"PROFESSOR RIDGEWAY AND RACIAL ORIGINS" 137 



that from which he draws his supplies. But foods differ 

 according to the nature of the soil and climate. Accordingly 

 men in each locality must be modified by the character of 

 the food produced in that area, when it is assimilated by the 

 chemical processes of the body, unless they are provided with 

 tin or copper linings throughout the entire length of the 

 alimentary canal. 



I have pointed out that altitude operates like latitude. This 

 Mr. Houghton disputes, on the ground that the pigmentation 

 survey of Scotland shows blondness to be predominant in the 

 valleys and dark hair in the mountains, and because in the 

 Himalayas and elsewhere melanochrous people are to be found 

 at the present time. But the Scottish example is at once 

 explained by the settlements of fair-haired folk from Northern 

 Europe well within historical time, who drove into the hills the 

 weaker aboriginal dark race. He is careful not to deny that 

 the dark tribes found occasionally in mountain areas in India 

 and elsewhere have only taken refuge there in recent times. 



I have shown by numerous historical examples how difficult 

 it is for a conquering race to impress its language on the 

 conquered, unless they come in large numbers and bring women 

 of their own race. Otherwise they marry the daughters of the 

 land and their children speak their mothers' tongue. Familiar 

 illustrations of this principle are afforded by the story of the 

 Normans in France, England and Ireland, the Angles and 

 Saxons in Britain, and the persistence of Welsh and Gaelic. 



I hold that the aboriginal dark populations of Greece, 

 Italy and Spain (Basques excepted, supposing that they were 

 originally dark) are Aryans, that they spoke always an 

 Aryan language, and that, accordingly, Greek and Latin are 

 the languages of dark aboriginal Aryan races and not tongues 

 taken over from small bodies of blond northern Aryan invaders. 

 I have pointed out that in Egypt there is an apparent exception, 

 since the Egyptians had taken over Arabic after the Muham- 

 madan conquest. This I explain as due to Arabic being the 

 religious language of Islam ; for whilst the Egyptians who 

 embraced Islam learned Arabic, those who remained Christians 

 retained their ancient language (Coptic). It is significant that 

 under both Greeks and Romans the Egyptians continued to 

 use their own tongue. This doubtless was due to the fact 

 that neither of these races were proselytisers, but always 



