296 THE ARYAN QUESTION. vi 



these, there were those perplexing people the 

 Etruscans, who seem to have been, originally, 

 brunet long-heads. South Italy and Sicily present 

 a contingent of " Sikels," Phoenicians and Greeks; 

 while over all, in comparatively modern times, fol- 

 lows a wash of Teutonic blood. The Latin dialects 

 arose, no one knows how, among the tribes of Cen- 

 tral Italy, encompassed on all sides by people of 

 the most various physical characters, who were 

 gradually absorbed into the eternally widening 

 maw of Eome, and there, by dint of using the 

 same speech, became the first example of that won- 

 derful ethnological hotch-potch miscalled the Latin 

 race. The only trustworthy guide here is archaeo- 

 logical investigation. A great advance will have 

 been made when the race characters of the pre- 

 historic people of the terramare (who are identified 

 by Helbig * with the primitive Umbrians) become 

 fully known. 



I cannot learn that the ancient literatures of 

 India and of Persia give any definite information 

 about the complexion of the Indo-Iranians, beyond 

 conveying the impression that they were what we 

 vaguely call white men. But it is important to 

 note that tall blond people make their appearance 

 sporadically among the Tadjiks of Persia and of 



* Die Italiker in der Poebene, 1879. See for much 

 valuable information respecting the races of the Balkan 

 and Italic peninsulse, Zampa's essay " Vergleichende An- 

 thropologische Ethnographic von Apulien," Zeitschrift 

 fiir Ethnologic, xviii., 188G. 



