410 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



wise of Illyrian or Geto Finnic affinity, belonging to 

 the giant races, who, as far as regards the two first 

 mentioned, came round from the Kouban and Don, 

 along the shores of the Euxine, and then sought con- 

 quests towards the south, as all the more northern 

 nations were impelled to undertake. On their own 

 national origin, the accounts by Greek writers are 

 confused and contradictory regarding the sources and 

 movements of the different tribes of the nation ; and 

 vanity claims aboriginal possession where they were 

 only early conquerors. They commemorate Pelasgian 

 and Dorian invasions coming from the north, while 

 they do not seem to acknowledge that the anterior 

 Hellenic colonists were, like the myrmidons and other 

 tribes, a vanquished people, who may have had Finnic 

 consanguinities. The presence of tribes from the 

 Asia Minor region is shown in the Cretan colonies 

 settled in Greece, and in the Cretan people them- 

 selves, who could not have reached that island more 

 conveniently than by crossing from Caria, by Rhodes 

 and Carpathos ; for even the maritime shore of Caria 

 was called Doria. 



Notwithstanding that polished Greece claimed to be 

 in the centre of the world, and assumed for itself the 

 discovery of almost every element of knowledge and 

 civilization, it had a secret pride in the pretence that 

 the Cadmaeans and Thebans were colonies from 

 Egypt ; and it may be conceded, that in the wander- 

 ings of the parent clans of those denominations, they 

 had been to the south so far, as to remain for a period 



