274 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



buted a certain permanence and continuity to head-shape and to 

 other physical characteristics of race, Prof. Ridgeway next 

 carries his victorious banners into the domains of language 

 and of social customs. He first alleges on very modern and 

 meagre data the fixity of language and the continuance locally 

 of primitive tongues. In historic times certain dark-haired 

 races — e.g. the Arcadians and other Greek tribes — always spoke 

 an Aryan language, whilst other similar tribes — e.g. the Picts, 

 the ancient Irish, and the Illyrians— founded their marriage 

 systems on a polyandrous basis. Hence he concluded that the 

 primordial Aryan-speaking people were neither blond in colour 

 nor patriarchal in their social polity. A double fallacy lurks 

 beneath the surface of this argument. In the first place, abundant 

 historic evidence exists to show the ease with which savage or 

 half-civilised peoples change their language. The rapid Latin- 

 isation of Spain and Gaul is a case in point. In less than a 

 hundred years the victorious Arabs imposed their language 

 on the north coast of Africa. " Even at the present day," says 

 Risley in his Report on the Census of India, "we see absorption 

 of the aboriginal tribes by the Aryans \sic] going on before our 

 eyes, and the first thing to yield seems to be the language." As 

 good illustrations may be mentioned Brahui, a Dravidian 

 language now spoken by Turko-Iranians, the Manda languages 

 spoken by Dravidians, and Assamese, an Aryan dialect spoken 

 by Mongoloids. In a precisely similar manner Burmese in 

 Burma continues to dominate and incorporate the languages 

 of various tribes. Countless similar examples can be drawn 

 from other parts of the world ; but so well has the impermanence 

 of language been established that it is quite unnecessary to 

 labour the point. Nor do the few examples to the contrary 

 quoted by Prof. Ridgeway carry any weight. Their moun- 

 tainous environment — an environment notoriously preservative 

 of dialects — accounts for the survival of the Gaelic language in 

 Scotland and Wales, and for the continued diversity of tongues 

 in Switzerland ; that Irish survived in days prior to the Gaelic 

 League was due solely to the unattractive and infertile country 

 where it lingered on. It is ill, too, to postulate conditions 

 springing from the considerate delicacy of modern civilisation, 

 of those vast and barbaric times commencing with the dawn 

 of the human race and ending with the period when the 

 Ottoman conquerors thundered at the gates of Europe. No 



