Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/748

730 With the exception of Lombardy the blood of the Teutonic invaders in Italy seems to have been diluted to extinction. Notwithstanding this, it is curious to note that the German language still survives in a number of isolated communities in the back waters of the streams of immigration. Up in the side valleys along the main highways over the Alps are still to be found German customs and folklore as well. The peasants, however, are not to be distinguished physically at this present day from their true Italian-speaking neighbors. These southern Alps are also places of refuge for many other curious membra disjecta. Mendini, for example, has studied in Piedmont, with some detail, a little community of the Valdesi, descendants of the followers of Juan Valdès, the mediæval 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 produced real physical results, as the people of these villages seem to differ quite appreciably from the Catholic population in many important respects.

The ethnic transition from the Alpine race in the Po Valley to the Mediterranean race in Italy proper is particularly sharp along the crest of the Apennines from the French frontier 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 between north and south are modified. Thus there is just north of Genoa 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 confound 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 Tuscany. Consideration of our maps will show the strong relief with which these people stand forth from their neighbors. These peasants of Garfagnana and Lucchese seem to set all ethnic probabilities at naught. They are as tall as the Venetians 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 brunette than any of their neighbors. Nor are these