THE RACIAL GEOGRAPHY OF EUROPE. 



447 



by sea. They are part of the Saxon hordes which have touched 

 all along the coast of Brittany. These last people, settled in the 

 beautiful Mddoc and Bordelais wine country, protected by their 

 peninsular position, are among the tallest peasantry of the south- 

 west. They are, without doubt, the legitimate descendants of the 

 Medulli and of the Nitiobriges Cubi and Vivisci of early times. 

 But between these two colonies of the Teutons, about Limoges 

 and in Medoc respectively, lies the one whose origin we have not 

 yet traced. The Petrocorii about Perigueux, who were they ? If 

 they also are of Teutonic descent, why are they not blond ? This 

 they most certainly are not, for a noticeable feature of the popu- 



Alpine Type. Landes. Cephalic Index, 90-4. 



lation of Dordogne is the high proportion of black hair, rising in 

 some cantons to twenty-seven per cent. This is very remarkable 

 in itself, as even in Italy and Spain really black hair is much less 

 frequent. This characteristic for a time gave color to the theory 

 that this great area of dolichocephaly was due to the relics of the 

 Saracen army of Abder-Rhaman, shattered by Charles Martel at 

 the battle of Tours. It is not improbable that some Berber blood 

 was thereby infused into the peasantry ; but this explanation does 

 not suffice to account for other peculiarities, which a detailed in- 

 vestigation reveals.* 



The most curious and significant trait of these long-headed 

 people in Dordogne remains to be mentioned. A harmonic long 

 and narrow head ought normally to be accompanied by an elon- 

 gated oval visage. In the Teutonic race especially, the cheek 



* G. Lrtgneaii. On the Saracens in France. Memoirs of the Anthropological Society, 

 London, vol. iii, pp. 157 seq. 



