212 THE RACES OF THE DANUBE. [xi. 



Prussian of Konigsberg, his Lettic mother-tongue 

 forgotten for six generations, makes common cheer 

 with the Suevi of Stuttgart and the Alemanni of 

 Munich. In the border-land of the Danube, on the 

 other hand, whatever chance there might have been 

 for any such assimilation of races and dialects was 

 cut off by perpetual incursions of Tataric tribes 

 preventing the growth of anything like nationality. 

 Under some circumstances the pressure exerted by 

 a totally alien enemy might serve as a stimulus 

 to national consolidation. But here the various 

 races were too recently brought together, and the 

 pressure of barbaric attack was so great as to keep 

 society disorganised. The races of the Danube are 

 accordingly still so heterogeneous that it is worth 

 while to point out their various affinities and give 

 some brief account of their past career. 



In order to get a comprehensive view of the 

 subject, it is desirable to go back to the beginning 

 and recall the principal features of the settlement 

 of Europe by the people who now possess it. Ac- 

 cording to the most probable opinion, the present 

 population of Europe is the result of the pre-historic 

 mixture, in varying degrees, of two very different 

 races. The first or Iberian race may be regarded 

 as aboriginal in Europe, in the sense that we cannot 



