628 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Either the Osmanli Turks were never Mongols, or they have lost 

 every trace of it by intermixture. Our portraits on the opposite page 

 give little indication of Asiatic derivation except in their accentuated 

 short- and broad-headedness. This is considerably more noticeable in 

 Asia Minor than in European Turkey.* West of the Bosporus the 

 Turks differ but little from the surrounding Slavs in head form. They 

 have been bred down from their former extreme brachycephaly, 

 which still rules to a greater degree in Asia Minor. In our portraits 

 from this region the absence of occipital prominence is very marked. 

 In addition to this, the Turks are everywhere, as Chantre observes, 

 " incontestably brunet." The hair is generally stiff and straight. 

 The beard is full. This latter trait is fatal to any assumption of a per- 

 sistence of Kirghez blood, or of any Mongolic extraction, in fact. The 

 nose is broad, but straight in profile. The eyes are perfectly normal, 

 the oblique Mongol type no more frequent than elsewhere. In 

 stature tallness is the rule, judging by Chantre's data, but in this re- 

 spect social conditions are undoubtedly of great effect. On the whole, 

 then, we may consider that the Turks have done fairly well in the 

 preservation of their primitive characteristics. Chantre especially 

 finds them quite homogeneous, considering all the circumstances. 

 They vary according to the people among whom their lot is cast. 

 Among the Armenians they become broader-headed, while among the 

 Iranian peoples — Kurds or Persians — the opposite influence of inter- 

 mixture at once is apparent. 



The Bulgarians are of interest because of their traditional Finnic 

 origin and subsequent Europeanization. This has ensued through 

 conversion to Christianity and the adoption of a Slavic speech. Our 

 earliest mention of these Bnlgars would seem to locate them between 

 the Ural Mountains and the Volga. \ The district was, in fact, known 

 as Old Bulgaria till the Russians took it in the fifteenth century. As 

 to which of the many existing tribes of the Volga Finns represent the 

 ancestors of these Bulgarians, no one is, I think, competent to speak. 

 Pruner Bey seems to think they were the Ostiaks and Voguls, since 

 emigrated across the Urals into Asia; the still older view of Edwards 

 and Klaproth made them Huns; Obedenare, according to Vir- 

 chow, said they were Samoyeds or Tungus; while Howorth and 

 Beddoe claim the honor for the Chuvashes. These citations are 

 enough to prove that nobody knows very much about it in detail. All 



* On the anthropology of European Turks, Weisbach, 1873, is the only authority. He 

 found an average cephalic index of 82.8 in 148 cases. Elisyeef, 1890-'91, and Chantre, 

 1895, pp. 206-211, have worked in Anatolia, with indices of 86 for 143 individuals, and 

 84.5 for 120 men, respectively. Both von Luschan and Chantre give a superb collection 

 of portrait types in addition. 



f Read Pruner Bey, 1860b; Howorth; Obedenare, and especially Kauitz, 1875, for his- 

 toric details. 



