THE RACIAL GEOGRAPHY OF EUROPE. 



163 



Cornwall Type. Black hair and eyes. 



all possible crossings of characteristics appear, proving that the popu- 

 lation is well on the road toward homogeneity. It is especially worthy 

 of note that blondness in some districts often takes the peculiar form 

 of freckled skin and red hair. We 

 in America are familiar with the 

 two types of Irish — one thus consti- 

 tuted, while the other is more often 

 compounded of the black or dark 

 brown hair and steel-blue eyes. It 

 seems, from everyday observation, 

 as if this latter variety were far more 

 common among the women in our 

 immigrants from Ireland. A simi- 

 lar contrast is remarkable in Scot- 

 land. Here, in fact, in some districts 

 red-headedness is more frequent 

 than anywhere else in the world, ris- 

 ing sometimes as high as eleven per 

 cent. Topinard has undertaken to 

 prove in France that this phenome- 

 non is merely a variation of blond- 

 ness.* At all events, his maps show that red hair is most frequent 

 in the lightest departments. In Scotland the same rule applies, so 

 that the contrasts between east and west still hold good. The Cam- 

 erons and Erasers are as dark as the Campbells are inclined to red- 

 headedness. 



Seeking for the clew to this curious distribution of brunetteness 

 in the British Isles, we may make use for a moment of the testimony 

 of language. The Celtic speech is represented to-day by Gaelic or 

 Goidelic, which is in common use in parts of Scotland and Ireland; 

 and secondly by Kymric or Brythonic, which is spoken in Wales. 

 It was also spoken in Cornwall until near the close of the last cen- 

 tury, when it passed into tradition. On our map of brunetteness 

 we have roughly indicated the present boundaries of these two 

 branches of the Celtic spoken language. It will be noted at once 

 that the darkest populations form the nucleus of each of the Celtic 

 language areas which now remain, especially when we recall what 

 we have just remarked about Cornwall. Leaving aside for the 

 moment the question whether this in any sense implies that the 

 original Celts were a dark people, let us be assured that the local 

 persistence of the Celtic speech is nothing more nor less than a 

 phenomenon of isolation to-day. The aggressive English language 



* L' Anthropologic, iv, 1893, pp. 579 seq. 



