Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 38.djvu/361

Rh The assumption that, as there must have been a primitive Aryan people, in the philological sense, so that people must have constituted a race in the biological sense, is pretty generally made in modern discussions of the Aryan problem. But whether the men of the primitive Aryan race were blonds or brunets, whether they had long or round heads, were tall or were short, are hotly debated questions, into the discussion of which considerations quite foreign to science are sometimes imported. The combination of swarthiness with stature above the average and a long skull, confer upon me the serene impartiality of a mongrel; and, having given this pledge of fair dealing, I proceed to state the case for the hypothesis I am inclined to adopt. In doing so, I am aware that I deliberately take the shilling of the recruiting sergeant of the Light Brigade, and I warn all and sundry that such is the case.

Looking at the discussions which have taken place from a purely anthropological point of view, the first point which has struck me is that the problem is far more complicated and difficult than many of the disputants appear to imagine; and the second, that the data upon which we have to go are grievously insufficient in extent and in precision. Our historical records cover such an infinitesimally small extent of the past life of humanity, that we obtain little help from them. Even so late as 1500 northern Eurasia lies in historical darkness, except for such glimmer of light as may be thrown here and there by the literature of Egypt and of Babylonia. Yet, at that time, it is probable that Sanskrit, Zend, and Greek, to say nothing of other Aryan tongues, had long been differentiated from primitive Aryan. Even a thousand years later, little enough accurate information is to be had about the racial characters of the European and Asiatic tribes known to the Greeks. We are thrown upon such resources as archaeology and human paleontology have to offer, and, notwithstanding the remarkable progress made of late years, they are still meager. Nevertheless, it strikes me that, from the purely anthropological side, there is a good deal to be said in favor of the two propositions maintained by the new school of philologists: first, that the people who spoke "primitive Aryan" were a distinct and well-marked race of mankind; and, secondly, that the area of the distribution of this race, in primeval times, lay in Europe, rather than in Asia.

For the last two thousand years, at least, the southern half of Scandinavia and the opposite or southern shores of the Baltic have been occupied by a race of mankind possessed of very definite