To this race is related a secondary race, fair, mesocephalic, of tall stature, called Sub-northern, with angular face, turned-up nose, straight hair; it is found more especially in Northern Germany, among the Letto-Lithuanians, in Finland, and on the west coast of Norway (in part Figs. 89 and 90).

2. Fair, sub-brachycephalic, short race, or Eastern race, so styled because its representatives are almost exclusively grouped together in the east of Europe. Principal characters: stature somewhat short (1 m. 63 or 1 m. 64 on an average), moderately rounded head (cephalic index, 82 to 83 on the living subject), straight, light yellow or flaxen hair, square-cut face, nose frequently turned up, blue or grey eyes. The representatives of this race are the White Russians, the Polieshchooki of the Pinsk marshes, and certain Lithuanians. Blended with others this type is frequent among the Vielkorousses or Great Russians of Northern and Central Russia, as well as in Finland and Eastern Prussia (Figs. 104 and 105, modified type).

With this race we have to connect a secondary race, fair, mesocephalic, of very short stature (Vistulian race), the characters of which are frequently met with among the Poles, the Kashoobs, and probably in Saxony and Silesia.

3. Dark, dolichocephalic, short race, called Ibero-insular, because it is chiefly found in the Iberian peninsula and the islands of the western Mediterranean. It is found, however, somewhat softened, in France (in Angoumois, Limousin, and Perigord) and in Italy (to the south of the Rome-Ascoli line). Principal characters: very short stature (1 m. 61 to 1 m. 62 on an average), very elongated head (cephalic index averaging 73 to 76 on the living subject), black, often curled, hair, very dark eyes, tawny skin, straight or turned-up nose, etc. It forms, partly, the “Mediterranean race” of Sergi,[372] or the Homo meridionalis of certain authors (Ripley, Lapouge). Figures 99 and 100 represent traits of this race, but modified by intermixtures.

4. Dark, very brachycephalic, short race, named the Western or Cevenole race, because of the localisation of its most characteristic type in the extreme west of Europe, in the Cévennes, on the central table-land of France, and also in the western Alps. But it is met with, a little modified, in Brittany (with the exception of Morbihan), in Poitou, Quercy, the middle valley of the Po, in Umbria, in part of Tuscany, in Transylvania, and probably the middle of Hungary. Blended with other races, it is found again at a number of points in Europe, from the basin of the middle Loire to that of the Dnieper, passing through Piedmont, Central and Eastern Switzerland, Carinthia, Moravia, Galicia, and Podolia. In Southern Italy it is blended with the Ibero-insular race. It is the Celtic or Rhetian race, the Celto-Slav, Ligurian, or Celto-Ligurian race of some anthropologists, the Homo Alpinus of others. It is characterised by a very rounded skull (average ceph. ind. on the living subject from 85 to 87); by shortness of stature (1 m. 63 or 1 m. 64 on an average); by brown or black hair, light or dark brown eyes, rounded face, thick-set figure (Fig. 98, perceptibly softened type of this race).

5. Dark, mesocephalic, tall race, Littoral or Atlanto-Mediterranean race, so styled because it is found in a pure or mixed state along the shores of the Mediterranean from Gibraltar to the mouth of the Tiber, and on several points of the Atlantic coast, from the straits of Gibraltar to the mouth of the Guadalquivir, on the Bay of Biscay, in the lower valley of the Loire, etc. It is not met with anywhere at a greater distance than 120 or 150 miles from the sea. This Littoral race is still little studied; it is distinguished by its moderate dolichocephaly or mesocephaly (ceph. ind. on living subject 79 to 80), by its stature above the average (1 m. 66), and very deep colouring of the hair and eyes. It corresponds pretty well with the “Mediterranean race” of Houzé,[373] and with the Cro-Magnon race of certain authors.

It is probably with this Littoral race that we must connect a secondary so-called North-Western race, tall, sub-dolichocephalic, with chestnut hair, often almost brown. It is found chiefly in the north-west of Ireland (Fig. 93), in Wales (Fig. 19), and the east of Belgium.

6. Dark, brachycephalic, tall race, called Adriatic or Dinaric, because its purest representatives are met with along the coast of the Northern Adriatic and especially in Bosnia, Dalmatia, and Croatia. They are also found in Rumania, Venetia, among the Slovenes, the Ladinos of the Tyrol, the Romansch of Switzerland, as well as in the populations of the tract of country which extends south to north from Lyons to Liège, at first between the Loire and the Saône, then on to the table-land of Langres, in the upper valleys of the Saône and the Moselle, and into the Ardennes. In all these parts the Adriatic race appears with its essential characters: lofty stature (1 m. 68 to 1 m. 72 on an average), extreme brachycephaly (ceph. ind. 85–86), brown or black wavy hair; dark eyes, straight eyebrows; elongated face, delicate straight or aquiline nose; slightly tawny skin. The same characters, somewhat softened, are met with among the populations of the lower valley of the Po, of the north-west of Bohemia, in Roman Switzerland, in Alsace, in the middle basin of the Loire, among the Polish and Ruthenian mountaineers of the Carpathians, and lastly among the Malorousses or Little Russians, and probably among the Albanians and the inhabitants of Servia.

We may connect with this principal race a secondary race, not quite so tall (medium stature 1 m. 66) and less brachycephalic (average ceph. ind. from 82 to 85), but having lighter hair and eyes. This race, which we might call Sub-Adriatic, springing probably from the blending of the principal race with the tall, fair mesocephals (secondary Sub-northern race), is found in Perche, Champagne, Alsace-Lorraine, the Vosges, Franche-comté, Luxemburg, Zealand (Holland), the Rhenish provinces, Bavaria, the south-east of Bohemia, German Austria, the central district of the Tyrol, and a part of Lombardy and Venetia. It partly corresponds with the Lorraine Race of Collignon.[374]

III.—PRESENT PEOPLES OF EUROPE.

These groups are heterogeneous enough in physical type and civilisation. What, for example, have the two Latin peoples, the Portuguese and Romans, in common? or the two Slav peoples, like the Kashoobs, fair, short, thick-set, peaceful cultivators of the plain, and the Montenegrins, dark, tall, slender, warlike shepherds of the mountain? What more striking contrast can we imagine than that between a Norwegian, tall and fair, a bold sailor, whose flag floats in every port of the world, and a Tyrolese of the north, dark and short, a sedentary cultivator of the soil, whose horizon is bounded by the summits of his mountains? However, both these are included in the “Germanic” group.

Nevertheless, and only to bring out better the differences between linguistic divisions and those of ethnography and ethnology, I shall rapidly pass in review the “peoples” of Europe, according to the linguistic grouping as outlined above.

A. ETHNIC “ARYAN” GROUPS.

I. Latin or Roman Peoples, that is to say speaking languages derived from the Latin. The majority of philologists divide them into seven distinct groups, viz., French of the north, Languedocian-Catalan, Spanish, Portuguese-Galego, Italian, Romansch-Ladino, and Rumanian.

1. The French group of the north, or the Langue d’oil, comprises the populations (Fig. 98) on the north of the line which, starting from the Gironde, passes by Angoulême, Montmorillon, Montlucon, Lyons, and the crests of the Jura, to terminate in the neighbourhood of Berne in Switzerland.[375] Among the numerous dialects recognisable in it, we must make special mention of Wallon, spoken in the southern part of the department of the north in France, and in the southern half of Belgium,[376] in the commune of Malmedy in Prussia, and in several places in the grand duchy of Luxemburg. Northern French is likewise spoken in the west part of Lorraine and lower Alsace annexed to Germany, as well as in several places in upper Alsace.

2. The Languedocian-Catalan group, or the Langue d’oc, situated south of the line referred to above, comprises four great dialectal divisions which make a distinction between the Gascons (south of the Garonne) (Figs. 99 and 100) and the Languedocians and Provençals (Fig. 94), while admitting the mixed so-called Rhodanian group (basin of the upper Rhone, Roman Switzerland, Savoy, and the French valleys of Piedmont)[377] and the Catalan group (Roussillon in France, Catalonia and Valencia in Spain, the Balearic Islands, and a point on the west coast of Sardinia).

3rd and 4th. The Spanish group comprises the peoples of Castillian language, that is to say, the whole population of Spain, with the exception of the Catalans and the inhabitants of Galicia; the latter speak Galego, an idiom allied to Portuguese, and form with the population of Portugal our fourth linguistic group, Galego-Portuguese.

5. The Italian group comprises the Italians[378] of the peninsula, of Sicily, Sardinia, and the inhabitants of Corsica, of southern Tyrol (south of Botzen), of the Swiss canton of Tessin, and of the coast of Istria and Dalmatia. The Italian dialect enters also into the constitution of the Maltese jargon, derived for the most part from the Arabic.

6. The Romansch-Ladino or Rheto-Roman group is formed by the Romansches of the southern part of the canton of Grisons (German Switzerland) and by the Ladinos of the south-east of Tyrol (Groedner Thal, etc.). These are probably the remnants of the old Alpine population, having adopted the language of the Roman legionaries of the time of the conquest. They are, moreover, in process of extinction as a linguistic unit; their language gives place to Italian in the Tyrol, to German in Switzerland. It is the same with the Friulans who are related to this group, and who inhabit the basin of the Tagliamento in Venetia.

7. The Rumanian group comprises the Rumanians who are found, beyond Moldo-Wallachia, again in Transylvania (Austria), the south-east of Hungary, the north-east of Servia, Bessarabia, and in the lower valley of the Dniester (south-west of Russia). To the Rumanians are related the Aromunes or Kutzo-Vlakhs, or Zinzars of Epirus and Macedonia, speaking a dialect allied to Rumanian, but modified by contact with Turks, Greeks, and Albanians.[379]

There is no unity of type in any of these seven Latin linguistic families. Among the Languedocian-Catalans we distinguish the presence of at least three races: Western or Cevenole, which prevails on the central table-lands of France, Littoral or Atlanto-Mediterranean, predominant in Provence and Catalonia; Ibero-insular, which we find in Angoumois as in Catalonia (see p. 329, and Map 2). In the same way we may perceive in the Italian group the existence of representatives of almost all the European races (except the Northern); we have only to recall the striking contrast between the Venetian, tall, chestnut coloured, brachycephalic, and the inhabitant of Southern Italy, short, dark, and dolichocephalic. It is among the Portuguese, perhaps, that we find the greatest unity of type; the majority of them belong to the Ibero-insular race, except in the north of the country, where we find intermixtures with the Western race, as among the Galicians of Spain.

II. The Germanic or Teutonic peoples are usually divided into three great linguistic groups: Anglo-Frisian, Scandinavian, and German.

1. The languages of the Anglo-Frisian group, derived probably from the ancient Gothic, are spoken by the Frisians of the north of Holland and the extreme north-west of Germany, by the inhabitants of England (Figs. 91, 92, 97, and 101), and a considerable part of Scotland (Figs. 88, 95, and 96), Ireland (Fig. 93), and Wales (Fig. 19), where English encroaches more and more on the domain of the ancient Celtic languages.

The English language, which comprises many dialects,[380] is, in the main, the Anglo-Saxon dialect, a branch of low German imported into the island in the fifth century and modified in the eleventh century by the language of gallicised Normans.

2. The Scandinavian group comprises the Swedes, Norwegians (Figs. 89 and 90), and Danes, the two last speaking almost the same language. The Swedish language is also found in Finland (especially on the coast), as Danish is in Schleswig. The Icelanders, descended for the most part from Danish colonists, speak a special dialect, which approaches most nearly to the old Norse.

3. The German or Teutonic group. The Germans of the north (Saxons, Hanoverians, etc.) speak low German (platt-Deutsch, nieder-Deutsch). One of the dialects of this idiom is transformed into the Flemish or Dutch tongue, employed by the Netherlanders, as well as the Flemings of the north of Belgium,[381] and several cantons of the department of the north in France. The southern Germans (the Alemanni of German Switzerland, of Alsace and Baden; the Swabians of this last province, Wurtemberg, and of Bavaria; the Bavarians of eastern Bavaria and of Austria) speak high German (hoch-Deutsch). The inhabitants of middle Germany (Thuringians, Franconians, etc.) speak middle German (mittel-Deutsch). This is also the language of the Prussians, a people formed in part from the Slavo-Lithuanian elements germanised but a few centuries ago. The boundary-line between low and high German passes, from the Flemish zone in France and Belgium, almost by Dusseldorf, Cassel, Dessau, and curving round Berlin in the north reaches the confluence of the Oder and of the Warta, following the course of this last.[382] There exist further in Europe several German colonies: in upper Italy (Sette-Communi, etc.), in Bohemia, in Hungary, and in the south and south-east of Russia. The German tongue is much spoken in the Baltic provinces of Russia, as well as in Poland and Austria-Hungary.[383]

From the somatological point of view, the Germanic group is no more homogeneous than the “Latin.” Let us take, for example, the Anglo-Frisians. We find among them at least three races in manifold combinations. The Northern race (see p. 328, and Map 2) is prevalent in the Frisian countries of Germany and Holland, as well as in that part of England situated north of the line from Manchester to Hull, and on the east coast, south of this line (Figs. 88, 91, and 97). The secondary North-west race preponderates in the centre of England (counties of Oxford, Hertford, and Gloucester, Fig. 101, etc.), while the influence of the secondary Sub-northern race is especially felt in the counties of Leicester and Nottingham, and on the south coast, with the exception of Cornwall and Devon, where the Northern and North-western races are counter-balanced (Fig. 92). In Scotland the Northern type is often disguised by the dark colouring of the hair (Figs. 95 and 96). The Scandinavian group is fairly homogeneous, especially formed as it is of the Northern race (Figs. 88 to 90). But in the German group diversities reappear, and we find in it elements of almost all the races of Europe except the Littoral and Ibero-insular ones.

III. The Slav peoples may be divided into three great linguistic groups—eastern, western, and southern.[384] The eastern group comprises the Great Russians or Vielkorousses (Figs. 102 to 105), the Little Russians or Malorousses, otherwise called Ukrainians or Ruthenians, and the Bielorousses or White Russians. The latter inhabit the upper basins of the Dnieper, the Dwina, and the Vistula as far as the river Pripet (a tributary of the Dnieper), which separates them from the Little Russians. As to the boundary between these and the Great Russians, it follows an undulating line from the town of Souraj towards the Don, then a little to the north of the province of Kharkov, and thence to the south as far as the shores of the Sea of Azov. The Little Russians of eastern Galicia and Bukovina are known by the collective name of Ruthenians, or the local names of Gorales (mountaineers), Huzules, Boïki, Tukholtsi, etc. The colonisers of eastern and northern Russia have been Great Russians; the Little Russians have founded colonies in the south-east of Russia.

The western Slav group is composed of Poles of Russian Poland, western Galicia, Posen, and eastern Prussia (Mazours, Kashoobs), whose language is somewhat common in Lithuania; of Wends or Lujichanes or Sorobes, of the kingdom of Saxony and the Prussian province of Saxony (several thousands are in process of being germanised), of Czechs or Bohemians of Bohemia, and of a part of Moravia, of Slovaks, of Moravia and Hungary.

As to the southern group, it comprises the Slovenes or Slovintsi of Carniola and the interior of Istria (Austria-Hungary), and the Serbo-Croats, known by the name of Khorvates in Hungary, of Serbs in Servia, of Morlaks, Uskoks, etc., in Dalmatia, of Herzogovinians, Bosnians, Montenegrins, or Tsrnagortsi in other parts of the Balkan peninsula. The Servian tongue is also spoken in a portion of Macedonia. The Slav colonies which still existed some centuries ago in Greece and Thessaly must have been formed largely of Serbo-Croats. We must, lastly, include in this group the Bulgarians, a people of Turco-Finnish origin, slavonised for at least ten centuries; their habitat is in Bulgaria, Rumelia, a part of Macedonia, and several localities of Turkey. There exist several Bulgarian colonies in Russia (Crimea, northern shore of the Sea of Azov).

No greater homogeneity is shown by the Slav group than by the two great preceding ones, from the point of view of corporeal structure, and it is useless to look for a “Slav type.” Among the Slav peoples there is an interblending, as far as is known at present, of three principal and three secondary races, without taking into account the Turco-Ugrian elements. The traits of the secondary Vistulian race appear especially among the Poles of Prussia and Russia; the Eastern race is most marked in the White Russians, but is also met with among the Great Russians, the Mazours, and the Wends; the Adriatic race characterises the Serbo-Croats, as well as certain Czechs and Ruthenians; the sub-Adriatic race is well represented by a section of the Czechs, while numerous elements of the Western race are met with among the Slovaks, the Little Russians, and certain Great Russians.

Joined to the three great linguistic groups of Aryan peoples which we have just characterised are three others, less considerable but not less interesting, their manner of speech perhaps being nearer to the primitive Aryan tongue. These are the Letto-Lithuanian, Helleno-Illyrian, and Celtic groups.

The peoples of the first group are the Letts of Livonia and Kurland (Russia), and the Lithuanians peopling the provinces of Vilna, Grodno, the north of Russian Poland, as well as western Prussia, where they are germanised for the most part.

The majority of the Letts belong to the Northern or Sub-northern race, while the Lithuanians exhibit elements of the Sub-northern and Eastern race.

Among the peoples of the Helleno-Illyrian group the Greeks are distributed outside the political frontiers of the kingdom of Greece, in Epirus, and on the coast of Macedonia and the Propontis. Greek colonies are found in the rest of Turkey, in southern Russia, and in the south-east of Italy (province of Lecce, Terra d’Otranto). The Albanians or Skiptars form a people whose linguistic affinities are little known. Two sub-divisions are recognised, formed of very distinct elements from the physical point of view: the Gegs and the Mirdites on the north, the Tosks on the south. Albanian colonies are found in Greece, in the south of Italy (Basilicata, Calabria, and Sicily), and Corsica (in Cardevole).

The physical types are very diversified among the Greeks, and still require to be studied. The Albanians of the north appear to be connected with the Adriatic or sub-Adriatic race, but nothing is known about the southern Albanians. The Albanian colonists in Italy and Corsica have the same physical traits as the surrounding population.

The peoples speaking Celtic languages are divided into two sections according to dialect: the Gaelic section comprises the Celts of the north-west of Scotland, the west of Ireland, and the Isle of Man. The second or Cymric section is composed of the inhabitants of Wales (Welsh language) and of Brittany (Bas Breton). The Cornish language, spoken two centuries ago in Cornwall, is now a dead language. The other Celtic dialects are also destined to disappear owing to the spread of such highly developed and widely known languages as English and French. There is no “Celtic” type or race. The Gaels of Scotland, as well as the Irish of Munster, appear to be connected with the Northern race; the Irish of Connaught present two or three types, variants of the secondary North-western race, which is predominant among the Welsh, and which is found again modified in Cornwall and in Devon (Fig. 92), by side, perhaps, of the remnants of Neolithic types; and lastly, the Low Bretons belong to the Western race, more or less intermixed, like the French of the central table-land.[385]

B. AN-ARYAN PEOPLES.

As we have already said, peoples speaking Aryan tongues are not the only ones to inhabit Europe. We find in it the representatives of other linguistic families: Basque, Finno-Ugrian, Turkish, Mongolian, Semitic, etc.

The Basques inhabit the extreme south-west corner of France (in the department of the Basses Pyrenées) and the adjoining part of Spain, provinces of Guipuzcoa and Biscay (as far as Bilbao on the west), and the north of the provinces of Navarre and Alava. The affinities of their agglutinous language have not yet been clearly determined. As to their physical type, it is also quite peculiar. Its chief characteristics, according to Collignon, are its mesocephaly “with a peculiar swelling in the parietal regions,” conical torso, elongated and pointed face, etc. In the main this type approaches most nearly to the Littoral race, and is met with, in a pure state, especially among the French Basques.[386]

Peoples speaking the Finno-Ugrian dialects.—The Magyars or Hungarians[387] occupy in a compact mass, four millions and a half in number, the plain of Hungary. They represent 43 per cent. of the population of this State. There may still be distinguished among them traces of the ancient divisions into various tribes (Haiduks, Yazigs, Kumans, etc.). The eastern portion of Transylvania is also inhabited by a division of the Magyars, the Szeklers, who differ by their mesocephalic skull from the other Hungarians, who are brachycephalic for the most part. The Western Finns are divided into Finns properly so called or Suomi, Baltic Finns, and Karelians. The Suomi (in the singular Suomalaiset) occupy Finland, with the exception of certain points on the coast, taken by the Swedes; they are sub-divided into several small sections, according to their dialects: Savolaks, Tavasts, Kvénes or Kvanes. The latter inhabit the north of Sweden. The Baltic Finns, formerly very numerous, are reduced to two peoples, the Esthonians or Esths of the Russian provinces of Esthonia and Livonia, with the adjacent islands (Ösel, Dago, etc.); and the Livonians, quartered to the number of 2000 at the extremity of the north coast of Kurland; they have entirely disappeared from Livonia, from which they derive their name. The Karelians are scattered in groups, more or less important, over the south-east of Finland, in the Russian province (“government”) of Olonetsk, and in the north-west of the province of Archangel. Isolated groups of this population found on the plateau of Valdai and almost in the heart of Russia (in the north of the province of Tver) are indications of the ancient expansion of the western Finns towards the east. We must connect with the Karelians the Veps (to the south of Lake Onega) and the Chukhontsi, Finns of the province of St. Petersburg, descendants of the ancient Ingrians and Chudes whose name recurs often in Russian chronicles and legends.[388]

The 42nd degree of longitude east of Greenwich seems to mark the boundary between the western Finns and the following group, that of the eastern Finns or Ugrians. These are tribes dispersed in the north-east of Russia, for the most part mixed with the Russians, and Russianised in language, religion, and customs. We may distinguish among them three principal divisions. The northern division comprises the Zyrians, reduced to some thousand families, buried in the midst of the Russian population, in the eastern part of the provinces of Archangel and Vologda (between the 60th degree of latitude north and the polar circle). The middle division is composed of two neighbouring peoples, Votiaks and Permiaks, dwelling among the Russians, in more or less considerable islets in the space comprised between the Vetluga and the Kama, tributaries of the Volga. More to the south, in the middle basin of the Volga, as far as about the 50th degree of north latitude, we find the southern group of the Ugrians composed of Cheremiss (Fig. 106) on the left bank of the upper Volga and of Mordva or Mordvinians on both banks of the middle Volga in numerous islets between the 42nd and 54th degree east longitude.[389]

We may class among the Finns, for linguistic reasons, three peoples differing from each other as much as they are distinguished from the groups I have just mentioned. These are the Lapps, the Samoyeds, and the Ostiaks. The Lapps occupy the most northern region of Sweden and Norway (Scandinavian Lapps), as well as the north of Finland and the Kola peninsula in the north of Russia (Russian Lapps or Lopari). They appear to have been formerly spread much more to the south of their present habitat. They are the shortest in stature of all Europeans, and almost the most brachycephalic (see Appendices I. and II.). One portion only of the Samoyeds inhabits Europe, on the east of the river Mezen and to the north of the polar circle; the rest wander about Siberia between the Arctic Ocean and the lower Obi. Their neighbours on the south, the Ostiaks, extend from the middle Obi to the Ural mountains, over which they pass to occupy several points in Europe. The Ostiaks of both slopes of the Urals bear also the name of Vogules or Manz.[390]

As regards physical type there is a great difference between the western and the eastern Finns. The former are the offspring of the union of the Northern or Sub-northern race with the Eastern race, somewhat tall, mesocephalic, and light-complexioned, while the latter belong for the most part to a special Ugrian race, short, dolichocephalic, dark, with slightly Mongoloid face.

For the other Eurasian peoples (Turks, Armenians, Gypsies, Jews, etc.), see the following chapter.