276 THE ARYAN QUESTION. yi 



that we are well within the ground of which science 

 has taken enduring possession. But the Uhlans 

 were not content to remain within the lines of this 

 surely-won position. For some reason, which is 

 not quite clear to me, they thought fit to restrict 

 the home of the primitive Aryans to a particular 

 part of the region in question; to lodge them amidst 

 the bleak heights of the long range of the Hindoo 

 Koosh and on the inhospitable plateau of Pamir. 

 From their hives in these secluded valleys and 

 wind-swept wastes, successive swarms of Celts and 

 Greco-Latins, Teutons and Slavs, were thrown off 

 to settle, after long wanderings, in distant Europe. 

 The Hindoo-Koosh-Pamir theory, once enunciated, 

 gradually hardened into a sort of dogma; and there 

 have not been wanting theorists, who laid down 

 the routes of the successive bands of emigrants 

 with as much confidence as if they had access to the 

 records of the office of a primitive Aryan Quarter- 

 master-General. It is really singular to observe 

 the deference which has been shown, and is yet 

 sometimes shown, to a speculation which can, at 

 best, claim to be regarded as nothing better than a 

 somewhat risky working hypothesis. 



Forty years ago, the credit of the Hindoo- 

 Koosh-Pamir theory had risen almost to that of an 

 axiom. The first person to instil doubt of its value 

 into my mind was the late Robert Gordon Latham, 

 a man of great learning and singular originality, 

 whose attacks upon the Hindoo-Kooshite doctrine 



