626 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Huns under Attila, and those of Genghis Khan and Tamerlane, set 

 forth to the devastation of Europe. The physical type of these in- 

 habitants of Turkestan has been fairly well established by anthropolo- 

 gists. It persists throughout a great multitude of tribes of various 

 names, among whom the Kara-Kirghez, Uzbegs, and Kiptchaks are 

 prominent.* On page 625 we have portraits of these Turkoman 

 types. The most noticeable feature of the portraits is the absence 

 of purely Mongol facial characteristics. Except in the Kara-Kirghez 

 the features are distinctly European. There is no squint-eye; the nose 

 is well formed ; the cheek bones are not prominent, although the faces 

 are broad ; and, most important of all, the beard is abundantly devel- 

 oped, both in the Uzbeg and the Kiptchak. The Kara-Kirghez, on 

 the other hand, betrays unmistakably his Mongol derivation in every 

 one of these important respects. One common trait is possessed by 

 all three — to wit, extreme brachycephaly, with an index ranging from 

 85 to 89. The flatness of the occiput is very noticeable in our por- 

 traits in every case, giving what Hamy calls a " cuboid aspect " to 

 the skull. These portraits, if typical, should be enough to convince 

 us that the Turkoman of the steppes about the Aral and Caspian Seas 

 is far from being a pure Mongol even in his native land, although a 

 strain of Mongol blood is apparent in many of their tribes. 



The fact is that the Asiatic Turkomans, whence our Osmanli 

 Turks are derived, are a highly composite type. A very important 

 element in their composition is that of certain brachycephalic peoples 

 of the Pamir, the Galchas and mountain Tadjiks. These are for 

 all practical purposes identical with the Alpine type of western Eu- 

 rope. In their accentuated brachycephaly, their European facial fea- 

 tures, their abundance of wavy hair and beard, and finally in their 

 intermediate color of hair and eyes,f these latter peoples in the Pamir 

 resemble their European prototypes, or perhaps we had better say, 

 congeners. So close is this affiliation that the occurrence of this type 

 in western Asia is the keystone in any argument for the Asiatic origin 

 of the Alpine race of Europe. The significance of it for us in this 

 connection is that it explains the European affinity of many of the 

 Turkoman tribes, who are more strongly European than Mongol in 

 their resemblances. It is highly important, we affirm, to fix this in 

 mind, for the prevalent opinion seems to be that the Turks in Europe 

 have departed widely from their ancestral Asiatic type, because of 

 their present lack of Mongol characteristics, such as almond eyes, lank 

 black hair, flat noses, and high cheek bones. 



* Complete data on these people will be found in Ujfalvy, 1878-'80, iii, pp. 7-50; Les 

 Aryens, etc., 1896, pp. 385-434; Bogdanof, 1888; Yavorski, 1897. 



f Ujfalvy (Les Aryens, etc., 1896, p. 428) found chestnut hair most frequent, with 

 twenty-seven per cent of blondness, among some of the Tadjiks. The eyes are often 

 greenish gray or blue (Ujfalvy, 1878-80, iii, pp. 23-33, tables). 



