3 1 4 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Latin writers abound in testimony to this effect. We know also that 

 the Teutonic conquerors of prehistoric times, the Reihengraber, for 

 example, were of this type. Both tall stature and blondness together 

 constitute insignia of noble descent. Gummere has collected some 

 interesting materials from mediaeval literature on this point.* The 

 thrall or churl is invariably a dark type, the opposite of the flaxen- 

 haired, blue-eyed jarl or earl. Let us suppose, then, that such an 

 opinion concerning nobility became widespread; suppose that it were 

 intensified by the splendid military and political expansion of the 

 Teutons in historic times all over the continent; suppose it to have 

 become the priceless heritage of people more or less isolated in a 

 corner of Europe! Is there any doubt that, entirely apart from 

 any natural choice exerted by the physical environment, an artificial 

 selective process would have been engendered, which in time would 

 become mighty in its results? Is it not permissible to ascribe in some 

 measure both the patent blondness of this Teutonic race and its 

 unique stature as well to this cause? This is our hypothesis at all 

 events. 



IV. It is certain that, subsequent to the partial occupation of 

 Europe by a dolichocephalic Africanoid type in the stone age, an 

 invasion by a round-headed race of decidedly Asiatic affinities tool' 

 place. This intrusive people is most nearly represented to-day by 

 the Alpine or Celtic type of central Europe. 



We know that the broad-headed layer of population was not con- 

 temporary with the earliest stratum we have described above, because 

 its remains are often found directly superposed upon it geologically. 

 From all over western Europe comes testimony to this effect. We 

 saw in our last article how clear the distinction was in Britain. 

 Erance and northern Italy give us the clearest proof of it. Often- 

 times where several layers of human remains are found in caves or 

 other burial places, the long-headed type is quite unmixed in the 

 lowest stratum; gradually the other type becomes more frequent, 

 until all across central Europe it outnumbers its predecessor utterly. 

 The intensity of this supersession becomes more marked in propor- 

 tion as we approach the Alps, the present stronghold of the Alpine 

 broad-headed race. Here, however, in the mountains themselves, as 

 we have already said, no displacement of an earlier population seems 

 to have been necessary; for from Switzerland, Auvergne in south 

 central Erance, and the German Alps eastward, the inhospitable 

 highlands seem to have been but sparsely if at all occupied by the 

 earlier long-headed races. At all events, it is certain that in these 

 restricted areas the broad-headed type is the most primitive. There 



* Germanic Origins, pp. 62 seq. 



