226 THE RACES OF THE DANUBE. fxi. 



a succinct view of these ethnological facts, the reader 

 will do well to remember that all the languages now 

 spoken in Europe are Aryan languages descended 

 from a common Aryan mother-tongue, with just four 

 exceptions. The first of these is the Bask of North- 

 western Spain, sole remnant of the aboriginal Iberian 

 speech. The second is the group of Finnic dialects 

 spoken by a Tataric people which has lived from 

 time immemorial on the eastern shores of the Baltic. 

 The third is the Hungarian, and the fourth is the 

 Turkish. These languages have absolutely nothing 

 in common with the Aryan, either in grammar or 

 vocabulary. The Bask, too, has nothing in common 

 with the three other alien tongues. But Finnish, 

 Hungarian, and Turkish are quite nearly related to 

 each other, and there is also blood-relationship be- 

 tween the peoples who speak these languages. Like 

 the Turks, the Hungarians are a Tatar race; and 

 there cannot be a more striking commentary on the 

 fallaciousness of explaining all national peculiarities 

 by a cheap reference to " blood " than is furnished by 

 these two peoples, the one being as highly endowed 

 with political good sense as the other is hopelessly 

 destitute of it. This is not the place to attempt to 

 explain the difference in detail as due to the different 

 circumstances amid which the two peoples have 



