VI THE ARYAN QUESTION 297 



of Aryan speech has been, at least temporarily, 

 continuous from the shores of the North Sea to 

 central Asia. 



Suppose it to be admitted, as a fair working hy- 

 pothesis, that the blond long-heads once extended 

 without a break over this vast area, and that all 

 the Aryan tongues have been developed out of 

 their original speech, the question respecting the 

 home of the race when the various families of 

 Aryan speech were in the condition of inceptive 

 dialects remains open. For all that, at first, 

 appears to the contrary, it may have been in the 

 west, or in the east, or anywhere between the 

 two. In seeking for a solution of this obscure 

 problem, it is an important preliminary to grasp 

 the truth that the Aryan race must be much 

 older than the primitive Aryan speech. It is not 

 to be seriously imagined that the latter sprang 

 suddenly into existence, by the act of a jealous 

 Deity, apparently unaware of the strength of man's 

 native tendency towards confusion of speech. But 

 if all the diverse languages of men were not 

 brought suddenly into existence, in order to frus- 

 trate the plans of the audacious bricklayers of the 

 plain of Shinar; if this professedly historical 

 statement is only another " type," and primitive 

 Aryan, like all other languages, was built up by a 

 secular process of development, the blond long- 

 heads, among whom it grew into shape, must for 



