Chapter IX: Races and Peoples of Europe (2)

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.

(_Phot. Bogdanoff, Coll. Museum of Nat. Hist., Paris._)]

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.

(_Phot. Bogdanoff, Coll. Museum of Nat. Hist., Paris._)]

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_).

(_Phot. Bogdanoff, Coll. Mus. of Nat. Hist., Paris._)]

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]

(_Phot. Sommier._)]

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.

(_Phot. Sommier._)]

(_Phot. Sommier._)]

C. CAUCASIAN PEOPLES.[391]

All who have seen the ethnographical maps of the Caucasus must have been struck by the motley appearance which they present; fifty various tribes may in fact be counted in this isthmus, the area of which is less than that of Spain. I shall speak here only of the _Caucasians properly so called_--that is to say, of the peoples who dwell only in the Caucasus, putting on one side all others (Iranians, Europeans, Turks, Mongols, Semites, etc.) who have overflowed into this country from the adjacent regions.

The _Caucasians_ are sub-divided into four linguistic or ethnic groups: the Cherkess (on the north-west of the Caucasian range), the Lesgian Chechen (on the north-east of the range), the Kartvels or Georgians (on the south-west of the range), and the Ossets (in the centre of the range on both slopes). The last, by their language, are the nearest to the Iranians and the Armenians, but the three other groups form a perfect linguistic unit. The dialects which they speak preserve the impress of a common origin and form a family apart which has nothing in common with any other.

The _Cherkess_ or _Circassians_, until the middle of this century, inhabited all the western part of Ciscaucasia; but, since the conquest of their country by the Russians, they have emigrated _en masse_ into the Ottoman empire. At the present day there are only a few remnants of them in the Caucasus. Principal tribes, _Abkhazians_, _Adighé_ or _Cherkess_ (Circassians) properly so called, _Kabards of the plain_, _Abadzeh_, _Chapsugh_, etc.

The _Chechen-Lesgians_ are divided, as the name implies, into two groups: the Chechen (with the _Ingushes_, the _Kists_, etc.) of the upper basin of the Terek, who have long been considered as a population apart (Figs. 110 and 111), and the _Lesgians_ of Daghestan. These last are sub-divided into five great sections, according to their dialects: (1) The _Avars-Andi_, with the _Dido_, whose language tends to preponderate owing to the historic part played by the tribe of the Avars, to which belonged the famous Shamil, the hero of the Caucasus, whose memory still lives. (2) The _Dargha_ in the centre of _Daghestan_, the best known tribe of which is that of the Kubachi, living in little houses piled one above the other on the sides of the mountains. (3) The _Kurines_ of the Samur basin, with the _Tsakhurs_ (Tabassaurans, etc.). (4) The _Laks_ or _Kazi-Kumyks_, with which are connected lesser known tribes, like the _Agul_, the _Budukh_, and the _Khinalugh_, whose language is distinct from all the other dialects of Daghestan. (5) The _Udes_, an ancient Christian tribe converted to Islamism, of which there remain but 750 individuals still acquainted with their mother-tongue (district of Nukha, province of Elisabetpol).

(_Phot. from Coll. of Author._)]

The _Kartvels_, _Karthli_ or _Georgians_, who alone of the Caucasians possess a special mode of writing, and a literature, are divided into three linguistic sections: (1) _Gruzin_, which comprises the _Georgians properly so called_ of the plains of the province of Tiflis, _Georgians of the mountains_ (_Khevsurs_, _Pshavs_, and _Toushs_, 21,300 in all), and the _Imers_ (Fig. 109) with the _Gurians_. (2) The _Mingrelian_ section of people living more to the west, composed of the _Mingrelians_ of the Kutais country and the _Lazes_ of the Batum circle. (3) The _Swan_ section, comprising the tribe of _Swanet_ or Swanetians, driven back into the unhealthy regions of the province of Kutais, where the race degenerates; cretins and those afflicted with goitre form a third part of the population.

(_Phot. Chantre._)]

The _Ossets_, while speaking a language which (in the _Digorian_ dialect) is nearly allied to Iranian, have nevertheless much in common with the other Caucasians, from whom they are distinguished perhaps by the frequent occurrence of fair hair (10 per cent.) and light eyes (29 per cent.); more frequent than among all the other Caucasian peoples, the Imers, the Lesgi-Dido, and the Chechen excepted. But figures are still too inadequate in regard to the number of subjects with dark hair and eyes (51 and 53 per cent.) to enable us to affirm, as all authors from Am. Marcellinus to our own days have done, that the Ossets are a people of fair race. They are above the average in stature (1 m. 68), and sub-brachycephalic (ceph. ind. on the liv. sub. 82.6).

As to the somatic characters of the other Caucasians, we know little of those of the Cherkess (sub-brachycephalic, of medium height), but we are better informed in regard to the Lesgians and the Kartvel. The contrast between the two groups is striking. The Lesgians are very brachycephalic (see Appendix II.), especially the tribes of the east; their stature is fairly high. To these characters are united others which, in their totality, produce the most singular effect; the prominent nose, straight or curved, recalls the Semites, while the projecting cheek-bones, broad face, and angles of the lower jaw directed outward, suggest the Mongols; lastly, the whole aspect becomes still more odd, owing to the light-grey or greenish eyes, and fair or chestnut hair, so common among the Lesgians (Figs. 110 and 111).

(_Phot. Chantre._)]

Quite different are the characters of the Kartvel. In the first place, they form a less homogeneous group; we must distinguish in it between the eastern and the western Georgians. The former (Gruzins) are true brachycephals, though in a lesser degree than the Lesgians, while the latter (Mingrelians, Imers) are distinguished from all the other Caucasians by the elongated form of the head (see Appendix II.). The stature varies in harmony with the cranial forms; the Kartvel tribes with rounded heads have the shortest stature, and the dolichocephalic tribes the highest; light hair is less common in the two groups than among the Lesgians, but we find among the Georgians in general a great number of subjects in whom the iris has a particular yellow colour, a grey or greenish yellow. The Gruzins have a rather rounded face and broad nose, while the Imers have an elongated visage, thin nose, tight lips, pointed chin (Fig. 109); their physiognomy reminds one of a goat’s head, according to Pantiukhof, who considers the Imers to be the purest representatives of the primitive Kartvels.[392]