vi THE ARYAN QUESTION. 307 



The foregoing arguments in favour of Latham's 

 " Sarmatian hypothesis " have been based upon 

 data which lie within the ken of history or may 

 be surely coneluded by reasoning backwards from 

 the present state of things. But, thanks to the 

 investigations of the pre-historic archaeologists and 

 anthropologists during the last half-century, a vast 

 mass of positive evidence respecting the distribution 

 and the condition of mankind in the long interval 

 between the dawn of history and the commence- 

 ment of the recent epoch has been brought to light. 



During this period, there is evidence that men 

 existed in all those regions of Europe which have 

 yet been properly examined; and such of their 

 bony remains as have been discovered exhibit no 

 less diversity of stature and cranial conformation 

 than at present. There are tall and short men; 

 long-skulled and broad-skulled men; and it is 

 probably safe to conclude that the present contrast 

 of blonds and brunets existed among them when 

 they were in the flesh. Moreover it has become 

 clear that, everywhere, the oldest of these people 

 were in the so-called neolithic stage of civilisation. 

 That is to say, they not merely used stone imple- 

 ments which were chipped into shape, but they 

 also employed tools and weapons brought to an 

 edge by grinding. At first they know little or noth- 

 ing of the use of metals; they possess domestic 

 animals and cultivated plants and live in houses of 

 simple construction. 



