542 MAN : PAST AND PRESENT. [CHAP. 



by the Mediterranean aborigines. But in course of time the in- 

 truders become absorbed in the Pelasgic or eastern branch of the 

 Mediterraneans, and what we call Hellenism is really Pelasgianism 

 revived, and to some extent modified by the Aryan (Hellenic) 

 element. Thus, even the Greek language itself, generally accepted 

 as a typical member of the Aryan linguistic family, is not strictly 

 speaking an Aryan, but rather a Mediterranean form of speech 

 locally developed under Aryan influences. I have tried hard to 

 understand this part of Prof. Sergi's theory and hope I do not 

 wrong him. But to me he seems to completely lop off two great 

 branches of the Aryan linguistic tree, the Italic and the Hellenic, 

 as if they had never existed, and to reconstitute the corresponding 

 old Mediterranean tongues in Italy and Greece by means of Aryan 

 elements drawn he does not say from what source ; but in his view 

 it must be either Keltic, Slavic, or Teutonic, for in his scheme 

 there are no others 1 . 



I do not read the facts in this way, but would rather reverse 

 the process, and regard the Greek language as distinctly Aryan 

 locally developed, but modified by Pelasgic influences to a far 

 less extent than the sister tongue has been modified in Italy by 

 Ligurian influences. Hence it is that Latin, Umbrian, and Oscan 

 have diverged much farther than has classical Greek from the 

 parent Aryan stem. 



It may, on the other hand, be allowed that at their advent the 

 Hellenes were less civilised than the Pelasgians, on 



*"PV ^ 



Hellenes. whom they imposed their Aryan speech. Whence 

 and when came they? By Penka-, for whom 

 the Baltic lands would be the original home not merely of 

 the Germanic branch but of all the Aryans, the Hellenic cradle 

 is located in the Oder basin between the Elbe and the Vistula. 

 As the Doric, doubtless the last Greek irruption into Hellas, 



1 He says, for instance, "dass die wahren Ur-Arier von drei Hauptvolkern, 

 von Kelten, Slaven und Siiddeutschen dargestellt \verden ; und dass es unter den 

 Ariernkein italisches und kein hellenisches Volk gab, wie von Archseologen und 

 Linguisten angenommen wird...Die beiden grossen klassischen Kulturen, die 

 lateinische und die griechische, sind eine spatere Erscheinung, durch das Hinzu- 

 treten des mittellandischen Elementes hervorgebracht " (L/rsprung, p. 160). 



2 Mitt. Wiener Anthrop. Ges. 1897, p. 18. 



