VIII.] THE NORTHERN MONGOLS. 2/3 



In the extreme west the present Mongol peoples, being quite 

 recent intruders, can in no way be connected with 



Early Man 



the abundant prehistoric relics daily brought to in Finland and 

 light in that region (South Russia, the Balkan 

 Peninsula, Hungary). The same remark applies even to Finland 

 itself, which was at one time supposed to be the cradle of the 

 Finnish people, but is now shown to have been first occupied by 

 Germanic tribes. From an exhaustive study of the bronze- 

 yielding tumuli A. Hackman 1 concludes that the population of 

 the Bronze Period was Teutonic, and in this he agrees both with 

 Montelius and with W. Thomsen. The latter holds on linguistic 

 grounds that at the beginning of the new era the Finns still dwelt 

 east of the Gulf of Finland, whence they moved west in later times. 

 With regard to Babylonia, where, as already shown, the 

 remains of the Stone and Metal Ages date back 

 to remote times, the question of their origin is j 

 intimately bound up with that of the Finno-Turki 

 origin of the Akkado-Sumerians. Although no general consensus 

 has yet been reached on this obscure subject, it has been some- 

 what advanced by Dr K. A. Hermann 2 , who endeavours to show 

 that the language of the early cuneiform texts has strong affinities 

 with the Ural-Altaic, and more particularly with the Ugro-Finnish 

 member of that family. There are the same phonesis and vowel 

 harmony ; similar forms of nouns, numerals, pronouns, and verbs ; 

 and a large number of identical words, all of which cannot be 

 accidental. Hence the conclusion that the views of Lenormant 

 and the other " Ural-Altaists " are "well grounded." 



1 Die Rronzezeit Finn lands, Helsingfors, 1897. 



2 Ueber die Sninmerische Sprache, Paper read at the Russian Archaeological 

 Congress, Riga, 1896. It may be mentioned that the Mongol connection is 

 upheld by Hommel, Oppert, Lenormant, Rawlinson, and G. Smith, and denied 

 by Halevy, Paul Haupt, and Donner, while Pinches, Sayce, Almquist and many 

 others reserve their judgment. Dr Hommel, who gives up the European 

 hypothesis of Aryan origins (Augsburger Zeitung, Aug. 28, 1895) now suggests 

 that Akkado-Sumerian holds an intermediate position between the Aryan and 

 the Mongolo-Turki languages. The arguments of Prof. Haupt and Dr Donner 

 on the other side will be found in Die Akkadische Sprache, reprint of a paper 

 read before the Fifth Oriental Congress, 1883. In the Appendix Dr Donner 

 sums up strongly against the Ugro-Altaic theory. 



K. 18 



