682 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



raceS;, ancient and modern, which, have been pursued by this dis- 

 tinguished investigator for nearly half a century. 



M, de Quatrefages proceeds to show the evidences of the former 

 extension of the Finnish race through the countries now occupied 

 by the Slavonic and Teutonic populations. Of one particular 

 tribe his opinion will astonish those ethnologists who have held 

 up this peculiar sept as the most primitive and typical remnant 

 of the Aryan race. The Lithuanians, he finds, are in the main of 

 Uralian origin. " Though they speak an Aryan idiom, they are 

 nevertheless," he affirms, "not Aryan in blood. They are the 

 brothers of the Esthonians, and if these are Finnish, as all the 

 world agrees, the others are Finnish likewise." 



Among the Finns he finds two distinct types. That which 

 comprises the great majority of the people has a decidedly Mongol 

 cast. The other inclines to the Aryan type. He has no doubt 

 that among the so-called Finns and their congeners there has been 

 a strong infusion of Aryan blood ; and this admixture will suffi- 

 ciently explain the traces of the Aryan language which many 

 scholars, including Diefenbach, Weske, Cuno, and, lately. Canon 

 Taylor, have pointed out in the Uralian dialects. The people of 

 the proper Finnish type are of medium stature, sturdy and mus- 

 cular, with large and square heads, long, broad, and square faces, 

 the lower jaw strongly developed, the nose small and rather wide, 

 the mouth large, the complexion fair, deepening to olive gray ; 

 the eyes small, sometimes slightly oblique, the iris a grayish blue 

 or bluish gray ; the hair flaxen in hue, or sometimes of a reddish 

 yellow, straight and silky. In character they are serious, manly, 

 thoughtful, taciturn, slow in movement, both physically and men- 

 tally ; very conservative, disposed to live at peace with the authori- 

 ties ; somewhat suspicious and vindictive ; patient and resolute 

 under suffering ; not demonstrative, but kind and helpful to their 

 neighbors ; and at bottom thoroughly honest and faithful. 



In all these traits, both physical and moral, we see clearly the 

 basis of the Slavonic type and, to a large extent, of the Teutonic ; 

 though here apparently there has been some admixture of another 

 primitive element, probably the Iberian. Over all is impressed, 

 and more especially, as might be expected, among the higher 

 classes, the influence of the Aryan conquerors, who, to use the 

 striking expression applied by the poet Campbell to the Normans 

 in England, have " high-mettled the blood " of the race. Under 

 this influence the Uralo- Aryan nations of northern and central 

 Europe, while still patient, conservative, and long-enduring, have 

 become capable of united action, of strenuous effort, and of a 

 resulting progress in thought and freedom which the Aryans 

 themselves, in their primitive seats, have never been able to 

 compass. 



