EUROPE 



2094 



EUROPE 



never migrated from any other land. But it 

 is certain that at some far-distant period the 

 ancestors of the present Europeans did cross 

 into that continent, most of them from Asia, 

 and a few, in all probability, from Africa. 

 Wherever they may have come from originally, 

 ninety-five per cent of them are of the Cau- 

 casian, or white, race. Among them, how- 

 ever, there are very pronounced differences, 

 both in appearance and in character. The 

 Norwegians, with their stalwart frames, fair 

 hair and ruddy skin, differ more in appearance 

 from the small, dark-skinned people of South- 

 ern Italy than the latter do from certain mem- 

 bers of the brown race, while it is difficult to 

 believe that the comparatively unemotional 

 Swedes can belong to the same race as the 

 emotional French. 



Customs differ widely, too, and almost every 

 one of the twenty-six countries has its own 

 peculiar dress, to which the peasants have 

 clung long- after the upper classes have adopted 

 more cosmopolitan standards. Students of 

 anthropology lay much stress on the shape of 

 the head as an indication of race relationship, 

 and point out that there are two distinct 

 shapes among Europeans the long head and 

 the broad head; and it is interesting to note 

 that these two types have persisted through 

 the centuries, despite all the intermingling. 



The term Mongolian compels instant thought 

 of the Chinese and Japanese, but does not 

 suggest any European peoples, yet there are 

 over 20,000,000 of the Mongol race in Europe 

 all of that five per cent who are not Cau- 

 casians. They include the Magyars, or Hunga- 

 rians, the Finns, the Turks and the Bulgarians, 

 who are characterized by the straight, dark 

 hair, yellowish skin and broad cheek bones 

 which are typical of the race. 



Language. About sixty different languages 

 are spoken by the nations which inhabit Eu- 

 rope to-day. Some of these languages, like 

 German, English and French, are the mother- 

 tongues of millions of people; others, like 

 Icelandic and Basque, are spoken only by a 

 few thousands. Most of these languages are 

 broken up into a number of dialects, some of 

 which are understood only with great diffi- 

 culty even by people who speak the same 

 tongue. According to their origin the Euro- 

 pean languages belong to three great branches 

 the Teutonic, the Slavonic and the Romanic, 

 or Neo-Latin which are all members of one 

 great group, known as the Indo-European 

 group. Hungarian, Turkish and Finnish are 



the only principal languages that belong to 

 another group, the Turanian. 



The following list contains the principal 

 languages spoken in each country of Europe. 

 This list cannot be considered as absolutely 

 definitive, for even after "self determination of 

 peoples" following the War of the Nations not 

 all linguistic groups could be clearly defined: 



Albania: Albanian. 



Austria : German, almost entirely. 



Belgium: French, Flemish, Walloon. 



Bulgaria: Bulgarian, Turkish, Armenian, 



Gypsy dialects. 



Czecho-Slovakla : Czech and Slovak. 



Denmark: Danish, Icelandic (in Iceland). 



Kst in m in : Russian, and dialects. 



Finland : Finnish. 



France: French, Provencal (in the 



south), Basque (on the 

 slopes of the Pyrenees), Low 

 Breton (in Brittany, north- 

 west of France). 



Germany : German. 



Greece : Greek, Bulgarian, Albanian, 



Rumanian, Turkish. 



Hungary Hungarian, and gypsy dialects. 



Italy : Italian. 



Jugo-Slavia : Slovene. 



Livonia: Russian, and dialects. 



Montenegro : Montenegrin. 



Netherlands : Dutch, Flemish. 



Norway : Norwegian. 



Poland : Polish. 



Portugal : Portuguese. 



Rumania: Rumanian, Bulgarian, Arme- 



nian, Gypsy dialects. 



Russia: Russian, Ruthenian or Little 



Russian, Bielo-Russian or 

 White Russian, Polish, Lithu- 

 anian, Lettish, Finnish, Es- 

 thoniam, Livonian, Tatar, 

 Turkish, Kalmuk, Lappish, 

 Rumanian. 



Serbia : Serbian, Albanian. 



Spain: Spanish, Basque (on the slopes 



of the Pyrenees). 



Switzerland : German, Italian, French, Ladin. 



Turkey: Turkish, Greek, Bulgarian. 



United Kingdom : English, Welsh (in Wales), 

 Gaelic (in Scotland), Irish, 

 Manx (in Isle of Man). 



As stated above, the linguistic designations 

 are not exact. For example, there are many 

 people in Finland who speak, preferably, Ger- 

 man or Russian ; in German Schleswig-Holstein 

 are Danes. The Balkan states will contain 

 always mixed races and tongues. 



Religion. Christianity did not originate in 

 Europe, but dates there from Paul's vision of 

 the man who pleaded, "Come over into Mace- 

 donia and help us"; however, that continent 

 has been the great stronghold of the faith, and 

 to-day about ninety-five per cent of Europeans 

 are Christians. The three great branches of 



