EARLY INHABITANTS OF WESTERN ASIA—LUSCHAN, 567 
(A. D. 640), of much purer form than among any true Persians. 
They are all short headed and dark. 
My own measurements are confined to 15 adult men, Persians of 
the Diaspora, diplomats, consuls, and tobacconists, whom I occa- 
sionally met in Constantinople, Smyrna, Rhodes, and Adalia. They 
were all very dark. Their cephalic indices run 73, 74, 74, 80, 81, 86, 
86, 87, 87, 87, 88, 88, 89, 89, 90. So there is a large majority of 
brachycephals. I do not lay stress on the three dolichocephalic men, 
because a great number of Persians whom I saw, without being able 
to measure, seemed to be brachycephalic. Anyhow it is not impos- 
sible that in reality a certain number of Persians—I am very far 
from saying one-fifth of them—have long skulls. I never saw Persians 
with light hair and blue eyes, but I am told that in some ‘‘noble” 
familes fair types are not very rare. 
We know nothing of the physical characteristics of the Achemen- 
ides, who called themselves ‘‘Aryans of Aryan stock” and who 
brought an Aryan language to Persia; it is possible that they were 
fair and dolichocephalic, like the ancestors of the modern Kurds, but 
they were certainly few in number, and it would therefore be aston- 
ishing if their physical characteristics should have persisted among a 
large section of the actual Persians. Still we must reckon with the 
possibility that an early ‘‘Aryan”’ invasion was not quite without 
influence also on the somatic qualities of modern Persians. Mean- 
while much serious scientific work must still be done in investigating 
the anthropology of Persia ere we can replace mere conjecture by 
actual certainty. 
S. ARABS. 
In dealing with the peoples of western Asia, in no case is it more 
important to keep language and race rigidly apart than when treating 
of the Arabic-speaking people. Friedrich Miller called all the various 
elements in Arabia, Palestine, Syria, and Mesopotamia ‘ Arabs,” 
merely because they spoke Arabic. Nothing could be more errone- 
ous. The material and mental culture of these tribes and their 
somatic qualities are widely distinct, and the extent of the Arabic 
language is infinitely larger than the extent of an. Arabic racial 
element. 
But peninsular Arabia is the least-known land in the world, and 
large regions of it are even now absolute ‘‘terre incognite,’’ so 
great caution is necessary in forming conclusions, from the measure- 
ments of a few dozens of men, concerning the anthropology of a land 
more than five times as great as France. 
My own measurements are confined to 38 Annezeh-Bedouins, 
whom I met in 1883 in Aleppo; 18 other Bedawy, generally Shammar, 
camel drivers between Mosul and Alexandrettta; 20 Mohammedan 
“Arabs” living in the town Hamah, the site of the first Hittite 
