vi THE ARYAN QUESTION. 283 



of the selective influence of their surroundings 

 operating on the mixture. 



The assumption that, as there must have been 

 a primitive Aryan people, in the philological sense, 

 so that people must have constituted a race in the 

 biological sense, is pretty generally made in modern 

 discussions of the Aryan problem. But whether 

 the men of the primitive Aryan race were blonds 

 or brunets, whether they had long or round heads, 

 were tall or were short, are hotly debated questions, 

 into the discussion of which considerations quite 

 foreign to science are sometimes imported. The 

 combination of swarthiness with stature above the 

 average and a long skull, confer upon me the serene 

 impartiality of a mongrel; and, having given this 

 pledge of fair dealing, I proceed to state the case 

 for the hypothesis I am inclined to adopt. In do- 

 ing so, I am aware that I deliberately take the shil- 

 ling of the recruiting-sergeant of the Light Bri- 

 gade, and I warn all and sundry that such is the 

 case. 



Looking at the discussions which have taken 

 place from a purely anthropological point of view, 

 the first point which has struck me is that the prob- 

 lem is far more complicated and difficult than 

 many of the disputants appear to imagine; and the 

 second, that the data upon which we have to go 



strength of the infusion is probably quite as great in 

 some Hindoos as in some English soldiers. 



