Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/640

624 result of the crossing of the two was to produce a peculiarity 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 people. His view is that the Basque is Iberian at bottom, crossed with the Finn or Lapp, and finally touched by the Teuton.

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? Let us examine a few portraits collected from both slopes of the Pyrenees. They appear on page 622 and the following pages. 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, and 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 overdeveloped. The contrast appears especially strong when we compare this Basque type of face with that of its neighbors. The people all about 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 always erect, a little stiff perhaps. This may be because burdens are habitually carried upon the head. On the whole, the aspect is a pleasant one, despite its peculiarities, the glance being direct and straightforward, the whole bearing agreeable yet resolute.

The peculiar triangular facial type we have described—characteristic both of Spanish long-headed or French brachycephalic Basques—has been mapped by Dr. Collignon for the north slope of the Pyrenees with great care. We have reproduced his map on this page. It is very suggestive. It shows a distinct center of distribution of the facial Basque wherein over half the population are characterized by it. Concentric circles of diminishing frequency lie about it, vanishing finally in the plains of Béarn and Gascogne. The most noticeable 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 Mauléon. Here it will be remembered was