinct people were
very tall, considerably above the standard of the Russian
mujik to-day, and it seemed as if their hair betrayed a tend
ency toward red.f The most obvious explanation, in view
of the fact that Finnic place names occurred all over Russia,
was that these tumuli were the remains of an extinct sub
stratum of Finns, driven out or absorbed by the incoming
Slavs. Their civilization, made known to us by Uvarof ( 7 "".
and more recently by Inostranzef (?82) , was definitely connected
with that of the Merian people, so called by the historians. \
Soon a new and significant point began to be noted. While
the range of this primitive long-headed people so different
from the living Russians, was distinctly set on the north and
east, no definite limits could be set to it toward the southwest.
In the meanwhile Kopernicki and others, from 1875 on, began
to find evidence of the same dolichocephalic stratum of popu-
* Kohn and Mehlis, 1879, ii, p. in, compare them with the Reihen-
graber in this respect. (/. Zaborowski, Bull. Soc. d Anth., 1898, pp.
-i ii.
.
Niederle, 1896 a, p. 88. Minakoff, 1898, has investigated this more
fully, asserting the reddish cast to be due to the degeneration of age.
\ Bogdanof, 1893, p. 2, gives a full list of the authorities, Karamsine,
Solovief, Beliaef, Hatzouk, etc.
354
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
lation, underlying all the Slavs in Podolia and Galicia.* Their
track has been followed, entirely antedating the modern Slavs,
down into Bohemia and Moravia, by Xiederle f and Matiegka, J
and as far as Bosnia; where, in the great discoveries at Gla-
sinac,* the existence of this same aboriginal population was
abundantly proved. On the west, Lissauer followed it across
Prussia beyond the Vistula. || Thus on every side it was traced
to the limits of Slavdom, and found to underlie it throughout.
The next step taken by the archaeologists was to examine the
graves of the early historic period. Bogdanof A investigated
the ancient cemeteries at Moscow and elsewhere, and found
that the brachycephaly of the living Russians in its present
form is even more recent than history. Thus, while in the
Kurgan stone age three fourths of the skulls were dolicho
cephalic, in the Slav period from the ninth to the thirteenth
century only one half of them were of this form, and in purely
modern cemeteries the proportion was ten per cent less even
than this. Added confirmation of this proof of the extreme
recency of the Russian broad-headedness was almost the last
service rendered to science by the late lamented Professor
Zograf.O In Bohemia Matiegka has done the same, showing
that even as late as the sixth to the twelfth centuries the Czechs
were less extremely broad-headed than to-day.J Two explana
tions were suggested for this widespread phenomenon. Bog
danof and a few others -asserted that civilization implied an
increased broad-headedness, and that a morphological change
had taken place in the same people; while the majority of an
thropologists found in it proof of an entire change of race since
* Kohn and Mehlis, 1879, give a complete rc snnit of Kopernicki s results
in an excellent work which seems to be little known. See especially vol.
ii, pp. 108-110, 152, 153.
f 1891 a, 18943, p. 277, and best of all in his masterly work of 1896 a,
pp. 67-75, where he gives data for all Slavic countries in detail. His
paper in French, at the Moscow Congress of 1892, gives a mere outline of
the results obtained. Palliardi, 1894, deals with Moravia also.
\ 1892 b and 1894 a.
* Weisbach, 1895 a, p. 206 ; 1897 b, p. 575 ; also L Anth., v, p. 567.
|| i874- 7S. A 1879 b. and iS8og.
Q 1896, p. 52. | 1891, pp. 133, 134.
RUSSIA AND THE SLAVS.
355
the earliest times.* The first explanation, even granting that
the brachycephalic races as a rule are endowed with a greater
cranial capacity than the long-headed ones, could hardly be
accorded a warm reception in any of the Anglo-Saxon coun
tries like our own. To relegate long-headedness to an inferior
cultural position would result not only in damning the entire
Teutonic race, but that one also which produced the early
Semitic, Greek, and Roman civilizations. Xo explanation for
the recency of broad-headedness in the Slavic countries is,
then, tenable for a moment, save that the brachycephalic con
tingent is a newcomer in the land.
Which of these two elements in the population, which have
contended so long for mastery among the people of this part
of Europe, represents the primitive Slavic type? It is a deli
cate matter, by no means free from national prejudice. The
Germans have always looked down upon their eastern neigh
bours, by reason of their backwardness in culture. Our ig
noble word " slave," originally signifying the illustrious or
renowned, is a product of this disdain in Europe of the Slav.f
To find the primitive Slavic type, therefore, in that variety,
which accords so completely with our pattern of the Teutonic
race, is as disheartening to the Germans as for the Slavs them
selves; it runs counter to their distrust of modern aggressive
Teutonism. Even science is not free to violate the provisions
of the Triple Alliance with impunity.
The most generally accepted theory among anthropologists
as to the physical relationship of the Slavs, is that they were
always, as the majority of them are to-day, of the same stock
as the broad-headed Alpine (Celtic) race. This latter occupies,
as we have seen, all the central part of western Europe. It
predominates among the north Italians, the French in Au-
vergne and Savoy, and the Swiss. It prevails in the Tyrol
and all across southern Germany, in Alsace-Lorraine, Wur-
temberg, and Bavaria. The French anthropologists, espe
cially Topinard, have emphasized the direct similarity in head
* Vide p. 40 supra.
\ Consult Lefevre, 18965, p. 351; Canon Taylor, Words and Places,
p. 303, and Leroy-Beaulieu, i893- 96, i, p. 97, on this.
356 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
form which exists between all these people and the Slavs.
The name Celto-Slavic has been applied to broad-headed
race by virtue of this fact.* It was a logical deduction from
the first discovery of broad-headedness among the Slavs by
A. Retzius ( 4:!) , von Baer ( tl0) , and Weisbach ( " 4) . The main
objection to it came from the philologists, who found the
Slavic languages much nearer the Teutonic than the Celtic
branch. f This Celto-Slavic theory, affirmed by the French
anthropologists mainly on the ground of similarity of head
form, is generally sustained by the Germans on the basis of
their investigations of relative brunetness among school chil
dren. The Germans have consistently maintained the exist
ence of a radical difference of origin between themselves and
the Slavs. The Slavic portions of Germany, such as Mecklen
burg, Posen, and Brandenburg, as we have shown in an earlier
chapter, are certainly darker in the colour of hair and eyes
than the purely Teutonic ones, like Hanover and Schleswig-
Holstein. Schimmer J has especially called attention to the
contrast in Bohemia. The Czechs and the Germans have
always kept distinct from one another. The relative brunet
ness of the former is very marked. Children of Czech par
entage betray about twice the tendency to brunetness of hair
and eyes of the pupils in the purely German schools. The
Poles are almost the lightest of all the Slavs. Their contrast
with the Czechs in Austria-Hungary is also very marked. Yet
even they, blondest of trie Slavs, are in Posen and Silesia, as
Yirchow s ( 80b) maps prove, relatively much darker than the
Prussians.
Another trait which many of the German anthropologists,
notably Kollmann < <82b >, hold to be Slavic, is the gray or green
ish-gray eye, in contradistinction to the light blue of the pure
* Sergi, 1898 a, chapter vi, has perhaps best expressed and proved this
relationship. Hovelacque and Hervc, 1887, p. 564, assert that no Slavic-
type really exists in fact.
f Krek, 1887, is the leading authority. Niederle, 18963, pp. 13 to 32,
gives a fine review of all the linguistic data. Schrader, 1890, p. 56, out
lines all these theories. Bopp, Zeuss, Grimm, Fick, and Schleicher all
insist upon the affinity of the Slav and the Teuton.
\ 1884, pp. 16 and 19.
RUSSIA AND THE SLAVS. 357
Teuton or the distinct brown and black of southern Europe.
This colour, so frequent among the Russians, is very common
all through the Alpine highlands.* It corroborates the testi
mony of the head form as to the affinity of the Alpine (Celtic)
type and the Slav; unless we agree with Kollmann and Virchow
that this grayness of eye is merely the result of a cross be
tween the blond and brunet varieties.! In this sense it is
merely a neutral or intermediate characteristic. At all events,
even denying validity to the witness of the gray eye, plenty
of evidence remains to show that the modern Slavic popula
tion of eastern Europe is, in the same latitude, more inclined
to brunetness than the Teuton. The presence among the Rus
sian people themselves of a medium-statured, dark-complex
ioned, and broad-headed majority is acknowledged by all.
That this represents the original Slavic stock is certainly the
most logical direct inference. It is the opinion tacitly at least
accepted by most of the English writers. J Direct evidence
as to the former coloration of the Slavs is very scanty. The
testimony of the old travellers like Ibrahim ibn Jacub as to
the black hair and beards of the Czechs, contrasted with the
Saxons, adduced by Dr. Beddoe* in favour of a dark Slavic
origin, is contested by Niederle.|| No such unanimity of testi
mony as is found from Tacitus, Martial, and a host of other
Latin writers as to the blondness of the Teutons can be ad
duced. On the whole, the chroniclers leave the matter as un
settled as ever. The only reliable testimony is that of the
living populations of Slavic speech.
The native anthropologists are divided in theory as to the
type of their Slavic ancestors. No one pretends to question
the facts in the case; the divergence of opinion is merely as
to which stratum of population, which region, or which social
class of the two we have described, is entitled to claim the
honoured title. Thus Anutchin, A Taranetzki,0 Talko-Hrynce-
* Studer, 1880, p. 70.
f Ranke, Der Mensch., ii, p. 253 ; also p. 267. Cf. Rhamm in Globus,
Ixxi, No. 20.
\ Beddoe, 1893, p. no, and Taylor, 1890, p. 104. * 1893, p. 70.
|| 1896 a, pp. 80-87, Riving much historical testimony.
A 1893, pp. 279-281. () 1884, pp. 63-65.
358 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
wicz,* Olechnowicz,f Kopernicki,J Pic,* Ikof, and Yantchuk ^
identify the modern broad-headed population as a Slavic in
vader of originally Finnic territory ; while Bogdanof,0 Zograf,!
and especially Xiederle,! represent the claims of the extinct
Kurgan people to the honoured name of Slav. Lerov-Beau-
lieu seems to represent a popular tendency in favour of this
latter view.t For our own part, we rather incline to agree
with Matiegka that it is a question which the craniologists
are not competent to settle.** That the Alpine (Celtic) racial
type of western Europe is the best claimant for the honour
seems to us to be the most logical inference, especially in the
light of studies of the living aborigines of Russia, to which
we must now turn.
Three ethnic elements are generally recognised as com
ponent parts of the Russian people the Slav, the Finn, and
the Mongol-Tatar. The last two lie linguistically outside the
family of related peoples which we call Aryans, the only other
non-Aryan language in Europe being the Basque. ft In any
classification according to physical characteristics, we must,
however, set aside all the evidences of language as untrust
worthy. To admit them as a basis of classification would in
volve us at once in inextricable confusion. JJ These tribes have
* 1893, p. 171. t l8 93, P- 37 ; 1895, p. 70.
\ Kohn and Mehlis, vol. ii, pp. 114, 153, and 164. In his 1869, p. 629,
he asserts the Ruthenians tobe nearest the original Slavic type.
* Athenaeum, Prague, viii, p. 193. || 1890, col. 103.
A 1890 a, col. 202. lS 93, PP- 10 and 13.
$ 1896, p. 63.
$ 1891 a, 1892 a, and especially in his positively brilliant 1896 a, pp. 50
et seq. Consult his answer to criticisms, 1891 b, and in Globus, vol. Ixxi.
No. 24 also. His bibliography of the subject is superb.
% 1893-96, vol. i, pp. 96 and 108. ** 1891, p. 152.
ff Consult Chapter VIII.
\\ The errors of such a classification are well exemplified in Leroy-
Beaulieu s otherwise excellent work, in which his aborigines are utterly
confused in relationship. Rittich in all his work, and Keane, 1886, as
well as in his Ethnology, 1896, pp. 303 et .M/., are equally at sea. Since
the days of Nilsson and Prichard, the philologists have befogged the
questions of physical descent. Niederle, 18963, in his appendix upon the
subject, seems to be very confused. Cf. Topinard, 1878, p. 465.
SAMOYED. Cephalic Index 86.8.
1 55- Cephalic Index 86.
Cephalic Index 79.
MONGOL TYPES.
RUSSIA AND THE SLAYS.
359
all been more or less nomadic for ages in this great plain
country; they have taken on and put off customs, language,
and religion time and again, according to circumstances. The
latter characteristic, religion, in fact, affords us a far better
standard for ethnic classification than language; since the Finns
have persisted in Christianity, the Turks and Tatars have held
to Mohammedanism, and the Mongols proper to Buddhism,
with a remarkable constancy. The varying proportions of
barbarism in each group are well illustrated by this fact. For
in race, as in religion, the Finns are truly indigenous to western
Furope, the Tatar- Turks are Oriental, while the Mongols
proper are Asiatic.
The evils incident to any linguistic classification of the
aborigines in Russia are best illustrated by a comparison of
the Lapps with the Livs, Esths, and Tchouds of the Baltic
provinces: both groups alike speak Finnic languages; the
philologists-, therefore, from Castren to Mikkola, class them as
alike members of a Finnic " race," along with the Magyars or
Hungarians, who are also Finnic in speech. Xothing could
be more absurd than to assert a community of physical origin
for the three. The Magyars, among the finest representatives
of a west European type, are no more like the Lapps than the
Australian bnshmen ; and the Baltic Finns are equally distinct.
The Lapps, as our portraits at page 208 illustrate, are among
the broadest-headed of men.* Their squat faces show it. In
stature they are among the shortest of the human species.
Yirchow s t celebrated hypothesis that they are a " patho
logical race" seems excusable on this ground. Their hair
and eyes are very dark brown, often black. Could any type
of human beings be further removed from this than the Finns
described to us by G. Retzius, Bonsdorff, Elisyeef, or Mainof?
These latter Finns are among the tallest of men, with fair
skin, flaxen or tow-coloured hair, and blue eyes. Turn to our
ma]) at page 362. Tt shows us among the Fsths on the Baltic
coast, through the Cheremiss on the Volga, and clear beyond
* Sommier, 1886; Kelsief, 1886; N. N. Kharuxin, 1890; Garson, i8S6a,
and others have studied them in detail,
f 1875, a and b.
360 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
the Ural Mountains among Ostiaks and Yoguls in Siberia,
a long-headedness not a whit less pronounced than through
out Teutonic Germany. The contrast of tints on our map cor
responds to a radical contrast of physical type.
The same utter confusion of racial that is to say, of
somatological relations, incident to a linguistic division of the
Finns, appears at once in any like attempt to classify the
Turkish-speaking branch of the Asiatic peoples. For the
Chouvaches, just across the Volga from the Cheremiss,* not
in any important respect to be distinguished from them phys
ically, as our map shows, have by chance adopted the language
and religion of the neighbouring Tatars. It is as absurd to
class them with the latter as Turks by race, as to jumble the
broad-headed and brunet Samoyeds, who are quite like the
Lapps, with the Zyrians just south of them ; f or to confuse
the Tatars as a class with the Kirghez. Comparison of our
portraits of each will manifest this at once. The Tatars of
the_ Crimea whether, as the historians assert, because of early
Gothic influence or otherwise are in many cases entirely Eu
ropean. To class them as Mongols because being closely
massed, somewhat isolated, and possessed of glorious tradi
tions from the past, they have preserved their Asiatic speech,
is a travesty upon science.
Turning to the Russian aborigines, then, with an eye single
to their purely physical characteristics, we may relegate them
to two groups, sharply distinguished in isolation, but inter
mixed along their lines of contact. Our map of cephalic index
facing page 362 will roughly make the division clear. Our
several pages of portraits (portraits, pp. 346 and 364) will
strengthen the contrast. The first group is distinctly long
headed, with an index as low as 79 or 80, among the Livs.
Esths, Cheremiss, Chouvaches, and Yogul-Ostiaks in Siberia.
* Nikolski, 1897.
f Keane calls the Samoyeds Finns, Ethnology, p. 305. To be sure
they speak Finnic, but are really Mongols. Mainof is clearest, perhaps,
in classing them as "black Finns." On the Samoyeds consult Szom-
bathy in Mitt. Anth. Ges., Wien, xvi, pp. 25-34, ar d Virchow, Verh.
Anth. Ges., ix, 1879, PP- 330-346.
R I SSI A AM) THE SLAVS.
361
These are all more or less clearly blond, with a distinctly rufous
tendency, even among the extreme eastern tribes of Voguls
and Ostiaks.* Sometimes, as among the Votiaks, whom Dr.
Beddoe f inclines to identify with the Budini of the Greeks
because of their red hair, we find this trait very marked, espe
cially in the beard. It seems to be somewhat less pronounced
along the Baltic, where the Livs, Esths, and Tchouds shade
off imperceptibly into the pure blond Letto- Lithuanians. Here
we discover the source of that peculiar reddish blondness of
the modern Russians of which we have spoken, for a wide
spread admixture of blood in the Slav from this stock is recog
nised by all. In this first type we recognise the Finn, using
the linguistic term guardedly, with the express reservation
that not every tribe of Finnic speech is of this racial ancestry.
These are the tall people who in the Eddas are called Jotuns,
or giants. The word Tchoud applied by the Slavs to the Finns
also means a giant. \ Mythology confirms our anthropological
deductions.
Our second physical type of the Russian aborigines is the
polar extreme from this long-headed, red-blond one. We
may follow it on our map by the black tints, indicating a preva
lent broad-headedness. This is best exemplified at the two
extremes of Russia, in the Lapp at the northwest and the
Kalmuck and Kirghez hordes of the Caspian steppes. The
Samoyeds are merely a continuation of the Lapp type toward
Asia along the arctic." These people correspond closely to
what we popularly regard as Mongolian. They are all dark or
black haired, with swarthy skins; they are peculiarly beardless
(portraits, pp. 358 and 208). With the round face, bullet head,
high cheek bones, squint eyes, and lank hair, they constitute
* Sommier, 1887, p. 104; iSSS. The Ostiaks and Voguls are, accord
ing to Anutchin, 1893, the original Voguls, who were settled in Perm a
few centuries ago. Their emigration across the Urals is of comparatively
recent date. Cf. also Vambery, 1885, p. 62 ; and Zaborowski, Bull. Soc.
d Anth., 1898, pp. 73-111.
^ T 893. P- 42. Cf. Topinard, Anthropology, p. 465.
j Taylor, 1888, p. 249.
* Zografs work on the Samoyeds is summarized in Revue d Anth.,
-Perie 2, iv, p. 296; Bogdanof s at ibid., p. 117.
3 62
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
an unmistakable type.* We may provisionally call it Mongol
for want of a better word, but it must not be confused with
the Turk or Tatar, which is nothing of the sort. Many of
these people speak Finnic languages, so that in a sense it is
still proper to class them as Finns. If so, they should be dis
tinguished from the other variety. Mainof does this best by
classing the two as " light " and " black " Finns respectively.
This second group is not characterized by any peculiarity
of stature, as the Finns seem to possess. From Yavorski s
data f we note an extreme variability in this trait in both
Mongols and Finns. The western Finns show a strong tend
ency to a very tall stature; the pure Mongols are also rather
above medium height; but many of both stocks are exceed
ingly degenerate in this respect. The Lapps and Samoyeds
could not but be stunted by their environment ; \ and even
the Ostiaks, Permiaks, Yotiaks, and Cheremiss, driven from
the valleys where alone the Russians can win a subsistence,
to the sterile uplands on the upper river courses, have cer
tainly been starved into relative diminutiveness. It is along
the line of these tribes just named, and above all among the
Bashkirs,** that we discover a variety of mongrels, compounded
of Finn and Mongol, with a strong infusion of Tatar through
the whole. Kazan, at the elbow of the Volga, is truly a meet
ing place of the tribes. The intermingling of strains of blood,
of religions, customs, -and of linguistic stocks may be ob
served here at a maximum. Especially among the Mordvins,
widely disseminated in little groups, not aggregated in solid
communities, as among Cheremiss or Chouvaches, has the
infusion of Tatar traits taken place. An interesting fact in
this ethnic intermixture is the extreme insidiousness of the
Mongolian features. This is a fertile source of confusion of
the Finn and the Asiatic tribes. Many long-headed, red-
* On the Kalmucks and Mongols, consult Ivanovski, 1893 and 1896;
Metchnikoff, 1878; Schendrikovski, 1894; Deniker, 1883; Chantre, 1885-
87, iv, p. 250; and also Hovelacque, Etudes de Linguistique, 1878, pp.
271 et scq.
t 1897, p. 196.
\ Yavorski, p. 196 ; N. N. Kharuzin, 1890 a, p. 155.
* Weissenberg, 1892 ; Sommier, iSSi ; Nazarof, 1890.
BROAP KL .iSi
HEAD FORM
FlNN.5 and MONGOLS
RU53 I A,
RUSSIA AND THE SLAVS.
363
blonds, as among the Ostiaks and Zyrians, who are surely
Finnic at bottom, superficially resemble the Mongols in cast
of countenance. Perhaps our dolichocephalic Kalmuck, de
picted at page 358, is of some such mixed origin. His features
are ultra-Mongolic. His head form is quite foreign to that
racial type.* In the case of the Basques, we have explained
how unreliable these facial features are as a test of physical
descent; for, being distinctive and noticeable, they are imme
diately subject to the disturbing influences of artificial selec
tion. They may thus wander far from their original type,
becoming part of the local ideal of physical beauty prevalent
among a primitive people. Only in this way can we explain
the almond eyes, flat noses, and high cheek bones of tribes
which by their blondness and head form betray unmistakably
a Finnic descent. This combination of Mongol features and
Finnic or dolichocephalic head form, occurs sporadically
throughout western Asia, especially near the Himalayas, where
the two extreme human types, both of face and head, are in
close juxtaposition. Where intermixture has taken place, the
resultant is often a curious blend between the Hindu and the
Mongol.!
One objection to our ascription of the name Finn to a long
headed type is bound to arise. We must meet it squarely.
If the Finns are of this stock, why is all Finland relatively so
broad-headed as our map (facing page 362) makes it appear?
Here is the largest single aggregation of Finnic-speaking peo
ple; ought we not to judge of the original type from their char
acteristics in this region? By no means, for Finland is the
* Cf. portraits of Ostiaks in Jour. Anth. Inst., i894- 95. Talko-
Hryncewicz, 1893, p. 171, remarks upon the effect of a Mongol cross to
broaden the face, as among the Permiaks, Votiaks, and Esths. Bogdanof,
1893, p. 10, remarks upon this broad face of even the Kurgans of early
times in eastern Russia. Cf. Beddoe, 1893, p. 40 ; Niederle, 1896 a, p. 147 ;
Keane, 1896, p. 306.
f Cf. Ujfalvy, Les Aryens, etc., 1896, pp. 398-408, on the interpreta
tion of cephalic index among Mongol peoples. His curious thesis that the
Mongols are originally dolichocephalic, because such head forms, as
among the Ladakis, are often conjoined with Mongolic facial traits, seems
without foundation.
364 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
refuge of a great body of aborigines driven forth from Great
Russia by the advent of the Slavs, just as also all along the iso
lated peninsulas of the Baltic and in the Valdai Hills north of
Tver. But in Finland, in contradistinction to these other places
of refuge, the Finns were crowded in together against the
Lapps. Especially in the north we see clear evidence of inter
mixture. The Russian Lapps are very much less broad-headed
than their pure Scandinavian fellows, by reason of such a cross.*
Can we deny, contrariwise, that a similar rise of index in the
case of the Finns must have ensued for the same reason? The
Karels, further removed from the Lapps, are somewhat longer-
headed; the Baltic Finns, being quite free from their influence,
are much more so. Moreover, all along the southwest coast
of Finland the heads are much longer. Observations upon
twenty-eight Finns in the lumber camps of Wisconsin by my
friend Mr. David L. Wing, yielded an average index of only
78.9, while thirty-nine Swedes were two units lower. Grant
ing that the infusion of Swedish blood all along this Baltic
coast must be reckoned as a factor, a distinct tendency to such
long-headedness among the Finns appears. Coupled with
the long-headedness of the Cheremiss, Vogul-Ostiaks, and
others, and especially the tendency of the mongrel Bashkirs
to dolichocephaly as we leave the Caspian Mongol influence
and approach the Ural Mountains, our affirmation of an origi
nal long-headedness oi this type seems to be justified.
In assigning a relationship to these various peoples, let
us avoid the gratuitous assumption that because a people
speak a primitive type of language they are necessarily bar
barians. Great injustice to an important constituent in the
Russian people will inevitably result. It may often happen
to be true; but in Russia, although both Finns and Tatars have
clung to a Ural-Altaic agglutinative language, they are not
all deficient in mentality. Xothing could be more contrary
to fact. Neither Basques nor Magyars are barbarians. The
Finnic languages, while a trifle clumsier perhaps, are power
ful and rich in many respects. In culture also there are Finns
* Kelsief, 1886, and N. X. Kharuzin, 1890 a and b.
COAST TATARS, Goursuf, Crii
Mf)KI)VIX, Volj;a.
162.
RUSSIA AND THE SLAVS. 365
and Finns. To be sure, the whole eastern branch along the
Volga and in Asia are truly aboriginal in civilization, as in the
case of the Chouvaches and Yotiaks. Expelled from all the
lands worth cultivation, even as in the case of the Yoguls
and Ostiaks driven out of Europe altogether, it is a wonder
that they are not less civilized than we find them. On the
other hand, the Baltic Finns in their general standard of life,
intellectually and morally, compare very favourably with the
Russian " mujik." Helsingfors, capital of Finland, is one of
the finest cities in Russia. Its university ranks high among
those of Europe. Finnic scholars, poets, and musicians there
have been of note. Once for all, then, let us fully disabuse our
selves of the notion that there is anything ignoble in a Fin
nish ancestry. Had Yirchow and De Quatrefages fully done so,
much of the acerbity in their celebrated controversy over the
Finnic origin of the Prussians would have been avoided.*
If our original Finns are proved to be long-headed blonds,
oftentimes very tall; if the Letto-Lithuanians, contrasted with
the Russian Slavs, betray the same physical tendencies; if,
just across the Baltic Sea, the main centre of this peculiar
racial combination is surely located in Scandinavia; and,
finally, if in every direction from the Baltic Sea, whether east
across Russia or south into Germany, these traits vanish into
the broader-headed, darker-complexioned, medium-statured,
and stocky Alpine (Celtic?) type; how can we longer deny
that Finns, Letto-Lithuanians, and Teutons are all offshoots
from the same trunk? A direct physical relationship between
the three, referring them all to a so-called Nordic race, is con
firmed by the very latest and most competent authority; f
and this in absolute independence of our own conclusions.
* Cf. page 219 supra.
f Consult Deniker s map of the races of Europe, 1898 a, reproduced in
our Appendix D. Talko-Hryncewicz, 1893, p. 170, emphasizes the simi
larity of Letto-Lithuanians and Finns. Canon Taylor, iSSS, in his
brilliant revival of Diefenbach s (1861) theory of Aryan evolution from a
blond Finnic ancestry, arrives at precisely the same conclusion. Kohn
and Mehlis, vol. ii, pp. 108 and 153, acknowledged the similarity of Koper-
nicki s Kurgan people and the Teutonic Reihengraber ; as does Bogdanof,
< PP- 19-21 also.
366
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
If it be established by further investigation, our theory
goes far to simplify the entire problem of the physical anthro
pology of Europe. It is not a new idea. Diefenbach ( 01
and Europeans ( 7n) advanced it a generation ago on the basis
of the then recent archaeological discoveries of a long-headed,
tall race in the tumuli of the stone age ; although it never gained
any acceptance at the time. A curious corollary of this theory
is that De Ouatrefages and Yirchow, in their celebrated inter
national controversy over the origin of the Prussians, were
both partly in the right. A irchow resented the view of a
Finnic origin of his people as an insult, because Lapps and
Finns were then confused with one another, and he certainly
was right in denying any affinity of Prussians with Lapps.
De Quatrefages, in asserting that the Prussians were of Finnic
ancestry, was equally in the right, if our theory be true; but
he erred in supposing that this damned them as non-Teutonic.
For us the Prussians, along with the Hanoverians and Scan
dinavians, are all at bottom Finnic. We would not stop here.
We would agree absolutely with Europeans in his further
hypothesis that these Finns of northern Europe are directly
related with that primitive Mediterranean long-headed stock,
sprung from the same root as the negro, which we have shown
to underlie all the other races of Europe.* Its blondness is
an acquired characteristic, due to the combined influences of
climate and artificial o; natural selection. From this centre
in the north, invigorated by the conditions of its habitat, and
speedily pressing upon the meagre subsistence afforded by
Xature. this race has once again during the historic period
retraced its steps far to the south, appearing among the other
peoples of Europe as the politically dominant Teutonic race. I
The anthropological history of northeastern Europe is now
clear. Leaving aside the question of the original centre of
* Cf. page 461 in this connection.
f See page 467 infra. This is in perfect accord with Sergi s most
recent work in Centralblatt fiir Anthropologie, 1898, p. 2; and with
Niederle s conclusions (1896 a, p. 131 ; and especially in Globus, vol.
Lxxi, No. 24). ( / . Taylor, iSSS, criticised in Schrader and Jevons, 1890,
p. 104.
RUSSIA AND THE SLAVS.
367
dispersion of the Slavic languages, generally placed some
where along the tipper Dnieper,* it would seem that the Slavs
as a physical type penetrated Russia from the southwest, where
they were physically an offshoot from the great Alpine race
of central Europe. In so doing they forced a way in over
a people primitive in culture, language, and physical type.
This aboriginal substratum is represented to-day by the Finns,
now scarcely to be found in purity, pushed aside into the
nooks and corners by an intrusive people, possessed of a
higher culture acquired in central Europe. Yet the Finn has
not become extinct. His blood still flows in Russian veins,
most notably in the Great and White Russian tribes. The
former, in colonizing the great plain, has also been obliged
to contend with the Asiatic barbarians pressing in from the
east. Yet the impress of the [Mongol-Tatar upon the physical
type of the Great Russian, which constitutes the major part
of the nation, has been relatively slight; for instead of amal
gamation or absorption as with the Finn, elimination, or what
Leroy-Beaulieu calls " secretion," has taken place in the case
of the Mongol hordes. t They still remain intact in the steppes
about the Caspian; the Tatars are banished to the eastern
governments as well, save for those in the Crimea. The Asi
atic influence has been perhaps more powerful in determining
the Great Russian character than the physical type. A strug
gle for mastery of eastern Europe with the barbarians has
made the great Russian more aggressive; vigour has to some
degree developed at the expense of refinement. The result
has been to generate a type well fitted to perform the arduous
task of protecting the marches of Europe against barbarian
onslaught, and at the same time capable of forcefully extend
ing European culture over the aborigines of Asia.
* Niederle, 18963, p. 77; Beddoe, 1893, p. 35.
f Op. cit., i, pp. 71, 82, and 109.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE JEWS AND SEMITES.*
SOCIAL solidarity, the clearest expression of which to-day
is nationality, is the resultant of a multitude of factors. Fore
most among these stand unity of language, a common heritage
of tradition and belief, and the permanent occupation of a
definite territory. The first two are largely psychological in
essence. The third, a material circumstance, is necessary
rather to insure the stability of the others than for its own
sake; although, as we know, attachment to the soil may in
itself become a positive factor in patriotism. Two European
peoples alone are there, which, although landless, have suc
ceeded, notwithstanding, in a maintenance of their social con
sciousness, almost at the level of nationality. Both Gypsies
and Jews are men without a country. f Of these, the latter
offer perhaps the more remarkable example, for the Gypsies
have never disbanded tribally. They still wander about east
ern Europe and Asia Minor in organized bands, after the
fashion of the nomad peoples of the East. The Jews, on the
* In the preparation of this article I have to acknowledge the courtesy
of Mr. Joseph Jacobs, of London, whose works in this line are accepted
as an authority. In its illustration I have derived invaluable assistance
from Dr. S. Weissenberg, of Elizabethgrad, Russia, and Dr. L. Bertholon,
of Tunis. Both of these gentlemen have loaned me a large number
of original photographs of types from their respective countries. Dr.
Bertholon has also taken several especially for use in this way. The
more general works upon which we have relied are : R. Andree, Zur
Volkskunde der Juden, Bielefeld, 1881 ; A. Leroy-Beaulieu, Les Juifs et
I Antisemitisme, Paris, 36 ed. 1893 : and C. Lombroso, Gli Antisemitismo,
Torino, 1894.
f- Freeman, 1877 c, offers an interesting discussion of this. He adds
the Parsees to this category of landless peoples.
368
THE JEWS AND SEMITES. 369
other hand, have maintained their solidarity in all parts of
the earth, even in individual isolation one from another. They
wander not gregariously in tribes, often not even in families.
Their seed is scattered like the plant spores of which the bota
nists tell us ; which, driven by wind or sea, independently travel
thousands of miles before striking root or becoming fecund.
True, the Jews bunch wherever possible. This is often a neces
sity imposed for self-preservation; but in their enforced migra
tions their associations must change kaleidoscopically from
place to place. Xot all has been said even yet of the unique
achievement of this landless people. That the Jews have pre
served their individuality despite all mutations of environ
ment goes without saying. They have done more. They have
accomplished this without absolute unity of language. Forced
of necessity to adopt the speech of their immediate neigh
bours, they have been able either to preserve or to evolve a
distinctive speech only where congregated in large numbers.
In Spain and the Balkan states they make use of Spanish; in
Russia and Poland they speak a corrupt German; and in the
interior of Morocco, Arabic. Nevertheless, despite these dis
couragements of every kind, they still constitute a distinctive
social unit wherever they chance to be.
This social individuality of the Jews is of a peculiar sort.
Bereft of linguistic and geographical support, it could not be
political. The nineteenth century, says Anatole Leroy-Beau-
lieu, is the age of nationality: meaning obviously territorial
nationality, the product of contiguity, not birth. To this, he
says, the Jew is indifferent, typifying still the Oriental tribal
idea. As a result he is out of harmony with his environment.
An element of dislike of a political nature, on the part of the
Christian is added to the irreconcilability of religious belief.
It has ever been the Aryan versus the Semite in religion
throughout all history, as Renan has observed; and to-day it
has also become the people versus the nation, as well as the
Jew versus the Christian. Granted that this political dis
sonance is largely the fault of the Gentile, its existence must
be acknowledged, nevertheless.
How has this remarkable result been achieved? How, be-
370
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
reft of two out of three of the essentials of nationality, has the
Jew been enabled to perpetuate his social consciousness? Is
the superior force of religion, perhaps abnormally developed,
alone able to account for it all? Is it a case of compensatory
development, analogous in the body to a loss of eyesight reme
died through greater delicacy of ringer touch? Or is there
some hidden, some unsuspected factor, which has contributed
to this result? We have elsewhere shown that a fourth ele
ment of social solidarity is sometimes, though rarely, found
in a community of physical descent; that, in other words,
to the cementing bonds of speech, tradition, belief, and con
tiguity, is added the element of physical brotherhood that
is to say, of race. Can it be that herein is a partial explana
tion of the social individuality of the Jewish people? It is
a question for the scientist alone. Race, as we constantly
maintain despite the abuses of the word, really is to be meas
ured only by physical characteristics. The task before us is
to apply the criteria of anthropological science, therefore, to
the problems of Jewish derivation and descent. Only inci
dentally and as matters of contributory interest, shall we con
sider the views of the linguists, the archaeologists, and the
students of religious traditions. Our testimony is derived from
those physical facts which alone are indicative of racial descent.
To these the geographer may add the probabilities derived from
present distribution in Europe. Xo more do we need to settle
the primary racial facts. Further speculations concerning mat
ters rather than men belong to the historian and the philologist.
The number and geographical distribution of the chosen
people of Israel is of great significance in its bearing upon
the question of their origin.* While, owing to their fluid
* Andree, iSSi, pp. 194 et set/., with tables appended ; Jacobs, 1886 a,
p. 24 ; and quite recently A. Leroy-Beaulieu, 1893, chapter i, are best on
this. Tschubinsky, 1877, gives much detail at first hand on western
Russia. In the Seventeenth Annual Report of the Anglo-Jewish Associa
tion, London, 1888, is a convenient census, together with a map of dis
tribution for Europe. On America, no official data of any kind exist.
The censuses have never attempted an enumeration of the Jews. Schim-
mer s results from a census of iSSo in Austria-Hungary are given in
Statistische Monatsschrift, vii, pp. 489 ,/ .</.
THE JEWS AND SEMITES. 371
ubiquitousness, it is exceedingly difficult to enumerate them
exactly, probability indicates that there are to-day, the world
over, between eight and nine million Jews. Of these, six
or seven million are inhabitants of Europe, the remainder being
sparsely scattered over the whole earth, from one end to the
other.
Their distribution in Europe, as our map opposite shows,
is exceedingly uneven. Fully one half of these descendants
of Jacob reside in Russia, there being four or five million Jews
in that country alone. Austria-Hungary stands next in order,
with two million-odd souls. After these two there is a wide
gap. Xo other European country is comparable with them
except it be Germany and Roumania with their six or seven
hundred thousand each. The British Isles contain relatively
few, possibly one hundred thousand, these being principally
in London. They are very rare in Scotland and Ireland-
only a thousand or fifteen hundred apiece. Holland contains
also about a hundred thousand, half of them in the celebrated
Ghetto at Amsterdam. Then follows France with eighty thou
sand more or less, and Italy with perhaps two thirds as many.
From Scandinavia they have always been rigidly excluded;
from Sweden till the beginning, and from Norway until nearly
the middle, of this century. Spain, although we hear much of
the Spanish Jew, contains practically no indigenous Israelites.
It is estimated that there were once about a million there set
tled, but the persecutions of the fifteenth century drove them
forth all over Europe, largely to the Balkan states and Africa.
There are a good many along the Mediterranean shores of
Africa, principally in Morocco and Tripoli. The number de
creases as we approach Egypt and Palestine, the ancient centre
of Jewish dispersion. As to America, it is estimated, although
we know nothing certainly, that there are about half a million
Jews scattered through our cities in the United States. New
York city, according to the last census, contained about eighty
thousand Poles and Russians, most of whom, it may be as
sumed, were Jews. But they have come since in ever-increas
ing numbers with the great exodus from Russia, at the rate
of scores of thousands annually. A recent writer places their
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
present number in New York city at a quarter of a million.
The British provinces, on the other hand, do not seem to offer
great attractions; as late as 1870, for example, the census
in Xova Scotia did not discover a solitary Jew.
A more suggestive index of the problems of Jewish dis
tribution is offered in the ratio of the number of Jews to
the entire population. This is directly illustrated by our
map. To be sure this represents the situation twenty years
ago, but no great change in relativity is to be suspected
since that time. Even the wholesale exodus from Russia of
recent years, has not yet drawn off any large proportion of its
vast body of population. Inspection of our map shows that
the relative frequency of Jews increases in proportion to the
progressive darkening of the tints. This brings out with
startling clearness, the reason for the recent anti-Semitic up
rising in both Russia, Austria, and the German Empire. A
specific " centre of gravity " of the Jewish people, as Leroy-
Beaulieu puts it, is at once indicated in western Russia. The
highest proportion, fifteen per cent more or less, appears,
moreover, to be entirely restricted to the Polish provinces,
with the sole exception of the government of Grodno. About
this core lies a second zone, including the other west Russian
governments, as well as the province of Galicia in the Austro-
Hungarian Empire. Germany, as it appears, is sharply di
vided from its eastern neighbours, all along the political fron
tier. Not even its former Polish territory, Posen, is to-day
relatively thickly settled with Jews. Hostile legislation it is,
beyond a doubt, which so rigidly holds back the Jew from
immigration along this line. Anti-Semitismus is not to-day,
therefore, to any great extent an uprising against an exist
ing evil; rather does it appear to be a protest against a future
possibility. Germany shudders at the dark and threatening
cloud of population of the most ignorant and wretched descrip
tion which overhangs her eastern frontier. Berlin must not,
they say, be allowed to become a new Jerusalem for the horde
of Russian exiles. That also is our American problem. This
great Polish swamp of miserable human beings, terrific in its
proportions, threatens to drain itself off into our country as
THE JEWS AND SEMITES. 373
well, unless we restrict its ingress. As along the German
frontier, so also toward the east, it is curious to note how
rapidly the percentage of Jews decreases as we pass over into
Great Russia. The governments of St. Petersburg, Novgo
rod, and Moscow have no greater Jewish contingent of popu
lation than has France or Italy; their Jewish problem is far
less difficult than that of our own country is bound to be in
the future. This clearly defined eastern boundary of Jndcn-
tJniin is also the product of prohibitive legislation. The Jews
are legally confined within certain provinces. A rigid law
of settlement, intended to circumscribe their area of density
closely, yields only to the persuasion of bribery. Not Russia,
then, but southwestern Russia alone, is deeply concerned over
the actual presence of this alien population. And it is the
Jewish element in this small section of the country wdiich con
stitutes such an industrial and social menace to the neigh
bouring empires of Germany and Austria. In the latter coun
try the Jews seem to be increasing in numbers almost four
times as rapidly as the native population.* The more elastic
boundaries of Jewish density on the southeast, on the other
hand, are indicative of the legislative tolerance which the
Israelites there enjoy. Wherever the bars are lowered, there
does this migratory human element at once expand.
The peculiar problems of Jewish distribution are only half
realized until it is understood that, always and everywhere,
the Israelites constitute pre-eminently the town populations.!
They are not widely disseminated among the agricultural dis
tricts, but congregate in the commercial centres. It is an un
alterable characteristic of this peculiar people. The Jew be
trays an inherent dislike for violent manual or outdoor labour,
as for physical exercise or exertion in any form. He prefers
to live by brain, not brawn. Leroy-Beaulieu seems to con
sider this as an acquired characteristic due to mediaeval pro
hibition of land ownership or to confinement within the Ghetto.
To us it appears to be too constant a trait the world over, to
* Andree, op. cit., p. 258.
\ This is clearly shown by Schimmer in Statistisrhc Monatsschrift, vii,
pp. 489 et scq. See also Leroy-Beaulieu, i, p. 118 ; Andree, pp. 33 and 255.
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
justify such an hypothesis. Fully to appreciate, therefore, what
the Jewish question is in Polish Russia, we must always bear
this faet in mind. The result is that in many parts of Poland
the jews form an actual majority of the population in the
towns. This is the danger for Germany also. Thus it is Ber
lin, not Prussia at large, which is threatened with an overload
of Jews from the country on the cast. This aggregation in
urban centres becomes the more marked as the relative fre
quency for the whole country lessens. Thus in Saxony, which,
being industrial is not a favourite Jewish centre, four fifths
of all the Jewish residents are found in Dresden and Leipsic
alone.* This is probably also the reason for the lessened fre
quency of Jews all through the Alpine highlands, especially
in the Tyrol. These districts are so essentially agricultural
that few footholds for the Jew are to be found.
A small secondary centre of Jewish aggregation appears
upon our map to be manifested about Frankfort. It has a
peculiar significance. The Hebrew settlers in the Rhenish
cities date from the third century at least, having come there
over the early trade routes from the Mediterranean. Germany
being divided politically, and Russia interdicting them from
i no A. n., a specific centre was established especially in Fran-
conia. Frankfort being the focus of attraction. Then came
the fearful persecutions all over Kurope, attendant upon the
religious fervour of the Crusades. The Polish kings, desiring
to encourage the growth of their city populations, offered
the rights of citizenship to all who would come, and an ex
odus in mass took place. They seem to have been welcomed,
till the proportions of the movement became so great as to
excite alarm. Its results appear upon our map. Thus we
know that many of the Jews of Poland came to Russia as a
troublesome legacy on the division of that kingdom. At the
end of the sixteenth century but three German cities re
mained open to them namely, Frankfort. Worms, and Furth.t
Yet it was obviously impossible to uproot them entirely. To
* See also map in Kettler, 1880.
f J. C. Majer (1862, p. 355) ascribes the present shortness of stature in
Fu rth and parts of Franconia to this Jewish influence.
THE JEWS AND SEMITES. 37-
their persistence in this part of Germany is probably due the
small secondary centre of Jewish distribution, which we have
mentioned, indicated by the darker tint about Frankfort, and
including Alsace-Lorraine. Here is a relative frequency not
even exceeded by Posen, although we generally conceive of
this former Polish province as especially saturated with Jews.
It is the only vestige remaining to indicate what was at one
time the main focus of Jewish population in Europe. It affords
us a striking example of what legislation may accomplish eth
nically, when supplemented, or rather aggravated, by religious
and economic motives.
Does it accord with geographical probability to derive our
large dark area of present Jewish aggregation entirely from
the small secondary one about Frankfort, which, as we have
just said, is the relic of a mediaeval centre of gravity? The
question is a crucial one for the alleged purity of the Russian
Jew; for the longer his migrations over the face of the map,
the greater his chance of ethnic intermixture.
The original centre of Semitic origins linguistically has
not yet been determined with any approach to certainty. The
languages to be accounted for include Arabian, Hebrew,
Syrian or Aramean, and the ancient Assyrian. Of these, the
first is the only one now extant, spoken by the nomad Bed
ouins. Orientalists are not unanimous in their views." Sayce,
Schrader, and Sprenger say the family originated in central
Arabia. Renan prefers a more northern focus, (luidi ( 7!)) ,
from comparison of the root words in its various members,
traces it to Mesopotamia. Thus he finds a common root in
all for " river," but various ones for " mountain." The origi
nal Semites, he also argues, must have dwelt near the sea,
for a common root for this obtains. This would exclude
Armenia. The absence of any common root for desert also
eliminates Arabia, according to his view. Rut, on the other
hand, how about Kremer s argument, based upon acquaint
ance with the camel, but not the ostrich? All this in any
* Guidi, 1879; Berlin, 1881 ; Goldstein, 1885, p. 650; Ilommel, 1892;
Schrader, 1890, p. 96; Brinton, 1890, p. 132; and Keane, 1896, p. 391,
discuss it.
376 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
event, we observe, has to do with languages and not racial
types. Few ancient remains have been found, owing to the
widespread repugnance to embalming of the dead. The main
problem for the somatologist is to have some clew as to
whether the family is of Asiatic or African descent. So far
as our data for living types are concerned, we get little com
fort. Physical traits of the Arabs fully corroborate Brinton s
and Jastrow s ( 90) hypothesis of African descent; but, on the
other hand, many of the living Syrians of Semitic speech are,
according to Chantre (<93) , as brachycephalic as the Armenians.
This, as we shall see in our next chapter, would preclude such
an African derivation. It seems most probable, in view of
these facts, that the family of languages has spread since its
origin over many widely variant racial groups. To identity
the original one would be a difficult task.
A moot point among Jewish scholars is as to the extent
of the exodus of their people from Germany into Poland.
Bershadski has done much to show its real proportions in
history. Talko-Hryncewicz * and Weissenberg f among an
thropologists, seem to be inclined to derive this great body
of Polish Jews from Palestine by way of the Rhone-Rhine-
Frankfort route. They* are, no doubt, partially in the right;
but the mere geographer would rather be inclined to side
with Jacques ( 91) . He doubts whether entirely artificial causes,
even mediaeval persecutions, would be quite competent for so
large a contract. There is certainly some truth in Harkavy s
theory, so ably championed by Ikof, that a goodly propor
tion of these Jews came into Poland by a direct route from
the East.J A lost Jewish scholars had placed their first ap
pearance in southern and eastern Russia, coming around the
Black Sea, as early as the eighth century. Ikof, however, finds
them in the Caucasus and Armenia one or two centuries be
fore Christ* Then he follows them around, reaching Ru-
thenia in the tenth and eleventh centuries, arriving in Poland
* 1892. t 1895, p. 577-
J 1884, p. 383. Cf. criticism by Talko-Hryncewicz, 1892, p. 61.
* On the Jews in the Caucasus, Seydlitz, iSSi, p. 130; Chantre, 1885-
87, iv, p. 254.
THE JEWS AND SEMITES. 377
from the twelfth to the fourteenth. The only difficulty with
this theory is, of course, that it leaves the language of the
Polish Jews out of consideration. This is, in both Poland
and Galicia, a corrupted form of German, which in itself would
seem to indicate a western origin. On the other hand, the
probabilities, judging from our graphic representation, would
certainly emphasize the theory of a more general eastern im
migration directly from Palestine north of the Black and Cas
pian Seas. The only remaining mode of accounting for the
large centre of gravity in Russia is to trace it to widespread
conversions, as the historic one of the Khozars. Whichever
one of these theories be correct and there is probability of
an equal division of truth among them all enough has been
said to lead us geographically to suspect the alleged purity of
descent of the Ashkenazim Jew. Let us apply the tests of
physical anthropology.
Stature. A noted writer, speaking of the sons of Judah,
observes: " It is the Ghetto which has produced the Jew and
the Jewish race ; the Jew is a creation of the European middle
ages; he is the artificial product of hostile legislation." This
statement is fully authenticated by a peculiarity of the Israel
ites which is everywhere noticeable. The European Jews are
all undersized; not only this, they are more often absolutely
stunted. In London they are about three inches shorter than
the average for the city.* Whether they were always so, as
in the days when the Book of Xumbers (xiii, 33) described
them " as grasshoppers in their own sight," as compared with
the Amorites, sons of Anak, we leave an open question. We
are certain, however, as to the modern Jew. He betrays a
marked constancy in Europe at the bodily height of about
fivejeet four inches (1.63 metres) for adult men. This, accord
ing to the data afforded by measurements of our recruits dur
ing the civil war, is about the average of American youth
between the ages of fifteen and sixteen, who have still three,
almost four, inches more to grow. In Bosnia, for example,
where the natives range at about the American level that
* Jacobs, 1890, p. Si.
378
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
is to say, among the very tallest in the world (1.73 metres)
the Jews are nearly three inches and a half shorter on the
average.* If we turn to northern Italy, where Lombroso ( !
has recently investigated the matter, we apparently find the
Jew somewhat better favoured by comparison. He is in
Turin less than an inch inferior to his Italian neighbours.
(5 FT 5 INJ&
ill.65 M.
H.64-"
jl.63 -
J1.62,
3TATURE
POLAND,
167 OJ4-OB5ERVATION5
AFTER ZAK-REZEWSKI ?!
But why? Xot because taller than in the case of Bosnia, for
his stature in both places is the same. The difference de
creases, not because the Jew in Piedmont is taller, but solely
because the north Italians are only of modern height. So it
* Gliick, 1896 ; and Weisbach, 1877 and 1895 a.
THE JEWS AND SEMITES. 379
goes all over Austria and Russia: the diminutiveness is plainly
apparent.* There are in all Europe only two exceptions to
the rule we have cited. Anutchin finds them in Odessa and
Riga slightly to exceed the Christians, and Dr. Bertholon
informs me that in Tunis the Jews are rather taller than the
average. Everywhere else the testimony as to their shortness
is unanimous. In order to emphasize this point it will repay
us to consider the adopted fatherland of the chosen people a
bit more in detail.
Our map on the opposite page shows the average stature of
Poland by districts. This unhappy country appears to be
populated by the shortest human beings north of the Alps;
it is almost the most stunted in all Europe. The great major
ity of the districts, as our map shows, are characterized by a
population whose adult men scarcely average five feet four
inches (1.62 metres) in height. This is more than half a head
shorter than the type of the British Isles or northern Ger
many. What is the meaning of this? Is it entirely the fault
of the native Poles? We know that the northern Slavs are all
merely mediocre in stature. But this depression is too serious
to be accounted for in this way; and further analysis shows
that the defect is largely due to the presence of the vast horde
of Jews, whose physical peculiarity drags down the average
for the entire population.! This has been proved directly.
Perhaps the deepest pit in this great " misery spot," as we
have termed such areas of dwarfed population elsewhere, is in
the capital city of Warsaw, where Elkind found the average
stature of two hundred male Jews to be less than five feet three
inches and a half (1.61 metres). \ The women were only four
feet eleven inches tall on the average. Compare the little
series of maps given on the next pages if further proof of
this national peculiarity be needed. Two of these, it will be
* Majer and Kopernicki, 1877, p. 36, for Ruthenia ; Stieda, 1883 a, p.
70; Anutchin, 1889, p. \\\ctseq.
f Zakrezewski, 1891, p. 38. Cf. map of Russia facing p. 348. It brings
out the contrast very strongly.
\ Centralblatt fiir Anthropologie, iii, p. 66. Uke, cited by Andree,
1881, p. 32, agrees.
30
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
observed, give the average height of Jews and Poles respect
ively, dividing the city into districts. The social status of these
districts is shown upon our third map. Comparison of these
three brings out a very interesting sociological fact, to which
we have already called attention in our earlier chapter on the
subject. The stature of men depends in a goodly measure
upon their environment. In the wards of the city where pros
perity resides, the material well-being tends to produce a stat
ure distinctly above that of the slums. In both cases, Poles
and Jews are shortest in the poorer sections of the city, dark
tinted on the maps. The correspondence is not exact, for the
number of observations
is relatively small; but it
indicates beyond doubt
a tendency commonly
noticeable in great cities.
But to return to our di
rect comparison of Poles
and Jews. The defi
ciency of the latter, as a
people, is perfectly ap
parent. The most high
ly favoured Jewish popu
lation socially in the
whole city of Warsaw in
fact, can not produce an
average stature equal to
that of the very poorest
Poles; and this, too, in
the most miserable section of the capital city of one of the most
stunted countries in Europe.
We may assume it as proved, therefore, that the Jew is
to-day a very defective type in stature. He seems to be sus
ceptible to favourable influences, however; for in London, the
West End prosperous Jews almost equal the English in height,
while they at the same time surpass their East End brethren
by more than three inches.* In Russia also they become taller
* Jacobs, 1889, p. Si.
WARSAW.
After Zakreiewski
1.660 -1.666 M.
I.655-I.660M.
1.650 -1.655 M.
1.642. ~ 1. 650 M.
72,8 Observation*.
THE JEWS AND SEMITES.
381
as a class wherever the life conditions become less rigorously
oppressive. They are taller in the fertile Ukraine than in
sterile Lithuania; they sometimes boast of a few relatively
tall men.* These facts all go to show that the Jew is short,
not by heredity, but by force of circumstances ; and that where
he is given an even chance, he speedily recovers a part at
least of the ground lost during many ages of social persecu
tion. Jacobs mentions an interesting fact in this connection
about his upper-class English Jews. Close analysis of the data
AVERAGE 5TATUKE
F
l.630-I.637M
l. 62- 1.629 =5 Ft 37ins.
l.60 -1.61
1.5. R.
- After Zalcrewwsk, 55
>&9 Observations.
WAR5AW,
After Zakrez.ew.ski 25".
JSR
WEALTHY QUARTER
MEDIUM
POOR QUARTER
seems to show that, for the present at least, their physical
development has been stretched nearly to the upper limit; for
even in individual cases, the West End Jews of London mani
fest an inability to surpass the height of five feet nine inches.
So many have been blessed by prosperity that the average
has nearly reached that of the English ; but it is a mean stature
of which the very tall form no component part. Thus perhaps
does the influence of heredity obstruct the temporary action
of environment.
* Talko-Hryncewicz, 1892, pp. 7 and 58.
3 82
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
Whether the short stature of the Jew is a case of an ac
quired characteristic which has become hereditary, we are
content to leave an open question. All we can say is that
the modern Semites in Arabia and Africa are all of goodly
size, far above the Jewish average.* This would tend to make
us think that the harsh experiences of the past have subtracted
several cubits from the stature of the people of Israel. In self-
defence it must be said that the Christian is not entirely to
blame for this physical disability. It is largely to be ascribed
to the custom of early marriages among them. This has prob
ably been an efficient cause of their present degeneracy in
Russia, where Tschubinsky describes its alarming prevalence.
Leroy-Beaulieu says that it is not at all uncommon to find
the combined age of husband and wife, or even of father and
mother, to be under thirty years. The Shadchan, or marriage
broker, has undoubtedly been an enemy to the Jewish people
within its own lines. In the United States, where the Jews are,
on the other hand, on the up grade socially, there are indi
cations that this age of marriage is being postponed, perhaps
even unduly, f
A second indication in the case of the Jew of uncommonly
hard usage in the past remains to be mentioned. These people
are, anthropologically as well as proverbially, narrow-chested
and deficient in lung capacity. Normally the chest girth of a
well-developed man ought to equal or exceed one half his
stature, yet in the case of the Jews as a class this is almost
never the case. Majer and Kopernicki \ first established this
in the case of the Galician Jews. Stieda * gives additional testi
mony to the same effect. Jacobs || shows the English Jews
distinctly inferior to Christians in lung capacity, which is gen
erally an indication of vitality. In Bosnia, Gliick A again refers
to it as characteristic. Granted, with Weissenberg.O that it
* Collignon, 1887 a, pp. 211 and 326; and Bertholon, 1892, p. 41.
f Jacobs, 1891, p. 50, shows it to be less common in other parts of
Europe. In the United States, Dr. Billings finds the marriage rate to be
only 7.4 per 1,000 about one third that of the Northeastern States.
\ 1877, p. 59. * 1883, p. 71- II 1889, P- 8 4-
A 1896, p. 591. lS 95, P- 374-
THE JEWS AND SEMITES. 383
is an acquired characteristic, the effect of long-continued sub
jection to unfavourable sanitary and social environment, it has
none the less become a hereditary trait; for not even the per
haps relatively recent prosperity of Jacob s West End Jews
has sufficed to bring them up to the. level of their English
brethren in capacity of the lungs.
At this point a surprising fact confronts us. Despite the
appearances of physical degeneracy which we have noted, the
Jew betrays an absolutely unprecedented tenacity of life. It
far exceeds, especially in the United States, that of any other
known people.* This we may illustrate by the following ex
ample: Suppose two groups of one hundred infants each, one
Jewish, one of average American parentage (Massachusetts),
to be born on the same day. In spite of all the disparity of
social conditions in favour of the latter, the chances, deter
mined by statistical means, are that one half of the Americans
will die within forty-seven years; while the first half of the
Jews will not succumb to disease or accident before the ex
piration of seventy-one years. The death rate is really but
little over half that of the average American population. This
holds good in infancy as in middle age. Lombroso has put
it in another way. Of one thousand Jews born, two hundred
and seventeen die before the age of seven years; w T hile four
hundred and fifty-three Christians more than twice as many
are likely to die within the same period. This remarkable
tenacity of life is well illustrated by the table on the next page
from a most suggestive article by Hoffmann, f We can not
forbear from reproducing it in this place.
From this table it appears, despite the extreme poverty of
the Russian and Polish Jews in the most densely crowded
portions of New York; despite the unsanitary tenements, the
overcrowding, the long hours in sweat shops; that neverthe-
* On Jewish demography, consult the special appendix in Lombroso,
1894 b ; Andree, iSSi, p. 70 ; Jacobs, 1891, p. 49. Dr. Billings, in Eleventh
United States Census, 1890, Bulletin No. 19, gives data for our country.
On pathology, see Buschan, 1895.
f The Jew as a Life Risk ; The Spectator (an actuarial journal), 1895,
pp. 222-224, and 233, 234. Lagneau, 1861, p. 411, speaks of a viability in
Algeria even higher than that of the natives.
384
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
Death Rates per 1,000 Population in the Seventh, Tenth, and
Thirteenth Wards of New York City, 1890, by Place of Birth.
AGES.
Total.
United States
(includes col
oured).
Ireland.
Germany.
Russia and
Poland
(mostly Jews)
Total
26. 2;
At 18
Under 15 years . . .
15 to 25 years. ....
41.28
7. ^
62.25
O A."\
40.71
I? TC
30.38
32.31
25 to 65 years
21 .64
2K Q2
53
65 and over
lOd 72
IO5 Q6
88 CT
7-99
04.51
less, a viability is manifested which is simply unprecedented.
Tailoring is one of the most deadly occupations known; the
Jews of New York are principally engaged in this employ
ment; and yet they contrive to live nearly twice as long on the
average as their neighbours, even those engaged in the out
door occupations.
Is this tenacity of life despite every possible antagonistic
influence, an ethnic trait; or is it a result of peculiar customs
and habits of life? There is much which points to the latter
conclusion as the correct one. For example, analysis of the
causes of mortality shows an abnormally small proportion of
deaths from consumption and pneumonia, the dread diseases
which, as we know, are responsible for the largest proportion
of deaths in our American population. This immunity can
best be ascribed to the excellent system of meat inspection
prescribed by the Mosaic laws.* It is certainly not a result
of physical development, as we have just seen. Hoffmann
cites authority showing that in London often as much as a
third of the meats offered for sale are rejected as unfit for
consumption by Jews. Is not this a cogent argument in favour
of a more rigid enforcement of our laws providing for the
food inspection of the poor?
A second cause conducive to longevity is the sobriety of
the Jew, and his disinclination toward excessive indulgence
in alcoholic liquors. Drunkenness among Jews is very rare.
Temperate habits, a frugal diet, with a very moderate use
of spirits, render the proportion of Bright s disease and affec-
* Jacobs, 1886 a, p. 7, discusses these fully.
THE JEWS AND SEMITES. 385
tions of the liver comparatively very small. In the infectious
diseases, on the other hand, diphtheria and the fevers, no such
immunity is betrayed. The long-current opinion that the
Jews were immune from cholera and the other pestilences of
the middle ages is not to-day accepted.* A third notable
reason for this low death rate is also, as Hoffmann observes,
the nature of the employment customary among Jews, which
renders the proportion of deaths from accidental causes ex
ceedingly small. In conclusion, it may be said that these peo
ple are prone to nervous and mental disorders; insanity, in
fact, is fearfully prevalent among them. Lombroso asserts
it to be four times as frequent among Italian Jews as among
Christians. This may possibly be a result of close inbreeding
in a country like Italy, where the Jewish communities are small.
It does not, however, seem to lead to suicide, for this is extraor
dinarily rare among Jews, either from cowardice as Lom
broso suggests, or more probably for the reason cited by
Morselli namely, the greater force of religion and other
steadying moral factors.
Tradition has long divided the Jewish people into two dis
tinct branches: the Sephardim or southern, and the Ashkena-
zim, or north European. Mediaeval legend among the Jews
themselves traced the descent of the first from the tribe of
Judah; the second, from that of Benjamin. The Sephardim
are mainly the remnants of the former Spanish and Portuguese
Jews. They constitute in their own eyes an aristocracy of
the nation. They are found primarily to-day in Africa; in
the Balkan states, where they are known as Spagnuoli; less
purely in France and Italy. A small colony in London and
Amsterdam still holds itself aloof from all communion and
intercourse with its brethren. The Ashkenazim branch is nu
merically far more important, for the German, Russian, and
Polish Jews comprise over nine tenths of the people, as we
have already seen.
Early observers all describe these two branches of the
* Buschan, 1895, p. 46.
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
Jews as very different in appearance. Vogt in his Lectures
on Man assumes the Polish type to be descended from Hindu
sources, while the Spanish alone he held to be truly Semitic.
Weisbach * gives us the best description of the Sephardim
Jew as to-day found at Constantinople. He is slender in habit,
he says ; almost without exception the head is " exquisitely "
elongated and narrow, the face a long oval; the nose hooked
and prominent, but thin and finely chiselled; hair and eyes
generally dark, sometimes, however, tending to a reddish
blond. This rufous tendency in the Oriental Jew is empha
sized by many observers. Dr. Beddoe f found red hair as fre
quent in the Orient as in Saxon England, although later re
sults do not fully bear it out.} This description of a reddish
Oriental type corresponds certainly to the early representa
tions of the Saviour; it is the type, in features perhaps rather
than hair, painted by Rembrandt the Sephardim in Amster
dam being familiar to him, and appealing to the artist in pref
erence to the Ashkenazim type. This latter is said to be char
acterized by heavier features in every way. The mouth, it is
alleged, is more apt to be large, the nose thickish at the end,
less often clearly Jewish perhaps. The lips are full and sen
sual, offering an especiarcontrast to the thin lips of the Sephar
dim. The complexion is swarthy oftentimes, the hair and eyes
very constantly dark, without the rufous tendency which ap
pears in the other branch. The face is at the same time fuller,
the breadth corresponding to a relatively short and round head.
Does this contrast of the traditional Sephardim and Ash
kenazim facial types correspond to the anthropometric criteria
by means of which we have analyzed the various populations
of Europe? And, first of all, is there the difference of head
form between the two which our descriptions imply? And,
if so, which represents the primitive Semitic type of Palestine?
The question is a crucial one. It involves the whole matter
of the original physical derivation of the people, and the rival
claims to purity of descent of the two branches of the nation.
* 1877, p. 214. t i 8f)I b . PP- 22 7 and 331.
^ Gliick, 1896 a. Jacobs, 1890, p. 82, did not find a trace of it in the
Sephardim congregation in London. See Andree, 1878, in this connection.
ARAB. Index 76.
MUSSULMAN, Tunis. Index 75.
JEW, Tunis. Index 75.
AFRICAN SEMITIC TYPES.
THE JEWS AND SEMITES. 387
In preceding chapters we have learned that western Asia is
quite uniformly characterized by an exceeding broad-headed-
ness. This is especially marked in Asia Minor, where some of
the broadest and shortest crania in the world are to be found.
The Armenians, for example, are so peculiar in this respect that
their heads appear almost deformed, so flattened are they at
the back. A head of this description appears in the case of the
Jew from Ferghanah in our second portrait series (page 394).
On the other hand, the peoples of African or negroid deriva
tion form a radical contrast, their heads being quite long and
narrow, with indices ranging from 75 to 78. This is the type
of the living Arab to-day. Its peculiarity appears in the promi
nence of the occipital region in our Arab and other African
portraits. Scientific research upon these Arabs has invariably
yielded harmonious results. From the Semites in the Canary
Islands,* all across northern Africa, f to central Arabia itself, \
the cephalic indices of the nomadic Arabs agree closely. They
denote a head form closely allied to that of the long-headed
Iberian race, typified in the modern Spaniards, south Ital
ians, and Greeks. It was the head form of the ancient Phoe
nicians and Egyptians also, as has recently been proved beyond
all question.* Thus does the European Mediterranean type
shade off in head form, as in complexion also, into the primi
tive anthropological type of the negro. The situation being
thus clearly defined, it should be relatively easy to trace our
modern Jews; if, indeed, as has so long been assumed, they
have remained a pure and undefiled race during the course
of their incessant migrations. We should be able to trace their
origin if they possess any distinctive head form, either to the
one continent or the other, with comparative certainty.
During the last quarter of a century about twenty-five hun
dred Jews have submitted their heads to scientific measure-
* Verneau, iSSi a, p. 500.
f Primer Bey, 1865 b ; Gillebert d Hercourt, 1868, p. 9 ; and especially
Collignon, 1887 a, pp. 326-339 ; Bertholon, 1892, p. 41 ; also Collignon,
1896 b.
\ Elisyeef, 1883.
* Bertholon, 1892, p. 43 ; Sergi, 1897 a, chapter i, and even more
recently Fouquet, 1896 and 1897, on the basis of De Morgan s discoveries.
388
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
ment. These have naturally for the most part been taken
from the Great Russian and Polish branch; a few observers,
as Lombroso, Ikof, Jacobs, Gliick, and Livi, have taken ob
servations upon a more or less limited number from southern
Europe. For purposes of comparison we have reproduced
herewith a summary of all the results obtained thus far. In-
AUTHORITY.
Place.
Number.
Cephalic Index.
Lombroso, 1894 a. Turin, Italy.
Weisbach, 77. . . . Balkan states.
Majer and Koper-
nicki, 77 Galicia.
Blechmann, 82.. . W. Russia.
Stieda, 83 a (Dy-
bowski) Minsk, Russia.
Ikof, 84 Russia.
Ikof, 84 i Constantinople.
Ikof, 84 Crimea.
Majer and Koper-
nicki, 85 Galicia.
Jacobs, 90 England.
Jacobs, 90 England (Sephardim),
Talko-Hrynce-
wicz, 92 Lithuania.
Deniker, 98 a . . . ; Caucasia.
\Veissenberg, 95 . | South Russia.
Weissenberg, 95 . : South Russia.
Gliick, "96 ! Bosnia (Spanuoli).
Livi, 96 a Italy.
Elkind, 97 Poland.
Deniker, 98 Daghestan.
Ammon, 99 Baden.
112
19
316
IOO
67
120
17 crania.
30 crania (Karaim).
TOO
363
713
53
100
50 women.
55
34
325
19
207
82.0
82.2
83.6
83.21
82.2
83.2
74-5
83.3
81.7
80.0
85.2
82.5
82.4
80. i
81.6
( Men, 81.9
( Women, 82.9
87.0
83-5
spection of the table shows a surprising uniformity. Ikof s
limited series of Spagnuoli from Constantinople, and that of
the Jews from Caucasia and Daghestan, are the only ones
whose cephalic index lies outside the limits of 80 to 83. In
other words, the Jews wherever found in Europe betray a
remarkable similarity in head form, the crania being consid
erably broader than among the peoples of Teutonic descent.
As we know, the extremes of head form in Europe measured
by the cephalic index extend from 74 to 89; we thus observe
that the Jews take a place rather high in the European series.
They are about like the northern French and southern Ger
mans. More important still, they seem to be generally very
THE JEWS AND SEMITES. 389
closely akin in head form to the people among whom they
reside. Thus in Russia and Poland scarcely an appreciable
difference exists in this respect between Jews and Christians.
The same is true in Turin, while in the direction of Asia our
Jews are as bullet-headed as even the most typical Armenians
and Caucasians round about them.
This surprising similarity of head form between the Jews
of north and south Europe bears hard upon the long-accepted
theory that the Sephardim is dolichocephalic, thereby remain
ing true to the original Semitic type borne to-day by the
Arabs. It has quite universally been accepted that the two
branches of the Jews differed most materially in head form.
From the facial dissimilarity of the two a correlative difference
in head form was a gratuitous inference. Dr. Beddoe ob
serves that in Turkey the Spagnuoli " seemed " to him to be
more dolichocephalic. A few years later Barnard Davis (>67)
" suspected " a diversity, but had only three Italian skulls to
judge from, so that his testimony counts for little. Then Weis-
bach ( 77) referred to the " exquisitely " long heads of the Spag
nuoli, but his data show a different result. Ikof with his small
series of crania from Constantinople, is the only observer who
got a result which accords in any degree with what we know
of the head form of the modern Semitic peoples. On the
other hand, Gliick in Bosnia and Livi in Italy find no other
sign of long-headedness than a slight drop in index of a point
or two. Jacobs in England, whose methods, as Topinard
has observed, are radically defective, gives no averages for his
Sephardim, but they appear to include about eleven per cent
less pure long-headed types than even their Ashkenazim
brethren in London. This, it will be noted, is the exact oppo
site of what might normally be expected. This tedious sum
mary forces us inevitably to the conclusion that, while a long
headed type of Sephardim Jews may exist, the law is very
far from being satisfactorily established.
Thus, from a study of our primary characteristic the pro
portions of the head we find our modern Jews endowed with
a relatively much broader head than that of the average Eng
lishman, for example: while the best living representative of
390 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
the Semitic peoples, the Arab, has a head which is even longer
and narrower than our own type. It is in short one of the
longest known, being in every way distinctly African. The
only modern Jews who even approach this type would seem
to be those who actually reside to-day in Africa, as in the
case of our two portrait types from that region. Two possible
explanations are open to us : either the great body of the Jews
in Europe to-day certainly all the Ashkenazim, who form
upward of ninety per cent of the nation, and quite probably
the Sephardim also, except possibly those in Africa have
departed widely from the parental type in Palestine; or else the
original Semitic type was broad-headed, and by inference
distinctly Asiatic in derivation; in which case it is the modern
Arab which has deviated from its original pattern. Ikof is the
only authority who boldly faces this dilemma, and chooses
the Asiatic hypothesis with his eyes open.* Which, we leave
it to the reader to decide, would be the more likely to vary
the wandering Jew, ever driven from place to place by con
stant persecution, and constantly exposed to the vicissitudes
of life in densely populated cities, the natural habitat of the
people, as we have said; or the equally nomadic Arab, who,
however, seems to be invariable in type whether in Algeria,
Morocco, or Arabia Felix itself? There can be but one an
swer, it seems to us. The original Semitic stock must have
been in origin strongly dolichocephalic that is to say, African
as the Arabs are to-day; from which it follows naturally, that
about nine tenths of the living Jews are as widely different in
head form from the parent stock to-day as they well could
be. The boasted purity of descent of the Jews is, then, a
myth. Renan ( 83) is right, after all, in his assertion that the
ethnographic significance of the word Jew, for the Russian
and Danubian branch at least, long ago ceased to exist. Or,
as Lombroso observes, the modern Jews are physically more
Aryan than Semitic, after all. They have unconsciously taken
on to a large extent the physical traits of the people among
* Compare Brinton, 1890 a, p. 132, and 1890 b, for interesting linguistic
data on the Semites.
THE JEWS AND SEMITES. 391
whom their lot has been thrown. In Algiers they have re
mained long-headed like their neighbours; for, even if they
intermarried, no tendency to deviation in head form would
be provoked. If on the other hand they settled in Piedmont,
Austria, or Russia, with their moderately round-headed popu
lations, they became in time assimilated to the type of these
neighbours as well.
Nothing is simpler than to substantiate the argument of
a constant intercourse and intermixture of Jews with the Chris
tians about them all through history, from the original exodus
of the forty thousand (?) from Jerusalem after the destruction
of the second temple. At this time the Jewish nation as a
political entity ceased to exist. An important consideration
to be borne in mind in this connection, as Neubauer (>86) sug
gests very aptly, is that opposition to mixed marriages was
primarily a prejudice of religion and not of race. It was dis
sipated on the conversion of the Gentile to Judaism. In fact,
in the early days of Judaism marriage with a non-believer was
not invalid at all, as it afterward became, according to the
Jewish code. Thus Josephus, speaking of the Jews at Antioch,
mentions that they made many converts receiving them into
their community. An extraordinary number of conversions to
Judaism undoubtedly took place during the second century
after Christ. As to the extent of intermarriage which ensued
during the middle ages discussion is still rife. Renan, Neu
bauer, and others interpret the various rigid prohibitions
against intermarriage of Jews with Christians as, for ex
ample, at the church councils of 538, 589 at Toledo, and of
743 at Rome to mean the prevalent danger of such prac
tices becoming general ; while Jacobs, Andree, and others are
inclined to place a lower estimate upon their importance.
Two wholesale conversions are known to have taken place : the
classical one of the Khozars in South Russia during the reign
of Charlemagne, and that of the Falashas, who were neigh
bouring Arab tribes in Yemen. Jacobs has ably shown, how
ever, the relatively slight importance of these. It is probable
that the greatest amount of infusion of Christian blood must
have taken place, in any event, not so much through such
392 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
striking conversions as insidiously through clandestine or ir
regular marriages.
We find, for example, much prohibitive legislation against
the employment of Christian servants by Jews. This was di
rected against the danger of conversion to Judaism by the
master with consequent intermarriage. It is not likely that
these prohibitions were of much avail, for despite stringent
laws in Hungary, for example, we find the archbishop of that
country reporting in 1229 that many Jews were illegally liv
ing with Christian wives, and that conversions by thousands
were taking place. In any case, no protection for slaves was
ever afforded. The confinement of the Jews strictly to the
Ghettos during the later centuries would naturally discourage
such intermixture of blood, as also the increasing popular
hatred between Jew and Christian ; but, on the other hand, the
greater degree of tolerance enjoyed by the Israelites even dur
ing this present century would be competent speedily to pro
duce great results. Jacobs has strenuously, although perhaps
somewhat inconclusively, argued in favour of a substantial
purity of the Jews by means of a number of other data such
as, for example, by a study of the relative frequency of Jewish
names, by the supposed relative infecundity of mixed mar
riages, and the like. Recent statistics also point in this direc
tion. Thus in Germany about ninety-five per cent of the Jews
marry those of their own belief.* Experience and the facts
of everyday observation, on the other hand, tend to confirm
us in the belief that racially no purity of descent is to be sup
posed for an instant. Consider the evidence of names, for ex
ample. We may admit a considerable purity, perhaps, to the
Cohns and Cohens, legitimate descendants of the Cohanim,
the sons of Aaron, early priests of the temple. Their marital
relations were safeguarded against infusion of foreign blood
in every possible way. The name is, perhaps, in its various
forms, the most frequent among Jews to-day. But how shall
we account for the equally pure Jewish names in origin, such
as Davis, Harris, Phillips, and Hart? How did they ever
* Pubs. American Statistical Association, iii, i892- 93, p. 244, from
Zeits. Kon. preuss. stat. Bureaus, 1891.
THE JEWS AND SEMITES. 393
stray so far from their original ethnic and religious significance,
unless the marital bars were lowered to a large degree? Some
of them certainly claim a foremost position numerically in our
Christian English directories. We have an interesting case
of indefinite Jewish delimitation in our portraits. The middle
one at page 387 is certainly a Jewish type. Dr. Bertholon
writes me that all who saw it immediately asserted it to be a
Jew. Yet the man was a professed Mussulman in fact, even
though his face was against him.
There is, as we have sought to prove, no single uniform
type of head peculiar to the Jewish people which may be re
garded as in any sense racially hereditary. Is this true also
of the face? Our first statement encounters no popular dis
approval; for most of us never, perhaps, happened to think of
this head form as characteristic. But the face, the features!
Is this another case of science running counter to popular
belief?
The first characteristic to impress itself upon the layman
is that the Jew is generally a brunet. All scientific observers
corroborate this impression, agreeing that the dark hair and
eyes of this people really constitute a distinct racial trait.
About two thirds of the Ashkenazim branch in Galicia and
Russia where the general population is relatively quite blond,
is of the brunet type, this being especially marked in the darker
colour of the hair. For example, Majer and Kopernicki,* in
Galicia, found dark hair to be about twice as frequent as the
light. Elkind,f in Warsaw, finds about three fifths of the men
dark. In Bosnia, Gliick s observations on the Sephardim type
gave him only two light-haired men out of fifty-five. In Ger
many and Austria \ this brunet tendency is likewise strongly
emphasized. Pure brunet types are twice as frequent in the
latter country, and three times as frequent in Germany, among
Jewish as among Christian school children. Ammon ron) finds
black hair most frequent among Jews in Baden, all recruits
showing a strong tendency in the same direction. Facts also
* 1877, pp. 88-90 ; 1885, p. 34.
f Centralblatt fiir Anthropologie, vol. iii, p. 66.
\ Virchow, 1886 b, p. 364; Schimmer, 1884, p. xxiii.
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
seem to bear out the theory, to which \ve have already alluded,
that the Oriental Jews betray a slightly greater blond tendency,
thus inclining to rufous. In Germany also the blond tendency
becomes more frequent in Alsace-Lorraine. This comparative
blondness of the Alsatian Jew is not new, for in 1861 the origin
of these same blonds was matter of controversy. Broca be
lieved them to be of northern derivation, while Pruner Bey
traced them from a blondish Eastern source. The English
Jews seem also to be slightly lighter than their continental
brethren, even despite their presumably greater proportion of
Sephardim, who are supposed to be peculiarly dark. As to the
relative red blondness of the Oriental Jew, the early observa
tions of Dr. Beddoe, and those of Langerhans * as to the blue
eyes and red-brown hair of the Druses of Lebanon, while sub
stantiated by some observers, is controverted by Jacobs and
others. Perhaps, as Dr. Beddoe suggests, a cross with the
blond Amorites may account for the phenomenon. At all
events, the living Semites are dark enough in type: and the
evidence of the sacred books bears out the same theory of an
original dark type. Thus " black " and " hair " are commonly
synonymous in the early Semitic languages. In any case,
whatever the colour in the past, we have seen that science cor
roborates the popular impression that the modern Jews are
distinctively of a brunet type. This constitutes one of the prin
cipal traits by which they may be almost invariably identified.
It is not without interest to notice that this brunetness is more
accentuated oftentimes among the women, who are, the world
over, persistent conservators of the primitive physical charac
teristics of a people, f
Secondly, as to the nose. Popularly the humped or hook
nose constitutes the most distinctive feature of the Jewish face.
Observations among the Jews in their most populous centres
do not, however, bear out the theory. Thus Majer and Koper-
nicki (>8B) , in their extended series, found only nine per cent
of the hooked type no greater frequency than among the
* 1873, p. 270.
f Weissenberg, 1895, p. 567, finds brunets twice as frequent among the
south Russian Jewesses as among the men.
FERGHANAH, Turkestan.
171. HERAULT, France.
ELIZABETHGRAD, Russia. 172.
&
173. SPAGNUOLI, Bosnia.
ELIZABETHGRAD, Russia. 174.
JEWISH TYPES.
THE JEWS AND SEMITES. 395
Poles; a fact which Weissenberg confirms as to the relative
scarcity of the convex nose in profile among his South Rus
sian Jews. He agrees, however, that the nose is often large,
thick, and prominent. Weisbach ( 77) measured the facial fea
tures of nineteen Jews, and found the largest noses in a long
series of people from all over the earth; exceeded in length,
in fact, by the Patagonians alone. The hooked nose is, indeed,
sometimes frequent outside the Jewish people. Olechnowicz
found, for example, over a third of the noses of the gentry in
southeast Poland to be of this hooked variety. Running the
eye over our carefully chosen series of portraits, selected for
us as typical from four quarters of Europe Algeria, Russia,
Bosnia, and the confines of Asia representing the African,
Balkan Spagnuoli, and Russian Ashkenazim varieties, visual
impressions will also confirm our deduction. The Jewish nose
is not so often truly convex in profile. Nevertheless, it must
be confessed that it gives a hooked impression. This seems
to be due to a peculiar " tucking up of the wings," as Dr.
Beddoe expresses it. Herein lies the real distinctive quality
about it, rather than in any convexity of outline. In fact, it
often renders a nose concave in profile, immediately recognis
able as Jewish. Jacobs * has ingeniously described this " nos-
trility,"as he calls it, by the
accompanying diagrams :
"\Yrite, he says, a figure 6
with a long tail (Fig. i);
now remove the turn of
the twist, and much of
. Fig. 1. Fig. 2. Fig. 3.
the Jewisnness disappears;
and it vanishes entirely when we draw the lower continuation
horizontally, as in Fig. 3. Behold the transformation! The
Jew has turned Roman beyond a doubt. \Yhat have we proved,
then? That there is in reality such a phenomenon as a Jewish
nose, even though it be differently constituted from our first
assumption. A moment s inspection of our series of portraits
will convince the sceptic that this trait, next to the prevalent
* 1886 a, p. xxxii.
396
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
dark hair and eyes and the swarthy skin, is the most distinctive
among the chosen people.
Another characteristic of the Jewish physiognomy is the
eyes. The eyebrows, seemingly thick because of their dark
ness, appear to be nearer together than usual, arching smoothly
into the lines of the nose. The lids are rather full, the eyes
large, dark, and brilliant. A general impression of heaviness
is apt to be given. In favourable cases this imparts a dreamy,
melancholy, or thoughtful expression to the countenance; in
others it degenerates into a blinking, drowsy type; or, again,
with eyes half closed, it may suggest suppressed cunning. The
particular adjective to be applied to this expression varies
greatly according to the personal equation of the observer.
Quite persistent also is a fulness of the lips, often amounting
in the lower one almost to a pout. The chin in many cases
is certainly rather pointed and receding, Jacobs to the contrary
notwithstanding. A feature of my own observation, perhaps
not fully justified, is a peculiar separation of the teeth, which
seem to stand well apart from one another. But a truce to
speculations. Entering into greater detail, the flat contradic
tions of different observers show that they are vainly general
izing from an all too najrrow base of observations. Even the
fancied differences in feature between the two great branches
of the Hebrew people seem to us to be of doubtful existence.
Our portraits do not bear it out. It seems rather that the
two descriptions of the Ashkenazim and Sephardim types
which we have quoted, denote rather the distinction between
the faces of those of the upper and the lower classes. Enough
for us to know that there is a something Jewish in these
faces which we instantly detect. We recognise it in Rem
brandt s Hermitage, or in Munkaczy s Christ before Pilate.
Not invariable are these traits. Not even to the Jew himself
are they always a sure criterion. Weissenberg gives an inter
esting example of this.* To a friend, a Jew in Elizabethgrad,
he submitted two hundred and fifty photographs of Russian
Jews and Christians in undistinctive costume. Seventy per
* 1895, p. 563.
THE JEWS AND SEMITES. 397
cent of the Jews were rightly chosen, while but ten per cent
of the Russians were wrongly classed as Jews. Of what con
cern is it whether this characterization be entirely featural, or
in part a matter of expression? The first would be a matter
of direct heredity, the second partakes more of the nature
of a characteristic acquired from the social environment. Some
one Jacobs, I think speaks of it as the " expression of
the Ghetto." It certainly appears in the remarkable series
of composite Jewish portraits published in his monograph.
It would not be surprising to find this true. Continued hard
ship, persecution, a desperate struggle against an inexorable
human environment as well as natural one, could not but write
its lines upon the face. The impression of a dreary past is
deep sunk in the bodily proportions, as we have seen. Why
not in the face as well?
We are now prepared, in conclusion, to deal with what is
perhaps the most interesting phase of our discussion. It is
certainly, if true, of profound sociological importance. We
have in these pages spoken at length of the head form pri
mary index of race; we have shown that there are Jews and
Jews in this respect. Yet which was the real Jew it was not
for us to decide; for the ninety-and-nine were broad-headed,
while the Semite in the East is still, as ever, a long-headed
member of the Africanoid races. This discouraged our hopes
of proving the existence of a Jewish cephalic type as the result
of purity of descent. It may indeed be affirmed with certainty
that the Jews are by hereditary descent from early times no
purer than most of their European neighbours. Then we dis
covered evidence that in this head form the Jews were often
closely akin to the people among whom they lived. In long
headed Africa they were dolichocephalic. In brachycephalic
Piedmont, though supposedly of Sephardim descent, they were
quite like the Italians of Turin. And all over Slavic Europe
no distinction in head form between Jew and Christian existed.
In the Caucasus also they approximate closely the cranial char
acteristics of their neighbours. Hypnotic suggestion was not
needed to find a connection here, especially since all history
bore us out in the assumption of a large degree of intermixture
398 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
of Gentile blood. Close upon this disproval of purity of type
by descent, came evidence of a distinct uniformity of facial
type. Even so impartial an observer as Weissenberg cer
tainly not prejudiced in favour of cephalic invariability con
fesses this featural unity.
How shall we solve this enigma of ethnic purity and yet
impurity of type? In this very apparent contradiction lies the
grain of comfort for our sociological hypothesis. The Jew
is radically mixed in the line of racial descent; he is, on the
other hand, the legitimate heir to all Judaism as a matter of
choice. It is for us a case of purely artificial selection, operative
as ever only in those physical traits which appeal to the senses.
It is precisely analogous to our example of the Basques in
France and Spain. What we have said of them will apply
with equal force here. Both Jews and Basques possessed in
a high degree a "consciousness of kind"; they were keenly
sensible of their social individuality. The Basques primarily
owed theirs to geographical isolation and a peculiar language;
that of the Jews was derived from the circumstances of social
isolation, dependent upon the dictates of religion. Another
case in point occurs to us in this connection. Chantre ( " J5) , in
a recent notable work, has shown the remarkable uniformity
in physical type among the Armenians. They are so peculiar
in head form that we in America recognise them at once by
their foreshortened and sugar-loaf skulls, almost devoid of
occiput. They too, like the Jews, have long been socially
isolated in their religion. Thus in all these cases, Basques,
Armenians, and Jews, we have a potent selective force at work.
So far as in their power lay, the individuality of all these people
was encouraged and perpetuated as one of their dearest pos
sessions. It affected every detail of their lives. Why should
it not also react upon their ideal of physical beauty? and why
not influence their sexual preferences, as well as determine
their choice in marriage? Its results became thus accentuated
through heredity. But all this would be accomplished, be it
especially noted, only in so far as the physical traits were con
sciously or unconsciously impressed upon them by the facts
of observation. There arises at once the difference between
THE JEWS AND SEMITES. 399
artificial selection in the matter of the head form and that con
cerning the facial features. One is an unsuspected possession
of individuality, the other is matter of common notice and, it
may be, of report. What Jew or Christian, till he became an
thropologist, ever stopped to consider the shape of his head,
any more than the addition of a number of cubits to his stat
ure? Who has not, on the other hand, early acquired a dis
tinct concept of a Jewish face and of a distinctly Jewish type?
Could such a patent fact escape observation for a moment?
We are confirmed in our belief in the potency of an artificial
selection such as we have described, to perpetuate or to evolve
a Jewish facial type by reason of another observation. The
women among the Jews, as Jacobs * notes in confirmation of
our own belief, betray far more constantly than the men the
outward characteristics peculiar to the people. We have al
ready cited Weissenberg s testimony that brunetness is twice
as prevalent among Russian Jewesses as among the men. Of
course this may be a matter of anabolism, pure and simple.
This would be perhaps a competent explanation of the phe
nomenon for physiologists like Geddes and Thompson. For
us this other cause may be more directly responsible. Arti
ficial selection in a social group wherein the active choice of
mates falls to the share of the male, might possibly tend in
the direction of an accentuated type in that more passive sex
on which the selective influence directly plays. At all events,
observations from widely scattered sources verify the law that
the facial individuality of a people is more often than other
wise expressed most clearly in the women. "Ghus, for example,
Lagneau asserts this to be true of the Basques in France. The
women betray the Mongol type more constantly than the men
among the Asiatic tribes of eastern Russia, as well as among
the Turkomans.! Mainof, best of authority, confirms the same
tendency among those of Finnic descent.^ The Scttc Commit
* 1886 a, p. xxviii.
f Sommier, 1887, reprint p. 116. Yambery, 1885, p. 404. Cf. Zograf,
1896, p. 50, on crania from the sixteenth century in Moscow ; and Ranke,
1897 a, p. 56, on the persistent brachycephaly of women in Munich.
\ Congres int. des sciences geographiques, Paris, 1875, p. 268.
400 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
in northern Italy still preserve their German language as evi
dence of a historic Teutonic descent. They seem to have lost
their identity entirely in respect of the head form,* but Ranke f
states that among the women the German facial type con
stantly reappears. A better example than this is offered among
the Hamitic aborigines of Africa north of the Sahara. These
peoples, from Abyssinia to Morocco, really belong to the white
races of Europe. Among nearly all their tribes the negroid
traits are far more accentuated among the women, according
to Sergi.;}: In the British Isles, as we have seen, a brunet
substratum of population is overlaid by a Teutonic blond one.
Darkness of hair, and particularly of eyes, is in many places
characteristic of the women.* This is so noticeable in Alsace,
where a similar supersession of a dark by a light population
has occurred, that Pfitzner || is led to affirm that abundant pig
mentation constitutes a real sexual peculiarity among women.
Another interesting case of this kind is offered by the Bul
garian women, who seem to represent a more primitive cranial
type than the men. A It is not necessary to cite more specific
testimony. The law occupies a respected place among an
thropologists. That the Jews confirm it, would seem to
strengthen our hypothesis at every point.
Our final conclusion, then, is this: It is paradoxical, yet
true, we affirm. The Jews are not a race, but only a people,
after all. In their faces we read its confirmation : while in re
spect of their other traits we are convinced that such indi
viduality as they possess by no means inconsiderable is of
their own making from one generation to the next, rather
than a product of an unprecedented purity of physical descent.
* Livi, 1896 a, pp. 137 and 146.
f Beitrage zur Anth. Bayerns, vol. ii, 1879, P- 75-
t Africa, Antropologia della Stirpe Camitica, Torino, 1897, p. 263.
* Haddon and Browne, 1893, pp. 782-786 ; Gray, 1895 b, p. 21 ; Ellis,
Man and Woman, p. 226.
|| 1897, pp. 484-498. A Vide page 427 infra.
Havelock Ellis, Man and Woman, second edition, p. 367, gives other
examples.
CHAPTER XV.
EASTERN EUROPE: THE GREEK, THE TURK, AND THE SLAV;
MAGYARS AND ROUMANIANS.
THE significant geography of the Balkan Peninsula may
best be illustrated by comparing it with the other two south
European ones, Italy and Spain.* The first point to notice is
that it is divided from the mainland by rivers and not by a well-
defined mountain chain. Iberia begins definitely at the Pyre
nees, and Italy proper is cut off from Europe by the Apen-
nine chain. On the other hand, it is along the line of the
Danube and of its western affluent, the Save (see map at
page 403) that we find the geographical limits of the Balkan
Peninsula. This boundary, as will be observed, excludes the
kingdom of Roumania, seeming to distinguish it from its trans-
Danubian neighbour Bulgaria. This is highly proper, viewed
both in respect of the character of its population as we shall
see, and also from the standpoint of geography and topog
raphy as well. For Roumania is for the most part an ex
tensive and rich alluvial plain; while the Balkan Peninsula,
as soon as you leave the Bulgarian lowlands, is characteris
tically rugged, if not really mountainous.
From Adrianople west to the Adriatic, and from the Bal
kan Mountains and the Save River south to the plains of
Epirus and Thessaly, extends an elevated region upward of two
thousand feet above the sea, breaking up irregularly into peaks
* A very concise description of the geography of this region in its
relation to man will be found in A. S. White (The Balkan States, Scottish
Geographical Magazine, ii, 1886, pp. 657-676, with maps). Freeman s
brilliant Essays, particularly those of 1877 and 1879, should be read in
this connection.
401
4O2
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
often rising above five thousand feet.* There is no system in
these mountains. Here again is a contrast with other areas
of characterization in Europe. In the main, in Albania, Mon
tenegro, and Herzegovina the course of these chains is parallel
to the Adriatic ; in its eastern half they are rather more at
right angles to the Black Sea; but definiteness of topography
is lacking throughout. The land is rudely broken up into
a multitude of little " gateless amphitheatres," too isolated for
union, yet not inaccessible enough for individuality. As White
observes, " if the peninsula, instead of being the highly moun
tainous and diversified district it is, had been a plateau, a very
different distribution of races would have obtained at the pres
ent day." Nor can one doubt for a moment that this dis
ordered topography has been an important element in the
racial history of the region.
In its other geographical characteristics this peninsula is
seemingly more favoured than either Spain or Italy. More
varied than the former, especially in its union of the two flora
of north and south; far richer in contour, in the possession of
protected waters and good harbours than Italy; the Balkan
Peninsula nevertheless has been, humanly speaking, unfortu
nate from the start. The reason is patent. It lies in its central
or rather intermediate location. It is betwixt and between;
neither one thing nor the other. Surely a part of Europe, its
rivers all run to the east and south. " By physical relief it
turns its back on Europe," continually inviting settlement from
the direction of Asia. It is no anomaly that Asiatic religions,
Asiatic institutions, and Asiatic races should have possessed
and held it ; nor that Europe, Christianity, and the Aryan-
speaking races should have resisted this invasion of territory,
which they regarded in a sense as their own. In this pull and
haul between the social forces of the two continents we finally
discover the dominant influence, perhaps, which throughout
history has condemned this region to political disorder and
ethnic heterogeneity.
As little racial as of topographical system can we discover
* A good geological and topographical map will be found in Mitt.
Geog. Gesell., Wien, xxiii, 1889.
EASTERN EUROPE: GREEK, TURK, AND SLAV. 403
in the Balkan states. Only in one respect may we venture upon
a little generalization. This is suggested by the preliminary
bird s-eye view which we must take as to the languages spoken
in the peninsula. This was a favourite theme with the late
historian, Freeman.* It is developed in detail in his luminous
writings upon the Eastern question. The Slavs have in this
part of Europe played a role somewhat analogous to, although
less successful than, that of the Teutons in the west. They
have pressed in upon the territory of the classic civilizations
of Greece and Rome, ingrafting a new and physically vigorous
population upon the old and partially enervated one. From
some centre of dispersion up north toward Russia, Slavic-
speaking peoples have expanded until they have rendered all
eastern Europe Slavic from the Arctic Ocean to the Adriatic
and yEgean Seas. Only at one place is the continuity of Slav
dom broken; but this interruption is sufficient to set off the
Slavs into two distinct groups at the present day. The north
ern one, of which we have already treated, consists of the
Russians, Poles, Czechs, and Slovaks. The southern group,
now before us, comprises the main body of the Balkan peo
ples from the Serbo-Croatians to the Bulgars, as shown upon
the accompanying map. Between these two groups of Slavs
and herein is the significant point is a broad belt of non-
Slavic population, composed of the Magyars, linguistically
now as always, Finns; and the Roumanians, who have become
Latin in speech within historic times. This intrusive, non-
Slavic belt lies along or near the Danube, that great highway
over which eastern peoples have penetrated Europe for cen
turies. The presence of this water way is distinctly the cause
of the linguistic phenomenon. Rome went east, and the Finns,
like the Huns, went west along it, with the result as described.
Linguistically speaking, therefore, the boundary of the south
ern Slavs and that of the Balkan Peninsula, beginning, as
we have said, at the Danube, are one and the same.
We may best begin our ethnic description by the appor
tionment of the entire Balkan Peninsula into three linguistic
* 1877 d, pp. 382 et seq. especially.
404 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
divisions, viz., the Greeks, the Slavs, and the Tatar-Turks.
Of these the second is numerically the most important, com
prising the Serbo-Croatians, and, in a measure, the Bulgarians.
As for the Albanians, the place of their language is still un
determined. Their distribution is manifested upon our map,
to which we have already directed attention. These Slavs,
with the Albanians, form not far from half the entire popula
tion.* Next in order come the Greeks, who constitute prob
ably about a third of the total. As our map shows, this
Greek contingent is closely confined to the seacoast, with the
exception of Thessaly, which, as an old Hellenic territory, we
are not surprised to find Greek in speech to-day. The Slavs
contrasted with the Greeks, are primarily an inland popula
tion ; the only place in all Europe, in fact, where they touch
the sea is along the Adriatic coast. Even here the proportion
of Greek intermixture is more considerable than our map
would seem to imply. The interest of this fact is intensified
because of the well-deserved reputation as admirable sailors
which the modern Dalmatians possess. They are the only
natural navigators of all the vast Slavic world. Everywhere
else these peoples are noted rather for their aptitude for agri
culture and allied pursuits. There is still another important
point to be noted concerning the Greeks. They form not only
the fringe of coast population in Asiatic as well as in Euro
pean Turkey ; they, with the Jews, monopolize the towns, de
voting themselves to commerce as well as navigation. Jews
and Greeks are the natural traders of the Orient. Thus is
the linguistic segregation between Greek and Slav perpetuated,
if not intensified, by seemingly natural aptitudes.
Perhaps the most surprising feature of our map of Turkey
is the relative insignificance of the third element, the Turks.
There were ten years ago, according to Couvreur ( 90) , not
above seven hundred and fifty thousand of them in all Euro
pean Turkey. Bradaska ( G9) estimated that they were out
numbered by the Slavs seven to one. Our map shows that
they form the dominant element in the population only in
* For statistics consult Sax, 1878 ; Lejean, 1882 ; White, 1886 ; Couv
reur, 1890; or Behm and Wagner, serially in Petermann.
EASTERN EUROPE: GREEK, TURK, AND SLAV. 405
eastern Bulgaria, where they indeed constitute a solid and
coherent body. Everywhere else they are disseminated as a
small minority among the Greeks or Slavs. Even about Con
stantinople itself the Greeks far outnumber them. In this
connection we must bear in mind that we are now judging
of these peoples in no sense by their physical characteristics,
but merely by the speech upon their lips. Nowhere else in
Europe, as we shall soon see, is this criterion so fallacious
as in the Balkan states. Religion enters also as a confusing
element. Sax s original map, from which ours is derived,
distinguishes these religious affiliations, as well as language.
It was indeed the first to employ this additional test.* The
maze of tangled languages and religions upon his map proved
too complicated for our imitative abilities. We were obliged
to limit our cartography to languages alone. The reader who
would gain a true conception of the ethnic heterogeneity of
Turkey should consult his original map.
The word Turk was for several centuries taken in a re
ligious sense as synonymous with Mohammedan, f as in the
Collect for Good Friday in its reference to " Jews, Turks,
infidels, and heretics." Thus in Bosnia, where in the fifteenth
century many Slavs were converted to Mohammedanism,
their descendants are still known as Turks, especially where
they use the Turkish speech in their religion. Obviously in
this case no Turkish blood need flow in their veins. It is the
religion of Islam, acting in this way, which has served to keep
the Turks as distinct from the Slavs and Greeks as they are
to-day. Freeman \ has drawn an instructive comparison in
this connection between the fate of the Bulgars, who, as we
shall see, are merely Slavonized Finns, and the Turks, who
have steadily resisted all attempts at assimilation. The first
came, he says, as " mere heathen savages (who) could be
Christianized, Europeanized, assimilated " because no antip-
* Oppel, 1890, gives a good cartographical history of the Balkan
states ; more complete, however, in Sax, 1878, or Lejean, 1861 and 1882.
f Consult Taylor, 1864 (ed. 1893), p. 48 ; Von Luschan, 1889, p. 198 ;
Sax, 1863, p. 97.
t i377 d.
406 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
athy save that of race and speech had to be overcome. The
Turks, in contradistinction, came " burdened with the half-
truth of Islam, with the half-civilization of the East. By
the aid of these, especially the former, the Turk has been en
abled to maintain an independent existence as " an unnatural
excrescence " on this corner of Europe.
Even using this word as in a measure synonymous with
religious affiliations, the Turks form but a small and decreas
ing minority in the Balkan Peninsula. Couvreur ( !)0) again
affirms that not over one third of the population profess the
religion of Islam, all the remainder being Greek Catholics.
This being so, the query at once suggests itself as to the reason
for the continued political domination of this Turkish minority,
Asiatic alike in habits, in speech, and in religion. The answer
is certain. It depends upon that subtle principle, the balance
of power in Europe. Is it not clear that to allow the Turk
to go under, as numerically he ought to do, would mean to
add strength to the great Slavic majority, affiliated as it is
with Russia both by speech and religion ? This, with the
consent of the Anglo-Saxon and other Teutonic rivals of the
Slav, could never be allowed. Thus does it come about that
the poor Greek is ground between the upper Turkish and
the nether Slavic millstone. " Unnatural disunion is the fate
of the whole land, and the cuckoo-cry about the independ
ence and integrity of the Ottoman Empire means, among the
other evil things that it means, the continuance of this dis
union." Let us turn from this distressing political spectacle
to observe what light, if any, anthropology may shed upon
the problem.
From the relative isolation of the Greeks at the extreme
southern point of the peninsula, and especially in the Pelopon
nesus, it would seem that they might be relatively free from
those ethnic disturbances which have worked such havoc else
where in the Orient. Nevertheless, Grecian history recounts
a continuous succession of inroads from the landward north,
as well as from the sea. It would transcend the limits of
our study to attempt any detailed analysis of the early eth-
EASTERN EUROPE : GREEK, TURK, AND SLAV. 407
nology of Greece.* Examination of the relationship of the
IVlasgi to their contemporaries we leave to the philologists.
Positively no anthropological data on the matter exist. We
are sufficiently grateful for the hundred or more well-authenti
cated ancient Greek crania of any sort which remain to us.
It is useless to attempt any inquiry as to their more definite
ethnic origin within the tribal divisions of the country. f The
testimony of these ancient Greek crania is perfectly harmoni
ous. All authorities agree that the ancient Hellenes were
decidedly long-headed, betraying in this respect their affinity
to the Mediterranean race, which we have already traced
throughout southern Europe and Africa. J Whether from
Attica, from Schliemann s successive cities excavated upon the
site of Troy, or from the coast of Asia Minor; at all times from
400 B. c. to the third century of our era, it would seem proved
that the Greeks were of this dolichocephalic type. Stephanos *
gives the average cranial index of them all as about 75.7, be
tokening a people like the present Calabrians in head form ;
and, for that matter, about as long-headed as the Anglo-Sax
ons in England and America. More than this concerning
the physical traits of these ancient Greeks we can not estab
lish with any certainty. Xo perfect skeletons from which we
can ascertain their statures remain to us. Nor can we be
more positive as to their brunetness. Their admiration for
blondness in heroes and deities is well known. As Dr. Bed-
doe r > says, almost all of Homer s leaders were blond or
chestnut-haired, as well as large and tall. Lapouge jl seems
inclined to regard this as proof that the Greeks themselves
* Consult Fligier, iSSr a. Stephanos, 1884, p. 430, gives a complete
bibliography of the older works. Cf. also Reinach, 1893 b, in his review
of Hesselmeyer ; and on the supposed Hittites, the works of Wright, De
Cara, Conder, etc.
f Stephanos, 1884, p. 432, asserts the Pelasgi to have been brachy-
cephalic, while Zampa, 1886 b, p. 639, as positively affirms the contrary
view.
\ Xicolucci, 1865 and 1867 ; Zaborowski, iSSi ; Virchow, 1882 and
1893; Lapouge, 1896 a, pp. 412-419; and Sergi, 1895 a, p. 75 ; are best on
ancient Greek crania.
* 1884, p. 432. || 1896 a, p. 414.
32
4 o8 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
were of this type, a broad interpretation which is scarcely justi
fiable.* As we shall see, every characteristic in their mod
ern descendants and every analogy with the neighbouring
populations, leads us to the conclusion that the classical Hel
lenes were distinctly of the Mediterranean racial type, little
different from the Phoenicians, the Romans, or the Iberians.
Since the Christian era, as we have said, a successive down
pour of foreigners from the north into Greece has ensued, f
In the sixth century came the Avars and the Slavs, bringing
death and disaster. A more potent and lasting influence upon
the country was probably produced by the slower and more
peaceful infiltration of the Slavs into Thessaly and Epirus from
the end of the seventh century onward. A result of this is that
Slavic place-names to-day occur all over the Peloponnesus in
the open country where settlements could readily be made.
The most important immigration of all is probably that of the
Albanians, who, from the thirteenth century until the ad
vent of the Turks, incessantly overran the land. As a result
the Albanian language is spoken to-day over a considerable
part of the Peloponnesus, especially in its northeastern corner,
where it attaches to the mainland. Only one little district
has preserved, it may be added, anything like the original
classical Greek speech. The Tzakons, in a little isolated and
very rugged district on the eastern coast, include a number
of classical idioms in their language. \ Everywhere else, either
in the names of rivers, mountains, and towns, or in borrowed
words, evidence of the powerful influence of foreign infiltra
tion occurs. This has induced Fallmerayer, Philippson, and
others to assert that these foreigners have in fact submerged the
original Greeks entirely.* Explicit rebuttal of this is offered
by Hopf, Hertzberg, and Tozer, who admit the Slavic element,
but still declare the Greeks to be Greek. This is a matter
* Stephanos, 1884, p. 439.
f Philippson, Zur Ethnographic des Peloponnes ; Petermann, xxxvi,
1890, pp. i-ir, 33-41, with map, gives a good outline of these. Consult
also Stephanos, 1884, pp. 422 <-/ .IVY/.
\ Op. cit., p. 37.
* Cf. Couvreur, 1890, p. 514; and Freeman, 18771!, p. 401.
EASTERN EUROPE: GREEK, TURK, AND SLAV. 409
concerning which neither philologist nor geographer has a
right to speak ; the anthropological testimony is the only com
petent one. To this \ve turn.
The modern Greeks are a very mixed people. There can
be no doubt of this fact from a review of their history. In
despite of this, they still remain distinctly true to their original
Mediterranean ancestry. This has been most convincingly
proved in respect of their head form.* The cephalic index of
modern living Greeks ranges with great constancy about
81. This, it should be observed, betokens an appreciably
broader head than in the case of the ancient Hellenes.
Stephanos,! who has measured several hundred recruits, finds
dolichocephaly to be most prevalent. in Thessaly and Attica;
while broad-headedness, so characteristic, as w r e shall see, of
the Albanians and southern Slavs, is more accentuated toward
the north, especially in Epirus. About Corinth also, where
Albanian intermixture is common, the cephalic index rises
above 83. The Peloponnesus has probably best preserved
its early dolichocephaly, as we should expect. In Thes
saly also are the modern Greeks as purely Mediterranean as
in classic times. It is most suggestive of the heterogeneity
of these modern Greeks, despite their clearly Mediterranean
affinities, to examine the seriation of these measurements.
Turn, for example, to that remarkable curve of von Luschan s
for the Greeks of southwestern Asia Minor, reproduced on
page 1 1 6. Its double apex, at two widely separated points,
one denoting a pure Mediterranean dolichocephaly, the other
a broader-headedness as great as that of the pure Albanians,
we have already described. ;[ There can be no doubt that in
Asia Minor, at least, the word Greek is devoid of any racial
* Weisbach, 1882 ; Nicolucci, 1867; Apostolides in Bull. Soc. d Anth.,
1883, p. 614; Stephanos, 1884; Neophytos, 1891 ; Lapouge, 1896 a, p. 419.
Von Luschan, 1889, p. 209, illustrates the similarity between the Greek
and the Bedouin skull.
t 1884, p. 434.
t Von Luschan, 1889, p. 206; 1891, p. 39. Stephanos s series, 1884,
p. 435, has three distinct culminations, at 78, 82, and 84 respectively.
Neophytos series from northwest Asia Minor is equally irregular ;
op. <//., p. 29.
4io
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
significance. It merely denotes a man who speaks Greek, or
else one who is a Greek Catholic, converted from Moham
medanism. Greek, like Turk, has become entirely a matter
of language and religion, as these people have intermingled.
Thus in the southwest of Asia Minor, where Semitic influ
ences have been strong, von Luschan * makes the pregnant
observation that the Greeks often look like Jews, although they
speak Turkish. The climax of physical heterogeneity is be
trayed in Neophytos series of Greeks from northwestern Asia
Minor, where he found not a single individual out of a hun
dred and fifty with a cephalic index below 80. Here is proof
positive that no Greeks of pure Mediterranean descent remain
to represent the primitive Hellenic type in that region.
Whatever may be thought of the ancients, the modern
Greeks are strongly brunet in all respects. Ornstein ( 79)
found less than ten per cent of light hair, although blue and
gray eyes were characteristic of rather more than a quarter
of his seventeen hundred and sixty-seven recruits. This
accords with expectation ; for among the Albanians, next
neighbours and most intrusive aliens in Greece, light eyes are
quite common. Weisbach s (<82) data confirm this, ninety-six
per cent of his Greeks being pure brunets.f In stature these
people are intermediate between the Turks and the Albanians
and Dalmatians, which latter are among the tallest of Euro
peans.^ In facial features Nicolucci s ( G7) early opinion seems
to be confirmed, that the Greek face is distinctively orthogna-
thous that is to say, with a vertical profile, the lower parts of
the face being neither projecting nor prominent. The face
is generally of a smooth oval, rather narrow and high, espe
cially as compared with the round-faced Slavs. The nose is
thin and high, perhaps more often finely chiselled and straight
in profile. The facial features seem to be well demonstrated
* 1889, p. 209.
f Neophytos finds 82.5 per cent of dark-brown or black hair, only 5
per cent blond or red ; while 17 per cent of the eyes were dark among 200
individuals.
\ Weisbach, 1882, p. 73, gives averages as follows : Greeks, 1.65 metres ;
Turks, 1.62 metres ; Albanians, 1.66 metres ; and Dalmatians, 1.69 metres.
ITS-
176.
177.
ROUMANIANS, County Hunyad, Hungary.
179.
BULGARIANS, County Temes, Hungary.
BALKAN STATES.
EASTERN EUROPE: GREEK, TURK, AND SLAV.
in the classic statuary, although it is curious, as Stephanos
observes, that these ideal heads are distinctly brachycephalic.
Either the ancient sculptors knew little of anthropology, or
else we have again a confirmation of our assertion that, how
ever conscious of their peculiar facial traits a people may be,
the head form is a characteristic whose significance is rarely
recognised.
Linguistically the pure Slavs in the Balkan states comprise
only the Serbo-Croatians, who divide the ancient territory of
lllvria with the Arnauts or Albanians. The western half of
the peninsula, rugged and remote, has been relatively little
exposed to the direct ravages of either Finnic or Turkish in
vaders. Especially is this true of Albania. Nearly all authori
ties since Hahn are agreed in identifying these latter people
who call themselves Skipetars, by the way as the modern
representatives of the ancient Illyrians.* They are said to
have been partly Slavonized by the Serbo-Croatians, who have
been generally regarded as descendants of the settlers brought
by the Emperor Heraclius from beyond the Save. This he is
said to have done in order to repopulate the lands devastated
by the Avars and other Slavs who, Procopius informs us, first
appeared in this region in the sixth century of our era. The
settlers imported by Heraclius came, we are told, from two
distant places : Old Servia, or Sorabia, placed by Freeman in
modern Saxony ; and Chrobatia, which, he says, lies in south
western Poland. f According to this vie\v, the Serbo-Croa
tians are an offshoot from the northern Slavs, being divided
from them to-day by the intrusive Hungarians ; while the Al
banians alone are truly indigenous to the country.
The recent political fate of these Illyrian peoples has been
quite various, the Albanians alone preserving their independ
ence continually under the merely nominal rule of the Turks.
Religion, also, has affected the Slavs in various ways. Servia
* GHick, 1897 a ; Lejean, 1882, p. 628 ; Bradaska, 1869. On early eth
nology, consult Fligier, 1876 ; Tomaschek, 1880 and 1893.
f Freeman, 1877 d, pp. 385, 404 et seq.; Lejean, 1882, pp. 216-222, and
especially Howorth, iS7S- Si.
412 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
owes much of its present peace and prosperity to the practical
elimination of the Moslems. Bosnia is still largely Moham
medan, with about a third of its people, according to White (VS6) ,
still professing that religion.* The significance of this is in
creased, it being mainly the upper classes in Bosnia, according
to Freeman, who embraced the religion of Islam in order to
preserve their power and estates. The conversion was not
national, as in the case of the Albanians. Thus social and re
ligious segregation work together to produce discord. With
multitudes of Jews monopolizing the commerce of the coun
try and the people thus divided socially, as well as in re
ligion, the political unrest in Bosnia certainly seems to re
quire the strong arm of Austrian suzerainty to preserve order.
In this connection it is curious to note Sax s ( 63) observation
as to the physical peculiarities of these Mohammedans in Bos
nia, who, as we have said, call themselves Turks. According
to him a process of selection has evolved a purer " Caucasian "
type, greater regularity of features, along with other traits.
Certainly the force of religion as a factor in artificial selection
can not be denied, as in this case.
Whatever the theory of the historians as to origins may be,
to the anthropologist tlTe modern Illyrians Serbo-Croatians
and Albanians alike are physically a unit. More than this,
they constitute together a distinct type so well individualized
that Deniker (>98) , in his recent masterly analysis, honours them
as a separate Adriatic, or, as he calls it, " Dinaric " race. Our
knowledge of the region, considering its remoteness, is quite
complete, owing especially to the zeal of Dr. Weisbach.f
Two physical characteristics render this ethnic group distinc
tive : first, that it comprises some of the tallest men in the
world, comparing favourably with the Scotch in this respect ;
* Von Schubert, 1893, p. 133, places the estimate much higher than this.
f To him I am grateful for the most courteous assistance both in the
collection of material and the loan of photographs. On the Albanians,
consult Zampa, Anthropologie Illyrienne, 1886 b, and Gltick, 1896 b and
18973 ; on the Serbo-Croatians, including Dalmatia, Weisbach, 1877, 1^4,
and 1895 a, the latter with especial reference to Bosnia ; on Herzegovina,
Weisbach, 1889 b. For Servia by itself no separate data exist ; and the
same may be said of Montenegro.
EASTERN EUROPE: GREEK, TURK, AND SLAV.
and, secondly, that these Illyrians tend to be among the broad
est-headed people known. In general, it would appear that
the people of Herzegovina and northern Albania possess these
traits to the most notable degree; while both in the direction
of the Save and Danube and of the plains of Thessaly and
Epirus they have been attenuated by intermixture. Presum
ably also toward the east among the Bulgarians in Macedonia
and Thrace these characteristics diminish in intensity. Thus,
for example, while the Herzegovinians, measured by Weis-
bach, yielded an average stature of 5 9" (1.75 metres), the
Bosnians were appreciably shorter (1.72 metres),* and the
Dalmatians and Albanians were even more so (1.68 metres).
Nevertheless, as compared with the Greeks, Bulgars, Turks,
or Roumanians, even the shortest of these Slavs stood high.
The superiority in stature of the whole body of the southern
Slavs over the Russians, Poles, and others of the northern
group is very noticeable. We have already spoken of it in
another connection. f It would apparently preclude the possi
bility of this as an imported Slavic trait ; rather does it seem to
be indigenous to the country. From this specific centre out
ward, especially around the head of the Adriatic Sea, over into
Yenetia, spreads the influence of this giantism. It confirms,
as we have said, the classical theory of an Illyrian cross among
the Venetians, extending well up into the Tyrol.
As for the second trait, the exaggerated broad-headed-
ness, it too, like the tallness of stature, seems to centre about
Herzegovina and Montenegro. Thus at Scutari, in the corner
of Albania near this last-named country, Zampa \ found a
cranial index of 89 ; in Herzegovina the index upon the
living head ranges above 87. It would be difficult to ex
ceed this brachycephaly anywhere in the world. The square
foreheads and broad faces of the people correspond in every
way to the shape of the heads. Its significance appears imme
diately on comparison with the long oval faces of the Greeks.
This broad-headedness diminishes slightly toward the north,
probably by reason of the Serbo-Croatian intermixture ; * nev-
* Capus, 1895, confirms it. f Pages 98 and 350 supra.
\ 1886 b, p. 637. * Cf. map at p. 340 supra.
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
ertheless, it still maintains the very respectable average of 85.7
among the 3,803 Bosnians measured by Weisbach.* It falls
more rapidly in the direction of Greece, showing how strong
is the influence of that Mediterranean element among the
Illyro-Greeks about Epirus. It seems to be a persistent trait.
The Albanian colonists, studied by Livi and Zampa f in Cala
bria, still, after four centuries of Italian residence and inter
mixture, cling to many of their primitive characteristics, nota
bly their brachycephaly and their relative blondness. This
persistency again leads us to regard these traits as properly
indigenous to the land and the people, not lately acquired by
infusion of foreign blood from abroad.
One more trait of the Balkan Slavs remains for us to note.
The people are mainly pure brunets, as we might expect; but
they seem to be less dark than either the Greeks or the Turks.
Especially among the Albanians are light traits by no means
infrequent. In this respect the contrast with the Greeks is
apparent, as well as with the Dalmatians along the coast and
the Italians -in the same latitude across the Adriatic.J Weis
bach * found nearly ten per cent of blond and red hair among
his Bosnian soldiers, while about one third of the eyes were
either gray or blue. The Herzegovinians are even lighter than
the Bosnians, almost as much so as the Albanians. From
consideration of these facts it would appear as if the harsh
climate of these upland districts had been indeed influential
in setting off the inland peoples from the Italian-speaking Dal
matians along the coast. For among the latter bnmetness
certainly increases from north to south, || conformably to the
general rule for the rest of Europe ; while in the interior, blond-
ness apparently moves in the contrary direction, culminating
in the mountain fastnesses of northern Albania and the vicin
ity. On the whole, we find also in this trait of bnmetness com-
* 1895 a, p. 228. Gliick s average for thirty Albanians is only 82.6.
Weisbach, 1897 a, p. 84, finds the Bosnian brachycephaly to-day quite
paralleled in crania from the early historic period.
f 1886 b and 1886 a, p. 174 respectively.
i Zampa, 1886 b, p. 636; Livi, 1896 a, p. 175-
* I895 a, p. 210. 1 Weisbach, 1884.
EASTERN EUROPE : GREEK, TURK, AND SLAV.
415
petent evidence to connect these Illyrians with the great body
of the Alpine race farther to the west. We have also another
illustration of its determined predilection for a mountainous
habitat, in which it stoutly resists all immigrant tendencies
toward variation from its primitive type.
The Osmanli Turks, who politically dominate the Balkan
Peninsula notwithstanding their numerical insignificance, are
mainly distinctive among their neighbours by reason of their
speech and religion.* Turkish is the westernmost representa
tive of a great group of languages, best known, perhaps, as the
Ural-Altaic family. This comprises all those of northern Asia
even to the Pacific Ocean, together with that of the Finns in
Russian Europe. Its members are by no means unified phys
ically. All varieties of type are included within its boundaries,
from the tall and blond one which we have preferred to call
Finnic,f prevalent about the Baltic; to the squat and swarthy
Kalmucks and Kirghez, to whom we have in a physical
sense applied the term Mongols. The Turkish branch of
this great family of languages is to-day represented in eastern
Europe by two peoples, whom we may roughly distinguish as
Turks and Tatars. \ The term Tatar, it should be observed,
is entirely of European invention, like the similar word Hun
garian. The only name recognised by the Osmanli them
selves is that of Turk. This, by the way, seems quite aptly to
be derived from a native root meaning " brigand," according
to Chantre (>85 >. They apply the word Tatar solely to the north
Asiatic barbarians. By general usage this latter term, Tatar,
has to-day become more specifically applied by ethnologists to
the scattered peoples of Asiatic descent and Turkish speech
who are mainly to be found in Russia and Asia Minor.*
* Lejean, 1882, p. 453, gives good descriptive material. Vambery,
1885, divides the Ural-Altaic family into five groups viz., (i) Samoyed,
<2) Tungus, (3) Finnic, (4) Mongolic, (5) Turkish or Tatar.
f Page 360 supra.
\ On terminology consult Vambery, 1885, p. 60 ; Chantre, 1895, p. 199 ;
Keane, 1897, p. 302.
* Vambery s (1885) further classification of the Tatar-Turkish sub
division is as follows: (a) Siberian; Yakuts, etc.; (b) Central Asiatic;
416 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
Of the two principal physical types to-day comprised with
in the limits of the Ural-Altaic languages, the Turks and
Tatars seem to be affiliated with the Mongol rather than the
Finn, not physically alone, but in respect of language as well.*
As a matter of fact they are much nearer other Europeans in
original type than most people imagine. Their nearest rela
tives in Asia seem to be the Turkoman peoples, who, to the
number of a million or more, inhabit the deserts and steppes
of western Asia. It was from somewhere about this region,
in fact, as we know, that the hordes of the Huns under Attila.
and those of Genghis Khan and Tamerlane, set forth to the
devastation of Europe. The physical type of these inhabitants
of Turkestan has been fairly well established by anthropolo
gists. It persists throughout a great multitude of tribes of
various names, among whom the Kara-Kirghez, Uzbegs, and
Kiptchaks are prominent, f At page 44 we have represented
these Turkoman types. The most noticeable feature of the
portraits is the absence of purely Mongol facial characteris
tics. Except in the Kara-Kirghez the features are distinctly
European. There is no squint-eye; the nose is well formed;:
the cheek bones are not prominent, although the faces are
broad; and, most impoftant of all, the beard is abundantly
developed, both in the Uzbeg and the Kiptchak. The Kara-
Kirghez, on the other hand, betrays unmistakably his Mon
gol derivation in every one of these important respects. One
common trait is possessed by all three : to wit, extreme brachy-
cephaly, with an index ranging from 85 to 89. \ The flatness
of the occiput is very noticeable in our portraits in every case,
giving what Hamy calls a " cuboid aspect " to the skull.*
Turkomans ; (c) Volga : Chuvashes and Bashkirs ; (d) Pontus : as in
Crimean and Noga! Tatars ; (e) Western : Osmanli and Azerbeidjian.
* Vambery, 1885, p. 63.
f Complete data on these people will be found in Ujfalvy, iSyS- So,
iii, pp. 7-50; Les Aryens, etc., 18963, pp. 51, 385-434: Bogdanof, 1888:
Yavorski, 1897.
\ Yavorski, 1897, p. 193, gets an index of 75.6 for his 191 observations ;
every other authority confirms the opposite tendency.
* Considerations generates sur les races jaunes. L Anth., vi, 1895.
P- 247-
EASTERN EUROPE: GREEK, TURK, AND SLAV. 417
These portraits, if typical, should be enough to convince us that
the Turkoman of the steppes about the Aral and Caspian Seas
is far from being a pure Mongol, even in his native land, al
though a strain of Mongol blood is apparent in many of their
tribes. He is not to be classed with the peoples depicted in our
series at page 358, in other words.
The fact is that the Asiatic Turkomans, whence our Os-
manli Turks are derived, are a highly composite type. A
very important element in their composition is that of certain
brachycephalic Himalayan peoples, the Galchas and Tadjiks,
who are for all practical purposes identical with the Alpine
type of western Europe. In their accentuated brachycephaly,
their European facial features, their abundance of wavy hair
and beard, and finally in their intermediate colour of hair and
eyes,* these latter peoples in the Pamir resemble their Euro
pean prototypes. So close is this affiliation that we shall
see in our next chapter that the occurrence of this type in
western Asia is the keystone in any argument for the Asiatic
origin of the Alpine race of Europe. The significance of it for
us in this connection, is that it explains the European affinity
of many of the Turkoman tribes, who are more strongly Al
pine than Mongol in their resemblances. It is highly impor
tant, we affirm, to fix this in mind; for the prevalent opinion
seems to be that the Turks in Europe have departed widely
from their ancestral Asiatic type, because of their present lack
of Mongol characteristics, such as almond eyes, lank black
hair, flat noses, and high cheek bones. The chances of phys
ical resemblance really depend upon a decision as to the par
ticular origin of the progenitors of these present Turks. If
they are indeed directly derived from the pure Kirghez, as
Yambery t asserts, we might expect all manner of Mongol
* Ujfalvy (Les Aryens, etc., 1896 a, p. 428) found chestnut hair most fre
quent, with 27 per cent of blondness, among some of the Tadjiks. The
eyes are often greenish gray or blue (Ujfalvy, iSyS- So, iii, pp. 23-33,
tables).
f 1885, p. 382. It is curious to notice that the nearest Asiatic language
to the Turkish occurs among the Yakuts, in northern Siberia. They are
unmistakable Mongols.
4 1 8 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
traits. If, on the other hand, they originally were Turkomans,
it would seem that we have no right to expect any such phe
nomena even in Asia itself; to say nothing of the Osmanli
Turks who have for generations, through Circassian wives
and slaves, bred into the type of the other peoples of eastern
Europe.
Either the Osmanli Turks were never Mongols, or they have
lost every trace of it by intermixture. Our portraits on the
opposite page give little indication of Asiatic derivation ex
cept in their accentuated short- and broad-headedness. This
is considerably more noticeable in Asia Minor than in Euro
pean Turkey.* West of the Bosporus the Turks differ but
little from the surrounding Slavs in head form. They have
been bred down from their former extreme brachycephaly,
which still rules to a greater degree in Asia Minor. In our
portraits from this region the absence of occipital prominence
is very marked. In addition to this, the Turks are every
where, as Chantre ( 95) observes, " incontestably brunet." t
The hair is generally stiff and straight. The beard is full. This
latter trait is fatal to any assumption of a persistence of Kirghez
blood, or of any Mongolic extraction, in fact. The nose is
broad, but straight in profile. The eyes are perfectly normal,
the oblique Mongol type no more frequent than elsewhere.];
In stature the Turks are rather tall, especially those observed
by Chantre : * but in this respect social conditions are undoubt
edly of great effect. On the whole, then, we may consider
that the Turks have done fairly w r ell in the preservation of their
primitive characteristics. Chantre especially finds them quite
* On the anthropology of European Turks, Weisbach, 1873, is the only
authority. He found an average cephalic index of 82.8 in 148 cases.
Elisyeef, iSgo- gi, and Chantre, 1895, pp. 206-211, have worked in Ana
tolia, with indices of 86 for 143 individuals, and 84.5 for 120 men, respect
ively. Both Von Luschan and Chantre give a superb collection of portrait
types in addition.
t Elisyeef s tables show a blondness by no means inconsiderable.
\ Von Luschan, 1889, p. 212, finds less than one per cent in Lycia. Cf.
Chantre, 1895, p. 207.
* 1895, p. 208. Over half of his 120 were above 1.70 metres ; the aver
age 1.71 metres. Elisyeef obtained a lower average of 1.67 metres.
NOMAD IVERVEK, Lycia, Asia Minor.
TURK, Lycia, Asia Minor.
185.
TURK, Lycia, Asia Minor
TURKS.
EASTERN EUROPE: GREEK, TURK, AND SLAV. 419
homogeneous, considering all the circumstances. They vary
according to the people among whom their lot is cast. Among
the Armenians they become broader-headed, while among the
Iranian peoples Kurds or Persians the opposite influence of
intermixture at once is apparent.
A sub-type of the Turk occurs among the nomads, who,
under the name of Juriiks and Iverveks, still roam through
central Anatolia. The name of these tribes signifies " wan
derers." Little is known of them, save that they are of Turk
ish speech and have entered Asia Minor in late historic times.*
One of these is depicted in our upper portraits herewith. A
difficulty in the analysis of these peoples lies in the preva
lence of customs of cranial deformation among them. All
that is certain is that they are very brunet, but in no wise Mon
goloid. Their resemblance to the Gypsies, of supposedly
Hindoo extraction, is rather close, as comparison of our por
traits in this series will make apparent. Another Gypsy of
distinctly Indian type from Asia Minor is represented in the
series at page 422. f
Before taking leave of the Turkish peoples a word should
be added concerning the Tatars. Xo other people of Europe
have scattered so far and wide, preserving an identity of lan
guage meanwhile. They fall, in the main, into three groups:
One about Kazan in eastern Russia, known as the Volga Ta
tars (see map, page 362) ; a second in and about the Crimean
peninsula ; and, thirdly, that centreing about the Caucasus
mountains. These last, in northern Caucasia, are known as
Xogays or Koumyks; those in the south, constituting the
Azerbeidjian or Iranian Tatars. The first are aggregated in a
solid body ; the second seem to be dispersed among a host of
Armenians, Kurds, Persians, and other peoples. Their dis
tribution is in part shown upon our map of Caucasia at page
439. This latter group of Tatars in Russian Armenia number
to-day upward of a million souls. They are popularly sup-
* Viimbery, 1885, p. 603: Von Luschan, 1889, pp. 213-217; Chantre,
1895, p. 200.
f Gliick (1897 a), Von Luschan (1889), Schwicker (1883), describe these
Gypsies and their languages and customs.
33
420 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
posed to represent an element which was left behind during-
the historic invasions of the Seljukian Turks into Europe.*
The contrast between the two groups north and south of the
Caucasus is very marked. The Nogays and Koumyks, from
their proximity to the Kirghez and the Kalmucks, are strongly
Mongolian in aspect and in head forni.f The Azerbeidjians,
on the other hand, have become much Iranized by contact with
the dolichocephalic peoples of this region. This endows them
with the long oval face and smooth features of the Persians
and Kurds. \ Despite these differences, both Nogays and Azer
beidjians adhere closely to their primitive Tatar speech. Long-
continued separation has been powerless to affect them in this
respect.
The Crimean or Pontus Tatars offer us the same example
of a community of language, coupled with a great diversity
of physical type. Radde distinguishes three groups among
them : one in the steppes just north of the peninsula, which
still preserves many of its Asiatic characteristics ; a second,
the so-called " hill Tatars," which is said to be more mixed ;
and a third known as the coast Tatars. This last group has
become entirely Europeanized. Our portraits of these coast
Tatars at pages 364 and"422 make this apparent at once. \Ye
must suppose strong admixture among them of Greek, Gypsy,
and possibly also of Gothic blood.* Similar contrasts occur
among the Volga Tatars, dependent upon the particular Finnic,
Mongol, or Russian element, with whom they happen to have
been thrown in contact. As for the Tatars in the Dobrudsha
district at the mouth of the Danube, shown upon our map of
the Balkan states, we are unable to give information. Finally,
as a last and complete example of Europeanized Tatars, still
* Vambery, 1885, pp. 569-579; Chantre, iSSs- Sy, iv, pp. 248 et scq., and
1895, pp. 177-189 ; as well as Wyrubof, 1890.
f Cf. Sviderski, 1898, on the Koumyks.
\ The cephalic index of the Nogays is about 86 ; of the Azerbeidjians,.
78 ; of the Crimeans, 86 ; of the Don, 79. Cf. Yavorski s table, p. 193.
* Consult A. N. Kharuzin, 1890 a, b, and d; and also Merezkovski,
1881.
I Benzengre, 1880, on the Tatars of Kassimof, is the only standard on
these peoples.
EASTERN EUROPE: GREEK, TURK, AND SLAV. 421
Turkish in speech, we may instance the small colony in Lithu
ania. Even less of the Mongol remains in this case than
among the shore Tatars of the Crimea.* The utter futility of
attempting to correlate physical characteristics and language
are again illustrated for us among these people to an extreme
degree.
The Bulgarians are of interest because of their traditional
Finnic origin and subsequent Europeanization. This has en
sued through conversion to Christianity and the adoption of a
Slavic speech. Our earliest mention of these Bulgars would
seem to locate them between the Ural Mountains and the
Volga, f The district was, in fact, known as Old Bulgaria till
the Russians took it in the fifteenth century. As to which of
the many existing tribes of the Volga Finns (see map, page
362) represent the ancestors of these Bulgarians, no one is,
I think, competent to speak. Pruner Bey seems to think they
were the Ostiaks and Voguls, since emigrated across the Urals
into Asia; J the still older view of Edwards and Klaproth made
them Huns; * Obedenare, according to Virchow ( 86) , said they
were Samoyeds or Tungus; while Howorth and Beddoe claim
the honour for the Chuvashes. These citations are enough to
prove that nobody knows very much about it in detail. All
that can be affirmed is that a tribe of Finnic-speaking people
crossed the Danube toward the end of the seventh century
and possessed themselves of territory near its mouth. Remain
ing heathen for two hundred odd years, they finally adopted
Christianity and under their great leaders, Simeon and Samuel,
became during the tenth century a power in the land. Their
rulers, styling themselves " Emperors of the Slavs," fought the
Germans; conquered the Magyars as well as their neighbours
in Thrace, receiving tribute from Byzantium; became allies
of Charlemagne; and then subsided under the rule of the
* Superb portraits of these are given in the Dnevnik, Society of
Friends of Natural Science, etc., Moscow, 1890, at column 63.
f Read Pruner-Bey, iS6ob; Obedenare; Howorth, 1881 ; and espe
cially Kanitz, 1875, for historic details.
| See note, p. 361 supra. * Cf. Vambery, 1882, pp. 50-60.
\ iSSi, p. 223, and 1893, p. 49, respectively.
422 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
Turks. Since the practical demise of this latter power they
have again taken courage, and in their semi-political inde
pendence in .Bulgaria and northern Roumelia rejoice in an
ever-rich and growing literature and sense of nationality.
Bulgarian is spoken, as our map at page 403 indicates,
far outside the present political limits of the principality in
deed, over about two thirds of European Turkey. Gopcevic *
has made a brilliant attempt to prove that Macedonia, shown
by our map and commonly believed to be at bottom Bulgarian,
is in reality populated mainly by Serbs. The weakness of
this contention was speedily laid bare by his critics. Political
motives, especially the ardent desire of the Servians to make
good a title to Macedonia before the disruption of the Ottoman
Empire, can scarcely be denied. Servia needs an outlet on the
Mediterranean too obviously to cloak such an attempted ethnic
usurpation. As a fact, Macedonia, even before the late Greco-
Turkish war, was in a sad state of anarchy. The purest Bul
garian is certainly spoken in the Rhodope Mountains ; there
are many Roumanians of Latin speech ; the Greeks predomi
nate all along the sea and throughout the three-toed peninsula
of Salonica; while the Turks are sparsely disseminated every
where. And as for religion well, besides the severally or
thodox Greeks and Turks, there are in addition the Moslem
and apostate Bulgarians, known as Pomaks, who have nothing
in common with their Greek Catholic fellow-Bulgars, together
with the scattering Pividus Roumanians and Albanians in ad
dition. This interesting field of ethnographic investigation
is, even at this late day, practically unworked. As Dr. Bed-
doe ( " " writes and his remarks are equally applicable to
Americans " here are fine opportunities for any enterprising
Englishman with money and a taste for travel and with suffi
cient brains to be able to pick up a language. But, alas! such
men usually seem to care for nothing but killing something. "
The Roumanians, or Moldo-Wallachians, are not confined
within the limits of that country alone! Their language and
* 1889 a, with map, in Petermann, 1889 b. Cf. criticism of his con
tention by Oppel, 1890; Couvreur, 1890, p. 523; and Ghennadicff, 1890,
p. 663.
COAST TATARS, Goursuf, Crimea.
GYPSY, Lycia, Asia Minor.
190.
GYPSY, Lycia, Asia Minor.
192.
EASTERN EUROPE: MAGYARS AND ROUMANIANS.
423
nationality cover not only the plains along the Danube and
the Black Sea; but their speech extends beyond the Carpathian
Mountains over the entire southeastern quarter of Hungary
and up into the Bukovina. (See map at page 429.) Transyl
vania is merely a German and Magyar islet in the vast extent of
the Roumanian nation. There are more than a third as many
Roumanians, according to the census of 1890, as there are
Magyars in the Hungarian kingdom.* Politically it thus hap
pens that these people are pretty well split up in their alle
giance. Xor can this be other than permanent. For the Car
pathian Mountains, in their great circle about the Hungarian
basin, cut directly through the middle of the nation as meas
ured by language. This curious circumstance can be account
ed for only on the supposition that the disorder in the direction
of the Balkan Peninsula incident upon the Turkish invasion,
forced the growing nation to expand toward the northwest,
even over the natural barrier interposed between Roumania
proper and Hungary. Geographical law, more powerful than
human will, ordains that this latter natural area of character
ization the great plain basin of Hungary should be the seat
of a single political unit. There is no resource but that the
Roumanians should in Hungary accept the division from their
fellows over the mountains as final for all political purposes, f
The native name of these people is Ylach, Wallach, or
Wallachian. Various origins for the name have been as
signed. Lejean ( S2) asserts that it designates a nomad shep
herd, in distinction from a tiller of the soil or a dweller in
towns. Picot ( 73) voices the native view as to ethnic origins
by deriving the word Wallach from the same root as Wales,
Walloon, etc., applied by the Slavs and Germans to the Celtic
peoples as " foreigners." J This theory is now generally dis
countenanced. Obedenare s (>7G) attempt to prove such a
* Jekelfalussy, 1897, with his map of nationalities, 1885, is the best
authority. Cf. also Auerbach, 1898, pp. 285-297.
f Auerbach, 1898, p. 28(1, gives a full summary of the rival contro
versy between Roumanians and Hungarians as to priority of title in Tran
sylvania.
% Cf. Taylor, Words and Places, p. 42.
424 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
Celtic relationship has met with little favour.* The western
name Roumanian springs from a similarly exploded hypothe
sis concerning the Latin origin of these people. To be sure,
Roumanian is distinctly allied to the other Romance languages
in structure. It is an anomaly in the eastern Slavic half of
Europe. The most plausible explanation for this phenome
non, and one long accepted, was that the modern Roumanians
were descendants of the two hundred and forty thousand colo
nists whom the Emperor Trajan is said to have sent into the
conquered province of Dacia. The earlier inhabitants of the
territory were believed to have been the original Thracians.
Since no two were agreed as to what the Thracians were like,
this did not amount to much. Modern common sense has
finally prevailed over attempts to display philological erudi
tion in such matters. Freeman i expresses this clearly. Rou-
mania, as he says, lay directly in the path of invasion from the
East; the hold of the Romans upon Dacia was never firm;
the province was the first to break away from the Empire;
and finally proof of a Latinization only at the late date of the
thirteenth century is not wanting.]; The truth seems to be
that two forces were contending for the control of eastern
Europe. The Latin coiild prevail only in those regions which
were beyond the potent influence of Greece. Dacia being re
mote and barbarian, this Latin element had a fighting chance
for survival, and succeeded.
Our ethnic map at page 403 shows a curious islet of Rou
manian language in the heart of the Greek-speaking territory
of Thessaly. There is little sympathy between the t\vo peo
ples, according to Hellene ( !10) . The occurrence of this Rou
manian colony, so far removed from its base, has long puzzled
ethnographers. Some believe the peoples were separately
Romanized / ;/ situ; others that they were colonists from Dacia
in the ninth and tenth centuries. At all events, these Pindus
Roumanians are too numerous over a million souls to be
* Cf. Picot, 1883, in his review of Tocilescu ; and Rosny, 1885, p. 83.
f 1879, p. 217. Cf. also Auerbach, 1898, p. 286.
\ Cf. Obedenare, 1876, p. 350; Slavici, iSSi, p. 43 ; Rosny, 1885, p. 27;
Hellene, 1890, p. 190.
EASTERN EUROPE: MAGYARS AND ROUMANIANS.
425
neglected in any theory as to the origin of their language.*
Another islet of quasi-Roumanian speech occurs in Istria, on
the Adriatic coast. Its origin is equally obscure, f
It is no contradiction that, in spite of the fact of our ex
clusion of Roumania from the Balkan Peninsula owing to its
Latin affinities, thereby seeming to differentiate it sharply from
Bulgaria, the latter of Finnic origin; that we now proceed
to treat of the physical characteristics of the two nationalities,
Roumanian and Bulgarian, together. Here is another exam
ple of the superficiality of language, of social and political
institutions. They do not concern the fundamental physical
facts of race in the least. At the same time we again em
phasize the necessity of a powerful corrective, based upon
purely natural phenomena, for the tendency of philologists
and ethnographers to follow their pet theories far afield, giving
precedence to analogies of language and customs over all the
patent facts of geographical probability. Let us look at it in
this light. Is there any chance that, on the opposite sides of
the Danube, a few Finns and a few Romans respectively inter
spersed among the dense. population which so fertile an area
must have possessed, even at an early time, could be in any wise
competent to make different types of the two? There is noth
ing in our confessedly scanty anthropological data to show it,
at all events. We must treat the lower Danubian plain as a
unit, irrespective of the bounds of language, religion, or na
tionality.
It was long believed that the Bulgarians were distinctive
among the other peoples of eastern Europe by reason of their
long-headedness. All the investigations upon limited series of
crania pointed in this direction. J This naturally was inter
preted as a confirmation of the historic data as to a Finnic
Bulgarian origin very distinct from that of the broad-headed
Slavs. Several recent discoveries have put a new face upon
the matter. In the first place, researches of Dr. Bassanovic,
of \ arna, upon several thousand recruits from western Bul-
* Picot, 1875, PP- 3QO ct s, (/. fAuerbach, 1898, p. 211.
t Kopernicki, 1875 h . Beddoe, 1879; Virchovv, 1886 a; Malief, in his
Catalogue of 1888, gives details for thirty-eight Bulgarian crania also.
426 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
garia yielded an average cephalic index of 85.* This is
nearly ten units above the results of the earlier observers. It
proves that the west Bulgarians at least even outdo many
of the Balkan Slavs in their broad-headedness. At the same
time it appears that the older authorities were right, after all,
in respect of the eastern Bulgarians. Among them, and also
over in eastern Roumelia, the cephalic index ranges as low
as 78. Our map at page 340 expresses this relation. The
long oval-faced Bulgarians among our portraits are prob
ably of this dolichocephalic type. Their contrast facially with
the broad-headed Roumanians is very marked. Thus it is es
tablished that the Bulgarian nation is by no means a unit in
its head form. We should add also that, although not defi
nitely proved as yet, it is highly probable that similar variations
occur in Roumania. In the Bukovina brachycephaly certainly
prevails. Our square-faced Roumanians facing page 410 may
presumably be taken to represent this type. This broad-
headedness decreases apparently toward the east as we leave
the Carpathian Mountains, until along the Black Sea it seems,
as in Bulgaria, to give way to a real dolichocephaly.f
How are we to account for the occurrence of so extended
an area of long-headertness all over the great lower Danubian
plain ? Our study of the northern Slavs has shown that no
such phenomenon occurs there among the Russians. It cer
tainly finds no counterpart among the southern Slavs or the
Turks. The only other people who resemble these Bulgars in
long-headedness are the Greeks. Even they are far separated;
and, in any event, very impure representatives of the type.
What shall we say? Two explanations seem to be possible, as
Dr. Beddoe observes. \ Either this dolichocephaly is due to the
Finnicism of the original Bulgars ; or else it represents a char
acteristic of the pre-Bulgarian population of the Danube basin.
He inclines with moderation to the former view. The other
* 1891, p. 30. Dr. Bassanovic has most courteously sent me a sketch
map showing the results of these researches. Deniker, 1897, p. 203, and
1898 a, describes them also.
f Deniker, 1898 a, p. 122 ; Weisbach, 1877, p. 238 ; Rosny, 1885, p. 85.
\ 1879, p. 233.
EASTERN EUROPE : MAGYARS AND ROUMANIANS.
427
horn of the dilemma is chosen by Anutchin * in a brilliant
paper at the late Anthropological Congress at Moscow. Ac
cording to his view and we assent most heartily to it this
dolichocephaly along the Black Sea represents the last sur
vival of a most persistent trait of the primitive inhabitants of
eastern Europe. Referring again to our study of Russia,! we
would call attention to the occurrence of a similar long-headed
race underlying all the modern Slavic population. We shall
be able to prove also that such a primitive substratum occurs
over nearly all Europe. It has been unearthed not far from
here, for example, at Glasinac in Bosnia. When archaeologi
cal research is extended farther to the east, new light upon
this point may be expected. It will be asked at once why this
primitive population should still lie bare upon the surface, here
along the lower Danube, when it has been submerged every
where else in central Europe. Our answer is ready. Here in
this rich alluvial plain population might, expectedly, be dense
at a very early period. As we have observed before, such a
population, if solidly massed, opposes an enormous resistance
to absorption by new-comers. A few thousand Bulgarian in
vaders would be a mere drop in the bucket of such an aggre
gation of men. We are strengthened in this hypothesis that
the dolichocephaly of the Danubian plain is primitive, by rea
son of another significant fact brought out by Bassanovic.*
Long-headedness is overwhelmingly more prevalent among
women than among men. The former represent more often
what Bassanovic calls the " dolichocephalic Thracian type."
The oval-faced Bulgarian woman among our portraits would
seem to be one of these. Now, in the preceding chapter, we
have sought to illustrate the principle that in any population
the primitive type persists more often in the women. The
bearing of such a law in the case of the Bulgars would seem to
* 1893, p. 282.
\ Page 352 snfra. Cf. especially Bogdanof, 1893, p. i.
\ Vide p. 463 infra.
* 1891, p. 31. Women dolicho-, 25 per cent; meso-, 42 per cent;
brachycephalic, 30 per cent ; while among men the percentages are 3,
16, and 81 per cent respectively.
428 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
be definite. Their long-headedness, where it occurs, must date
from a far more remote period than the historic advent of the
few thousand immigrants who have given the name Bulgaria
to the country.
As for the other physical traits of the I .ulgarians and Rou
manians there is little to be added. It goes without saying
that they are both deep brunets. Obedenare ( 7G) says the
Roumanians are very difficult to distinguish from the modern
Spaniards and Italians. This is probably true in respect of
brunetness. The Oriental caste of features of our portraits, on
the other hand, can not fail to attract attention. More than
two thirds of Bassanovic s nineteen hundred and fifty-five
Bulgarians were very dark-haired. Light eyes were of course
more frequent, nearly forty per cent being classed as blue or
greenish. A few about five per cent were yellow or tawny-
haired, these individuals being at the same time blue-eyed.
This was probably Procopius excuse for the assertion that
the Bulgars were of fair complexion. He also affirmed that
they were of goodly stature. This is not true of either the
modern Roumanians or Bulgars. They average less than five
feet five inches in height,* being considerably shorter than
the Turks, and positively diminutive beside the Bosnians and
other southern Slavs. The Bulgarians especially are corre
spondingly stocky, heavily boned and built. \Ye may add that
there is a real difference in temperament between the two na
tionalities, built up, as we assert, from the same foundation.
The Wallachians are said to be more emotional and responsive;
the Bulgarians inclined to heaviness and stolidity. Both are
pre-eminently industrious and contented cultivators of the soil,
with little aptitude for commerce, so it is said. We hesitate
to pass judgment in respect of their further aptitudes until fuller
data can be provided than are available at the present time.
At almost no point are the Hungarian people permitted
* Bassanovic s series of 1,955 individuals averages only 1.638 metres.
O/>. cit., p. 30. Auerbach, 1898, p. 259, gives an average of 1.63 metre-
for 880 Wallachians in Transylvania. Obedenare, 1876, p. 374. states
brown eyes to be most frequent in Roumania.
EASTERN EUROPE: MAGYARS AND ROUMANIANS.
429
430
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
to touch the political boundaries of the kingdom which bears
their name.* Our map illustrates this peculiar relation. The
various nationalities are indeed disposed, as Auerbach ( 98) sug
gests, as if in order of battle, the Magyars in a state of siege
beset upon all sides. This dominant people are principally
compacted about the historic city of Buda-Pesth in a more
or less solid mass. In upon them from every side press rival
languages and peoples. The Slovaks to the north are both
numerous and united. Moravia, it \vill be remembered, was
conquered by the Magyars only through the co-operation of
the Germans. More than half of the population in the entire
eastern half of the monarchy are Roumanians or Wallachs.
These people have, as our map shows, penetrated so far into
Hungary as to cut off a considerable area of Magyar speech in
Transylvania (Siebenbiirgen) from the great body of the nation
about Buda-Pesth. A number of connecting islets of Hun
garian survivals still exist between the two. This is proof
positive that the Roumanians have come in later than the
first Magyar possession, submerging their language and cus
toms thereby.
The Transylvanian Magyars on the slopes of the Carpa
thians are known as zcklcrs, or " borderers," although we
are disposed to think that it is the western Hungarians who are
really best entitled to that name. At all events, this eastern
group, though smaller, is far more compact. The main body
of the nation in the west is interpenetrated by multitudes of
colonists from the outside, especially by the Germans. As for
the Serbo-Croatians, who have encroached upon Hungarian
territory from the south, they seem, unlike the Germans, to
form a coherent and clannish people. Almost nine tenths of
the population in many places within the limits of the Serbo-
Croatian language are in reality of this nationality. In no
single Magyar district, on the other hand, according to the
* On the demography of Hungary consult especially the official com
pendium published in English, The Millennium of Hungary and its
People, edited by Jekelfalussy, Buda-Pesth, 1897. Auerbach, Les Races
et Nationalites en Autriche-Hongrie, Paris, 1898, is also excellent, Hun-
falvy, 1877 and iSSi, is a classic authority.
EASTERN EUROPE : MAGYARS AND ROUMANIANS.
431
census of 1880, is there more than seventy per cent of Hun
garians.*
By this time it will have been noted that Hungary is by
no means solidly Magyar. Only about four tenths of the
17,500,000 inhabitants of the monarchy are of this nation
ality, f This minority, to be sure, outnumbers the total of the
Germans, Slovaks, and Roumanians combined, but it is still
a minority nevertheless. There are two good reasons why
these people are entitled to rule; for, of course, we assume
it to be a self-evident geographical proposition that but one
single political unit should abide in this Danubian plain. It is
one of the most clearly defined areas of characterization in
Europe. The prior claim in behalf of Magyar sovereignty is
based upon numerical preponderance. This is becoming
strengthened continually, for it is certain that the Magyar
speech is gaining ground more rapidly than any of its com
petitors. This is partly because the Hungarians are increas
ing faster than the other peoples about them. It is also due
in a measure to the adoption of the official language by many
who are of foreign birth. The second reason why the Magyars
are entitled to rule all Hungary is because these people seem
to be pre-eminent intellectually. They form the large mass
of the city populations, the Slavs being natural cultivators of
the soil. The liberal professions seem to be recruited from
the Magyars also in the main.J Our data are drawn from
Hungarian statistics, which naturally would not underestimate
the ability of their own nationality. Even making due allow
ance for this, their representation in the intellectual classes
is very marked. Certainly no better title to sovereignty could
be urged.
* Jekelfalussy, 1885. The census of 1890 shows the same relative com
pactness of the Serbo-Croatians, although for some reason the percent
ages are considerably lower. Jekelfalussy, 1897, p. 417.
f Jekelfalussy, 1897, p. 417, gives census returns for 1890. The pro
portions are as follows: Hungarians, 42.8 per cent; Germans, 12.1 per
cent; Slovaks, n per cent; Wallachs, 14.9 per cent; Ruthenians, 2.2
per cent ; Croats, 9 per cent ; Servians, 6.1 per cent. This, of course, is
for Hungary alone, not for the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
$ Cf. Jekelfalussy, 1897, p. 418, and Auerbach, 1898, p. 252.
432
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
The definite origin of the Magyars has long been a matter
of controversy. Historically, they displaced the Avars, who
had reduced the country to a state of anarchy in the last decade
of the ninth century.* They seem to have come in from the
northeast. For a while they were encamped in the plains be
tween the Don and the lower Dnieper in Russia. The Bulgars
seemingly pressed upon them here from behind, until they,
to the number possibly of a few hundred thousand, crossed
the Carpathians. They seem to have met with little opposi
tion in effecting a settlement along the Danube, except in
Moravia. Whence they came before their appearance in south
ern Russia no man knows with any approach to certainty.
The only evidence is linguistic rather than historical.
Two centuries ago Fogel discovered a number of points
of similarity between the Magyar language and that of the
Lapps and Finns, f Closer analysis thereafter appeared to
connect it most definitely with the speech of the Volga branch
of this Finnic family, especially the Ostiaks and Voguls. A
number of Turkish words seemed also to be related to the
language of the Chouvashes. Yambery \ has made a deter
mined and able effort to prove that both the Hungarian cul
ture and language are. Turkish rather than Finnic in origin.
The nearest 4i poor relations " of the Hungarians are the Bash
kirs, according to him; an opinion in which Sommier ( 81)
seems to acquiesce. As for the Byzantine chroniclers, they
called them Turks, Huns, and Ungars indiscriminately. On the
whole, the trend of opinion seems to favour the Finnic hypothe
sis, making due allowance for the chance of borrowing from
the Turkish peoples during the course of their long migrations.
For our more general purposes all these theories lead to the
same result. We may be fairly certain that we have to do with
an immigrant people, originating in some part of Russia en
tirely beyond the sphere of the Aryan or inflectional languages.
* Hunfalvy, 1877, pp. 145-179.
f Simonyi gives an excellent chapter on this, in Jekelfalussy, 1897, pp.
143-165. Cf. also Hunfalvy, p. 146, and Pruner Bey, 1865.
I 1882, pp. 235-257. Auerbach, 1898, p. 230, discusses it ably. Ober-
miiller s (1871) fantastic theory of a Caucasian Kabardian derivation may
be mentioned.
193- SZEKLER, Torda-Aranyos. Blue eyes, chestnut hair. Index 89. 194.
195. SZEKLER, 1 orda-Aranyos. Blue eyes, chestnut hair. Index 91. 196.
197. County Csik. TRANSYLVANIA. County Borsod. 198.
HUNGARIAN TYPES.
EASTERN EUROPE : MAGYARS AND ROUMANIANS.
433
The physical characteristics of the Magyars have been but
little investigated scientifically. We know less of them than
of almost any other great European people. On the one hand,
Topinard ( 78) assures us that they form to-day " one of the
most beautiful types in Europe " ; on the other, we have it
from Lefevre * that our word " ogre " is a derivative from
ougre or Hungar, so outlandish were these people to their
new neighbours in Europe. Perhaps this may indeed have
been so, although even the present Volga Finns shown in our
portraits at page 358 are by no means Mongols or even ogres,
in personal appearance. The modern Hungarians are cer
tainly not un-European in any respect. Through the courtesy
of Dr. Janko, custos of the National Museum at Buda-Pesth,
we are able to present authentic portraits of perhaps the purest
of the Magyars. Our types on the opposite page, and the
additional one at page 228, are all representative of the Szeklers
of Transylvania. From their isolation and the compactness
of their settlement one might expect them to have retained
their primitive features in some purity.
From these portraits and from our other data it appears
that the Magyars are a strikingly fine-looking and well-
developed people. The facial features are regular, the nose
and mouth well formed. There is nothing Asiatic or Mongol
to be seen. Perhaps, indeed, they have, as Dr. Becldoe writes
me, an Oriental type of beauty, with somewhat prominent
" semi-Tatar " cheek bones. Nevertheless, we find no trace
of the " coarse Mongoloid features " which Keane (>9G) de
scribes among these Szcklcrs, whom he rightly seems to re
gard as the purest representatives of their race. Nor are they
even very dark, these Hungarians. Brunets are in a major
ity, to be sure, but this is true of all southeastern Europe. The
most prevalent combination is of blue eyes and chestnut hair,
judging by the data from Dr. Janko s observations. Nearly
every one of our portrait types were thus constituted, f Ac-
* 1896 b, p. 367. Cf. Jekelfalussy, 1898, p. 402.
f Of 81 Szeklers, 35 had blue eyes, 34 brown, 9 gray, and 3 light brown.
As to hair colour, 20 were blond, 44 chestnut-brown, 13 black, i red, and 3
light brown.
434
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
cording to this, the Magyars differ but slightly from the Aus
trian Germans. Their blondish proclivities would tend to
confirm the theory of Finnic rather than Turkish origin;
for, as we have already shown, the Volga Finns, and even
the Ostiaks and Voguls over in Siberia, are still quite light
in type.
As for the head form of the Hungarians, the data are very
scanty and defective. The eighty-four Sticklers of Janko s
series gave an index of 84.5, from which it would appear that
the purest of Magyars are pretty broad-headed. Weisbach s (>7T)
and Lenhossek s * results are not far from these, although
Deniker f gives some indication of a longer-headedness.
Rashly generalizing from this scanty material, we have ven
tured to predict a distribution of head form as shown on our
map at page 340. This would indicate a natural cephalic index
of about 84, falling toward the west by reason of German in
termixture. In this respect, then, we find Turkish rather than
Volga Finnic affinities, for the Volga Finns are all quite long
headed (see map, page 360). Finally, in stature our evidence
in the matter of Finnic or Turkish origins is equally incon
clusive. Janko s Szcklcrs were all very tall (1.70 metres), but
others do not confirm* this as a characteristic trait of the na
tion. \ Most observers agree that the Magyars are only of
average height; taller than the Poles, but shorter than the
Serbo- Croatian s. It is to be hoped that this most interesting
field of investigation may not long remain unworked.* So
far as our knowledge goes, it tends to confirm us in the view
that the historians and ethnographers have immensely over
estimated the importance of the original Finnic immigration,
with a corresponding neglect of the population which existed
in Hungary before their advent. These earlier inhabitants,
while adopting the language of their conquerors, have suc
ceeded in almost entirely obliterating the original traits of the
Magyars as a race. If they were originally Finns and related
to the Ostiaks and Voguls, the direction of their intermixture
* Revue d Anth., scrie i, v, p. 552 ; Hunfalvy, 1877, p. 273.
f 1898 a, p. 120. \ Cf. map, page 350 supra, with appendix.
* On the state of archaeology, vide Pulszky, 1891.
EASTERN EUROPE: MAGYARS AND ROUMANIANS.
435
has all been toward that of the Alpine race. This latter has
been proved an early possessor of the soil of central Europe.
The present traits of the Hungarians seem to lend force to
the hypothesis that the same race \vas also firmly rooted in
the great Danubian plain before their appearance. Accord
ing to this view, they would be, roughly speaking, perhaps
one eighth Finnic and seven eighths Alpine by racial descent.
CHAPTER XVI.
WESTERN ASIA: CAUCASIA, ASIA MINOR, PERSIA, AND INDIA.
THE utter absurdity of the misnomer Caucasian, as applied
to the blue-eyed and fair-headed " Aryan " (?) race of western
Europe, is revealed by two indisputable facts. In the first
place, this ideal blond type does not occur within many hun
dred miles of Caucasia; and, secondly, nowhere along the great
Caucasian chain is there a single native tribe making use of
a purely inflectional or Aryan language. In the days of Bros-
set and Bopp we were taught that the Georgians, most noted
of the Caucasian tribes, spoke such a tongue. Blumenbach
is said to have given the name Caucasian to his white race
after seeing a fine specimen of such a Georgian skull. We
know better to-day, thanks to the labours of Uslar and others.
Even the Ossetes, whose language alone is possibly inflec
tional, have not had their claims to the honour of Aryan made
positively clear as yet.* And even if Ossetian be Aryan, there
is every reason to regard the people as immigrants from the
direction of Iran, not indigenous Caucasians at all. Their
head form, together with their occupation of territory along
the only highway the Pass of Dariel across the chain from
the south, give tenability to the hypothesis. f At all events,
whether the Ossetes be Aryan or not, they little deserve pre
eminence among the other peoples about them. They are
lacking both in the physical beauty \ for which this region
is justly famous, and in courage as well, if we may judge by
their reputation in yielding abjectly and without shadow of
resistance to the Russians.
* Smirnof, 1878, gives full discussion. Cf. Seydlitz, 1881, p. 98.
f Houssay, 1887, p. 106 ; Seydlitz, 1881, p. 125.
\ Chantre, 1895, iv, p. 156.
436
WESTERN ASIA: CAUCASIA. 437
We mention these apparently irrelevant facts because it is
undeniable that a large measure of the popularity of the name
Caucasian has had its origin in the traditional physical per
fection and chivalrous spirit of the natives of this part of the
world. Byzantine harem tales of Circassian beauty have not
failed to influence opinion upon the subject of European ori
gins. Not even the charm of mystery remains in support of
a Caucasian race theory to-day. In the present state of our
knowledge, it is therefore difficult to excuse the statement of a
recent authority, who still persists in the title Homo Cancasicus
as applied to the peoples of Europe. It is not true that any of
these Caucasians are even " somewhat typical." : As a fact,
they could never be typical of anything. The name covers
nearly every physical type and family of language of the Eur-
Asian continent, except, as we have said, that blond, tall,
" Aryan "-speaking one to which the name has been specifically
applied. It is all false; not only improbable, but absurd. The
Caucasus is not a cradle it is rather a grave of peoples, of
languages, of customs, and of physical types, f Let us be as
sured of that point at the outset.
Nowhere else in the world probably is so heterogeneous
a lot of people, languages, and religions gathered together in
one place as along the chain of the Caucasus mountains. J He
rodotus and the Plinys were well aware of this. The number
of dialects is reckoned in the neighbourhood of sixty-eight.
These represent all stages of development. One that of the
Ossetes is possibly Aryan; it is but very primitively Euro
pean, to say the least. A second, the Circassian Kabardian
and Abkhasian is incorporative. It is so like the American
Indian languages in structure that we find Cruel * using it as
proof of a primitive American Indian substratum of popula
tion over Europe. May the day come when philologists shall
have an eye to the common decencies of geographical and
* Keane, Ethnology, p. 226. f Smirnof, 1878, p. 241.
\ On the ethnography, mainly linguistic, of the Caucasus, the prin
cipal authorities are Smirnof, 1878 ; Seydlitz, iSSi and 1885 ; and Chantre,
1885. Our map, after Rittich, 1878, has been corrected from the results
of the later authorities. * 1883, pp. 166-173.
438
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
physical possibility! Then again, there arc the purely agglu
tinative languages Asiatic in their affinities of the Kou-
myks, Kalmucks, and Tatars. To all these we may add a
fourth great linguistic family, the Semitic, represented by the
Armenians and the omnipresent Jews. Over all and through
all is what Bryce calls a " top dressing " of Europeans, speak
ing the most highly evolved languages peculiar to western or
civilized Europe. Thus it happens, as Uslar long ago proved,
that greater differences exist within the Caucasus between its
linguistic microcosms " than between the most widely sepa
rated members of the Aryan family in Europe. In other words,
for example, the Avars differ more from the Ossetes or the
Kabardians in language than the Lithuanians differ from
the Spaniards. In the former case it is a matter of structure;
in the latter merely of deviation from a common type or stem
by a transmutation of root words.
The geographical character and location of the Caucasian
mountains offer a patent explanation for this phenomenon of
heterogeneity. Four distinct currents of language with their
concomitant physical types, have swept up to the base of this
insuperable physical barrier. We use the term insuperable
advisedly, for there is ip reality only one break in the entire
chain from the Black Sea to the Caspian. This is the famous
Pass of Dariel eight thousand feet high lying in the terri
tory of the Ossetes. It explains why this people alone among
all its neighbours is able to occupy both slopes of the moun
tains. All the other tribes and languages lie either on one
side or the other. The Tatars, to be sure, are both north and
south of the mountains; they seem to be about everywhere.
Yet we have already shown (page 419) that where they have
crossed the chain they have been entirely transformed phys
ically by isolation. Up against such a mountain system as
this, have swept great currents of human life from every quar
ter of the eastern hemisphere. They have not blended. There
has been contiguous isolation, to coin a phrase, ample in sup
ply for all. Thus has it been possible for each language to pre
serve and perhaps still further to develop its peculiarities in
situ. Linguistic isolation has again served to intensify the geo-
WESTERN ASIA: CAUCASIA.
439
graphical segregation due to physical environment. The effect
of all this in the matter of race could not be other than to cause
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a heterogeneity of physical types quite without parallel else
where in the world.
It would lead us too far astray from the main line of our
interests to attempt a detailed description of the physical types
440
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
peculiar to all the Caucasian tribes.* Our principal object is
negative viz., to show what these people are not; that is to
say, to divest this region of the fanciful importance which has
so long been assigned to it by students of European origins.
A glance at our map of cephalic index of Caucasia will make
its physical heterogeneity apparent, even excluding the Ar
menians, Kurds, and Azerbeidjian Tatars who lie entirely out
side the mountain chain. The first impression conveyed by
the map, next to that of heterogeneity, is of a prevalent broad-
headedness. In this respect the Caucasians as a whole are
distinct both from the Russian Slavs on the north, and from
the Iranian peoples Tates or Tadjiks, Kurds, and Persians
in the opposite direction. Among the mountaineers them
selves, the Lesghian tribes betray an accentuated brachy-
cephaly equal to that of the pure Mongols about the Caspian.
The Kartvelian tribes, numerically most important of all, seem
to become somewhat longer-headed from east to west.f As
for the principal remnant of the Tscherkesses or Circassians,
known as Kabardians, they are not very different from their
neighbours ; but the Abkhasians along the Black Sea belong
ing to the same family, whom, by the way, Bryce \ calls " the
most unmitigated rogues and thieves in all Caucasia," are
slightly more dolichocephalic than even the Russians. The
fourth group the Ossetes appear on our map to be quite
different from all the other Caucasians, except the Abkhasians
just named. The difference between them and the Lesghians
in head form is exemplified by comparison of the two lower
types in our series near by. The round and occipitally short
head of the Lesghian is at one extreme ; the long oval one of
the Ossete at the other. Their faces are as differently pro
portioned also as are their skulls.
* Chantre s monumental work, Recherches Anthropologiques dans le
Caucase, 4 vols., Atlas, Paris, iSSs- Sy, is a standard. In addition, the
detailed researches of Russian observers should be consulted, such as Pan-
tyuckhof, 1893, on the Georgians ; Vyschogrod, 1895, on the Kabardians ;
Gilchenko, 1897, on the Ossetes ; Sviderski, 1898, on the Koumyks, etc.
\ Cf. table in Chantre, 1885, iv, p. 272.
J Transcaucasia and Ararat, 1897.
MlNGRELIAN.
L.\XK, Ratum
203
->i .TK, Koban.
CAUCASIA.
204.
rscHETSCHEN. Cephalic Index 82.3.
206.
INGOUCHE ( Tschetschen group). Cephalic Index 84.4. 208.
LEEGHIAN from Gounib.
CAUCASUS MOUNTAINS
WESTERN ASIA: CAUCASIA.
441
An important fact must be noted at this point viz., that
customs of cranial deformation are exceedingly prevalent all
through Caucasia and Asia Minor. This renders all study of
the head form quite uncertain. Thus the Laze about Datum
practise this deformation most persistently; their foreshort
ened heads and their long oval faces are in corresponding dis
harmony.* Our portrait type from this tribe is apparently
normal in head form. The occiput shows no sign of artificial
depression. That their brachycephaly is real is much to be
doubted. Among the Abkhasians, on the other hand, the rare
phenomenon of lateral compression of the skull may account
for their striking long-headedness.f On the whole, making
due allowance for this uncertainty, it would seem that the
Caucasians are pretty strongly inclined to be broad-headed.
The Lesghians and the Svans are the wildest and most iso
lated. They are most brachycephalic. The Ossetes are on the
highway of transmigration. They have either deviated from
the original pattern, or else, as we have suggested above, they
are immigrants, not indigenous at all.
Our series of portraits illustrates the facts concerning the
facial features of these tribes. Their classic beauty is well rep
resented in our Mingrelian, whom we may assume as typical
of the Georgian group. It is, however, a perfectly formal,
cold, and unintelligent beauty, in no wise expressive of char
acter, as Chantre observes. The Mingrelians, despite their
warm and fertile country, are, according to Bryce, persist
ently " ne er-do-weels." The Lesghian group, and also the
Tchetchen, are described as less regularly featured than the
Circassians or Georgians. The faces bear evident traces of
the hardship to which not only their rigorous environment
exposes them, but also of the continual struggle against the
Mongols, who incessantly threaten them from the north. Their
contrast in temperament with the characteristically gay and
dance-loving Georgians is very marked. The renowned beau
ties of the Caucasus are, of course, the Tscherkessen or Cir
cassians. The Kabardians are less pure than the Adighe or
* Chantre, 1885, iv, p. 91. f Op. cit., iv, p. 130.
442 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
Circassians proper, but even among them the broad shoulders
and erect carriage, with the oval face, brilliant brown eyes, and
fine chestnut hair, are predominant. In character these Cir
cassians are also pre-eminent. Amiable, talkative, and inquisi
tive to a degree, they are also brave, chivalrous, and hospitable.
To be sure, their name may be derived from the Turkish words
meaning " to cut the road." Nevertheless, though given to
brigandage, they are faithful to their friends. Their whole
sale preference of exile to Russian domination, more than
four fifths of them having emigrated to Turkey in the sixties,
is evidence of a not inconsiderable moral stamina. The Os-
setes, who by the way call themselves Ir or Irons, stand at
the other extreme as regards both face and character. They
are tall, but lack suppleness, elegance, and dignity; the fea
tures are said to be irregular and angular. Our portrait is a
good type. Many Jewish features occur, as among the Cir
cassians also, for that matter. In character they are deficient
in bravery, their prompt acquiescence in the Russian military
rule, as we have said, being characteristic. One physical pe
culiarity of importance remains to be noted. Chantre * found
among the Ossetes above thirty per cent of blonds. This is
thrice as great as among the Georgians. Nearly all the other
Caucasians are of a relatively dark type, chestnut hair and
dark-brown eyes prevailing, although black is quite common. f
Even among the Laze, whose whiteness of skin is remarkable,
Chantre found the hair of a third of them black. Thus we
are easily able to dispose of any theory of a blond Caucasian
race in the light of these facts.
A large area, indefinitely bounded by the Mediterranean
Sea. Caucasia, the Red Sea, and the Pamir, remains to be
described. Obviously, Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, and Persia
can not be left out of account in our review of the Oriental
peoples of Europe. This region has been the seat of the oldest
known civilizations. It possesses a far better claim to our
* Op. cit., iv, p. 170. Cf. Khanykoff, 1886, p. 113.
f Yyschogrod, for example, found forty-seven per cent of black hair
among the Kabardians.
WKSTERN ASIA: ASIA MINOR.
443
attention as a possible centre of human or cultural evolution
than Caucasia. Two difficulties confront us at the outset in an
analysis of its racial types. One is the kaleidoscopic changes
ever taking place in the character of its nomad populations;
the other is the intricacy of the problem due to the central
location of the district. To it have converged from every di
rection great currents of immigration or invasion: Turkish-
Tatar, from the steppes of Asia; European, from Greece; Afri
can, from Egypt. In the convergence of these currents upon
this point we find, of course, a plausible explanation for its
early pre-eminence in civilization. Corresponding difficulty
in distinguishing the several ethnic elements is a necessary
corollary of this fact.
The distribution of language offers positively no clew to
the problem. The Azerbeidjian Tatars, forming a major ele
ment in the population of Persia, are positively Iranian in every
trait, although their language is Turkish. Our portrait of
one of these at page 449 reveals no symptom of Turkoman
blood. Notwithstanding this, no other alternative is offered
to the linguist than to class these people as Turks. The Kurds,
on the other hand, are mainly inhabitants of Asiatic Turkey,
but they are Iranian in their affinities, both linguistic and
physical. The Armenians, judging by their language which
seems to be Aryan,* might reasonably be expected to stand
between the Greeks and the Persians. As a matter of fact,
they are far more closely related physically to the Turkomans
than to these other Aryan-speaking peoples. Language fails
utterly to describe the racial situation.
This extensive region is to-day occupied by two distinct
racial types, roughly corresponding to two of the three races
which we have so painfully followed over Europe.f The first
of these in this part of the world we may provisionally call
the Iranian. It includes the Persians and Kurds, possibly
the Ossetes in the Caucasus, and farther to the east a large
* Cf. note in Keane s Ethnology, p. 411. Whether Armenian be
Iranic, Semitic, or unique, it is surely Aryan.
f Chantre s monumental Recherches dans 1 Asie Occidentale, Lyon,
1895, is our authority. Cf. especially his summary at pp. 234-244.
35
444 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
number of Asiatic tribes, from the Afghans to the Hindus.
These peoples are all primarily long-headed and dark brunets.
They incline to slenderness of habit, although varying in stat
ure according to circumstances. In them we recognise at once
undoubted congeners of our Mediterranean race in Europe.
The area of their extension runs off into Africa, through the
Egyptians, who are clearly of the same race. Not only the
modern peoples, but the ancient Egyptians and the Phoenicians
also have been traced to the same source.* By far the larger
portion of this part of western Asia is inhabited by this eastern
branch of the Mediterranean race.
The second racial type in this borderland between Europe
and Asia we may safely follow Chantre in calling Armenoid,
because the Armenians most clearly represent it to-day. It
is less widely distributed than the Iranian racial type. Out
side of Asia Minor, it occurs sporadically among a few ethnic
remnants in Syria and Mesopotamia. Throughout the Ana
tolian peninsula it forms the underlying substratum of popula
tion, far more primitive than any occupation by the Turks.
This type is possessed of a most peculiar head form, known
to somatologists as hypsi-brachycephaly. It is illustrated by
our accompanying portsait page. The head is abnormally flat
tened at the back. It rises sharply from the neck, while, as if
at the expense of this foreshortening, the height of the skull
is greatly increased. This disguises, of course, the real breadth
of face peculiar to this type, as contrasted with the Ira
nians. Artificial compression is at once suggested by such
head forms as these. It is undoubtedly present, either con
sciously performed or else as a product of the hard cradles.
That the shortness of the head is not entirely artificial can not
be doubted, or else we have a case of inheritance of acquired
characteristics. For even in absence of such deformation the
same sugar-loaf cranial form occurs.f Along with this pecul
iarity of head form are other bodily characteristics differenti
ating these people from the Iranian type. The body is heavier
built, with an inclination among the Armenians at least to
* Page 387 supra. f Chantre, 1895, pp. 38-67.
ARMENIAN.
TACHTADSKY, Lycia, Asia Minor.
214.
215. TACHTADSKY, Lycia, Asia Minor. Stature 1.71 m. Index 86. 216.
ARMENOID TYPES.
WESTERN ASIA: ASIA MINOR.
445
obesity. There are not very great differences in pigmentation
between the two racial types. Both are overwhelmingly brunet.
The rare blonds of the Caucasus are even more scarce here
abouts; although Chantre found eleven per cent of blonds
among them, the great majority were very dark. Only as we
enter the Himalayan highlands, among Galchas and their fel
lows, do lighter traits in hair and eyes appear.
Two rival peoples Kurds and Armenians contend for the
mastery of eastern Asia Minor. The first of these, the Kurds,
are difficult to classify culturally. The lower classes are seden
tary dwelling in villages, while the chiefs live in tents wander
ing at will. There are nearly two million of them in all, two
thirds in Asiatic Turkey, the rest in Persia, with a few thousand
in Caucasia. The Armenians claim that these Kurds are of
Median origin, but the better opinion is that they are descend
ants of the Chaldeans. Their affinity to the Syrian Arabs can
not be doubted.* These Kurds have remained relatively un
touched by the Mongol or Turkish invasions in the retire
ment afforded by the mountains of Kurdistan. Both in their
language and their physical traits they are Iranian. Chantre, f
studying them in Asia Minor, reports as to their hard fea
tures and savage aspect. Their own derivation of " Kurd " is
from a word meaning "excellent"; but the Turkish equiva
lent for it, " wolf," seems more aptly to describe their char
acter. They are very dark, with eyes of a deep-brown tint;
the women darker, as a rule. Our portrait at page 449 is
fairly typical. The nose is straight or convex; rarely con
cave. The head is long and exceedingly narrow (index 78.5),
with a face corresponding in its dimensions. The effects of
lateral compression of the skull are plainly apparent in our
portrait. In stature they are of moderate height. As a whole,
owing to their wide extension, nomadic habits, and lack of
social solidarity, these Kurds are a heterogeneous people.
They lack the strong cementing bonds either of religion or of
a national literature.
* Chantre, 1885, ii, p. 214.
t 1895, pp. 75 et scq. ; with data on 332 subjects. Nasonof, 1890, is
also good.
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
Even aside from their persistence in Christianity despite
all manner of oppression, the Armenians are by far the most
interesting people of Asia Minor. Of all the Orientals, they
are the most intelligent, industrious, and peaceful. In many
traits of character they resemble the Jews, especially in their
aptitude for commercial pursuits and in their characteristic
frugality, inclining to parsimony. There are about five mil
lion of these Armenians in all, somewhat over half of them
being inhabitants of Turkey, with the remainder in Russian
Caucasia and Persia. Anthropologically, these people are of
supreme importance as an example of purity of physical type,
resulting from a notable social and religious solidarity. They
rival the Jews again in this respect. One of this nation can
almost invariably be detected at once by means of his peculiar
head form, which we have already described.* Even in places
where they have been isolated from the main body of the
nation for centuries they adhere to this primitive type. Hous-
say,f for example, finds the Armenian colonists near Ispahan
in Persia settled there in 1605, still strongly individualized
physically.
It is not without significance, we believe, that Chantre^
remarking upon the purity of the Armenian type, adds that it
is " more homogeneous in appearance than in reality." There
is good evidence to show that their unity of type, being largely
a product of social selection, is defective in those details of
which the people themselves are not conscious. It would ap
pear that in their head form, differently from most people, they
fully realize their own peculiarities. Deformation of the skull
so commonly practised, seems often, as Chantre says, to " ex
aggerate the brachycephaly common to them." The Kurds,
on the other hand, being naturally dolichocephalic, make their
heads appear longer than they really are by artificial means *
The deadly enmity between Kurds and Armenians is well
known. Can it be that these opposing customs of cranial de-
* On the Armenians, consult Chantre, 1895, pp. 37 et seq. ; Von Luschan,
1889, p. 212; Khanykoff, 1866, pp. 112; and Tvaryanovitch, 1897.
f i887, p. 120. \ 1895, pp. 238, 341.
* Op. cit., pp. 51 and 113.
WESTERN ASIA: ASIA MINOR. 447
formation are an expression of it to some degree? We venture
to suggest it as a partial explanation.
That the Armenoid or hypsi-brachycephalic racial type of
Asia Minor is not entirely a matter of artificial selection would
appear from its prevalence in out-of-the-way places all over
Asia Minor. It occurs far outside the Armenian territory. It
is more fundamental than the social consciousness of a nation.
Von Luschan * finds it among a number of primitive tribes
in Anatolia, noticeably among the so-called Tachtadsky. These
people, now few in numbers, inhabit the mountainous and re
mote districts in Lycia. Their name, " woodcutters," desig
nates the occupation in which they are mainly engaged. They
are only superficially Mohammedans, their real cult being
entirely secret, and probably pagan. Living in rude shelters
at elevations of three or four thousand feet above the sea, they
appear in the towns only at rare intervals. The necessity of
selling their wares overcomes their dread of the tax-gatherer
and of army service. Quite like the Tachtadsky physically are
another people, known as the Bektasch, or " half Christians,"
who form the town population in some regions. Down in the
mountains of northern Syria the same stratum of population
crops out among the Ansaries, or " little Christians/ Ac
cording to Chantre,f these people are anthropologically indis
tinguishable from the other Armenoid types. Generally speak
ing, all these peoples are found only in regions of isolation
in marshy, mountainous, or remote districts. On the coast
and in the larger towns a type akin to the long-headed Greek
is more apt to prevail. For these reasons, von Luschan ( 89)
concludes that the Armenoid type is the more primitive, and
that it represents the earliest inhabitants of the peninsula. That
it is older than the Turks no one can doubt. Yet we are in
clined to agree with Sergi \ that it is not necessarily the very
earliest. In fact, there is evidence to show a still more ancient
type, like that found in the Greek necropoli. This latter is
quite Mediterranean in its racial affinities; probably of the
* 1889, pp. 198-213. Cf. also YambtJry, 1885, p. 607.
f 1895, pp. 139-148. \ 1895 a, p. 58.
448 TIIE RACES OF EUROPE.
same origin as the dolichocephalic Iranian peoples who still
predominate to the south and west.
Summarizing the anthropological history of Asia Minor,
we draw the following conclusions: First, that the Mediter
ranean or Iranian racial type represents the oldest layer of.
population in this part of the world. This, as we shall see in
the next chapter, is true of all Europe also. A second racial
element, subsequently superposed, is that of the Armenoid
or brachycephalic type. The similarity of this to our Alpine
races of western Europe has been especially emphasized by
the most competent authority, von Luschan.* Finally, on top
of all has come the modern layer of immigrant and more or
less nomadic Turks and their fellows. The possibility of con
necting one of these, our second or Armenoid type, with the
ancient Hittites can not fail to suggest itself. f Possibly it was
Pelasgic. Yon Luschan ( - ) suggests it. Sergi r!ir ) believes
the Pelasgi and Hittites were both Asiatic in origin. Who
knows? It would be of interest to examine the question fur
ther had we sufficient time. For our immediate purposes the
importance of the Armenoid group is derived from the fact
that it, with the Caucasian one, is the only connecting link
between the Alpine racjal type of western Europe and its
prototype, or perhaps we had better say merely its congener,
in the highlands of western Asia. The tenuity of the connect
ing link between the two is greatest at this point. Were it
not for the potent selective influences of religion, complete
rupture by the invading Tatar-Turks might conceivably have
taken place. As it is, the continuity of the Alpine race across
Asia Minor can not be doubted.
In Persia there is no such clear segregation of racial types
as we have observed between Armenians and Kurds, who are
as impossible of intermixture as oil and water. We have passed
beyond the outermost sphere of European religion, Christianity.
Marked topographical features are also lacking on the great
* 1889, p. 212.
f On Hittite ethnography consult De Cara, Gli Hethei-Pelasgi, Roma,
1894 ; Sergi, 1895 a, p. 54 ; and the works of Wright (1884), Berlin (1888),
Tomkins (1889), Sayce (1891), and Conder (1898).
KURD, Asia Mino
AZERBEIDJIAN, Persian Tatar. Index 77.7
SUZIAN, South Persia. Index 74.7
IRAN IAN TYPES.
WESTERN ASIA: PERSIA. 440
plateau of Iran. A wholesale blending of types has conse
quently ensued among the modern Persians.* Three distinct
ethnic influences have been at work, however, producing
what we may call varieties, or subtypes, of the pure Iranian.
This latter is found only in two limited districts: one among
the Farsis about Persepolis, just northeast of the Persian Gulf;
the other among the Loris, or " mountaineers," somewhat far
ther to the west, over against the Kurds. Of these, the former
are the ideal Aryans (?) of the earlier philologists. Their skin
is described as fair. They are slender but finely formed. This
trait is quite noticeable in comparing them with the Turko
mans or Tatars. The hair and beard are abundant, of a dark
chestnut colour. Thus they are blonds, only by comparison
with their darker neighbours on every side. Real blonds, with
blue eyes, are very rare; we have Houssay s word for that.
The Loris are taller and much darker, often with black hair.
Let us add that they are also acutely dolichocephalic, with
smoothly oval faces and regular features, thus in every detail
corresponding to the criteria necessary to adjudge them Medi
terranean by race.
Three subvarieties of this ideal Persian type lie in the sev
eral directions of Africa, central Asia, and India. The first of
these is Semitic. It occurs all along the line of contact with the
Arabs, producing as a natural consequence a distinctly darker
population toward the southwest. The second subvariety forms
the great mass of the nation. It results from an intermixture
with the pure Iranian of a Turkoman or Tatar strain. Such
are the Hadjemis and Tadjiks, for example, who predominate
in the east and northeast. The Azerbeidjian Tatars, whom we
have already described,! also fall within this class. Although
they speak Turkish, they are in reality distinctly Iranian by
race. Our portrait on the opposite page, reproduced from
Danilof s monograph, is fairly typical. The hair is coarser,
* Authorities are Duhousset, Les Populations de la Perse, 1859 ; Khany-
koff, Memoire sur 1 Ethnographie de la Perse, 1866 ; Houssay, Les
Peuples Actuels de la Perse, Bull. Soc. d Anth., Lyon, pp. 101-148, with
map ; and Danilof s work of 1894 in Russian, especially cols. 10-20. This
we have had translated ; our portraits are from the same source.
f Page 419 supra.
45O THE RACES OF EUROPE.
inclining to black ; the face is broader, with greater promi
nence of the cheek bones, than in the pure Iranian. The heads
at the same time become broader, especially toward the north
east ; and what Bryce calls the " slim, lithe, stealthy, and cat
like Persian," is transformed into the bigger and more robust
Turkoman. Instead of Turkoman, dare we say an Alpine
strain of blood is here apparent? We shall see. Finally, our
third subtype of the Persian occurs toward the southeast,
among the so-called Suzians, about the mouth of the Persian
Gulf. Look at our portrait of one of these on the preceding
page. Is not the strain of negroid blood at once apparent?
Notice the flattened and open nose, the thick lips and the black-
hair and eyes. We have reached the confines of India. Here
we meet the first traces of the aboriginal population underlying
the Hindoos. It includes all the native Indian hill tribes,
and extends away off over seas into Melanesia. We are enter
ing upon a new zoological realm. Our tedious descriptive
task for European peoples is nearly completed.
East of Persia the several racial types which have almost
imperceptibly blended into the modern population of that
country divide at the western base of the central Asiatic high
lands. This great barrier, as we have already pointed out in
our chapter on the head form, marks one of the most sudden
racial transitions in the world. At its eastern end along the
Himalayas, it divides the pure Mongols in Thibet from the
Hindoos and the negroid hill tribes of India. Farther to the
west, the Hindu-Koosh Mountains in Afghanistan have forced
apart the two racial types which we have traced all the way
here from Europe. North of the mountains in Turkestan
one racial type the Alpine occurs among the Turkomans.
We can not too strongly emphasize the fact that these peoples
in the Aral-Caspian Sea depression are by no means Mongol
as a whole. South of the Hindu-Koosh extends the eastern
branch of the Mediterranean race, among the Afghans and
Hindoos. Space forbids a description of these Indo- Europeans
in detail.* W r e are all familiar with the type, especially as it
* Anthropological authorities on the Hindoos are less abundant than
for the native or Dravidian peoples. Risley, 1891, is the most compre-
WESTERN ASIA: INDIA. 451
is emphasized by inbreeding and selection among the Brah-
mans.* There can be no doubt of their racial affiliation with
our Berbers, Greeks, Italians, and Spaniards. They are all
members of the same race, at once the widest in its geo
graphical extension, the most populous, and the most primi
tive of our three European types.
In our former description of the Turkomans of the Aral-
Caspian Sea depression we have left little doubt as to their
affinity to the Alpine race of Europe. In the mountaineers of
the Pamir this resemblance becomes perfect. Topinard s im
mediate recognition of this fact twenty years ago, on the basis
of Ujfalvy s discoveries, has never been disputed. f More
than that, in the highlands of the Pamir among the Galchas
a little west of Samarcand, linguistic research has proved that
the European or inflectional type of languages prevails over
a large area.J These Galcha tribes, or mountain Tadjiks,
differ in several ways from the great body of the nomadic
Turkomans in the Caspian steppes. In every detail they tend
toward the Alpine type, as if by reason of their isolation in the
mountains, a primitive population had been preserved in rela
tive purity. Eor all practical purposes, our two upper portraits
at page 45 may be taken as representative of this eastern
most member of the brachycephalic, gray-eyed, and heavily
built race of central Europe. These people are not blonds,
nor even as blond as the Tadjik s in the plains.* They are even
more brachycephalic, however, almost establishing a world s
record in this respect. In this connection it is curious to note
hensive. Cf. also Mantegazza, iSS3- S4 ; Crooke, 1890; and the works of
Oppert, Rousselet, and others.
* Johnston, Race et Caste dans 1 Inde ; L Anth., vi, 1895, pp. 176-
181, discusses the skin colour. Kollmann, Internationales Archiv fiir
Ethnographic, vi, 1893, p. 51, shows the differences in head form ; the
Brahmans being apparently more brachycephalic.
4- Rev. d Anth.. 1878, p. 706. Cf. note, p. 417 supra. Ujfalvy, in Bull.
Soc. d Anth., 1887, p. 15, describes the progress of opinion in this direc
tion.
\ Ujfalvy, 1896 a, pp. 44 </ .w/. Van den Gheyn (1884); also Tomas-
chek and others, cited by Keane, Ethnology, p. 411.
* Ujfalvy, 1896 a, pp. 53, 428, and 485.
452
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
that among the peoples north of the Hindu-Koosh broad-
headedness increases as one penetrates the mountains, while on
their southern slopes the opposite rule obtains.* From either
side, therefore, purity of types and these, too, of a very dif
ferent sort increase toward the watershed which lies between
them. How different a phenomenon from that afforded by the
gradual transitions of type on the Iranian plateau! Can it
longer be affirmed that in approaching the highlands of Asia
we are tracing our European racial types back to a common
trunk? Facts all belie the assumption. Two at least, of the
racial elements in the peoples of Europe are as fundamentally
different here in the heart of Asia as all through central Eu
rope. In other words, in our progress from Europe eastward,
instead of proceeding toward the trunk, rather does it appear
that we have been pushing out to the farthest branches of two
fundamentally distinct human types.
* Op. /., p. 52.
CHAPTER XVII.
EUROPEAN ORIGINS: RACE AND LANGUAGE; THE ARYAN
QUESTION.
IN our school days most of us were brought up to regard
Asia as the mother of European peoples. We were told that
an ideal race of men swarmed forth from the Himalayan high
lands, disseminating culture right and left as they spread
through the barbarous West. The primitive language, parent
to all of the varieties of speech Romance, Teutonic, Slavic,
Persian, or Hindustanee spoken by the so-called Caucasian
or white race, was called Aryan. By inference this name was
shifted to the shoulders of the people themselves, who were
known as the Aryan race. In the days when such symmetrical
generalizations held sway there was no science of physical
anthropology; prehistoric archaeology was not yet. Shem,
Ham, and Japhet were still the patriarchal founders of the
great racial varieties of the genus Homo. A new science of
philology dazzled the intelligent world by its brilliant discov
eries, and its words were law. Since 1860 these early inductions
have completely broken down in the light of modern research;
and even to-day greater uncertainty prevails in many phases
of the question that would have been admitted possible twenty
years ago. The great difficulty is to approach the matter in
a calm and entirely judicial spirit : for it may justly be affirmed
that no other scientific question, with the exception, perhaps,
of the doctrine of evolution, was ever so bitterly discussed or
so infernally confounded at the hands of Chauvinistic or other
wise biassed writers.
At the very outset let us rigidly distinguish the phenom
ena, principles, and conclusions concerning race from those
of language and culture, and each of these in turn from the
453
454
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
other. Archaeology, to be sure, may sometimes combine the
data of human remains with those of an attendant civilization;
but philology has, in our present state of knowledge, no possible
bond of union in the study of European origins with either of
the other two sciences. All attempts, therefore, to correlate
linguistic data with those derived from the study of physical
characteristics are not only illogical and unscientific; they are
at the same time impossible and absurd, as we shall hope to
show. They involve an entire misconception of the just prin
ciples and limitations of scientific research.
Two antagonistic opinions, respectively characteristic of
the rival French and German schools of anthropology, have
obtained widespread popular currency through neglect to ob
serve the rule laid down in the preceding paragraph. The
first of these is that the " Aryan race " was somehow blond,
long-headed, and tall in other words, that the ancestors of
the modern Teutonic type were the original civilizers of Eu
rope. For civilization and Aryanism were indissolubly con
sidered as one and the same; all plausible enough, to be sure,
until you look the matter squarely in the face. It is easy to
see how this gratuitous assumption of a tall, blond " Aryan
race " originated. The sacred books of the East suggested
that the chosen people were " white men." This is not sur
prising, in view of the fact that the aboriginal inhabitants of
India, among whom they came, were veritably then, as they
are to-day, negroes. Johnston (>98) has shown us how clearly
a blond skin is an index of caste among the Brahmans even
at this late day. After the Yedas the Greeks took it up, and
represented their ideal types after the same blond fashion.*
The coincidence that many of the most distinctive Aryan-speak
ing Europeans to-day are blonds compared with the Basques,
Magyars. Turks, and Mongols, who lie outside the Aryan pale,
apparently gave scientific voucher to the view. The Indo-
Germanic languages note the adjective were essentially Eu
ropean: the Teutonic type was the only real Homo Euro^ciis.
Hence Homo Ritroptcus was the original Aryan. A logical
* Cf. Lap ouge, 1889 a; Sergi, 18953, p. 19.
EUROPEAN ORIGINS: RACE AND LANGUAGE.
455
leap in the dark! This did not prevent it from being taken.
The idea gained in prestige year by year, especially as the
racial Teutonism of the upper classes all over Europe was defi
nitely established. What wonder that the blondness, tallness
nay, even the necessary long-headedness of the " Aryan
race " rose about the need of proof? At the hands of Wilser,*
Poesche ( 78) , Penka ( SO) , Zaborowski,f Lapouge ( 89) , and their
disciples it has attained the rank of law!
The scientific heresy of attempting to locate a linguistic
centre through appeal to physical characteristics has created
its greatest devastation among the ranks of the philologists;
even Sayce (>87) , Rhys,J and Kendall ( 8<J) seem to have been
deceived by its apparent plausibility. Some of the older an
thropologists were certainly tainted with the notion. Schaff-
hausen, Ecker, and von Holder are all cited in its favour by
Penka.* The notion crops out all along through the memo
rable discussions over the Aryan question in the Societe d An-
thropologie at Paris in i864.|| Latterly, with clearer light upon
the subject, few authorities upon either side hesitate to con
demn any and all such attempts to correlate the data of two
entirely incompatible and independent sciences. Virchow, for
example, styles such a theory of an " Aryan race " as " pure
fiction." Reinach (-92) stigmatizes Penka s hypothesis that the
Aryans were Scandinavians as a " prehistoric romance." Few
somatologists would even agree with Huxley A to-day that
blondness of the Aryans is a "fair working hypothesis"; or
assume with Keane that " nevertheless, all things considered,
it seems probable enough." Max Muller (>88) , making heroic
reparation for the errors of his youth, hits much nearer the
mark when he writes: "To me, an ethnologist who speaks of
an Aryan race, Aryan blood, Aryan eyes and hair, is as great
a sinner as a linguist who speaks of a dolichocephalic diction
ary or a brachycephalic grammar. It is worse than a Baby-
* 1885, p. 77. f I8 g 8i p . 62 . i i8go- 9 i, p. 251.
* Von Holder, 1876, p. 32, expressly denies the possibility of any racial
proof.
I A ,*///,// by Reinach, 1892, pp. 38-46. See also Aryans in index to our
supplementary Bibliography. A lSgo 2 ?
36
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
Ionian confusion of tongues it is downright theft. ... If
I say Aryas, I mean neither blood, nor bones, nor hair, nor
skull. I mean simply those who speak an Aryan language."
We have shown what havoc may be wrought in clear think
ing by attempted correlations between physical anthropology
and linguistics. A second error against which we must be
on our guard is that of confusing the data of archaeology with
those of the science of language. Because a people early hit
upon the knowledge of bronze and learned how to tame horses
and milk cows, it does not follow that they also invented the
declension of nouns and the conjugation of verbs. Such an
assumption is scarcely less unwarranted than that a man s
hair must be blond and his eyes blue because he is inflectional
in his speech. Nevertheless, this is the basis upon which many
anthropologists of the Gallic school * have sought to identify
the Alpine race a predominant element in the French nation,
be it observed as the only and original Aryans. Whether
they are justified, in the first place, in their claim that this
race really bore an Oriental culture into western Europe will
be food for our further discussion, f But, even assuming for a
moment s peace that they did, it does not and can not prove
anything further respecting the language which was upon their
lips. Unless reasoning can be held well aloof from any such
assumptions, the question of European origins will never cease
to be an arena in which heads are wildly broken to no scien
tific avail.
In order that we may conscientiously distinguish between
the positively proved and the merely hypothetical, we shall
advance by propositions, keeping them in martial order. We
are entering debatable territory. One great advantage alone
we may claim. As Americans, we should be endowed with
" the serene impartiality of a mongrel," as the late Professor
* De Mortillet, 1879; Ujfalvy, 1884 b, p. 437; Sergi, 18983, p. 141;
Zampa, 1891 a, p. 77. Canon Taylor s reasoning is also prejudiced by this
assumption (1890, p. 295). Zaborowski, 1881, asserts that Henri Martin
among Frenchmen alone dissents from this view. He should have added
Lapouge, 1889 a. Cf. Reinach, 1892, p. 59; and the renewed discussion
of the Aryan question in the Societe d Anthropologie in 1879.
f Page 486 infra.
EUROPEAN ORIGINS: RACE.
457
Huxley put it. Xo logical conclusion has terror for us.
Whether the noble Aryan be proved Teuton, Celt, or Iberian,
it is all the same. We have no monopoly of inheritance in it
in any case.
I
Concerning race, first of all, we may hold four propositions
to be fairly susceptible of proof. They are as follows :
I. The European races, as a whole, show signs of a secondary
or derived origin; certain characteristics, especially the tc.i tnre
of the hair, lead us to class them as intermediate between the ex
treme primary types of the Asiatic and the negro races respectively.
From what we have seen of the head form, complexion,
and stature of the population of Europe, we might be led to
expect that in other physical traits as well this little continent
contained all extremes of human variation. We have been sur
prised, perhaps, at the exceeding diversity of forms occurring
within so restricted an area, and in a human group which
most of us have perhaps been taught to regard as homogene
ous. One physical characteristic alone affords justification
for this hypothesis of ethnic homogeneity. This is the form
and texture of the hair. Only in this respect, not in its colour,
the hair is quite uniform all over Europe, and even far into
Hindustan, where Aryan languages have migrated. At the
same time, however, this texture in itself indicates a second
ary origin that is to say, it denotes a human type derived
from the crossing of others which we may class as primary.
The population of Europe, in other words, should be num
bered among the secondary races of the earth. What its con
stituent elements may have been we shall discuss somewhat
later.
The two extremes of hair texture in the human species are
the crisp curly variety so familiar to us in the African negro;
and the stiff, wiry, straight hair of the Asiatic and the Ameri
can aborigines. These traits are exceedingly persistent; they
persevere oftentimes through generations of ethnic intermix
ture. It has been shown by Primer Bey and others that this
outward contrast in texture is due to, or at all events coin
cident with, real morphological differences in structure. The
458
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
curly hair is almost always of a flattened, ribbon-like form
in cross section, as examined microscopically; while, cut
squarely across, the straight hair more often inclines to a fully
rounded or cylindrical shape. It may be coarse, or fine, or of
any colour, but the texture remains quite constant in the same
individual and the same race. Moreover, this peculiarity in
cross section may often be detected in any crossing of these
extreme types. The result of such intermixture is to impart
a more or less wavy appearance to the hair, and to produce
a cross section intermediate between a flattened oval and a
circle. Roughly speaking, the more pronounced the flatness
Negro type; Uganda. (From Buchta, Die oberen Nil-Lander, 1881.)
the greater is the tendency toward waviness or curling, and
the reverse.
Our map, after Gerland ( 92) , shows the geographical distri
bution of these several varieties of hair texture among the races
of the earth. As in all our preceding world maps, we have to
do with the aboriginal and not the imported peoples. Our
data for North America apply to the Indians alone, before the
advent of either the whites or negroes. These latter depart
in no wise physically from the types whence they were de
rived. It appears that most of Asia and both the Americas
are quite uniformly straight-haired. At the other extreme
460 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
stands Africa, and especially Papua and the archipelago to the
southeast of it, which as far as the Fiji group is known as
Melanesia, or the " black islands." According to Keane ( 96) ,
the name Papua is derived from a Malay word, meaning " friz
zled." This map strikingly corroborates the evidence pre
sented by our other world maps, showing the distribution of
the head form and the skin colour. Generally speaking, the
aphorism holds that the round-headed people are also round-
haired. The black-skinned races are, on the other hand, gen
erally long-headed and characterized by hair of an elongated
oval in cross section. Physical anthropologists, to be sure,
distinguish several subvarieties of this curly hair. Thus, among
the Bushmen and Hottentots at the southern tip of Africa,
the spirals are so tight that the hair aggregates in little nub
bles over the scalp, leaving what were long supposed to be
entirely bald spots between. This is known as the pepper
corn type, from its resemblance to such grains scattered over
the head. And in Melanesia the texture is not quite like that
of the main body of the Africans; but for all practical pur
poses they may all be classed together.
The remaining tints upon our map denote the extension
of the \vavy textured hair, which is generally intermediate in
cross section, varying from ribbonlike to nearly cylindrical
shape. There are three separate subdivisions under this head.
Two of these, the Polynesian and the Australian, are most cer
tainly wavy-haired mongrels, derived from intermixture of
the straight-haired Asiatic races with the extreme frizzled type
of Melanesia. This latter is by all authorities regarded as the
primitive occupant of the Pacific archipelago, and of Indo
nesia as well. Among the Malays, and such hybrids as the
Japanese, the Asiatic type preponderates; in the Australian
peoples the other element is more strongly represented. Tas
mania is quite distinct from its neighbouring continent. Iso
lation perhaps has kept it true to its primitive type. The Poly
nesians and Micronesians seem to be compounded of about
equal proportions of each. Of course, all sorts of variations
are common. The peoples of the Pacific are peculiarly aber
rant in this respect. Some islands are characterized by quite
EUROPEAN ORIGINS : RACE. 461
lank and coarse-haired types; some have the frizzled hair stiff
ened just enough to make it stand on end, producing those
surprising shocks familiar to us in our school-geography illus
trations of the Fiji islanders.
What shall we say of the European races, the third of our
intermediate types? Here also all individual variations occur,
seemingly in utter defiance of any law. The Italian is as apt
to be straight-haired as the Norwegian; in either nation the
curly variety seems to occur sporadically. Yet common ob
servation, to say nothing of microscopical examination, would
naturally class the population of Europe among the fine-tex
tured, wavy-haired races of the earth. One never sees the
wiry form so familiar in the American Indian, or the frizzle
of the full-blooded negro. Are we to infer from this that the
people of Europe, therefore, are, like the Polynesians and Aus
tralians, the result of an ethnic cross between other more pri
mary types? Certainly the study of the head form, with every
extreme known to man within the confines of the single con
tinent, seems to discredit this possibility. The only alternative
is to consider this texture of hair to be a more liquid char
acteristic, so to speak, than the shape of the head; in other
words, to assume that a few drops of alien blood might suffice
to produce an intermediate texture of the hair, and yet not
be adequate to modify the head form. If this were indeed so,
then we might imagine that, even while our three European
races have kept reasonably distinct in head form, intermixture
has nevertheless taken place to some extent in every nook and
corner of the continent; and that this infinitesimal crossing
has been enough to modify the hair texture. But we are now
wandering off into vague hypothesis. There is yet enough
that is positively known to demand our attention without in
dulging in speculation. We have stated the situation; let the
reader draw his own conclusions.
II. The earliest and lowest strata of population in Europe were
extremely long-headed; probability points to the living Mediter
ranean race as most nearly representative of it to-day.
Of the most primitive types, coexisting with a fauna and
flora now extinct or migrated with change of climate from
462 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
central and western Europe, oftentimes no remains exist ex
cept the skulls by which to judge of their ethnic affinities.
We know more, in fact, concerning their culture than their
physical type in the earlier stone age at least; but it is never
theless established beyond all question that they were dolicho
cephalic, and that, too, to a remarkable degree. This feature
characterized all subdivisions of the populations of this epoch.
Many varieties have been identified by specialists, such as the
stocky, short-statured Neanderthal type and the taller and
more finely moulded Cro-Magnon race. The classification of
each nation differs in minor details, but they all agree in this,
that the population both of the early and the late stone age
was long-headed to an extreme.
The present unanimity of opinion among archaeologists
concerning this earliest dolichocephalic population is all the
more remarkable because it represents a complete reversal of
the earliest theories on the subject. Retzius, in 1842, from a
comparison of the Scandinavians with the Lapps and Finns,
propounded the hypothesis that the latter broad-headed bru-
net types were the relics of a pre-Aryan population of Europe.
The comparative barbarism of the Lapps confirmed him in
this view. It seemed to^ be plain that this Mongoloid or Asi
atic variety of man had been repressed to this remote north
ern region by an immigrant blond, long-headed race from the
southwest. That this is in a measure true for Scandinavia can
not be denied. Arbo s researches show a Lapp substratum
considerably outside their present restricted territory. That
is a very different matter from the affirmation that such a bra-
chycephalic (" Turanian ") race once inhabited all Europe be
fore the Aryan advent. Such was, however, the current opin
ion. To show its popularity, it is only necessary to cite the
names of its leading exponents.* Nilsson and Steenstrup first
took it up, and then afterward Schaffhausen, Xicolucci, Thur-
nam, Lubach, Busk, and Carter Blake. Its leading exponents
in France were Primer Bey and De Quatrefages. Edwards
and Belloguet assumed it as proved in all their generalizations.
* Cf. Hamy, 1884, p. 44 ; and Virchow, 1874 a ; Ranke, Mensch., ii, pp.
445, 528-530; Schaffhausen, 1889.
EUROPEAN ORIGINS: RACE. 463
Then began the discoveries of abundant prehistoric remains
all over Europe, particularly in France. These with one ac
cord tended to show that the European aborigines of the stone
age were not Mongoloid like the Lapps after all, but the exact
opposite. In every detail they resembled rather the dolicho
cephalic negroes of Africa. The only other races approaching
them in long-headedness are either the Eskimos, whom Boyd
Dawkins believes to be a relic of this early European people,
or else the Australians. Huxley, in turn, long ago asserted
these latter savages to be our human progenitors. We need
not stop to discuss either of these radical opinions. It is suffi
cient for us that Broca finally dealt the death blow to the older
view in 1868 by the evidence from the caves of Perigord ; the
very district where our living Cro-Magnon type still survives,
as we have already shown.
This dolichocephalic substratum has been traced all over
Europe with much detail in the neolithic or late stone age ; by
which time the geography and the flora and fauna of the con
tinent had assumed in great measure their present conditions.
We know that the long-headed type, now predominating on
the northern and southern outskirts of Europe, in Spain, south
ern Italy, the British Isles, and Scandinavia, once occupied
territory close up to the foot of the high Alps on every side.
Remains of it have not yet been found in the mountains them
selves, although closely hedging them in on every side. For
example, Zampa, Xicolucci, and Sergi have alike collected
evidence to prove that the whole basin of the Po River, now
a strongly brachycephalic centre, was in the neolithic period
populated by this long-headed type.* In other words, Italy,
from end to end, was once uniform anthropologically in the
head form of its people; in the south it is to-day still true to
the primitive and aboriginal type. As far north as Rome no
change can be detected between the modern and the most
ancient skulls. f For France, a recent summary of the human
remains of the late stone age, based upon nearly seven hun
dred skeletons or skulls, shows an overwhelming preponder-
* Vide page 262 supra. \ Calori, 1868, p. 205 ; Nicolucci, 1875.
464 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
ance of this long-headed type.* The round-heads were almost
entirely absent in the beginning, as we showed them heretofore
to have been in the British Isles during the same epoch. f
France was apparently very unevenly populated. In all the
uplands, especially the central plateau of Auvergne, human
remains are less abundant, although when occurring being of
the same decidedly long-headed type \ this, be it remem
bered, in the same district where to-day one of the roundest-
headed populations in the world resides. For Germany, in
vestigation all points the same way. Ranke * has exhibited
the chronological development with great clearness for Ba
varia. This region corresponds to northern Italy in its prox
imity to the main core of the living Alpine type. In Bavaria,
now like the Po basin the seat of a purely brachycephalic
population, the paleolithic inhabitants were exclusively long
headed. The average index of seven crania of this most an
cient epoch Ranke finds to be 76. At the time of the early
metal period a large part of the racial substitution had appar
ently taken place, broad-headedness being quite prevalent.
After a diminution of the cranial index, during the period of
the Volkerwandcning, it again rose to its present figure (83),
as it appears in the mpdern broad-headed Bavarians. This
agrees even in details all too closely with the independently
discovered data for France to be a mere coincidence.
As for the outlying parts of Europe, the same law holds
good without exception. Thus in Spain, whether judged by
crania from the caves and dolmens or from the kitchen middens
of Mugem, the modern population is almost an exact counter
part of the most ancient one.|| A slight increase in breadth
* Salmon, 1895. Vide seriation curve on p. 116 supra. G. de Mortillet,
1878 and 1897, p. 275 ; Reinach, 1889, ii ; and Herve, 1892, give convenient
summaries also. f Page 306 supra.
\ Durand and De Lapouge, i8g7- 98, reprint pp. 13 and 57.
* 1897 a, pp. 58-65. Cf. Kollmann, i88i- 83 and 1882 a ; Virchow,
1872 b ; Ammon, 1893, p. 66. Ecker, 1865, p. 79, said mixed ; but von
Holder, 1876, p. 20, found purer. For Alsace-Lorraine, also true ; Blind,
1898, p. 4.
|| Oliviera, in Cartailhac, 1886, pp. 305-316 ; Jacques, in Siret, 1887, pp.
2 73-396 ; and also 1888, p. 221 ; O16riz, 18943, pp. 259-262 ; and Anton, 1897.
EUROPEAN ORIGINS: RACE. 465
of head is noticeable, for even the long-headed Spaniards, like
the French as well, scarcely equal the absolutely negroid head
form of the earliest inhabitants. The same fact confronts us
in Scandinavia. Long-headed as the people are to-day, they
constitute a less pronounced type than their prehistoric an
cestors. All authorities agree upon this point.* Turning next
toward the east, we have already cited the testimony for the
Slavic countries.! It admits of no possible doubt. And, last
of all, even as far as the Caucasus, beneath its present brachy-
cephalic population there is evidence that the aboriginal in
habitants were clearly long-headed.J Thus we have covered
every part of Europe, emphasizing the same indubitable fact.
Only in one place in the highest Alps is this law unverified.
It seems as if this inhospitable region had remained unin
habited until a later time.
Assuming it as proved, therefore, that the first popula
tion of Europe was of this quite uniform type of head form,
what do we know of its other physical characteristics? This
concerns the second half of our primary proposition. That is
to say, may we decide to which branch of the living long
headed race it belonged; that of the tall, blond Teuton or of
the shorter-statured, dark-complexioned Mediterranean type?
It is a matter of no small moment to settle this if possible.
Unfortunately, we can prove nothing directly concerning the
complexion, for of course all traces of hair have long since
disappeared from the graves of this early period. Presump
tively, the type was rather brunet than blond, for in the dark
colour of hair and eye it would approach the foundation tints
of all the rest of the human race. The light hair and blue
eye of northern Europe are nowhere found in any appreciable
proportion elsewhere, save perhaps among the Ainos in Japan,
an insignificant people, too few in numbers and too remote to
affect the generalization. If, therefore, as all consistent stu
dents of natural history hold to-day, the human races have
evolved in the past from some common root type, this pre-
*Von Dueben, 1876; A. Retzius. 1843; Arbo, 1882; Montelius, 1895 b,
p. 31 ; Barth, 1896. f p age 352 supra.
\ Chantre, 1887, ii, p. 181.
466 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
dominant dark colour must be regarded as the more primi
tive.* It is not permissible for an instant to suppose that
ninety-nine per cent of the human species has varied from a
blond ancestry, while the flaxen-haired Teutonic type alone
has remained true to its primitive characteristics.
We are strengthened in this assumption that the earliest
Europeans were not only long-headed, but also dark-complex
ioned, by various points in our inquiry thus far. We have
proved the prehistoric antiquity of the living Cro-Magnon type
in southwestern France ; and we saw that among these peasants
the prevalence of black hair and eyes is very striking. And
comparing types in the British Isles, we saw that everything
tended to show that the brunet populations of Wales, Ireland,
and Scotland constituted the most primitive stratum of popu
lation in Britain. Furthermore, in that curious spot in Gar-
fagnana, where a survival of the ancient Ligurian population
of northern Italy is indicated, there also are the people char
acteristically dark.f Judged, therefore, either in the light of
general principles or of local details, it would seem as if this
earliest race in Europe must have been very dark. It was Medi
terranean in its pigmental affinities, and not Scandinavian.^
As to stature, a tra;t in w r hich the Teuton and the Iberian
differ markedly from one another to-day, we have abundant
evidence that this neolithic population was more akin to the
medium-statured French than to the relatively gigantic Ger
mans and Scandinavians.* The men of this epoch were not,
to be sure, as diminutive as the modern south Italians or the
Spaniards; they seem rather to approximate the medium
height of the inhabitants of northern Africa. These Uerbers
and their fellows, in fact, shading off as they do into the negro
race south of the Sahara, we must regard as having least de
parted from the aboriginal European type. And in Europe
proper, the brunet long-headed Mediterranean race is but
slightly aberrant from it. It may have become stunted by too
* Cf. Schaffhausen, 1889, p. 70. \ Livi, 1896 a, p. 153.
t This flatly contradicts Keane s affirmation (Ethnology, p. 376), based
upon antiquated data from De Quatrefages.
* Cf. page 307 supra, for example.
EUROPEAN ORIGINS: RACE. 467
protracted civilization ; it may have changed somewhat in facial
proportions; but, on the whole, it has remained true to its an
cestral image. Call it " Atlanto-Mediterranean " with Deniker,
or " Ibero-Pictish " with Rhys (>90) , belief that a single fairly
uniform physical type once prevailed throughout western Eu
rope " from Gibraltar to Denmark " is daily growing in favour.
III. It is highly probable that the Teutonic race of northern
Europe is merely a variety of this primitive long-headed type of
the stone age; both its distinctive blondncss and its remarkable
stature having been acquired in the relative isolation of Scandi
navia through the modifying influences of environment and of
artificial selection.
This theory of a unity of origin of the two long-headed races
of Europe is not entirely novel. Europaeus (>76) proposed it
twenty years ago. Only within the last decade has it attained
widespread acceptance among the very best authorities: from
the status of a remote possibility attaining the dignity of a well-
nigh proved fact.* We affirm it as the best working hypothe
sis possible in the light of recent investigations. It will be
seen at once that this theorem rests upon the assumption that
the head form is a decidedly more permanent racial character
istic than pigmentation. In so doing it relegates to a second
ary position the colour of the hair and eyes, which so eminent
an anthropologist as Huxley has made the basis of his whole
scheme of classification of European peoples. Brinton and
even Virchow (-9G) have likewise relied upon these latter traits
in preference to the phenomena of craniology in their racial
classifications. Nevertheless, with all due respect to these dis
tinguished authorities, we do not hesitate to affirm that the re
search of the last ten years has turned the scales in favour of
the cranium, if properly studied, as the most reliable test of
race. Tomaschek f is surely right in applying Linnaeus cau-
* Bogdanof, 1893, p. 23 : Niederle, 18963, p. 131 ; and in Globus, Ixxi,
Xo. 24 : Sergi, 1895 a, p. 87 ; 1898 a, chap, ix, and 1898 b especially : A. J.
Evans, 1896. To Lapouge (18893, p. 187) apparently belongs credit for
prior statement. Canon Taylor (1890, p. 123) hints at it. The wide ex
tension of the Cro-Magnon race, already traced (p. 177 supra), fully bears
out the theory. Cf. de Lapouge, 1899, p. 36 </ set].
f Cited by (). Schrader, 1890, p. 102.
468 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
tion concerning the lower animals to man, Nitniimi nc credc
colon. We know that brunetness varies with age in the same
individual that is one proof of its impermanence. In a pre
ceding chapter we have devoted much attention to proving also
that there is a factor of the environment in mountainous or infer
tile regions which operates to increase the proportion of blond
traits among men. We did not seek in these cases to determine
whether such changes were due to climate alone or to the de
fective nutrition which too often attends a poverty of environ
ment. It is a well-recognised law in the geographical distri
bution of lower forms of life that two hundred and fifty feet
increase in altitude is equivalent to one degree s remove in lati
tude from the equator. If this be true applied to man, it would
lead us to expect a steady increase of blondness toward the
north of Europe, a fact which all our maps have substantiated
fully. Experience in colonizing Africa to-day indicates that
this adaptation of the Teutonic race to a northern climate con
stitutes a serious bar to its re-entry into the equatorial regions.
May not this change physiologically be correlated in some way
with the modified pigmentation? * We may assume, in other
words, that as the primitive dark type of the stone age grad
ually spread over northern Europe, environmental influences
slowly, very slowly, through scores of generations, have in
duced a blond subvariety to emerge. Its differentiation would
in such an event be commensurate with the distance from its
original southern centre of migration. In so far as this pro
cess is concerned, leaving other details open for the severest
criticism later, Penka and his disciples seem to have been in
the right. This is the thought clearly stated by Marshall in his
Biological Lectures, that " the white man and the negro have
been differentiated through the long-continued action of selec
tion and environment." f
Climate as an explanation for the derived blondness of the
Teutonic race is not sufficient by itself to account for the phe
nomenon. Its blondness is something more than a direct prod
uct of the fogs of the German Ocean. This is proved at once by
* Page 558 infra. Cf. also Beddoe, 1893, p. 10.
f Cited by Keane, 1896, p. 375.
EUROPEAN ORIGINS: RACE. 469
a significant fact on which we laid emphasis in an earlier chap
ter viz., that blondness not only decreases as we proceed
southward from Scandinavia, but in an easterly direction as
well. In other words, the Russians at the latitude of Norway
and Sweden are far more brunet in type than the Scandinavians.
How shall we reconcile this with our environmental hypothe
sis? In the first place, the hordes speaking the Slavic languages
are comparatively recent immigrants in that part of Europe ;
they are physically allied to the broad-headed Alpine type.
For this reason, comparisons between Scandinavia and the
lands directly east of it are vitiated at once. But there is yet
another reason why we may expect these Teutons to be notable
even in their own latitude by reason of their blondness. It is
this: that the trait has for some reason become so distinctive
of a dominant race all over Europe that it has been rendered
susceptible to the influence of artificial selection. Thus a pow
erful agent is allied to climate to exaggerate what may once
have been an insignificant trait. Were there space we might
adduce abundant evidence to prove that the upper classes in
France, Germany, Austria, and the British Isles are distinctly
lighter in hair and eyes than the peasantry.* It is no coinci
dence that caste and colour are of common derivation in the
Sanscrit language. The classical Latin writers abound in testi
mony to this effect. The Teutonic conquerors of prehistoric
times, the Rcihengrdber for example, were of this type. Both
tall stature and blondness together constitute insignia of noble
descent. Since the time of the Eddas, the servile ones have
always been described as short brunets, according to von
Holder ( 76) . Borrow tells us in his Bible in Spain that " ne
gro" is an opprobrious epithet even in that dark country. Gum-
mere has collected some interesting materials from mediaeval
literature on this point. f The thrall or churl is invariably a
dark type, the opposite of the flaxen-haired, blue-eyed jarl or
earl. The rule has been effective in painting. Christ a blond,
* Von Holder, 1876, p. 15 ; Beddoe, 1870, p. 177, and 1885, p. 187, com
paring different classes in Cork, Ireland ; Taylor, 1889, p. 244 ; Mackin
tosh, 1866. Cf. pages 283, 295, and 352 supra for examples.
f Germanic Origins, pp. 62 seq. Cf. Beddoe, 1893, p. 13.
470
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
the two thieves as notably dark, was long the invariable rule
in artistic composition.* Let us suppose, then, that such an
opinion concerning nobility became widespread; suppose that
it were intensified by the splendid military and political ex
pansion of the Teutons in historic times all over the continent;
suppose it to have become the priceless heritage of people more
or less isolated in a corner of Europe! Is there any doubt that,
entirely apart from any natural choice exerted by the physical
environment, an artificial selective process would have been
engendered, which in time would become mighty in its re
sults? Is it not permissible to ascribe in some measure both
the patent blondness of this Teutonic race and its unique
stature as well to this cause? This is our hypothesis at all
events.
IV. It is certain that, after flic partial occupation of western
Europe by a dolichocephalic Africanoid type in the stone age, an
invasion by a broad-headed race of decidedly Asiatic affinities took
place. This intrnsh c clement is represented to-day by the Alpine
type of central Europe.
We know that the broad-headed layer of population was
not contemporary with the earliest stratum w 7 e have described
above, because its remains are often found directly superposed
upon it geologically. From all over western Europe comes tes
timony to this effect. We have seen in preceding chapters
how clear the distinction was in Britain, Russia, and northern
Italy. f France gives us the clearest proof of it. Oftentimes
where several layers of human remains are found in caves or
other burial places, the long-headed type is quite unmixed in
the lowest stratum; gradually the other type becomes more
frequent; until it outnumbers its predecessor utterly. It ap
pears as if in Gaul the Alpine type first entered over two
routes, and it is curious to note that these did not in any way
follow the usual channels of immigration ; for the broad-headed
race seems to have come by infiltration, so to speak, follow
ing along the upland districts and the mountain chains. Sal-
* Jacobs, 1886 a, p. xxvi, reprint ; also Beddoe, 1861 b, p. 186, who
affirms that till the second century Christ was depicted as dark,
f Pages 262 and 308 stipra, and 499 infra.
EUROPEAN ORIGINS: RACE.
471
mon,* who has traced this movement archgeologically in great
detail, finds the first appearance of the new-comers in the vicin
ity of the Ardennes plateau, coming into France from the
northeast. Their second avenue of approach was directly from
the high Alps, crossing the Rhone, and thence over Auvergne
toward the southwest, f This central plateau, in fact, like the
Alps, seems to have been first settled at this period. The whole
basin of the Seine was overflowed, and the incoming human
tide swept clear out to the point of Brittany, where it has so
completely held its own even to this day in relative purity.
Topinard ( 9T) perhaps slightly overstates the case when he
ascribes the cast of eyes among certain Breton types to an
Asiatic descent. But current opinion about the Oriental origin
of the brachycephalic type in western Europe is based upon
competent testimony of this kind.J
The intensity of the supersession of an old race by a new
one becomes more marked in proportion as we approach the
Alps, the present stronghold of the Alpine broad-headed race.
Nevertheless, in the mountains themselves, as we have al
ready said, no displacement of an earlier population seems
to have been necessary; for from Switzerland, Auvergne in
south central France, and the German Alps eastward, the in
hospitable highlands seem to have been but sparsely if at all
occupied by the earlier long-headed races. At all events, it
is certain that in these restricted areas the broad-headed type
is the most primitive.* There it has remained in relative purity
ever since. From the earliest remains of the lake dwellers ; be
fore bronze or iron were known; before many of the simpler
arts of agriculture or domestication of animals were developed;
man has in these Alps remained perfectly true to his ancestral
* 1895. Cf. Topinard, Anthropology, 1890, p. 441, for succinct state
ment ; as also Herve, 18945, and 1896; Houze, 1883; and Collignon,
i88i- 82.
f Collignon, 18945, p. 69; Lapouge and Durand, iSgj- gS.
f Collignon, 1894 a, p. 9. Sergi s later work, 1898 a, chapter vi.
* Ranke, 1897 a, is particularly good on this. While in middle Bavaria
a great increase of brachycephaly has taken place ; in the southern part
broad-headedness is certainly aboriginal. Cf. also von Holder, 1880
37
4/2
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
type.* We can add art after art to his culture, but we can not
till very recent times detect any movement of population, after
the first occupation in a state of relative savagery by this broad-
headed race.f It is a surprising instance of the persistency of
physical types.
The extent of this first occupation of Europe by the Alpine
race was once much broader than it is to-day. Evidence accu
mulates to show that it spread widely at first, but that it was
afterward obliged to recede from its first extravagant claims
to possess all Europe. In a former chapter we saw that all
along the southwest coast of Norway clear evidence of inter
mixture with this broad-headed type appears. The peasantry
show a distinct tendency in this direction. In Denmark the
same thing is true; the people are not as pure Teutons as in
Hanover, farther to the south. We also know that this race
invaded Britain for a time, but was exterminated or absorbed
before reaching Ireland.^ A very peculiar colony of these
Alpine invaders seems also to have so firmly intrenched itself
in the Netherlands that its influence is apparent even to this
day. There can be little doubt that the modern Zeelanders date
from this remote period.* They may be considered as a link
in the chain connecting the Alpine type in Scandinavia and
Denmark with its kind in the central European highlands.
In the opposite direction the intrusive type seems also to have
with difficulty entered Spain ; for, as we have shown, the popu
lation of the mountainous northwest provinces is even at this
present day less purely Iberian in type by reason of it.|| One
spot alone south of the Mediterranean Sea was perceptibly af
fected by it ; recent evidence from the island of Gerba off Tunis
proving such colonization to have taken place. A In the eastern
half of Europe the occupation was more or less complete, with
the sole exception, as \ve have seen, of the lower Danubian
plain. Apparently, also, this type seems to have been unable
* Studer and Bannwarth, 1894, pp. 13 et scq. ; Rtitimeyer and His, 1864,
p. 41 ; Zuckerkandl, 1883 ; Kollmann and Hagenbach, 1885 a.
f Page 501 infra.
\ Page 308 supra. Garson, 1883, p. Si, finds it in the Orkneys, how-
ever. * Page 297 supra.
\ Page 274 supra. A Bertholon, 1897. Cf. Collignon, 1887 a, p. 218.
EUROPEAN ORIGINS: RACE.
473
to hold its own in eastern Russia. The only bond of union
of the race with its congeners in Asia is by way of Asia Minor,
over the primitive population now overlaid by the Turks. If
it entered Europe from the East, as is generally assumed, it
surely must have come by this route, for no signs of an entry
north of the Caspian are anywhere visible.
\Yhat right have we for the assertion that this infiltration
of population from the East it was not a conquest, everything
points to it as a gradual peaceful immigration, often merely
the settlement of unoccupied territory marks the advent of
an overflow from the direction of Asia? The proof of this rests
largely upon our knowledge of the people of that continent,
especially of the Pamir region, the western Himalayan high
lands. Just here on the roof of the world," where Max
Miiller and the early philologists placed the primitive home of
Aryan civilization, a human type prevails which tallies almost
exactly with our ideal Alpine or Celtic European race. The
researches of De Ujfalvy,* Topinard, and others localize its
peculiar traits over a vast territory hereabouts. The Galchas,
mountain Tadjiks, and their fellows are gray-eyed, dark-haired,
stocky in build, with cephalic indexes ranging above 86 for
the most part. From this region a long chain of peoples of
a similar physical type extends uninterruptedly westward over
Asia Minor and into Europe.
The only point which the discovery of a broad area in west
ern Asia occupied by an ideal Alpine type settles, is that it
emphasizes the affinities of this peculiar race. It is no proof
of direct immigration from Asia at all, as Tappeiner f observes.
It does, however, lead us to turn our eyes eastward when we
seek for the origin of the broad-headed type. Things vaguely
point to an original ethnic base of supplies somewhere in this
direction. It could not lie westward, for everywhere along the
Atlantic the race slowly disappears, so to speak. That the
Alpine type approaches all the other human millions on the
Asiatic continent, in the head form especially, but in hair colour
and stature as well, also prejudices us in the matter; just as
* Page 451 supra. f 1894, p. 36. Cf. de Lapouge, 1899, p. 16.
474
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
the increasing long-headedness and extreme brunetness of our
Mediterranean race led us previously to derive it from some
type parent to that of the African negro. These points are then
fixed: the roots of the Alpine race run eastward; those of
the Mediterranean type toward the south.
Before we leave this question we must clear up a peculiar
difficulty. If the Alpine broad-headed race entered western
Europe with sufficient momentum to carry it clear across to
the British Isles, up into Norway, and down into Spain, in
truding between and finally separating the more primitive long
headed population into two distinct groups, why is it every
where to-day so relegated to the mountainous and infertile
areas? This is especially true wherever it comes in contact
with the Teutonic race in the north. It is one of the most
striking results of our entire inquiry thus far, this localization
of the Alpine type in what we have termed areas of isolation.
One is at a loss to account for this apparent turning back of a
tide of prehistoric immigration. The original, more primitive
races must once have yielded ground before the invader; our
prehistoric stratification shows it. Why have they now turned
the tables and reoccupied all the more desirable territory, driv
ing their intrusive competitor to the wall? Were there proof
that the original invasion of our Alpine race from the East had
been a forcible one, an answer to this would be afforded by a
study of culture; for it is now accepted generally, as we shall
seek to show, that many arts of civilization have entered west
ern Europe from the East. Hence if, as we say, the invasion
by the broad-headed race had been by force of arms, every ad
vantage would have been on the side of the more civilized race
against the primitive possessors of the soil. The clew to the
situation would have lain in the relative order in which culture
was acquired by the competing populations. It would then have
been possible that the Alpine invaders, penetrating far to the
west by reason of their equipment of civilization, would have
lost their advantage so soon as their rivals learned from them
the practical arts of metallurgy and the like. Unfortunately
for this supposition, the movement of population was rather
an infiltration than a conquest. How may we explain this?
EUROPEAN ORIGINS : LANGUAGE.
475
Our solution of the problem as to the temporary superses
sion of the primitive population of Europe by an invading race,
followed by so active a reassertion of rights as to have now
relegated the intruder almost entirely to the upland areas of
isolation, is rather economic than military or cultural. It rests
upon the fundamental laws which regulate density of popula
tion in any given area. Our supposition it is nothing more
is this : that the north of Europe, the region peculiar to the Teu
tonic race to-day, is by Nature unfitted to provide sustenance to
a large and increasing population. In that prehistoric period
when a steady influx of population from the East took place,
there was yet room for the primitive inhabitants to yield ground
to the invader. A time was bound to come when the natural in
crease of population would saturate that northern part of Eu
rope, so to speak. A migration of population toward the south,
where Nature offered the possibilities of continued existence,
consequently ensued. This may have at times taken a military
form. It undoubtedly did in the great Teutonic expansion of
historic times. Yet it may also have been a gradual expansion
a drifting or swarming forth, ever trending toward the south.
We know that such a migration is now taking place. Germans
are pressing into northern France as they have always done.
Swiss and Austrians are colonizing northern Italy; Danish
immigration into Germany is common enough. Wherever
we turn we discover a constantly increasing population seek
ing an outlet southward. The ethnic result has been therefore
this: that to-day the Teuton overlies the Alpine race, while it
in turn encroaches upon, submerges the Mediterranean type.
Thus do economic laws, viewed in a broader way, come to the
support of ethnic facts. Other problems concerning popula
tion are immediately suggested. These we shall consider in a
succeeding chapter.
Language in its bearing upon the question of European
origins may be studied from two distinct points of view. These
must be carefully distinguished from one another. The first
we may term structural analysis. By this we mean study of
the relationships existing between the various members of the
476 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
great inflectional family from Sanscrit to English or Celtic.
Geographical probabilities, based upon the present distribu
tion of these several languages in Asia and Europe, form a not
inconsiderable element in this first philological mode of study.
Thus, for example, the present contiguity of the Teutonic,
Lithuanian, and Slavic languages in Europe is strongly cor
roborative of their close structural affinity. The second kind
of analysis has been aptly called " linguistic palaeontology." It
is a study of root words, not in and for themselves philologi-
cally, but rather as indications of a knowledge of the things
which they denote. Thus a Sanscrit word for " lion " implies
acquaintance with that mammal, even as a word for " father-
in-law " might denote the existence of definite domestic rela
tionships among those who used the Sanscrit language. This
second mode of study is thus mainly concerned with words
as indicative of things ; while the first has to do primarily with
grammatical structure. The relative value of these two kinds of
linguistic investigation as applied to the study of European ori
gins is very different. The first is by far the more important
and trustworthy in every respect. The second is more seduc
tive in its attractiveness for those who have a thesis to prove.
Only a master of the saence of philology is competent to make
use of the first. The second has long been the plaything of
dilettanti, both linguistic and anthropological.
More than a century has now elapsed since the first dis
covery by Sir William Jones of a distant relationship between
Sanscrit and the classic languages of Europe. Definite proof
of this was first afforded by Bopp in 1835, since which time the
bonds of structural affinity have been drawn continually closer
by the continued researches of the masters of philology.* It
is now accepted as proved beyond all doubt that not only all
the languages of Europe, except the Finnic, Basque, Magyar,
* The foremost authority who has summarized the progress of this
work is Otto Schrader, Sprachvergleichung und Urgeschichte, Jena,
1883. The second edition, translated by Jevons, as Prehistoric Antiquities
of the Aryan People, London, 1890, is a standard work. Canon Taylor,
1890, gives a succinct abbreviation of this. Reinach, 1892, does the same,
with many valuable additions from French sources. Vide Index under
" Arvans" for a list of other writers.
EUROPEAN ORIGINS : THE ARYAN QUESTION. 477
and Turkish, but many of those of Persia, India, and western
Asia, are derivatives from a common source. That the location
of this parent language must have been in Asia was suggested
by two considerations: First, that the more primitive languages,
and, secondly, that the more primitive peoples and civilizations
lay in this part of the world. Such were the assumptions upon
which the earlier philologists proceeded, in all their attempts
to discover the source of this most highly evolved type of lan
guage. Pictet, in 1859 and 1877, was the first to give extended
currency to this view of Asiatic derivation. Max Miiller in
his lectures on the Science of Language in 1861, became its
ardent exponent. By him the term Aryan, invented to desig
nate the whole inflectional family of languages, was also in-
discriminatingly applied to an ideal " Aryan race." This emi
nent authority has lived to repent of his ways in so doing, as
we shall see; but for more than a generation the entire ques
tion of physical origins was prejudiced by his untoward as
sumption. The conclusions of the philologists gained ready
and wide acceptance among historians and students of culture,
Mommsen, Lenormant, and others serving as ready examples,
followed by a host of others of lesser importance.
Purely philological considerations, entirely apart from an
thropological and cultural ones, of which we shall speak sepa
rately, have done much of late to weaken the Asiatic hypothe
sis. Foremost among these, with \Yhitney and Spiegel, was
the discovery of highly archaic features, structurally, in sev
eral other members of the family, notably in Lithuanian, Ar
menian, and Icelandic. Judged by the standard of archaism
in structure, even Greek, says Sayce,* is entitled to priority
over Sanscrit. This at once undermined the entire argument
based upon the supposed primitiveness of the sacred languages
of the East. Furthermore, it was justly argued that a com
parison between modern speech and ancient and extinct clas
sical documents was entirely fallacious. Either modern Per
sian or Hindustanee should be compared with Keltic or
German, or else parallels should be drawn between the most
* 1887, p. 172.
4/8
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
ancient records from the west of Europe and their contem
poraries in the Orient. Since the sacred books of the East
immeasurably antedate any written records in Europe, it was
but natural, these objectors urged, that they should be more
archaic. The fact that, even making due allowances for the
difference of time, Lithuanian should still be distinctly primi
tive in its formation, did much to cast doubt upon the older
view of Asiatic origins therefore.*
Purely philological evidence in favour of European Aryan
origins of a different order were advanced by Omalius d Halloy
and Latham. In calling attention to the archaic features of the
Lithuanian language, Latham followed the course of reasoning
already described in the preceding paragraphs. To this he
added another argument largely based upon geographical prob
ability. We may give the gist of it in his own words, from
an edition of the Germania in 1851 :f "When we have two
branches which belong to the same family, and are separated
from each other, one of which covers a larger area and shows
the greater number of varieties, while the other possesses a
narrower range and greater homogeneity, it is to be assumed
that the latter is derived from the former, and not the reverse.
To derive the Indo-Europeans of Europe from the Indo- Euro
peans of Asia is the same thing in ethnology as if in herpetol-
ogy one were to derive the reptiles of Great Britain from those
of Ireland."
One of the most suggestive lines of purely philological in
quiry is that employed by two leading authorities in English-
Canon Taylor ( 88) and our own Dr. Brinton.^ The argument
is as follows: The highly evolved Aryan languages did not
spring fully armed, Minerva-like, from the head of Zeus. They
must have had more humble linguistic predecessors. The pri
mary question, therefore, is a search not for Aryan origins,
but for suitable ancestors from which to derive them. Their
most probable source must have been in a member of the great
* Max Miiller, in his Biography of Words, 1888, p. 94, offers but a
weak denial of this archaism of Lithuanian. It is recognised by all
experts in philology to-day. f Schrader, 1890, p. 86.
\ Races and Peoples, 1890, pp. 148 et seq.
EUROPEAN ORIGINS : THE ARYAN QUESTION. 479
agglutinative family of languages now prevalent over Asia
and Africa. In Europe the only representatives of this more
primitive non-inflectional type still extant exclusive of Turk
ish and Magyar, which we know to be recent immigrants
are the Basque, the Finnic, and the Berber. Brinton is in
clined to derive the Aryan from this third source: the lan
guages of the Hamitic peoples of northern Africa. Keane,*
following out this thought, is inclined to regard the Basque
as another European relic of the same primitive stock. This
theory of an Afro-European origin of the Aryan speech has
much to recommend it, especially in view of the undoubtedly
negroid physical affinities of the most primitive substratum of
European population. Its principal defect as yet is the ex
treme tenuity of the proof of any linguistic relation not only
between Basque and Berber, but also between Hamito-Semitic
and Aryan. Von der Gabelentz has many powerful opponents
in his attempted confirmation of this first relationship. The
second affinity underlying Dr. Brinton s suggestive hypothesis,
is likewise discredited by many philologists of note,f although
supported by a few ardent advocates.
Proof that of all the primitive languages of Europe, Finnic
has the best right to consideration as a direct ancestor, or per
haps, we had better say, an elder brother in the Aryan fam
ily, is not wanting. This theory of Canon Taylor s, J based
upon Weske s data, certainly has by far the most geographical
probability upon its side. We necessarily, of course, deny ab
solutely all validity to any of Taylor s attempted anthropo
logical proof, for reasons which have already been given. He
too, like so many others, seems somehow to mix up the Aryan
languages with the idea of blondness. The seductiveness of
Penka and Posche is indeed difficult to withstand. But, entirely
apart from this, his philological argument is a taking one.
That Lithuanian is the most archaic of the west European lan
guages gives it weight at the outset. Geiger s (>78) proof of
a very ancient contact between Aryan and Finnic, on w r hich
* Ethnology, pp. 205 and 376.
f Sayce, 1887, p. 171 ; Max Miiller, 1888, p. in ; and Schrader, op. cit.,
p. 96. \ 1888 and 1890, pp. 285-295.
480
THE RACES OF EUROPE.
he based his theory of Baltic origins, has never been effectively
gainsaid. Even if we ascribe the similarities to mere borrow
ing, the evidence of contact thereby necessarily implied, still
remains. It may possibly have been contact with the eastern
Finns, as Tomaschek * tried to prove, which would bring our
scene of evolution out upon the steppes, where Schrader, from
entirely different considerations, is disposed to place it. Other
matters of importance forbid our further discussion of this in
teresting Finnic hypothesis. Granting with Reinach that it still
rests upon somewhat " fragile evidence," f its tenability as a
working hypothesis is well summarized by Schrader in styling
it " a dream, without, however, denying that in the course of
deeper research, especially in the region of Finnic, it may pos
sibly prove to be true."
The most serious attack of a philological character upon
the Asiatic hypothesis comes from Schmidt ( 72) . Until his
time the simple theory prevailed of a swarming forth of lan
guages from a common hive. This made it feasible to hope
for the construction of a genealogical tree, whose topmost
branches should be the highly evolved languages of western
Europe, and whose trunk and roots should spring from a sin
gle hypothetical parent tongue. One insuperable difficulty
soon appeared. Time brought no agreement among philolo
gists either as to the root or the ramifications of such a tree.J
No two could agree, for example, as to whether Greek stood
between Latin and Sanscrit, or whether Slavonic lay nearer
the root than Teutonic. That in each case the two were re
lated could not be questioned, yet none could prove that the
affinity was not merely collateral rather than along any line
of direct descent. Schmidt placed the whole matter in a new
light by a positive denial that any such genealogical tree could
ever be constructed conformably to fact. According to his
view, a series of local phonetic disturbances arose at some time
in the dim past within the great undifferentiated body of a
* 1883. Cf. also Schrader, op. cit., p. 104; Niederle, 1896 b ; and the
works of Mikkola, Krek, Castren, and Miklosich. f 1892, p. 96.
\ Schrader, 1890, pp. 49-73, discusses this fully. Cf. the diagrammatic
tree in Keane, Ethnology, p. 380.
EUROPEAN ORIGINS: THE ARYAN QUESTION. 481
parent speech. From these local centres, each the core of
future languages, spread ever-widening circles of variation.
It was obviously necessary, he continued, that interference of
one with another should speedily take place, resulting in coa
lescence or the appearance of affinity along their lines of con
tact. Thus both Greek and Latin, separately evolving from
the primeval linguistic protoplasm, must of necessity mutually
react upon one another in time. The resultant similarities
would mean nothing more than merely collateral relationship.
They would not in the least imply a derivation of one from
the other. Schmidt s destructive criticism was tempered some
what by Leskien, who nevertheless fully recognised the force
of his objection to the old-fashioned theory. Delbriick, last of
this series, even went so far as to deny that any single parent
Aryan language ever existed in fact. Leaving this an open
question for philological wranglers, the sobering effect of the
whole attack upon the direct pedigree theory can not be
doubted.
As a net result of the discussions above described, the pres
ent status of the Aryan question among philologists is some
what as follows : Some Delbriick, for example deny that any
parent language ever was; some, like Whitney, refuse to be
lieve that its centre of origin can ever be located; some, with
Fick and Hoefer, still adhere to Pictet s old theory of Asiatic
derivation; some, notably Sayce, have been converted from
this to the European hypothesis ; Max Miiller is wavering ;
while Brinton and Keane urge the claims of northern Africa;
and some, following Latham and Schrader, have never found
good cause for denying the honour to Europe from the first.
Most of those who render a decision in this difficult matter
do so upon far different philological grounds than those struc
tural and fundamental ones with which we have heretofore
been concerned. This leads us to consider our second group
of philological reasonings, based upon the study of roots rather
than grammar.
Linguistic palaeontology that second department of pure
philology, concerning itself with root-words as symbols of
primitive ideas rather than with grammar or linguistic structure
482 THE RACES OF EUROPE.
has endeavoured to compass two distinct ends. Of these,
the first has been to reconstruct the culture of the ideal un
divided Aryan-speaking people; the second, to locate their
primitive civilization geographically. It has without doubt
been highly successful, in conjunction with prehistoric archae
ology, in accomplishing the first of these tasks.* In our sub
sequent consideration of culture we shall have occasion to com
pare its results with those yielded by other cognate sciences.
As to the second phase of its interests geographical localiza
tion the value of its inductions is highly questionable.
Benfey, in 1868, \vas perhaps the first to apply this mode
of research to flora and fauna. From similar root-words for
the bear, the wolf, the oak tree, the beech, and the fir, corn-^
bined with the absence of others for the tiger and the palm,
a European origin for the parent Aryan language was reasoned
as a necessity. Difficulties soon presented themselves. Thus
the Latin and Gothic root for " beech " is traced to a Greek
word designating an " oak." Geiger and Fick interpret this as
proof of a migration of language from a land of beeches to one
of oaks viz., from northwestern Europe to the south. Beech
trees not being indigenous east of a line from Konigsberg to
the Crimea, the Aryan homestead is indicated, according to
this view, with considerable precision. f
Perhaps the best way to give an adequate idea of the sci
entific limitations of any attempt to locate the supposedly un
divided Aryan language by any such process of linguistic
palaeontology as this, will be to outline a few conclusions based
entirely upon a comparison of root-words. We have already
eliminated those quasi-linguistic theories which are tainted
with anthropological considerations. Asia and Europe are
about equally popular. Pictet ( 77) , Van den Gheyn ( S1) , and
Biddulph ( 80) still find an Aryan home in the plateau of Pamir,
in the vicinity of the Hindu-Koosh; Hehn (<73) locates it in the
Aral-Caspian Sea depression; Fick, "between the Ural, Bolor,
and the Hindu-Koosh"; for Pietrement ( 79) , says Schrader,
* Cf. Schrader, op. cit., pp. 148, 149.
f On the interminable " beech" controversy cf. Schrader, 1883 b ; Sayce,
1888 a ; Penka, 1888 ; and Taylor, 1889.
EUROPEAN ORIGINS: THE ARYAN QUESTION. 483
" it was reserved to refer our forefathers to a place their de
parture from which certainly calls for no explanation that is,
Siberia " (latitude 49 20 ). Following slowly west, we next
come upon Briinnhofer s Aryan centre in Armenia, which
brings us to Europe. Two parts of this continent seem to an
swer equally well to the pre-requisites for an ideal Aryan home
viz., the steppes of southern Russia and the plains of north
ern Germany. To the first we are brought by Benfey ( 69) , by
Spiegel (>71) , by Fr. Miiller (?79) , and by Otto Schrader ( 90) ;
to the Baltic plains by Lazarus Geiger ( 78) , von Loeher (>83) ,
and Hirt ( 92) . All northern Europe, from the Urals to the
Atlantic, between latitudes 45 and 60, is none too extensive
an area to suit Cuno (<71) . This is about as definite as Max
Miiller s (?88) conversion from the highlands of the Pamir to
" somewhere in Asia." And all t 
